Chapter 24
Trey
"Wait! I think that’s her!” Trey could hardly believe his eyes, as though it was a mirage his mind had invented because he wished for it hard enough.
He wasn’t one hundred percent, without a doubt, positive it was the woman they were looking for because, from their perspective, it was hard to see the whole picture instead of bits and pieces.
But the tropical print draped over a chair triggered his memory.
“Are you sure?” His wife pointed upward. “She has dark hair. Is it her?”
No, Trey wasn’t sure, but they had stopped, and if they were going to disembark from their shoe transportation, this was the time to do it.
“Yes, we need to get off.” They scrambled to stand on uneven footing.
He held on to his wife’s arm, lowering her down the side of the shoe as much as he could.
“Well, at least I’m pretty sure,” he said as he tried to look at the woman at the table again.
His wife jerked her head, giving him an incredulous look, saying, “Wha—” before he let go and she slid, screaming, the rest of the way to the ground, falling into a heap on the carpet below.
The foot was already shifting, so without thinking any further about it, he threw himself over the side, his body rolling at a dizzying speed as if he were tumbling down an enormous hill. He came to an abrupt halt with a grunt.
“Trey? Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” he said in a strained voice, attempting to get up on wobbly legs. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, but—AAAAAAAHHHHH!” She grabbed him, yanking him to the side as a shadow passed overhead before being replaced by a shoe, missing them by inches. They ended up in a pile with him on top of her, which was his favorite position to be in, even while in danger of being stomped on.
“You will always be my absolute hero,” he said to his wife.
“I hate this! Being this small sucks. I now empathize with ants, and I hate ants.”
He pressed a quick kiss to her lips before helping her to stand.
“Now what?” she asked, gazing up at the whole dining room towering over them.
“We have to get her attention. Maybe we can get up on the table.”
“How are we going to get on the table?”
“If someone lifts us up…”
“Trey. Seriously.”
“I don’t know!” The feeling of desperation, frustration, and hopelessness settled over him. “I’m not good at coming up with ideas, and I’m sorry you’re stuck with me instead of someone who’s actually brilliant and—”
She grabbed him, first by the arm before taking his jaw between her hands, staring into his eyes.
“Listen to me. I love you. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in this situation with anyone else.
And you come up with great ideas all the time.
We’re going to get out of this, and you’re going to be an amazing teacher.
The kids always adore you, and I adore you. I’m proud of you too.”
Her speech took him aback. It’s not that he hadn’t heard someone be proud of him before. His parents had said it to him a few times, but usually after a big game. It was always on his athleticism. This hit differently. “Really?”
“Yes, really. I want to marry you again.” She kissed him deeply.
His heart was absolutely full of her. “I love you. You’re amazing.”
“We can do this, right?”
“Look at how far we’ve gotten already.” With her as a partner, he imagined they could do almost anything.
“What is that?” He pointed to a mound of wheat-colored disks. Going closer and taking a whiff, the smell was familiar. They were about the size of a large shield but not as heavy.
“I think it’s instant oatmeal,” Cat replied, reading the crumpled packaging nearby.
“Maybe we can use it to spell out a message like people do on a deserted island when they want to reach someone flying overhead. What do you think?” He grabbed some of the flakes around the edge, shifting them over to her.
“Yes! You’re brilliant! What should we write?”
“How about, Please look down here. We’re tiny and need your help.” He stopped. “Is that too long?”
“Maybe a touch. We need something short and snappy. How about just Help?”
“It’s a classic for a reason, right?”
Moving as quickly as they could, they transferred the dried oat flakes to an area where they could rearrange them. They didn’t know how much time they had before either the mess was cleaned up or the woman left the dining area and they lost their best chance at getting her attention.
“You’re doing it too close,” Catalina said.
“Too close to what?” He’d only started the first part of an H.
“You’re starting too close to the mountain of oatmeal. Go further away so it stands out more.”
With this, they agreed Catalina would be in charge of spelling the word, and his energy was better spent flinging oat flakes in her direction instead of both of them running back and forth to the pile.
They were getting in a synchronized groove, each yelling encouraging words to the other, the H coming together.
He wished it was a little bigger, but they didn’t have the time, and hopefully it would be large enough to notice.
He'd just grabbed an oat flake to toss to Catalina to start on the E when he heard a horribly familiar screech, one that could only come from an angry chimp. Both of them froze. Oh no, it was—
“Buddy,” his wife said, turning slowly. The ape looked more cranky than he had before, the hair sticking out in spikes around his body while he bared his teeth. The animal pounded his fists on the ground before making a rush toward Catalina, screeching the whole way.
Trey saw his life flash before his eyes, not his past life, but rather a future one without Catalina. This was enough to push him into action without any further thought. He understood her reaction with the crab because it made him want to rip the limbs from the animal in order to protect her.
Buddy was faster, reaching Catalina before he did. Yelling, she used the oat flake in her hand to put some distance between her and the animal, lodging it between them. She swung at Buddy, who grabbed the flake, yanking it out of her hands.
“Get away from my wife!” Before the ape could take things further, Trey leaped, tackling the animal to the ground. He wrapped both arms around him, rolling them away from Catalina. “Keep working!”
“But—”
“Keep going!”
The ape ripped himself from Trey’s arms, rolling away and righting himself in an amazing display of athleticism. His beady, angry gaze flicked to Catalina again, who was racing behind Trey to get more oats.
“Please be careful,” she called out.
Trey crouched forward as though he was back on his high school football field as a left guard offensive lineman, ready to snap into action and smash his body into the chimp again if necessary.
Buddy eyed him warily, making soft ooh-ing noises when looking at Catalina.
“Don’t even think about it, Buddy. She’s mine.”
The chimp focused on him again, his lips pulling away to reveal all his teeth, and making angry ape noises in Trey’s direction.
“You don’t scare me. Do you know what we’ve survived since we saw you yesterday? None of it, including birds and crabs and rakes, was as scary as Cat being angry at me or imagining a life without her. You’re nothing but a sideshow chimp to my King Kong.”
He didn’t know if Buddy understood these words, but if he did, he didn’t seem to care.
The animal galloped on all fours toward Catalina, but Trey was there first, using all his weight to tackle the animal, both of them rolling away from the mountain of oats.
A sharp pain streaked through his arm as the ape scratched his nails down his forearm.
“Ah! Fuck!” he said, doing short jabs into Buddy’s torso with his free hand until the animal let go.
He wrapped his own limbs around the chimp, hoping to lock him in some kind of wrestling move, but it was difficult with Buddy being short, strong, and way more flexible than Trey.
In the scuffle, Trey ended up on his back, trying to keep the ape’s dangerous mouth away from his face.
Using the arm, now dripping with blood, he pressed against the chimp’s neck while he tried to wrap his legs around him.
Buddy snapped at him the whole time. When the animal got away from his grasp, the chimp managed to bite down on his shoulder, causing Trey to once again scream out in pain and go back to jabbing the creature with his fist as hard as he could.
“Trey!”
“Keep going! I got this,” he said through gritted teeth. He needed to pummel Buddy, or Catalina would jump in, and then he’d have to worry about her getting hurt. Losing to the chimp wasn’t an option.