Brian showered and shaved, eager to pick up Trevor from the airport. After driving for ten minutes, however, he no longer felt buoyant and happy. Slowly but surely a killer hangover kicked in.
He pulled onto the road’s muddy shoulder and vomited coffee, bourbon, and bile. So when the jeep slammed into his Honda, he was crouched over, outside the car.
[Click here to read the first episode, or here to read the previous one.]
The woman who wailed, “Oh, my God,” and leaped from the Jeep was Angelina’s odd and often angry ex-lover Polly.
Skinny and birdlike, she pleaded with Brian, “Please be okay. Please, don’t be injured.”
Wiping his mouth with his shirttail, he said, “I’m fine. Polly.”
“Really? If you’re really okay, I’ve wanna ask another favor: don’t tell Angelina.”
“All right. But, are you okay?” Distraught Polly giggled. “I’m good.”
Within minutes Officer Ingersoll pulled up, siren going. Apparently, Brian had not yet traveled past city limits. Brian got back behind the wheel and all four tires touched the ground. They rolled normally. So Ingersoll waved, shouting that Polly must pay all damages, but Brian needed to get the car fixed right away. The bumper was gone and the rear lights were shattered.
Brian slowed down. “’Course, Officer. Right after I pick up Trevor at the airport.”
Ingersoll scoffed. “Trevor? That figures.”
Not giving the policeman’s absurdity another thought, Brian sped ahead. At a red light, he peeled off his stained shirt, leaving only a t-shirt. He wiped his hands and face with bottled sanitizer from the glove compartment.
Soon he was driving five mph in the airport’s arrival lane. Trevor leaned against a spindly tree, sharing a blunt with a security guard.
Noticing the battered Honda, he hurried over. Inside the car, he asked about the damaged car and Brian’s greenish hue.
“What you need, Bri, is Jacob’s herbal remedy.”
Trevor waved to the security guard and lit another blunt, which in a restroom stall he had pulled from his checked luggage. For once, Brian smoked whole-heartedly.
“Lifts yah right up. Jacob blesses the plants with his touch and voice.” Trevor’s crops, grown the same way from the same seeds, would never compare.
“You have other gifts,” Brian said. “Have you considered the best way to use them? Because you attract all kinds of people. And the few you don’t, really resent you.”
“I see the people who don’t respect me.” Trevor said, sucking hard on the smoke. “No trouble, though. I’m cris.”
For Brian Jacob’s remedy worked like magic.
“To the fullness, no?” Trevor said and Brian nodded, yeah, but indicated enough.
“Right,” Trevor said. “No more car crashes.”
“So how was Miami? How was Vivi?”
“One love, Vivi and me. But…” Trevor checked Brian’s face in profile.
Catching this, Brian glanced at his brother. “But what?”
“She can’t show me anything anymore. She’s quit seeing the truth. And at first she even acted strange with me—her boy Trevor. Like she didn’t trust I-and-I the littlest bit.”
“Why?”
“Vivi doesn’t know who she is anymore. True, she and I could never see our own directions. But this was something much worse. It hurt me, Bri. Hurt her, too.”
Nearing the college, Brian asked, “You think it’s some duppy?”
Trevor sighed and shook his head. “No evil I could see. More like, this once sacred woman just gave up on her inner life. A blessed conduit turned into an ordinary, unhappy lady.”
Trevor covered his face. “I gotta find my own truth. And that happens with or without sorrow.”
“You’re still Angelina and Kaya’s boy. They missed you.”
“I’d rather see Carla. You’re not jealous so?” Trevor knew full well Brian wasn’t jealous of Carla.
“She’s not easy, Brian. And her inner light is dim but she’s full of intuition, and more honor than she knows.”
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