Suspended - Part III

“Suspended” is a fictional story about a New York family — husband, wife and college-aged son — who’ve become disconnected from one another and lost their sense of purpose until a beautiful young woman who claims she’s a hands-on-healer enters their lives and shakes everything up.

THIS IS PART 3 of a FIFTEEN-PART STORY

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15

 

Image: Lydia Mailloux

Fee lived in Austin, in a house near the river, a house Rich could vividly imagine, filled with plants, pottery, windchimes, candles. She was always traveling, she said, always going to workshops and conferences, expanding her knowledge, visiting friends. He liked that about her. She'd fly across country with hardly more than a backpack, something his wife, Marcia, who was too neurotic to travel without earplugs and her special pillow, would never be able to do.

He daydreamed about seeing her again, fantasized about making trips together, sharing a room and having meals in exotic places. In late July she emailed that she was coming to the city for a conference.

"Stay with me," Rich emailed back. "The apartment's large, there's plenty of room."

"I'd be there five days," Fee warned.

"Not an issue. I look forward to seeing you," Rich replied.

The conference was scheduled for the third week of August, the hottest point of the summer, a time when nothing could drag Marcia from her house upstate. Rich suggested to Danny — who was still floundering over a topic for his thesis — that a change of scenery might do him good. "Go chill in the country with your mom," he said. "You're not accomplishing anything here."

"I have a job," Danny pointed out.

"They’d probably give you a few days off.”

"I'll think about it," Danny said.

“Well, don’t think too hard.”

Rich didn't have the nerve to mention Fee’s visit or the fact of her existence or the notion that he might want the apartment to himself, so he left the whole thing in the lap of the gods, his stomach filling with sourness when Danny came and went as usual from his waiter job and it became apparent that he had no intention of going anywhere. 

Cover Image: Gardie Design