Anna's Visions (14 page)

I am troubled by Tori’s change in moods for the past
few days. I sense that something is eating at her. She doesn’t confide in me as
she has always done, but I figure she wants to assert her independence and make
her own decisions as a grownup. It’s strange, but she doesn’t mention Wes when
we talk on the phone. When I see her, she puts on a happy face, but I know
Tori. Something is amiss.

This has me a bit concerned. Maybe I’ll see a vision.
Maybe I’ll pick up strong feelings about what’s bothering her. Maybe I’ll wait
until she’s ready to talk.

Anna West-Morgan

Chapter Ten

Tori called Jill to tell her a plan she had cooked up,
and being a good friend, Jill first tried to talk Tori out of it, and then
finally gave in and agreed to become her accomplice.

That fateful morning, Tori
was
again thankful that her parents usually left for work before she got up. As
soon as she heard their car pull out of the driveway, she jumped out of bed –
fully dressed, her makeup perfect, ready to embark on what she was sure would
be the greatest adventure of her life.

She ran across the floor and peered through the
curtains of the window, waiting for Cliff and Rose Moss to back their cars out
of their driveway and head up Maple Street.

She immediately called Jill. “Are you ready?”

“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” Jill
asked.

“Of course!”
Tori replied. “Now get over here. I don’t want to be
late for my flight.” She hung up and dragged her suitcases outside, and then
hurried back inside to scribble a note to her parents.

A few minutes later, Jill’s Pinto was parked in front
of the house, and Tori hurried out to meet her. Tori wore a forest-green
mini-shirt, a light green middy top, and sandals that exposed her coral-painted
toenails that matched her fingernails. “How do I look?” she asked, spinning
around so Jill could check her out from every angle.

“Perfect,” Jill answered flatly, as she picked up a
suitcase and tossed it into the back seat. “But this is a dumb idea. Actually
it’s stupid, just plain stupid! I’m as mad at Wes as you are, but running away
like this isn’t going to solve anything. Why don’t you just have a face-to-face
with him?”

“I’ve already had the face-to-face with him, and you
see where it got me. It got me divorced! He’s done with me and I’m done with
him. He could have stopped the divorce, but he let it go through – and he
didn’t even contact me. So he can kiss my happy ass, as far as I’m concerned,”
Tori said, fighting the urge to break into tears. She looked Jill squarely in
the eyes. “I think he has a girlfriend, if you want to know the truth. Well, he
can stick his girlfriend up his butt and sit on her!”

Jill didn’t comment on the girlfriend, and that
reinforced Tori’s hunch. It didn’t matter at that point, and she didn’t push
Jill. As Jill opened the car door and slid behind the wheel, Tori said, “I left
a note on the kitchen table for Momma and Daddy.”

“What does it say? ‘I’ve run off to join the circus.’”

“No, smart aleck,” Tori replied. “It just says I’ve
gone on a little vacation and that I’ll call them later.”

It was the only way Tori could make her escape without
causing her parents to have a conniption. They had no idea what she was going
through. After all, they’d never lost the love of their life. Their love had
always been secure, so they couldn’t possibly know what it was like.

Jill threw both hands into the air. “You know
something? You’ve got to be the most stubborn, pigheaded person I’ve ever
known. Once you set your mind to something, it would take an act of congress to
change it!”

“You got that right. Now let’s head for the airport –
and freedom!”

“You’re making a big mistake. And to quote Grammy –
those who won’t listen have to feel!” Jill said.

When they reached the stop sign at the end of Maple
Street, Tori glanced out the window and saw Tommy Hill on his usual morning
jog. She stuck her thumb in the air, and said, “Go Tommy, go!” Then she
mumbled, “You little ferret-face-nerd-turd.”

Jill chuckled. “Tori, when are you going to let up on
that
boy.
He’s been in love with you since
kindergarten.”

“How well I know!” Tori said. “If nothing else, I’ll
give him credit for being consistent.”

When they reached the airport in Trent, Jill helped
Tori lug her bags into the terminal, then kissed her goodbye and made Tori
promise to call as soon as she was settled into her hotel room.

“I will,” Tori said, “Now get out of here before
you’re late for class. Stop worrying. I’ll be okay.”

Tori watched Jill walk through the revolving door, and
then she turned and waved. As Tori returned the wave, an eerie feeling crept up
her spine, as if she were seeing Jill’s sweet face for the last time. Tori
shook it off.

She checked her luggage and collected her boarding
pass. It was her first time to fly and she was excited but also nervous. She
remembered to put gum into her mouth to keep her ears from popping as the plane
ascended and descended.

Finally, it was time to board and Tori’s heart pounded
as she found her seat next to a window. She listened intently as the stewardess
told them how to find the exits, how the cushions could be used as floating
devices, how to use the oxygen masks, and how to fasten their seatbelts.

Tori held her breath as the plane taxied down the
runway and lifted off the ground. She gazed out the small window as the plane
rose higher and the things on the ground got smaller. When they flew over the
highway she was aghast. Cars looked like ants marching up a string. Then she
saw nothing but clouds, so she settled back, closed her eyes, and tried to
imagine what the future held. There was life beyond Madison – and beyond Wesley
Asner – and she was going to find it.

She opened her eyes and looked around, wondering where
the other passengers were headed, wondering what they might be running from or
running to. Some of them looked sad and some looked tired. What kind of
tragedies had they known in their lives? Were they, like her, on the plane in
search of a better life? If so, she wished them good luck. Tori closed her eyes
again and dozed off. When she awoke, her ears were popping as the plane
descended toward Atlanta.

* * * *

She waited for all the passengers from the back to
pass, and then she joined them as they walked down the aisle and descended the
steps that had been rolled to the side of the plane.

Her heart raced as she entered the terminal. The place
was huge.
Almost the size of Madison, to her.
She
walked what seemed like twenty miles to get to her gate. After she found it,
she was happy to see a snack bar close by.

She had an hour before her next flight, so she grabbed
a cheeseburger, fries, Coke, and a cherry pie. After she ate, she browsed
through a bookstore, fantasizing about being a famous author and signing books
all over the world. She jolted from her reverie when she heard her flight
number called for passengers to board.

The next plane was three times the size the one she
had taken to Atlanta, and she was happy that she had been assigned a window
seat. She was excited, but thoughts of Wes still lingered in the shadows of her
mind. She knew she would always love him, but he was out of her life. He’d made
his choice and she was determined to move on – and this adventure was the
perfect way to start. She was soaring through the wild blue yonder, free,
excited, and awed. The thought made her smile.

The plane bounced as its wheels hit the runway in
Tampa and Tori gasped, hoping they weren’t about to crash. She gripped the
armrest until her knuckles turned white. Finally they pulled up to the terminal
and she was able to breathe normally again.

Inside the terminal, she watched the luggage carousel
until she saw her two suitcases. She grabbed them, and then found her way to
the car rental area. After filling out a mountain of paper work, the man behind
the counter handed her a set of car keys and pointed her toward her car – a
blue Volkswagen Beetle, the cheapest car she could rent.

She had to use her savings sparingly. Her parents and
grandparents had worked hard for the money they’d deposited in her account
through the years and she wasn’t going to blow eighteen years of savings that
was supposed to have been used for her education. Well, her education was about
to begin – although it wasn’t going to be exactly what they had hoped for.

She unlocked the car and threw her luggage into the
backseat. The Florida humidity had wrapped itself around her like a heavy wet
blanket and she was dripping with sweat. She rolled down the windows, drew in a
deep breath, and turned the key.

“Okay, world, here I come!” she said above the roar of
the Beetle’s engine.

Tori followed signs toward the bay and felt a renewed
sense of excitement as she deeply inhaled the salty air, the smell of
saltwater, fish, and other Floridian scents.

It was a straight shot across the bay. Then she
followed Gulf to Bay Boulevard, over the drawbridge, and across the causeway.
She couldn’t believe the beauty as she drove. Flowers were blooming along the
median and she’d never seen a real palm tree before. They were a little weird
looking, but pretty in their own peculiar way.

She was also in awe of the huge mansions that lined
the shore. She was surrounded by wealth unlike anything she’d ever seen in
Madison. Many of the mansions had huge sailboats docked behind them. The
biggest boat she’d ever seen was her daddy’s aluminum twelve-footer. She was
getting a feel for what a country hick she really was.

She took a left at the end of the causeway, and then a
right and pulled into the drive of the Caribbean Hotel. Signs directed her
toward the parking lot. She could see the ocean from the car window. As she
shut down the Beetle’s engine, she sighed deeply, feeling like a happy child
who had just found a puppy under the Christmas tree.

Tori stepped out
of the car and was
surprised by
the heat of the Florida sun. She was glad she’d packed a large bottle of suntan
lotion, because she was going to need lots of it so she wouldn’t become a
crispy-critter.

She signed in and then found her way down several
corridors until she came to room 126. When she stepped inside, she was
awestruck. The room was larger than the honeymoon suite where she and Wes had
spent their wedding night.

She slapped herself upside the head, reminding herself
that she had to wipe the memory of Wes from her mind – wipe it so far away that
he would never find his way back inside her head again.

She pulled back the heavy drapes and gasped at the
sight of the white sand, the Gulf of Mexico, the palm trees, and the seagulls.
All of it was breathtaking – like something out of a fairy tale book. She was
in Paradise, without having to die.

She crossed her arms over her breasts and swayed back
and forth. “Only love can break the heart…only love can mend it again,” she
sang. But she wondered if she would ever love again – or if she even wanted to.

She heaved the larger of her two suitcases upon the
bed, opened it, and searched for her green bikini. It was the first bikini
she’d ever owned and she couldn’t wait to slip into it. She was in Florida, and
she was determined to fit in with the beach crowd!

As she put it on, she laughed as she thought of how
Grammy would have fussed and told her that ladies didn’t go out in public
half-naked. And in her mind’s eye she could see Wes about to have a purple cow
– but she was free from Wes. Or at least she was working on it.

Tori admired
herself
in the
mirror on the back of the bathroom door. She had gained a few pounds, but still
only weighed one hundred and seven, which wasn’t bad for her five-two-inch
frame. She had long, shapely legs and her bust, waist, and hips measurements
were thirty-four, twenty-three,
thirty
-four.
“Perfectly proportioned.”
She was ready to go make a few
eyes pop.

Her plan was to catch a big, handsome hunk, and then
throw him back like a too-small fish. She didn’t want a keeper at the
moment,
she just wanted to experience the thrill of reeling
one in.

“Payback is a big, warty witch, Wesley Asner,” she
whispered. “You just keep taking the bows, big boy! But I’ll take no more
blame.”

She generously smeared her face and body with suntan
lotion, slipped on sunglasses, then grabbed a beach towel and dropped her room
key into a small change purse containing a few dollars.

She was giddy as she shut the door behind her and
strutted down the halls. Stepping through a back door and out into the bright
sun, she walked across the blazing-hot sand, which immediately made her realize
she should have worn her flip-flops. She hurried to the wet sand by the water’s
edge, and then turned in circles, drinking in the new world that surrounded
her.

She hid her change purse under her beach towel,
dropped her sunglasses on top of it, and slowly waded into the ocean. When her
body adjusted to the cool water’s temperature she waded further. Then she swam
a few strokes, but it was nothing like swimming in a pool. The saltwater stung
her eyes and when some of it ran into her mouth, she coughed and spit as if she’d
swallowed poison.

She didn’t want to fight the current, so she waded
back to the water’s edge and sat down to let small waves wash over her. She sat
for several minutes, splashed her body, happy as the carefree child she had
once been.

Looking out at the blue-green water, she gasped as two
dolphins jumped and did nosedives, as if performing just for her. In the
distance to her left she saw more sailboats. Then she turned to her right and
studied another strange sight. People were landing in the water with
parachute-looking things on their backs.