Chapter Four

Life in the fast lane
Surely make you lose your mind
Life in the fast lane
Are you with me so far?
Life In The Fast Lane
The Eagles

New York City

“Are you sure you won’t come, dahling?” Andy asked as he perched himself on the side of bed.

“I don’t feel very well, Andy.” She said for the umpteenth time. “I won’t be very good company and the dinner it’s just business it doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

“All right then.” Andy kissed her forehead and stood up. He looked in the mirror and straightened his tie then pulled back his hair into a pony tail. “I’ll probably be late.” He said as he turned back to her. “Do you want me to leave Henry with you?”

“No go ahead and take him. I’m sure he’d rather get out of this house.” Calla told him with an easy smile. “How late do you think?”

“Oh, I don’t know, love, well after two I should think, so don’t wait up, love.” If he told the truth he was sort of glad Calla was ill this evening and had begged off from the dinner engagement. He was getting tired of taking her everywhere with him and he was meeting with Randall Sinclair tonight and he was bound to bring his very lovely assistant Rachel with him. Andy fancied her and she fancied the two of them. Tonight four would be a crowd. Andy had several plans on sharing Calla with his friends once she was properly fixed up and presentable. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He kissed her forehead once more and then disappeared through the bedroom door.

From behind the curtain in the bedroom she watched Andy and Henry take off in the limousine, Calla grabbed the phone and called for a cab. It was 8:15 if the cab didn’t take too long she’d have just enough to get to JFK and catch her flight to Colorado. The cab company said the taxi would be there within fifteen minutes. Kneeling down, she snatched the old overnight bag from its hiding place under the bed. She tossed a change of clothes into it, grabbed her tooth brush and a nightgown, her robe and stuffed them in as well. She’d like very much to take some of the coke or weed with her but was afraid of the dogs at the airport so she left that stuff home. Lucky for her she the medicine cabinet was full of valium, she grabbed a bottle and stuffed it into her purse. Calla stopped to check her appearance in the mirror and thought it wasn’t too bad. There wasn’t much she could do about the hair but she’d done a good job on the make-up and her outfit was fairly suitable. Andy got rid of all her old clothes last night and all she had now were the new things he’d bought her.

A few hearty huffs up the old nose after which she wiped away a dark trickle of blood and a few hearty tokes off the bowl and the cab was honking outside. She should leave some type of note so that Andy didn’t worry when he came home. It was too difficult to hold a pen and she didn’t have time to run down the hall to the computer. She took a lipstick from the top of the dresser and scribbled on the mirror; Went to CO be back to NY b4 flight leaves. Calla dropped the lipstick and compact onto the dresser and dashed down the stairs to get the cab. By the time she got into the back seat her heart was racing and her nose was trickling again. Maybe it was the cocaine that made her heart beat so swiftly but maybe it was fear. She shouldn’t have to sneak out like a thief in the night just to visit with her own children. Shaking a Newport out of the pack with shaking hands she saw she had a joint with her, she couldn’t go through the airport with that but there was no sense in wasting good weed either. “Do you mind?” She asked the cab driver and held the joint in his line of sight.

“Share it with me?”

“Certainly,” she lit it and realized it was some of that hallucinogenic stuff. She’d have to be mindful of that when she went through the airport and got on the plane. On the ride to JFK Calla and the scruffy but congenial cabbie toked on the joint and talked about her problems. Calla figured he probably heard a lot of shit in his cab, probably on a daily if not hourly basis, what was one more sad tale to a guy like him? He didn’t offer much in the way of advice but he was kind enough to listen and to grunt or agree at the appropriate times in the conversation. When he dropped her off at the main gate she left with a good sized roach and a twenty dollar tip.

Outside the airport was all right, it was a dark drizzly night but inside where the lights were bright was a different story. Everything was surrounded in a halo of light as it swayed back and forth and stretched side to side. People with circus-mirror faces and bodies passed her by on their way to wherever. Feeling her heart thudding in her chest and tapping her foot against the cold hard floor she waited in line at the check in counter. Forty-five minutes passed by and she beginning to think Fate was against her but finally she made it to the counter, showed the clerk her id, checked her bag and went on into the airport and the boarding area. Once again she waited in line tapping her foot, biting her thumb nail and hearing her pulse echo in her head. Calla made it on to the plane just in time. She strapped in and before she knew it they were taxing down the runway and then they were flying through the air. She was on her way home.

No. That wasn’t right. She was NOT on her way HOME. She didn’t have a HOME anymore. She was on her way back. Yes, that was right. On her way back to Colorado to her children and Daniel. Andy was going to be furious when he got home and found her gone but she’d deal with that later. It was like she was going to stay in Colorado. Calla was certain Daniel wasn’t going to open his arms to her and ask her to stay with him. She’d meet Andy either in New York or in Geneva and they’d pick up their plans just as he wanted but she had to see her family first.

“Ma’am?” The flight attendant was saying. Calla looked up to see the pretty young woman holding out a tissue to her while pushing the bar cart. “Your nose,” she explained, “you’re bleeding, ma’am.”

“Oh,” Calla took the white tissue and wiped it under her nose she pulled it away to see it stained with dark blood. “Thank you.”

“Sure,” she smiled warmly. “Would you like a drink?”

“Yes, Jack Daniels, please.”

“Would you like ice with that ma’am?”

“No just the bottle. Why not make it two?” Calla said with an easy smile and handed over the cash for the booze. “May I have a few more tissues please? It must the sudden altitude change.”

The flight attendant nodded her agreement while handing over two nip bottles of Jack & Danny and a handful of fresh tissues. “If you need anything else just let me know.” Then she was off on her way to the next passenger.

Calla drank the alcohol straight from the little bottles and fell into a light sleep until the plane landed at Denver International.

End of Chapter Four
Tarnished Heroes: Life in the Fast Lane--Calla's Story
Continue to
Chapter Five