by Suzie Carr
“You’re digging yourself deeper.” Hazel stood up and wiped her red cheeks. “I’m jumping in the shower, then let’s just go to the school. I’m done discussing this.”
And just like that, she disappeared back into the hallway and into the bathroom, leaving Marie to gasp at the unjustified attitude.
“Would you rather have me lie to you?” She yelled.
“Sometimes, yes!”
Marie walked backed into the breakfast nook and cleaned up their dishes, fully expecting Hazel to emerge, showered and dressed in her freshly laundered tan uniform. Then, she’d open up her arms to Marie, her typical move after an emotional outburst. Marie would then fold into them, and Hazel would tap her back, soothing her and letting her know she appreciated her honesty after all.
Well, Hazel never offered her that. Instead, Hazel drove to the school on silent mode, not once turning to blanket Marie with her usual look of gratitude and love.
When they arrived in front of the school, Hazel panicked, “I don’t have the keys to the school.”
“Why aren’t they with your car keys?” Marie shouted, equally panicked about the time.
“It happens,” she said as smooth as powerful liquor.
“Where are they?”
“I don’t remember.” Hazel smoothed her fingers over the steering wheel.
Marie stared at her, frowning. “How do you not remember something like this?”
“Hell, Marie.” Her shoulders tensed. “Stop yelling at me.”
“Well, how am I supposed to get into the school?”
She looked at her with a slow, cool gaze. “You can always call Jacky.”
“And tell her what?”
She shifted the car in drive. “The truth ought to do.” Her words dropped from her mouth without any hesitation, as if she’d been waiting for just the right moment to launch her distaste of constructive feedback.
“You’re punishing me for telling you the truth this morning?”
Hazel inched the car forward. “I don’t have to listen to this.”
Marie’s heart beat heavily, wanting to shake sense into Hazel. “Well, neither do I.” Marie climbed out of the car. “I’ll call Jacky.” Marie slammed the car door right before Hazel sped off.
Marie watched as Hazel peeled away and halted to a screech at the stop sign. Then, she zoomed past the eyesore of a convenience store on the next block and turned onto the interstate ramp.
Marie stood on the street staring at the sidewalk sign in front of the convenience store. Even without her glasses, she could read the special on cigarettes and Pepsi. Suddenly Marie craved a cigarette. She would fume her anger away in a well-deserved nicotine high.
~ ~
Halfway through gulping a glass of milk, Marie called Jacky in a panic. “I’m locked out of the school.”
Marie always freaked when things didn’t go according to plan. Everything had to be aligned or Marie’s face blotched and she dashed around swinging her arms as if that would solve everything.
“How did you lose them?”
“I don’t want to talk about that right now,” she seethed. “I just need you to open it up for me.”
“Of all days.”
“Tell me about it,” Marie scoffed.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
She hung up and called Brooke to apologize.
“I can’t believe I’m calling to tell you this,” Jacky said, “but I’m running late.”
“I run on a different clock than you, dear.”
Her warm honey voice soothed Jacky. “I hate being late.”
“It’s just a second hand on a clock. It means nothing,” Brooke said. Bee barked in the background. “Though, don’t be too long. The electric guys are up in the wires today, and Bee’s not happy.”
“Tell Bee it’s all my friend Marie’s fault. She forgot her key to the school, and she’s freaking out. So, rather than have her drive the thirty minutes back to her house angry, I think it’s safer if I just drop by and open it up for her.”
“Do you want me to be brave and just jump in my car with Bee to meet you there? You have a private room, right?”
God the woman had a soft tone that could melt ice cubes.
“To go out on a limb like that, you must be afraid of how she’ll react to the electric guys.”
She giggled, and it tickled Jacky’s ear.
“The scene isn’t exactly playing out in my mind like a Hallmark movie,” Brooke said.
“A man poised up in a lift with electrical wires dangling around him is what I call a fantastic training opportunity. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to miss that.” Jacky’s light-hearted tone sounded foreign to her own ears, like she was trying on a new flirty personality and would soon be discovered as an impersonator.
“I don’t like missing out on opportunities,” Brooke played back.
Suddenly, Jacky envisioned Drew sneaking in on this phone conversation, poking around it with her finger to fully digest the heightened inflections from both women. Guilt began its rise through her. She changed her tone to something more appropriate between trainer and client. “Can I pick up a coffee for you on the way?”
“You’re not late enough, now you want to toss a coffee run into the equation too? Who’s going out on a limb?”
“You’re turning me into a rebel. What can I say?” I’m flirting. Stop flirting.
“Rebels are cool. Coffee is also pretty cool. Bring both, and maybe you’ll get a freshly baked scone if you’re lucky.”
“Mm scones.” A moan way too seductive for platonic conversation trailed. “I’ll run some traffic lights just for that.” You sound like an idiot. Stop speaking.
“I prefer my rebels in one piece.”
“Then one piece I shall remain,” Jacky said, ignoring her inner voice.
“You’re silly.”
“You’re even sillier.”
She never flirted. She’d never stepped foot outside the friendly zone with anyone since Drew.
A flirt didn’t make her evil.
Or did it?
Cashiers flashed evocative glances at total strangers, and bartenders, let’s not even go there on the playful exchanges with people who walked in off the street. At least she knew Brooke. A little. Didn’t that count for something?
I’m evil. Pure evil.
Brooke snapped her fingers. “Lock. Coffee. My house.”
“You’re snapping at me?”
She snapped again. “Time is ticking.”
Not fast enough. She wanted to be leaning against the hood of her car, waiting on Brooke to walk out of her front door and take her breath away again. “By the way, I’m ringing the doorbell today.”
Brooke gasped. “You are not.”
“Oh I am.” She hung up on a wink that Brooke wasn’t privy to, and one that sent her spiraling in both joy and an underlying guilt.
~ ~
Jacky pulled up in front of the Inner Circle School to a very disturbing sight of Marie pacing the sidewalk and smoking a cigarette.
She climbed out of her car. “You said you quit.”
“Well, this is what happens when Hazel angers me. She lost our keys.” Her voice cracked on her exhalation.
“Hazel will not be pleased to know you’re smoking again.” Jacky waved away the cloud of smelly smoke.
“Right now I don’t care.” She drew on the cigarette and its head turned an angry red. “I’ve got a bunch of daycare doggies who will be showing up any minute, and she forgets to bring the keys with her. Then, she acts like she can’t remember where the big ass, gaudy keychain is. How does one lose a Bull Mastiff keychain with a pink rubber ball? I mean, what did she do? Drop them down a storm drain and forget they fell out of her hands?”
Jacky scanned the sidewalk. “Where is she?”
“She’s at home.” She glanced at her cell. “No text, either, to tell me she’s found them.” She crushed out her cigarette against the sidewalk. “Let me in, pleas
e, before I have a nervous breakdown.”
Jacky turned her key in the lock. “You’ve got to see your doctor about getting on some hormones. This whole healthy, natural approach to menopause isn’t working.” She pushed open the door.
“What the hell do you know about hormones?” she snapped, then high-tailed to the front desk.
Once inside, Jacky glanced at the empty training floor, then to Marie who perched herself on a stool behind the front desk. Her angled, thick black reading glasses slipped down the bridge of her nose, exposing an arched eyebrow. “I’m sorry,” she said, lifting to meet Jacky’s gaze. “My God, I’ll end up on the sidewalk with a flat pillow if I don’t fix this rage.” She tore off her glasses and tossed them on the desk. “Poor Hazel. I treated her terribly. She’s probably flipping over furniture and crying.”
“I’m thinking an expensive dinner is necessary.”
“Speaking of dinner.” Marie eased backwards on the stool. “Your daughter and Ashley sure ate us out of the house last night when we returned from our trip to Gettysburg. They eat like a couple of truck drivers. We ran out of burgers. They each ate two.”
She never ate like that with Jacky. The familiar ball of jealousy lodged itself in her throat. “Well, you wanted to go on a trip. You’ve got to pay up. Apparently they take payment with burgers. You’ll be wiser for it next time.”
“Okay, I’ll ignore your sarcasm for now. But hey,” she said, pointing her glasses at her. “Sophie told us about the beekeeper.”
Jacky’s heart pounded. “What did she say?”
“That you set up another private house call this morning.”
“Her dog is nowhere near ready to confront our open training floor.”
Marie ogled her flushed face.
She managed a swallow. She hadn’t struggled to draw a breath like that since the days she used to pace her living room floor waiting on a first date to arrive. The clammy hands, the scratchy throat, the inability to draw even breaths into her dry mouth.
“You were captivated, weren’t you?”
“Sophie was captivated.” Jacky marched over to a red ball laying in the middle of the training floor and picked it up. She massaged its supple surface, securing her into an undeniable moment of weakness where everything she viewed and touched reminded her of Brooke’s soft allure.
“You’re full of baloney.”
“I’m telling you, Sophie’s the one who’s captivated. She’s even giving up cheerleading to become a beekeeper.” Jacky tossed the ball into the bin, missing it altogether.
“You blotched up, didn’t you?”
“Did Sophie say that?” If Sophie had noticed, then Brooke must have too. A resurgence of prickly heat rose on her cheeks, supplying her with too much buzz. She didn’t deserve the buzz. “It was hot outside. Of course I blotched.”
“It’s April, dear. Don’t blame this on the heat.”
“Drop it please. Nothing is happening with Brooke. I told you already, I’m not there, yet.”
“Yeah, I know. The guilt. I get it. But, you’ve got to let go of it before it chokes the living shit out of you. It will. Believe me. I’m only going to say this once, and we’re going to drop it.” She paused, then, “I’ve seen it with Hazel firsthand. Her husband’s been dead for twenty years, and she’s still afraid to show her kids she’s moved on, as if she’s done some evil thing by living the rest of her life. You think her husband would’ve cared about how his kids viewed him? That asshole still has his grimy little paws in her life, and consequently mine too. Guilt affects everyone.”
Jacky’s jaw dropped.
Marie bowed her head and examined a spreadsheet.
Jacky respected Marie’s desire for privacy by keeping quiet. She picked up the red ball again and tossed it in the bin, and in a blink the strong undercurrent of a giddy rush charged in when she realized she’d be seeing Brooke in less than half an hour.
“Do you know anything about this charge from New Way Supplies for eighty-three dollars?” Marie asked.
Jacky poked around the bin looking for deflated balls on a mission to renounce the sudden and inexplicable sensual cravings that were hijacking her better senses. “Not a clue.”
“A training harness ring a bell?”
Jacky straightened up. “That would be for Bee.” She wanted to surprise Brooke with it, but she had already purchased one herself.
Marie took off her glasses. She opened her mouth, then paused, squeezing a plastic water bottle in her hand.
Jacky’s cell vibrated. She glanced down and received a message from Brooke. “You’d be proud of me. I not only managed to not burn our scones, but I also braved the front porch, electricity men and all, and managed to help Bee not whip herself into a frenzy. My girl is an angel. Either that or you are the angel for teaching her some manners. I’m going to owe you big time for this, aren’t I? Hugs.”
Drenched in tantalizing emotions, Jacky braced against Marie’s wry grin.
“Your face just turned blotchy.”
They stood face to face waging each other to swing or withdraw.
“I’m being ridiculous, I know.” Jacky pressed her lips together and lowered her eyebrows. “I’m completely out of my element here.”
Marie nodded in agreement.
“My heart won’t stop racing. I don’t like being out of control.”
Marie gulped down a mouthful of water. She walked over to Jacky and placed a hand on her upper arm. “You’ve got choices. You can choose not to continue as Bee’s trainer.”
“Bee needs me. She’s headstrong and capable of taking the lead and dragging a person around like a ragdoll, defenseless against her strength. She has the power to take off like a misfired bullet and seize hold of an unintended target, rendering it helpless and tagging it as a victim to her power.”
“She’s got some power, for sure.” Marie’s voice changed to a more serious tone, and a gentle understanding blanketed the creases near her eyes.
“That kind of power is dangerous and shouldn’t be left to wander to those who have no business tangling up in it.”
“Of course not.”
“Power like that needs to be nudged away from the direct line of fire so it doesn’t gather the strength to turn into something too explosive. I, as the trainer, should know how to do this, surely as I know how to tie my shoes and how to place food on my tongue. Yet, I stand before you, an innocent to this battle, and tell you that I don’t have a clue how to defend against such a beast. That makes me feel guilty as hell, too. How can one remain calm and assertive when faced with such a firestorm?”
“Go on. Monologues can be quite helpful.”
“She needs to be redirected. She can’t be allowed to pull that leash in whatever direction she desires because the results are never good when that happens. Someone always ends up tripping and falling, smacking into the unforgiving concrete. No amount of scrapes, cuts and bruises are worth that risk for just a romp through the wild and unexplored forests that encircle the tried and true grounds. I can’t afford to screw anything else up in life when I still have so much to make right.”
“Stop using that adorable beast as a moral indicator in your inner search for peace.”
Jacky stood up tall and gathered her nerves. “I hate this.”
“I love it.” Marie pushed her toward the door. “Now go out there, do what you’re born to do, and have fun.”
“I’ll make copies of my set of keys and bring them by later on.”
“Don’t bother. Hazel will find them. These kinds of misunderstandings are temporary with her.”
“Misunderstandings?”
“Just go.” Marie waved her off.
~ ~
Jacky landed in the front seat of her car breathless and flushed. She drove straight to Brooke’s gulping for air, remembering her promise to bring coffee only after she passed the electric truck and pulled into the long driveway.
She drove past the grandparent’s house and up to
Brooke’s adorable carriage home.
Suddenly, Brooke appeared on the front porch with a crazed Bee leaping and barking and twisting into a mess. Brooke’s delicate silhouette warmed the brisk morning with its penetrable glow, showering refreshing droplets of nourishing dew upon Jacky’s erratic heart.
An intoxicating rush assaulted Jacky’s usual sense of control. The flush rising on her face overpowered her, taking her prisoner into a tall and churning wave. She climbed out of her car and strode over to the duo, attempting to outrun the force of the rush and save herself from drowning in its tumultuous push and pull on her senses.
Bee lunged forward, and slobber sprayed every which way.
What a beautiful sight. “I see I’m still needed here.”
Brooke struggled with the leash until finally she just let go of it and let Bee have her way with Jacky’s leg. “She’s looking for the coffee.”
Jacky corrected Bee by waving her finger and reclaiming the leader vibe. Bee halted to a sit position. Jacky glanced down at Bee’s expectant eyes and couldn’t help but laugh. “You have no idea how to be a beast, and we both know it.”
Bee leaped to all fours and moved in for cuddles and kisses.
With Bee’s head in her hands, Jacky looked up at Brooke. “She’s not going to find any coffee here. I drove right past the coffee shop without notice. I worried about being late.”
“Well, that’s great because now I have a little wiggle room for the next time I’m running behind.” Suddenly Brooke’s cell rang. She fished for it in her front pocket. “Oh please. I swear. These people are crazy.” She shook her head and put the phone back in her pocket.
“Honey crazed loonies?”
Brooke’s cell rang again. She sighed. “I’m sorry. Let me shut this off.” She fumbled with a button.
“Another swarm emergency?”