Unexpectedly, Milo - Matthew Dicks [130]
It took almost thirty minutes for them to empty and refill all four tires, only after determining what specifically needed to be done. They had found a Mobil station less than a mile down the road from the Burger King, complete with free air behind the pumps. Initially Milo began letting the air out of the right rear tire, so with nothing else to do, Emma moved to do the same on the left. He had thought nothing of her offer to help at first, but on hearing the hiss of air from her tire, Milo realized that it was the release of air that was required of him and that Emma’s releasing of the air would not satisfy his own demand. After he explained this to her, comparing it to her attempt to open the jelly jar (and feeling incredibly foolish while doing so), Emma took the air hose and waited for the first tire to be empty. Then, as Milo moved to the next, she proceeded to fill the first with what Milo thought of as gloriously fresh air.
“So you kept this from Christine for all this time, huh?” She had to shout to be heard above the roar of the air pump and the hiss of air issuing forth from Milo’s tire. Her volume made Milo uneasy, fearful that others might hear.
“Yup. I’ve kept it from everyone. You’re literally the only one who knows.”
“That must’ve been hard.”
“It was,” Milo said, also shouting. “But you’d be surprised how you can arrange your life around just about anything. Once I started working for myself, things got much easier. I have the freedom during the day to meet clients and handle any demand that might come up. When I was working for the nursing home and punching a clock every day, things were tough, but that’s when I worked on some of the strategies to hold off the demands a bit. Like the balloons and the bubble wrap that I told you about.”
“And you don’t think Christine ever suspected anything?”
“I think she knew that I was a little odd. Maybe not until we were well into the relationship, but she figured it out eventually. Like watching the same movies over and over again. That’s got to be strange in her eyes. Did I tell you about that already?”
“Yeah. Star Wars. Right?”
“Yeah. There are others too. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was a problem for me recently.”
“Was that a coincidence?” Emma asked, screwing the cap on a tire and moving on to another.
“Was what a coincidence?”
“Cassidy and Butch Cassidy? Just a coincidence, or did your mind make it happen?”
“God, I have no idea. I never even thought of it. I can’t believe I didn’t notice. Wow. I wonder if that happens more often than I realize.”
“So anyway, you said that Christine probably thinks you’re a little odd, but that’s it? She really doesn’t know?”
“Nope. She knows about the movies, but she has no idea that I’m waiting to see if the ending changes. And she thinks that my attention to little things like the urinals is weird too. But she has no idea about the bowling and the ice cubes or even the karaoke. She’s never even been with me to karaoke, and I’ve probably performed five hundred times. Oh. That reminds me. That was her calling back in the Burger King parking lot.”
“The Abba ring tone?” Emma asked with a grin.
“Don’t be mean.”
Milo retrieved the phone from his pocket and looked at the list of missed calls on the display screen. Five in all, three from the parking lot and two others, three and five hours ago. All from Christine. “She called a while ago too. I must not have had any service.” Milo finished with the final tire, the satisfying hiss of air reducing the pressure in his mind another degree, before he stepped away from the noise of the air pump in order to listen to the messages.
Though she had called five times, Christine had left just one message. He pressed the button that activated the voice mail and listened.
Three minutes later, he placed the phone back in his coat pocket and returned to the Honda.
“What’s wrong?” Emma asked. “Are you crying?”
“No,” Milo lied. “But I think I just got divorced.”
chapter 31
Hi. Milo? This is Christine. I’ve been trying to call you all day. I’m sorry. I hate to do this