Syncopated Rhythm (16 page)

Suddenly Kylee, with a terrified look on her face, was signing autographs of her make believe identity right beside me.  The manager finally made an appearance and politely asked everyone to let us order and eat in peace.  I had to battle my pixie on who was paying for the meal.  I won as I slapped my debit card on the counter. 
Go me!

When we got to the table, she whispered in a shaky voice,  “So that's what it's like to be you?”

I nodded with a sly, evil grin.  “Yup.  Better get used to it if I'm gonna be dating you soon.”

She grabbed my hand and I gave hers a squeeze.  I was caught up in her eyes when the meal was ruined by a roughneck looking guy at a table close to us loudly speaking to his friends.  “Couple of fuckin' dykes.  Damaged goods.”  His buddies chuckled.

The manager was already on his way over when Kylee surprised the hell out of me and stood and walked directly up to the man.  She looked pissed!  She spoke in a calm, dangerous voice that promised bad things to come.  “I couldn’t give a shit what you think of me.  But don't ever disparage Amber LaLanie.  Is that understood?”

The man pushed his chair back and stood.  She didn't flinch or back down and the manager arrived with a couple customers behind him.  “Sir, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you and your friends to leave. Verbal abuse is not allowed on the premises.  This is a family restaurant.”

The guy just looked around then at his friends.  “Let's get out of this shit hole.  The food was crap anyway.”  He leaned down toward Kylee in a menacing fashion before storming off.  Again, she didn't even flinch!

Then the manager apologized to us as Ky sat back down with me.  I tilted my head at her and she just started eating again without a word.  I saw her hands were shaking but she still didn't say a thing.  Finally she couldn't stand the silence anymore and just said, “That was Chad.  I got enough of that crap from him in high school.  You don't need to be subjected to it.  I hate bigots and bullies.”

I grinned.  “My hero.  Gawd I'd take you right here on the table if I could.”  She blushed and threw a tiny piece of her hashbrowns at me.  She was smiling now and I was happy to see her hands weren't shaking anymore.

Then I added with comical delivery.  “I blame your red haired temper.”  She actually snorted at that.  I grinned in satisfaction and continued to eat.  Though I did notice that one table of people moved away from us.  The mother was looking at us with a trace of disdain on her face.

We finished up and dumped our trash then made our way back out to the car, waving at the manager and mouthing “Thank you.” as we left.

We got into the car and she sat and looked at me for a second then started pumping the gas in preparation to start the Gremlin.  “Zoom?”

I nodded with a cheesy grin and agreed.  “Zoom.”

With an awesome backfire and plume of blue smoke the engine labored to life.  I still have no clue why it amuses me so much.  Maybe because it reminds me of the playful redhead beside me... it is just... so uniquely her.

Minutes later we had arrived at the Terrace Ridge.  She grabbed her bag and we exited Baltar.  She paused and looked at him then squinted an eye then kicked his back tire and the engine finally died.  I chuckled and she bumped our hips before she hurried past me.  She called back, “Watch it, Cornfed.”

I waggled a fist at her and called out,  “Why I oughta!”  Then ran to catch up with the smugly smiling imp.

Her mother was in the rec room again.  So we found her in the same spot as yesterday, on the couch, watching TV.  Another lady, sitting beside her, saw us making a beeline for Marilyn.  The woman smiled and stood and walked to another part of the room, by some people playing some sort of card game.

Ky stood in front of her mother who looked up and Kylee said, “Hi mom.”

Marilyn smiled but looked confused.  She was studying her daughter's face.  “You look like my daughter... Kylee.”

My redhead was nodding, keeping her smile on like armor.  “Yes, mom, it's me.”  She glanced at me and continued.  “Amber and I wanted to visit again before we had to go back to Seattle.”

Her mother looked at me, I could tell that she was trying to place me.  But then a shimmer of recognition came to her face.  I thought she recognized me from yesterday.  “You're that singer girl that my Kylee has a crush on!  She has a poster of you in her room.  Wait until I tell her I met you...”  She trailed off looking around like she didn't recognize where she was, “...here?”

Ky just sat beside her and took her hand, I sat beside them.  Kylee said, “Yes mom.  This is Amber LaLanie.  She's much cuter in person than on a poster.”

I could see Marilyn's eyes sharpen.  Then she looked between the two of us. “Kylee?”  My redhead was grinning and nodding.

We all spoke for a few minutes then Marilyn whispered a confession to us,  “I'm so scared knowing I'm losing my memories.  Losing myself.”

They hugged and I looked at Kylee's bag.  “Ummm... Ky, why don't you share some of her memories?”

She shook her head and her voice was hoarse, “It isn't finished... It will never be good enough.”

Her mom spoke up,  “Nonsense.  You were always such a perfectionist Ky-Ky.  I just know one day you will go to college and become a filmmaker like you dream of.”

Kylee's eyes were watering and I grabbed her iPad out of her bag and she took it with a shaky hand. She pulled up the presentation and started it up then handed the tablet to her mother to watch.

Marilyn watched it with rapt attention.  There were times she brought her hand to her mouth as she was reminded of things.  A tear would escape her eye from time to time.  As emotional as I thought the presentation was, it was nothing compared to watching Marilyn's reactions.  At one point she looked up at Ky.  “You did it?  You got your degree?”

Kylee nodded and her mother hugged her.  “I'm so proud of you Ky-Ky.”  A tear finally rolled down my redhead's cheek.  We sat back and watched as her mother finished watching the presentation.

When it was over, the elder Nelson turned to her daughter.  “I remember a lot of that.  Some I didn't... I'm so glad you shared this with me.  Reminding me of... of me.”

She stayed fairly lucid for the rest of our visit, sometimes getting confused or afraid.  But her sharp wit and their sarcastic banter were a treat to watch.  I sometimes wonder about my mother.  Did she even miss me?  I know I shouldn't be so hard on her, she really was doing the best she could.  But that isolation still haunts me today.  I also wonder if I'll ever be able to sit in silence without feeling the terror of being alone.

We left with Kylee in much better spirits than she left with yesterday.  She stopped at the door and held up the iPad before stowing it in her bag and said softly, “Thanks.”

I nodded with a smile.  “Anytime, Potato.  Just think, you can keep adding to it and show her each time.  Remind her of who she is.”

We zipped up our jackets and headed out into the cold.

We stopped at a convenience store to fill up.  She came in with me to grab some more oil and some sort of fuel additive.  Minutes later we were back on the freeway heading back toward Seattle.

It was almost a mirror image of our trip here, though the alphabet game was much easier heading west for some reason.  We decided to forgo lunch and just snacked on our junk food and drove straight through, our bladders be damned.  It was a little past six and dark outside when we pulled into the hotel parking garage.  There were only a couple of reporters there so it wasn't a battle to get in this time.

When we emerged into the lobby we looked over and Sylvester was over by the front desk.  Was he always working like Ky?  We gave him a little wave and he smiled and inclined his head to us a bit in acknowledgment and we headed up to our suites.

I smiled when I got to my door.  “Room service, your room, thirty minutes?”

She shyly nodded and scooted off the her room.  We looked at each other, and smiled then entered our rooms simultaneously.

I put my suitcase by my bed and stretched and removed my wig.  The silence was screaming at me, I felt so alone.  I switched the radio on before I went to get ready for the night. But a soft voice called out from the connecting door.  “You don't need that.  I'm right here.  I'm not going anywhere Amber Lee.”

Then she started humming one of my songs.  I grinned and reached for the radio.  I took a deep, shuddering breath and switched it off.  I grinned and went into the bathroom, leaving the door open so I could hear her humming.  It was odd but I was just fine with that.  I cleaned off my makeup and concealer and showered.  I hummed Deep Red to myself and was happy to hear her still humming at the door when I got out.  I could feel a blush burning on my cheeks.

I donned my night clothes and walked up to the door timidly then said,  “Knock knock.”  The humming stopped and I opened the door and just about tripped over Kylee.  She was grinning up at me from where she sat with her back to the door frame.  She cleared the screen on her iPad and jumped up to her feet.  “Sorry.”

I just grinned at her and flopped back on her bed dramatically with my arms spread wide.  “No problem at all, and Ky?”  She tilted her head and I continued.  “Thanks.”

She looked down shyly.  “What are... ummm... whatever we are, for?”

I gave a silly lopsided grin.  “Colleagues...”  I paused for effect.  “...until Thanksgiving.  Then hopefully, much, much more.”

She grabbed her night clothes then scurried off into the bathroom without a word.  I called after her, “I'll ring room service.  Pasta?”

“
Yum,” she said from behind the bathroom door.

The food arrived just before Ky was finished.  Then we ate.  I swear it was a contest over who could take the most seductive bite.  I was heating up everywhere.  Gawd I wanted her.  I finally broke. “
FINE!
  You win.  Now stop that, it isn't fair if we can't do anything about it.”

She smiled in satisfaction though she looked a little flushed too.  “You're just a lightweight, Cornfed.”

I waggled a fist at her as I scrunched up my face.

After the meal I found a news station on the TV as I laid back on my favorite Kylee shaped pillow as she worked on her storyboards.  We both said nothing as a story that featured a video that has been going viral online was shown.  The title of the video was 'Babette vs the Douche'.  Someone this morning had taped the whole encounter with Chad on their cellphone.  Holy bejesus!  One point four million hits already.  Then the news anchor announced some information on 'Babette'.  A woman from Post Falls was being interviewed.  She was saying.  “I went to school with Babette Stevenson.  Only she was Kylee Nelson back then.  She was always an odd duck, but really nice.  She would always stare at the cute guys and the cheerleaders.  I heard she had gotten into film making but I never knew she had become so famous.”

I murmured, “Shit.”  Kylee was pale as a ghost.  I shrugged apologeticly. “Again... welcome to hanging out with me.  I'm sorry you're getting caught up in this mess. I'll have Chase come clean.”

But then she surprised me with a wry grin.  “No.  Don't.  Now that they know my real name... no publicity is bad publicity.  Maybe people will know my name when my internship is over and give me a chance.  Odds are nobody has seen it though.”

I nodded in appreciation.  We talked into the night and at some point we dozed off, me listening to the beating of her heart.

In the morning she was up early chattering about getting me to the pre-shoot 'creative' meeting.  I snorted when she reminded me to take my thyroid medication as I left her to go get ready.  Again, she was humming through the door for me.  Gawd she was such an awesome person.  I felt so stupid that it was actually calming me.

I kept staring at her iPad when it was her turn to get ready.  What did she keep hiding from me?

When we were pulling out of the parking garage, the mob was back.  I could hear my name being shouted and 'Babette'.  Both of our heads swiveled when we heard one reporter yelling, “Kylee, can we ask a question!?”  We inched through to the road with the help of hotel security then we were on the way to Art in Motion.

We pulled into the parking structure at the studio, there were quite a few paparazzi there too taking pictures as we entered.  We spiraled to the bowels of hell again to park Baltar.  He was extremely resistant to dying this time.  Kylee crossed her arms with a look on her face like a mother chastising a misbehaving child.  A few seconds later he sputtered to a stop.

She shot a silly grin at me.  I looped my arm into the crook of hers as she led the way inside.  She scanned her ID badge and I scanned my VIP badge and went up to the same meeting room as last week. That Popsicle stick blonde girl... what was her name?  Leanne blocked Kylee from the door by leaning against the frame.

She almost sneered as she looked Kylee up and down.  “I can't believe how far you'd go for this assignment.”

Then she called back to me as she pushed past Ky.  “Amber, if you ever want to upgrade from chubby chasing and trade up to a real woman, I could be gay.  I'll let Evan know you are here.”

I was shocked.  Kylee was just staring at the ground in embarrassment and hugging her iPad and purse to her chest as she wordlessly went into the room and sat at the conference table, still looking down.