Wishing for Wonderful (Serendipity #3)(12)

Lindsay had to admit it was hard to believe.

“It’s like I learned to breathe all over again,” Sara said. She then went on to tell about how she’d found a great job as a hostess at a beachfront restaurant.

“Living in New York isn’t for someone like me,” she explained. “It’s a good place for people who are climbing to the top of the ladder, but I’m just looking to be happy and have a good life.”

Lindsay knew by the sound of Sara’s voice she had found what she was looking for; it wasn’t in New York, it was in Florida.

When they hung up Lindsay felt strangely alone, more alone than she’d been since the days after her mother had passed away. For a long time she sat there, at first thinking of her options and then wishing she too had a sister in Florida.

~

I guess by now you’ve surmised trouble is on the horizon. Lindsay isn’t the only one at risk. Unless I do something to change the course of events, Eleanor and John will be torn apart. And, yes, Lindsay will never find her perfect match.

~

That evening, long after most people had eaten dinner and cleared the dishes from the table, I watched Lindsay walk three blocks to the Golden Dragon, buy a pint of pork fried rice and carry it home. She scooped the rice into a bowl, flicked on the television and dropped down on the sofa. From where Lindsay sat she could view the apartment in its entirety, except for the bathroom—from the archway on the left that led to a kitchen barely big enough to turn around in to the bedroom alcove on the right. Not a real bedroom, just an alcove large enough for a bed and a very small dresser.

Lindsay sat there thinking back on all that had happened. Piece by piece she was losing herself and everything she loved. First it was her Mom, then Phillip, then the apartment, then her job. Now even Sara was gone.

She thought about Sara and the happiness that bubbled through her voice. She pictured blue skies and palm trees waving in the breeze. And for a brief moment she even pictured a handsome lifeguard with a sun-toasted body and hair the color of spun gold.

As she finished the rice it seemed bland, tasteless. A mix of drab colors, not unlike her apartment. She thought back to the bedroom she’d slept in growing up. It was nearly as large as this entire apartment. It was a happy place, a room that made you smile just being there. She remembered the curtains her mother made, and she remembered her mother. God, how she missed her. Nothing was the same without her. Not the house, not Dad, not even the inside of Lindsay’s heart. She’d moved to New York hoping to leave the pain of remembering behind, but it came with her. It wasn’t visible as it was at the house, but it was here. Hidden inside Lindsay’s heart.

She stood and carried the empty bowl to the kitchen where there was no table, just a counter and space for a single stool. The starkness of it brought back memories of the dining room at home, of the mahogany table and dinners with Mom, Dad, Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Frank. As those memories crowded her head, it seemed both she and the apartment grew smaller and smaller. Perhaps one day she would shrink to a size that would disappear altogether, just as her mom, Phillip, her job, the apartment and now Sara had disappeared. Lindsay wondered if anyone would even notice when she was gone. That thought swelled and pushed tears from her eyes.

When she went to bed that night, a loneliness bigger than any girl should have to know settled into Lindsay’s heart. She pulled the blankets over her head and began to cry.





Cupid

Gremlins





At one time this was a simple job. Arrange for two humans to meet on a stroll through the park or at a party, even at work. But with every century it becomes increasingly more complex. Now not only do I have to deal with cross-country relocations, I’m plagued with online dating sites. The idea of a computer doing my job is virtually laughable. I can look ahead a thousand centuries and promise you that long after computers are obsolete, I will still be arranging perfect matches. Granted, the computer has its uses as you will soon see, but finding love is not one of them.

With most humans I can predict what they’ll do, but Lindsay is totally unpredictable. No one understands human hearts better than me, and I can assure you it’s much too soon for that girl to find love. This leaves me in what might be called a pickle. I can’t give Lindsay a new match nor can I allow her to interfere with John and Eleanor, so I’ve created a distraction—not all that difficult because humans are extremely gullible and quite easily distracted. Watch what happens.

~

Lindsay woke with a strange feeling and a buzzing in her ears. It seemed as though she was hearing something and yet not hearing it. Twice she cleaned her ears with a cotton swab, then resorted to using earwax cleansing oil. Still it continued.

She booted up the computer and Googled employment agencies, but the strangest thing happened. She got a car rental site. She exited the site and tried again. The next time she was rerouted to a genealogy site, one that promised to find lost and forgotten family members. She again clicked ‘exit file’ and tried retyping Jobs.com in the navigation bar. Again she landed on the genealogy site.

Still thinking of her conversation with Sara, she changed course and typed “Visit Florida” into the Google search bar. Seconds later it appeared: the same picture she’d been imagining. A bluer than blue ocean, a long stretch of sandy beach, palm trees so tall they extended beyond the edge of the picture. Lindsay sighed. If only…