Ride On

Chapter XXXIV: Polythene Pam

It was about two thirty in the afternoon when I woke up but it may as well have been the middle of the night. 

I had turned off all the lights and shut all the curtains leaving my room akin to a cave. And upon pushing the bed cover aside, I saw I was almost completely naked. 

I had undressed in my sleep again.

Too hot for pyjamas anyway, I wrapped myself in a sheet and sat in bed for a while. My head hurt, my side hurt, and my feet stung. I yawned and stretched at the same time and pulled a muscle in my neck. Grimacing, I reached for the phone on the table and made a costly long distance call. 

"Hello?"

"I made it," I blurted out. "I just woke up."

"Did you have any trouble finding the hotel?" Mum actually sounded...worried. 

"No. The paperwork and all that at the airport was confusing but I got it done." I looked down at my sheet dress. 

"Did you eat on the plane?"

"They served us a salad. And macadamia nuts." For being airline food, it was actually pretty good. 

"That's not very much," my mum commented. "Are you hungry?" In truth I wasn't. I was rarely hungry for breakfast. Or....late lunch?

"No, not right now. I'll get something to eat for dinner. I can make a cuppa later." I yawned and then coughed. The fallout from my autumn cold still lingered. "How are the toddlers?"

Mum sighed. "Same as always. Rosemary knocked on your bedroom door this morning calling for you. I had to tell her you were gone." My eyes welled up. 

I wasn't there to let her in. I wasn't there to bring her all the toys she had selected for that day's round of playing. She especially loved "Kagoot", a stuffed reindeer. It dawned on me that I wasn't sure when I would see her again. She would be starting school in a few months and stop coming to our house. 

"Tell her I'll be back soon." My voice was shaky. I had to come up with an excuse to get off the phone. "I think I should have a shower and maybe I'll see the beach."

"Okay," she said. "Call me again when you get a chance. Have a fun trip. Be safe." Mum's parting words were the last straw and a few tears stained my bed. 

**********

I stepped out of the shower and put the kettle on the stove for a cup of tea. The hotel was having dinner at five and the show started at eight so that gave me plenty of time to get ready. I opened my suitcase and dug around. This was a special concert being held at the infamous Whiskey a Go Go. 

I had to look devastating. 

I picked out my black jeans and snakeskin crop top. My leather jacket was too big to pack so I swiped a leather bomber instead. I removed the towel from my hair and let it air dry. I brought along a magazine with an article teaching you how to put your hair in curlers and I thought I'd give it a try. 

What could go wrong?

By the time I finished my cup of tea my hair was ready to style. The article had a step by step procedure that even a dummy like me could follow. 

I must have been a special kind of dummy. 

I kept the curlers in for an hour after getting them in the twelfth try. Either they'd fall out, my clumsy hands would drop them, or fate had it out for me. But I couldn't be too upset, fate had also give me a huge opportunity that many women would have surrendered a limb for. 

It's difficult to put on a shirt with curlers. 

But I managed. And after taking them out they didn't look half bad. I slipped on my feather earring and my black boots and took one last look in the mirror. 

I should have painted the word "desperate" on my forehead. 

What was I getting myself into?