The Note 2018

The Note 2018

Dani pressed the front door to her apartment. It opened with a hard bang against the stopper. “He left it open again,” she thought dropping her bag on the stones of the entryway and shoving her keys into her purse.

“Russell! You left the door open again!”

She waited for his footsteps. One second. Two. “Russell! I’m home!”

“He’s probably plugged into his game again.”

At the island between the dining room and the kitchen her eyes watered as she saw the pans and dishes from last night and the morning breakfast dishes still in the sink. “If he would just do something around here.”

She shook her head to clear away the tears, slammed her purse on the island and wheeled around towards the stairs. “I’m sick to death of this Russell!”

Dani caught the glint off of something in the living room, as the setting sun blazed through the picture window. A beam of light shot off of something made of glass. A mirror? She really didn’t expect Russell to remember to close the drapes before she got home, but she was annoyed anyway. She looked away from the light towards the stairs, but caught the scent of something sweet. She coughed and pinched her nose.

“Lilies. You know I hate lilies Russel. Someone die in here or what?”

She circled the dining room furniture and made her way to the bulging flower arrangement. Thirteen lilies, white, green, orange and blood red, dripped over the edges of a mammoth hunk of crystal. The gaudiness of the bouquet was only softened by a few yellow roses and some ferns.

Dani laughed back a gag, not surprised in the least that Russell would pick out the ugliest arrangement ever made. And of course it would be the one with the flowers she despised the most.

She picked up the envelope that lay on the floor. “Danielle” was scrawled with Russell’s usual best third grade effort. “The pains he must have went through.”

She pulled out the card. One of Russell’s traditional sad puppy face cards. “Sadly romantic.”
Inside was the date, her name and four lines:

07/31/2018

Dani,

You know it and I know it,
I can’t stand you anymore,
I’ve got someone else in mind and she ain’t you.
Bye bye – Russ

Dani stared at the words. She sucked in air. Thick oily lily scented air. Her eyes watered again. “Out of here,” she thought and with head down, hands wading up the card she marched through the dining room and through the sliding door onto the deck. Breathing deep she welcomed the drumming of the highway traffic four blocks away. Above, an airliner was on its approach to its landing and the noise of the engines brought solace to her heart. Mentally she cupped her ears with her hands to take in more of the sweet city din.

“Over.”

She took her phone from her pocket and sent a two word text to Shiela.

“It’s over.”

No timed passed. The phone responded. From Sheila: “Good@last Get ova here now!”

With one finger she pressed a wimpy looking emoticon and sent it back. She ran to the living room and grabbed the eighteen pound flower arrangement and hurled it over the deck's back rail. She screamed into the drumming noise of her heartless city as she heard the vase shatter on the rocks below. She grimaced as a delayed electric shock of pain burst up her arm. Four or five shakes and a clinching of her fist and the pain raged through her left side until it was numb. Then it was all gone. Grabbing her purse from off the kitchen island she forgot to close the back door. The front door though slammed behind her as she headed downtown to Sheila’s bar.