The front card displayed a banner of pastel flowers encircling the logo of a local floral shop, Gregorelli’s. There was a simple message written on it in elegant, old-fashioned script:
To Beautiful Sandy:
The first dozen roses
A very good start
More will be coming
To warm your sweet heart
S.A.
She grinned. Now she wouldn’t have to go to any lame dating sites.
“Who brought these?” she asked.
“A Gregor-somebody’s delivery guy. He came in about an hour ago.”
So she did have a secret admirer.
Was it the same person who sent the first rose? This note said these were the first roses. The first dozen anyway. And this S.A. person wouldn’t have any way of knowing where she lived, especially if he were a student. A coincidence, then? A copycat who overheard her talking with Jina?
She put her nose to one of the buds and inhaled the clean scent and wondered what S.A. was like.
“Sandy, you simply have to find out who sent them. They’re gorgeous.”
“I don’t have to find out who sent them. I can just wait for the next delivery. I have no problem with being patient.”
“Don’t be silly. You don’t want to go falling head over heels for some dweeb. He might be sending you anonymous roses because he’s afraid to show you his face. He doesn’t want to you know about the fact that he drools or smells bad, or something stupid like that.”
“Jina, you’re the one who’s being silly. Anyhow, lay off the subject. I got the roses two days ago, and you haven’t stopped talking about them. It’s almost as if you were the one who got them.”
Jina smiled. “Sorry. Anyways. I’ve got to get to class.” She freed her hair from under her bag strap, and trotted off. “See ya this afternoon!” she called back.
Sandy wondered at how opposite she and Jina were. She was always into her predictable books and dusty old facts of history. Jina was flighty, switching majors more times than should be allowed. Music, drama, art, liberal arts, back to music; all of the things that Sandy considered to be unimportant to the operation of the world.
But they had been friends since high school, and would probably be inseparable for the rest of their lives, even if their personalities veered further apart over time. Despite Jina’s apparent flakiness, she was actually a very bright, wonderful, giving, and beautiful woman. Sandy couldn’t remember the number of times she had been pulled out of one mess or another by Jina.
The TA’s office sat empty and quiet that morning. It usually was during the eight o’clock hour. Most of the students had lectures at that time, and those who didn’t were sleeping.
A knock sounded on the glass of the door at 8:15am. The latch turned, and a head popped in timidly.
“Delivery for Sandy Windham?”
Sandy pulled her nose out of a book and her feet off the table. “Yes? That’s me.”
The Gegorelli’s delivery boy opened the door fully and presented her with a dozen red roses.
“Two dozen in three days. Lucky.”
He left, and Sandy lifted the card. Attached was a gold foil-wrapped bon-bon. It looked imported.
The tag read:
To Sandy:
Roses are red, violets are blue.
I like a game. Would you like one too?
Follow my words, it won’t take too long.
Spin ‘round three times, and hum a good song.
S.A.
Sandy smiled. The office was still empty, so she set the vase down, spun herself in a tight circle and began humming one of the songs Jina had written for her band. The words went, “Where are you now. I want you to show your face to me. Please stop hiding from what you know is true. Are you a coward? Afraid I will have control over you? If I saw you?” She stopped humming at the guitar solo where the tune became impossible to reproduce.
She stopped, looked at the roses, and waited. For some reason, she had expected something to happen. How silly. She took the chocolate from the card and sat down.
The label on the bottom was printed in German, which she had never taken the time to learn. She peeled back the gold foil wrapper and touched her tongue to the soft chocolate. It tingled with the idea of taking a bite.
She bit into it and savored the sensual flavor. It was fine chocolate covering fine, dark brown truffle that she allowed dissolve in her mouth. The second bite dissolved likewise. The bon-bon was large enough for a third bite, so she savored it the same way.
She was falling in love.
Her eyes scanned the page of her book, and after a dozen paragraphs, she had to start over. She didn’t know much about her admirer at all, but she did know he was the sort of person who would send a woman gifts. He was also poetic and spontaneous and playful. Well-off too, it seemed, to be able to waste money on two dozen roses and imported chocolate for her.
The clock on the wall grabbed her attention. 8:30am. She really needed to get back to her research. She looked back at her book and reached for her reading glasses to try to get her mind focused.
As she touched her glasses, she felt something light brush her hand.
She glanced at the desk, and saw two long striped legs on her finger. Another was feeling her thumb, and the other five led to the spider that was still, mostly, on her glasses.
Her hand instinctively jerked back and she let out a small scream. She backed away taking her chair with her.
The spider was no longer on her glasses. She looked at the floor to try to see where she had flung it. Nervously, she searched her arm, her clothes, on the floor, under the desk.
She gave in to a shudder. She had never seen a spider with such thin, long legs. And she couldn’t find it. It could be hiding anywhere.
Stifling another shudder, Sandy forced herself to breathe and release the tightness she felt in her stomach. It was, after all, only a spider. Confident now that she had gotten over the initial scare, she picked up the phone and dialed the extension for the maintenance office.
“Nope. Don’t see any sign of any creepy-crawlies. But I’ve sprayed the corners of the room, if it’ll help you feel better.” The man in the blue coveralls put a can of Raid back into his grimy bag, bade her good day, and closed the clattery door.
Sandy leaned back and sighed again to purge the tension she felt inside – hopefully for the last time.
Rob had come in to see what all the fuss was about. “You’re not arachnophobic, are you?” he asked.
“Not anymore. I was once, as a kid, but I got over it. They’re just squishy, harmless little critters. I think anyone would have gotten creeped out if a spider come out of nowhere like that.”
“You got over a phobia?”
“Yeah. You just have to remind yourself that they can’t hurt you, and force yourself to be calm.” She shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. But I would feel better knowing where the thing went. I don’t like surprises.”
Rob glanced at the roses. “You like some surprises.”
Sandy smiled. “Yes. I do like some surprises.”
Sandy rolled out of bed with throbbing temples. She stumbled into the bathroom and started the water for a shower. Why did she always get the hangovers when Jina never did? Jina drank twice as much. It didn’t seem fair.
Jina had arranged a small party for some of her more uppity art friends, and held the gathering at Sandy’s place. Sandy kept her apartment as tidy and stylish as her college budget could afford. Jina’s slacker friends and roommates preferred Jina’s thrift-store decor for parties, but that wouldn’t do for Jina’s higher-class friends.
Sandy didn’t mind much, and she especially liked the idea of showing off her roses. The white dozen she put in the dining room, and the red ones she displayed proudly on her coffee table.
After her shower Sandy headed for the kitchen and awoke Jina from the couch on her way out the door. She glanced at the flowers before closing the door and wondered when she’d get
something else from him.
Yet the morning in the office passed with no special deliveries.
It wasn’t until Tuesday afternoon, when history lab was nearly finished, that the Gregorelli boy shyly stuck his head into the classroom.
“Sorry to disturb you, Ms. Windham, but I have another delivery. They were to be brought directly to your class.”
“There’s only five minutes left,” she announced to the class. “You guys can go early. Don’t forget Professor Lingstrum wants you to read the chapters this time.”
The delivery boy held the door and waited until all the students had filed out of the room. He then set the vase on Sandy’s desk, and left. There were more this time. All red. There were two packages attached, wrapped in gold with red ribbons. There was a small card on the largest box. It read:
To Sandy:
The game has begun.
More now, I require.
Go home tonight,
And light up a fire.
Into the flames,
Throw one red, red rose.
Eat all the candy,
As the flame slows.
S.A.
The larger of the two boxes contained four chocolate truffles. The smaller held a pair of stylish earrings. She immediately put them on before piling her arms full of papers, book bag, and floral arrangement.
Jina met her in the hall.
“Wow, there are a lot more this time. How many is that, two dozen?”
“Yep, exactly two dozen.”
“And chocolates, and, I don’t remember seeing you wear those earrings before. Those look expensive.”
“You always were the observant one.”
She nodded curtly. “What a catch, Sandy.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions, Jina. You’re the one who said he might smell bad, remember?”
“I doubt a guy this confident and clever has anything wrong with him. And showering can be taught. This guy is obviously rich, so the rest shouldn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t love matter?” Sandy asked.
“I suppose, but I’ve always found love to be highly overrated. Especially when there are other benefits in the relationship. Hey, can I hang out at your place for a little while tonight?”
“Nope. There’s not a chance you are getting these chocolates. I would like to just spend the evening in quiet solitude. I’ll take you home.”
Jina pouted.
“I can see right through you, Jina. You only want me for my chocolate. You can’t have any. Let’s go.”
Sandy was glad she had a fireplace in her apartment. Otherwise she couldn’t have done her part in the game. It didn’t really matter, it wasn’t as if S.A. knew whether she did the thing or not. But it was fun.
She put on a CD. Opera. Nice, quiet, peaceful. She liked these types of nights to herself. No one hung around to hassle her or tell her what to do or where to go. That was one of the things she had enjoyed these past nine months without Darryl. Men always seemed to need company, even when their girlfriends would rather be alone.
There was just enough wood left in the house to start a medium sized fire. It would be enough to burn the rose.
While the new flames crackled in the fireplace, she filled a wine glass with something leftover from the weekend party. Then Sandy sat down on her couch facing the two dozen red roses. She took a sip of Merlot and sniffed at a bud. Slowly, she pulled it from the vase, and set the wine glass on the table. As instructed, she walked to the fireplace, and delicately tossed the rose into the flames.
Sitting back on her soft couch, opened the chocolates. Four beautiful truffles. As she savored the candy, she watched the fire until the rose until it was nothing but flower-shaped ashes.
One more piece left. She chuckled at the label on the lid, which hailed them as “decadent”. Luxurious, maybe, but not decadent. That word meant something else entirely, but for some reason fancy food marketers insisted on using it to describe overpriced gourmet delicacies. If the chocolates were decadent, they would be decaying, stale, rotten husks.
Definitely not decadent. Exquisite.
With chocolates gone, she set the box on the table.
The lid moved. Of its own accord.
She jumped back and found herself sitting on the back of her couch.
A small green lizard slowly crawled out from under the box.
Sandy breathed a sigh of relief. Reptiles aren’t nearly so scary as a box that moves by itself. And yet, there was the question of how a lizard got onto her coffee table in the first place.
What a strange event. But she certainly wasn’t about to let it spoil her evening. She picked up the lizard with her bare hands and took it out to the balcony. Her apartment was only two stories up, and didn’t think the critter would have any trouble crawling down on its own. After putting the tiny reptile on the rail, she spoke to it, coaxing it onto the building wall.
While thus occupied, she didn’t see the much larger black lizard slide out from under her dining room table. It crawled through the balcony doorway and into the night air, hiding in the shadows of her balcony before she turned to go inside.
Even though it was a school night, Jina and Sandy decided to spend Wednesday evening at The Neverland where they could enjoy the dark atmosphere, loud music, bright lights, and possibly a little dancing.
They camped out at the end of the bar and ordered drinks.
“My band is much better than this lousy DJ,” Jina complained.
“So audition. I think they play rock and that sort of thing on Mondays.”
“They won’t give us a gig. We don’t have a big enough name yet. It’s all we can do to get onto open mic stages.”
Sandy sipped slowly at her Mai Tai while Jina enthusiastically ordered her third drink. The Mai Tai had only begun to make her face tingle when she saw the Gregorelli boy pushing his way through the crowd with another vase full of red roses.
“Whoa.” Jina turned to see where she pointed.
“Ms. Windham? Another delivery.”
“Thank you,” Sandy said, as she accepted the flowers and accompanying packages with excitement. One contained a jar of caviar, imported. The other held a gold bracelet and another note which she eagerly read to herself.
Dearest Sandy:
Go out to the alley,
Go out with some chalk.
Try not to run.
To play you must walk.
On the wall by your car
Draw with chalk and with ease
A vase with some roses
Can you do this please?
S.A.
“What does it say?” Jina slurred.
“I’m not going to tell. Hmm… Caviar. I’ve never tried this stuff.”
“I have. It’s too salty. But it’s ok on crackers.”
“I’ll have to get some crackers, then.”
“There’s pretzels there. That’d be yummy.”
Sandy smiled and put on the bracelet. Jina was cute when she was drunk, even if she did have a tendency to get into trouble. It was then that she spotted Stan across the room. He saw her too, and she tried to hide Jina from him, but it was too late. He came towards them.
“Uh, Jina,” she began to warn.
“Stan!” Jina shouted and ran to embrace him. “Stan! Where have you been?”
Sandy watched disgustedly as Stan made some sort of flowery apology for being a jerk. Jina melted all over him like goo, and allowed herself to be taken out to the dance floor.
“Bleh, I can’t bear to watch.” She turned to the bartender. “Uhm, hey. Would you happen to have any chalk?”
“Sure. What color?” He held out a wide variety of chalks that were used to write the drink specials on the blackboard.
“Can I borrow them all? In exchange, I’ll let you keep this stuff hostage until I get back.” She motioned to the roses and the caviar.
“Ah, sure. Why not. But you have to buy another drink.”
“I’ll buy two more.”
She chose a color and dragged the dusty chalk over the bumpy brick wall. Fortunately, she had taken a drawing class with Jina once, and managed to compose a fairly decent four-foot color rendition of three rosebuds in a slender vase.
Deciding that she had better get back to Jina, she went back into the bar and returned the chalk. Her roses and caviar were untouched, but Jina didn’t seem to have been so lucky. She and Stan were making out on Sandy’s barstool.
“Uh, excuse me Stan, but I’d like to sit back down here.”
“Fuck off.”
“Stan!” Jina chided. “Be nice.”
“Fine, take it.” He spun the stool around as if that would be cool, and sat down on the other side of Jina. They resumed sucking face.
Sandy reached down the bar and pulled a bowl of pretzels closer. The jar of caviar popped as the seal broke. She dipped a pretzel into the red, lumpy gel and took a bite.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” she said between mouthfuls.
Jina muttered, “That stuff takes a while to get used to,” from under Stan’s lips.
“I wasn’t talking about the caviar. I was talking about you, Jina.”
“Huh? Oh, sorry, Sandy. I didn’t mean to ignore you.” She giggled.
Sandy sighed in resignation, and decided it was pointless to try to talk to Jina when she was in this state.
“You know what this place needs,” Jina said in a slurred voice. “It needs some good, live music. Not this electronic, high speed, dizzy trash.”
“Jina, let me back into the band and I’ll get us a gig here, I promise.” Stan reached around Jina, grabbed a pretzel and dipped it into the caviar. Sandy glared at him, and he let go of the pretzel with his hands in an, “Ok, ok, back off,” posture.
Jina didn’t notice a thing and smiled at him. “Of course you’re back in the band. We’ve missed you.” She nuzzled her face into his neck.
“Great, Jina. I’m glad. Hey, how about you come over to my place tonight. I’ll show you around my new apartment, and…”
“I’d love to, Stan.”
Sandy gave her an, “Are you crazy,” look. Jina appeared apologetic for a moment, and then she giggled.
Make Willing the Prey (Dreams by Streetlight) Page 2
