Circumnavigate In Hope

Margaret Edith Howard sat on the front steps of her house, her heart beating against her chest like that of a metronome. In all her eighteen years of life, she had never felt as excited about anything as she had that morning. The wheels in her mind were turning faster than she could put into coherent thoughts and the beaming smile on her face showed no signs of faltering soon. This day, after ten long years of waiting, was finally going to be the answer to all of her prayers. Today was the day everything would change. The Arizona heat was unforgiving as the sun hung high in the sky, and had this been any other day, she would have surrendered and gone back inside, but not today. Today, she wanted to feel the warmth of the rays igniting her bones. Today, she actually felt alive.

The sounds of a car turning into the driveway next door made her eyes turn from the blue sky to a big, graffitied white van with a small, black trailer hooked to the back of it. Margaret watched as the sandy blond haired boy got out of the driver’s seat, his long legs stretching out. The loose tank top he was wearing showed off his sun-kissed skin, making his freckles stick out all the more. His green eyes were covered by a pair of black Ray Bans, but Margaret didn’t need to see his eyes to know he was looking at her.

Without missing a beat, she leapt up from the step she had been sitting on and ran straight into the arms of the boy she had been missing for two and a half months; the person who she relied on more than anyone else, including her parents.

John O’Callaghan laughed as wrapped his lanky arms around the petite girl, his frame staggering a bit from the force of her jump. “I’m glad to see you missed me, Maggie.”

She gave him a good squeeze before jumping down from his arms. “T-t-today i-is g-gonna be a-a good d-day, John!” she exclaimed, her excitement getting in the way of her words.

“Because I’m home, right?” he asked smugly, a smirk playing on his lips.

She laughed and playfully rolled her eyes. “N-not en-en-entirely!”

His brows knitted together in confusion. “What else is today, then?”

Maggie’s smile, which was already reaching her eyes, seemed to widen even more. “My pa-pa-parents f-found a c-cure, John!” she told him, practically dancing on her feet.

“A cure?” he questioned, taking off his sunglasses so he could look directly into her chestnut orbs. “Maggie, what are you talking about?”

Knowing that if she actually explained the procedure herself, they would probably stand in John’s driveway well into the night, Maggie pulled a folded up piece of paper from her pocket, holding it out to John, who quickly took it. She watched as his eyes danced back and forth across the sheet, only stopping every now and then to look up at her. When he finished, he looked at her with such a sympathetic expression it wiped the smile straight off her face.

“W-what?” she asked, giving him a look.

“Maggie ... you can’t do this,” he told her, waving the paper in the air. John watched as her stare turned into a glare, but he wasn’t going to back down. He wasn’t going to let his best friend ruin her life. “Maggie, I’ve been your best friend for twelve years and I’ve done about as much research on stuttering as you have; there is no easy cure. Whatever this – this idiot is promising, it isn’t going to work!”

“Y-you do-do-don’t know any-anything, John!” she yelled, her hands reaching for the paper.

John, being much taller than her, held the paper above his head. “Maggie, you know I’m right!” he threw the paper into the street, grabbing her hands before she could run after it. He knew Maggie inside and out and she hated arguments because it usually took forever for her to make her point, and today, he was going to take advantage of that. “Just listen to me, okay? Will you do that?” He waited until she nodded her head before continuing. “I know you want to fix this, baby, I know you do, but it isn’t going to happen overnight. Maggie, you’ve been in and out speech therapy for ten years and you’re still stammering! Do you honestly think that some quack from Gilbert is going to fix this in a two hour procedure!? This is way too drastic, Maggie!” He stopped to draw in a breath of air.

Tears were beginning to pool her eyes and she turned her head to the side, not wanting John to see. “Dr-dra-drastic t-t-times c-call f-for dra-drastic m-m-measures! I-I’m t-t-tired of b-being like-like this!” she told him, hurt dripping in her words.

“And what is ‘this’, Maggie?” he asked, pulling her closer into him.

“A b-burden! It-it’s not f-fair, John!” He almost let a smile grace his lips, as he thought about how Maggie hadn’t stuttered over his name in years; it was about the only word she never faltered on. “I-I’m eight-eighteen and-and I st-still t-talk l-like a fu-fucking child!” she cried, tears falling more frequently down her face.

“Baby, you aren’t a burden,” he stated, rubbing his hands over back. “Why would you think that?”

She pulled out of his grasp, looking at him. “Be-because I-I am! My-my p-parents are s-sick of it, John! Y-you th-think I-I don’t h-hear the g-guys m-mo-mocking m-m-me be-behind m-m-my back!?” she sobbed, angry now. “I-it hurts! It f-fucking h-hurts!”

John licked his dry lips, knowing that the latter of her statement was true. No matter how many times he had asked his best friends, and bandmates, to lay off the jokes on Maggie, they had yet to. And he knew that it was shitty of him to stay friends with the guys, but it wasn’t as if Maggie was the butt of all their jokes. But all the same, he felt his heart aching for his best friend who was standing in front of him in tears, her brown locks sticking to her wet cheeks.

He brushed the stray strands from her face before holding her chin in between his index finger and thumb. “They don’t know you like I do, Maggs. They don’t see the amazing, beautiful, smart girl that I see.” A smile tugged at his lips and his thumb traced her lips. “But I see that girl every day of my life and I could care less about what they think.”

Maggie felt the strings of her heart being tugged, her nerves going haywire as they always did when John was near. But no matter what he was saying, she knew she was going to go through with the procedure; it was really her last hope, aside from more therapy. And then there was also the fact that her parents had already scheduled and paid for the appointment, which she was going to be late for if she didn’t hurry up.

“Th-they a-are go-going to-to f-fix me, John. I-I’ll be bett-better. Y-you’ll see,” she promised.

John had a million words he wanted to tell her, but he didn’t get the chance to. She hurriedly pressed a kiss to his cheek and gave him one last smile before skipping back to her house, running inside. In a matter of two minutes, he watched as she came back out, her parents in tow of her this time. They walked to the car and before disappearing down the street, he watched as Maggie, his beautiful, sweet, stuttering Maggie, waved at him from the backseat of the car.

“You don’t need to be fixed, Maggie,” he whispered to no one but himself.