They All Died Smiling

What felt like minutes after I got to sleep, the rich aroma of strong Columbian coffee roused me. Now that’s how to greet the day, with the bonus of someone else making the brew. The nightmares and scant sleep had left me groggy. I wrapped my red fleece robe around me and ambled into the kitchen.

“You look like death warmed over.”

I stretched my arms straight out in front of me and walked with unbending knees like Frankenstein’s monster. “Thanks, Jules, love you too.”

Julie poured a mug of coffee and handed it to me. “You look like you didn’t get much sleep.”

“You missed the cat fight.”

“Cat fight?” She wrote something on the calendar and picked up an envelope.

“Lucky. You sleep like the dead.”

She waved the envelope, obviously inviting comment.

“Is that your ticket for the Miss Lonely Hearts show?”

“Yeah, how’d you guess?”

“Reporter’s instinct.”

“Really.” She shot me a skeptical look, so I ’fessed up.

“Your smile gave you away. And you’re waving that envelope you showed me last night, so I bet there’s something else in there you didn’t expect.”

“Ooh, you’re good. Yes.” She handed me a ticket. “There were two in there after all, not one. They were stuck together. So you get to come with me.”

Yippee. I could think of a number of things I would rather do than hear a roomful of whining women share their sob stories about failed romance. The most tantalizing options included cleaning the chicken coop, watching paint dry, or scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush. Randy’s unit had to do that once when a trainee misbehaved.

But I reminded myself that this was an opportunity to write an article or three. Come to think of it, getting inside that by-invitation-only church could be interesting. Not for the religion, but for the story. A clandestine temple must be full of juicy secrets. I kept all that to myself and went with the obvious.

“Wow, thank you for sharing this with me. Maybe I’ll score an interview with her.”

“You’re hilarious. I doubt we’ll get anywhere near her.” She did another Snoopy happy dance.

“You’ll be with a nosy writer, so you never know what will happen.” It was good to see Julie come back to life

“Maybe Mandy will sign her book for me.” She opened it and pointed to a blank space on the title page, “Right there.”

“May I please borrow that book, so I can read it before it becomes a holy relic?”

Julie handed it to me and bolted toward the door. “I gotta go.”

“Thanks for making coffee.” I dropped the popular tome into my bag and started to get ready for work. Looking into the mirror, I groaned and said, “All I can say about this face today is thank goodness for concealer.” I talk to myself out loud sometimes. Okay, fairly often.