It’s been a couple weeks since they met. The four of them, quietly nibbling on their chocolatey treats. Sparse mutterings of “Mmms” and “This is good” were heard throughout the meal. The emotionally charged evening never tapered from the high anxiety with which it began when they first met. Officially met. To get the ladies home, Diego first made his way to the southern entrance of Central Park and called Penelope to him. She, hand in hand with her best friend Qisha, made her way to him. The three stood on the sidewalk, amidst the many passersby and locked eyes with one another, Penelope sharing her time with Diego and Qisha, and the latter two never taking their eyes off of her. Without a word, they all nodded and Diego was gone. A loud, “What the fuck? Where’d he go?” rang out from the street. The two ladies not wanting to discuss this peculiar evening any further made their way home. That night weighed heavily on the four of them.
Jamish sat in his office and stared at his screen. His presentation had been a major success and he was at the top of the list to become placed as Vice President. His dream for this company was becoming realized. Wrestling with indifference, he fought to maintain a high measure of integrity in his work. On his desk lied multiple stacks of bug reports and results of rebuilds. The slight buzzing of the overhead fluorescent lights sang its song in step with the easy listening playlist that bled out from his headphones on the desk. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and made their way to his nose. They paused for a moment as they reached the tip and as if calling out, “look at me,” they let loose their grip and fell harmlessly into a smattering on his desk. He has remained motionless for the majority of the day, resting his head on his hand with his elbow on his desk holding him up.
Penelope makes her way to the co-working office to pick up her stack of fliers. Her boss, Karina, a thin woman with thin lips, sleepy eyes, blond curly hair and twice pierced ears, meets her with a very small stack today. “Um, Karina, what’s this?”
“Sorry, Penelope. That’s the last stack.”
“What do you mean, ‘last stack?’”
“You didn’t think this was a permanent job, did you?”
“Don’t be a dick head. There’s what, 30 fliers here? You’re not even going to let me try to make some money?”
“We’ve heard that some of our Flier Guys (as an aside) and girls, have been tossing them and misreporting their work.”
Penelope’s posture goes from leaning on her back foot, having crossed her arms, to leaning forward on her toes aggressively toward Karina. “Yes Karina, I told you that. I found the stack in the garbage. I handed those out too, but you wouldn’t pay me for them.”
“Penelope, you know how this goes. You get your stack, you pass it out, you’re paid for what was in your stack. It’s not my fault you never counted them.”
“What the fuck, yes I did. Are you misremembering something? I was fastidious about counting my stack and accurately reporting everything. I have your signature on several of my sheets!”
“No, Penelope, I never signed anything. Look, you’re being aggressive right now so why don’t you head out before I keep the stack and we just end it here.”
“Karina, you can’t do this. I was told this would be a regular job for a long while.”
“Look, Penelope, I don’t know who told you that, but this is how it is.”
“Why do you keep saying my name?”
“What do you mean, Penelope?”
“Like that, why?”
“Look, Penelope, do you want the stack or not?”
“This is bull shit. I’ll be back in 15 minutes for my 30 dollars.”
“$30? No, Penelope, you get $14.50 an hour, even if you finish in 15 minutes.”
“Are you shitting me right now? And stop saying my name!”
“Fine. P-… Look, just go, I’ll see you back here when you’re done with your final paycheck.”
“I don’t know what kind of fuckery is going on here, but you better have all my money and since when do you pay with a check?”
“Hahaha, Penelope, you’re so funny. We always paid with a check. Now, run along.”
Biting down hard and grinding her teeth, a seering glare pierces through the hapless boss who relents, lowering her eyes and cowering as she meanders back to her desk.
Qisha looks through the barista who has asked her three times for her order. The people in the line behind her are getting restless. Snapping to, she snaps her head back, “How about you wait your turn. The train’s not even here for another 10 minutes, unless you’re just being a bitch for fun.” Someone calls out from the back of the line, “Just order already. Come on.”
Qisha turns back to the barista, takes in a deep breath and triumphantly orders her beverage.
“Today’s my birthday, so I will have a trenta latte with 4 shots of espresso, peppermint, whole milk, a half shot of caramel and some of that cookie butter extract.”
The barista looking suspiciously at her calls her out, “May I see your ID? How many birthdays do you have? I feel like I’ve seen you here recently.”
“Wow, that’s really uncalled for. Here you go,” and she dives into her handbag and pulls out her Driver’s License. “What’s today?”
“Groundhog Day.”
“So that’s the 2nd, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“You want to read my birthday, you condescending piece of shit. Your breath smell like ass, too. Your shirt’s dirty and your fingernails are all chewed up. You bad posture having little hobbit of a creature. You’re too stupid to be working here. Why don’t you go back to whatever dungeon you crawled out of, put the gimp suit back on, and wait for someone to find you there. I’m sure your mama will miss you, but she’ll be happy to get her basement back in three weeks when they find your body all dried up from thirst. You know you’re not going to starve to death, with all that fat on you, your body will hold out for weeks. But you can’t drink with that ball gag in your mouth you nasty ass.”
Sheepishly the barista responds, “It’s the second.”
“That’s right. Go ahead and put my drink in before these people behind me lose their mind. So impatient, can’t they see you’re trying to do your job?”
The beaten down barista just blinks back at her, gives a half smile, imputs her drink and motions her over to the waiting area. He then stares at the counter for a brief moment and leans to his right to make eye contact with the person behind her before calling out, “Next.”
The desert sun beats down on the earth below. The beige and brown horizon reaches as far as the eye can see. The sounds of hikers and the breeze interrupt the stark silence bath in which Diego has wrapped himself. Bouncing from peak to peak he traverses Death Valley. For two weeks he has poofed only once, spending the rest of the time surviving out in the desert. After finding three people who share a kinship with him, he found it necessary to escape and discover what he really wanted out of this life.
Okay, let’s go over this again. Jamish cannot poof. Neither can Qisha. I can go anywhere I want. Penelope can only come to me. I can go anywhere I have been, but I can also go anywhere Penelope has been. I can go anywhere Jamish currently is. I haven’t tried to go where he has been, but maybe I can. I don’t at all understand Qisha’s connection to us. Her stomach never hurts, so there’s that. She is cool though. Really cool. Where do we go from here? We could be explorers, or we could just go back to our regular lives. I heard Penelope saying something about monetizing this, but I don’t want to be a thief or anything. I’m not trying to steal from anyone. Back to the delivery service, I guess. Maybe there’s a business the four of us can go into. I don’t know, I really like being able to just go anywhere and not being tied to anyone. I was really lonely for a long time though. This could be it. This could be where I find my purpose and a measure of happiness I can live with.
The confused teenagers at the end of their rest look at each other and silently communicate that it is time to go. One of them, the tallest of the bunch clad in a bandana tied around his neck that he pulls up to cover his mouth when it gets too windy, camo shorts and a tan tank top tee shirt, responds “Um, to be honest, none of us have any idea what you’re talking about. We’re going to get back to our hike. K, bye.”
Stunned, Diego slowly turns around to see 6 kids ranging in age from 12 to 16. Unaware of their encroaching presence he orated to ether only to have it infringed upon by unwitting passersby. What can only be described as a dinosaur shriek escapes Diego’s lips and he loses his balance backward. As he falls over and makes his way to land harshly on the rocks with his flat back he panic poofs himself to the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. The kids all stare at the empty space Diego once occupied for a brief moment, then all scream at once, turn and run back to the path behind them. Diego appears 10 feet over the Gulf and falls helplessly into the infinite deep below. Crashing down hard on the flat of his back the air in his lungs is pushed harshly out and his lungs seize. Flailing beneath the crest of the water, he makes his way back up but is unable to breathe. Still amidst a panic, he poofs to several places he has recently been, coughing and choking on the droplets of water ingested as he panicked his way through the fall and splash. He finds himself all over the world face down on street corners in France, Spain, Czech Republic, Poland and then finally face down on his kitchen floor. Struggling to breathe, a hand is placed on his shoulder and a calming voice beseeches he regain his composure. “Slow down. Stop freaking out. Please, just try to breathe. If you can’t, I will pump your chest. Just try to calm down.” Penelope’s words bring him a measure of peace. She grabs his shoulder and pulls him onto his side placing her right hand under his head. Her left hand makes its way to his chest and she holds it there. He grabs her hand on his chest and holds tightly. She leans over and placer her head on his and whispers calmly into his hear, “Just breathe. Just breathe.” A tear escapes his eye and rolls down onto his nose. He coughs a guttural cough and a small bit of water escapes his lips. He dramatically breathes in all the air his lungs can hold and coughs that out as well. Empathetically connected, Penelope also lets a tear free from her eyes and hit drips onto his ear. Qisha, latte in hand, asks if she should call 911. They had just met up. Penelope finished her fliers in less than half an hour and made her way to the coffee shop where Qisha was spending time. They were mid-embrace when she felt in her core Diego calling out for help. So while still hugging Qisha, she poofed them to him.
“We should call 911, Penny.”
“I think he’s going to be okay, Qisha.”
“Diego!!” The front door quickly opens and Jamish comes careening through, slamming the door behind him. “I’m coming Diego, I’m coming.” He tears through the apartment and slides on his knees stopping at the feet of his best friend and is quickly met by an outstretched hand from Diego, still on the floor and nestled in the embrace of Penelope. Qisha, seemingly unaffected by it all, stands back and watches as they all hold each other for a brief moment as Diego struggles to normalize his breathing.
Where did you guys come from?
“Qisha and I were at a coffee shop and I felt you. You were struggling and my stomach hurt, like you were trying to run from something. I felt my throat closing up for a brief moment and knew it was you. I just got there and we hugged to say hi and then, boom, here we were.”
Poof.
“You almost died, and you want to argue with how my girl got here?”
I don’t want to argue, it’s just that it’s called ‘Poofing.’”
“You’re insufferable. Fine, ‘poof, here we were.’”
Thank you.
“I was at work. It felt like I was drowning, but I was in my office. So I ran out of there and came straight here. If I could poof like you, I might have been here sooner. I came as fast as I could. What the fuck happened?”
Diego regales the group with his trip to Death Valley in Nevada and camping out under the stars and not once using his ability to make his way from peak to peak, instead painstakingly climbing each one one foot at a time. He then explains the encounter with the teenagers and how his panicked moment lead to them rushing to his side.
It looks like we are more connected than I thought. Thank you for coming to me. Know that I will come to you in a moment’s notice no matter where I am or what I’m doing. If you call me, I will come.
“Yeah, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t even have to think this time about you. I had Qisha in my arms and just said, ‘Diego, he needs us.’ And that was it. We were in your living room and I saw your feet at the end of the hallway and came straight over.”
“I didn’t feel anything, to be honest. Maybe I was distracted. I was so mean to that barista about my birthday drink.”
“It’s not your birthday.”
“I know. It is on my old fake ID though, and I wanted a big ass drink. Besides, it made for good content on my blog.”
“Girl, you’re too much.”
The two women share a glance and a giggle.