Audrey Hepburn's Pearls: Part I

Chapter 96.2: 1968, Georgina

Chapter 96.2: 1968, Georgina

“Ahhhhhhh!”

Screaming, joyful yells in the night air.

“Ahhhhhh! You here! You here, I miss you! I miss you so much! Oh, you here!”

From Carl’s front step, I saw a little puffball rocket towards the car, wearing an olive green coat in the chilly night. Before I was ready, my passenger side door opened and suddenly…oh suddenly…

“Cha Cha,” I gasped, tearing up from deep inside. I tried to shift in my seat to cuddle him, but his arms wrapped around me before I could. So warm. So, so warm. That familiar soft hair, bunched against the side of my face. It was definitely longer than I had seen it last, but still as soft as I had remembered.

“I miss you, I miss you,” he kept saying over and over.

“I missed you, too. So much.”

Paulie was on the small front porch, talking to Carl in the doorway. “The movie should be over at around three. I’ll have the little one home hopefully by 4:30 if the traffic’s right. Should be, since it will be so early.”

“Okay. Yeah, I should be here by then.” Carl. His voice. It was making me tear up further. I wanted to get out of the car to talk to him, but I couldn’t.

And next to me. “You come in for a minute, I want show you wig I got? Sasha take me to Brooklyn, to wig shop. He find me gore-jee-ahss wig. It red and dark orange, blood orange he say. It look good with my skin? I want you see.” My heart stopped. I froze. He didn’t seem to notice this.

“Um…” What was I supposed to say? Do? I couldn’t…get out of the car… My wheelchair was in the trunk, useless here. I couldn’t move out of this seat. I hadn’t thought about this, hadn’t encountered it before, didn’t know what to do. It made my heart descend in my chest, not wanting to disappoint him but what was I supposed to do?

God, and he didn’t even know I was…injured. Oh god no, wait, he didn’t know I was injured. It made the frozen feeling completely overtake me.

That’s right, they’d told him I’d had pneumonia. I’d completely forgotten. Just consumed with missing him, and now here we were, finally, and he was asking me to go see a wig. It should have been so simple, so happy. I wanted to see that kooky grin of his as he wore that wig for me. I was dying to see it. Dying…

“Yeah, we’re going to get a snack on the way, too. We’ve got time. Okay, bye Carl. See you tomorrow night.”

“Bye. You tell Georgina I said take care.”

“Sure will.” The sound of Paulie descending the wooden porch stairs. A life saver.

“Oh, I don’t think we have time,” I said, trying to sound cheerful to this precious one hugging me still. “We have to go. Takes a while to get there.”

“Okay. I show you next time?” Relief. “It pree-tty. You see.”

“I bet it is.” A real smile now on my face, thinking of him in it.

“Okay, kiddo. Get in the back.” Paulie was suddenly standing next to him. “Put on your seatbelt, too. None of that Sasha funny business either, without the seatbelt. You know that’s wrong.”

“Si.” Such a bright Spanish word. It warmed me all the way through, hearing its familiarity from his lips so close to my ear. I could hardly believe he was real, right here right now. This feeling was confusing me, mixing with my worry and anxiety like an overwhelming soup. I hadn’t expected any of these feelings, didn’t know how I’d feel once I’d seen him again…