Page 161 of Demo
“I’m sorry. I wanted to say I’m so, so sorry for jumping in front of your truck. I can only imagine what that did to you, and not knowing that you actually did me a huge favor. I mean,” she gestures toward her legs again, “this is kinda a pain in the ass, but the doctors say I’m coming around. Should be walking on my own in no time.”
We all just stare at each other for a moment. Three sets of eyes bouncing back and forth. The air thick yet light, the sunset darkening the sky yet lighting it up. It’s like I can’t breathe, and as if I’m taking my first breath in so many months.
I feel Lizzie’s hand slip from mine and before I know it, she’s wrapping Ari up in a hug. Ari giggles and pats Lizzie’s back in return. After longer than is probably appropriate for strangers to hug, Lizzie steps back and wipes her face, saying nothing.
Finally finding my voice, I take a step closer to Ari.
Are you in pain? How can I help you? What can I do?All these thoughts run through my mind, but none of them pass through my trembling lips. Instead, I take a shaky breath and ask, “Are you still running?”
Contemplation dances across Ari’s face as she slowly shakes her head from side to side, and a breeze drags a strand of red across her face and neck. “No,” she says.
I swallow hard as more tears fall. “Thank you,” I croak out. “Thank you for finding me. Us.” I turn to Lizzie and smile, then turn back to Ari. “You have no idea what this means to us.”
Ari smiles, and then we hear a throat clear and a “Miss!” comes from inside the car. Ari ducks and looks through the open door at the driver, who is turned around in his seat. “Sorry to interrupt, but you said you needed to be downtown by seven, and if we don’t leave soon you’re going to be late.”
“Shoot!” Ari lets out, with a wave of her hands. “Thanks!” she says to the driver, then turns toward us again. “I have to go. I have a date. Gah!” She wrings her hands in front of her. “This is my first date since the accident, and I’m a little nervous. No, fuck that, I’m a lot nervous. I’m gonna have freaking diarrhea from the way my stomach is flip-flopping.”
Lizzie and I laugh as Ari pulls her phone out from her back pocket and starts swiping it. “I met this guy online and I just, I dunno. I mean he seems OK, but what if he’s a serial killer or something? Or what if he’s really fat and using someone else’s picture. I can’t exactly make a run for it.”
I can’t believe this woman is making a joke at her own expense.
“Girl, I got you!” I hear Lizzie pipe up from beside me, pulling her own phone out. “Let me see a pic.” She steps up to Ari and looks over at her phone, taking a photo of whatever she’s seeing.
“Oh, he’s cute!” Lizzie says.
“Right?!”
“What’s your number?” Lizzie asks, and without hesitation Ari rattles off ten digits.
“OK,” Lizzie says, and I hear a ding. “That’s me. My name is Lizzie, by the way. I’m gonna text you at seven-fifteen. If he’s not a creeper, and he doesn’t take you to a rape house, and you don’t need an out, just tell him you’re so sorry you forgot to silence your phone, shoot me any kind of text—even just one letter—and I’ll know you’re good. If you need rescuing, hit the call button and act like you are actually answering a call, and we’ll make up a reason why you have to bounce.”
“Oooo good plan,” Ari says, nodding. “But I hate to infringe on your evening.”
“Nonsense.” Lizzie bats away the suggestion. “Seven-fifteen sharp. If I don’t hear from you, I call the police and send them this pic. Got it?”
“Got it.”
We all stare at each other for a moment before Ari says, “Well, here I go,” and then takes two shaky steps back toward the open door. She grabs the top of the open door with her right hand and leans her body against the side of the car. With her left hand she hoists one, then the other crutch into the back seat of the car. Then lowers her body into the seat—slowly at first, then she drops the rest of the way into it.
Using her hands, she picks up her left leg and hefts it into the car, then does the same with her right. She reaches out to grab the door handle, then looks up at us. “It was really lovely meeting you two,” she says. “I’m really glad I found you.”
“Ari,” I say, and she holds my stare. “You have no idea how lost I was.”
A brief pause later, I feel Lizzie’s hand on my back and hear her say, “Seven-fifteen sharp!” Ari giggles and pulls the door shut. She gives a wave through the window as the driver pulls away.
Standing there on the front lawn, underneath the setting sun, with Lizzie’s hand on my back, I watch the car disappear down the road. Turning beneath her palm until I face Lizzie, I drag my hands down my face then wipe my nose on the back of my hand like a barbarian.
My mind is a wreck. So is my heart. There are so many thoughts and feelings going through both of them that I can’t get a handle on any of them. I start to suck in gasps of air, my body shaking.
Lizzie steps up closer to me and wraps her arms around me. She squeezes me tightly, and then starts to sway. “It’s OK,” she soothes. “Let’s just dance.”
We sway for a moment until my brain finally settles on one thought. “What were you going to ask me?”
Lizzie stills. “Huh?”
“Inside,” I continue. “Before the car pulled up. You were about to ask me something.” Why this is the one thing I can grasp is beyond me. But for some reason, everything in me is pulled back to the conversation I was having with Lizzie only moments ago. A few moments before my whole world turned on its axis.
Lizzie pulls back, swallows, then looks down the empty road and back to me, her hands now in mine, and she grins. “I was going to ask if you believe in second chances.”
