We're a Wonderful Wife Ch. 11

As she looked out on the bleak, cold world a deep voice rumbled behind her. "Come on Miss Krigbaum, you know that no one is allowed to loiter in the lobby." She looked over her shoulder and there was Marly, the huge, as black as night security guard. He was bearing down on her like a battleship charging toward an errant rowboat. His name was John Wilson, but he was called Marly by the bill collectors of Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting because of the unlit Marlboro hanging from his lips from the hour of 4:30 PM when management left, till whatever hour Marly left.

"Marly, it's raining outside, ah'm just waiting for my Uber, it will be here any time now."

"I can't let you do that Karole. You know that" he implored. Then he recited his script, "the lobby is for customer use only."

"Ok, ah'm goin'," she groaned.

"Why don't you go across the lot to Don Pollo's for the office party?" asked Marly.

"Slam back a bunch of tequila in a room full of people ah detest working with? Not a brilliant career move."

"I hear ya." A smile crossed Marly's normally impassive face. Of the dozens of people that work here, Marly is the only person that Karole likes. "Karole, I have to ask you to step outside, it means both of our jobs."

"Sorry Marly. Hey, can ah bum a smoke offa you?" Marly eased a pack of Marlboro Red from his pocket and with an expert flick of the wrist he extended a cigarette halfway from the pack a offered it to Karole. "Thanks Marly," she said as she took the proffered smoke, "Got a light?"

Marly extended to her a small butane lighter, but he refused to release it when she tried to take it. The waiting room around them faded to black, the only thing she could see now was Marly who implored, "Karole, you have to let go of the hate, it will become an anchor chain around your neck."

"It's all ah have left," she responded, suddenly scared of the one man she has ever met that was taller than her. "Why are you bothering me?"

"It is required of every man," Marley replied, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life..."

"Yeah, yeah, ah know the rest," sneered Karole, "Every English teacher ah ever had required me to do a report on a Christmas Carol because of my name." Her southern accent began to copy a British accent as she said, "And if that spirit goes not forth in life it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world - oh, woe is me! Yadda yadda yadda, ah heard it all before. What cha gonna do, sic a buncha ghosts on me?"

His eyes narrowed as he softly growled, "You will be visited by two spirits and one ghost, their visit means more to you and your son than you could believe..."

"Screw that!" demanded Karole, "Scrooge was right "What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books..." well, Ah balanced my books and ah got jack shit! Ah got nuttin for my daughter, and next week ah won't have a roof over ma haid!"

The intensity faded from his eyes and the color returned to the room. "Karole, please..." he said softly.

Panicked by his sudden change of personality without explanation Karole was finally able to pluck the lighter from his huge fingers and she put distance between herself and the guard as fast as possible. She flicked the lighter then lit her cigarette as she walked to the exit. The doors opened automatically, and she turned and tossed the lighter back to Marly. "There's no smoking in the lobby," he called out, shaking his head as if to clear the cobwebs.

"I don't smoke," said Karole, emitting a cloud of smoke. That was mostly true, she doesn't smoke, unless she needs a quick buzz and then a rare coffin nail works wonders. "And ah don't got no son."

Across the parking lot they were whoopin' it up at Don Pollo's Margarita Bar, a semi-successful Mexican restaurant for people who have never eaten Mexican food, it's food that looks Mexican. Don and Lanh Campbell opened Karole up to a whole world of food, including Mexican and Karole discovered that there's nothing like good Mexican food. And Don Pollo's is nothing like good Mexican food.

There's no sign of her Uber and she's freezing. What was up with Marly? He didn't even know the script, it was three ghosts, not two spirits and a ghost. She muttered and complained to herself about Marly's strange revelation, in the end Scrooge was right, Marly must have had something for lunch that didn't agree with him, "...an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you..."

Karole realized that a drop of rain almost put her cigarette out, she's not a smoker so she didn't know to cup the stogie in her hand to keep it dry. She puffed it back to life and muttered, "I only lie to myself," a rule she tries to live by.

She pulled her phone out and started to dial, hoping, praying to hear his voice. Or maybe Mai, Karole loves Mai who constantly demands that Karole drop everything and move to Minnesota to help Rosa run the family restaurant, and Karole wishes she could say yes. But Don is here in Colorado...

"Hello, Don? Hey, I'm running a bit late, the Uber is late and..."

"It's ok, we're reading stories," said Don. Karole could hear Krissy's babbling in the background, she's 11 months old and getting closer every day to speaking. "Listen, why don't you..."

Karole was distracted because the rain had turned to snow like someone threw a switch, the cold miserable drizzle became a beautiful, gentle snowfall with perfectly shaped flakes fluttering gently from the sky. The snowflakes swirled around her giving Karole the feeling that she was living in a snow globe. Don would love this; she thought as she gazed at the swirling flakes. They reminded her of the only place she ever felt at home, Minnesota. She chuckled; he would call this Christmas snow; however, she knew that in the twenty miles between their two locations the weather patterns could be vastly different.

Smiling for the first time today she noticed that the snowflakes had stopped, they were hovering in midair. She reached out to touch one and before she touched the snowflake, she felt a sudden jolt go through her. Not an electric shock, but like someone bumped her in the back. It was followed in rapid succession by ten more jolts and then someone appeared next to her. Surprised at the sudden appearance her feet slipped out from under her and Karole dropped to her hands and knees, her cell phone landed on the ground in front of her and Don was talking to her. She realized that she hadn't heard a word he said and was trying to look up at the person who appeared when the apparition spoke.

"Ok, let's get this started. We need to get this right; this is the last chance we get," said the specter which had a familiar, haunting appearance...

"Karole?" Don looked at his phone, it showed that he was still connected to Karole. He heard a clattering like she dropped the phone, then he heard an occasional gasp or yelp.

Twenty miles away and sixteen years ago Karole was being exposed to a past that brought tears to her eyes, she saw the courtship of Don and Lanh from the day they met until the day they met her. She saw the pain they survived together and the good times that they enjoyed always together, and their love - so much love! Could there be a bit of that love for her? A spirit of herself from her past revealed how Don and Lanh built a life together, traveled the world, educated themselves, and made love with a passion that Karole didn't believe possible.

A spirit from Karole's future joined the spirit of Karole's past showed Karole scenes that amazed and shocked her. The spirits revealed two versions of her future, one so horrific that it will give her nightmares until the day it comes true, and one so beautiful she will weep and pray it comes true for years to come, and all she has to do to guarantee that either one of those futures happens is nothing. All she has to do is stay here and smoke her cigarette and all that love that Don has reserved for Lanh could be hers.

The thought sickened her more than the nicotine rush ever could. She spent days viewing Don and Lanh's past, months viewing her potential futures, but mere seconds had actually passed but that's all it took to make up her mind, the price was too great, there had to be a third option.

"Karole? Are you ok?" Don was starting to wonder if Karole was having an attack... or maybe she was being attacked... then it sounded like she was arguing with someone... two other women were arguing with her is what it sounded like... then suddenly Karole shrieked "Where is Lanh?"

There was a clap of silent thunder that rolled through the house, Don and Krissy felt it rather than heard it... something changed... something very big changed. They looked at each other in shock and suddenly Krissy was very scared. Karole's screamed question hung in the air between them, "Where is Lanh?"

"She's over at Don Pollo having a drink with her mom," said Don. "They were shopping and decided to have a margarita. Mai said she texted you."

Karole realized she was on her hands and knees in front of Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting, she was looking at her dropped phone which was still on the speaker setting. Now the snowflakes which had been hanging motionless started falling again. "Don? Is that you?"

"Well, duh! We've were talking and you went silent for a moment," said Don. Krissy grabbed the phone off the coffee table and started jabbering into the phone, she was relieved and excited to hear her mommy.

"Oh, babydoll, let mommy talk to Mister Don."

"Momma!" said Krissy speaking her first word, the word her Mr. Don taught her for Christmas.

"Oh baby, I love you too babydoll! Don, call Lanh! Tell her to stay there, I'll be right over."

"I think her phone is dead, my calls are going to voice mail," said Don, "She's as bad as you for charging her phone."

"Call Mai, call Don Pollo's, tell them to hold her, I'm on my way, it's important." Karole tried to get up, but everything was covered with a fine smooth layer of ice, her feet kept sliding on the ice, that earlier rain froze up and the whole area is a giant skating rink now, she saw cars sliding, trying to stop and slamming into parked cars. She jammed her phone into her purse and her fingers touched something that Lanh had put in there when she was pregnant with Krissy and was having trouble walking in the snow.

"Here, when it gets slippery, put these on over your shoes," Lanh told her. "I learned this in Germany from our landlady Frau Grolisch. They look funny but I could walk up an ice-covered hill with them!" Karole could still remember the smile on Lanh's face when she shoved the "snow tires" into her purse where they lay buried in Karole's large purse for a year. Karole remembered Frau Grolisch from her trip into Don and Lanh's past, and she never steered the young American couple wrong. Karole reached into her large purse and pulled out a pair of woolen hunting socks.

Now is no time to be a fashion model, Karole pulled the socks on over her flats as quickly as possible then tried to get up, and she found that Lanh was right, the wool socks actually stuck to the ice. She gathered up her purse and headed out across the skating rink slick parking lot as fast as she dared and when she found that she could walk fast, she started to run.

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Fortified with a margarita and a half each, Mai and Lanh realized it was after five PM, they had promised to be home long before five. "Are you ready má? We should get going."

"These people," started Mai, she waved her hand toward the Torgeson and Briggs Financial Consulting holiday party over by the bar. "They are điên say!" (crazy drunk) laughed Mai who was feeling the tequila herself.

"I think those are the people Karole works with. I can see why she chose not to come to the party," said Lanh. As a military wife, she's seen some crazy parties. Military people need to blow off steam on occasion, and sometimes it's not pretty.

"You should pack her up and send her to me!" said Mai. Karole has proved herself to be a great waitress and business is so good at their noodle shop that they need more help. Karole has filled in as a waitress every time she comes to visit with Don and Lanh, even when she was pregnant with Krissy. Mai's customers constantly ask for "the waitress that sounds like a truck driver."

"That's my Christmas present to Don and Karole!" said Lanh as she pulled on her parka, "I got the position at Bemidji State! UNC said that they will release me from my contract at the end of this semester, we'll be home by June!"

"Tuyệt!" (Wonderful!) cried Mai, she is happiest when all of her chicks are near her. "Donovan will be ecstatic!" He really wants to come home, but he promised Lanh that he would support her, and Colorado is where her profession has led her...

"Karole needs to come too," said Lanh, "if I have to drag her kicking and screaming the whole way to Minnesota!" She led Mai through the holiday revelers that were now packing Don Pollo's before Happy Hour was over. The house margaritas there are pretty nasty, but after 3 or 4 you don't notice how bad they are. Lanh started creating a checklist for what she needs to do for the move home in her head then paused and said, "Mom, can you call Don? My phone is dead."

"Again," sighed Mai as she dug out her phone and saw that there were seven missed calls.

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Bradley Davis was able to get away with all kinds of inexcusable behaviors at work and yet he keeps his job. He shows up to work drunk, he's disrespectful to customers, and he's an utter drag on employee morale, but he is a riot at parties.

Right now, Brad was still stinging from the rejection that Lanh gave him, and he was still cursing that "chink bitch" to anyone that would listen. He was so drunk that he was seeing double, but he promised to show these "pilgrims" that moved to Colorado recently how to have fun on the ice. The "Californiacs" who just moved to Colorado from L.A. and San Diego were terrified of driving in the snow, but Brad was going to teach them. He was going to instruct them on the fine art of "The Donut."

He got behind the wheel of his fully restored 1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible - 18 feet, 8 inches long (5.69 meters), 5,153 lbs of Detroit iron, 500 cubic inch (8.2 liter) V8 engine harnessing 235 horses. Fully adjustable leather seats with six preset positions, and an actual 8-Track tape player, if you can't get laid in this love shack on wheels, you can't get laid! What the hell, it's 32 degrees, (0 C) so it's barely chilly. As the Big 500 started to pump out warm air he lowered the ragtop and eased the beast out of its parking berth. It's show time...

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From across the parking lot Karole saw the top of Bradley's land yacht rising up like a sail and she realized that she didn't have much time. She was running hard and gave up on trying to run like the Olympians she's seen on TV. Turns were handled by slamming into cars and ricocheting off the car into the direction she wants to go, but she's got to go faster... faster!

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Mai finally got through to Don but it was hard to dial a phone and keep up with Lanh as Lanh bulldozed her way through the crowd of people who had gathered in front of Don Pollo's to watch Bradley Davis' version of A Miracle on Ice... Don finally picked up and Mai could hear Krissy's whining over her teething pains. "Don? It Mai, Lanh want you to know that we are heading home now, too many drunk here! Guy is spinning his car in circles on the ice."

Don chuckled, just like Lanh, when she gets excited or stressed Mai's Vietnamese accent gets very pronounced. When he got a chance to speak, he said, "Karole called, she said to wait, she's walking over from work, she should be there soon."

That was when Mai started screaming "Lanh! Dừng lại! Dừng lại!" (Stop! Stop!)

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The big Cadillac spun in graceful circles somehow missing the other cars in the parking lot. Karole had to admit that Bradley Davis was pretty good at handling that car on ice, but she kept running, she wasn't going to stop until she reached Lanh, who was probably in that crowd of people in front of Don Pollo's. Then the unthinkable happened, the titty pink caddy hit a dry patch and its slow spiral turned into an arrow straight trajectory aimed straight at the mob of drunks in front of Don Pollo's.

Karole saw her at the last moment, the sea of drunks parted as Bradley's Caddy headed straight toward them, but Lanh didn't notice, her mind was filled with the joy of being able to go home. Karole could hear Mai screaming at Lanh and far too late Lanh finally noticed. The tiny Asian was unable to move properly on the ice, it was too slick to turn around. She looked up just in time to see the acre of Detroit steel that was bearing down on her to kill her. The look of terrified understanding on Lanh's face told the entire story, Lanh now knew that she was about to die.

Exhausted beyond anything she ever did before in her life, Karole put on a final burst of speed. Her wool socks were getting gummed up with ice, snow and water, and started to slip but she still had some traction left, hopefully enough and she dove.

Karole's shoulder caught Lanh right in the gut and drove her back into Mai, and both mother and daughter went down as Karole went under the car instead of Lanh. The car slammed into a security post in front of Don Pollo's and came to a halt, the engine immediately died, and Lanh was showered with hot anti-freeze, her screams of pain drown out Karole's muttered apologies to her children, "Mommy's sorry Krissy... Mister Don will be a good daddy for you..." as she weakened and slipped into unconsciousness she whispered "Mommy's sorry Reggie..."

Don was trying to find out from Mai what was going on and Krissy was shrieking in horror, it's like she realized what happened to her mother. Was she able to know what was occurring? Don turned to look at Krissy, he was almost ready to yell at her to quiet down when he saw it... Krissy was standing up next to the coffee table, crying her little eyes out, her tiny heart breaking, but there next to her, was a ghostly image, it was Karole wearing a red robe trimmed with white borders like Santa Claus, and she was whispering to Krissy, "Be a good girl for Mister Don, he's going to be your daddy..."

Don froze and the phone fell out of his hand. He squeezed his eyes closed and shook his head then looked again and the image was gone but the voice continued while Krissy's little heart broke over and over.

Lanh looked at her best friend, the woman she loved most in the world, through tear filled eyes. Karole's twisted body was just inches from her, and Lanh could almost see the life seeping out of Karole. She heard her mother saying through her own tears, "Lanh, em bé (my baby), here is your Donovan," and Mai held her phone next to Lanh's head which was pinned between Mai's leg and the bumper of the car.

"Lanh, em yêu (my love), I love you, I'm coming for you," wept Don. "I'm on my way now!"

"Help," was all Lanh could say. Her voice was shaking, and it terrified Don as he gathered up what he needed and scooped up Krissy. The terrified wails of the baby as he put Krissy in her car seat almost drowned out what Lanh said.