Chapter 4

              Remy’s eyes grew large once she’d opened her front door.  A bouquet of colorful flowers filled the doorway, and it was so big, she almost sent out a search party to find the deliveryman.

            “Ms. Remy, uh, Renee?” he asked, peeking around the side of the vase.

            “You mean these are for me?” Remy asked, her voice rising in disbelief.  “I was thinking you had the wrong address.”  She couldn’t believe he’d sent her flowers.  She knew they had to be from Jace; there was nobody else.  Remy dug in her jeans pocket, finding enough money for a tip before taking the vase.

            “You must be one special lady!” he said, taking her money and stuffing it in his pocket.

            “You got flowers?  From who?”  Remy’s mom, Denise, charged down the hallway like a deranged gnat, hands out, grabbing for the vase.

            Laughing, Remy swatted at Denise’s hands while closing the door.  “Get back.  Let me get into the kitchen.  God, you’d think I was giving up hundred dollar bills the way y’all are all up on me.”

Her mom, dad, and sister were bottled up in the hallway in some type of spontaneous frenzy.  They were at Remy’s on-island home for the family’s monthly cookout, and right now, they were all in her way. 

            “Remy’s got a boyfriend!  Remy’s got a boyfriend!” Zavier, her ten-year-old nephew, sang with wide brown eyes as he ran into the kitchen.  A multitude of tiny twists stood at attention all over his head as did his intense purple aura, which glowed, even inside.

            “I do not!” Remy put the vase on the white countertop, protecting the attached card while slapping at the hands trying to grab it.

            Her kitchen was a thing of wonder.  All white: the countertops, the appliances, and the cabinets.  Greaseless, spotless, and stain-free, it was blinding in its cleanliness.  Remy never cooked.  Her refrigerator housed no food.  Anybody interested in eating there was advised to bring their own.  As far as she was concerned, her kitchen was nonessential.  However, the builders had insisted.

            Remy took the card, backing up against the wall to read it in whatever privacy she could find.

            She removed it from its envelope, and while reading it, a slight smile, growing with each word, snuck onto her face.  Handwritten words brought delight.  Thanks for a great time last night.  Can’t wait to see you again.  Jace.

            “Who’re they from?”

            “What does the card say?”

            “My God, look at how big it is!  Somebody call the florist and see if they’re still in business!”

The back and forth between Denise and Remy’s sister, Sasha, overpowered the faint music struggling to be heard from the den.

            Damn, they’re like wild animals. Why did the flowers have to come while everybody’s here?  “What the card says is none of you aural’s business,” Remy said, laughing.  “But, if you must know, they’re from a guy I know.”

At that moment, Remy looked up and saw Kara coming through the back door, munching on a bag of chips.

            “What guy and what did you do for him to send you flowers?”  Sasha, five years older than Remy, had always reveled in the role of instigator.

            “Girl, get your mind outta the gutter.  He’s just a guy I met earlier this week.  He asked me to go to a party last night and I went.  That’s all.”

            Kara’s eyes narrowed as she turned toward Remy.  “Oh?  And his name would be—”

            “His name’s Jace.”  Remy couldn’t get the next words out fast enough.  “But, we’re just friends.”  She cut her eyes at Kara, her expression imploring Kara to just leave it be.

            “Girl, have you lost your mind?  You took your behind to a party with some guy you just met and didn’t let nobody know where you were going?  What the hell’s the matter with you?”  Her mom, a petite woman about an inch shorter than Remy, was spitting fire.  Her short brown locs seemed to vibrate with her questions.  With her hands on her hips and her purple aura a little droopy with age, but almost as intense in color as Remy’s with emotion, Denise waited for her daughter’s answer.

            “Aw, Mom…I knew he was a nice guy…don’t worry.”  Remy thought about telling her mom that Jace was really a known entity.  But, she knew she couldn’t do that without giving his name.  And she surely didn’t want to have to go through the whole blue, purple thing when she and Jace would never be more than friends.  Lordy, they’d have a fit!

            But, it seemed her mom was not about to be shut down by that answer.  She turned to Remy’s dad, asking, “You ain’t got nothing to say?  She’s out and about with God knows who and—”

            Remy’s dad, Steven, at a lean six feet, towered over her mom.  Yet, he’d always been the calming force in their house before they’d gotten a divorce.  And he was still just that.  “Now, Denise, the girl’s grown.  She got sense.”

Though they were no longer married, they had come out of the marriage as great friends.  Any family gathering found them both in attendance; they just found it impossible to live together.

            Fortunately for Remy, Sasha—who looked enough like Remy to be her twin, though Sasha was bigger framed and a bit taller than her younger sister—picked that moment to start some more crap.  “So, the happily single woman is dating.  What happened to Ms. I Don’t Need a Man?  Where is Ms. I Don’t Care if I Don’t Ever Have Another Man?  Could that be Ms. Don’t Be Trying to Find Me No Man?”  Sasha pointed at her sister, delivering her trash-talking in a sing-song voice accompanied by an all-out neck roll. 

            Remy didn’t even acknowledge Sasha’s antics.  She tucked the card in her pocket as she walked toward the back door.  “Come on, y’all need to get to burning us some eats.”

            Finished with the cookout clean up, Remy stepped from her kitchen onto the wooden deck.  Cleaning was her contribution, whether at her house or not, since she never contributed anything in the way of food.

Filling her lungs with fresh island air, she looked around her backyard.  Spring flowers had burst from their winter homes, bringing beauty and delicious scents with them.  Gazing upward, she saw the sun sending out its warmth, its brilliance, with not a cloud in the sky to impede it.  But for the Flamboyant trees scattered around her yard, providing their much needed shade, the heat would have been uncomfortable.

She smiled as she watched the aurals she loved most in the world.  Zavier seemed to be trying to kill himself on the swing, soaring higher and higher with each arc.  Her mom talked to Kara, who was stretched out in the hammock.  Her dad and Sasha, seated on one of the cushioned benches, were in the midst of their own conversation.

Two tables sat mid-yard, waiting for their occupants.  One was ready for the Spades game between the adults, the other for the traditional game of Scrabble between Zavier and her.

Denise looked up and started moving toward Remy while yelling, “Is Dani not coming?  I need that girl to whip some butt in Spades!”

“No,” she answered, meeting her mom by a jubilant bed of begonias.  “She’s at some conference…somewhere off-island…I don’t know.  She’ll be back next week.” 

“She’s gonna be staying off-island with the humans the whole time?” Denise asked, alarm evident in her tone and expression.

“Well, there’s a lot of networking activities in the evenings she thought would be helpful and wanted to take advantage of.  You know she does that periodically.”

“Come on, Aunt Remy, you ready to get beat?”  Zavier was still amongst the living and had taken a seat in front of the Scrabble board.

“You wish.”  Sitting, she let Zavier go first.

            Remy’s attention drifted from the others as they approached the Spades table.  But one ear perked up as their conversation wafted towards her.

            She heard her parents and sister congratulate Kara on her speech, promising to come to the next one.  And Remy was glad to hear that, especially since Kara’s mom refused to support her and her husband, Lee, couldn’t come as he was off-island on an undercover assignment.

            The Scrabble game had progressed, running along its usual track.  Remy always kept the game close to give Zavier some encouragement and to watch his excitement as his score drew near hers.

But because she hadn’t given the game her entire attention, she’d positioned Zavier to place the word “quorum,” and he did, sprawling it all over a triple word space.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, the “q” sat on a double letter space.  His score for the word brought in eighty-one points, catapulting him over Remy’s seventy-eight and giving him 146 points in total.

            “I’m winning!  I’m winning!”  Jumping up from the table, he almost upset the board.  He ran around the yard bearing a remarkable resemblance to a popped balloon, pumping his arms and yelling to kingdom come.

Remy couldn’t believe she’d allowed that.  But, along with everyone else, she had to laugh and high-five him. Though happy for Zavier, Remy didn’t intend to lose the game.  Intense concentration was required on her part to overcome his sixty-eight point lead.  And concentrate she did, barely hearing comments about a Boston being run at the Spades table.

            Remy’s mom and dad had beaten Kara and Sasha into bad health, winning each and every game played.  Remy had managed to regain her lead over Zavier and bring the game home to her.  Still, he continued to brag about his temporary lead.

            As her family gathered at the back door, ready to take their leave, Remy glanced behind her and saw Kara heading for the swing.  Damn, I know she’s getting ready to question me like a murder suspect.

            And Remy was right.  After seeing her family off, Remy found Kara sitting on the deck’s rail, a dour expression pasted on her face.  She sat next to Kara, eyed her, and waited for the questioning to begin.

            “So-o-o, you went to a party with Jace.  I thought you weren’t gonna be dating no blue Auralite, huh, Remy?  I wondered where you were last night when I called you.”

            “It wasn’t a date, Kara.  It was a party for Pandora Page.  And I wasn’t gonna miss that just ‘cause Jace is blue.”

            “Pandora Page!  The author?  Get out! You went to a party for Pandora?”

            “Yeah, girl.  And let me tell you…it was da bomb!  Ohmigod!  It was at one of the ballrooms at the Omni in Atlanta.  The decorations, the music, the food, girl—”

            “Did you meet Pandora?”

            “Um-hum.  She was so nice.  And her husband was, too.  She complimented my dress!  I had on the royal blue silk one I made earlier this year.  Oh!  And Jace told her about Urbane and she said she would be contacting me!”  That riot of words dropped from Remy’s lips with barely a breath taken.

            Mentioning Jace wasn’t the smartest move Remy had ever made.  Kara’s sour mask reappeared, all traces of excitement over Pandora erased.  “Jace, huh?  So, what’s his deal?”

            “I don’t know what his deal is.  But, it really doesn’t matter ’cause as far as I’m concerned, we’re just gonna be friends.”

            “Chile, get real.  You think he’s asking your ass out just so you can be friends?”

            “Did you hear what I just said?  Friends!  You can let it go now.”

            “So-o-o, you say y’all just friends.   That’s all, right?   Why didn’t you tell everybody the flowers were from Jace?”

            “’Cause I knew they’d be acting just like you.  Acting like I’d committed some kinda crime.  By the way, thanks for not saying anything about who he was when the flowers came today.  No need in getting them started since nothing’s happening.”

            “Uh-huh, you’re welcome.  But listen, girlfriend, I think you need to watch yourself.  This man is after you.  He’s probably a very nice guy, for a blue guy, but I think you need to let this friendship go.  That’s all I’m gonna say.”  She ended with her hands in mid-air, fingers making the infamous quotation marks motion at the mention of the word ‘friendship’.

            “Well all-righty, then.”  The interrogation over, Remy jumped off the rail, opening the back door.  “Game time.”

They went into the house, and while Remy closed and locked the back door, Kara, who was already in the den, grabbed the remote, turned on the TV, and popped in the tape.

The three friends, Dani included, were avid Laker fans and barring a major catastrophe, no Laker games ever went unwatched.  And they intended to stay Laker fans, even when the Charlotte Bobcats started playing that fall.  But for two games each year, they’d be Bobcat fans.

            Halftime and the Lakers had kicked first-half butt.

            Later, after the Lakers had won and Kara had left, Remy’s finger hung over her digi’s keypad.  She needed to punch in only one digit to reach Jace.  I know I have to thank him for the flowers. 

The flowers sat on her dresser.  After walking over and pulling one from the bunch, she ran it under her nose, sniffing it.  Thinking about last night brought a smile to her lips.  I really don’t want to talk to him.  Maybe I could email him.  Naw, that’s too tacky. 

Tension evident in her every movement, she put the flower back in the vase and punched in the last digit.  The digi rang immediately.  The tension increased as one fingernail found its way to her mouth.  The ringing stopped and she heard Jace’s voice.  It’s his recording!  Hallelujah!

Her teeth released their hold on the fingernail.  “Hello, Jace.  It’s Remy.  I…um…called…um…to thank you for the gorgeous flowers.  I really appreciate them.  Um…well…I guess…that’s all.  Bye.”  Relief raced through her body until she thought about what she’d actually said.

Um…well…I guess…that’s all? She thought, repeating herself.  What the hell?  So, in addition to making a fool of myself in public, I’ve now made a fool of myself on an electronic device, too.

            While Remy and Zavier were engrossed in their Scrabble game, Jace was involved in his own game.

Aw man, I can’t believe he got fired!  Jace grabbed his head and leaned back in his chair, his gaze touching the ceiling, despair and disbelief written on his face.  His Sim had been a superstar, rich and making money mammy.  And now, all that income was history.

            Jace’s digi beeped, shaking him from his Sims-induced haze and bringing him back to reality.  One glance told him Darius was on the other end.

            “What up, man?”

            “Jace, man, that was one slammin’ party Pandora gave last night.  No!  Wait!  I wouldn’t know that…’cause I didn’t get to go.”

            Through his digi’s screen, Jace saw Darius’s big grin.  “No, you didn’t, and your ass was never missed.  Pandora did ask about you, though.”  He paused as memories of last night brought a smile.  “Remy and I had a great time!  I think—”

            Jace stopped, his conversation cut short by his doorbell’s high-toned chimes.  “Hold on a minute.  Let me see who this is.”

His brother, Reggie, older by seven years, stood on the other side of the door, his braids fuzzy.  Reggie’s expression conveyed worry, stress, and sorrow as he stumbled over the threshold.  “I came to get you, man.  Dad’s in The Clinic.  A car hit him.  He was in Wilmington.  They don’t know if he’s gonna make it.”

            “A car hit him?” Jace asked, the digi still at his ear.  “How could a car hit him?  Where were his psychic skills?  Wilmington, Delaware?”

            “North Carolina.  And I don’t know, Jace.  He just was.  Come on, we gotta go.”

            “Jace.”  Darius got no response.  “Jace.”

            “Yeah?”  Jace felt as if he’d been thrust into a debilitating emotional fog.  Maybe he could hear Darius if he just extracted himself from this fog, if he could just concentrate.

            “I’ll meet you there.  Okay?”

            “Huh?”

            “I’ll meet you there.”

            “Uh-huh…yeah…okay.”

            Jace disconnected his digi and lay it down next to the computer where his Sim now partied with guests.  He had one final thought as he and Reggie left.  What the hell was Dad doing in Wilmington?