Page 10 of Divine Sense

Knowing that if I stayed in the shower too much longer, the thoughts of her would come back like a freight train I’d be unable to stop, I turned the water off and stepped out. Quickly drying off, I threw on some shorts and got into bed before my mind could wander.

Magnolia Sinclair was a client and she would stay asjusta client.

If that were true though, why was I so hard and why was the way I wanted her starting to feel like more than strictly professional?

My eyes wereheavy and I’d been dreaming about a girl with a tiny frame and long, dark hair holding herself up on her hands and knees in front of me when I heard my phone buzzing on my nightstand. I tried to ignore it and let it go to voicemail, hoping to slip back into the pure fantasy that I’d been in while dreaming. But it rang again and when it did, it pulled me out of my dream completely. The image of her faded from my mind as my eyes opened slowly and my hand reached for the phone. It was one fifteen in the morning and the number on the screen wasn’t one I recognized. I slid my finger across the screen to answer it.

“Hello?” my voice was groggy as I was still coming out of sleep.

“J–Jack?” the voice on the other side slurred and came out as a plea.Jack? Who’s Jack?I think someone had the wrong number.

“Who is this?” I looked at the number one more time and sat up in bed.

“Jack,” the voice slurred again. “Jack, I–I don’t know how to get home. I think…I think I’m maybe lost? I can’t be lost, I’ve lived here my whole life!” A fit of giggles came from the other end of the receiver.

“You said I could call if I needed anything, I think I need something, because I’m pretty sure I’m lost. And very drunk. This is all Maragaret’s fault, I didn’t even want to go out tonight. Can you come get me, Jack?” Her words were slurring together and when she called me Jack for the third time, it dawned on me that this wasn’t a wrong number—it was Magnolia. I leaped out of bed and hurried towards my closet to throw on a shirtand grab my shoes. My heart was suddenly racing and it wasn’t because of the dream I’d been having.

“Magnolia? Where are you?” My voice came out more urgent than intended and I tried to take a breath. I could tell she was more than drunk and by what she was telling me, alone on the streets somewhere downtown.

“I…I don’t know. Somewhere on King, I think? I lost Margaret, she was with me but now I don’t know where she is. I think she left and I’m alone.” She stumbled over her words as I frantically hurried down the stairs towards the front door. “Daniel is such an asshole, doesn’t he know what he’s lost? I mean, I’m a Sinclair! I’m the greatest thing that could have ever happened to him. And he just threw me away like last week’s leftovers!” I could hear the hurt in her voice and the way it pitched up told me she was holding back tears. My heart squeezed hearing how hurt she was.

“I know, he’s an asshole,” I tried to soothe her over the line while also trying to mask the anger I felt towards a man I’d never met. How could you be such a complete moron and fumble on a girl like her?Says the man pretending he only sees her as a client as he scrambles around the house at one in the morning to go rescue her.I shake the intrusive thoughts out of my head and take a breath before speaking again.

“Look around Magnolia, where are you? What do you see?” I was already grabbing the keys to my car so that when she told me where she was, I’d be gone.

“I see….I see the water. Ow!” She sees water? That could be any number of places on King Street. Before I could ask her to be more specific, I heard what sounded like her phone falling to the ground and some scuffling.

“Magnolia? Are you okay?” I’m frozen where I stand, yelling into the phone and waiting for her to answer me.

“Jack? Ow, that really hurt. I think, I think I’m bleeding? Oh, that’s not good. That looks really not good.” This girl was all over the place and the thought of her being hurt and alone at 1:00 a.m. in downtown Charleston made me uneasy.

Because she was a client.

Only because she was a client and she was in danger of getting hurt.

“Magnolia, stop. Listen to me. You said you see the water, what else do you see?”

“Maybe I don’t see the water, is that water? Wait a second, hold on…” I waited with baited breath as she stumbled over her words some more, trying to organize her drunken thoughts to tell me where she was.

“I see the old pharmacy building with the big blue sign. Do you know where that is?” Her voice came out low and her words slurred even more the longer we talked. I could just picture her stumbling down King Street trying to figure out how to get home. I jumped in my car and turned on the ignition, ready to get to her as fast as I could.

“I know exactly where that is, don’t move. I’m coming to get you, flower.”

8

MAGNOLIA

When Margaret asked me if I wanted to go out tonight, I tried to tell her no. I’d finally come clean to my mother about my breakup with Daniel earlier in the day and she had spun the entire thing to be my fault.

“Honestly, Magnolia, I’m not surprised. If you had just been obedient and done as he asked, he wouldn’t have had any reason to step out on you. It’s a woman’s job to keep the man happy and clearly you were unable to do that. You should go back to him and tell him that you forgive him for his indiscretions and ask him to give you another chance.”

Givemeanother chance? Was she kidding?

The entire exchange made me both angry and sad because once again, I knew I had disappointed her. My whole life I worked to be the dutiful daughter my parents wanted, and even when things outside of my control didn’t pan out, I was still to blame. The last thing I wanted to do was go out tonight because the sour feeling I had from the conversation with my mother was still lingering in my stomach.

“Come on, Mags, please!” Margaret begged with her hands clasped in front of her as she stood in my living room. She had come over to my place and found me wallowing on the couch in self-pity.

“I really don’t think I’m up for it,” I whined. All I wanted to do was lie on the couch and let it slowly eat me alive.

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