Лаура Миллер - My Butterfly

“Julia,” I yelled, running toward the door.

I pulled on its knob when I reached it, but the door didn’t open. I pulled harder with both hands, but it still wouldn’t budge. I turned and thrust my back against its wooden surface. Then, I cradled my face within my hands out of frustration mixed with a pain that made my knees buckle. I felt my body slowly slide down the door then, and I sat there kneeling until a noise made me look up. It sounded as if something had just fallen to the floor, but nothing was there. Then all of a sudden, I noticed something. She must have dropped it. I picked myself back up and shuffled toward the object. It was a card — a business card. I read the name at the top: Jesse Sovine. Then, my eyes followed over the words below the name, but as I got to a word, its letters quickly disappeared, until the card was just blank, except for the name at the top. Then, suddenly, there were hundreds of the same card all raining down from heaven. I lifted my hand to shield my face from them. And as soon as I had, I noticed there was something else now on the card in my hand. I squinted my eyes in order to read the tiny text. Now, instead of the name, there was one, small sentence: I Promise.

I turned my face over on my pillow and felt something hit my forehead. I quickly shifted again and then pulled the sheet up so that it was covering most of my face. A second later, I felt something else hit the top of my head. Then, I opened my eyes and saw a big peanut resting on the pillow next to me.

“What the hell?” I exclaimed, as I quickly sat up.

“Dude, are you going to sleep all day?”

“What?” I asked, noticing Jeff in the doorway, a can of peanuts in one hand. The other hand was feeding handfuls of peanuts into his mouth. “What time is it?”

I rubbed my eyes and searched for the glowing numbers on my alarm clock.

“Umm, seven maybe,” he said.

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes again.

“Why are you in my house?” I asked.

“Dude, I’ve been standing here trying to get you up for ten minutes now,” he said. “You sleep like a bear.”

“Wha…,” I stuttered, still shaking my head.

I didn’t even bother finishing my sentence.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go fishin’,” he said.

I found the clock. It glowed six twenty in its neon numbers.

I took a breath in and then let out a sigh.

“All right,” I said.

“Good, I’ve got the poles in my truck,” he said.

Just then, my eyes fell onto the business card sitting on the chest across the room.

“Just put some pants on. Let’s go,” he squeaked.

Another peanut hit my face and broke my stare from the card.

“Is there something wrong with you?” he asked.

“What?” I asked, returning my attention back to him. “No…I just remembered this crazy dream I had.”

He threw his head back and laughed once.

“Buddy, your life’s a crazy dream,” he said. “Now, let’s go.”

My eyes eventually settled onto the card again.

“Okay,” I said. “Just give me a second, and I’ll be out there.”

I glanced back at him. He was giving me that dumb, puzzled look he does best. I didn’t say anything.

“Okay,” he eventually said.

I watched him turn and leave the doorway. Then, I pulled the sheets back and walked over to the chest. I picked up the business card and held it carefully in between my fingers. I read over its words, then spotted my phone sitting on the chest next to a bottle of cologne. I reached for it, picked it up and cradled it in my other hand. Silent moments passed with the business card in one hand and the phone in the other. Then, finally, I took a deep breath, slowly let it out and then pressed number six on my speed dial.

“Hey, buddy,” I heard a voice answer on the other end a few rings later.

“Hey, Matt. I didn’t wake ya, did I?” I asked.

“No, no, we just got back from a call,” he said. “What’s up?”

“Uh, you still want to give this agent a shot?” I asked.

He was quiet for a second.

“Uh, yeah,” I eventually heard him say. “Do you?”

I smiled to myself.

“I think I do,” I said. “Do you think you could talk Daniel into it?”

“Daniel’s in,” he said. “He just needed some reassuring that it wasn’t quite the craziest thing we’ve ever done.”

I laughed.

“Okay,” I said, taking another deep breath.

“So, we’re really going to do this?” he asked.

I could hear a smile in his voice.

“I’ll give this Jesse Sovine guy a call, and we’ll see what happens, I guess,” I said.

“All right, great,” he said. “I’ll tell the guys.”

“Okay,” I replied, nodding my head.

My finger lunged for the button that would end the call but stopped when I heard his voice again.

“Wait, Will?”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“What made ya change your mind?” he asked.

A smile started to slowly etch a path across my face, as I let a silent moment pass.

“A girl,” I said.

I heard him laugh on the other end.

“I should have known,” he said.

“Hey, call me after you talk to him,” he said.

“Okay, I will,” I said.

I hung up and found the number on the card still cradled in my hand. Then, I methodically punched into my phone each number, until all ten digits were displayed on the phone’s screen. And after another deep breath, I counted to three in my head and then hit the call button.

Five, long rings later I heard his voice telling me to leave a message. I contemplated hanging up, but I didn’t and instead, waited for the beep.

A second went by after the beep before I said anything. Then, I cleared my throat.

“Uh, hi, Mr. Sovine, this is Will Stephens from District 9,” I said into the receiver. “We talked at the Home of Blues a while back. And I don’t know if you’re still interested, but we’d like to talk about you possibly representing us.”

I hesitated for a second.

“Uh, you can call me back on this number. Thanks.”

I stopped, ended the call and carefully set the business card back onto the chest. Then, I felt something small hit the back of my head, and I watched as a peanut rolled to a spot on the floor.

“Dude, I thought you went back to sleep or something,” Jeff said in his whiney voice. “Why don’t you have pants on?”

I looked down at my boxers, then turned around and shuffled back over to the other side of the bed without even acknowledging him. I found a pair of jeans I had worn the day before lying on the floor and stepped into them. Then, I reached for a shirt from an open drawer and squeezed it on over my head.

“Voilà,” I said, turning and facing Jeff with my arms out to my sides. “Ready.”

“About time, loser,” he said, as he turned on his heels in the doorway again. “The fish have probably all hibernated or frozen in the time it took you to do that.”

I smiled and shuffled toward the bedroom door. But on my way, I took one, last glance at the business card staring back at me from the chest. It forced me to suck in another big breath of air.

“Girl, the things you make me do,” I mumbled in my next exhale.

“Will, I’ve been looking for you.”

I turned around in the bench to see a young woman, dressed from head to toe in white, and immediately, it made me smile.

“Hey, Mona, do you need something?” I asked her.

Mona had always been like a little sister to me, and now, she seemed all grown up all of a sudden.

“No, no,” she said, laughing. “I just saw you talking to that girl over there.”

“What girl? When?” I asked.

“Taylor,” Mona said. “The petite girl, auburn hair, you know? She’s a friend from college.”

“Oh,” I said, habitually rubbing the back of my neck.

“Uh, yeah, she’s requesting a song,” I said.

Mona flashed me a mischievous grin.

“She asked if I would dance with her when it plays,” I continued.

“And you said?” she asked.

“I said I would, but it’s just a dance, Mona,” I said.

She shook her head.

“She’s the one,” she said, pointing at me. “Taylor’s a really nice girl, Will.”

“I just met her, Mona,” I said, through a patient smile.

“She’s the one,” she said again.

I gave her a disbelieving look.

“Just give her a chance, Will, for your little cousin on her wedding day,” she said, with a pleading smile.

“Mona, Taylor’s the one…,” I started but stopped short, as my eyes caught a familiar silhouette and my heart momentarily took a break from its beating.

“Julia,” I said, quickly sitting up.

“Hi, Will,” she said.

Jules planted her eyes in my gaze for a moment and then turned her attention to Mona.

“Hi, Mona,” she said. “You look beautiful.”

Mona shot me a suspicious look and then set her eyes on Julia. I, in the meantime, tried to relax my shoulders and to not look so obvious.

“Thanks, Julia. I’m so glad you made it,” Mona said, wrapping Jules into a big embrace. “And we’ll have to catch up, but right now, I’ve got to find the groom. They’re making us take more pictures, and this guy’s been holding me up,” she said, pulling away from Julia and gesturing toward me.

I sent Mona a puzzled look, but it didn’t seem to faze her as she hurried off to somewhere else and left Jules and me alone.

I took a second before I spoke.

“I wasn’t sure you’d be here,” I said.