Graceful Disaster
Chapter 2
I had enough time to pull on some matching underwear and a long night shirt with Scooby-Doo that had him sitting in a cute way with the word “Ruvable” underneath him, when there was a frantic banging on my door. I answered it with a towel ruffling my hair and was plowed into by a body that was asking question after question about my well being. Green eyes with flecks of blue looked at my face carefully, and then my arms before backing up and assessing me with hands still gripping my arms so that I wouldn’t dissolve like a dream.
“Kara, I’m not a ghost or else I would have said ‘You will die in seven days’. Not ‘Please come over, I nearly drowned’. You know that.” I couldn’t help a small giggle at her shocked face, but that turned into an indignant shout as she smacked the back of my head.
“Never,” she pointed a finger in my face, “ever, fall asleep in the tub again. I will resurrect you and kill you again.” And I believed her. Call me insane, but she was completely serious about it.
Kara hugged me tightly and I noticed that she was wearing fluffy dinosaur slippers, a robe that had the Care Bears on it, a t-shirt, and flannel pajama pants. I smiled again and returned the embrace. “So can you sleepover tonight?”
She pulled away and gave an obvious glance at her attire and then looked up at me, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “No I’m on my way to a sordid affair with my steamy, sexy professor so I can get an A—Yes you doofus!” She shoved me playfully and shut the door behind her. “So,” she glanced into the bathroom, “this is the evil contraption that almost killed my sister-from-another-mister!” I laughed as she approached it carefully and poked it. “I curse you and your grandchildren,” she said to it.
Changing her mood in record time (even for her), she turned and smiled at me, assuring me that the demon tub from Hades would not harm me again. I rolled my eyes and thanked her while I boiled some water for tea.
“So how was the interview?”
I paused in pouring the steaming liquid into a penguin cup that had the word “chill out” around the bottom. “I—uh, forgot to tell you about my little flirtation with Death this morning, didn’t I?”
She groaned. “I told you not to bat your eyes at that cheap hoebag.”
“Yeah, I know. Well, I hit a guy’s car this morning and I was late for the meeting and…well…When I was talking to a very nice policeman, I got a call from the office and they said that they filled the position—”
“Bitches.”
“And the policeman let me go since it wasn’t a really bad accident.”
There was a pause when she looked me up and down suspiciously. “You jiggled your knee didn’t you?”
“God damn. Am I that obvious?”
Kara shrugged and reached over me for a packet of Pop Tarts. “On a tight schedule, you tend to do that more.”
I sighed and placed two hot mugs of chamomile tea on the small circle kitchen table. We sat in the cushioned plastic chairs and sipped quietly.
“Die Hard?” Kara asked suddenly.
“Already in the DVD player.” We drained the last of the tea and threw out the leaves that stuck to the bottom of the ceramic. I looked at the leaves for a second before tossing them out; they looked like a dragon spreading its majestic wings to fly out of the cup. It was a cool interpretation, but I dumped it out all the same. I wasn’t heavy into psychic superstitions.
Kara had the remote in her hand and her feet on the table as the movie began. I smiled at this little bit of normalcy, it was an absolute blessing I had Kara in my life. She was the cheese to my macaroni, the jelly to my peanut butter, the bread in my sandwich. We were practically sisters and we annoyed the hell out of anyone when we had a conversation. For example, last time we had seen someone from high school the conversation went something like this:
“Oh, hey! Kara do you remember—“
“Hell yes I do! That time in—“
“With the—”
“And then he—”
“Good times…so how’s the wife?”
It confused everyone we met and we loved it. I fell asleep sometime around John McCaine getting his feet cut on the shattered glass because of that prick Hans. Kelly shook me awake as the credits rolled and we staggered into my bedroom and burrowed under the blankets.
Tomorrow had to be better than today.
“Kara, I’m not a ghost or else I would have said ‘You will die in seven days’. Not ‘Please come over, I nearly drowned’. You know that.” I couldn’t help a small giggle at her shocked face, but that turned into an indignant shout as she smacked the back of my head.
“Never,” she pointed a finger in my face, “ever, fall asleep in the tub again. I will resurrect you and kill you again.” And I believed her. Call me insane, but she was completely serious about it.
Kara hugged me tightly and I noticed that she was wearing fluffy dinosaur slippers, a robe that had the Care Bears on it, a t-shirt, and flannel pajama pants. I smiled again and returned the embrace. “So can you sleepover tonight?”
She pulled away and gave an obvious glance at her attire and then looked up at me, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “No I’m on my way to a sordid affair with my steamy, sexy professor so I can get an A—Yes you doofus!” She shoved me playfully and shut the door behind her. “So,” she glanced into the bathroom, “this is the evil contraption that almost killed my sister-from-another-mister!” I laughed as she approached it carefully and poked it. “I curse you and your grandchildren,” she said to it.
Changing her mood in record time (even for her), she turned and smiled at me, assuring me that the demon tub from Hades would not harm me again. I rolled my eyes and thanked her while I boiled some water for tea.
“So how was the interview?”
I paused in pouring the steaming liquid into a penguin cup that had the word “chill out” around the bottom. “I—uh, forgot to tell you about my little flirtation with Death this morning, didn’t I?”
She groaned. “I told you not to bat your eyes at that cheap hoebag.”
“Yeah, I know. Well, I hit a guy’s car this morning and I was late for the meeting and…well…When I was talking to a very nice policeman, I got a call from the office and they said that they filled the position—”
“Bitches.”
“And the policeman let me go since it wasn’t a really bad accident.”
There was a pause when she looked me up and down suspiciously. “You jiggled your knee didn’t you?”
“God damn. Am I that obvious?”
Kara shrugged and reached over me for a packet of Pop Tarts. “On a tight schedule, you tend to do that more.”
I sighed and placed two hot mugs of chamomile tea on the small circle kitchen table. We sat in the cushioned plastic chairs and sipped quietly.
“Die Hard?” Kara asked suddenly.
“Already in the DVD player.” We drained the last of the tea and threw out the leaves that stuck to the bottom of the ceramic. I looked at the leaves for a second before tossing them out; they looked like a dragon spreading its majestic wings to fly out of the cup. It was a cool interpretation, but I dumped it out all the same. I wasn’t heavy into psychic superstitions.
Kara had the remote in her hand and her feet on the table as the movie began. I smiled at this little bit of normalcy, it was an absolute blessing I had Kara in my life. She was the cheese to my macaroni, the jelly to my peanut butter, the bread in my sandwich. We were practically sisters and we annoyed the hell out of anyone when we had a conversation. For example, last time we had seen someone from high school the conversation went something like this:
“Oh, hey! Kara do you remember—“
“Hell yes I do! That time in—“
“With the—”
“And then he—”
“Good times…so how’s the wife?”
It confused everyone we met and we loved it. I fell asleep sometime around John McCaine getting his feet cut on the shattered glass because of that prick Hans. Kelly shook me awake as the credits rolled and we staggered into my bedroom and burrowed under the blankets.
Tomorrow had to be better than today.
♠ ♠ ♠
Well, I think Kara is my favorite.That is all.
~Caitlin