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“Hey, I’m handing you in my makeup removers. They’ll work better on that greasy soot.” Deidre’s hand shot past the curtain with the packet of wipes. “Halo and Mary,” Deidre tried on. “If you two were a couple, you can have one of those celebrity names. You know how they mash things together like Brangelina. People could call you Hail Mary.”
“Sounds like you’re jinxing us. Nope. There is no us – I have no idea who the guy is. Some actor, probably.”
“Actor? He didn’t act like an actor,” Deidre said. “Listen, you just pulled two kids and a mom off the fifth floor of a burning building. And I will remind you that you were sent here specifically to this single spot. That’s career, love life, and purpose. One spot on one single day. This is written in the stars, Mary. There’s no jinx about this at all.”
It took a while to feel fresh and clean for the heat of the water to ease her muscles.
Mary dragged herself from the bathroom and flopped onto the bed. Deidre only allowed her a thirty-minute nap.
She forced Mary to get up and go to a restaurant for lunch, saying that she wouldn’t sleep that night if she slept now.
Then she made Mary walk along the Baltic Sea, in case fate wanted to jump out and say boo!
Nothing more had happened.
“Dinner,” Mary said, checking her watch. “And then, I’m done. I’m not sure I’m up to an open mic thing you have us signed up for. I want to go back to our room.”
Deidre wrapped her arm through Mary’s. “You’ll lay down, try to fall asleep, toss, and turn all night because it’s too early. You’re still jet lagged. Let’s pull on our dresses, we’ll go have a drink. I’ll sing, and if you feel like getting on stage, fine. If not, no pressure.”
“Pass.” Mary tried to sound unmovable.
“That’s not how we deal with the horrors of life,” Deidre said. “When shit goes down at the hospital, when we’re on the team dealing with tragic things, we don’t go home and wallow. We change the energy. What if we didn’t go anywhere tonight? What would you do?”
“Get drunk in our room.”
“You can do that around people who are laughing and enjoying themselves so you can see that no matter what, life goes on,” Deidre countered.
“I’d soak in a hot bath.”
“We have a shower. No bath.”
“Don’t get technical with me,” Mary grumped. “I want to wallow. I was in my kitchen unpacking my groceries, then forced against my will onto a plane, I fell down a mountain, then fell down a second one, then I was forced on to a second plane.”
“No one forced you.” Deidre came to a stop to let a car pass, then they started across the road. “You were encouraged and maybe a little pushed. But pushing isn’t forcing. And I will remind you that you made me go to your pole dancing studio, and I hung from a pole held in place by the friction of my skin. Did I love that experience? I did not. Am I glad I did it? Yes, I am, if for no other reason that you continued to go and learned how to do those tricks. And in the videos of today’s events, those tricks saved lives.”
When Mary didn’t respond, Deidre reached out and squeezed her hand. “Try this on: We go downstairs and have a nice meal. I read the offerings in the restaurant, and there are lots of carbs and fat to help settle your nerves. I told them you were coming, and they have cake.” She singsonged.
Mary looked up. “Chocolate cake?”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay, to dinner.”
“Once you’re full of potatoes, you’ll feel better. And then, if you do feel better, we’ll go down the street. Look, I’m reminding you again you are here because three things are supposed to happen. Something that affects your career. Something that affects your life trajectory. And something that is about love.”
“Yeah, I thought about that as I was dangling above the sidewalk. Maybe the other two didn’t matter if my life trajectory had mere seconds to go.”
Then she remembered what Mrs. V. had said about the one minute past midnight meant everything to others, and a shiver raked up her spine.
Deidre stopped and looked at her friend with worried eyes. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah.”
“Mary, you’re supposed to get all three things here. As far as we know, none of that has happened. You have six more hours. You can’t be in the hotel room wasting your opportunity. You have to be out there.” Deidre whooshed her arms toward the door.
“Okay, just so we agree that on the stroke of midnight, my duty to this whole scenario is done.”
“Agreed.” Deidre reached to pull Mary’s arm. “At midnight, it is finis. Over. Done.”
