Wings of Eagles

by Annabelle Garcia

  “So, Adira, have you decided what color dress you are wearing to the banquet?” E-Z’s question brought me out of my reverie

  “I- uh. . . no. I haven’t given it much thought.”

  “She was a little bit busy last night when we got home. There were more important decisions that needed to be taken care of.”

  “GET OUT!” E-Z boomed then clapped a huge hand over his mouth then continued in almost a whisper. “You made your decision last night?” His eyes were dancing.

  “Decision?” I looked quickly over to Karen, totally lost. It was as though they were speaking a different language.

  “You goober!” Karen teased E-Z. “She wouldn’t know what that means yet! But yeah, she made her decision last night in the kitchen with mom and me.” I felt a little stupid realizing now what he had been talking about.

  “Congratulations, Adira.” Ozzy leaned across the table to shake my hand. “Welcome to the family.” I took his hand and felt a surge of electricity run through me.

  “Thank you.” I said quite breathless.

  “You are something really special.” His eyes held mine for a few seconds more, his whispered statement hanging in the air.

  “Here you go.” The waiter appeared with our meals and I didn’t want to look at Ozzy again. A sideways glance told me Karen had heard as well. I saw the hurt in her eyes and silently scolded myself for having caused it.

  

  CHAPTER 12

  

  “Ozzy took a liking to you.” Karen was the first to speak once we were back in the car.

  “Karen, I’m not interested-”

  “That’s the killer.” She sighed. “

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “There’s nothing to say. It isn’t your fault. It’s just a fact.” She smiled at me. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not the end of the world.”

  “I should have stayed at the office. I’m really sorry.”

  “I’m glad you came with me. At least now I know where I stand with Ozzy. I really need to focus on my studies instead of guys. So enough talk of guys, we are really gonna have to start looking at dresses for you.”

  “Ugh, I don’t even wanna think about the banquet.” I shuddered.

  “Don’t worry about Cat. E-Z won’t let her get with in fifty feet of you.” She giggled and I rolled my eyes.

  “Enough of that, let’s get back to work.”

  

  “Adira, could you come to my office please?” I nearly dropped my stapler as the voice crackled through the speaker.

  “I’ll be right in.” I hurried across the hall.

  “Adira, thank you for helping out. This is Mr. Myers, he is head of Human Resources.” I turned to see an elderly gentleman.

  “Nice to meet you, Adira.” He took my hand in his arthritic one and gently squeezed it. “Howard here tells me you filled in for Veda.”

  “Yes sir, I mean I’ve done what I can.” Which really wasn’t much more than sorting and stapling papers.

  “Ah, I see. Well, I thank you for your willingness to assist us. You know we have an important conference next week.” I nodded. “Well we have a suspicion Veda and Julissa were wrangled away from us at this precise moment to cripple us at the conference.”

  “You already know Veda wasn’t doing the work I needed for the conference. Those cases of paper should have already been sorted and stapled. How much more do you have before you are done? Do I need to bring in someone else to help you?” Mr. Wallace was red faced and sweating.

  “No sir, I’m already done. I completed the last of the packets before lunch today. It would have been earlier if I had known where all the folios were.” Both men stared at me. I didn’t know what to say.

  “Young lady, do you mean to tell me you finished three cases of paper?”

  “Yes sir. I mean all I have to do is get the packets into the portfolios. They arrived while we were at lunch. I’m so sorry, is that going to be a problem?” I had the sinking feeling I’d done something very wrong.

  “The only problem is we were told by Veda it would take her the better part of two weeks to get it all sorted and ready.”

  “Oh. Well in her defense, I haven’t done anything but that all day. Perhaps her other duties prevented her from doing as much in one day.”

  “I think what was keeping her from getting her work done was the amount of money she would make by sabotaging our conference presentation.”

  “What she doesn’t know is she will be out of a job soon. I heard Miller and Johnson are pretty much dead in the water. Looks like this was a last ditch effort to get the Killner account. I spoke with Grant Killner and told him about their tactics. He canceled his meeting with them.” Mr. Meyers guffawed and then turned to me.

  “Young lady, would you be interested in assisting us at the conference? I do believe we can use you the whole week. Seems to me you are quite a hard worker.” I hesitated, not sure if this was a good idea.

  “Karen will be there to, so you won’t be overworked.” Mr. Wallace added.

  “I wasn’t worried about that. I was just, well I mean I figured… It would be great. I’d love to.”

  “Wonderful! I’ll need you and Karen tomorrow as well. But you can call it a day now.”

  “But the packets -”

  “Can wait until tomorrow. You’ve done most everything and I don’t want you to burn out.”

  “If you say so.” I slowly rose from my chair.

  “I do say so. Now go on and get out of here. Karen should be waiting for you at the elevators already.” Mr. Wallace turned to the other man. “Meyers, you will have all the paperwork for my girls tomorrow, right?”

  “Yes sir. I may have Karen’s already on file, but I will need Adira’s.”

  “There you have it, Adira. You have a great evening. I’ll see you girls at home.” He turned back to Mr. Meyers who had already fixed his attention to some files on the desk. I walked out of the office and somehow made it to the elevators and just as Mr. Wallace had predicted, Karen was waiting for me.

  “So, did you take the job?”

  “You knew?” I gasped.

  “Well yeah! I suggested to daddy that maybe having us go with him would work better than hiring some money hungry temps who wouldn’t do the job right.” She grinned.

  “Then I guess we will be working together for the week. I wasn’t sure at first. I mean I’ve never really done anything like this before.”

  “You will do great. Hopefully they can use you more often now that Veda turned out to be a backstabbing monster.” We boarded the elevator and Karen really let loose. “I mean, seriously, who does she think she is? My dad took a chance on her and then she goes and just trashes him?” Her face was flushed.

  “She made a mistake, I’m sure she didn’t think it through.”

  “What was there to think through? Betray the man who took a risk on you, or don’t!” She was shrieking now.

  “Karen, calm down.” I grabbed her arm and shushed her as the elevator doors slid open.

  “I’m sorry, it just makes me mad.” She hissed.

  “Karen, Adira, wait up.” We turned and saw Ozzy walking quickly toward us.

  “What’s up?” Karen was trying hard to sound calm but it wasn’t fooling me. I busied myself reading the building directory on the wall near the elevators.

  “E-Z and I were thinking about going to the free concert out at The Green this evening. We wanted to know if you guys were interested in going with us.”

  “Well if Adira wants to go.” I turned and saw her mouth please!

  “Of course, sounds like fun.” Though I didn’t really want to go. Ozzy looked at his watch.

  “Great, then would it be okay to pick you up at five?”

  “Sure, sounds great.” Karen’s fingers crushed mine and I knew she was thrilled.

  “See you then.” He held Karen’s gaze for a moment then turned to me. “Thanks for agreeing to go.” We stood there wat
ching him walk away.

  “Karen, I think you got your wires crossed. He was clearly asking if you wanted to go to the concert.”

  “He was, wasn’t he?” She slumped against the wall near the elevators. “You don’t mind going do you?” I shook my head.

  “Of course not. I just hope E-Z doesn’t think this is a date or anything.”

  “Oh, loosen up! So what if he thinks it is a date? I think you ought to give him a chance. You would make a cute couple. Besides this way the banquet won’t be your first date!”

  “Don’t remind me!” I groaned.

  “First things first. We gotta find something cute for you to wear to the concert tonight.” We got in the car and planned our wardrobe choices as we drove back to the house.

  

  CHAPTER 13

  

  “MOTHER!” Karen shrieked as we entered the house.

  “Goodness, Karen, you are gonna bring down the house!”

  “Oh you will never believe where we are going tonight!” She danced around the room. It was odd, just how normal the family seemed. Not churchy all the time, just normal family stuff.

  “Well are you going to tell me or do I have to guess all evening?”

  “We are going to the concert at The Green. Ozzy asked if Adira and I wanted to go with him and E-Z. I’m guessing Debby will be going too, I didn’t ask. Oh, I should call her and find out. Maybe there is gonna be a whole group of people going. Maybe he was just being nice and including us in the group thing.” She looked crestfallen.

  “And maybe, the boys wanted to go with two of the prettiest girls in the neighborhood.”

  “Oh mom!” She laughed and hugged her mother. “Come on, Adira, we gotta find something to wear. We gotta be cute but warm.” She dragged me downstairs.

  “Are you eating dinner here?” Patricia called after us.

  “No, the guys will be here at five so we only have thirty minutes to get dressed!”

  “I won’t be long.” I told her as soon as the door closed. “I’ll just throw on some jeans and I think I saw a sweatshirt.”

  “OH NO! You can’t!” She pawed through the closet clucking and tsking at every piece of clothing there. “A-HA!” She exclaimed and pulled out some clothes.

  “Wait, no, I can’t wear that!” I was horrified. She was going to make sure I was the center of attention. Something I didn’t relish.

  “You can and you will look gorgeous. You get dressed and I’ll be back in a few minutes. Make sure you do your make up!” She trotted up the stairs and I stared at the outfit on the bed. A wine colored cowl necked sweater and black tuxedo slacks. Black high heeled boots lay on the bed next to the outfit. It was too beautiful. I reluctantly got dressed, fixed my makeup and brushed my hair out.

  

  “Adira! Can I come in?” Karen called down.

  “Yeah, I’m dressed.”

  “Oh, this is so not fair!” Karen gasped. I blushed furiously. I knew exactly how I looked. It wasn’t something I’d ever worked at.

  “Stop it or I just won’t go.”

  “Oh come on! At least let me live vicariously through you! How does it feel being so gorgeous?”

  “It’s miserable!” I grumbled.

  “Oh come on. Seriously?”

  “It’s just really uncomfortable and people judge you. There is a myth ‘beautiful’ people lead a charmed life. I’d rather be unnoticed.” I’d often been on the receiving end of undeserved nastiness because of my looks.

  “Don’t say that. I’ve been unnoticed and it isn’t fun.” I laughed thinking at how silly we sounded.

  “You are beautiful, and it isn’t just skin deep. I went to school with pageant girls. They are stunningly beautiful, but they have the ugliest hearts imaginable. I was one of them I’m ashamed to say.”

  “Adira, someone is at the door for you!” Patricia called down. We exchanged a puzzled glance and hurried up the stairs to see who might be looking for me. I should have known, E-Z stood in the living room, nervously twisting his car keys in his hands.

  “Hey, E-Z, get a load of Adira.” I nearly fled the room. He stared at me, mouth agape.

  “Shut up.” I whispered at her and she giggled.

  “Adira, I was wondering- um, well that is if Karen doesn’t mind. I wanted to know if you wouldn’t mind riding with me to the concert, alone I mean; just the two of us.” It was almost comical to see this gentle giant looking so nervous.

  “Well, I-” Karen flashed me a thumb’s up, which wasn’t what I was hoping for. “Sure.” I finished weakly.

  “Great!” He brightened up immediately. “Let’s go.” He thrust out his arm. I took it and looked helplessly back at Karen.

  “See you at The Green!” She called and I could hear the teasing in her voice.

  “Have fun you two.” Patricia called to me as we exited. The air was cold and I shivered.

  “E-Z, do you mind if I run back in to get a coat? I wasn’t expecting to leave so soon.” He hit his forehead with the heel of his hand.

  “How stupid of me. Of course. I’ll warm up the car.” He trotted off to do just that. I returned to the house.

  “Back so soon? That was one quick date!” Karen giggled.

  “Ha ha. I have to get a jacket, you threw me out so fast I didn’t have a chance to get one!” I ran downstairs with Karen hot on my heels.”

  “Wear the pea coat, you will look amazing in that!” She pushed me out of the way and rummaged through the closet once again. I heard her cell phone ring. “Hello?” She answered.

  I couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation, but I could only imagine it was Ozzy speaking.

  “Of course, yeah. They are heading out right now.” She paused. “I’ll be here. Okay, bye.” She came out with the pea coat in hand.

  “Karen?” I placed my hand on her arm.

  “He doesn’t want to go to the concert.”

  “I’ll stay here with you.” I told her, not only would I get out of going on a date with E-Z, but I could be here to comfort my new friend.

  “No, he is coming over, he wants to go somewhere to talk.” A huge smile broke out across her face.

  “Talk?”

  “Yeah. He wanted to know if I minded if we skipped the concert and went somewhere to talk.” She was fairly jumping out of her skin.

  “Well good for you.” I tried to sound enthusiastic.

  “Oh, Adira. Don’t think E-Z just asked to take you as a favor to Ozzy. He really does like you.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.” I mumbled.

  “What do you mean?” She frowned obviously confused.

  “Nothing.” I flicked my hand. “I gotta get going so I’m not here when Ozzy gets here. I’ll bet he is hoping E-Z and I are long gone by then. Have fun.” I waved and ran up the stairs and out the door. E-Z stood next to the passenger side door; I took a deep breath and braced myself. I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to convince E-Z I wasn’t any good for him.

  

  CHAPTER 14

  

  As much as I hated to admit it, I had a great time with E-Z. The concert ended late and we left The Green near midnight. E-Z assured me he would call Karen’s cell and tell her we were on our way.

  “What if she’s already asleep?” I’d asked, panicking.

  “Believe me, she isn’t. Ozzy just left a few minutes ago.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Well, we kind of planned this out.” I’d figured as much when Ozzy called Karen before I left.

  “Is that right?” I played along to see what he’d tell me.

  “Yeah, I knew he wanted to talk to Karen and I really wanted to hang out with you.” He avoided my gaze.

  “Oh.” I didn’t know how to respond to that. We rode back to the house in silence. The lights were still on in the house so I knew I wouldn’t be waking anyone up.

  “Thanks for going with me to the concert. I’ll see you on Sunday.” He held a hand out and
I shook it.

  “See ya.” I smiled and hurried to the door.

  It was unlocked so I just went on in. Karen was sitting in the living room smiling like crazy. It was contagious and I was soon grinning right along with her.

  “Oh, Adira, thanks so much for going with E-Z tonight. It was the most wonderful thing in the world.” She jumped up and hugged me. “He asked me to go with him to the banquet and he also asked if I would commit to pray about a relationship with him. He talked to my mom and dad and…” She squealed.

  “Shhh. Come to the room and tell me.” I could tell she was bursting, but I was sure her parents wanted to sleep.

  “Okay. Come on.” She dragged me all the way. I took my boots off and sat on the bed with her.

  “So spill it. What happened?”

  “Well he got here right after you guys left. He asked if he could speak to daddy first. Mom and I were like, ‘Um okay.’ So it was a little weird. I thought he was gonna quit or something. But then daddy called mom into the study and I was totally freaking out because I was the only one sitting in the living room now. Finally daddy called me in and asked me to sit down. I was sure something was wrong.”

  “So, what was all that about?” She started crying.

  “Daddy told me Ozzy asked his permission to pursue a relationship with me.”

  “I don’t understand. He needs permission to date you?” I was so lost. Karen burst into peals of laughter and she began to wipe her tears away.

  “Well Ozzy has been praying and asking God’s guidance in finding a wife.” She blushed.

  “Wait so he asked your dad if you would marry him?” I was stunned.

  “No, of course not! Calm down woman! He wants me to pray about it. Not getting married I mean, he wants me to pray about God’s will for this. In the meantime he asked if I would sit with him at the banquet.”

  “Are you kidding me? He had to ask permission to sit with you?”

  “Of course he didn’t have to, but it was nice of him to ask!” She got this dopey look on her face and I knew she was gone.

  “Well I’m glad you are getting to go with him to the banquet. Do you know what you are gonna wear?” She sat up and squealed again. “Hush! You are gonna wake everyone up!”