Flying Solo(47)
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“Oh, I know Rocky,” Daisy said over breakfast the next morning at the Compass Café, known for its fluffy pancakes and blistering local gossip. “Rocky is one of his dirtbag friends. He looks kind of like the Green Goblin from Spider-Man.”
“Willem Dafoe?”
“Yeah, yeah. Rocky looks like that, with the gap in his front teeth. I always assumed he was, like, one of those guys who sends out twenty emails a day about cryptocurrency. I’m pretty sure he’s shady, but I don’t know for certain. Matt is probably trying to get the duck sold ASAP in case he gets caught. And he would probably rather sell it to somebody he knows, who won’t ask too many questions, just in case it’s not real. For all I know, they could be faking up some kind of documentation. I mean, he already forged your appraisal.”
“What do we do?” Laurie couldn’t stop remembering the feel of the painted wood under her fingers, the sharp tail feathers and the smooth green crown. “At least it seems like he still has it. It’s not gone yet.”
“Right,” Daisy said. Just then, their waitress, Marnie, walked past with a huge tray that held an omelette and a stack of blueberry pancakes and signaled that she’d be right back. “Man, I’m over here planning to order the veggie scramble, but I can’t lie, I want that,” she said, pointing to the pancakes. She shook off her carbohydrate lust. “If they’re meeting at the store, they’ll meet in Matt’s office, which is at the back, through the little door behind the counter.”
“I think I need to know what happens at that meeting.”
Daisy tapped her fingers on the table. “Right, right. Well, there’s a closet back there. In the office. You could hide in there. It’s tight, but you’d hear them.”
“You think I should hide in the closet?”
“In for a penny of spying, in for a pound,” Daisy said, adding cream to her coffee.
“I guess you’re right. How would I get in?”
“There’s a door in the back,” Daisy said, “that leads out into this tiny little parking area we have off the alley that holds like two cars. The bigger problem is figuring out how to get you in there without Matt seeing you, and I have no idea how we would do that.” She picked up her cup of coffee. “How did this all end up being your problem anyway?” she asked. “Don’t you have a bunch of brothers? Didn’t Dot have friends?”
Laurie smiled. “Everybody does what they can.”
Daisy nodded. “It’s like you’re at the bottom of the funnel. Everything swirls down, down, down, and then at the bottom, there’s you. I mean, it’s not so bad. Somebody has to do it. I think every family has somebody. I do it in my family, too. But they should say thank you. I mean, damn. You’re really going to the mat for this duck.”
Laurie laughed. “I just can’t help thinking…if it was my mom’s, there would be five of us, you know? Five of us trying to make sure everything was accounted for, everything was looked after. She should have the same.”
Daisy nodded. “My aunt told me once that I should have kids because if I don’t, there won’t be anyone to take care of me when I’m old. She was kinda saying it because I’m a lesbian, but either way, that’s messed up. First of all, I know my cousins, and none of them would be spending this kind of time on a duck. She’ll be lucky if they take her out on her birthday.”
Laurie looked dubious. “I bet they would.”
“You’d be surprised. Plus, not taking care of anybody when they’re old unless they’re your mom or your dad is some crazy-ass capitalist boomer shit. I took care of Mary Brewster when she was sick. I even lived with them for a while. You don’t have to be somebody’s kid to be their kid, if you know what I mean.”
“Can I ask how you ended up living with them?”
Daisy smiled. “I bet you think it was when I came out, right? Nah, my parents didn’t care about that too much. I was just being an asshole, honestly. I was seventeen and I was kinda getting in trouble, and Mary called up my mom and just said she thought I needed a change of scenery. It was going to be a week or two, but I stayed six months. And she was right, because now my parents and I are fine. And it’s not like I won’t take care of them when they’re old, but that’s not why they had me. People who have babies don’t go, ‘Oh, welcome to the world, little one, I’m glad you’ll be able to clean out my garage when I’m dead.’ I don’t think most people have practical reasons for having kids, they just want them. Besides, who says kids are going to take care of you when you’re old anyway? Who says you won’t still be taking care of them?”
“I have to tell you, Daisy, you are a lot smarter about all this than I was when I was in my twenties.”
“It’s just different. Life is long, et cetera, amen. I go for balance. That’s why I drank some of Melody’s green juice this morning, but now that I’m here, you know what? I’m definitely getting the pancakes.”
Chapter Fourteen
Laurie and Nick waited in his car, down the street from Sea Spray. The air was hot and salty, and they rolled down the windows just so they could breathe. “What time is it?” she asked as she saw him look at his phone.