Caleb brought me a stack of one hundred ten-dollar bills last night and the wickedest smile he's ever worn.
I told him a few weeks ago in a moment of weirdo weakness and reluctant truth that I always wanted to make it rain, that it's on my bucket list, right up there with naked motorcycle-riding in the yard (which I hope is next).
He handed me the money and asked how I wanted to pull it off.
I told him to start dancing for me and I'd take care of the rest.
Oh, how he laughed.
He did not want to dance though, so instead we ate ice cream, the bills sitting on the counter between us, and he quizzed me about said bucket list, even though we used to call it 100 things before I die, and everyone spent most of January first of each year hung over and writing furiously.
He reminds me that he can do a lot more than make it rain. He said he could make it snow, make the sun shine and the wind blow too and all I have to do is say the word and I could have my entire list fulfilled handily by dinner time.
You don't even know half of what's on it. Maybe some of it involves people you don't even know, or is time-sensitive to occur at certain times in my life, maybe some of it is dumb or silly and you're just going to shoot it down.
Shoot it down? No, that's not what a bucket list is for. Tell me something on it that shames you.
Well I know it's horrible of me but I still want to ride an elephant, a little one because if a big one took off stampeding into the jungle with me on it I'd have all kinds of regrets about the whole thing. But I can't because the way they break them doesn't mesh with how I was raised.
How you were...raised?
On the tail-end of circuses having actual animals. Before everyone freaked out and let a few bad stars spoil the whole sky.
I see.
Our animals were loved like people. They were children.
I don't doubt it. Were the children animals or just you?
WOW. Were you waiting to use that your whole life or did your cleverness just wake up and decide to join in the conversation feet-first?
I didn't mean you any harm.
For once. I'm well aware I was feral when you found me but that isn't his fault, you know. It's yours.
I think, Bridget, that we'll save this for a rainy day. Caleb picks up the money and heads to his office where he will put the stack of bills in the safe in his desk, right beside the gun, the empty boxes that held our Breitlings and my passport, for safekeeping.
