“I lost my brother and sister in an earthquake. My aunt died in it too,” he told her. Though he knew the story of his own tragedy could never compete with hers, Omkar saluted her willingness to be vulnerable by offering up his own vulnerability in return.
She listened to him tell her about the earthquake and the dark cloud over his family, about the oppressive constraint of his culture and about moving to this completely foreign country, with one ear against his chest. When he had finished speaking, she listened to the sound of his fingers stroking and playing with her hair.
Without them noticing, the sun had already set upon their time together. The glow from the city lights made the churn of the ocean water sparkle. Underneath the excitement of the romance, their bodies had found a home in each other, a sense of belonging that Aria had only met once before, while watching a part in a movie. When she was little, she had seen a Disney movie called Fantasia in which there was a segment, accompanied by the Pastoral Symphony, with a group of female centaurs of all different colors bathing and preparing themselves until the music changed, signaling the arrival of all the males. One by one, each female was united with the male of her corresponding color. But a blue male and blue female hadn’t found each other yet. They were sitting alone, feeling like they were the only ones without someone to belong with, until the cherubs drew them in each other’s direction and they saw each other for the first time.
Aria had spent her life feeling like that last centaurette, waiting for someone to belong to, until today.
Before it was so late that his parents would have grown concerned, Omkar drove her back to the car lot. Pulling up there, and knowing that she would be spending the night there in that reality, threatened to pollute the fantasy of their time on the beach. But he didn’t have an alternative, and he hated himself for consenting to drive her there.
Before she got out of the car, he wrote his phone number down on a piece of paper towel he pulled out from the picnic bag and handed it to her. He worked up the courage to kiss her cheek. “Thank you so much for tonight. I had a wonderful time, truly.” Aria smiled at him lovingly and closed the door behind her. He watched her walk away until he couldn’t see her anymore and pulled away from the curbside, feeling like his life had finally begun.
It had been the best day of Aria’s life. As in Taylor’s situation, the squalor she found herself in seemed more like treasure because of the promise of the way her life could feel with him in it. She walked toward the Land Cruiser with the intention of lying awake, preserving the feeling of being with him for as long as she could before falling asleep. But the bestial cruelty of the reality of her life thwarted her intention.
There was a scuffle of panic near the broken-down black Camaro. Sensing the urgency of crisis instead of conflict, Aria ran toward Anthony and Wolf, who were crowded around the open door of the car EJ had claimed for his own. “He’s OD’ing!” Wolf yelled out to her. “We’ve got to get help quick.”
Though still breathing, EJ was unresponsive, his body occasionally tensing up and going loose again. Wolf was holding him half out of the car and yelling at him to wake up. The sides of his face were tarnished by the acid of his own vomit and he was making choking sounds. Even through the dark, Aria could see his already pale skin turning the color of clam flesh. “We gotta get him somewhere fast!” Wolf yelled, pulling EJ from the car with the help of Anthony. Both of them held one half of his limp body, and they started carrying him as fast as they could in the direction of the city.
It was a sad reality that all of them knew without having to communicate it to each other. None of them owned a phone, but even if they had, they couldn’t risk calling the attention of police to the car lot. It would put every single one of them at risk. So they were rushing him away from the car lot as fast as they could to find help. Aria felt the pit of doom in her stomach. She had a feeling that EJ wouldn’t survive if they took so long.
She looked back to where Omkar had dropped her off and realized he had already left. “Stay on the road and keep walking!” she yelled out to them, turning to run as fast as she could. She ran as fast as her legs could take her toward the city streets she knew would have some life still left on them. The shops and restaurants had all closed for the night. The stale light made them look cadaverous.
Her chest burned and her legs spasmed but she kept on running, flailing her arms to try to stop any cars that passed her, but no one pulled over. She ran across a street, against the red light, toward a group of people waiting to get into a bar. “Help, we need help, someone’s in trouble, I need a phone!” she yelled at the group of startled people.
There was a hiccup of hesitance before a man approached her and asked her if he should call 911. “Yes,” she gasped, completely out of breath. She watched him dial the number and tell the dispatcher that someone was in trouble before he handed the phone to Aria.
She did her best to answer the questions being asked by the pacifying voice on the other side of the line. She described the emergency, telling them the name of the street that Wolf and Anthony were carrying EJ down and
