“I know, right? I was so inspired by your hair that I decided I had to have it too.”
“It looks good on you,” I lied. Not even Stormy-Rain could pull this one off.
She skipped over to me, holding a massive pair of garden shears in her hand which made me incredibly nervous, since she was known for her clumsiness.
We made some tea and a few moments later were sitting on the back porch sipping it—well, she was sipping, I was pretending to sip. It was the most hideous thing I’d ever tasted in my life, I didn’t care that it was organic, magnetically charged, crystal infused and good for your cholesterol, or whatever else it no doubt claimed to be.
I’d been explaining for the last ten minutes, non-stop, the events that had transpired in Réunion and transpired the day I left Réunion. I told her about Alex walking away, about wanting to stop him but not being sure. I told her about Matt and how I was so thrown by the fact that I wasn’t feeling for him what I always thought I would feel. She listened intently. I paused for a while to catch my breath.
“I just don’t know what to do,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel and what I am supposed to feel and for who?”
“You don’t need to know that now,” Stormy replied. “The universe will provide a sign.”
I scoffed. “A sign?” I looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. “I came to you because you’re the one person that always tells it like it is and speaks the truth and all you have to say is that I will get a sign.”
She nodded. “I’m afraid this one is beyond me. You’re going to have to keep your ears and eyes open for it.”
“God!” I was frustrated and put my tea down. “How will I know it’s a sign?” I asked.
“You’ll just know,” she said almost mysteriously, as if she knew something I didn’t. She probably bloody did. She always seemed to know things that others didn’t know.
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m so confused right now that I’m not sure I would get the sign if it slapped my face.”
“I doubt that,” Stormy said, crossing her legs and pulling them up onto the chair. I was just about to argue further, when I heard a rustle in the bushes. I almost shot out of my seat when I saw what came next.
A small, beaked mouth. Thick leathery skin, a wrinkled neck, a shell and . . .
“Oh my God!” I pointed at the tortoise that had just emerged from the bushes.
“It’s Elvis,” Stormy said casually. “Since I had a garden, I brought him back.”
“I know!” I gasped. Everyone knew Elvis, he was Stormy’s pet tortoise. She used to take him with her everywhere she went.
“But . . . but . . .” I stuttered as I looked down at him. And then, as if he too had gotten the bloody memo that was clearly circulating amongst his kind, he slowly raised his head and looked up at me. Our eyes locked and I swear he said something to me deep in my subconscious mind, but not that deep that I could hear it.
My brain started screaming things at me. It started showing me pictures like I was scrolling through an Instagram feed; Alex and I in the sea together with the sun setting behind us, Alex and I holding hands diving through the air, tasting plums, standing in the mist, shouting at mountains, the way he smiled, the way he laughed, the dimple in his cheek, the way he made me feel, the way we’d made love, and worst of all, the look on his face just before he’d walked away. And it was all so, so, so clear to me and I wasn’t sure why it hadn’t been clearer to me until that very moment. And then it started showing me something else. A magazine had gotten me into this trouble, and a magazine would get me out of it.
“Oh my God!” I jumped up and down. “It’s the sign.” I turned to Stormy, and her eyes widened. “I know exactly what to do! I know exactly what I want!” I was so overjoyed in that moment that tears started streaming down my cheeks. Stormy was suddenly on her feet too, jumping up and down as if she was also as excited.
“Then go out and do it.” She swooshed her hand around. Her bangles clanked together as she did and I ran up and threw my arms around her.
“Thank you.” I hugged her and she hugged me back.
I turned and started running towards the door, but her voice stopped me midway.
“By the way,” she yelled after me, “Marcus and I are pregnant!”
I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around. Her statement had caught me so off guard that I wasn’t sure what to say to her. Trust Stormy to drop a bombshell like that in the most inappropriate way ever.
“Ah . . . ah . . . uh . . .” I stuttered. My brain was trying to change gear from what I now knew I needed to do, to this major announcement.
“Congratulations!” I said almost awkwardly. And then it hit me. “Shit. Have you told Lilly yet?”
She shook her head and looked at me solemnly. “No. I don’t know how to.”
“Shit,” I whispered. Lilly and Damien had been trying for a baby for years now and nothing they did seemed to be working. They had even gone through months of fertility treatment and still nothing.
Stormy looked suddenly tense. She never looked tense. I walked back towards her.
