She's back ~ L. Hamilton

22. | The 2023 Australian Open

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟛
𝔸𝕦𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕒𝕟 𝕆𝕡𝕖𝕟

I awake in the morning I feel a hum in my bones that I haven't felt in years. The buzz of unexpected joy.

It's still early as I get out of bed. The sun hasn't risen get. I get up and get ready for a short run. I throw on light clothes, today was predicted to be a hot day but the sun hasn't risen yet and it's already roasting.

I go down to the lobby. But before I can go out the front door of the hotel, the women behind the desk stops me

"Ms. Ricciardo?" She said

"Yes?" I want to start running "that's Me"

"A package has arrived for you"

She hands me a padded envelope with a return address from Tasha. I rip off the end and inside is a small box and on top is a note written in Tasha's writing.

If anyone can do this, it's you
- T

I open the gift box to see a cd case, and a really old discman with a pair of headphones already plugged in.

"Ms Ricciardo?" The women says, making me look up, she was clasping her hands together nervously

"Yes"

"Would you mind terribly if I asked for an autograph?"

"Of course" I say

She hands me a piece of paper and a pen. "Oh wow, Ms Ricciardo this is... this is just amazing" she says "thank you so much"

I grasp the pen and scrawl take em all down, Delaney Ricciardo, and hand it back to her

"Thank you so much" she says again "I've been a fan of yours since I was ten you you won here first. I was in the stands with my father. He loves you too"

"You don't mind that I'm an arrogant bitch?" I say with a slight smile

She laughs "no, I do not"

"I'm going to win today" I say to her

"I have no doubt, I'll be cheering from here"

I smile at her "lovely to meet you" before I take the discman out of the box and plug the headphones into my ears and make my way towards the door. I press play and start running out of the lobby.

I laugh outloud as the music starts to play, 'the bitch is back' my song starts playing

I run on the sidewalk. When I turn the corner and the song gets to the chorus, I know - I can feel it in the way my blood is pumping - that Madeline Oxford is dead in the water.

*****

"All eyes are going to be on your first serve, to see who you are at thirty five. Knock the socks off her from the jump" my uncle says to me just outside the locker room "scare her, you hear me? Scare everybody"

I nod, staring down at my shoes, I picked out the white ones with the green strip this morning to go with my white top and tennis skirt

This moment - my uncle and I here in the hall, waiting to go out - feels just like how it used to. I'm back at war, after years of not knowing how to live. This is the only place I know who I am, the only place where I make sense.

I pick up my racket, looking down at the now famous R on the bottom of it. It's a phoenix in the shape of an R, me and Daniel's logo. I have it on a necklace and on my racket, he has it tattooed on his hand and on the back of his racing helmet.

I flip my racket over in my hand, my whole arm begging to throb, ready to be used

I absorb the silence for one moment, in the quite dim of the stadium. The faint noise of the huge crowd coming through the walls around us.

"Te quiero muchísimo" he says

I open my eyes "I know. I love you too"

"Go out there" he looks me directly in the eyes with intention that I haven't seen in years, maybe not even since I was a kid. "Show them Delaney. Show them that the Bitch, The Destroyer, whatever they want to call you - it doesn't matter. They cannot stop you. And they don't get to decide what your name is. Delaney Ricciardo is back"

I breath in deep and then wipe the tops of my shoes clean and start walking - one step at a time - onto the court