held me tight, all night long.
The next day, Saturday, June 16, was my birthday. Right after my run, we packed the Jeep and hit the road early. We took the Edmonds-Kingston ferry and then shot across Highway 3 until it ran into US 101. We turned north and drove all the way around past Port Angeles. We found a quiet spot on the north shore of Lake Crescent in the Olympic National Park, where I set us up a little camp. We fixed lunch, and then I played guitar and fished the rest of the day. Toni kicked back and read a book until she got tired of that, and then she came and sat by me and watched me catch the same three little trout over and over.
We didn’t say much-just relaxed. We were content to simply listen to the sounds of nature on the lake, punctuated by the occasional
Talk about therapeutic. I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate turning thirty.
By Sunday morning, thanks to the combination of Toni’s quiet nurturing and the majestic setting, most of the damage to my soul was healed. Donnie Martin’s shooting was safely tucked away in its proper place-sad, but necessary. Our thoughts and prayers were for Isabel. We packed up and hit the road after lunch and made it home by five.
Then, she left.
Not permanently, but she left. She went back to her apartment, and I went home to mine. After spending the past sixty hours with her, there was only one word to describe things around my place without her.
Empty.
“Good morning, everyone,” I said Monday at eight o’clock. “Hope you all had a great weekend.”
We were assembled in the conference room for our staff meeting. Toni sat in her customary spot-at the opposite end of the table. She was completely dazzling this morning. She wore a long, pleated bright-yellow skirt with a royal blue sleeveless top that showed her tattoos in their full glory. Her four-inch heels made her almost as tall as me. She wore a deep-blue eye shadow that complemented her sparkling eyes. On each ear were three stud earrings-she didn’t wear any nose piercings today (sometimes she does). She was simply stunning. She could stop an Amtrak train today.
“Very nice weekend, indeed,” Richard said. “Maria and I took the ferry to Bainbridge. We had a pleasant Saturday afternoon on Main Street. What about you two?”
“We spent Saturday at Lake Crescent,” I said.
“I watched Danny fish,” Toni said.
“Sounds enjoyable,” Richard said. I couldn’t tell if he was serious or a touch sarcastic.
Toni cocked her head and thought for a second. “Actually, it was.”
“We stayed home and kicked back,” Doc said.
I nodded. “Good deal. Where’s Kenny?” I asked. His customary chair across from Doc was empty.
“I’m here,” Kenny said, smiling, as he entered the conference room. He was carrying a pink box. “Sorry I’m late. I stopped off at Top Pot and got some donuts.”
Toni beamed. “Kenny!” she said, “Top Pot! What a nice thing to do. Did you get apple fritters?”
Kenny stopped, and the smile left his face. “I–I-,” I thought he was going to say, “I forgot,” when he suddenly smiled again. “Of course I did,” he said. “Gotcha!”
I don’t eat donuts, which is fine since Toni can eat enough for both of us. She loves apple fritters. She works out at the gym or at the Krav Maga studio three or four nights a week to maintain her conditioning and her figure. She waited eagerly as Kenny went to his seat and set the box on the table.
He reached to open the box when Toni suddenly said, “I’ll get it.” She shot out her hand and slid the box in front of her.
“Well, you don’t have to be pushy about it,” Kenny said, giving in.
Toni smiled as she unlatched the box and flipped the lid open, and then all hell broke loose.
Toni screamed and pushed back from the table so fast that her chair fell over backward when she stood up. She knocked her teacup over, and it spilled on the table and dripped onto the floor. I was sitting at the other end of the conference table and couldn’t see what was happening, so I jumped up as well. I could feel the adrenalin surging through my body. I moved to the side so that I could see over the lid into the box of donuts. At that moment, an enormous, black, hairy tarantula stepped gracefully across the top of an apple fritter to the edge of the box and stopped. It waved an arm in Toni’s direction as it looked for a place to take another step.
“Oh my God!” Toni said. Her eyes were wide open-she had a look of abject horror on her pale face as she stared at the spider. She tried to retreat further from the table, but her chair was blocking her way.
“What the-?” I started to say, when Kenny suddenly burst out laughing.
I looked at him, then at the spider, then back at him.
Toni glanced quickly at Kenny, then looked back at the spider, which was still in the same position, waving at her, apparently unable to figure out how to get down from the top of the box to the table.
“Did you-?” Toni sputtered.
Kenny laughed hysterically, nodding his head up and down. “I got you!” he managed to say, tears starting to run down his face.
“You got me?” she asked, incredulously. “You got me? You put a spider in the donuts?”
Kenny was still nodding. “I did,” he managed to say, stopping his laughing long enough to answer. “Still want an apple fritter?” He started laughing uncontrollably again. He was barely able to stand.
I looked over at Doc. He was doing his best not to laugh, but he looked like he was about to blow any second. Even Richard was chuckling to himself.
I relaxed and shook my head and started to laugh.
“You little bastard,” Toni said, regaining her senses, the start of a smile on her face.
“I got you,” Kenny said.
Toni kept a wary eye on the spider, but she nodded. “Okay,” she said, nodding slowly. “You win. This one.”
“What do you mean ‘this one’?” Kenny said. “I owed you. Now we’re even.”
Toni looked at him. “You think?”
“Yeah, we’re even.”
She smiled a wicked, nasty smile that probably should have scared him. “You’re right,” she said, with false sweetness. “We are even.” She looked up at him. “And you don’t have anything to worry about.”
“Uh-oh for you, dude,” Doc said to Kenny. “I told you she’d be pissed-payback’s a bitch.”
I smiled. “What are you going to do with that thing now?” I asked.
Doc reached over and placed his hand flat in front of the spider. The tarantula, looking like he’d been standing on a curb waiting for a taxi, immediately stepped aboard.
“Eeww!” Toni said.
“Guess he’s tired of donuts,” Doc said. He looked at Kenny. “You still got the cage in your office?”
“Great,” I said. “Let’s get this crap cleaned up, and we’ll try this again at 8:15.”
Fifteen minutes later, the spider was safely back in his cage in Doc’s office. Turns out he belonged to one of Pri’s nephews. Doc had been babysitting when Kenny came over and was inspired by the possibilities. He actually paid fifty dollars to
We reassembled back in the conference room, where Toni had cleaned everything up.
“That was fun,” I said, smiling, after we were all seated.
“Oh, bucket loads,” Toni said. “Good prank.” Kenny wore a smug smile, satisfied with himself.
“We all done with the fun and games? Okay. Moving on to business,” I said. As soon as I had everyone’s attention, I started. “First off, I checked this morning before I came in. No news on Isabel. She’s still listed in critical condition in ICU.”
“Do they know what the problem is?” Kenny asked.
“They say her miscarriage led to an infection. Her body reacted badly to the infection, and it triggered a condition called sepsis. Sepsis is apparently very serious.”
Doc said, “Pri says that with sepsis, it might take a week or maybe more before they’ll even know for sure if she can pull through. Even then, she could be hospitalized for maybe a month.”
