Ten Seconds of Crazy

by Randileigh Kennedy

  “Kind of,” he replied with a mischievous grin.

  Reid’s GPS said we’d reached our destination as we pulled into the parking lot of some kind of strip mall.

  “Are we looking for another abandoned suitcase with seven hundred dollar shoes?” I mused, looking around. “I’m not exactly dressed for a night out on the town,” I stated, looking down at my shorts and tank top.

  “I don’t think we’d be that lucky twice,” he said with a smirk. “So this will have to do.”

  We exited the car and he led us through the entrance door of a local thrift store. As we walked inside, it was like traveling back in time. There were gaudy dresses with big puffy sleeves, sweaters with pearls on them, and a rack with way too many pairs of suspenders.

  Reid looked over at me smiling. He held out a crisp twenty dollar bill in front of my face.

  “Oh no, what are we buying?” I asked curiously.

  “We’re going out for the night. Dinner, dancing, gambling, you name it. Here are the rules. We each get twenty bucks. You have to pick out a very handsome, dapper outfit for me. Make sure the pants are long enough,” he reminded me with a laugh, bringing up memories of our first night out together. “And then I get to pick out something very flashy and elegant for you.”

  “No puffy sleeves,” I warned, giggling. I was still certain he would pick out something hideous.

  “We’ll meet back here in say, fifteen minutes?” he said with a shrug. “We’ll put on all of our ritzy clothes and we’ll head down the road to the nearest casino. We’ll have a fancy dinner and people will be whispering about us all night because they’ll think we’re high-end celebrities or something.”

  “Or we’ll look like bad prom dates from the eighties,” I teased.

  “Even better,” he replied with a smirk. I plucked the twenty dollar bill out of his hand and headed over to the men’s section of the store.

  Thumbing through the racks, I had to say, this was actually a pretty fun outing. I’d been to thrift stores a million times before on a mission to find something cool and name-brand enough to fit in at whatever school I was at. But this - thrift shopping ironically - it was so much more fun.

  The suit selection was horrific - definitely nothing black and slim fit in there. Instead there was some tweed, some plaid, and plenty of navy with ugly gold buttons. But then I found it - either the coolest, or ugliest sport coat I had ever seen - I wasn’t sure which. It was a light blue color with black stitching and a small black leather strip outlining the breast pocket. I wasn’t sure in which era this jacked ever looked hip, but I knew with certainty this was the one Reid would be rocking tonight.

  I then found some white tuxedo pants. I didn’t know a lot about proper suit etiquette, but I was pretty certain pants like these were not meant to be paired with a light blue sport coat - which made it seem perfect to me. I also opted for a pair of suspenders. I figured someone alive had to put those to good use. One black deep v-neck t-shirt later and I was set.

  As I began to walk up towards the register, I noticed Reid had clothes in his arm already and he was browsing the women’s shoe section. I hadn’t even thought about picking shoes out for him. I honestly didn’t even know his shoe size.

  I quickly browsed the men’s shoe rack, settling on an old pair of black and white bowling shoes. Perfect.

  I headed up to the register and Reid joined me a moment later. I was nervous to see what he had picked out for me.

  “Since this is a fancy dinner, I went with something black since black is timeless, right?” he explained, holding up some sort of excessively beaded cocktail dress. I was thankful that the sleeves themselves looked relatively normal, but the dress did appear to have some sizeable shoulder pads. Those would be interesting.

  “That could be worse,” I remarked, taking it in. The beads sewn onto the dress all rattled as he shook it out in front of me.

  “It makes kind of a cool sound, right?” he teased. “I also got you a sophisticated purse.” He held up the bag and I laughed. It was a clutch-sized handbag with a removable chain strap, and the body of the purse was covered in white feathers.

  Yes, feathers.

  “Oh that’s fantastic,” I gushed. It really was the weirdest purse I’d ever seen, but it definitely fit the mood.

  “The shoes were a bit of a problem, though. Not a lot of options in your size. But check out these things,” he said excitedly, holding up a pair of mauve pumps. They had some sort of broach clipped on the centers of them. They screamed ‘look at me - I belong to a ninety year old woman.’

  “You’ve really outdone yourself,” I said laughing. “Now your turn.” I held up his outfit and I loved watching the smile on his face as he looked it up and down.

  “That may be the most epic sport coat I’ve ever seen,” he remarked with a laugh. “Is that leather on the pocket? What’s the point of that?” he said, still laughing. “I love it.”

  “The bowling shoes are a size thirteen. I wasn’t sure on that,” I admitted.

  “Any man would be happy that you overestimated his shoe size,” he teased. “I’m only an eleven, but I have some thick socks in the car. I’ll make them work.”

  We paid the cashier and then changed our clothes in the thrift store changing rooms. The beaded dress was awkwardly loose on me, but it hit a few inches above my knees, so it probably didn’t look too terrible. The mauve shoes were the big surprise - they had some kind of orthotic insert in them which made them actually really comfortable. God bless old women.

  Reid beat me out of the dressing room and was waiting for me leaning up against a rack of hats. I couldn’t believe the way he actually still looked strikingly handsome in such a ridiculous outfit. The light blue color of the coat brought out the blue in his eyes, and the white pants made him stand out against the relatively drab store. The tight black v-neck t-shirt under the coat made him look just cool enough to pull the whole thing off.

  “Wow, my lady, those beads are exquisite,” he said with a sarcastic bow as I exited the fitting room. I had the white feather purse draped over my shoulder and it tickled my arm as I moved. “I swear you’re going to bring mauve back with those shoes.”

  “Let’s hope not,” I said with a smirk. We left the store and got back in Reid’s car, looking like completely different people than we were just a half hour ago. Fortunately it was only a ten minute drive to one of Iowa’s finest riverboat casinos. I’d never been gambling before. But then again, it wasn’t exactly legal for me yet. I wondered if my age would be an issue. Surely I didn’t look underage wearing mauve old lady shoes, right?

  As we drove up to the boat’s entrance, Reid and I discussed that we would leave our sunglasses on, even though the sun would be setting soon. Not that it mattered for that reason either, since we were going to be inside. But we both agreed they added some mystery to our overall look. More of a reason for people to wonder who on earth we were and what we were doing. We parked the car in the valet area and an old gentleman politely took the keys from Reid.

  We walked through the main entrance doors of the casino. Unfortunately though, before we made it very far, there were some men checking IDs at the entrance. That wasn’t going to bode well for me.

  A man in a black sport coat asked for our IDs and I clutched my feather purse, unsure of Reid’s plan.

  “Oh darling, I think I still have your ID in my other suit from the horse races last weekend,” Reid said apologetically. “Hold on a moment sir, I don’t want you getting in any trouble over this. I’ll call Dave upstairs, he knew we were coming for Cassidy’s twenty-third birthday tonight. We’re meeting some other guests here. I’ll call Dave, he knows all about this,” Reid said confidently. He pulled out his phone and pushed some buttons, moving the phone up to his ear.

  “If you know Dave and he’ll vouch for you, you’re fine to go in,” the man in the sport coat replied. He waived us through.

  “What just happened?” I squealed once we were far eno
ugh away from the entrance. “Who’s Dave?”

  “The most generic name I could think of for a middle-aged casino boss,” he replied with a snicker. “It was a total shot in the dark. I had no idea that would even work.”

  I slid my arm through his as we walked through the casino. People turned their heads at us here and there, but I didn’t feel nearly as ridiculous as I thought I would. Honestly I felt too happy to care what anyone else thought.

  “Gambling or dinner first?” he asked thoughtfully.

  “Why don’t we play one thing, and if we win, we’ll order lobster. If we lose, we’ll order chicken,” I replied with a shrug. This entire night was so random that everything felt like a heads-or-tail decision to me. It just seemed fun like that.

  “Roulette,” he answered with a smile, leading me over to a big table. “Red or black?”

  “Definitely black, to match all of these fine, luxurious beads I’m wearing on my dress,” I said with a laugh. My arm was still intertwined as he put a hundred dollar bill down on the felt. The man in a red uniform behind the table replaced the bill with some casino chips, and Reid placed it all on black. The wheel was spun and sure enough, the black bet paid off.

  “Play again or eat?” he asked with a raised brow.

  “One more time,” I said excitedly. I’d never experienced anything like this before, and the idea of winning that kind of money so quickly felt addictive. No wonder people spent hours in casinos. I felt like it would be hard for me to walk away from this place until we were flat broke.

  Reid put another hundred dollars in chips on black again and we watched. As the ball hit on black one more time I let out another excitable squeal.

  “Again?” he asked, looking for my direction.

  “Lobster,” I said happily. I never even tried lobster before, but now that I could eat it with two hundred dollars we didn’t own just moments ago, I figured it would taste even better than I imagined it would. The possibility of losing all that money in an instant freaked me out, so I didn’t want to keep going. I definitely had one of those ‘quit while you’re ahead’ mentalities.

  We made our way over to the higher end looking restaurant and noticed there was a bit of a line before we could enter. We casually took our place behind some other guests, although within about ninety seconds, a gentleman wearing all black holding a radio politely pulled us out of line.

  “I’m so sorry to bother you guys this evening, but I just need to see your IDs real quick before you dine, if it’s not too much trouble,” he said curtly.

  “Oh yes, well, we did have a mix up with that,” Reid began, pulling out his own ID. He handed it over and the guy looked at it briefly, then reached his hand out for mine. “I’ve actually misplaced her ID and I don’t have it this evening, but I spoke to Dave earlier and he didn’t think it would be an issue since he’s knows us, and….”

  “Yeah, that’s the story I heard from Jared up front,” the guy said, not looking the least bit amused by Reid’s explanation. “But I’m Dave, so…”

  The guy simply held his hands up, waiting for us to respond.

  “I see, well… That means we’re leaving,” Reid said politely, grabbing my hand in his. We briskly walked away from the guy with the radio, laughing as we headed straight towards the entrance of the casino. “So that didn’t work out like I planned,” he said sympathetically. We quickly made our way out the front doors and Reid handed the valet attendant our ticket. Within about two minutes, his red Mustang was pulled around right in front of us. “I am so sorry,” he said apologetically.

  “That was the most exciting ten minutes I’ve ever had,” I said with a laugh. “You just won two hundred dollars! That was awesome.”

  “Yeah, except that it’s all in casino chips. I don’t know if they’ll let me exchange them for actual money after that,” he said with a laugh. “So I think we actually just lost a hundred dollars.”

  “That was still really fun,” I said happily. We got in the car and he pulled out from the boat entrance, making our way back towards the highway where we originally exited.

  “Well, we still need dinner,” he said looking around at all of the buildings around us on either side. “We can still go somewhere fancy. We’re all dressed up.”

  We drove down the street for another minute or two, looking at all of the restaurants as we passed.

  “There!” I exclaimed, pointing to a small building with bright green lights in the window. “Right there. That’s what I want.” The food aromas from the restaurant were surrounding us in the Mustang since the top was down, and the scent made me realize just how famished I was.

  “You can have any meal in the entire world, and you’re picking fried chicken?” he said with a laugh. Sure enough, the smell was coming from a local fast food joint advertising chicken.

  “Yes, that’s it,” I confirmed as he pulled his car into the parking lot of the restaurant.

  “Only if we can get the food to go,” he said with a smirk. He placed our order at the window and once we received the food, he rolled the bag up tight and set it in the back seat.

  “So you bought me the chicken, but now I can’t eat the chicken?” I asked with a giggle. “I’m starving.”

  “We need some ambience first,” he said sweetly. “Look at you. You look like one of the Golden Girls. You can’t eat in a dark car, that’s not right. I’m taking us somewhere nearby, it’s less than five minutes. I promise.”

  Reid pulled the car out of the restaurant parking lot and he drove us about three miles until we came to a barbed wire fence surrounding what looked like a small airport. He shut off the engine and grabbed a blanket out of the backseat along with the bag of food, exiting the car. I followed him. There was a small grassy area near the fence. It wasn’t well lit, other than the light from the moon and the glow of the tarmac lights.

  “We can watch the planes take off and land,” he said with a big grin on his face. “I used to love doing this as a kid.”

  “I don’t think I ever did,” I said honestly. I don’t think it even crossed my mind at any point.

  “My grandfather was a pilot,” he said nostalgically, sitting down on the blanket and opening up the bag of food. The smell was even more enticing to me now and I was so eager to eat. “We used to have picnics with him and my grandma out by their airport. We would sit there for an hour or two, just watching the planes. He would tell us all of these crazy stories about flying. You’d never think something so simple could mesmerize two little boys, but man, Preston and I loved it.”

  Within a couple minutes, a plane drove past us down a nearby runway. Moments later the engines roared and the plane raced down the tarmac, eventually lifting up into the sky. It actually was quite mesmerizing. Two other planes landed, and three more took off during the time we sat there on the blanket, eating our dinner. It was a perfect spot.

  “So freezer pancakes, lots of driving, being escorted out of a public place because I’m an idiot, and fried chicken in the grass by a really noisy airport,” he stated with an animated shrug. “Probably the best birthday you’ve ever had, am I right?” He said it sarcastically, but strangely, I loved everything about this day. It was actually a great one.

  “I haven’t had a lot of good birthdays, so you’re underestimating my statistics on this one,” I teased. “This day was actually pretty perfect.”

  He leaned over and kissed me, further proving my point that this day was in fact spectacular. “Next year I’ll have more time to plan it,” he said sweetly.

  He got up and walked back to the car, taking something out of the trunk. He quickly sat back down beside me, setting a small present in my lap. It was a square object wrapped up in a piece of newspaper. I carefully opened it, turning it over in my hands. It was a beautiful old wooden picture frame, about four inches big, with a picture of Christy Brinkley in it. I laughed.

  “Treasure,” he said softly. “Not the picture, obviously. You’ll want to change that. But I found
that frame in the barn last night.”

  “It’s really beautiful,” I said honestly, rubbing my fingers along the rustic wood edges of it. The corners had some type of black hinge metal on them. It looked like one of those items you’d see in a fancy refurbishing store where they charged an astronomical amount of money for something just because it looked old and charming. It really was beautiful.

  “I thought you could put your favorite picture from this trip in it,” he said thoughtfully. “I’m not saying it has to be a picture of me or anything, obviously, but you could if you wanted to. To remember all of this.” He smiled as he said it, and I smiled too. It was absolutely perfect for a picture of us. Maybe the one we took last night by the barn.

  “Thank you,” I replied, kissing him. “I like your treasure.” We watched another plane take off, and I was in awe of the entire thing. It was amazing to me that people could just take off into the sky. I often wished for somewhere important to go. Somewhere far away, where I would need a plane to get there. But now in these moments, simply laying out on a blanket with Reid underneath the stars, I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to go somewhere far.

  CHAPTER 16

  We eventually headed back to the car to continue on our journey. Reid pulled onto the highway, heading east, with the road trip play list cued up and singing through the speakers. I couldn’t even remember what our next stop was, but I didn’t really care. I wouldn’t have changed anything about this day. I stared out the window, watching the shadows alongside the road fly by. It was like I was in a time machine, uncertain of how much time had really passed since we first started this expedition, but still somewhat aware that time wasn’t really passing all that fast in the grand scheme of things. We listened to music for about forty-five minutes, and I couldn’t stop smiling as my brain replayed our day in my head.

  “Are you sure you want to keep driving? We can definitely stop somewhere for the night,” Reid suggested politely.