#FreakshowFriday

Chapter 15: A Scale of One to Ten

October 15, 2023

Jamie ought to start coming up with better plans.

A few years ago, after first reconciling with her family, she'd been invited to spend Christmas at her parents' place. Jamie had accepted the invitation, but the week leading up to it had been a hectic one-it had included a whirlwind trip to Sleepy Hollow, New York, for video purposes, plenty of subsequent editing work, lots of last-minute gift shopping she should have gotten out of the way much earlier, and one Christmas party too many. By the time the family Christmas celebration rolled around, sleep had unintentionally become such a secondary concern that Jamie couldn't keep her eyes open through dinner.

It hadn't gone over well. Mom had gotten upset as if it had all been a personal attack on her efforts to prepare dinner, a devil-may-care, disrespectful slight on Jamie's part. Dad had exploded—if you think getting recognized in the streets gives you a free pass to get away with anything, girl, I'll set you straight before you can blink—and Jamie wouldn't have any of that bullshit, so she'd exploded right back. Stella and Gino had packed up and left in an instant—we can't have a single normal Christmas without you people shouting at each other, can we?—and Jamie would've left herself, too, but getting behind a steering wheel for a two-hour drive home would have been dumb in her exhausted state, so she'd gone to bed angry and had left in the morning before anybody else had a chance to wake up.

Needless to say, it hadn't been a great holiday. The following year, Jamie hadn't been quite so tired and the family Christmas celebration had gone off without a hitch. The whole ordeal did end up teaching her a valuable lesson.

In order for there to be peace and love on planet Earth, never, ever fall asleep at a family gathering.

With that in mind, Jamie's preparation for the coffee appointment consisted of knocking back a few energy drinks like she did in the crazy old times when she waited tables by day and made videos by night. She hadn't had time for a nap-she'd wasted it all on a shower so long it doubled the size of her carbon footprint and a social media scrolling binge that should've brought her racing thoughts about the night to a halt, but didn't do much of anything in the end. So she'd settled for an energy drink or three, damn-near in a row, knowing that would keep her awake for a good while.

But that amount of Red Bulls in a short amount of time on an empty stomach, combined with getting on a water bus, is turning out to be little but a great shortcut to feeling sick as a dog.

So maybe she should've thought this through a liiiiiiittle bit longer.

Jamie resolves to slap that bitch called hindsight sometime, but preferably when the world has stopped spinning.

The vaporetto taking her and her family to Murano, the part of the Venetian Lagoon where Gino's mother lives, is packed. The low hum of voices speaking in Italian and an assortment of other tongues fills the space. The day isn't too warm and a light drizzle assaults the boat's windows, but Jamie feels way too hot and sweaty regardless and the air inside seems stale. She stares past the rain drops and out at the sea, forcing herself to keep her gaze trained on a fixed spot on the horizon. She tries to sit still, to keep the roiling nausea at bay, but can't help fidgeting, uncomfortable in her seat. The woman who briefly sat down next to her must've been delighted to get off at her stop and be rid of such a jittery neighbour.

A dull ache pounds in the back of Jamie's head. The heart palpitations are killing. She's just about wired enough to run to the other end of the ferry, jump into the sea and swim the rest of the way to Murano. She might even be able to pull it off without drowning. It could be better than continuing to crash and burn in this tacky green plastic chair and-