TOPPER WAS RIGHT
TERRI SUTRO
They just showed up.
Well, that’s not exactly true.
Well, they did just show up. But
it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Well it
was a surprise, I mean I woke up and there they were standing at the end of my
bed smiling those smiles. But all in
all, I guess I sort of expected them.
And if you think this is confusing to you, imagine how confused my
relatively simple life got during and after that summer in
***************************
It had been a
really tough year. Too much stress
personally and professionally had finally driven me out of the city to a
three-month respite in a quiet place. Or
so I thought. Some silly fantasy borne
out of an old television show made me click on
An easy flight
and a fun ride brought me to a dirt road with a sign that said Devil’s Hole Cabins – 20 miles ahead. I was thinking I had been had real good. I was thinking
I had put the $100.00 deposit on my credit card and I was about to find that I
was gonna be stuck in the Holiday Inn anyway.
Cause the cabins weren’t really going to be there. Except they were. Or it was.
There was only one. And a note. Here’s
the key – have a good summer. I opened
the door with a major case of the you’re such an idiot
blues. There was a cabin in the middle
of nowhere and you, a single woman, opted to rent it for three months and of
course you’d be fine. Norman Bates was
out of commission wasn’t he?
Summoning up just the tiniest bit of bravery, I entered. Clean, overstuffed country plaid furniture in
forest greens and deep reds, huge stone fireplace, lots of deep toned oak book
cases filled with mysteries and adventures and sci-fi and Louis L’Amour. I decided I was a brilliant travel
planner.
The bedroom’s focus was a large four-poster bed. Tall enough to need a step stool to climb
onto. Colorful quilts covered it and
more were stacked on a small table. The
bath had a sunken tub and a view of the mountains covered in green and summer
flowers. I decided I should chuck my
former profession and take up travel planning as a career.
My hosts, I never
did actually meet them, had stocked the fridge.
How they knew what to put in there I never did figure out. I figured it was just part of the fantasy. I wasn’t complaining.
I unpacked, had a
long bubble bath and a light dinner. I
lit the fire and put on my newly acquired midnight blue silk sleep shirt and
settled on the sofa with a lovely cabernet and a book, ironically entitled,
Ghost Story. Spooky stuff for a woman
alone in the
**********************
The whispering
woke me up. At first I figured it was a
dream – that stupid book. But then I
realized I was awake. And I could still
hear it. I didn’t move. Maybe Norman Bates had been paroled.
“Think we should
wake her up, Heyes?” One voice whispered
from the left side of the bed. It was a
nice voice.
“Nah Kid, let her sleep.
Ladies always get cranky when their beauty sleep is disturbed.” A deeper voice.
The second voice
was on the right side. It sounded like
he was right next to me in bed. But
there wasn’t anyone there – I think I would have been able to tell if there
were men lying on either side of me.
“We’ll introduce
ourselves in the morning.” Nice of him to be so considerate.
This voice was a
husky baritone. Something told me it
belonged to the type of man my mother told me I should avoid at all costs. Wait a minute, did the voices say Heyes? Kid? Oh brother, I am dreaming. ASJ. Well it could be worse; you could have
dreamed Kyle and Wheat were in bed with you.
I rolled over, commenting to my dream apparitions, “Don’t take more than
your share of the covers fellas.” And went back to sleep.
“Heyes, can she
see us?” Kid was confused. This ghost stuff was pretty unfamiliar to
him.
“I don’t think it
works that way Kid. At least that’s not
what the rule book says.” Heyes had
studied the rulebook very carefully. “Says that people can’t see us unless we want them to.”
“Well I wouldn’t
mind it if she could see us, Heyes.”
Even as a ghost, Kid really liked women.
Heyes just
sighed. ‘Eternity was just gonna be a
continuation of their earthly existence.’
“In the mornin’, Kid. And I’m looking forward to seeing how you go
about romancin’ anyone. You’re not even
real.”
“Well Heyes, as
Grandpa Curry used to say, where there’s a will…”
They finished in
unison, “...there’s a way.” Smiling at
one another they vanished.
***********************
I opened my eyes
to find sunlight streaming in through the windows and myself all alone in
bed. See, it was a dream. Coffee, I can get a cup of coffee, crawl back
into bed and read. No phones, no
computers, no irritable people, no road rage.
This was getting better by the moment.
So there I was,
carrying my mug and an Agatha Christie novel back to bed. I decided that maybe I’d postpone any more
ghosts for a while. All seemed right
with the world.
“Good mornin’,
ma’am” It was the baritone.
I dropped the mug
of coffee.
“I told you she’d
be scared.” It was the nice voice.
I whirled to face my attackers. Except they weren’t there.
Ok, that’s why
I’m up here. Stress. ‘Cept I’ve never heard voices before. Maybe I’m still asleep. All right, enough, this is ridiculous. “OK, whoever is playing this really stupid
game, I’m not buying. So either come out
or go away. And you’d just better do it
now.” I looked around. Nothing. Well that was that.
I turned to clean
up the coffee. Strange, it just occurred
to me I hadn’t heard it crash. Well,
that was the reason. The mug was
suspended midway between where it left my hand and the floor. ‘OK, I am nuts.’ I spoke to the coffee mug, floating
gracefully in space.
Well, I thought, if I packed right now I could probably be home in time for
the commitment papers to be finalized.
Never mind, in for a penny…I reached for the mug. It floated just out of my reach. I reached again; it escaped in the other
direction. I sighed. I couldn’t even seem to win with a coffee
mug.
“Heyes cut it
out. Let the lady have her coffee.” I was beginning to like the nice voice.
“Will ya look at
that Kid? Imagine what we could’ a done
if we could’a done stuff like that when we were robbing banks and trains.” The baritone sounded like a little boy with a
shiny new video game.
Wait a
minute. Heyes? Kid? No, that would not be possible. They were fictional. Even though I was at Devil’s Hole, Heyes and
Curry did not exist. “Ok, whoever’s
doing this, I’ve had it. Show yourselves
right now.” I shouted this at an empty
room. I made one more lunge at my coffee
mug and caught it. “There, gotcha.” Shaking my head, I turned. “I’m talking to a coffee cup.”
That’s when I saw them. Standing there as big as
life and just as gorgeous. Smiling at me. I lost
the coffee again. This time it floated
safely to the table and set itself down.
I watched its travels. I returned
to the two men standing in front of me. Still smiling.
“You’re not here,
are you? I’ve completely lost touch with
reality.”
“No, ma’am. You’re not crazy. We really are here.” Kid floated forward. I walked backward. He stopped.
So did I.
“We’re ghosts.” He said it so
matter of factly he might just have said, pancakes or scrambled eggs. “Heyes you explain it to her.”
“Well ma’am,
don’t rightly know how it happened, but it seems we gotta do a few more good
deeds ‘fore we can move on. We’ve been
hanging around here for a long time. Just waiting for someone to show up that we could rescue.” He paused and looked at me with something of
a curious look on his face. “You do need
rescuin’ don’t you, ma’am?” The curious
look gained momentum as he noted my lack of clothing. “That sure is pretty ma’am.”
“OK, this was
really funny – but whoever’s doing this you can stop now.” It wasn’t fair. I mean.
There they were. The same
gorgeous fellas I drooled over so long ago.
Same hats, same black shirt on Heyes and blue one on Kid, same smiles,
same eyes which were looking at me in my blue satin sleep shirt. “Cut it out” I snarled in my best Nordstrom’s
Half Yearly that sweater is mine voice.
I pushed past them in a fit of bravery.
Except I really sort of pushed through them. Literally. My hand went through Heyes’ shoulder. I stopped and turned back to them. They were still there. And still smiling. “Oh my God. You’re real.”
“Well not exactly
ma’am.” Kid had taken his hat off.
“You’re still
polite,” I said sitting down.
“Ma’am?” He floated towards
me.
“You were the
polite one.” He was sitting next to
me. Boy, those eyes were certainly
blue. “You were always so polite.” His smile was making me smile.
“What was
I?” I turned at the voice and found
Heyes sitting on the other side. I
voiced a silent prayer that if I had finally slid over the edge, could I please
stay wherever I had landed.
“Come again” His
eyes were so dark and his eyelashes so thick I wanted to reach out and touch
them.
“If whatshisname
was polite, what was I?” He was looking
at me with a look that described exactly what he was.
“You were,
um….” How could I say he was the devious
one? I think he read my mind, he was
smiling. His smile gave me goose bumps. “Dangerous.”
“Me, ma’am? Dangerous? Can’t believe you’d feel
that way.” His voice was
laughing, so were his eyes.
Looking in those
eyes, I knew exactly why I’d feel that way.
“Wait a minute. You two aren’t
real. You never were. Someone made you two up. And I’m sitting here talking to you. Oh boy.
I think I should have checked into a nice quiet home for a few
months.” I shook my head and closed my
eyes. They’d be gone when I opened
them. They weren’t. Of course. Now I’ll check into the home.
Heyes was sitting
next to me. Kid had floated to the heavy
oak coffee table in front of me. I kept
looking at them. They were still
smiling. Both looking
at me expectantly. Like I should know what to do now. Lord, they were handsome. “OK, I’m really not dreaming you both?” They shook their heads. “But I don’t get
it. A writer made you two up. How can you be real ghosts?” I know.
That didn’t make a lot of sense to me as I said it, but, well nothing
had so far so this wasn’t all that much of a stretch.
“We were real to
you, weren’t we?” Kid looked sad. I wanted to comfort him. Boy did I want to comfort him.
“What he means is
that you believed in us, right?” Heyes
spoke softly. There was something in his
eyes that told me my answer had better be the right one or something awful
would happen.
“Well of course I
did. I mean do. I mean, you two were real and were
magic. Hey, it’s magic. Is that it?”
I was really hoping that was the right answer.
Their smiles
broadened.
Bingo!
The polite one
spoke. “Thank you. No one else ever did answer that the right
way. We figured somebody who really
needed rescuin’ would come up with the right thing to say.” They both relaxed. Well, I mean it looked like they
relaxed. Well they were ghosts, oh never
mind.
“So, what now? Give the right answer,
win two ghosts? And what do you mean
really needed rescuing? I don’t need
rescuing. I’m doing just fine.” I was going to figure out what was going
on. Really I was.
“Well kind
of.” Kid floated my coffee towards
me.
“Thanx…. They’d love you at Burger King.” He looked confused. OK, so I had two ghosts. At least they weren’t gross or deformed or
wearing sheets. They were my
fantasy. I was beginning to like
this. “So why do you think I need
rescuing?” I sipped my coffee.
“That’s what the
rule book says. Says once we find the
person we’re supposed to rescue, and do the rescuin’, we get to move on.” Heyes was eyeing my coffee cup.
“Move on
where? Hey, do you guys eat or
drink?” What do you feed two fictional/real
hundred year old ghosts?
“No, ma’am. Shame too. That coffee smells really good. Heyes never could make a cup of coffee worth
drinking.” Looked like a century or so
hadn’t changed some things.
“Was that
true? I mean was your coffee like tar? And was your appetite enormous?” Wow, this could be great. All those miserable discrepancies people
fought over for years – I could solve them.
“My coffee was
just fine.” Heyes looked hurt. Gee he was so cute. You just wanted to make it better. And better.
And better
“Oh sure, if a
posse got too close you could set fire to it.
Smoke from that stuff alone’d kill anything within ten miles.” Kid was grimacing with the memory.
“Well you’d eat
anything that couldn’t move quicker than you.
Ma’am when he got hungry the rumble from his stomach was enough to scare
away full-grown animals. Why it’d shake
the ground itself.” Heyes looked dead
serious.
They glared at
each other. I started laughing. “This is priceless. I’m sitting here with the ghosts of Heyes and
Curry. Me. Perfectly rational
professional woman of the 21st century. And you’re exactly like you should be. I mean – if someone else had given the right
answer would you be like their memories of you?”
They looked
confused. Heyes pushed his black hat up
on his dark hair.
“Oh, do that
again.” I loved it when he did that.
“Do what again?”
He sounded testy.
“That hat
thing.”
“Huh?”
“Oh you
know. What you just did. Push it back on top of your head. God, that’s wonderful.” I heard myself gushing. Something I never did. He was turning red. “Wow, you’re blushing. I didn’t know ghosts could do that. This is really neat.” Now he was glaring at me.
I turned to Kid,
he was laughing. I could certainly see
why women fell over themselves looking to be rescued by this one. Guess I must have stared at him a bit too
hard. Now he was turning red. Amazing. Shy outlaw ghosts. Only I could find that combination. Not that I was complaining. I mean could be talking to Beetlejuice.
“So what now?” I asked both of
them. “I mean do I get to keep you
permanently or do you stay here when I leave or when I leave you just
vanish?” I was flexible. I could do this.
“Well
ma’am, don’t know rightly how it’s supposed to work. Kid’n me figured we’d just rescue you and see
what happens.”
“Yea, but I keep
trying to tell you both. I don’t need
rescuing. Really. Rest. Long walks. Bubble baths. Hey…”
I turned to Kid. “How come they
kept putting you in bubble baths? I mean
you had your clothes off more than on.”
Kid looked
embarrassed. That was not helped by
Heyes’ laughter. “Well and you, I mean
we got what twenty seconds of you in the tub.
Good line though, I know a lot of ladies that would have been happy to
pin you to their Christmas trees.” This
was beginning to be fun.
“I just had more
dignity.” Which was
what Heyes was trying to recapture at this very moment.
“Right,
Heyes.” Yep, nothing had changed.
“OK, ok the both
of you are hopelessly adorable.” They
smiled at me. I really loved those
smiles. I wanted to keep those
smiles. I thought I’d put off being
rescued for a while. “Hey, can you leave
the cabin?” They nodded. “Can you show me where things were around
here?”
“You mean like
the layout of Devil’s Hole?” Said the leader of the gang.
“Uh, huh.” They nodded again. “Cool.
I’ll get dressed.” It suddenly
occurred to all three of us that I wasn’t exactly dressed for company. “Uh, do you have to be visible all the
time?” I was tugging at my new blue
satin sleep shirt wishing suddenly I had gotten the ankle length version.
“No, ma’am. Why we can vanish pretty
much any time we want. Like this.” Kid smiled gently and vanished. I turned.
Heyes was gone too. “But we’re
still here.” Said Kid’s disembodied voice.
“Now that’s
weird. So how will I know you’re not
watching me when I’m…, well when I don’t want you to be watching me.” I stood up. They reappeared.
“Well ma’am. Whatever else we were, we were always
gentlemen. And we’d never look at
anything you didn’t want us to.” Heyes
had a look on his face that I wouldn’t have trusted if he had been wearing a
cleric’s collar.
“I beg your
pardon!” Now I was turning red. Well I suppose that was only fair.
They were both
grinning. Yes,
and that certainly helped my trust level go up.
“OK, ground
rules. Bedroom and bathroom are off
limits. Got it? I catch you in there and I’ll do a spell to
make you disappear.” Like
I could do that. Or would. Boy, that was lame.
They looked
hurt. “Even if someone or something
breaks into the cabin and is gonna hurt you?”
Oh, that was good. I could see
Heyes’ mind working.
“Is that likely
to happen,
“Just Heyes, ma’am.”
“Yea, that’s
something else I gotta find out about.
How come everybody only calls you Heyes?
Oh no you don’t. No sidetracking. If some wild beast is breaking into the
bedroom, then you can come in. Other
than that – you both get this room, the kitchen, outside.” Stay focused.
No, no, not on them. On the issue. Will ya
look at that dimple? It was really easy
to glaze over with these two.
“Well if that’s
the way you want it ma’am. But we were
sure hopin’ to find out how all that new stuff in room with the tub
worked.” Kid looked very earnest.
“All the
stuff…. Oh. I guess I could show you what it does. Shame there’s no TV. You could watch yourselves.” I laughed.
They didn’t. “Sorry. Hey, you weren’t around when I was taking a
bath last night were you.” I eyed them
suspiciously.
“Us, ma’am. We’re shocked that you’d
think so low of us.” Heyes’ silver
tongue was in full glory. It still
wasn’t working.
“Brother. Peeping Toms. That’s all I need.” I was hoping to sound disgusted.
“No ma’am. My name’s Jed and my cousin’s is
“Even better. I get to play straight
man to the two of you.” It was getting
harder not to laugh.
“Ma’am. No one would be
mistakin’ you for a man under any circumstances.” Ah, silver tongue and legendary charm
too. I gave up.
“OK, ok
boys. I yield. But as of now – off limits. Right?” They nodded vigorously. They really did look like little boys. “So you’ll stay here while I get dressed?” The heads bobbed again. Why didn’t I believe them? Maybe because of the looks
in those eyes. I think I
groaned. I know they grinned again. I retreated into the bedroom.
I grabbed some
clothes and was unbuttoning my shirt.
“Hey you guys. Say
something.” I looked around.
“Will ya look at
that Heyes, her toes are red?”
I screamed. “Out, out now. Out or I’ll leave and then where’ll you both
be?” No there wasn’t a chance I was
going anywhere. But a deal was a
deal.
“Well
you don’t have to holler at us.” They
were kinda stretched out on the bed. They
looked hurt again.
Brother. I knew the game. Guilt. It didn’t matter. They won.
“Oh, all right, I’m sorry. But
you guys have to cut that out. Now
shoo.” I waved my hands at them. “And you have to promise. You never broke a promise.”
“Yes ma’am, we
promise.” They said in unison and
vanished.
“Uh Heyes?”
“Yea Kid”
“Should we have
told her we did break a promise now and again.”
He thought for a
second. “Nah, Kid. It’s good that she thinks we’re perfect.”
The two
mischievous outlaw spirits smiled at one another and floated away.
**************************
The summer passed
much too quickly. We never did figure
out what I needed to be rescued from, but it didn’t matter. I gave up trying to get dressed or undressed
in the closet. I showed them how all the
appliances worked. We almost lost the
microwave when I tried to pop popcorn and Kid tried to return fire. I was left wondering if spirit bullets really
worked.
I begged,
pleaded, cajoled and even threatened them to give me answers to those questions
that had bugged my friends and I for ages. What was Heyes pointing to in the
credits? What was with the pink pirate
shirt? And why did those suits keep
showing up. What was the magic of the
saddlebags? What was with Kid’s
hair? He sulked a bit after that
one. It got worse when I mentioned that
there were probably dozens of women who’d give an awful lot to run their
fingers through Heyes’ hair. Poor Kid, wouldn’t take his hat off for days.
I wanted to see the coin. I really wanted Heyes to flip it so I could
witness the result myself.
He said there had
to be a real good reason to flip the coin like the choice between a good and a
not so good job or a lady.
I pounced. “You mean you really flipped for a
woman. That’s so chauvinistic.” They stared.
“So male,” I explained. They
continued to stare. “Treating
a woman like a piece of property to be flipped for.”
They smiled and
explained that it made more sense than fighting over her. There didn’t seem to be an answer for that.
They figured out
how to levitate me which was great for changing light bulbs or getting things
out of high cabinets or picking apples.
I swam in the
lake and they watched. They even joined
me. Well they dunked their feet in the
water. They refused to take their
clothes off. I explained about
skinny-dipping. They said ghosts didn’t
do that, but I could go right ahead. I
told them no way. All or none. I think I almost had Heyes talked into it,
but an unexpected summer rain ended that.
I read to them or
they to me.
Heyes’ voice was so hypnotic, I occasionally found myself dozing while
he was reading. Only to find he’d
stopped. That was usually when they’d
levitate me into bed.
We figured out
that if Kid sat in the corner of the sofa where the pillow was, I could lean
against the pillow and pretend I was leaning against him. OK, we all knew it was pretend, but it was
pretty cool.
Heyes taught me
poker. He didn’t even get too annoyed
when I drew to an inside straight and actually won. Kid found that really funny.
Kid wouldn’t
teach me to fast draw. I could tell he
was sensitive about that so I didn’t press him.
Never did find
out where they slept. Or
if they slept for that matter.
Sometimes if I woke up at night I would sense them in the room with
me. They never spoke and I never
asked. I figured, they
weren’t real. I felt kind of safe
with them there. I figured,
what the heck.
We gave up on the
boundaries. Well no one was following
them anyway. They sure were
curious. About everything.
I decided that I
needed more time and opted to take October off too. We would go for rides. Sometimes I’d ride double with Heyes and
sometimes with Kid. I began to really
love horseback riding.
The summer turned
to fall. Blazes of color I was unused to
- living in a city that knew no seasons.
It was crisp. I suddenly
understood that weather term.
We’d read Poe at
night while the fireplace crackled and cast shadows in the room. I was happy to have my two friends around to
protect me from dreams of ravens and tell tale hearts.
Finally, I could
put it off no longer and I started packing for the return. No longer stressed, but sad
that I would be leaving my outlaws.
They seemed sad too. And concerned.
“But you can’t
leave. We haven’t rescued you.” Heyes kept insisting.
“Yea, you want us
to be stuck here forever?” Kid was
pretty insistent himself.
“Well yes, if you
must know. That way, I can come back and
you’ll still be here.” I knew I was
being selfish, but hey it was my fantasy.
“Not if someone
else shows up and we rescue her. Then we
go to wherever we’re supposed to wind up and that’s it.” Heyes was levitating my suitcase out of the
jeep.
“I guess.” I watched the suitcase land at my feet. “Cut that out.” He moved it back very slowly. I hesitated getting in. We all kept shuffling our feet and pretending
there was just one more thing to check or one more thing to do before I could
actually drive off. Finally it was
time. “I just wish I could at least have
a hug and a kiss before I leave. I mean
you guys have been in my fantasies forever.
It just isn’t fair.” Yes I was
sulking, but I didn’t care. I’d seen
Ghost. I figured it was possible.
They smiled. “We were hopin’ you might say that.” Kid looked eager. But then again, he always looked eager.
“You mean…. Wait a minute. Do you mean I can kiss you? Or touch you?” There was a very silly moment that
ensued. “Stop looking like you’re the
cat that just found out the dog left home.
That’s not what I meant.” Which
was a terrible lie, cause of course touching them would have been exactly what
I meant. “What exactly do you
mean?”
“Well, if someone
we’re supposed to rescue asks real nice, our guide said we could make an
exception.” Heyes was grinning a decidedly wolfish grin.
“An exception to what?” The light bulb went on. “Do you mean to tell me that all I had to do
was ask and you could be real? I mean,
like really real?” They nodded. Many thoughts ran through my mind at that
moment. The primary one being I was
going to cut my wrists. I’d been in a
solitary cabin with Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, two incredibly gorgeous men,
for a four month period and all I had to do was ask and they could have been
mine. And I’d have to go through the
entire rest of my life knowing that. “And there was a reason you chose not to
tell me that until I’m leaving? What,
wasn’t I good enough?” Now I was mad.
“No, no. It doesn’t work that way.” Heyes was holding his hands up. What did he think, like maybe I was going to
slug him? If possible, ok yes, I
probably would have. I mean I was
leaning against the pillow that was Kid.
I was sitting next to Heyes dunking my feet into the lake. Ack!
This was awful. Holy…I mean, they were lying next to me in bed. Good grief.
Now I did want to slug someone or something.
“Well how exactly
does it work?”
“Don’t be
mad. We can’t use it all the time. Just when it’s special.” Kid had floated up next to me. Damn, was it possible to be mad at that
face?
“And by special,
you’d mean?” OK, no it wasn’t
possible.
Heyes drifted to
the other side of me. Never mind. That face was equally impossible to be mad
at. Especially when it
was pretending to be an eight year old.
Looking as innocent as the Christmas Angel.
I sighed.
They smiled. They knew victory was theirs.
They put their
arms around me. One
each. I swear I felt them. All right maybe it was lack of
breakfast.
“Special is when
someone we’re supposed to rescue hasn’t been rescued and asks for a kiss.” Heyes suddenly didn’t look as transparent as
he did before.
I turned
Neither did
Kid. “Who goes first?”
There was a
glimmer in Heyes’ eyes. Lord those were
beautiful eyes. The most intense kind of
dark chocolate, I would have followed him just about anywhere. What am I saying? I would have followed him over a cliff.
“Oh no, you
wouldn’t. I told you that’s
revolting. The whole idea….” I was arguing in futility.
Kid laughed. His eyes were the blue of the
Heyes reached in
his pocket. He grinned at me. Yea, well I wouldn’t have been fighting real
hard with him either. I found myself
suddenly laughing. I was going to get
kissed by Heyes and Curry.
“Flip the damn
thing, then.” Enough. I wanted my kisses. And I suddenly didn’t care that I was the
prize that the coin flip was being waged to win. I think I liked it. I think I liked it a lot. I mean heads or tails. I still won.
Up it went. Flipping for what seemed like hours. I wanted to grab the thing, but I overcame
that. Kid said “heads.” Heyes just grinned. Finally he caught it and covered it with his
hand.
I was hoping
there was not too much desperation in my eyes.
I was also hoping I could overcome my sudden urge to just tackle them
both.
“Heads” Heyes
looked amazed.
Kid looked like
he won the prize at the county fair.
I was feeling
like I won the Superball lottery.
I reached out and
there he was. Man, I could feel his
arm. Both arms as they slid around
me. There certainly were a lot of
muscles there. I felt really safe all of
a sudden, like this man would stand before hoards of invaders to protect
me. OK, I was wrapped in the arms of a
thirty year old fantasy. I can feel
whatever I want.
He kissed
me. For a long time. Could’a just stayed for all I cared. He reminded me of innocence. Of lazy summer days. Of swinging from a rope and dropping into a
cool lake. Of crisp
apples. The only problem I
encountered was my ability to remain standing after he stopped. When I opened my eyes, he was still
there.
“You do that
really well.” Those were the incredibly
stupid words I heard myself saying to this gorgeous man.
He smiled. There wasn’t much left of me to melt. But it did.
“It was all right, then? I’d hate
to disappoint you.”
“Huh,
disappoint? No…I wouldn’t say that was a
disappointment. An
epiphany, maybe. Any chance, we
could try that again. Just to make sure
I got it right?” And then we could just
keep practicing. Oh, maybe in a few
decades we’d have it down.
“Sorry, just one.” He still had his arms
around me. I decided I could get used to
that really quick.
Heyes cleared his
throat. “My turn.” He took my shoulders and turned me
around. He held my face in his hands and
drew me to him. Then he kissed me.
I remember the
eyes framed by thick curling lashes.
There was no innocence here. I
felt like I was riding a lightening bolt.
And I had no desire to stop the ride.
Or to fasten my seat belt. It was the jolt from a straight shot of
espresso, taken in a single gulp. The
only thought that ran through my mushed brain was ‘Oh God, take me now if it
means I get to stay here with them.’ He
stopped.
I couldn’t open
my eyes. I heard him laugh. That throaty laugh that reminded me of all
the resolutions I was now willing, heck, eager to break. I finally risked opening my eyes. I nearly lost it. They really were almost black. “If you could bottle that, Starbucks would be
bankrupt.” All right, what would you
have said? I’m not the ‘more, darling’
type.
“Sure you can’t
stay another month.” Heyes whispered in
my ear.
At that moment I
could have happily stayed there until the twelfth of never. Oh boy, I was lost. I’m quoting Johnny Mathis.
The unthinkable
happened. I don’t know why I even
brought it with me. I’m standing
there. Having just been kissed
passionately I might add by two men who could bring new meaning to the word
hunk. And the miserable cell phone
rang. I forgot I had it. I was sure I turned it off. But there was the Flight of the Bumblebee
ringing in my pocket. I almost threw it
across the compound.
“What’s
that?” Kid asked.
Heyes looked
fascinated as I pulled it out and responded.
“What and this had better be good.”
I snapped to the cell phone. “@#$%!(*&%^ wrong number!”
They looked shocked. “Sorry. Where were we.”? I threw the phone into the jeep. They followed its travels.
“What is
that?” Heyes levitated it to a place
between he and I.
“A miserable, useless invention. Hey I could stop
“This is a
telephone. You can dial the number of
someone else and they pick up their telephone and you can talk to them.” They looked impressed. This could be a lot of fun. I was imagining explaining electric blankets
and hair dryers and, well the list could be selective.
“Really, can we
try it?” Kid really did look about
six.
“Oh, honey. You sure can.” Boy, that would be a
call worth recording for posterity.
I knew I had to
go. It was that or chuck
it all and live with two outlaw spirits for eternity or at least another forty
or so years. Believe me it took a while
to decide. I got in the jeep.
I started the
engine. I looked at the two of
them. They floated next to the car. I was going to cry.
“But we didn’t
get to rescue you.” Kid looked
miserable.
“And now, we’ll
never get to leave Devil’s Hole.” Heyes
didn’t look much happier.