Diego checks his watch for the third time in as many minutes. Time is moving slowly today. More slowly than it seems to have been moving the last few weeks. Today is wrought with anticipation, the kind that takes up residence in your belly and emanates quivers in the body as it settles itself. Diego has tied and untied his tie several times weighing the cost of showing up in a tie vs being casually comfortable. Neither he nor Jamish are looking forward to this evening as a date, but both are dressing to impress. The rooftop bar isn’t a particular place that young starlets go to be seen, and they aren’t looking to fill their beds with warmth tonight. The bed is a rental and Diego is responsible for getting everyone home.
The light is off in the living room. Amidst the dark end of the apartment, a soft blue light illuminates Jamish’s face. Jamish is lounging on the couch, cell phone in hand, casually spending the time remaining before the date playing mobile games. He left work a little early and is enjoying his evening before dinner.
You about ready?
“Um, it’s only 6:00 PM. We have an hour and a half before we need to meet them. You can get a room any time you like and pick me up when it’s time to get the girls.”
Yeah, but I’d rather we be together for the whole time.
“Why?”
You don’t feel it in your tum tum? There is a tingle that is expanding. I don’t know why I am so eager to get to dinner.
“You have a crush. Penelope is cute. You can just ask her out and not drag me and Qisha into it.”
It’s not that. I mean, you’re not wrong. She’s headstrong, gorgeous, witty.
“What are you waiting for then?”
I don’t want to ruin the circle. This is a pretty major thing. How we are all affected by this, I don’t want to mess it up.
“That’s really mature of you. I don’t believe you.”
Rude.
“I’ll be ready by 7. That gives you an hour before you need to pick me up, just go grab a room.”
Jamish goes back to his game. The butterflies in his stomach are no less real than Diego’s, but he decides he needs to be strong for him. He has inexplicably decided to be Diego’s rock. To stand firm when his emotionally driven friend cannot. To be every ounce of fortitude for the both of them. He lives in silence, hiding in the shadow of his friend. Driven by love and connectedness, he does not waver. Ever. He does work out his frustrations in life on fools that would challenge him in online gaming. Back to competitive play on the weekends, he has climbed the ranks and touts a six week unbeaten streak. 188 and zero.
“Qisha, you sure you don’t want to come? The boys are looking forward to seeing you.”
“Yeah, I think I’m good. I mean, they’re alright and all, but to be honest, I don’t really feel as connected as you guys do. I mean, I can’t poof or whatever and I don’t ever get the stomach aches and I don’t hear any of you. I catch you giggling all the time to nothing. You talk to Diego out loud and I can’t hear him, just you.”
“I hear you, but I don’t want to do this without you. I love that you have my back and I have yours.”
“I don’t think you need me to have your back anymore. You’re my girl, you know it. I think there is a place for those boys now though.”
“I disagree, those boys cannot replace you, but I don’t want to force you into anything.”
“Penny, come on. You know you can’t make me do anything I don’t want to.”
“Oh really? Maybe I just grab your hand? Maybe we go for a ride.”
A playful glare falls upon Qisha’s brow. Her upright tightly curled locks lean forward with her as she peers into Penelope’s soul from the top of her eyes. Penelope leans in defiantly. The two woman, sure of their footing, square up and prepare for a chase.
“Penny. Girl, you know playing hard to get is my game. You know this. I am the queen of aloof.” Between claps she emphatically continues, “You do not stand a chance.”
“I think I’ll take my chances.”
Qisha quickly scans the room. Her quaint apartment in Manhattan is neatly organized. Everything in its place. There is a duffle bag next to her at the end of the bed. Penelope is at the head of the bed and slowly begins to move onto the bed and perches in anticipation of a leaping strike. Qisha backpedals toward the door to her bedroom inches away. Without looking to verify her position, she quickly juts backward and crashes into the doorframe, letting out a wince. Penelope seeing this as her best opportunity dives parallel to the ground, two feet above the bed and four above the floor, completely extending in an attempt to make contact with Qisha. The most high stakes game of tag ever played, in this tiny apartment. Qisha rolls against the door frame and into the living room eyeing Penelope the whole way through. Penelope’s outstretched hand is poised to connect with Qisha’s finger tips. Fixated on her impending grasp, Qisha pulls her fingers into her palm making a tight fist narrowly escaping as Penelope’s fingers swipe and miss.
“Damn, girl. It is not that serious. You ok?” She offers through a belly laugh. “I’m not going to help you up. I’m in these house only booty shorts and we don’t even know where Diego is. I’m not trying to have you take me anywhere. You know I don’t leave this apartment an 8, only a 10.”
Coughing and gasping for air amidst the startling realization she is face down on the bedroom floor at the foot of a bed, Penelope stands and yelps with her hands on her ribs. “Ow, shit. Oh my god my ribs.”
“You shouldn’t have supermaned at me. I will say that was pretty impressive. You went for it. Like, no hesitation, you full body dove at me. Kinda hot.”
“What?”
“What do you mean, ‘What?’”
“Dove at you? Where am I?”
“Well, you’re not with Diego, if that’s what you were trying to do. What were you trying to do?”
“Diego? Oh no.”
“Penny, are you ok? You didn’t hit your head did you? It didn’t seem like it.”
“I don’t think so. I’m just going to lay here for a minute, ok?”
“That’s fine. I’m going to stand here and laugh a bit. If it gets worse, just call out. I’ll come help you, or maybe I wont. I’m not going with you guys to that dinner in LA.”
“Dinner? I really thought I’d know more about what was happening. Huh.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“Just gimme a second, Qisha. Just a second.” Penelope lays still on the floor nursing her pending bruises. She knows there isn’t much time. She takes a few painful breaths in and out and sits up, leaning back against the foot of the bed pushing the duffle bag to the side. “Hey, this is mine.”
“Obviously. Seriously, Pen, what’s happening? I don’t like this.”
“I’m not Penelope. Well, I am, but not the one you know. I’m an echo. I’ve never been an echo. I just usually wake up wherever she leaves off. Things are pretty impermanent for me.”
“Excuse me? If you’re not my Penny, who the fuck are you?”
“I’m an echo. If she comes back in the next few minutes, she comes back to you. If she doesn’t, she’s off somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else? Like, her house?”
“No. What I think is happening is every time Diego teleports-“
“Poofs.”
“Oh my god. He got you saying that?”
“Ew, not on purpose. Ha. That little fucker.”
“He’s not so bad. Any time he teleports, er, poofs, I think he leaves this reality and he shows up in a different one. And I think, when he does, he drags James and Penelope along with him. I think James grounds him so he can go anywhere and go back to the same James, and I think Penelope is grounded to Diego. She goes to wherever he is. I am pretty sure she can go to James too. I am an echo of her. If she leaves and is tied to something here, she leaves an echo. If she leaves an echo, she can come back, if she isn’t tied there is no echo and that world is gone to her, forever. Or at least I think it’s forever.”
“How the hell do you know all this?”
“I am with her all the time, and she is with me. We cannot interract, but we both exist in all these places, just not at the same time. This is the first time she’s left me behind, and I didn’t just wake up somewhere she wasn’t coming back to. I don’t think she wants to leave you.”
“Leave me? I thought we all were connected.”
“So did I, Qisha. So do Diego and James.”
“No wonder why I don’t hear them calling, or have stomach aches or really want to spend any time with them at all. I mean, they’re alright, but I don’t wanna be with them all the time like she does. Can you, she, you, whatever, bring me to her, you? Or can she only come back to her echo?”
“She can come back to her echo, but she can’t bring you to her.”
“Why not? She can’t leave me. Not like this.”
“She might have her phone on her. Text her. I don’t have much time. Diego’s echo only lasted like 20 minutes. It’s been 7 or 8 now?”
Qisha rushes over to her phone and in a flustered panic struggles to unlock and then open the messaging app. Finally getting to it, she texts Penelope,
PEN COME HOME NOW
She hears a ding coming from the bedroom. She closes her eyes slowly in defeat. “I want to say goodbye at least.”
“She has the boys’ numbers. Text them.”
She grabs Penelope’s phone noticing her name in the contacts as ‘MyQi.’ “She better not start calling me Mikey… though, that is pretty clever. I’ll allow it. Once. Not from you though, Echo.” She pulls up contacts and finds one for ‘Poof’ and ‘Poofish.’ “This girl and these names.” She messages both from Penelope’s phone,
SEND PENNY HOME, NOW, PLEASE. THIS IS QISHA.