Chapter 1
Neera
Neera was in the middle of raking her hands through her hair, power walking away from the airline counter, when her phone rang. She pulled it out of her purse, grateful at least that wasn’t lost. For someone who thought she had it all worked out, her life sure had become a shit storm over the past month.
“Hey, Mom.” Neera closed her eyes and winced when Elodie James’ happy, shrill tone drifted over the phone. Not even the clamor at the airport right before New Year’s could dampen the loudness pumping through the phone speaker and she turned it right down.
There was a special kind of hell when it came to traveling, and Neera had somehow landed herself right in the thick of it. The murk between Christmas and New Years was when everyone was either flying in or flying out.
“You’re here!” Elodie shrieked loudly as if she could picture the cacophony behind Neera. Actually, she could probably hear it through the phone. “Oh my gosh, I’m so excited. Why didn’t you call?”
“How did you know that I was even off the plane yet?”
“Oh, well, the flight times are posted, honey. I knew the second you touched down. I thought you’d be ready to go by now. I was worried when I didn’t hear from you.”
“The airline lost my bag. I don’t exactly know how that’s possible, but they did. I had to go to the desk and describe my bag and give them all my information so when they find it, they can send it to me.”
“Ach! What?” Elodie’s volume nearly blew out Neera’s eardrums. “That’s terrible! I hope you had your laptop and phone and stuff with you.”
“Yeah, of course, I did. I only packed the essentials, you know, a change of clothes and my makeup and stuff in there. Things that I can easily replace if I really need to.”
A young mother trying to corral four little kids who all looked to be under the age of eight glanced up from the spat over a teddy bear that she was trying to break up and gave Neera an understandingly frazzled look. Neera returned a shy, sad smile and hurried on towards the exit. Her bag was MIA, and it was going to have to stay that way because there was nothing she could do about it.
“So, I should leave now?”
“I thought you said the flight times were posted.” She tried hard not to make that sound accusatory.
“Well, I don’t know. Sometimes things happen and flights run late. I didn’t want to leave the house and have to sit at the airport for hours and hours.”
“Right. Okay. Don’t worry about it. I’ll just take a cab.”
“No way! I’ll be there in thirty minutes. A cab would cost sixty dollars or more. I’m leaving now. Grabbing my keys. Hear that?” A jingling sound came through the phone.
Neera cut through the throngs of people crowding the place. The airport was big, but during the holidays it seemed to shrink in size. People turned into short-tempered, travelling maniacs, and flights were scarce and overbooked. The airport was like a big, packed soup of broiling, short- tempered humanity.
“Neera?”
“Oh. Yes, that’s fine. It’ll probably take me more than thirty to get to the doors anyway. It’s freaking packed in here.”
“Okay, I’m getting in the car right now. Hold on. Shoot, I’ll have to brush off the windows. They’re frozen over and full of snow. Is more like forty-five minutes, okay? That’s if the streets aren’t icy. Oh, I know they’re not icy. I didn’t realize that it was snowing out. I should have checked earlier, but I was reading, and I meant to put it down, but then I got lost in it, and you know how it goes.”
“It’s fine, Mom.” Neera closed her eyes. She stopped walking and was nearly bowled over by a guy in a suit carting a wheeled briefcase thing behind him. He gave her a foul look as he sidestepped and continued on his way. “Totally. Fine.”
“I detect dryness. Sarcasm. Is it not fine?”
“No, no, it’s fine. Sorry. You know that I love having to leave San Jose, which was all warm and nice and pretty this time of year, to come back here to frigid winter and snow and storms. Speaking of which, my life has become one big shit storm. I was just thinking about that. My girlfriend of the past four years surprising me with an early Christmas present in the form of, oh, by the way, I’ve been cheating on you with your friend from work for months and I know she’s a legit nurse, but we still do nurse roleplay with the skimpy cliched costumes and everything. You know. That’s probably the dryness you heard.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry that you had to walk in on that vile scene, but at least you know the truth. I know it looks bad, but I promise things will get better. You’re home. It’s going to be a brand-new year. You’ll find a job here and a place in no time. Things are going to work out. Plus, that Stephanie was a butt waffle anyway. I’d like to kick her in the junk.”
“Umm, Mom, you do know butt waffle isn’t a saying?”
“I know. I’m trying to use decent language.”