Callie’s Last Dance

42.

“THE MOMENT OF truth!” Callie says, as we enter the room. “Are you ready?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve been ready for ten years!”

She laughs. “You’ve only known me for eight.”

“Yeah, but I spent two years dreaming about meeting someone like you.”

“And now you have. What’s left unsaid? Anything?”

“Just this: you’re the most beautiful, exciting woman I’ve ever met. And I adore you.”

She sits on the bed, kicks off her shoes, and suddenly suffers a sort of winking spasm in her right eye.

“You okay?”

“Of course. Why, what does it look like?”

She does it again.

“Like you’ve got an eyelash caught in your eye?”

She laughs. “I was trying to give you a come-hither look?”

“Come hither?”

“A sexual rallying cry. A call to action.”

“Do it again.”

She does.

I say, “Got it. Next time I see it, I’ll know what to do!”

“Wait,” she says. “What if we’re at a party and I actually do have an eyelash in my eye?”

“It would certainly liven up the party!”

“Perhaps a verbal cue would be better,” she says.

She pats the space on the bed beside her and says, “Come hither, Romeo.” Then adds, “How’s that?”

“Works for me!” I say.

I kick off my shoes.

“Enough foreplay,” she says. “Take me now!”

She lies down on her back in the center of the bed, spreads her legs, pulls up her sundress.

“What happened to your panties?”

She dangles them from her hand.

“When did you-”

“Do you really care?”

I sit on the side of the bed and lean over her, intending to plant a little kiss on her vertical smile when it suddenly happens.

An explosion.

Then a pause.

Then another explosion.

I’m so disoriented by the suddenness of the attack my brain is slow to react. But my body’s in full fighting mode, circling, looking for attackers. But I see no one. I hear a gasp and turn toward Callie. See her eyes wide open, her face a frozen mask. Except for her mouth, which is opening and closing in a frightening way, like she’s trying to get air, and can’t.

I shout her name, and drop beside her on the bed.

She’s trying to lift herself up, trying to speak.

I can’t hear. My ears are ringing, mind’s in a fog. I was so completely in the moment, and now we’re in a different moment, and she’s trying to speak. Trying to say something. I gather her in my arms and lift her up and see the blood. Not just some, but everywhere. Her back is sopping, the sheets beneath her drenched.

“Oh, God!” I scream. “Callie! Oh no! Oh, my God, no!”