Annie Lawrence
"Calm down," Reese hissed at me from where he was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. Reese was such a backwards guy. He claimed the coffee calmed him down. Uh-huh. Sure it did.
"Rochester where?" the kid on the other end said.
"NEW YORK!! Rochester, NEW YORK. N-E-W, space, Y-O-R-K. You know? Start spreading the news?" I said.
"Is this a joke?" he asked me.
"No!" I said, on the verge of tears I was so frustrated by this time.
"We have a flight for Rochester, Minnesota that leaves in two hours," they said.
"Yeah? That's dandy, really. But quite frankly, I don't give a flying..."
"Annie!" Reese interrupted.
I let out a low noise under my breath that could possibly be considered a growl.
"Look, kid, I don't care about any plane going to Rochester, Minnesota because, you see, I want to know about a flight to Rochester, NEW YORK, not Rochester MINNESOTA!!" I practically screamed into the phone.
"Oh. Okay. Hold on," they said and before I could say anything, the song "New York, New York" started playing like some cruel taunt. I nearly slammed down the phone but reminded myself why I was on in the first place and refrained from doing so.
"I want to be a part of it. New York, New York," I sang quietly to myself while picking my thumbnail with my index finger.
"What's going on?" Reese asked from the table.
"He put me on hold," I said.
He began laughing.
"It's not funny," I said defensively.
"It's not," he agreed unconvincingly. He cleared his throat to calm himself quickly before going on. "Look, I know you're worried and everything, but you have to stay calm. I'm sure he's fine by now."
"Or dead. You didn't hear what I heard on the phone, Reese. That was absolutely positively awful. And you don't feel what I'm feeling right now, Reese," I said, tears beginning to form in my eyes.
"You're right," he said. "But right now there's not much we can do about it."
He was about to go on, but the voice on the other end of the line started talking again.
"Hello? Hello?" they said. It was a woman this time.
"Hello?" I said.
"Hi. I'm really, really sorry," she said. "Where did you say you wanted to go?"
"Rochester, New York," I said calmly.
"Okay... Our next flight to Rochester, New York is at nine," she said. "Nine tonight. Think you can make it?"
I glanced at the clock. It was quarter to seven. It took forty-five minutes to get to the airport on a good day. That left us about an hour to pack.
"Yeah, I can," I said.
"All righty," she said.
And I guess that was that. Only a few more words passed between us before we hung up with each other and I turned to Reese, who was still sitting at the table, demurely sipping coffee. When I hung up the phone, he raised his eyebrows inquisitively.
"So...?" he said.
"You have an hour to get packed," I said, making my way upstairs before he could reply.
"An hour?" I could hear him say as the pounding of his feet could be heard as he jogged up the stairs after me.
"Yeah, Reese, an hour," I said, throwing my suitcase open and then disappearing into my closet.
He sighed. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"I'm positive," I said back, throwing a few shirts into the suitcase.
"Fine," he said, sighing.
"In an hour," I said back.
"In an hour," he agreed.
Can you hear me?
Index
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Eight