We Awaken (11 page)

When she finally calmed down to the point where she was merely squeezing me like a black-haired boa constrictor, I answered.

“Shockingly okay, considering I felt the opposite of prepared.”

I didn’t have it in me to spoil her ecstatic mood with my doubts, and I succeeded, judging by the way she grinned. Looking over her shoulder as we hugged, I realized someone was missing.

“Where’s Ellie?”

Her voice came from directly behind me.

“Here, just pretending to not be a third wheel as you get your little reunion over with. Jeez, you guys were only apart for what, twenty minutes? Thirty?” She didn’t sound bitter, just joking. I let go of Ashlinn, and Ellie gave me a much shorter congratulatory hug.

“What did you do after we left?” I asked. “It’s probably really bad that three teenage girls split up in New York City.”

Ellie shrugged. “It’s practically Disney World out here with the amount of tourists. I managed. There’s a parking garage around the corner. A very overpriced one, I’ll have you know. We can only stay a few hours. It was nice enough for me to drive you, but I don’t plan on going broke from today. Anyway, I dropped off The Hovercraft and ran back here. Thankfully, your hot date was waiting outside or else I would have been texting you in the middle of the audition.”

I realized they had spent the entire time I was dancing and interviewing for my life hanging out with little to do. Ashlinn could have said anything about how we truly met. Ellie didn’t seem too traumatized, though, and I got no sense that she thought either of us was insane. My only prayer was that she had refrained from telling any more stories like the butter knife incident. God knows she had a lot saved up for such occasions. Most of the time I stayed sane by assuming she made them up. Even one of those tales would be preferable to her questioning asexuality, though.

“We gotta get a move on if you intend to do anything fun today. We don’t have much time and I think we’re getting in the way over here. How much money did you bring?”

Ellie was never one to mince words when asking questions. I reached into my bag, which was still flung over Ashlinn’s shoulder. Seeing the normal clothes she had packed brought on a wave of uncertainty over standing in public in just a leotard, but I pushed those fears back one spot in line and found my change purse.

“About twenty bucks.” I had hoped some more money would have magically winked into existence during the audition.

“That won’t do much if we’re going to eat today, and there’s no way you’re starving me. Okay, we’ll just go to Rockefeller Center and Central Park. They’re free, close, and we can’t waste the day thinking of something to do. Come on.”

Before she could leave us behind, I pulled out my sundress.

“I’m not going in ballet shoes and spandex.”

She groaned. “Go change, and make it quick.”

“Where do you propose I go? I’m not walking back in there, and I don’t think the cops would approve of me stripping in the streets.”

She popped a hand on her hip and looked at me over her sunglasses. “They should be grateful for the free show. Fine, duck into the next Starbucks we come across. There’s about three on every block.”

And with that she marched forward ahead of Ashlinn and me without even awaiting a response. We diligently followed. We reached the next Starbucks before we even came to an intersection, and it was so packed no one noticed when I ran in and out without buying.

With the pointe shoes already gone and my leotard following suit in mere seconds, I began peeling off the tights. That was a gift, even in the claustrophobic stall of the bathroom, and soon I was wearing an airy sundress and sneakers and was out in record time. Ellie resumed leading the way immediately.

We walked down the streets past stores I could hardly afford to look at, and homeless people camped out in front of them, asking me for money I could not give. At one point, Ashlinn nearly walked in front of a speeding taxi, not understanding what the red hand flashing on the opposite side of the crosswalk meant, and I grabbed her arm to stop her. Ellie was already across the street and smiled knowingly when I released Ashlinn’s arm in order to hold her hand.

She said nothing, still awash with the marvels of the half-glittering city around us.

It reminded me of the graveyard more and more as we progressed toward Rockefeller Center. Some of New York was crumbling, empty of its original purpose, and forgotten, while the other half was well loved and glistening with shimmering statues and sausage stands.

We crossed the street and rejoined Ellie, and from this new vantage point saw the golden wealth and bursting fountains like a mirage among the steel structures. She began jogging toward this oasis and we followed, a pair of sundresses rippling in the wind.

The area was vast and filled with tourists snapping pictures. Together we headed to the low brick wall surrounding what would be an ice skating rink during the winter, but now just circled a small café from above. There wasn’t an overabundance of customers, and many of the chairs were still in stacks, although some employees were beginning to place them around. Ashlinn put her arms on the ledge and her chin on top in order to watch, and I copied her posture, as did Ellie.

The area fell in the shadow of a magnificent statue of some god I couldn’t name.

“That bastard must have done something really great to merit being golden,” Ellie said, tilting her head in the direction of the figure.

“He really did. That’s Prometheus. He kept humanity warm and in return is getting his liver pecked out by birds for all of eternity. The least you guys could do is give him a half-decent statue.”

Ellie turned her head toward Ashlinn, looking surprised, if not taken aback, obviously not expecting her to be so knowledgeable on the topic.

Well, neither was I. Maybe she actually knew this Prometheus fellow. If she was real, who could tell what other storybook characters were lurking around corners, judging our portrayals of them.

“I figured he’d just be thrilled to be ripped and shiny.”

“Looks aren’t everything,” Ashlinn muttered a bit sadly, almost to herself.

I nudged her elbow with mine and tried to give an uplifting look that probably came off more strained than anything. She stood upright, still leaning against the wall, and pointed to one of the men setting up chairs below us.

“There’s an example. See him? He was the best singer in his hometown, some little city out west I think, and everyone was convinced he’d be huge, himself included. That was his dream, his only goal: to star on Broadway. Now that he’s made it here, he’s working poor hours in a café and no one realizes he once had a head full of silver music notes instead of lungs full of cigarette smoke and broken hopes.”

Sure enough, as she said that, he started pulling Marlboros out of his pocket and removing his work apron, obviously about to go on break.

“That can’t be good for his voice” was the only comment I made, and Ellie was even more quiet. Hearing Ashlinn rattle off this man’s dead aspirations like some fortune-teller wasn’t an everyday occurrence, and I dared to glance over. She was looking more incredulous with each passing moment.

“How the hell did you know that?” she eventually asked, challengingly.

My heart might as well have been in one of those boardwalk claw machines, it felt so restricted. Just clamp me in metal and call it a day.

“Intuition,” she rushed to say. “I’ve been led to believe that’s the story of most everyone in this city.”

The excuse was feeble, but I’d take it. Still, did she have to be so sure about that? What was preventing me from having such a future? Absolutely nothing. There was no time to wallow in self-doubt, though, as it seemed a distraction was necessary in order to prevent any further questions from Ellie.

I grabbed both of their hands and began dragging them away from where we were keeping vigil.

“Let’s go look at beautiful things we will never be able to afford.”

WHO WOULD
have thought that sentence and the ensuing diversion would have ended with us being kicked out of a jewelry store with Ellie wearing one less flip-flop?

“They deserved to have it tossed at them,” she grumbled after I admonished her for attacking salespersons who didn’t mean any harm.

“It’s not like they were lying when they said we couldn’t afford pearls. Have you seen the state of us? Everyone else in the place had a Versace suit.”

If she heard me, she gave no sign of it.

“This is classist!” Ellie yelled over her shoulder in the general vicinity of the store we had just been escorted out of. I ignored her in favor of listening to Ashlinn, who pulled me down to whisper in my ear.

“You did say she was a bit of a revolutionary. I thought the dreams of world domination were exaggerated, but I’m starting to believe it.”

“What a world that would be. We’d all have diamond necklaces and free tampons. Doesn’t sound too bad, actually.”

“She can get you whatever necklaces she wants as long as the rings are left to me. I saw you eyeing up those engagement rings. Never took you to be a platinum girl.”

My ears were burning, and I could feel the blush pulsating red in my cheeks. Not meeting her eyes, I said, “It’d be hard not to be.”

We shared a smile as Ellie glared, probably perturbed by the whispering. She was padding along beside us as we wandered slowly and without direction, only flopping with every other step. Just looking at her bare foot on the uncomfortable streets of New York made my inner WebMD throw up in protest.

“You’re going to catch so many diseases that way. We have to get you some shoes.”

“With what money?”

“Well, don’t you have some left?”

She shook her head. “I still have to pay for parking, remember? I don’t trust the rates posted, so none of my money is getting spent.”

“Do you want to get tetanus?”

It was the first disease that popped into my mind, and I wasn’t even sure if that was something one was likely to contract from city concrete, but she thought for a second. I could almost see her weighing the options, groaning.

“You’re paying for half.”

“Deal.”

She didn’t have to know the money was being removed from her already feeble lunch fund. Thankfully, being on an island-length tourist trap put us in close vicinity to a shady, doorless corner shop even after having just exited Louis Martin. There were carts of fifty-cent postcards on racks outside, the mildly pornographic ones pointed away from the street, and scarves draped from every shelf. The knickknacks were plastic, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if the entire shop was a front for drug or weapons sales as there was a distinct absence of customers, even though it was the busy season.

Black flip-flops with hearts printed on them in a rainbow of colors dangled from a bar on the wall. Ellie grabbed a pair at the end without even checking the size, and walked the two feet it took to get across the store to toss them on the counter. Ashlinn was busy in the back, tapping bobbleheads and shaking every snow globe she could get her hands on. The cashier, a wrinkled and bearded man with stained clothes, rang up the purchase with an indifferent expression, then demanded eight dollars, which Ellie grumpily proffered four of while I dug out the rest.

Ignoring his offer of a bag or scissors, she tore the tag and plastic tie off on her own and slipped them on. The single shoe they replaced found its way into an overflowing garbage can.

After grabbing Ashlinn from where she was distracting herself, we headed out.

“We probably shouldn’t be wandering too far from the parking garage,” I said, realizing we were going in the opposite direction.

“But I wanted to go to Central Park and climb the rocks,” Ellie whined insistently in my ear.

“How much time do we have left?”

She took out her phone and frowned at whatever she saw there.

“About an hour. It’ll be enough time if we hurry up. Start jogging.”

With that she was off toward the distant green. Block after block we trotted at a steady pace, and I lamented the soreness my legs would inevitably feel for days, not to mention the damage being added to my feet. Ashlinn was worse off than me, though, and it seemed like the only things preventing her lungs from giving out were the breaks at stoplights. If we were training for a marathon, it would be one with a horribly inconvenient dress code.

After a few blocks of sweating and sprinting, we crossed over to the entrance. It was framed by carriages on one side and fenced bushes on the other. Panting, Ashlinn asked, “How long did that take?”

“Ten minutes.”

“We have forty left. I can work with that.” She grabbed my hand and headed toward the boulders. “Show me the life I never led.”

Ellie walked ahead of us on the smooth expanse of rocks, probably not wishing to stare at our perpetually linked hands and be reminded of her solitude. With hands in the pockets of her cardigan, she strolled along, appearing certain the boulders wouldn’t dare make her stumble even as they started to turn ragged. If she did trip, her arms would not be available to brace the fall.

As the rocks began to grow higher, they also became more uneven, with crevices splitting them into geometric patterns. Wary of our clothing, I had Ashlinn climb ahead of me as I made sure no one could see up her sundress, then allowed her to help me keep my balance as I followed.

Ellie was up there waiting for us as we got to the highest part and looked down on a baseball field. “Walking around on rocks shouldn’t be this entertaining,” I said as we stood in a line, taking in the surroundings, from the park full of children to the rows of buildings standing like a deck of cards.

“They wouldn’t have left them if someone didn’t find it fun. Just think, they’ve lasted here since the Ice Age and we could tear them away with a bit of machinery in no time. The mammoths would be jealous. I don’t know if anything can truly be permanent anymore.”

I’d say Ellie was in a bit of a philosophical mood, but if she was, it had started with her exiting the womb.