Hazy Hands Of Fate

100 Minutes Of Trudy

When Robert woke up he couldn't recognize where he was. It was a strange place in the serenity. Again Harley left him alone in a place he was not particularly familiar with. He stepped outside the house only to meet the stinging sunbeam against his dazed eyes. He could hear a young woman talking and the spirited giggles of the pop-star herself.

There she was, hidden behind the bushes talking to a young woman who he had not seen before. Harley had her coal colored eyes set on the emerald hogs. She clutched a hose in her caramel hands watering the plants.

Harley noticed him despite her uncontrolled fit of giggling.

"You are awake," Harley pointed out between giggles making it look like a joke. Bobbie couldn't find it funny. He was feeling awkward by then. Harley introduced her former employee when she halted laughing.

"This is Trudy," said Harley.

"Hello," Bobbie said and shook hands roughly with the black girl, almost crushing her.

"So this worm is the one I should live up to. Brilliant!" Bobbie chuckled at his own thoughts.

"Why is she here?" Bobbie muttered.

"Oh," Harley started giggling hard. Bobbie turned his eyes to Trudy's face in the hope of spotting her reaction to Harley's giggling. For his further annoyance, her face molded into a simple expression of acquaintance. He should have felt better because Harley's giggling didn't seem to impress her but he didn't. He biased that those black women were plotting against him. That made it difficult.

"I thought you had fired her," Bobbie cared to explained.

"I told you that I didn't fire her," Harley retorted and continued laughing. "You had closed the door."

"So?" Bobbie expressed his confusion.

"I was hungry."

"Don't tell me you called her because you were hungry."

Harley continued to laugh. Thus Bobbie's instincts thickened around the speculation that she might be a lunatic. Now he was uncomfortable and Trudy seemed disinterested. When Harley's giggling melted down, she took the pain of explaining.

"I did not fire Trudy. She is joining the college."

"Then why is she here?"

"I was hungry. "

"I don't believe you. Are you firing me? Is it because of the food?"

"No... she is... She helped me."

"Yeah," Bobbie said.

"Okay," Harley chirped mirroring sarcasm in Bobbie's voice. She started moving back. Trudy continued watering the plants and Bobbie followed Harley back to the house.

"Make me some coffee," Harley ordered and without waiting for a reply turned to move to her own room.

"But..." Bobbie brainstormed for an excuse. Harley traversed the length of the hallway and disappeared behind the door.

How will Bobbie ever live up to Harley's expectations that were touching sky when it came to cooking. Unable to figure out what to do, Bobbie stood to wait for heavenly intervention. He expected an angel with snow-white wings and sparkling dress to come to his rescue. But when it did, it was the black girl. Trudy appeared beside him. Crossing her hands across her chest, she took an interrogative stand but did not spare him a look. She kept looking forward, staring at almost nothing. He wished that she would look at him even for a second. Just one look.