Pride and Joy

by M. L. Rice

Daniela grinned.

  “I can’t help it. I’m really anal about my uniform. It’s always clean and pressed and the buttons are shined up. So anyway, he just looks me dead in the eye and points downward. I look down and see that my fly is all the way down. You can even see my baby blue striped underwear through the hole.”

  Daniela almost snorted her Diet Coke out of her nose laughing.

  “Oh, thanks a lot! Laughing at my trauma.” Bryce looked at her friend in mock astonishment. “Fine. Your turn, Little Miss Perfect.”

  “Okay, okay,” Daniela said, trying to stifle her laughter. “My worst audition isn’t really embarrassing as much as it was just bad on my part, so I’ll just skip to my worst moment onstage.”

  “Got it.”

  “I was in this crappy little play written by one of my fellow students at NYU. It was more of a performance piece depicting romantic relationships in the digital age. We had a lot of Christmas lights strung up all over the place, glowing LED tape lining the backdrop, flickering LCDs and TVs littering the stage, and strobe lights flashing at random intervals. It was a really bizarre representation of people hiding behind their computers and smartphones and the falseness of human interaction nowadays.”

  “Sounds interesting.”

  “Well, my role was as an underage girl getting propositioned online by a child molester pretending to be a high school senior. So I walk out on stage in a little schoolgirl uniform, a skirt that only reached mid-thigh and a white shirt with the buttons open to my stomach showing off my black bra underneath—very ‘Oops, I Did It Again,’ if you know what I mean.”

  Bryce swallowed hard and wiped the sudden layer of sweat from her brow despite the chill air.

  “I sashayed on at my cue, trying my best to look sexy but innocent, and right in dead center stage I tripped over one of the damn strings of Christmas lights and crash! Down they all came, right on top of everyone’s heads. Not only that, but I fell flat…on…my…face. Knocked myself out cold on the edge of one of the random computer monitors sitting on the floor.”

  “Oh no!”

  “Oh, yes. When I came to the rest of the cast was still trying to untangle themselves from the lights, and the audience—full house, by the way—was laughing riotously. It was then that I noticed that what little fabric of my skirt there was had flown up over my back. Yeah, I was wearing tiny black bikini underwear and was basically mooning the audience. That was the worst experience I’ve had onstage.”

  Bryce laughed because she was expected to, but the mental visual of Daniela’s exposed skin caused her to shudder with desire. Luckily she was saved from further embarrassment by the captain of the vessel announcing a small pod of minke whales off the port side of the boat, the same side on which they were sitting.

  Daniela let out a squeal of delight and whipped out her camera to take pictures. Bryce, of course, had seen whales with great regularity during her ocean patrols, so she just sat back and enjoyed the sight of Daniela enjoying herself so much.

  By the end of the tour Daniela, delighted at her introduction to Puget Sound and its wildlife, sat huddled close to Bryce, who’d slung her arm around Daniela’s shoulders to keep her warm.

  As the boat was returning to the dock Daniela, voice muffled under the blanket and against Bryce’s chest, asked, “What are you thinking?”

  Bryce took a moment to consider how she felt. “I’m thinking that this is the first time I’ve been out on the water since my accident, and it feels really good.”

  “Anything else?”

  Bryce couldn’t tell her the full truth about other thoughts drifting through her head. She didn’t want to believe them herself. “I’m thinking…that it’s really nice having you here.”

  It was the best she could do.

  Daniela snuggled in even closer. “Funny. I was thinking the same thing.”

  *

  Daniela hadn’t been able to get Bryce another ticket to the show, but after two weeks of spending time together pretty much nonstop, she was finally able to convince the theater’s security and crew to let Bryce backstage to watch a show from the wings.

  “And this,” Daniela motioned proudly like someone showing off a shiny new car, “is my dressing room.”

  Daniela held the door open for her and as she entered, Bryce took in all of the tins of stage makeup, the two brightly lit mirrors, rolls of athletic tape, flowers, and multiple pairs of dance shoes that were strewn about the floor. It looked comfortable and lived-in. High-energy music pulsed from the portable iPod speakers in the corner and Daniela waved to a woman lying down reading a fashion magazine on the single threadbare couch.

  “Bryce, this is Kate. She plays Judy Turner in the show and has quite the penchant for watching the male dancers.”

  The redhead on the couch just smiled slyly and said, “Can I help it if I’m attracted to tight little butts and a well-turned calf?”

  Bryce laughed. “It’s very nice to meet you, Kate. You’re amazing onstage.”

  Kate stood up and shook Bryce’s hand. “Oh, she is the charmer. You were right.” She winked at Daniela. Turning back to Bryce she said, “Daniela and I are roomies on this tour. Both dressing room and hotel room. It’s like living with my little brother. She just does not understand the meaning of folding or putting away clothes.”

  “Hey, can I help it if things are easier to find in that pile over there?” Daniela pointed to a mound of crumpled clothes. “Or that one? Or that one behind the door?” She continued pointing at piles as Kate and Bryce laughed.

  “So. Bryce Montgomery. You’re the one who’s been kidnapping our little Daniela every day…and night. I’ve heard an awful lot about you,” Kate said with a glimmer of mischief in her eye.

  Bryce looked warily at Daniela, whose face had immediately turned a dark shade of red. “Oh?”

  Kate laughed and turned to Daniela. “Don’t be shy now, Dani.” She looked back at Bryce and whispered conspiratorially. “She’s been talking about you constantly since we got to Seattle. I’m just glad she had the guts to meet up with you again. Of course, now she just talks about you even more.”

  “Okay, thank you, Kate. I think that’s enough,” Daniela said through gritted teeth. “Aren’t you supposed to be getting your new leotard in wardrobe right about now?”

  Kate winked at Bryce. “Oh yeah. How could that have slipped my mind? I guess I’ll go do that, then. I’ll leave right now and I won’t be back for…fifteen minutes or so. Just sayin’. Okay. I’m off. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, girls.” She chuckled to herself as she left the room, closing the door behind her.

  “What was that all about?” Bryce wondered out loud.

  “Nothing!” Daniela was even more flushed than before. “Would you like to sit with me while I put on my makeup?”

  “Of course.” Bryce sat, glancing around. “This is all so cool. I’ve never been backstage at a big musical before.”

  “Well, this one is pretty bare bones. No impressive sets, costumes, or props, but I love it. Sorry I couldn’t get you a seat, by the way. I hope you don’t mind watching from backstage.”

  “Are you kidding? This is even better. You have the coolest job ever.” Bryce smiled brightly. “I’m just so glad that you asked me. With my recent…issues…it’s really good to get out of the house so much.”

  “You do seem to be doing better with that.”

  “It’s not easy. I’m still self-conscious.” She gestured to her face. “But seeing and hanging out with you is…more important.” Bryce’s stomach flip-flopped again as she gazed at Daniela’s perfect profile. She was using a soft sponge to paint a layer of foundation along her jawline and Bryce watched the movements like a person possessed.

  Daniela giggled. “I just love having you around.”

  Bryce gulped.

  “So. Have you started to think about getting a job?”

  Bryce bit her lip. She knew she couldn’t live as a hermit on disability and retirement forever. Sooner
or later she would have to put herself out there and figure out what to do with the rest of her life. “I…I’ve thought about it. It’s just that I don’t know what to do. I mean, I literally have no idea what I could do. I know how to be a Coast Guard officer. I know how to perform law-enforcement duties. I just don’t have the physical ability to do those things anymore.”

  Daniela finished putting on her blush and then turned to look at Bryce, a fiery look in her eyes. “Tomorrow is my day off. Will you come and do something with me? I know I’ve been bogarting all of your time, but there’s something I want to show you.”

  “Dani, these have been the best weeks of my life since the accident. I feel like a new…or at least less damaged person when I’m with you. I’ll go wherever you want me to go.”

  “Good. It’s a date.” Daniela coughed. “I mean. It’s not a date…I mean the date is set…”

  “Dani?” Bryce said, suppressing a smile. She couldn’t quite suppress the flutter in her stomach…

  “Yeah?”

  “Chill.”

  “Right. Chilling.” Wide-eyed, she turned her chair back toward the mirror and hastily began to apply her eyeliner and mascara.

  When Kate returned to the dressing room, Bryce stepped outside and grabbed a chair in the green room so the two performers could change into their costumes and start their pre-show rituals, stretches, and vocal warm-ups.

  After another thirty minutes or so Daniela poked her head into the green room. Bryce looked up from a tattered copy of Entertainment Weekly. “Hey.”

  “Hey. Show starts in ten. Come on, I’ll show you where you can sit where you won’t be in anyone’s way.”

  Bryce followed her, nervous about possibly being a nuisance to the crew, but Daniela showed her a folding chair against the wall, stage left, where she’d have a direct view down the line of dancers and would be completely out of the way of the props and wardrobe crew and curtain operators.

  “Can you see from here? Will your leg be okay?”

  Bryce sat slowly, placing her cane on the ground behind her. “Absolutely. This is so exciting.”

  Daniela smiled and squeezed Bryce’s shoulder, leaving her hand there longer than Bryce expected her to. “Cool. Well, I’ll see you at intermission.” She turned around and started walking to the stage as the orchestra warmed up.

  “Hey, Dani!”

  She turned around, smiling.

  “Break a leg. But don’t break it too badly.” Bryce patted her left knee and they both laughed.

  Bryce settled in for another evening of listening to Daniela’s beautiful voice and watching her perfect body move flawlessly to the music, all while making the audience laugh with tales of trying to become objects like a table or an ice cream cone. She sang passionately about feeling “nothing” and as Bryce watched Daniela, her heart felt like it could burst at any moment. She found that she just couldn’t identify with that song at all.

  *

  Bryce frantically kicked the wayward socks under her bed in preparation for Daniela’s first visit to her apartment, realizing for the first time just how sterile it appeared. She had spent most of the morning cleaning, but tufts of gray cat hair, a few dirty glasses, and a full bag of recyclables were still visible. As soon as she bent to pick up a clump of cat hair the size of a whole kitten she heard the knock at her door. Panic. Daniela was—Bryce looked at her watch—nine minutes early. She left her cane propped up against the wall in an effort to wean herself from it and limped to the door.

  When she opened it Daniela stood before her, smiling and mind-numbingly cute in a pair of ripped jeans, tight gray tee, and open flannel shirt. Her hair was down today instead of in its usual ponytail and she was wearing stylish sunglasses that reflected Bryce’s dumbstruck face back at her.

  “Ready?” Daniela asked as she bounced a little.

  “Huh?” Bryce replied, still in a stupor.

  “I wanted to take you somewhere, remember?” An edge of worry worked its way into Daniela’s smile.

  “Oh. Yeah. I know. Sorry. Come in first?”

  “Sure, but only for a few minutes. We’re actually on a schedule.”

  “A schedule? What are we doing?”

  Daniela walked past Bryce into the apartment and turned around as she took off her sunglasses. She had a pleading look in her eyes. “Promise you won’t be mad?”

  “Mad? Why?” Bryce shut the front door and steadied herself on the side table.

  “Well, there’s actually someone I want you to meet.”

  “Okay,” Bryce said hesitantly, waiting for the bombshell she sensed was coming.

  “It’s just that I know that you haven’t been your normal outgoing self in a long time and I don’t want you to be too nervous.”

  “Right, but I’m not agoraphobic or anything. Just…embarrassed.”

  “You shouldn’t be. And we’re going to work on your self-confidence too.” Daniela smiled warmly, then glanced around. “So. This is your place?”

  “Yeah,” Bryce said on an exhale. “I haven’t…really decorated much.”

  “I like it,” Daniela said. “Roomy compared to where I live in New York.”

  “Still no view, though.” She gestured to the front window, which looked out on the parking lot and the hospital beyond. “It’s not much, but Bear makes it feel like home.” Bryce scratched the cat’s head since he was standing on the coffee table meowing for attention as if he knew he was the main attraction.

  “He’s beautiful.” Daniela joined in the petting, occasionally running her fingers over Bryce’s. “Just like his mom.”

  Wait. What?

  Bryce looked wonderingly up at Daniela, but her gaze was still on Bear as if what she had just said hadn’t rocked Bryce’s world. Surely it was nothing. Obviously she had misheard or was misinterpreting what Daniela had said. She let it pass. “Well, let me grab my keys,” Bryce said. “I’m ready when you are.”

  “I hope this meeting isn’t a total letdown,” Daniela said. “But I think it’s important for you to hear this person out.”

  Bryce frowned. This day was beginning to deviate from how Bryce thought it was going to go, but she trusted Daniela. She followed her out of the apartment and into the parking lot, the cane gripped firmly in her hand. Daniela kept walking until they reached the crosswalk at the stoplight.

  “My car is the other way,” Bryce said.

  “We’re not taking a car. We’re going over there.” Daniela pointed to the VA.

  Bryce frowned. “What could you possibly want to show me at the VA? I guarantee you I’ve seen plenty of that place.”

  “I told you, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

  The crosswalk signal turned to walk and Daniela strode purposefully away, almost like she was afraid to give Bryce time to back out.

  When they got to the VA building Daniela turned to Bryce. “Okay. I don’t know where I’m going from here. Can you take us to the swimming pool area? It’s apparently near the physical therapy department.”

  Bryce smirked. “I think I can find my way. I’ve only been there…oh…a few million times.”

  She followed the path to the part of the building that held her old—well, she supposed it wasn’t technically her “stomping” ground. They walked in the door and checked in with a nurse Bryce had never met and were sent back to the pool area. As they walked Bryce pointed out the different rooms to Daniela and expressed her loathing for certain exercises and machines that made her life hell during her therapy sessions.

  When they entered the pool area, the strong smell of chlorine welcomed Bryce home once again. She would never stop loving that scent, and she wanted more than anything to just jump into the water, fully clothed, and paddle around contentedly. She hadn’t been in the water since that day, two weeks earlier, in the hotel pool with her friends. She felt like Daryl Hannah in the movie Splash, and two weeks was a lifetime for a mermaid. Her body felt painful, scaly, dry, and so very heavy.

  As s
he gazed longingly at the pool she saw Daniela wave to someone who was approaching from across the room. She reluctantly turned to look as well and saw a tall, muscular man with a crewcut. He wore black athletic shorts emblazoned with a skull and crossbones and a tightly fitted Navy SEAL T-shirt. Gray speckled his short dark hair and he had weathered lines around his face. Bryce placed him in his early fifties even though he had the body of a much, much younger man.

  “Miss Cordova. I’m so glad you could make it.” He reached out and shook her hand firmly. She stretched her fingers afterward, as if she was making sure she could still move them.

  “Hello, Jack. Here she is.” Daniela gestured toward Bryce. She gazed up at her, “Trust me…okay?”

  Despite her trepidation, Bryce decided she’d do just that.

  “Lieutenant Montgomery, I’m Jack O’Malley, Captain, U.S. Navy, retired.” His accent was thick and Southern.

  Bryce smiled, indicating the pirate symbol on his shorts. “Captain Jack.”

  “And proud of it.” He smiled back and offered his hand.

  Bryce shook it.

  Captain Jack tilted his head toward a doorway. “Let’s sit. I have a proposition for you, Lieutenant.”

  Daniela looked nervously at Bryce, but made a shooing motion to make sure she’d follow.

  “Come with me?” Bryce whispered.

  “Of course.”

  The three of them sat at a small desk in an unused office next to the pool, Bryce and Daniela next to each other and Captain Jack across the table from them. Bryce stayed silent, waiting for the superior officer to take the lead. Military habits died hard, even for those who had retired early.

  “You’re probably wondering what you’re doing here.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Well, I met this lovely young woman,” he gestured to Daniela, who beamed back at him, “at the veterans’ fund-raiser two weeks ago. She’s really something, don’t you think?”

  Bryce turned to look at her, her eyes softening with complete adoration. “Yes. She is.”

  The lovelorn look in her eyes must have been pretty obvious because Captain Jack chuckled and cleared his throat. “Well, I congratulated her on her performance after the fund-raiser—don’t tell anyone, but even some badass ex-Navy SEALs like going to the theater every now and again—and we got to talking. She told me about knowing you in high school and how she was hoping to get to know you again. She actually couldn’t stop talking about you.” He winked at Daniela. “She had been shocked to see you up on that stage with the other veterans.”