South
Lorona tried to speak confidently into the phone. She'd already emailed Margie to announce she'd arrive late to work. The sun had broken harsh and accusing after the night's rain and Lorona squinted as she listened to the phone ring on the other end of the line. A woman picked up and Lorona launched into her rehearsed speech.
“Hi, my name is Lorona. I'm Kestrin's wife. I know we haven't met yet, but—”
“Kestrin told me about you,” the voice said flatly.
“Oh good, then this isn't a complete surprise.” Lorona relaxed a little.
“What do you want?”
Lorona clutched Yuki's cell phone more tightly. “I tried to get into our apartment to get a few things and I noticed—”
Amanda finished the sentence for her. “I changed the lock.”
“Yes, I heard it was to protect the place from theft.” Lorona chose to offer Amanda the benefit of a doubt. “That was kind of you—”
“It was done to keep out one person and one person only.”
Lorona faltered. “Who?”
“You.”
Amanda's hostility solidified Lorona's resolve. “Excuse me, but you have no business keeping me out of my own house.”
“I won't be excusing anyone! Leave Kestrin alone and consider yourself lucky that we've never met.”
“My relationship with Kestrin—”
“Your relationship is over! I've never seen my son like this! You're poison to him!”
“I don't believe this,” Lorona muttered.
“I'm going to the apartment myself to stand guard. There's no telling what you're capable of.”
“But I haven't done anything!” Lorona never yelled at someone she hadn't met in person, but this time she couldn't help breaking her rule.
Yuki observed from the kitchen, eyes wide in shock.
“Look,” Lorona pleaded. “All I want is my phone. If you bring it to the front of the apartment, I don't have to go inside.”
“So you can call him? Not a chance. I strongly suggest you see a therapist. If you can't find a way to stay away, I will set your life on fire.”
“Kestrin wouldn't have wanted—”
“He begged me to do this. He was too weak to do it himself.” Amanda hung up.
“It's not true!” Lorona shrieked. Her blood rushed hot and cold in painful waves.
Yuki snatched the phone away before Lorona could fling it against the wall.
“We're going to California,” Lorona seethed.
Yuki set the phone down carefully. “That's great. Uh, want to tell me where exactly we're going and what's going on?”
“I can't let Amanda win. I have to see Kestrin again. I have to tell him…” Lorona's shoulders slumped. “I have to tell him the truth, that I married him for selfish reasons. If he wants me back, we'll try again, but…I don't know that he will.”
Yuki's face sagged.
“You were expecting a different answer?”
“Well, yes. Something like, ‘If I have to go to the ends of the earth to find him, I'll kneel for his forgiveness until my knee caps burst and I bleed to death at his feet.” Yuki smiled crookedly. “You know what the psychic woman said. You've got a destiny with him.”
“I don't understand any of it. I mean, I found some weird graffiti, but I don't see how that will save our marriage. And then there's something about a mark of him on my body. I'm supposed to get a tattoo of his name on my butt or something?”
Yuki shrugged. “You'll just have to find him again, to hell with his mom.”
Lorona stared at the trees surrendering their final scraps of color to the dying earth as Yuki murmured, “I want to believe that you guys have the real thing. I want to believe that the reason my super smart best friend would marry a smooth-talking player was more than a crush and mixed with neediness and sex drive.” She paused for a moment then said, “I guess I should tell you that Kahlil called me to ask how you were.”
Lorona looked up with surprise.
Yuki cleared her throat. “And this isn't normal behavior for him. Kestrin's habit is: love the girl, leave her, and then hide if necessary. Kahlil sticks by Kestrin because he's Kestrin's friend. Girls have tried to get to Kestrin through his buddy several times. But if Kestrin's done with the girl, so is Kahlil.” Yuki sighed. “I've watched Kestrin a long time. I know how these things usually work.” She touched Lorona's arm, “You're different, okay?” Yuki cocked her head. “Why don't you snoop through his email? Most travel confirmations get emailed to you.”
“What if he drove there?”
“Then he probably told somebody. Do you think you can hack in?”
Lorona opened Kestrin's web email, typed in his address, and stared at the empty password space. She'd have to guess.
KestrinFeather.
Invalid password.
Mephistopholes. The name of his favorite road bike, named after the devil in Faust.
Invalid password.
Lorona.
Invalid password.
“This is ridiculous. I have no idea.”
Yuki cocked her head and her face smoothed like a porcelain doll. “What about that dream? It's pretty important to him, right? Anything in there?”
Lorona typed the one phrase that came to her mind,
Shewhocries.
The email screen opened. The topmost message showed an Amtrak confirmation for a train that had departed early that morning with an arrival in Sacramento, California, followed by a bus ticket confirmation bound for a station near Yosemite National Park.
One full day followed by a sleepless night and a far too early wake-up call brought Kestrin and Kahlil to the well-lit outdoor platform of the Sacramento train station. The scent of exhaust and fatigue hung heavy in the air and Kestrin felt like he needed to wash his hands after just a few seconds of standing there.
They boarded a series of buses that took them as close as possible to Carlina's estate, then hired a taxi for the remaining ten-minute journey. Kestrin realized as they wiped their shoes on the grapevine-patterned welcome mat outside his aunt's house that the only money he'd seen for the last two days was Kahlil's green American Express. Kahlil's firm stare forbade any mention of it.
Kestrin replaced his wallet and felt his wedding band catch slightly on his pocket. He considered removing it as he studied the front lawn and potted azaleas squatting on his aunt's wrap-around porch. Six Adirondack chairs, three on each side of the door, flanked them like friendly guardians. The sun was just beginning to set.
The bus and taxi rides were supposed to have been his rehearsal stage for what Kestrin would say. However, he'd managed to avoid his worries about Carlina's reaction with the help of a cheap paperback. He read about dragons torching villages and the hero and heroine who made babies in a cave rather than saving the townspeople who were then burned beyond dental recognition. Lovely book.
Now he was preparing to tell a disappointing story of his own of drunken crushes and mistaken romance. Who am I kidding?
It wasn't that Carlina wasn't a sage. She was the wisest woman he knew. But no amount of wisdom was going to give his life a makeover. I'm a fool who thinks he can run to his aunt and get a magic spell to fix my life. I should just take it like a man, absorb the pain, and move forward. You're pathetic, Kestrin.
But the reality was that Kestrin already stood in California on his aunt's doorstep. He couldn't avoid the meeting now. Besides, he had no one else to talk to.
If he was lucky, Carlina would send him home on the greyhound to give him time to think about stitching the wound closed and moving on with minimal scarring. He blushed.
“Are you okay?” Kahlil asked.
Kestrin blinked. They'd been standing two feet from the door for a long time. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”
“Too late now. She'll have heard us.”
“We could leave before she sees.”
Kahlil grabbed Kestrin's arm, his fingers bruising Kestrin's bicep. The office monkey was strong. “Ring the doorbell.” Kahlil gave him the Terrorist Leader eyes again.
Kestrin forced himself to take a deep breath. A cloud scented like orange blossoms wafted out of the house's open windows.
A woman's singing was getting louder. She'd heard them. She threw open the front door, mid-note, wearing loose white slacks and a short-sleeved sweater the color of dried lavender. Her long pale hair hung down her back. She was singing that the hills were alive with the sound of music and balancing a silver tray of baklava in her free hand.
“And I'll sing every song I can.” She beamed and bowed slightly. “Come on in, boys. These cooled just in time.”
“I'm sorry.” That was all Kestrin could manage. He couldn't even get out what he was sorry for, coming without asking, not answering his cell phone when she'd phoned. After his landlady had called and reminded Kestrin that Seattle could still reach him if he kept his phone on, he'd turned it off and shoved it into the bottom of his bag. If Lorona called, he knew he'd answer, thus precautionary measures were needed.
In the cab he'd turned it on and picked up all of his mother's voicemails. Each subsequent message carried a heightened note of concern. He deleted them without calling back. He had nothing to tell her.
Kestrin watched his aunt spinning on one sandaled foot and directing him and Kahlil into the high-ceilinged sitting room with a staircase leading up to a loft. A mahogany grand piano in the corner was silhouetted by the evening light flowing softly through the glass French doors through which leafy rows of grapevines could be seen. Everything outside was drenched in a deep gold sunlight.
Carlina pushed a small blue plate with a square pastry toward him. She smiled with mischief, as if she was preparing to tickle him. She always laughed as much as those she made laugh. Kindness was almost a selfish thing for her. Kestrin felt himself slowly surrendering to her warmth.
“I put extra orange blossom oil in the baklava syrup,” she said. “I just thought that was what they needed. How do they taste?”
Kestrin bit into the baklava and his heart twisted. He closed his eyes and immediately he was kissing Lorona.
Lorona dashed to the mall immediately after work to get a month-to-month cell phone. She returned to Yuki's apartment, activated the phone, and sent Kestrin a text with her new number. She had Yuki send her the photo of the graffiti so that she had it on her new phone.
Kestrin will have to decide if he'll keep chasing destiny or if he'll choose me.
Lorona didn't like the idea of making him discard his beliefs, but she didn't like the idea of a stupid dream telling him what to do and who to love, either. If Amanda was going to make it difficult to get to Kestrin, Lorona was all the more determined to do just that.
On her lunch break, Yuki had helped Lorona book two tickets to California using Yuki's air miles. They would depart on Wednesday, just two days away. A few minutes after Lorona sent her text to Kestrin, Yuki returned from work. She was just sliding out of her jacket when a voice rumbled outside the door, unmistakably belonging to Kyle. A second later, a fist hammered cheerfully against the door.
The rarely-used landline began ringing. Lorona moved to answer it as Yuki opened the door.
“Lorona speaking.”
“Lorona, it's Margie.”
“Hi, Margie. What's up?”
Kyle and Teri shuffled inside, shivering.
“I….I don't know how to start.” Margie's voice shook and she sounded like she'd just witnessed a shooting.
“What happened?”
“The front door was unlocked when I came in to do some extra work tonight and—”
“I always double check it. I'm sure I—”
“It was kicked through from the inside and there was $300 missing from the till.”
“I…”
“I'm not saying that you had anything to do with this.”
“I would never—”
“But the landlord is furious. When he heard that there were gas and matches in the storage room, he just lost it. Whoever had the matches got scared and left before lighting the books on fire.”
“Oh my God…”
“Well, God doesn't seem to be smiling on us. The landlord won't renew our lease, and it's up next month.”
Lorona was silent.
“He says we're too high-risk. He doesn't like the clientele. He'd been so nice before, but it's like something suddenly came over him today. I told him we cater to students and some of them are starving to pay for their text books, so they're not all going to be the high class folk he wants.” Margie's voice tightened. “But we all know we're a popular bookstore and we do good business. And then,” she started to cry. “He told me he always thought the place was trashy and he's just been waiting to catch the drug deals happening outside.”
“He didn't!”
“He said that you were always flirting with the clients as if you'd seduce the whole store to make a buck—”
“This is insane!”
“Oh honey, I know that! But it doesn't matter now. He's closing us down, and I don't think I have it in me to start over. Bob and I have wanted to retire for a while now. What I'm trying to say is,” Margie sniffled. “I don't think I'll have a job for you when you come back from California. I'm so sorry.”
Amanda looked up from her new manicure as her guest entered the restaurant. She embraced the other woman with the warmth of a sister and they reseated themselves in the red-cushioned booth.
“Thanks for coming on such short notice,” Amanda gushed. As they took their seats, she silently admired her companion's wavy hair.
“This is around the corner from the office, so it was no problem,” the woman replied.
Amanda pushed aside the menu of entrée specials. “I'll cut right to the point. You're always up for a romantic challenge, right?”
“Does this have to do with Kestrin? Word on the street says he got married.” The woman took a long sip of lemon water.
“Word travels fast.”
“Who's the girl?”
“Never mind, for now. Things have already gotten messy and he's left her.”
“Rediscovering his true nature? I'm not surprised.”
“That's what I think. I want to make sure this girl doesn't have a chance to take him back. I've already pulled a few strings to get her to lose her job. But I don't want her to have anywhere to run. I contacted you because I think you have had the most power over him than any other woman besides,” Amanda beamed, “yours truly.” She cleared her throat. “I want you to steal him.”
The woman's eyes flashed as if she'd just caught scent of game in a hunt. “Is this wife much of a fighter? I can play dirty, but I need to know the stakes.”
“She'll be soon, if not already, out of a job, and she's about to find herself in a world of fear tonight if she's gullible enough to take the bait I'm about to throw her. By the time you step in, she won't have the guts to fight you for him.”
The woman glanced at the menu, fanned herself with it for a moment, and then said, “Just so long as Kestrin is willing to play by my rules this time.”
“He will.”
“Then you have a deal. Besides, I owe you for that devilishly good idea for getting away from Kestrin when he got too serious. We both know he can't be encouraged in monogamy.”
“Well, you're welcome. They way I see it, the whole world owes me, Heidi. I just ask for favors really nicely. And I'm glad we see things so similarly.” Amanda grinned. “How about some food? I was looking at the calzones.”
Amanda's cell phone buzzed and she excused herself to answer it.
“Thanks for calling back so quickly, handsome!” She clicked her fingernails on a nearby windowpane. “I know, it's been too long. I'll come over soon for dinner. Listen, Angelo, the time has come to return the favor you owe me. I've got a little bird I'm going to send straight to your cage. Don't let her looks fool you. She's a dangerous mutt with red hair and pretty eyelashes, at least that's what my boy says. I've never seen her in person, but I know plenty. She's no good for my son. Anyway, you don't need the sob story. Listen, darling, I want you to rough her up when she comes by. She thinks she's picking up some perfume. Pretend that you're going to get it and then, oh use your creativity. Give her a hard time. She broke my baby boy's heart and I'd like to send some genuine terror into hers, if she has one. Do you think you could do that for me? She should be there later tonight.”
As soon as Lorona had hung up with Margie, Kyle announced that they were going to take a drive. Lorona recalled the afternoon her father took her in his Jeep to tell her that the vet had put her golden retriever down. Kyle had the same serious expression.
They parked at Green Lake and found their way to a walking trail on the lesser-traveled dirt path that ran a circumference around the lake. The light from the sky had almost faded and a few stars were twinkling in the twilight sky.
Lorona's throat tightened as she saw the line of poplars they had stood beneath for the wedding. Yuki followed her eyes, then squeezed her hand as if to say, Kyle didn't know.
Closer to the lake, a performer in a jester hat was putting away his wares. He watched them approach, hesitated with his hat full of coins and dollar bills, then decided to continue for a while longer. He hoisted three bright orange balls into the air and juggled them. Lorona drew closer, mesmerized by the circles he etched into the air.
The juggler winked and tossed her a ball. She stared at the waxy aromatic skin, then pressed the orange to her chest with silent thanks before she hurried to join the others on the end of a small fishing dock.
Kyle was looking over the edge at the lavender-blue reflection of the sky waiting to speak to her. This was why he'd brought them all out. He wanted to deliver a big brother speech.
“Lorona, I'm really sorry for everything that's happened. I care about you, and I hate that this guy has damaged you.” Kyle's voice clenched tight. “Are you trying to get over him?”
Lorona gripped her orange.
Teri put her hand on Kyle's arm and said, “He wanted to enact a funeral to help you get over him. I told him you wouldn't have liked it.”
Yuki demanded, “Who says Lorona has to get over him? Maybe they're supposed to be together.”
Lorona remembered that her tickets to California were still a secret between herself and Yuki. She cleared her throat, pulled a gold leaf off a branch and watched it fall, making ripple rings in the water. “I'm going to make Kestrin choose me or his stupid dream.”
Kyle handed her his cell phone. “Dial him up and ask.”
“I need to tell him in person, and he's in California right now.”
Kyle offered, “We'll keep tabs on him and when he's back in town, we'll all come with you so that you have moral support.”
Simultaneously, Yuki and Teri groaned, “Kyle!”
“I don't want him working his charm on you again,” Kyle explained quickly.
“If he's already finished with me, there will be no danger of that. He's my husband and I should at least respect him. I owe him that much. Until then, that's Mrs. Feather, to you.”
“Uh-uh, no.” Kyle crossed his arms. “You're not going to run south to sunshine and oranges to find your ex-lover and actually expect us to believe that you'll be safe.”
Lorona saw that Yuki's eyes were already waltzing. Hope springs eternal, especially if your name is Yuki. And then Lorona realized that Kyle had called it the land of sunshine and oranges. Oranges. The craving on her tongue leapt to life.
“Lorona,” Kyle began again, pulling Teri close to him, “in the real stories, the girl gets over the guy who's bad for her.”
“You're making a lot of assumptions in that statement. Besides, in the real stories, she remarries and eats herself to death to prevent thinking about the man who she can't be with. I'd rather die beautiful and miserable, not fat and pretending to be happy.” A mischievous grin broke across Lorona's face.
“Ah, your vanity speaks,” Teri teased.
Lorona was enjoying her own joke, but even more she was already lost in the idea of a plane flying south to the land of oranges.
Could that possibly be a coincidence?
