Stained Glass Souls (Wattys 2014, Collector's Dream Award Winner)

Ariel: Smoke and Mirrors

(Ariel)

She stopped at a gas station for a Diet Coke and a filler bottle of Green Tea pills. The long, brightly wrapped display of candy bars caught her attention as she checked out. She felt magnetized, the smell of chocolate hypnotic. She was so close to picking one up – add this to my purchases, please – that her fingers curled themselves into a fetal position. Don’t Touch Don’t Touch Don’t Touch. Chocolate is sugar, sugar is fat, fat is the enemy.

Remorseful, she bought a pack of cigarettes instead. She drove the rest of the way to Highland Hills with her windows rolled down, wind blowing through her short hair. Her lips looked blue in the rearview mirror, shoulders twitching with chill. Smoke tendrils twisted from the butt of her cigarette, joining a company of clouds in the grey sky. The Green Tea pills spilled over the console of the car, crushed to tiny olive smears beneath her sneakers, Diet Coke dripping onto the stained black carpet when she lurched over speed bumps. It was Iris’s car – the spare red economy car – which normally sat and gathered dust in the corner of the garage. She had found the keys dangling from a hook in the kitchen. Why not? When, if, she returned to Redemption, Anya would be furious.

But today, wind and smoke tendrils writhing around her skin, she did not care. She felt fearless. Finally, she was flying. Nothing would pin her down to the ground.

Katrina answered the door in pajama shorts and a shocked smile, red hair rumpled around her head in messy, hairspray curls. “Babe!” She threw herself at Ariel, nearly bowling her over. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

Ariel hugged her friend, feeling the sharpness of her bones. They had been reduced to two bony bodies, appearing shrunken and small even when pressed together. “I had to come.”

“Redemption not treating you right?” Katrina couldn’t resist cracking a joke. She had this fixation with the town – Redemption, she’d mock, full of saps like us.

Ariel shrugged, stepping into the spacious, high-ceilinged entry hall. “I might as well be living in hell.”

She almost hated visiting Katrina, because of this house. It was gorgeous, an enormous home sitting squarely in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Maine. Built from three stories of European imported brick, it boasted towers on either side, roof gabled with Mexican glass tiles. It had long, wide windows, illuminating the interior with natural light. A spacious garden, sporting a pool, koi fish swimming around inside, and cherry blossom trees, heavy with the weight of waxy white blossoms, stretched out behind the house. A tall, thick stone wall confined life to the estate, adding to the almost medieval appearance. 

Katrina started laughing, teeth yellow, the corners of her eyes crinkling, and Ariel forgot her momentary jealousy. “You think Highland Hills is much better, babe?”

“No.” Ariel admitted. She stood at the foot of the stairs, the remnants of her Coke and pills tucked inside her messenger. This was a terrible and wonderful idea – she only had five dollars, a tube of Chap Stick, her student ID, and a handful of bobby pins with which to survive the weekend. Wonderful, because she was with Katrina. They could dance around in ragged clothes and scream Janis Joplin at the top of their lungs, like a pair of old-fashioned wild children. The world seemed to shrink when they had each other – anything could be defeated, conquered, battled out.

Friendship isn’t real…but trying to have one friend, just one, is better than living lonely.

“What’s the matter?” Katrina linked her arm through Ariel’s. “Having second thoughts about visiting your dear, insolent old friend?”

“No second thoughts, just exhaustion.” Ariel admitted. “Do you have coffee?”

Katrina waggled her eyebrows. “I have better than coffee.”