Under Glass

Chapter 24- I Only Like Fried Okra

"Have you ever thought how things that you know to be true, right now, could change in a matter of seconds?" Caitlin looked out over the lake and took a sip of her beer.

"Hmmm." Traylor wiped the sweat off her upper lip then pulling up her bikini top. "Pass the lotion."

"You're not going to answer?"

"It's a pretty heavy topic for day drinking," Traylor murmured, not wanting to get into it with Caitlin this weekend.

Caitlin was undeterred. "You know, like one minute you're a healthy, vibrant young woman then you go for a routine check up and BAM you have stage four cancer." Caitlin took another gulp of her Pacifico Clara beer.

"What the fuck are talking about? I don't understand what you mean by truth." She did know. Traylor looked across the dock to where her friends were floating on rafts wondering if they could hear them.

"Okay," Caitlin started sitting up straighter. "Think about when everyone thought the world was flat...That's what they thought was true."

"Okay."

"Then it was all shattered when they discovered the world was round, you know? That's what I mean."

"Like things are constantly evolving?"

"Exactly," Caitlin agreed.

"You say it as though that's something you should win the Nobel Prize for, everyone knows that." Traylor chuckled and then glanced quickly at her work friends.

"But I've never really thought about it, have you?" Caitlin had noticed that Traylor woke up in a bad mood at the lake. She sort of wished she did in fact go to Athens with Sophia, but alas she was here with some women she didn't know and Traylor being an asshole.

"Yes, I thought I had a dad then all of a sudden I didn't." Traylor looked at her phone to distract herself.

"Traylor, I didn't know your dad was dead," Kerry said from the lake.

Traylor blinked.

"I'm so sorry. My dad died when I was young too," she offered. "It's hard, still." Kerry was one of the administrative assistants at the engineering firm.

"It is," Traylor agreed.

A silence settled over them. Traylor glanced over to Caitlin who was lost in her thoughts.

"And I thought about how my friend was once funny and laughed all the time then her ex-boyfriend died and everything changed," Traylor whispered. She stuffed a handful of pretzels in her mouth and continued reading her magazine.

"Why are you being so super bitchy today?" Caitlin asked.

"What? I can't be bitchy?"

"Ummmm, that's not what I asked. I want to know why?"

"That's funny, you haven't asked one thing about me since James died. Why do you care now?"

"Fuck," Caitlin muttered, but she knew Traylor was right.

"Sorry," Traylor conceded. She was extra irritable all of a sudden.

"You're just being honest. It's fine." Caitlin put her earbuds in her ears started clicking on her apps to find her music. "It's scary to think a couple of seconds can change your entire outlook."

"It's life, Caitlin," Traylor sighed.

*******

The strip malls and gas stations blurred together as they drove back to Atlanta. The rest of the weekend went about as well as Caitlin figured it would on Saturday. The ride was quiet and Caitlin drifted in and out of sleep. Her eyes were closed when she heard Traylor whispering furiously on her cell.

"Of course not babe."

There was a long pause.

"So, you're saying I can't be friends with anyone we work with?"

Caitlin didn't really recognize Traylor's voice. It was passive, she was never passive. There was a static silence for many minutes.

"I'm not a fucking idiot, Bill. Is that what you think?"

Like a switch had been turned on her friend was back.

"I'm not discussing this anymore. I already told you I haven't told anyone at work we're together. You've emphasized how important it is."

After a few minutes of her listening Traylor threw the cell in the console.

Caitlin's mind spun with the revelation that maybe Traylor wasn't just mad at her, but mad at the world right now. She'd never heard her and Bill fight. After a long enough time, Caitlin opened her eyes and yawned.

"We close?"

"Yep," Traylor answered curtly.

"You okay?"

"Yep."

"You seem okay," Caitlin's words dripping with sarcasm.

"I can be in a bad mood."

"I know."

"I can be mad."

"You can," Caitlin agreed, nodding.

"I can be so pissed off that I want to hit someone in the face."

"Only if it's not me," Caitlin chuckled.

"Well, I'm mean you're easy to be pissed at because you do so much dumb shit, but this time I may be aiming my radar at someone else."

"Who?"

"Bill's being a dick. I don't like being treated like I'm an idiot. I'm fucking smart and him treating me like I'm a dumb ass doesn't work for me."

"I'm not sure that'd work for anyone, but he must not know you very well at all if he thinks that works for you."

"He just thinks he knows everything."

"He sounds like someone else I know."

"Eat a dick."

"You're so ladylike. I'm sure he loves that."

"One that has been stuffed in dirty boxers after a run, then wallowing with pigs. May testicle sweat choke you until you pass out."

"At least you're funny when you're pissy."

"All the hair... all the hair on the penis and balls. It tickles your throat."

"Do you sit around just thinking of these things?"

"I learned them from you."

"You did not!"

"Remember that guy Roger?"

"What about Dexter?"

"Oh fuck, no you didn't just bring up Dexter... I told you to never mention him again."

"Dexter and his hairy dick. Hairy dick Dexter."

"I will not discuss him. His dick haunts my dreams."

"Because it is so awesome..." Caitlin was working hard not to laugh.

"It was like a large okra."

"I can't," Caitlin burst out laughing.

"I mean it was in me for several minutes before I even realized. I wonder if he ever landed a woman with a small vagina to match his very, very tiny penis."

"It's like when ugly people find each other."

"I mean, I guess he couldn't help it, but damn. I still shudder when I think of it. I'm sad for him, right now."

They both laughed for several minutes. Caitlin sighed as she looked out the window. She couldn't remember the last time they laughed like this. She'd try harder.