67
Saturday, June 7th, 1986, 3;32 P.M.
Charlotte opened up the front door of the house and let Misfit in, knowing that she was still fifty-percent wet from jumping into the fountain. However, just the walk from there to the front door was enough time to dry off a significant amount of her due to the blazing sunshine. Her plan was to take her into the kitchen and dry her off with one of the towels from the back linen closet, but when she heard the faint sounds of Jane and Gina’s voices coming from that direction, an impish thought crossed her mind.
“Would you like a treat, baby?” Charlotte asked Misfit.
Missy recognized those words and started prancing around like an excited— well— dog.
“Let’s go into the kitchen and see what Jane and Gina are up to… Would you like that?” enticed Charlotte.
Misfit was now going relatively berserk thinking she was going to hang out with a trio of rock stars.
Charlotte, on the other hand, was hoping that Missy would run up to one of them and shake water all over them. She followed behind her.
“Hey, guys!” said Jane, as the two of them entered the kitchen. “How was the walk?”
“It was fantastic!” exclaimed Charlotte. “Go over and say “hi” to Jane, honey,” she urged.
Missy did as she was told.
“Come here, baby!” Jane enticed. “Did you have a good time with… EWWWW, Charlotte, she’s all wet!!! … Awww, Missy, get down,” instructed Jane, pushing Misfit off of her. “Eww, gross! Charlotte, what is the matter with you?”
“Shake, Missy, shake!” encouraged Charlotte, hoping Misfit would emit a nice shower all over Jane.
“NO.. DON’T !! Charlotte, what is wrong with you?!! … Missy, go away… Charlotte, go dry her off!” demanded Jane.
“You don’t want some of the mermaid’s piss all over you?” asked Charlotte.
Charlotte could be so deranged sometimes.
“No, I don’t.. thank you… Go!! … There’s towels back there,” said Jane, pointing to the back room.
“I know where they are,” said Charlotte, amused, as she led Missy away.
Charlotte returned with a dried-off doggie and spied something that immediately caught her attention.
“What are you guys drinking?” inquired Charlotte, noticing that Jane and Gina had two, large goblets placed in front of them on the table. They both were filled with a lime-colored liquid, the only difference being that Jane’s was filled with crushed ice and Gina’s was filled with cubed.
“Margaritas,” informed Jane.
“Yeah, ya’ want one?” asked Gina.
“Oh, God, yes,” replied Charlotte.
Even though they knew that Charlotte should not be drinking, they both ignored their moral obligations and carried on as if everything was copasetic.
“Here, I’ll make you one,” offered Gina, bouncing up from her chair. “Go ahead, sit down.”
“Thanks, Regina,” said Charlotte, taking a seat.
“Do you want it on the rocks or do you want a slushie?” Gina called back from the counter.
“On the rocks is fine,” Charlotte told her. “I don’t want to get a brain freeze.”
“Hah!! How can you tell the difference?” asked Gina, showing off her sitcom chops.
“Very funny, Gina,” stated Charlotte. “You should be on television.”
“I am!!” proclaimed Gina, happily.
“So.. are we all set for next weekend?” asked Jane, referring to the party.
“No, we’re not!” exclaimed Charlotte. “I haven’t even gotten ahold of Angie, yet. I totally fucked that up. I hope it’s not too late.”
“Charlotte, you’d better do that… People might start making other plans,” Jane suggested.
“I know, I know… I’m going up to my room in a little bit and I’ll make the call up there,” informed Charlotte. Angie was the one that she had put in charge of the invites.
“Why don’t you just do it down here?” asked Jane, motioning over to the kitchen phone.
“Because.. I’ve got a few other calls to make… Some personal calls… I’ll take care of it,” Charlotte assured.
Gina walked back over to the table with Charlotte’s drink in her hand. She set it down in front of her.
“Thanks, buddy,” said Charlotte.
“No problem,” Gina returned.
“Oh, man, that’s good,” Charlotte revealed, taking a sip of her drink. “That really hits the spot… That is superb, Gina, thank you.”
Gina nodded in recognition, happy to satisfy her friend.
“I don’t know, Char.. Lotta’ important people over at that studio… You’d better get on the horn,” Jane warned.
“Oh, will you cool it, Jane… Even if they’ve got plans, they’ll change em’ to come over here,” Gina assured. “Besides, I told a lot of people myself already. The word will get around… We have this every year.”
Charlotte started taking successive gulps of her margarita as Jane and Gina continued their banter about the party. She was staring down at the table as she drank and was now oblivious to the talk that was going on around her. All of a sudden, not realizing that she was interrupting their conversation, Charlotte just blurted out something irrelated to the subject—
“Has anyone heard from Kathy?” she asked.
“Huh?” stammered Jane.
Charlotte gathered her thoughts together. It was like she just woke up from a dream.
“Has anyone… heard from Kathy?” she asked again.
“No,” Jane answered back.
“I talked to her yesterday,” Gina revealed. “She said she wasn’t sure what time she’d get here. She said she might not get here till Monday or Tuesday… Said she had a lot of shit to do.”
“Oh, really?” pondered Charlotte, still in a mental trance and again staring down at the table.
“Why?” asked Gina.
Charlotte did not answer back. She kept staring at the table in deep thought.
“Charlotte?” called Gina.
Charlotte awoke from her trance and uttered— “Huh?”
“Why do you ask?” wondered Gina.
“Oh, nothing… I was just.. wondering when she was coming, that’s all,” said Charlotte, unconvincingly.
Jane knew something was up. She had been monitoring Charlotte’s behavior in regards to Kathy for several months now and was more than suspicious about what was happening.
“Well, whatever,” Gina summed up. “I gotta’ go pee,” she said as she got up to head for the bathroom.
Jane waited until Gina was out of earshot.
“Okay, Char, what’s up?” she asked.
“What?” Charlotte asked back.
“You know what I’m talking about,” hinted Jane.
Charlotte shrugged.
“Every time me or someone else mentions Kathy’s name these days, you go all to pieces… Now what’s going on between you two?” Jane wanted to know.
Charlotte just looked at her and said nothing.
Copyright 2021
by Clark Wright