Utopian Day

by C. L. Wells

  Nick had told her to come in around 2:00 p.m. because he had a doctor’s appointment and wouldn’t be back before then. He had planned on following their usual routine at that time. He would review his various business activities for the day and assign to her any tasks he needed taken care of.

  Mia wasn’t anything like a secretary. He had a half-dozen of those that worked at his corporate office downtown. He could video conference, call, or email the corporate office administrator from his office here at home should he need something done. Mia was more of a specialized personal assistant. She would handle the coordination of delivery and pickup of funds that were made or lost from the gambling enterprises. If some of the high rollers were having a bad spell and refusing to pay up, she would persuade them to change their minds and come back with the cash. If a business associate needed help deciding to do what Nick was suggesting, Mia was the one he sent to work it out. She was very good at what she did and he had complete faith in her abilities. But today, there would be no such assignments.

  Mia could tell that Nick was not in a good mood, so she did what she normally did when she found him in a foul mood – she waited. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes passed and Nick didn’t move. He was just staring out the window, holding the half-consumed glass of scotch in his hand as his arm lay on the armrest of the chair.

  Mia could only recall one other time that she had seen him like this. It had been in college when the girl he had been dating had dumped him. He had tried to win her back with gifts and flowers, but she had finally told him that there was nothing he could do to win her back, that she just didn’t love him and never would. He had sat in a chair and stared out of the window for the rest of the afternoon just like he was doing now. It wasn’t something he could fix. He couldn’t force her to love him like he could force someone to pay a debt. He knew that and he was undone by the fact.

  At the end of the day, he’d snapped out of his stupor, told Mia to get dressed to party, and they had gone out together. It was the first time Nick had ever asked her to go anywhere with him socially. Before, it had always been business. They had gone to a few bars and Nick was beginning to get drunk. When they entered the next bar, Nick caught sight of his former girlfriend sitting at a table with her new football player boyfriend and a couple of his teammates. Nick began hurling insults at his former flame and her new beau. After the second or third comment, the big football player had stood up, red-faced, and begun coming towards Nick, intent on a fight. He was followed closely by his two teammates.

  Mia did what she did best. She protected Nick and looked out for his interests. Before the first would-be assailant had come within striking distance of Nick, Mia had already covered the distance between them, delivering a side-kick to his knee that sent him crashing down to the floor in agony – an injury that would leave him out of commission for the rest of the season. Without skipping a beat, she took another step and leapt into the air to deliver a well-placed knee to the second man’s diaphragm. At the same time, she used the palms of her hands to strike his ears violently, leaving him breathless and in considerable pain in the process. The third man was at her side by this time. Seeing what he was up against, he decided not to take any chances. Lady or not, he was going to punch Mia – or so he thought. Mia easily deflected his clumsily delivered haymaker and delivered an open-hand strike to his trachea. He instantly put both hands to his throat and began gagging and gasping for air.

  Nick had been watching the whole time with great amusement. Mia quietly walked over and said to him, “Let’s leave before the cops get here.” They left the bar and Mia took Nick home, making sure he made it inside to his bed before he passed out. That was what had happened the last time she had seen him look this way.

  She went to the kitchen to make some tea and brought it back in on a tray with two cups and some sugar, setting it down on the coffee table in front of the couch. She poured herself a cup and began drinking it as she waited. After another fifteen minutes or so, Nick spoke.

  “Mia….”

  She waited for a few seconds, expecting him to finish his sentence. When he didn’t, she replied.

  “Yes?”

  “Mia…I…I have cancer….”

  The next six months were very difficult. The treatment plan the oncologist suggested for Nick involved a surgery to remove a mass of cancer, followed by chemotherapy. Mia’s role began to change. She was still protecting Nick’s interests, but now that included driving him to and from doctor’s appointments. Helping walk him to the car when he was dizzy, and helping him make some of the common business decisions that he had trouble making because he couldn’t think clearly due to the drugs he was taking.

  Nick had asked Mia to arrange for a nurse to be around during the day to help him through the recovery process. The nurse was to help bring him pain medication, help him up and down the stairs when he was dizzy, or help clean up when he vomited. One day, Nick called her on the phone.

  “Mia….”

  Nick’s voice was strained.

  “Yes, what is it?” Mia asked.

  “I’ve fallen down the stairs and I need your help.”

  “I’ll be right there,” she replied.

  She depressed the accelerator and sped towards the house. When she came inside, she found Nick sitting in a chair, with his leg propped up on a foot stool with a pillow under it. Marcus, the security man whom Nick usually kept at the house, was bringing a glass of water over to Nick when Mia arrived.

  “Are you o.k.?” she asked Nick.

  “I’m not sure,” Nick replied.

  “What happened?”

  “The nurse didn’t show up today. I thought I could make it downstairs to get myself some breakfast before starting to work, but I began feeling dizzy towards the bottom, and fell down the last four steps. Marcus helped me up and over here to the chair.”

  He took the offered glass of water from Marcus. But before Marcus could turn and leave, Mia’s gaze fell upon him, her eyes burning a hole right through him. He had seen that stare fall upon others and he immediately felt a knot in the pit of his stomach, unsure of what would happen next.

  “Why didn’t you help him down the stairs?” she asked him, her eyes staying focused on him like lasers.

  “I…I didn’t know he wanted my help,” Marcus replied weakly.

  “You should not wait for him to ask. If the nurse is not here, you help him. Understand?”

  “Ye.. yes… ma’am. Understood,” he replied, unsure whether he was dismissed and should leave the room, or if he should be still.

  “Go!” Mia commanded as she pointed out of the room. Marcus retreated hastily into the foyer.

  “Don’t be too hard on him, Mia,” Nick encouraged her. “After all, if it wasn’t for him, I’d still be on the floor.”

  “Not good enough,” Mia replied. In Mia’s line of work, it was handy to have a doctor on the payroll to patch up any employees who had been recently injured. This frequently happened while rendering some of the more dangerous services required in their business. She scrolled through the contacts in her phone, selecting one and hitting the call icon. In two rings, a doctor answered personally on the other end. Mia did not bother with introductions. “Come to the house; Nick has fallen down. His leg is injured. Hurry.” She disconnected the call.

  The doctor arrived and, after a thorough examination, concluded that Nick had only sprained his ankle in the fall. He suggested that Nick use crutches until the leg healed up a bit, and that he have someone assist him when he went up or down the stairs. He told Nick that he would come back by in a few days to check up on him and see how the healing process was going. Mia fired the nurse that afternoon and selected a different company. She began a routine of calling Marcus each morning to confirm that the nurse had arrived before she headed to the house herself.

  Nick lost all of his hair and so much weight during the chemotherapy that he had Mia buy him a new wardrobe of clothes that fit him more snugly. He said that he
refused to look like a scarecrow wearing his old clothes that were now far too big. Eventually, the chemotherapy ended and his hair began to grow back. The side effects of the drugs began to disappear and his sprained ankle healed up so that he no longer needed crutches. Finally, the day came when the doctors declared Nick to be cancer-free.

  One day afterward, Mia was heading home after the last business errand of the day when Nick called her on her cell phone.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Mia, can you come by the house, I have one more thing I need you to take care of before you go home.”

  “O.k., I’ll be right there,” she replied.

  She pulled up to the house and went up the steps, entering the security code to let herself into the house. She’d started to head upstairs to Nick’s office when she saw Nick come out of the den.

  “Thanks for coming back,” he said.

  Mia was still not used to Nick saying ‘thank you’. Before his illness, he would ask people to do things and expect it to be done, but rarely did he ever say thank you. While he’d been sick and had needed people to do so many things for him, he had begun to say ‘thank you’ far more frequently. The illness had definitely changed him.

  “Would you come into the dining room, please?” Nick said.

  Mia dutifully followed him into the dining room, where she saw the table set for two. Nick walked over to one of the chairs and pulled it out for her.

  “I have some business to discuss with you and I haven’t eaten yet; would you mind if we had dinner while we talk?”

  “O.k.,” Mia responded as she sat down at the table. It was a bit awkward as Nick pushed in the chair for her – something he had never done before.

  Nick opened the door to the kitchen and told the chef that they were ready to eat – another oddity, as Nick usually only had a chef when company was coming over. The chef brought out the food and set it on the table. They began eating in silence. After a few minutes, Nick stopped eating and took a sizable drink from his wine glass. Mia could tell that he was nervous – and Nick was never nervous. She was immediately on edge. She wondered if the cancer had returned.

  “Mia,” Nick began, “this recent illness brought about many changes in my life. I had to rely on many other people to help me in ways I’ve never had to have help before. You were chief among those helpers, and I wanted to think of an appropriate way to say thank you.” He slid a black box across the table before continuing. “Thank you.”

  Mia looked down at the box, stunned. Nick had never given her so much as a birthday card before. Their relationship had always been solely professional. He paid her well and treated her with respect, but the business line had never been crossed. She slowly reached forth her hand and took the box.

  “Thank you,” she said, almost as a question.

  “Well, go ahead and open it,” Nick prodded.

  Mia timidly opened the box to reveal a ruby and diamond choker necklace. She stared at it, speechless for several seconds before looking up at Nick with a confused expression on her face.

  “Put it on,” Nick encouraged her.

  Mia picked up the necklace and held it up. It was beautiful. She just stared at it.

  “Here, let me help you,” Nick said. Nick stood up and came around behind her chair, and took the necklace from her hands. He put it around her neck and secured the clasp for her.

  “Why don’t you stand up and take a look at it in the mirror?”

  Mia stood up and turned around to the large mirror hanging on the wall behind them. The necklace looked even more beautiful around her neck, she thought to herself.

  “Do you like it?” Nick asked as he stood beside her and watched her in the mirror.

  “Yes,” Mia said as she reached her hand up and ran it along the stones, “I like it very much.”

  “Good,” Nick replied, satisfied. “Shall we finish our dinner?” he said as he pulled out her chair for her once more.

  They finished eating dinner and Nick did most of the talking. Mia had never been one for chatting, but she liked listening to Nick as he talked about his recovery and how he planned to start keeping a better eye on his health. He paused here and there to ask her questions, to which her replies were predictably short and to the point, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed positively giddy – like a schoolboy just let out on summer break. She wondered what was happening. It was confusing to her, but she liked this new side of Nick.

  Nick saw Mia to the door and out to the car after they had finished their dessert. He said goodnight to her – something he also had never done before, and went back into the house. Mia drove home thinking about the evening. At one point, she glanced into the rearview mirror to check the traffic behind her and caught a glimpse of her own face. She was smiling. It was something she had not expected to see. Mia did not smile very often. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she had smiled at all.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Mia Chen had come to the United States with her immigrant parents. She was an only child whose parents had desperately wanted a boy. Her father opened up a martial arts school in New York City. He pushed Mia to learn the trade just as hard as if she were the son he’d always wanted but never had. He was cruel to her and would hit her if she failed to meet his expectations. Her mother would do nothing to stop him. So Mia determined at an early age that she would not fail to meet those high expectations.

  By the time Mia was fifteen, she was able to beat anyone in their studio in the school fighting competitions. She won regional competition trophies and even went to a state-wide championship competition when she was eighteen. She caught the flu the day before the state competition, but her father forced her to compete anyway. She lost. He was irate, berating her and shouting at her all the way home. Once they were home, he hit her in the stomach and she threw up. He was good at hitting her just hard enough so as not to break any bones or cause any lasting physical damage, but the bruises and psychological damage were bad enough. That night, Mia made up her mind to run away.

  After she ran away, she began picking up odd jobs where she could. She got a job teaching martial arts at another studio, but her father found out about it and came to take her home. He almost caught her, but she saw his car pull up and ran away through Central Park before he could catch her. After that, she stopped teaching martial arts, afraid he would track her down again.

  She saw an advertisement on a local college bulletin board. The ad stated that one of the sororities was looking for a security guard for an upcoming party. When she showed up in front of the sorority house and met the head of the sorority for her interview, the girl almost laughed when she saw this thin Chinese girl was applying for the position.

  “I’m sorry, miss,” her interviewer began, “but I’m not sure you’re…big enough for this job.”

  Mia looked around and saw a male college student about to enter the sorority house to visit his girlfriend. He was six-foot three and built like a tank. Mia ran up to him.

  “Excuse me,” she said, “can you help me one moment?”

  He looked a bit surprised.

  “I need you to come over here,” Mia motioned to where her interviewer was seated behind a table with a smirk on her face. The man reluctantly came over to where Mia was motioning, not sure what he was getting into.

  “Is this man big enough?” Mia asked the lady.

  “Well, yes, he is, but he isn’t applying for the job; you are,” the lady contended.

  Mia ignored her and turned to the man. “Stand here,” she said as she positioned him several feet in front of the table at which her interviewer was seated. She held up a twenty dollar bill so that he could see it and placed it on the table, positioning herself between him and the money. It was the last twenty dollars she had to her name.

  “If you can pick up the money, you can have it,” she said.

  The student chuckled, walking forward and reaching his hand out as if he was going to move her a
side and pick up the money. Mia grabbed his wrist and twisted it while applying upward pressure with her other hand to the underside of his elbow, putting him in a submission hold that easily deflected him away from the table.

  “Try again,” she said to him as she released him.

  The big student flexed his shoulders up and down, this time stepping forward and attempting to put Mia in a bear hug to move her away from the table. Before he could step close enough, Mia stuck two fingers towards the base of his neck between the clavicle bones, pressing downward into the epiglottis. The move stopped him dead in his tracks and he reflexively moved his hands towards his throat, at which point Mia grabbed his wrist and put him in a submission hold again.

  The big guy backed off, dazed, and beginning to get a bit upset that this little Chinese girl had stopped him twice. A small crowd was beginning to gather around the table and Mia could see from the look in his eye that he was thinking about taking a real swing at her. She looked him straight in the eyes without flinching.

  “Thank you for your help. You can go now,” she said.

  Something about the look in her eyes made the man decide that twenty dollars wasn’t worth the effort, and that his pride would be better off if he didn’t try again.

  “You’re welcome,” he said stiffly as he turned and walked away.

  Mia heard clapping noises from behind her as the interviewer and a few other sorority members applauded her demonstration.

  “I underestimated you, my dear,” the interviewer responded. “You are hired.”

  The party was a typical sorority affair. Lots of girls, lots of guys, lots of booze. Mia’s job was to hang around the main floor of the sorority house and serve as a bouncer if anyone tried to start a fight or make a big scene.