Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
She mirrors it back and crosses her fingers as if telling me, I will. Promise.
The door is still open slightly from when Dulcie unlocked it a few minutes ago. I pull it wide open, but she stops me.
“Hey. Just before you go, I wanted to give you something to think about. Parting wisdom from someone who isn’t very wise but knows how to use the internet and gets way too many quotes popping up because once you read one, you have to read them all.”
I can’t help but brace myself when I angle around to make eye contact with her. That’s what you should do when someone says they have wisdom for you. From anyone else, I tend not to take it, or I’ll be highly skeptical and listen, but let it bounce right off. From Dulcie, with her little smile and the creases at the corners of her eyes crinkled with kindness and smeared eyeliner, I know I won’t just listen. Her words will settle into my flesh and bone and become a part of me.
What did I just say about being so fucked?
“Go ahead,” I say to her.
“Don’t laugh.”
“I won’t,” I swear. “Unless… well, unless I do.”
At those words, she does the most ridiculous thing and pushes up the tip of her nose, pulling a face at me. I laugh so hard that I nearly drop the pizza I’m holding.
“There. You can get it out of the way,” she says in response to my laughter. “What I’m about to say is serious.”
I try to force a straight face.
“This is translated from another language. I can’t remember which one, but it doesn’t really matter.”
I nearly lost it there. She notices and puts up a hand in a signal for me to hold it in until I burst if I have to. She needs to get to the good part.
“It went something like, to create peace in the world, you have to create peace in yourself. The way you see yourself is how other people will see you. I know this is just me, and it’s easier said than done, but you should do you and do it awesomely, because you are awesome. I know you think people will just look at you and see the half of your face you’re not that into anymore, but you’re wrong.” She frames her hands around her face, still holding the paper towel tight around her finger, and makes an explosion noise.
Brain blown.
Tell me about it.
You should do you and do it awesomely, because you are awesome.
It’s not laughter that wants to burst out of me. My eyes are dangerously hot, and this is just more evidence that Dulcie is feeling like herself. She’s one of the few people in the world who would dare to speak her mind. She gives it to me straight, and not just the bad but the good too. Sometimes that’s the most frightening thing. Goodness and hope are so fragile and can be so easily ripped away.
I salute her with the plate of pizza I’m holding. “I’ll do my best to remember that.” I need to promise more. She didn’t put that out there just so it could stay surface level in my head. I thump my fist over my chest. “I’ll take it to heart.”
She twists a strand of her hair around her finger, looking flushed, frazzled, and unearthly gorgeous in her baggy clothes. “Aye, aye, captain. See you in a few days. Remember, if you bail on me, I know where you live. I’ll toilet paper your trees, even if I have to walk all the way there while shouldering two industrial packs.”
I’m the one who crosses my fingers this time and holds them up next to the pizza. “I promise. I won’t bail on you. I’d never give up a chance to ride a party bus.”
There’s nothing in my life that I want to do more than this.
I know I should have gone back to Ohio long before now.
I just never knew homesickness could be a person you barely know and not a place at all.
Chapter eight
Dulcie
This party bus kicks all the ass.
It’s extra rewarding and twice as exciting as I thought it would be after five long days of dealing with hostile rental companies, asshole insurance agents, and possibly the worst property owners I have ever met. It was a mass of snarly, depressing human interactions. I tried to handle it all on my own, but unfortunately, I had to call Luca after day three and have him step in.
The owners refused to clear the tree off the property, stating that they were too far away, and since I was there at the time, it was my responsibility to get someone and then pay for it. They went so far as to tell me they were going to charge me for damaging their yard.