Out of Orange by Cleary Wolters
Author:Cleary Wolters [Wolters, Cleary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-03-23T07:00:00+00:00
10 Hurry Up!
Brussels, Belgium
Still October 1993
I HAD BEEN HOME for no more than twenty-four hours again and had already learned there were going to be two deliveries, one week apart, starting immediately. There would be four units each, or so we were told. This time instead of getting everyone over to Europe right away, as Alajeh instructed, Phillip and I gave everyone a general idea of when they would be expected, about a week. We decided we would make sure nothing was going to create a delay before the meter started running on expenses this time around. It was time to make some money; Alajeh had said so with great excitement. But we had been here before.
Phillip and I flew to Chicago. I think Piper took the time to visit her family. We were glad we had handled it this way. The urgent call to get everyone ready and move at least four to Europe was a little premature. It took a week of hotel time in Chicago for Phillip and me to even collect the money for their airfare and expenses.
We had Garrett, Edwin, Donald, and Piper ready with us in Brussels for the first group. We had been told the first group would leave on the twelfth and the second group wouldn’t go until a few days later. We took that to be longer and held off on bringing the second group over prematurely. Of course, the twelfth came and went, then the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then Alajeh finally called to say he was coming to Brussels. Phillip and I thought we knew what this meant—more delays.
On one of these days in Brussels, Piper, Phillip, and I went out to dinner together. The weather was getting colder, so Phillip wore his long black dress coat, and Piper wore one of her confident, worldly businesswoman’s costumes I loved so much. I was feeling very insecure that day. Maybe it was the change of season that did it; autumn closing in has always had a deleterious effect on me. It’s the ominous beginning of my new year, the back-to-school-blues season when summertime dies and the pool closes. I was way overdue for this seasonal bout with the universe, probably due to all the travel back and forth through time zones and hemispheres. My seasonal meltdown clock had been jammed, until now. I felt blue, jinxed, ugly, and hopeless, and then it went downhill.
Phillip and Piper were guilty only of being the same height, wearing nice clothes, and being beautiful. Walking alongside them, I felt like a tagalong, like it wasn’t Phillip who would leave and go back to Meg. It was me who was supposed to go away. I felt the idea blossom while we were at dinner.
We all ordered drinks when we arrived at DNA, a Belgian version of perhaps a hip San Francisco club or restaurant—maybe a Hamburger Mary’s with more neon and less food. The crowd was a mix of thirtysomethings and fortysomethings. It was a Thursday night and the place was hopping with its way-after-work crowd.
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