Chapter Three
The stranger and I were frozen for a moment. His jaw line could cut glass, and I felt like I could fall into his wide brown eyes. There was something about him that felt safe. As if he possessed no threat to me, despite his muscles and the way he already knew my name.
“My name is Hyde,” he spoke softly, picking up my hand and wiping it off with a red bandana that had materialized from his back pocket, “I’m here to help make your wish come true.”
My whole body went cold. “My what?” I looked at the lemonade bucket.
There was no way, he had to mean something else.
This had to be a pickup line, an independent coincidence.
Just then, Eve walked in. She saw Hyde’s hand holding mine first and her eyes widened as they landed on something behind me.
“Oh my god, Mady, what happened?”
I jerked my hand back from Hyde and clutched it to my chest. My stomach churned at the thought that she was about to have more financial stress and that it was going to be my fault.
“I got caught on the bolt,” I started, but that wasn’t the right spot to start, “Hyde was going to help me because I told him you were on your way back,” no, that wasn’t the right beginning either.
I tried again, “I think it might be fine, if anything we can just fix the controls and the rest of the bull is fine.”
“Where did you put it?” She asked, the panic clear.
I pointed to the small counter where I had put the bucket, “It was just here, and I went to plug in the fan, and got stuck…” but Eve was shaking her head and pointed behind me.
I turned and was shocked with what I saw, or what I didn’t see. The mechanical bull was gone. In the middle of the padded ring was the mechanical base, the mechanism for the bucking and swaying motions. Exposed. Bare. The seat itself was gone.
My mouth fell open, and I turned to Eve. “I… I don’t know how…”
“Perhaps I could explain,” Hyde said.
I stepped away from him, an accusation on my tongue, but he gave a wave in salutations. “Like I said earlier, I’m Hyde. I’m here to make your wish come true. When you spilt the magical elixir on the control panel, I was brought to life.”
Eve and I looked at each other. “I must be dreaming,” Eve said, “or I’m drunk.”
Hyde gave a short low chuckle and took a step towards her. He embraced her, like they were familiar. “You’ve always taken the best care of me, keeping me clean.”
Eve’s eyes were confused as they locked onto mine. I put my hand on Hyde’s solid shoulder. “I think you need to go.”
Then those big eyes looked at me with something like pity, “This is one of those moments to grab life by the horns, Mady.”
That was too specific to be a coincidence. Hyde kissed Eve on the cheek and then pulled me in so he was holding one of us in each arm, a group hug that only he was aware of. “Ladies, I only have until sunrise.”
Eve looked around his chest to talk to me. “You didn’t hear or see anyone else come in and take the bull?”
“No, no one stole it,” I said. “No one even came in,” I pointed at Hyde, “Except him. He just kind of… appeared.”
“I’m right here.”
“We aren’t talking to you,” Eve snapped. “You know, maybe the problem is that I’m too sober,” Eve took out a cigarette and started stress smoking. She looked around and nodded once as if she had decided. “We need to get him out of here.”
“I can help with that, ladies. I might have just been born, but I was made for manual labor. I can get this loaded up right quick and get y’all out of here,” Hyde said. “Let’s get her done.”
“But it’s not the end of the fair yet,” I said.
“What do you expect people to do, Mady? Ride him?” She pointed at Hyde who was already breaking down the set up with a studied speed.
He looked back and winked as he said, “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
“Look, you said no one came in and took the bull, and I believe you,” Eve said, “but we have got to get out of here.”
“Why do you believe me?”
“Because I know you.”
Hyde had stopped moving and was looking at us knowingly. Then started whistling the tune of “The Final Countdown” and got back to breaking down the equipment.
As I helped Eve with taking down the tent and folding the panels, I started to panic. If Hyde was the manifestation of my wish, then would he tell Eve what my wish was? I couldn’t let him do that. When Eve went to hook up the truck to the hidden bull trailer base, I confronted Hyde.
“Please don’t tell her.”
Hyde snorted. “I will not reveal the contents of your wish, or else it won’t come true.” He tapped his temple twice with his finger, “That’s basic wish ethics.”
“I didn’t wish for a living mechanical bull man, why are you here?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I’m here for a good time and not a long time, darlin’. I am alive until sunrise. I want to live and help you live outside of the pen you built for yourself. You don’t even know you’re caged in it, do you?”
I thought of the can of emotions in my chest. Caged seemed like an apt description. “I don’t understand how you can help my wish come true.”
“Just roll with it, Mady,” Hyde said. “Let’s see where the night takes us.”
We quickly loaded up everything and then it was time to get into the truck.
Eve’s work truck was a single cab, meaning there was one bench seat and no back row.
Eve was the only one permitted to drive it so she got in and buckled up.
I would have sat in the middle, but Hyde rushed in and sat in the center.
Annoyed, I climbed into the passenger seat and buckled up.
Hyde was, for lack of a better word, large. His legs were slightly manspreading into both Eve’s and my legs. His arms were uncomfortably squished between us. He tried crossing them, then shifted his legs onto my side of the floor and placed a hand on Eve’s thigh and his other arm around me.
“This is insane,” I said to Eve, the annoyance like a bitter aftertaste on my tone.
My wish brings this guy to life - my wish about being in love with my best friend, by the way - and he’s making moves on her?
Ridiculous. “What are we going to do about Ferdinand here? Plant some flowers? Put him on a hillside?”
“My name is Hyde, not Ferdinand.” Hyde said.
Eve rolled down her window and lit a cigarette as we waited at a stop light, “I don’t even know where to go, I can’t just leave the trailer at the storage lot without the,” she gestured at the man between us with her cigarette hand, “you know.”
“We could go to my aunt’s house?” I offered. “They’re gone for the weekend, and I was supposed to stop by tomorrow to check on their geckos anyway.”
Eve nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good.”
“So,” Hyde said, his head turned toward Eve, “are you seeing anyone?”
Eve coughed on her smoke, and my mouth fell open. What was with this guy?
“Uh, no, I’m not.” Eve held onto the steering wheel tightly with both hands.
“Really? That’s interesting,” Hyde said, “Mady, what about you?”
It was so awkward. I knew he was about to do the most awkward, not at all smooth, Why don’t you guys date each other? As if it were that easy. I would probably die from the embarrassment. “I’m… waiting for the right person,” I said carefully.
Hyde winked at me. Holy shit, could he be any more obvious? I was going to die, I would simply pass away from the embarrassment. The phrase “bull in a China shop” was looping through my mind. I braced myself for him to deliver my execution.
But he didn’t. He just leaned his head back against the glass of the rear window. Eve and I had a silent conversation through a few glances and shared looks.
It went something like this:
Oh my god, Mads, what is this?
I can’t believe it either, what are we going to do?
Fuck if I know, let’s just get where we’re going.
Yeah, we’ll figure this out.
I’m so glad you’re here, Mady.
I’m so glad you’re here, Eve.
We finally made it to my aunt’s house, an acre lot in the back of a cul-de-sac.
I went and opened the side gate so Eve could pull the truck and trailer in.
I quickly locked the gate then ushered Hyde and Eve inside through the sliding glass door connected to the kitchen.
My aunt had a particular taste in decor, each room with its own distinct theme.
The kitchen was black and white and cherries.
Cherries everywhere. Decorative plates which my aunt hand painted throughout her life hung on the left wall, switching on and off with framed black and white wedding photos from twenty-five years go.
“Wow, this is what a kitchen is like,” Hyde mused.
Eve gave me a wide-eyed look, the question of now what all over her face.
“Hey, Hyde?” He looked at me putting down the matching cherry salt and pepper shakers that he was admiring. “Would you wait on the couch for me?”
I took his hand and led him to the living room, like he was lost in a crowded museum.
The living room followed a nautical theme with sail boats, ship’s wheels from the helm, and replica anchors.
Throw blankets were woven and off white - my aunt told me once it was to replicate sails - and a dark tan leather couch.
Hyde sat down in the middle of the couch and clutched a throw pillow that depicted a lighthouse scene on it.
“Just, wait here,” I said. I handed him a book from my uncle’s shelf; The Sun Also Rises.
Eve was standing in the middle space between the kitchen and the living room, not quite in either and yet in both.
I pointed with my eyes and the nod of my head for her to move forward, out of the kitchen, past the backside of the couch and into the hallway beyond. She moved and tossed her cowgirl hat on the couch, and I was right behind her, my hand on her wrist, pulling her into the bathroom on the right.
I turned on the light and the fan, hoping to offset the sound of our voices and hide our conversation.
“What do we do now?” I asked. My plan went this far: get Hyde to my aunt and uncle’s house and then wait until sunrise, when he would allegedly turn back into a faux bull. But the in between? I had no idea.
“How long until sunrise?” Eve asked.
I looked it up on my phone, “Sunrise is at 6:45 AM,” I said, “and it’s 11:20 PM right now.”
“So just over seven hours,” Eve said, sitting on the toilet lid. “What are we going to do with him for seven hours?”
“Well, we could take shifts so we can sleep,” I thought out loud, sinking down to sit on the tile floor with my back against the door.
“Real quick, can we talk about how cute he is?” Eve grinned conspiratorially.
I let out a huff of laughter, “Right? Who knew that old worn-out mechanical bull was hiding a cowgirl’s wet dream.”
“Very Princess and the Frog of him,” Eve agreed. “You know, we don’t have to sleep tonight. I’m kind of curious about him, aren’t you? I don’t even think I could sleep until this is over.”
She had a point. “So, what are we going to do? I doubt he knows any board games; he’s been inanimate and maybe not even sentient until like, two hours ago.”
Eve waggled her eyebrows suggestively and I pulled down a hand towel and threw it at her face. She laughed and caught it as it fell from her shoulder; I’ve always had terrible aim.
Still, in the madness and chaos and absolute unbelievable situation we were in, Eve was wonderful.
Not just beautiful, but like a breeze on a hot day.
She was still able to look at the situation with positivity.
She was curious about Hyde, she wasn’t riddled with anxiety over the situation like I would have been if it were my job on the line.
Hell, I was nervous as all get out already.
This was impossible and the implications of a mechanical bull coming to life because of some magical wish granting lemonade were larger than I could wrap my head around.
“I should have wished for world peace,” I muttered.
Eve leaned in. “What did you wish for?” Her question was quiet, inching its way to me under the sound of the bathroom fan.
I waited, let the full weight of the question curl up and settle on my heart.
The ache was surreal and I looked into Eve’s eyes.
Eyes that I have been looking into for over a decade.
Eyes that watched me grow up, eyes that grew up right alongside me.
Part of me wanted to lean in, give into the longing and desperation, finally kiss her and get on with the happily ever after I wanted for us.
The happy forever we could have. What did you wish for? You. A simple answer.
She was waiting for an answer, and I was a coward.
“Hyde said,” I started, my mouth dry as cotton, “he said I can’t talk about the wish.”
The soda can in my chest felt compressed, the pressure building. Like I said, an ache.
Eve stood up and reached out a hand. When I took it, she pulled me up to my feet. “Well, we better go check on him,” she said with a smile, but I could tell she was disappointed; we didn’t keep secrets from each other. The soda can in my chest rattled; I ignored it.
When we rounded the corner coming out of the bathroom, the couch was empty.
Panic seized my throat. “Shit.”