Chapter 28
After Dean’s angry departure, Mary drove straight to Darbi and Jacqui’s. She let herself in and found the two women playing backgammon in the sunroom. On a television in the corner, Judge Judy lectured a plaintiff, her grating voice competing with the rain pounding on the metal roof.
Darbi startled when Mary burst through the door. “Scared the bejesus out of me.”
Jacqui moved her red disk, bumping one of Darbi’s black ones, before looking up from the board. She narrowed her eyes. “Have you been crying?”
Mary paced in front of the table they sat behind. “I almost killed Dean today, and now I think he hates me. He’ll never agree to an interview.” She launched into the story of her encounter with Dean on that narrow winding road near the golf course. As she spoke, Darbi pressed her fist to her mouth, and Jacqui’s hand flew to her chest.
When Mary finished, Darbi stood. “You’ve made a mess of things.” She stalked out of the room.
“Not the first impression you wanted to make,” Jacqui said.
Even Judge Judy seemed to weigh in. “It was a stupid thing to do,” she admonished the defendant.
In another part of the house, cabinets banged shut. Darbi returned with a small plastic bag filled with gummy bears.
“How can I fix this?” Mary asked.
Darbi pointed a finger at her. “I told you to have a plan before you went to see him. We were supposed to come up with one together today.” She picked through the gummy bears and popped a red one in her mouth.
Outside, lightning streaked across the sky, followed by the loud boom of thunder. God’s bowling again. As a little girl, Kendra had said those words every time she heard thunder. He got a strike.
Gutter ball, Dean would tease.
Mary sank into a beanbag chair by the window and watched raindrops ripple through the pool, thinking the water pouring from the sky might be the old version of herself crying for this young version. “How can I make it right?”
Darbi extended the bag of gummies toward her. Mary hesitated, knowing the candy was laced, but decided there was no better time in her life to get high than now to help her forget what had happened with Dean. She picked out two orange ones.
“You’ll want to be careful with those,” Jacqui warned.
“Did you ask Dean if you could interview him?” Darbi asked.
Mary shook her head. “The timing didn’t seem ideal.” What an understatement. She reached for another gummy, yellow this time. “You should have seen the way he looked at me. I’ve never seen him so mad.”
Jacqui patted Mary’s shoulder. “It will be all right.”
“Maybe not,” Darbi said. “You need to forget about getting back to your old life and focus on being happy in this one.”
“Why in the world would you say that? Instead of helping me get back, I feel like you’re fighting it every step of the way. Like you want me to stay this way.”
Darbi’s face turned bright red. “I pleaded with you not to get your wisdom teeth out. All I want is for you to be happy.”
Mary covered her face with her hands. “I can’t be happy without my family.” She was so excited when she’d first seen Dean pedaling by her on that narrow road. Thinking about her husband now, a feeling of warmth spread through her. “I love them so much.” Her vision blurred and the walls seemed to spin. Outside, raindrops danced in the pool. “Dean was wearing those biking shorts today. Left little to the imagination.” She laughed. The laugh started soft but grew to a roar. Tears streaked down her face. She slapped her knee. She bent her head and gasped for air. “He called me a ...” What was the word Dean had used? “Moron”? No, definitely not that. Her mind was so fuzzy she couldn’t think clearly. The room was definitely spinning. No doubt about it. “Lunatic!” she hollered. “He called me it twice.”
Jacqui pointed to the gummies and looked at Darbi. “Don’t let her have any more of those.”
Mary closed her eyes. She thought of the time she and Dean had taken Kendra to an escape room and couldn’t solve the puzzle. Kendra had started to cry, thinking they would be stuck in the small dark room forever. Being stuck in a world without Kendra and Dean would be worse than being trapped in that tiny, dark space. She would be living in a world where none of her senses worked. She’d only see their faces, hear their voices, smell their skin, feel their hugs, and taste Dean’s kisses. Nothing else would compare. She wouldn’t be able to function in that world. She’d stay in her apartment, sitting on the couch catatonic.
Somehow, she fell asleep in the beanbag chair, her head resting at an awkward angle on the wall beside her. She woke alone in the sunroom with a crick in her neck. The television was off, and outside, the rain had stopped. A sliver of the moon shone in the approaching night sky. She gasped when she saw it. She had slept the day away. The house smelled like browned beef. Darbi and Jacqui relaxed at the kitchen table with empty dishes in front of them. A red ceramic taco stand holding two hard shells rested on a third plate. Small colorful bowls filled with cheese, peppers, and onions sat beside it.
“Sleeping Beauty awakes.” Darbi motioned to the dish with the food. “Rice is on the stove.”
Mary assembled her dinner, melancholy replacing the giddiness she’d felt before she fell asleep. “What am I going to do?”
Darbi plucked a red pepper from Mary’s plate. “You’re going to be honest with Dean.”
Mary’s bite of taco got caught in her throat. She broke out in a coughing fit and chugged water until the food became dislodged. “You want me to tell him what happened when I had my wisdom teeth removed? That in another life, we’re married and have a kind, beautiful daughter, and he needs to do the interview so I can get back to the other world where she exists?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Darbi said. “Tell him you were excited to see him because your promotion depends on him giving you an interview.”