all my wires are fried on my emotional circuit board. I feel nothing and too much at the same time. it is like riding horseback without holding the reins and trusting fate
I don’t know who I am right now but it will be all right whomever we become….
and stranger, I hope that you are ….really there; to note
They leave the coffee place and as they walk, unconsciously they fall into pace with each other even though they are, to note strangers, but they are not really, are they? Only no, they don’t think about this either, while they walk past airport shops, for there is no time for such fleeting thoughts as ….well her flight is eminently approaching
“So have you ever?” he asks her as they walk quickly past other masked travelers
“Have I ever what?”
“Been somebody’s unicorn….?”
“Well, I’ve had —you know….stalkers —who —“
“Stalkers?”
“Yeah— who thought I was their unicorn, yeah….” she shudders
“Christ—no, actually I meant it the other way—“
“Huh….?” she glances up at him as he says,
“the extra party—trois….”
and again the spots of bright color appear on her alabaster complexion. But she turns suddenly as though something has caught her eye in a shop window
“Oh, I love these!” she says going into the shop which is filled with bohemian objects; she goes past batik print tapestries, takes a moment to inspect the designs and touch the fabric, but then swiftly moves on to stare at a wall of macramés hangings, captured by the deep emerald color of one but then is mesmerized by the red clay pots as tall as she.
But it is this which got Beth’s attention —she goes over to a display of bracelets; bangles, cuffs, leathers and the kind with little glass beads and she tries them on but they don’t look right on her; they are all too big for her wrist and fall right off; she puts them back with a sad sigh
He says,
“so have you?”
“Have I…?” but she suddenly remembers the question she dodged, “so what was that about tequila?” she happens to notice they pass one of many airport bars just now, “oh that place looks interesting, since you are stuck here anyway, let’s see if they have tequila—“ only now she realizes the time,
“but ohhh…. look, it’s getting closer to my boarding time….”
“You still have one hour,” he tells her, “unless yours gets delayed too.”
“Oh you wish!”
“What do I wish?” he asks her and it is something in how he says this
Beth swiftly turns around to look at him and shocking her, his expression is intensely serious
“No I meant….” she says, but forgets what she means to say; there is a weird stab that is actually physical, as she looks up at him, when caught inside his eyes, that makes her stumble, but he catches her
He says
“Let’s see if they have tequila ….”
They go inside
It is deceptively small inside, once past the entrance; it seems all the customers prefer the bar where there is a slight crowd. But past the length of this, in search of a seat there, a waiter in black uniform suggests they sit in the dining area.
He directs them there.
There are only four little tables arranged privately like little booths. The waiter lets them choose which one
And once seated he asks,
“so what can I get for you?”
“We were wondering if you have tequila,” Stefan says
“We have a selection. Do you have one you prefer?”
In the end Stefan says,
“we’ll just do shots of each.”
Beth burns her lip on the coffee as she sits there waiting for Stefan to return
“Fuck!” she puts the coffee cup down and from her Nepal bag, she takes out her compact. She inspects her lip for signs of damage then jumps when she hears him calling to her as he walks back
“So…. it looks like my flight is delayed….the person said he would call to let me know….” as he sits down, he shrugs, “has the coffee gone cold?”
“No, it just scalded off my upper lip, so, be warned,” Beth half laughs
“Let me see,” he says
“No, that’s ok….”
For a moment he studies her and then laughs,
“do I want you for a ménage á trois?”
She looks up at him now and he can clearly see that her face, which was before a paler shade, has now gone a bright shade of red
“—my unicorn?” he is laughing now, “I just looked that up on Urban Dictionary.”
“Oh….” she lets out a heavy sigh of relief and then in delayed reaction she laughs
Only now can she look him in the eye, which, up until this moment she could not,
“no, like—that evasive unicorn….”
Stefan watches her as she says this and shakes his head,
“what do you mean?”
“Like a mirage…. that thing you can never achieve so instead, you just keep it there on the illusionary shelf. Look at it. Dust it off. Put it back. But never open. Like those expensive books still in the wrapper —but ….maybe what is inside is totally this whole other entity entirely….so…. Unicorn.”
“‘Blood of a poet’, Cocteau?” he says with a straight face but his eyes, that seem different colors in different angles of light, now twinkle and give him away
If it were in messaging she would …. say….
So—
instead she does:
“Don’t mock me,” she tells him and it seems to break the ice between them
“Maybe we should be drinking tequila and not coffee because there was a third meaning in the urban dictionary,” he teases her, “so why Alaska?”
“Oh! Well—hey, I get to complete my research and the money is perfect,” she says this with a kind of casual tone of bravado not her own and shrugs, “it’s like solitary confinement at the work station. That’s what they jokingly call it. There’s no one for miles. Only the postal guy and that’s if you get mail —but ….I have kind of ….’had it’ with people. So….just animals and the wild from now on. So what are you doing in—where did you just come from?”
“Portugal. I was covering a story on an eco-system, agricultural developer—“ his phone interrupts, “oh, it’s the airline’s person—“ answers, “yes….oh, I see…. so, how long can this—or….ah….”
Beth watches him, sensing something is wrong
After he ends the call he sighs and looks at her but shrugs,
“the airlines crew all tested positive.”
“What? You mean…. so….?”
“They just told me they booked a hotel room for me somewhere, so—it looks like I’m stuck here.”
