Knitting Under the Influence

VIII

Lucy and Sari met at Sari's apartment on Sunday, because ‘Sari refused to go to Lucy's now that she had a cat.

“I can't believe it,” Lucy said, once they were settled with their coffee and knitting. “I just can't believe it. That she's in Hawaii right now with one of the richest bachelors in the country, trying to decide whether or not to marry him.”

“I know,” Sari said. “Only Kathleen.”

“And meanwhile I’m stuck here, trying to figure out what to do with my remaining six skeins of green yarn.”

“That's not enough to make much of anything other than a scarf,” Sari said. “Couldn't you salvage any of the yarn you ripped out?”

“It got all curly and stretched out,” Lucy said.

“I think there's a way to fix that.”

“Plus I threw it down the trash chute.”

“That's a bigger problem.” Sari knit another row while Lucy leafed through a knitting book she had brought with her.

“It's hard to start something else,” Lucy said after looking at a bunch of patterns. “I was so excited about knitting a sweater for James and now look what happened. It was all a big fat waste of time. It's ruined knitting for me forever- Ooo, that's cute!” She showed Sari a knit hat that had bands of different colors and a narrow brim, and they both exclaimed over it.

“Why don't you make that?” Sari said. “It wouldn't take long. You could do it just in that green-no stripes.”

“But I don't wear hats,” Lucy said.

“Maybe you should start. It seems like a good time to try something new.”

“The way things are going, if I try to knit a hat, my head will get cut off.”

“You're fun to be with today,” Sari said.

“I can't help it.” Lucy flung the book aside. “We're stuck here and meanwhile Kathleen's lying on a beach somewhere in Hawaii, drinking pina coladas and probably having her butt massaged or something decadent like that. Why does she always get to be the lucky one?”

“Bet she's engaged by now,” Sari said.

“No way. She would have called us.”

“No, because it's three hours earlier there, right? They probably went out for a late dinner last night, and then Kevin asked her to go for a walk on the beach and then he told her she owed him an answer and maybe even got down on his knees and pulled out a ring and-”

“I still think she'd call.”

“But it would have been like one in the morning there when it all happened,” Sari said. “Four a.m. here. And besides, once she said yes, they had to go back and immediately have sex, right? You've got to figure engagement sex is amazing.”

“You seem sure she said yes.”

“Of course she said yes. You don't say no when someone proposes to you on a moonlit beach in Hawaii, Lucy. Anyway, the point is they probably had sex and fell asleep.” She gestured at the wall clock. “It's still only eight in the morning there. She wouldn't even be waking up until around now. But as soon as she wakes up-”

The phone rang. The girls looked at each other and cracked up. “You can't be that right,” Lucy said. “No one is that right.”

“We'll see,” Sari said. She dropped her knitting and ran for the phone. “Hello?” Then: “Oh, wow. I didn't expect it to be you. Hi. What's going on there?”

“Who?” Lucy said. She had crept up to Sari's side and was desperately trying to hear what was being said. “Who is it? Who? Is it Kathleen?”

Sari held her off with the palm of her hand. “Wow, that's great!” she said. “I’m so excited for you! Congratulations!”

“What? What's great? What's exciting?” Lucy said.

“When? You're kidding. But-” A long period of time while the other person talked and then Sari said, “Yeah, it would be amazing. I totally want to. It's just… Well, hold on-let me ask Lucy.” She punched the hold button and looked at Lucy. “You won't believe this.”

Lucy groaned. “Will you just tell me?”

“It's Kevin. He proposed and Kathleen accepted, just like we thought. But she doesn't know he's calling us-he snuck off to call because he wants to fly us to Hawaii first thing tomorrow as a surprise for her. Because they're going to get married there in two days! Can you believe it?”

Lucy sank into a chair. “Holy shit.”

“He said if he flew her family out, his family might feel hurt, and he doesn't want to get into any of that, but he knows she'd want us to be there with her. There's a nine a.m. flight tomorrow, gets us in at noon, and the wedding would be the next day. We could take the red-eye back that night and only miss two days of work.”

“This is unreal,” Lucy said.

“I know! So what do you say, Luce? Should we do it?” She shook the phone at her. “I have to give him an answer. He's waiting.”

“What are you talking about?” Lucy said. “Of course we're going. We have to go.”

“What about work?”

“Fuck work,” Lucy said.

“Yeah,” Sari said. “Fuck work.” She punched the hold button again. “Kevin?” she said. “We're in.”

After she'd hung up, she looked at Lucy. “Fuck knitting, too,” she said. “Don't we need new clothes for Hawaii?”

“We do,” Lucy said. “We do we do we do.”

IX

When Lucy walked into her apartment several hours later, something felt wrong. It took her a moment to figure out what it was: David hadn't come warily prowling in to greet her, like he always did when she came home these days. She called for him and he still didn't come. She dropped everything she was carrying and went from room to room, calling him.

No David.

Lucy searched through the apartment again. This time, she got down on her hands and knees to look under sofas and tables. She even threw in a few high-pitched “Here kitty-kitty-kitties” just for the hell of it. No David.

She felt suddenly really worried. The kitten had recently become curious about the bigger world outside and, several times over the past few days, he had gone darting out the door when she opened it, scooting between her legs and around her feet. She always chased him down and brought him back, but it was possible he'd snuck out that morning when she'd left, without her even noticing. Which would mean he'd been out of the apartment-maybe even out of the building-wandering alone for over three hours.

“Shit,” she said out loud and ran into the apartment corridor and then down the stairs and out into the street, calling and running, searching desperately for a tiny kitten who had gone missing in a very big, very dangerous world.

“I can't find David,” she said into the phone half an hour later.

“The cat or the lab partner?” Sari asked.

“This isn't funny. I got back from knitting and he was gone. Sari, I’m worried he got out of the building and is lost somewhere.”

“Did you look outside?”