Billboard Sky

Chapter Seventeen; Enter

Elizabeth found her work shoes under the couch, a sock in one from last night, the other sock missing. Her hand reached under the couch and felt the cotton, and was pulling the sock out from under the couch as the phone rang.

Standing up, with the sock in her hand, she answered the phone with a gasp of air from moving so fast. "Hello," she said, in almost one syllable.

"Elizabeth?"

"Yes?"

"It's Mitch."

Elizabeth felt her heart rev.

"Elizabeth," Mitch said, cleared his throat, and continued, "are you working tonight?"

"I am, but only half my shift, it's so good to hear your voice, you sound like I thought you would sound, too," she said, and sat down on the couch, the sock in her hand draping over her knee.

"I was going to i.m. you to let you know I would be calling, but then I, well, I just wanted to call, I had to make sure you did something tonight," Mitch said and Elizabeth could hear the sounds of keyboard keys being tapped with his fingers.

"Ok, tell me what to do," Elizabeth said.

"I'm pretty sure you go outside each night, to see the billboard sky," Mitch stated.

"Most nights, yes. Tonight, though, well... it's a long story. See, it's my friend's birthday, he turns a hundred years old today. I'd written to see, well, this is all probably going to sound crazy to you, but I tried to get this customer who is my friend a billboard birthday greeting, and, well, it didn't work out. I made him a scrapbook of computer images from the past 100 years instead. It came out great. He'll love it. So, tonight, his family is having a birthday party for him, not far from work, and my coworker is coming into work early so I can attend the last hour of the party."

"What time will that be?"

"The party? It starts at six, but I'll only be there for the last hour of it, around eight until nine."

"That's perfect. Do me a favor. When you leave at nine, take him outside with you, and watch the sky."

Elizabeth quickly brought her hand up to her mouth in disbelief, and the sock gently pelted her in the cheek. She began to laugh, and Mitch, hearing her laughing, said "I gotta go, see you in a few days."

"Mitch, wait," Elizabeth said anxiously, but the connection was cut.

Elizabeth layed herself back onto the couch, and was rubbing her forehead with the sock, smiling, but with her eyebrows in a concerned stance, looking at the ceiling and knowing something both wonderful and serious was going to happen.

In many ways, it already had.

Posted by nft at January 22, 2006 01:00 PM