"Alright. I will see you in the morning. What time do you leave?"
Freida finished a long sip from the straw, then slid it slowly out from between her thin lips. A bright pink stain from what had most likely been on her lips before now was left behind on the clear plastic.
"Seven-thirty. Sharp."
She nodded. "Got it. Okay, then I will be here at seven-thirty." She pointed to Freida with a sly smile and added, "So sharp it will sting."
Nothing.
Alright.
"Night!"
And then she walked out the front door, down the too-old wooden steps, leaving behind what she hoped wasn't an angry night manager seething into her lime green tumbler.
She made it to the sidewalk that wound under the largest willow tree when her phone rang again. She briefly closed her eyes before she answered, putting on a bright tone.
"Hey, Fae!"
"God, do you not pay your phone bill or something?""Sorry, I've been busy. Lots going on."
"Okay," her sister said impatiently. "I've got a lot going on too, but you would know that if you answered your damn phone."
Her sister rarely cursed, so Tilly shifted her bag on her shoulder and settled in as she made the fifteen-minute walk to The Lost Souls House.
"What's going on? You okay?"
"No, Tilly, I am not okay. Dustin and I are in therapy."
This drew Tilly's eyebrows up sharply. Her sister voluntarily going to therapy? That was something she never thought she would hear.
"Wow. Well, that's good if it could be-"
"It's not good," she interrupted harshly. "He like, isn't happy or something and I'm sitting in a too colorful room with a therapist who looks like a smiling Morticia Adams who wears the wrong lipstick. Seriously, it's a garish pink that is unsettling against her skin tone."
"Okay," was Tilly's reply, letting her sister know she was following along with her story.
"But we're sitting there, and he's talking about things and how he needs more connection or whatever. Isn't that what women are supposed to want? He should be glad I'm not nagging him for that."
"The fact that he wants to be in counseling is a good sign, don't you think?"
A deep, very audible sigh filled her ear. But as her sister answered her, she didn't register the angry words because she felt something tickle the edge of her mind and then saw a black bird sitting on a low-hanging branch of a maple tree, its eyes following her.
Was that a crow?She frowned as she continued walking, her eyes trained on the bird who was staring back at her. She turned her head as she walked and tried to check back into the conversation that her sister seemed to be having just fine without her.
But then her head jerked when she saw something black fly by her, a mere few feet away from her head and she stared open-mouthed as she saw the crow fly ahead of her, keeping under the branches of the old maple trees lining the walk.
"Tilly? Tilly?"
"Sorry, what?"
"God, are you even listening to me? I said I think I'm just going to go to therapy, go through the motions, smile and nod, be a good wife, and then we can check it off our list. He should be fine."
"Yeah, sounds smart. Good marriage move."
But her sister didn't pick up on the sarcasm, and frankly, Tilly was more than distracted as the crow made a swooping loop behind her until it was flying in front of her again.
"I agree. Okay. I need to go. I swear, what we do for marriage. Talk later."
