“Hey, so it’s Dex and sorry to bother you, but if Perry is there I would love to speak to her. I’m in New York City. Not sure how that happened. Anyhoo, I would be much obliged if someone, anyone…Ada…Mr. Palomino…dad? I guess I have to call you dad soon, right? Maybe not. Anyone really, if you would pick up the phone because I think this will be my last call for a while and I can’t seem to find my phone. Or my wallet. Or know what’s going on or how I got here. So yeah. Answering the phone would be great. Hello? Bueller?” Pause. Waiting for them to pick up. “But you won’t do that because you’re not home. That’s fine. I’m busy too. I’m on the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s awesome. There are two young ladies here, one I’m sure has something against mustaches and the other who is giving me a look like she’s sorry she lent me her phone. Well, if I don’t hear from you guys…It’s because I don’t have my cell. I told you that, right? Anyway, I’ll call back. When I can. I might not be able to.” Another pause and this is when I noticed both girls look like they are ten seconds away from blowing their rape whistle and bringing out the pepper spray. “Okay, bye.”
I hung up and gave the phone back to the girl, shooting her an apologetic smile. “Sorry. I thought maybe they’d pick up if I started rambling nonsense.”
She stared at me while she tucked the phone in her purse. Then, without saying anything, she and the other girl walked away in a hurry, shooting me anxious glances over their shoulders, as if they’d never left a message like that on a machine before.
I exhaled and watched them go. Well, that was a bust. I decided to start walking to Manhattan, give it a few moments, then try someone else for a phone. Perry had to pick up at some point, I left her more than enough voicemails.
Not if she’s not okay, the thought shot across my head like a bullet. Maybe that’s why you can’t get a hold of her.
Fuck. I clenched and unclenched my fists. What if something had happened to her?
I refused to entertain the thought. I needed to hold it together, not fall apart. As long as I found out she was okay, just to hear her voice, more than anything, then I’d deal with the rest.
But refusing to think about it, didn’t mean I didn’t feel it, that sickness, black and sticky like tar, clinging to the inside of my lungs.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was sprinting down the bridge, urgency pressing through my legs. I was bumping into people, knocking commuters off balance, their cries of anger and annoyance the soundtrack to my pumping limbs but I couldn’t give any fucks. There were no fucks to give. It was like the faster I went, the more I was aware that something horrible was about to go down and all the speed in the world wouldn’t help me.
Or her.
Or anyone.
I was nearly at the place where the bridge promenade swooped into City Hall Park, thinking about one of the last times I was in the area, paying a parking ticket with Maximus back in the way back days, when I felt like my non-existent drug trip just intensified.
There was Maximus, stepping out from the grandiose pillars of the Manhattan Municipal Building, his floppy ginger coif standing out like a red beacon on the end of a flannel stick. He wasn’t even wearing flannel, but that wasn’t the point.
I came to a halt, making sure I was seeing this right. Did I run right into the past? Déjà vu swept over me, momentarily washing that feeling of doom side. How could I just think about him and make him appear? Was I Gandalf?
But it wasn’t just him. It was also Ada. Fucking Little Fifteen Ada Palomino throwing change at a hotdog vendor and trying to catch up with Maximus, all long limbs and bad eye makeup.
What the actual fuck?
Before I could even contemplate just what sort of wizardry was at work here I heard my name being catapulted in my direction.
“Dex!”
It was more of a panicked shriek, but to say it didn’t immediately fill my heart with gold would be lying.
I turned my head to the park and saw Perry, beautiful, crazy Perry, running toward me, about to head straight into traffic.
I let out a yelp, my body frozen from the impending disaster but she managed to skirt in front of the cars which were slowing down as they turned onto the bridge and soon she was on my side of the road, unscathed except for a few people laying on their horns in her wake.
There’s a moment in the movie “10” when Dudley Moore sees Bo Derek running down the beach in slow motion. Most people don’t know what I’m talking about because most people don’t educate themselves with the classics, particularly Blake Edwards, but anyway, this moment rivaled that one.