Love, Love, Love

by Deborah Reber

  “Blind dates,” answered Laura, lifting her glass of soda. “I’m all for blind dates. Here’s to blind dates!” She hefted her drink in a toast, and everyone joined her.

  “To blind dates!” they echoed.

  “And you are not ‘any dude off the street,’” Laura told Rip, shooting him what she hoped was a sexy look over the top of her glasses. He seemed appreciative, and he set down his burger to reach for her hand. It was a greasy grip, but Laura didn’t yank her hand away. She had to get through this date as gracefully as possible and stop worrying about Cupidity.

  After dinner, they jumped back into the convertible and took off, this time with Cody driving. It was so cold in the backseat that Laura welcomed the extra warmth when Rip sat close and put his arm around her. At one point he tried to kiss her, but Cupidity turned around and interrupted them. Laura couldn’t tell if that was on purpose or not, but she was too cold to do anything but cuddle with Rip.

  After a while they found themselves cruising the rust-belt outskirts of town, where abandoned factories, rusty grain silos, and run-down warehouses stood. Every window was broken in these dark derelicts of lost industry, and weeds grew on the railroad tracks that ran along the rear of the buildings. This sure wasn’t the movies, thought Laura, and she wondered what kind of party could be happening out here in the boondocks.

  Only one parking lot in the deserted district had any cars in it, and Cody pulled in there and parked on lumpy, cracked asphalt. With the top down, Laura could hear the muffled thumping of rock music coming from somewhere nearby, but it was drowned out by the chilly wind. She was thankful just to be arriving in civilization where there might be heat, and she almost jumped out of the car before Rip opened the door for her. He held the door like a perfect gentleman, and Cody rushed to do the same for Cupidity.

  The guys smiled knowingly at each other, and Laura glanced at her buddy, who gave her a wink. Cupidity’s in charge here, she told herself, not these two smug boys.

  “This is a skater rave,” explained Cody, putting his arm around Cupidity’s tiny waist. “I think you’ll have a good time, but you might have to do some skating.”

  “Skating?” asked Laura uneasily. “What kind of skating?”

  “Skateboard skating,” answered Rip as if that explained it all. “It keeps the old people away.”

  “You’d be surprised at what some old people can do,” remarked Cupidity.

  “Like what?” asked Cody doubtfully.

  She laughed as if remembering something funny. “At this retirement home I know, they race their wheelchairs down the stairs. And they dive off the top floor into the swimming pool.”

  “Cool,” said Cody in admiration. “And where do these crazy old dudes live?”

  “In Los Angeles,” answered Cupidity. “Where I used to live.”

  “That must be a blast,” mused Rip, “living in L.A. and going surfing every day. Did you ever surf, Cupidity?”

  “No, mostly I played pool and smoked cigars,” she answered with a glance at Laura.

  “That’s my girl!” exclaimed Cody with a laugh. He gripped her tightly around the waist, making it difficult for them to walk very quickly across the pitted parking lot. Rip held Laura’s hand, which was welcome, because her hands were freezing.

  They circled around to the rear of the building, where a couple of skaters were standing in the shadows. The grimy warehouse had to be three stories high, and a row of windows across the top were all broken. The muffled music seemed to be coming from deep underground, and a strange smell wafted from the aged railroad tracks in the rear. They walked toward a pair of metal doors that were set at a sloping angle in the brick wall. Farther away a door opened, and a gang of giggling girls staggered out on their high heels.

  The doormen approached the foursome, shining a flashlight in their faces. “Cody! Rip!” they shouted when they recognized the guys. They exchanged skaters’ handshakes and punched each other in the shoulders like old friends.

  “Dudes, you have picked a primo night to party with us!” said the bigger of the two guards. “We’re grindin’ it tonight.”

  “Cool,” said Rip. “You got a band or a sound system?”

  “Sound system,” answered the other doorman. “Like normally we would have to charge you five bucks each, but hot chicks like these two are always free.” They couldn’t take their eyes off Cupidity.

  The new girl winked at Laura and said, “It’s good to be hot.”

  Laura shivered, and her teeth chattered. “I don’t feel hot at the moment.”

  “Here’s your ten,” said Cody, taking a crumpled bill from his pocket and paying for Rip, too. “The party’s on me.”

  Cupidity gave him a grateful smile. “Thanks, sweetie, but we’re not going to get busted here, are we?”

  “Can’t promise that, but you are going to skate to get in,” said the smaller doorman. His partner pulled open the metal doors and revealed a long chute that led down into darkness and the din of a party. With a gulp, Laura realized that it was an old coal chute descending to the furnace room, probably long abandoned.

  She laughed nervously. “I can’t slide down there, I’ll get all dirty. I’ll take the door.”

  “You’re not sliding.” The big doorman pointed to what looked like a pile of lumber, but it was really a pile of old skateboards. Laura saw one of the girls teeter over to the pile and add a board to it. “Everybody skates down, especially first-timers,” he explained. “It doesn’t matter how hot you are.”

  Rip put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “There’s like air mattresses and pillows down there. I’ll go first and look out for you, and you just go down on your knees.”

  “On my knees?” she asked doubtfully, glad she had worn jeans.

  “Come on!” called Cupidity, grabbing a battered old skateboard and heading for the door. Without a moment’s hesitation, she knelt on the skateboard and pushed herself down the old metal chute, which rattled under the small wheels. Her delighted squeals pierced the night.

  Cody took a board and hurtled down the chute in a crouch, and Rip was right behind him. He gave Laura an encouraging smile and a wave before he plunged into the darkness. Shivering more than ever, she grabbed a skateboard and noted the smirks on the doormen’s faces.

  “If I have to go to the hospital,” she said, “I want to go to Mid City General.”

  “That’s our favorite,” answered the shorter one.

  With a gulp, Laura edged toward the door and the dark chute. Once she got close, she realized that there was light and gaiety at the other end, along with many mattresses, which Rip was busy arranging for her. It was probably only twenty feet and not as steep as she feared; there was no sense putting it off.

  “Xena!” she shouted as she had when she was a little girl, flinging her knees onto the skateboard and shooting into space.

  Immediately she knew she was in trouble, as the wheels ground and squealed on the old sheet of metal. Certain she was going to fall off, Laura gripped the front of the board with her hands and screamed. The wild ride reminded her of sledding, which also scared her. Before she could catch her breath, she flew into space and landed in a comforting cloud of old mattresses, followed by Rip’s strong arms.

  For no good reason, he needed to fall onto the mattress with her and grab her shivering torso. Rip nuzzled her and gave her a brief kiss, which warmed her up at once. “You all right?” he asked with concern.

  I’m good enough to kiss, she thought happily. Instead she smiled and said, “Can I get up and make sure I’m in one piece?”

  “Oh, you’re in one piece,” he said, giving her body an extra squeeze. “What are you drinking?”

  “Something legal,” she answered.

  Rip slid off her and vanished into the crowd, which was barely lit by a few strobes and some hokey discotheque lights. Pools of light and people were scattered throughout the huge basement, especially around the disc jockey and his sound system, but there didn’t
seem to be any good reason to light this dingy space. With all the smoke, it would be hard to see anyway.

  Against the wall was a stairwell, which led to the exit they had seen before, and it was well marked by a sign. Some brawny straight-faced guys looked as if they were on security, but the crowd wasn’t fighting. It wasn’t as warm as Laura had hoped, but the crush of bodies and promise of dancing gave her some hope.

  Cupidity bumped into her and shouted over the music, “Hey, princess, what do you think?”

  Laura looked around at the funky surroundings and loud revelers and answered, “I just realized, skaters wear more corporate logos than anybody.”

  “No, I meant the boys!” said Cupidity, looking a bit frustrated. “Do you like Cody?”

  Laura narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the new girl. “Why are you always trying to give me your dates? I have one of my own, and he can’t keep his hands off me.”

  “Good,” said Cupidity with a sigh. “So you like him and things are clicking. I was … I was asking about Cody for me, of course. I think he should ask me to Homecoming, even though I can’t go.”

  “Why can’t you go?”

  “Well, I’ve got to go out of town that weekend,” she answered. “Some family business in L.A.—it can’t be changed. I may have to leave suddenly, so if you see that I’m gone, don’t worry about it.”

  Laura tried not to look concerned about this information, because Cupidity was Cupidity. Still it got her thinking about her mission to compare her friend’s fancy bow with the one Cupid had in Pompeii. Maybe she was all wrong about the girl’s matchmaking skills, but she had to put her mind at ease.

  “Homecoming is still a long shot,” complained Laura. “Skater dudes aren’t known for going to Homecoming.”

  Cupidity flipped her golden tresses and laughed. “Don’t worry about that—these skater dudes will go to Homecoming and be happy about it.”

  Muscling through the rowdy crowd came Cody and Rip, carrying cans of some high-caffeine, high-energy drink. Rip also balanced a bowl full of potato chips on his head. The girls relieved them of their burdens, and they stepped away from the coal chute as more partygoers dropped in.

  “Hey, I found a place to sit down!” announced Cody, yelling over the din.

  “Where?” asked Laura doubtfully. She didn’t see any furniture, not even a folding chair.

  “On those mattresses on the floor, against the wall,” replied Cody. “Come on!”

  Carrying all their supplies, they trekked across the run-down warehouse basement until they reached a very shadowy, bad-smelling corner, where partyers lay sprawled about in odd positions. This is the make-out place, Laura realized, and maybe the restroom, too.

  She pushed her drink back into Rip’s hands and said, “I like this song! Don’t you want to dance?”

  Numbly he nodded his head, and Laura grabbed Cupidity’s hand and pulled her back toward the masses. “Come on, we’ve got to shake some booty!”

  “Yeah, thanks!” replied Cupidity as if she was glad to be rescued. Once they got to the dance floor, the new girl shed her coat and began to shake everything she had, which was a lot. To a frenzied song by some angry band, Cupidity gyrated wildly until she had every boy in the warehouse drooling over her. The girls glared at the stunning show-off, except for a few who were stomping along with the boys.

  Cody was entranced by Cupidity’s performance, and Rip watched his friend’s date while he tried to talk to a third girl. Nobody was watching Laura, and she realized that this would be a good time to slip out to the car to inspect Cupidity’s bow. She danced her way against the flow of the crowd until she made it to the stairway. Then Laura ran upward without even looking back.

  The cool night air smelled wonderful after the smoke and odd odors below. The two skater doormen gave her a look as she walked past, but they were occupied with new arrivals. Laura dashed over the muddy, uneven parking lot until she reached Cupidity’s yellow convertible, which stood out like a lighthouse. Earlier in the evening, she had seen Cupidity pull a lever under the dashboard to open the trunk of her car, which was a trusting way to secure it when she left the top down. But Cupidity didn’t seem to be bothered by the things that bothered other people.

  It took a bit of searching, but Laura managed to find all the levers—for the gas, the front hood, and the trunk. She stole a glance around to make sure nobody was watching her, and she saw nothing but silent cars in the unlit parking lot. With a rush of adrenaline, Laura popped the trunk and scrambled to the back of the sports car to see what she could find.

  The courtesy light in the trunk came on, and there was her purse, right beside Cupidity’s duffel bag. Laura reached for the bag to make sure it contained the precious bow and arrows, and she could feel the slender, carved lines of the aged weapon. It had to be specially made for someone so short. With trembling hands, she unzipped the bag and reached inside to pull out the bow. Laura had held the bag itself before, but she had touched the bow only once, briefly, on the first day when Cupidity had pulled it out of her locker.

  She was going to use it even then, thought Laura with a shudder. I should have seen it at the time, but who expects the supernatural in Denton, Ohio?

  Even as she drew the bow out of the duffel bag, she knew it was not just a curved piece of wood with the string already taut, ready for immediate use. No, this was an ancient artifact that had been painted many times, including very recently. It was now light brown, trying to look like a normal child’s bow, but she could easily tell that it had once been gilded in gold, painted in gleaming white enamel, and encrusted with jewels. She didn’t even need to take the photocopied picture out of her pocket to tell.

  This is Cupid’s bow, only Cupid is a girl. When did that happen?

  An owl hooted somewhere overhead, probably from the broken windows of the deserted warehouse’s top floor. Taking a deep breath, Laura reached back into the bag for the next piece of the puzzle. As soon as her fingers touched an arrow, it seemed to spring into her grasp as if eager to be unleashed.

  She slowly lifted the old-fashioned missile from the bag and marveled at its intricate design and workmanship. The arrow tip was gleaming and sharp, but it seemed to be made of moonbeams that passed right through her fingers. The feathers of the fletching were as long and delicate as an eyelash, yet as stiff as a knife blade; they bristled from the shaft in vibrant colors, like the light beams from a prism.

  Her hands trembled, yet her recent archery lesson came back to her as she lifted the bow and nocked the arrow to the string. The night wind sent a primitive feeling of power coursing through her veins, as if she were the greatest hunter in the world. Laura could imagine herself on the prowl, stalking the elusive prey—man and woman. Involuntarily, she drew back the arrow, and the bowstring tightened. Her arms tingled as if a current had suddenly connected through them, and her muscles ached to unleash the magical missile.

  “No!” shouted a voice. Laura was startled and whirled in the direction of the sound just as she lost her grip on the shaft. The arrow flew straight from her hands and into Cupidity’s heaving chest.

  “Urrgh!” exclaimed Cupidity with a groan, and she staggered backward from the impact.

  “They’re not real arrows!” cried Laura, who was suddenly hysterical with the fear that she might have hurt Cupidity. “The points aren’t real!” She reached into the duffel bag to pull out another arrow, and she pointed it toward Cupidity, who was still staggering about.

  “What are you doing? You psycho!” yelled a male voice. Cody charged between them, as angry as a young bull. All he could see was Cupidity flailing her arms helplessly, while her crazy friend pointed a bow and arrow at her.

  “Give me that!” ordered Cody, lunging for the weapon. Laura flinched and poked him in the wrist with the arrow tip, and the arrow disappeared. “Ow!” he cried, recoiling as if from a shock.

  While Cupidity crawled on the ground in the dirty parking lot, Cody began to twitch and gurgle. Laur
a gasped and watched in horror as his face went through a multitude of changes—disbelief, a flare of anger, followed by a puzzled expression as if he had forgotten where he was. A moment later, the dark lord of the skaters looked as if he would burst into tears.

  “Cupidity!” he wailed.

  Laura felt as if she was the one who’d been shot with an arrow in that dingy parking lot outside the skaters’ rave. She didn’t really start breathing again until she was sure that Cupidity and Cody were not seriously hurt by her careless missiles. Then she remembered that physical injury wasn’t the real danger from Cupidity’s arrows.

  When Cody spotted Cupidity, he rushed to her side and gently picked her up from the ground, all the while kissing her like a puppy who was glad to see his master. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?” he asked worriedly. “Oh no, you skinned your knee!”

  “It’s nothing,” she rasped, holding on to his arm for support. When she looked into his eyes, Cupidity broke into a dazed but ecstatic smile. “I couldn’t be better … no way.”

  Laura nervously approached them, wringing her hands. “Uh, Cupidity,” she asked, “do you know what happened to you?”

  “What happened to me?” she repeated, looking as if her brain had been fried. All Cupidity could manage to do was hang on to Cody’s arm, although both of them were swaying uncertainly on their feet. “I found my skater punk dude,” she muttered, “that’s what happened to me.”

  “Uh, yeah, for sure,” agreed Cody. His trademark sneer completely gone, he gazed fondly at the petite blond. “I found my very own goddess tonight, and I’ll never leave her side.”

  “Oh no.” Laura groaned and covered her eyes.

  “Codykins,” asked Cupidity, batting her eyelashes at him, “will you go with me to the Homecoming Dance?”

  “Whatever you want, Cupie Doll.” They hugged each other blissfully.

  “This is too much,” murmured Laura, starting to panic. The ornate bow was still in her hand, and she waved it like a life preserver. “Cupidity, look at this bow! Don’t you remember what you used to do with it?”