me that you’d lost a lot of weight your first month here.”
“Before I met you.”
“Right.” She started cutting the waffle. “So start eating.”
Before he could, his phone rang. He searched through his clothes to find it. Thompson. For once, he wanted to answer.
“Sir! Did you get the story? I stayed up all night writing it.”
“Russo.” He didn’t sound good. “Just wait a minute.”
“Gary’s going to send the pictures to you tomorrow. The police said that all of what I put in is usable, so that should be great.”
Thompson just growled.
“Russo, have you seen the news lately?”
“I told you, I made it. This story’s amazing: murder, corruption, politics. I’m begging you.”
“I asked you, have you seen the news?”
“Uh, I don’t know. I guess I haven’t.”
“Have you seen the tabloids?”
“I don’t know. No. Why?”
Mel looked confused. Jake was too.
“Where did I tell you to…to go Russo?” Thompson coughed loudly. He wasn’t laughing.
“Orlando, sir. But we broke this amazing story instead. It’s going to change the whole market.”
“I told you to go to Orlando, Russo. Do…do you know what happened?”
“No. I guess not. But this story-”
“Melinda. Melinda Ginelli.”
“What? Did she dye her hair?”
“Oh no. Bigger.” He growled into the phone. “Apparently, she went to a dance club and took some nasty drugs.”
“Oh. Well, that’s too bad.”
“That’s not all.”
“OK. Well, my story is pretty amazing-”
He interrupted.
“She took these drugs. And then…then she started having hallucinations.”
“That’s terrible.”
“She started having hallucinations. Started thinking she was an animal, or a wild child, or something.”
“Well, that’s a tragedy.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“No, I told you, I don’t know.”
“Turn on your TV. You’ll find it. I guarantee.”
He asked Mel for the remote control. She gave it to him and he turned her TV on. He flipped through the channels. Sports. A commercial. Cartoons. Then he saw it.
“Wow. Sir, I had no idea.”
Melinda Ginelli was stuck on top of a palm tree.
“Did you see it?” Thompson screamed.
“Yes, I see it.”
“Palm trees Russo! And celebrities! It’s the greatest picture I’ve ever seen! And where were you? Sarasota?”
He turned off the TV.
“That’s pretty impressive, I admit.”
“Palm trees. Palm trees.”
Thompson kept repeating the words, getting louder each time. Jake didn’t think he’d stop. He pulled the phone away from his ear and handed the remote control back to Mel.
“I think I’m in trouble.”
“Why?”
“I just missed the most famous palm tree in the world.” He picked up the honey bear. “Let’s eat.”
“Wait,” she said. “I have something else to tell you first.”
“What’s that?”
He poured some syrup on the waffles and Mel got up from the bed. He watched her walk over and take something out of a bag. It was Charlotte’s wooden duck. The dark green paint glinted in the morning sunlight, and the bill was soft orange. She unscrewed the neck and pulled out a piece of paper. Jake tried to see what it said.
“What’s that?”
“Brunfelsia Americana.”
“What?”
“The flowers. Remember? I couldn’t remember the name of the flowers that we were putting in the new garden.”
“You found them?”
“I found the name that night. But I kept the answer to myself.”
“Why?”
She smiled and handed him the paper.
“Because I wanted you to keep coming back to see me.”
He took the paper and dropped it into the base of the wooden duck. He screwed the neck back in and lifted the tray aside. He took Mel in his arms and kissed her deeply. She touched his face and shoulders.
“The food is getting cold. But I suppose you have to go.” She pointed at the TV. “You have to follow up that story, right?”
He tried the waffles for the first time. She was right. They tasted like low fat.
“I could go to Orlando. But I’d rather stay here.”
“Can you do that?”
“I think we should go to the beach.”
“You do?”
“I have some things I’d like to say while we look out at the water.”
“I’d like that. I’d like it a lot.”
“Then let’s do it.”
So later that day, they did.
Phil Edwards
