Who Loves Her? (5 page)

The others left the mall soon after, starting to make jokes again.  Nina wanted to pull Anna aside and asked what she did, but there wasn’t time or space without Susan noticing.  With the dress all neatly packed in the trunk of Susan’s car, the girls tried to persuade her to call Harris and have him join them.

“Hey, why don’t you ask your hubby to come here and join us?
” Becky asked her.

“Why
?  ” Susan replied back.  “Stop pestering me!  You know he can’t see me the day of the wedding.  Teasing is one thing, but honestly, Becky!”

“Why not Susan?
  He might be here with his brothers.” Nina laughed.

“This is really getting on my nerves, Nina, and is not at all funny
.  Now please, let’s just leave,” Susan declared.

Nina and Susan decided to travel in separate cars
.  Because they were all running late, the others would take Adele’s car to pick up flowers and the wine. Susan and Anna would follow Nina as far as the church before heading to their mom’s house to get ready for tonight.  Susan had to follow because she tended to get lost when she got all keyed up like this.  Anna and Susan had a small debate as to who would drive, but Susan was in a mood, and demanded the keys.  Nina was already on the road before Susan could get her seat belt on.  Squealing tires pulling into traffic provided the unspoken prediction that things were not going to go so well following Nina to the church.

In fact, f
ollowing was not easy at all.  The pace of the traffic picked up as various cars darted in and out to interrupt her connection to Nina.  Because Nina drives so recklessly and traffic was rather thick, Susan and Anna did not have a chance.  Soon they both noticed that Nina was nowhere to be seen.  Anna grew irritated again and began to mumble future instructions to herself to avoid such a debacle during the next wedding.  Susan was confused and disoriented.  She had literally no idea where she was going or even in which direction they were traveling.

“Now what?
  Which highway are we supposed to take?” Susan asked herself and nobody in particular.  Anna knew not to try and help give her directions, so she started counting signposts and hoped this would all be over soon.  Not knowing where in the world she was, Susan pulled off onto a side road.  After checking that the car was well off the road, she slipped the car into park, and then looked for her phone.  She tried calling Nina first.  The phone did not even ring, and the calls were getting dropped.  Each click in her ear heightened her anxiety.  In an absent-minded move, Susan started scratching behind her ear.  She looked around and cursed unseen mosquitoes.

Anna watched Susan’s developing anxiety and teased her about the incessant scratching
.  Unlike Nina, Anna was unaware of how serious this anxious habit had become.

“It is Minnesota, but not every
thing is a mosquito bite, Susan,” Anna replied

“Shut up, Anna
.  Here it is, the most special day in my life and I’m sitting her with no bars on my cell phone.”  For an instant, Susan wondered if Sam would stop to help them if he had happened by their way.  In irritation she pushed him from her mind and spoke sharply to her sister.

“
Are you sure your battery is charged?” asked Anna.

“Yes, my battery is charged
.” 

“Well you don’t have to bite my head off
, Susan!  I am just trying to help.  Besides, I am so thirsty and it is hot!” Anna’s words trailed off in frustration.

Susan hated it when Anna started to patronize her
.  It was getting hot in the car.  As Susan’s frustration grew, Anna noticed the Second Street Bistro was open with some tables under orange umbrellas set up for outdoor seating.  There was a young man and young woman sitting there.  With Susan mumbling about weddings without a bride, Anna excused herself from the car and walked to the bistro.  Susan was immediately glad she had decided to join her as she felt a light breeze blow over her.  Anna looked up at the sky for either signs of rain or some magic message written in the clouds that would tell her what to do next.

Susan brought
a wadded folder from the glove box with her and started sifting through it.  Now it was Anna’s turn to search for divine intervention.  As Susan’s anxiety blossomed out of control, Anna’s gaze from the sky to the activities on the street led her to speculate about the type of people who might live in the area.  Dismissive of Susan’s troubles, Anna began her search for a ladies’ room without any word to Susan or the helpful woman.

Looking for other phone numbers, some notes blew away
in the wind.  Susan growled in a thick, hot mix of anger and desperation.  She jumped to retrieve them as they spread further apart with each new step she took. The woman sitting at the other table, yelled and pointed, trying to be helpful, but the four-and-a-half inch heels made it impossible for chasing errant papers or clucking chickens.

When Susan came back to the table where her purse was, she quickly discovered that her checkbook was gone.  Anna was still on her quest for a ladies’ room and was not around during the time of the theft.  The lady with the heels had disappeared along with Susan’s valuables, and as an afterthought, Susan noticed that Anna too had disappeared with the lot.

“Oh no, this is not real
!  Why is this happening to me?”  Susan was mumbling.

Susan sat down and started crying
.  Now she'd have to contact the bank to stop payment on checks.  And didn't she just write some for the wedding?  “Can we go home now, Susan?” Susan jerked her head up and looked about sharply for the source of the familiar voice.  No.  No, there was no sign of the missing sister nor anything else.  Suddenly Susan felt weary.  She lay her head down on the coolness of the table top and felt the blood beating in her temples.

“
What day was it?”  Susan was confused.  “Wasn't it too cool to be summer?”

A door slammed
.  Then she woke up.  With her mind foggy, lost somewhere between a dream and reality, she wondered, “When was my wedding?”  A door slammed on the passenger side.

***

“Skylark Motel, how can I help you?  Yes, the rate is seventy-nine ninety-five plus tax.  We have a few rooms.  I guess they are good size.  One queen bed and a T.V.  A view of what?”

“
Well at least the Susan in the story doesn’t have to answer stupid tourist questions, “ she mumbled.

“
How in the world was she going to get her out of this one!” Still it would be great to just stay in Susan’s dreams.  Avoiding the strawberry and lemon people even as you try to understand the vanilla ones.  Susan wondered to herself, “I wonder what kind of people me and Bob are, were, uhm will become.” Especially when you count the vanilla people with their lovey-dovey lives and chocolate syrup vacations to Alexandria.  I should say people’s vacations
through
Alexandria since nobody stops to live here anymore.”  The truth is that we are all about four generations deep into this little town.  Let’s just say we’re glad the way things are.  Nobody comes to settle here unless they are retiring or perhaps a relative of a Bergman or a Schmidt.  I’m not even sure if I count.

Time to turn off the lights on this place and pretend we don’t have any room
at the Inn.  We’re not Tom Bodette, that’s for sure.  With that, Susan clicked the lights off.

“
I need my beauty sleep if I’m going to have my strength to keep living this dream.”  She mumbled to herself.  Drooling on the keyboard doesn’t do much for the story, anyway.

“Hmmm,
Where was I?” she wondered.  Susan remembered miss volleyball champion, “…oh yeah.”

***

The couple at the restaurant was speaking to her, or maybe more accurately, at her.  “Are you all right dear?  You fainted.  Is everything fine?  Can we help you?”

Susan was surprised and sat up looking around
, blinking and rubbing her eyes.

Her blonde hair was whipping in her face
.  She must have dreamt it all because Anna wasn’t even there in the car with her.  She vaguely remembered drinking coffee in the mall and laughing with Nina.  She remembered Anna had been at the mall, but where was she now? Why couldn’t she remember if Anna had been with her in the car? She took one last look around her.  Nothing familiar was seen.  There was something white floating around.  Gathering her emotions she replied: “I don’t know.  I am lost.  Actually I need help.  I am really frightened.  I seem to be confused too.  Can I please use your phone, please?  I need to make an important call.  I need to get my dad on the line.”

“Let me get
you a cold drink.  Here, have this water first,” the woman spoke with a soothing tone and calm voice common to a mother with young children.

“
Please try to get hold of yourself.  No need to worry, we will help you,” the woman replied.  The guy who was with her went to the counter for her drink.  Susan looked toward her phone, but it was not there anymore.  Neither was her purse.

“Oh no,
now my purse is gone too!  This can not be happening to me.” Susan’s voice trembled and she was trying to hold it together so they wouldn’t see her cry.

“What won’t be happening to you?” the woman asked.

“My….my phone was right here with my purse, and they are gone.  Did you see it?”

“I am afraid not,” the woman replied.

“My name is Becky.  Hi, and that is my husband, Mike.”  She pointed at the man now coming toward them with a cold drink.

“Well, nice to know that…
I have a friend named Becky.  She was with me earlier today.  We were shopping, but I think I already told you that.”  Susan looks closely at the kind woman.  There was something vaguely familiar about the Becky sitting before her.

“
Becky, I don’t know if you believe me, but something is really not right today.  Did you see anyone take my belongings while I fainted?” Becky shook her head no.

“In growing fear, Susan continued,
“maybe I am nuts.  Perhaps this is some kind of dream? Could I just be dreaming?”  Susan felt so awkward.

Becky
, the kind woman, continued to listen, murmuring in agreement in an effort to calm Susan’s anxiety.  She could not help but notice the growing red spot on Susan’s collar.

“
I feel so strange, it is supposed to be my wedding today,” Susan told her as she scratched at her neck.

Becky took Susan’s hands.
“No, dear, we didn’t.  I mean, we didn’t see anybody coming near you or taking anything.  You should try and relax, we’re here now.  We won’t leave you until we find your family or friends.  It’s daytime anyway.  Who dreams during the daytime?”  Becky smiled and moved closer to pat Susan on the arm in comfort.  “We are going to find the answers and then you will feel much better, Susan.”

“Don’t worry.  We can always call for some help or the police.  Wait, let me just get the manager of this restaurant here.  You wait, OK?  Have this drink, and don’t worry, everything will be all right, young girl.”  She gave Susan a motherly smile and patted her arm again.

Susan noted that
Becky wore one of those sweaters that kindergarten teachers wear that she only buttoned at the neck.  She had a string of pearls on and favored her left foot with a slight limp.  The salmon-colored pantsuit wasn’t exactly the cover of a fashion magazine, but Susan had seen women wear these clothes all her life.  It was comforting to see someone around that looked like her Aunt Sarah.  Lost and alone in a strange, unusual town and her rescuer is a woman named Becky who looks and acts exactly like her Aunt Sarah.  What are the odds of such an array of coincidence?  Susan shook her head. 
Of course it was coincidence.  No way could this all be planned.  What would the purpose be to confuse me so badly?

The couple then went toward the back room of the restaurant a
s Susan gulped her cold drink.  Praying all would be well soon, she was worried and trembling and wishing for Bob…wait.  “Not Bob!  I meant my Dad,” she screamed inside of her head.  “I want my dad.”  It never occurred to her to wish for Harris.

After fifteen minutes, Susan
grew more impatient.  The couple hadn’t made it back.  “Where are they?” Susan asked herself, worried.  She stood up and went to the counter.  “Hi,” Susan said to the person behind the cash register.  “Did you see a nice older couple here? They said they were going to try and ask you about my cell phone and purse.

“Sorry, lady
.  We get quite a few older couples in here.  But I have not seen anyone with you.”

Susan was able to describe the lady to him
, but nothing else.

“Can’t say I remember seeing any old ladies like that at all
.  Sorry, Miss.” 

He kept wiping the counter and turned to leave
.  Suddenly she felt a sense of desperation, and she reached out for the man’s arm before he could leave.

“Could you please help me?
”

“I think i
t is my wedding today,” she kind of stuttered in an awkward way.  Now it was her turn to blush and look at the ground.  The top of her ears burned in shame, and she was certain he was going to call the cops or throw her out of the restaurant.