Twinkle Fiddles

Chapter Two

An hour with Walter had Dylan adjusting his legs, but progress was being made despite the rambling stories. "I say we roll with this. I sent Julie out to get pizzas for the crew. I'm ready to launch some of this," Walter said, excited as a single clap of his hands clearly illustrated.

Dylan caught Julie's name and something about pizza. "You sent Julie out to get pizza for who?"

"Our working lunch," Walter responded. He started naming corporate teams. "The buyers, the planners, the kids in marketing; we're gonna do this working lunch, round table thing. Perfect way to introduce this idea to the team, you know?"

"Walter, pizza places deliver. Her car is going to stink for like a week. How's she carrying it all?" Dylan processed his own questions at a feverish pace. "I'll meet her downstairs."

He flung Walter's office door open. He raced to the escalator, not even knowing when she was due to return.

As Dylan boarded the second escalator down, he saw Julie coming up from the first-floor lobby. She was carrying several bags of bread sticks. He scouted her direction. "I just heard you got stuck with this. You need a hand?"

"This is craziness! Yes, I need help!" She said laughing as they passed, in opposite directions, on the escalators. "I left the pizzas in my car. I couldn't get it all at once. Let me put these in the conference room. I'll meet you down in the lobby. Thanks!"

Dylan waited by the empty reception desk of the corporate headquarters. He watched the escalator steps move, thinking of the earlier incident. Julie mumbled, breaking his concentration. "How in the world did he think I was going to carry ten pizzas?"

Dylan looked back and saw Julie balancing down the escalator with a look to him, her arms open wide. "Seriously, ten pizzas!" she animatedly exclaimed.

"And breadsticks," Dylan added, laughing out loud, holding the main front doors open for her.

"Mine is the green Jeep, over here. They're in my back seat. Thanks again for helping." Julie pointed to a two door, dark green, Jeep Wrangler, sitting half way down the second aisle.

"No way, that's your car?" he remarked.

"Why?"

"We both have Jeeps, kind of weird I guess." His mind was still obsessing about the time altering, light blinding, escalator episode of 40 minutes earlier.

Dylan leaned into the back seat on the passenger's side, while Julie unloaded behind the back-driver's seat. As he pulled his pizza boxes, he glanced at her dash. "Okay I have one of these, and it doesn't look like this. What's different?" he said aloud to himself as much as asking Julie.

"It's in kilometers. The speedometer reads kilometers, not miles per hour." Julie told him, seemingly embarrassed her car was different. "I'm Canadian. It's my dad's old car. We brought it down here when we moved a few years ago. I got stuck with it and its stupid kilometers."

Dylan reassured her. "No, that is so cool. I lived in Canada when I was really little. What part are you from?"

Julie was beyond surprised at his revelation. "Calgary, how about you?"

"Okay, that's where the coincidence ends. I was in Nova Scotia, so like, way on the other side." He motioned and tried to balance the pizza boxes while pushing her Jeep door shut.

Julie was stunned at meeting someone from her homeland. As they began to return to the office building, she continued the conversation. "So, how old were you when you lived there?"

"I guess I was maybe six or seven when we came to the States. I remember elements of Canada, but mainly generic memories. How about you?" He asked her, again holding the main building, front entrance, glass doors open for her.