"Carpe Diem". Seize the day. Ellie Peyton traced the curly letters tattooed into her flesh and smiled. Her forearm was still puckered and pink from the needle, but the pain had receded and was now nothing more than a dull, prickling itch. Pulling down her sleeve she stepped off the curb and crossed the street in the direction of a little cafe just south of the tattoo parlor. She was meeting her friend Kate there for brunch. A car nearly mowed her down as she scuttled across the road in her heels, but Ellie wasn't one to get a chuckle from the irony. She just flicked the driver her middle finger and her most voracious smile when he blasted his car horn at her.
A tiny bell above the door dinged as she entered the cafe. It was an older, very worn place, with red-check table cloths, little canisters of brown sugar and an atmosphere alive with springy touches of jazz. Ellie went up to the counter and stirred around the contents of her handbag. Her shoulders sagged when she realized just how little cash she had with her.
Ellie told the young man behind the counter what she wanted and paid him, with embarrassing precision, in change. He was dazzlingly cute. His little red and white plastic name tag read: JASON. Ellie had a hopeless predilection for blonds, and this one's fair and spiky locks were making her remember a particularly heated summer behind the bicycle shed. She was forty-eight now. Youth was a faded memory, a haze of bubbly laughter, grass stains and the days without wrinkle cream.
Giving Jason a smile maybe a bit too young for her mouth, Ellie picked out a seat. And she had no sooner plonked her backside into a very low chair when the bell above the door dinged.
A tall and dreadfully haggard looking woman followed him in, bags wrapped around he arms. Ellie waved them over.
"Morning Kate." she said.
"Oh yeah? What's so damn good about it?" Kate Laughner fumbled into the chair the other side of her, and even though Ellie hadn't said "good morning" she didn't feel the need to correct her friend. Kate unloaded all her baggage and maneuvered it under the table with her foot, lighting a cigarette at the same time she took one long, stress-dissolving puff.
The staff looked at her as in wanting to say something, but she was a frightening looking woman. Her wine-red corkscrew hair gave her a spinsterish quality, not helped by the heavy black liner that bled into the creases around her eyes. In the end they thought better of it.
Kate almost finished with her cigarette. She made sure to steer her smoke away from Ellie. It rose upwards to be sheared apart by the fans above their heads.
Jason set Ellie's order down in front of her. One medium black coffee and an English muffin sparsely dribbled with raspberry sauce. His voice had the stuffy, nasal twang of someone with a summer cold. He smiled. Ellie noticed the bridge of his nose was sprinkled lightly with acne scarring, and she smiled too.
Kate stubbed out her cigarette and plucked a menu from between the sugar canister and the creamer of milk. "Hey kid, you can take my order while you're here." She said, and Ellie could have sworn she saw Jason flinch. She couldn't blame him for it, either. Kate wasn't the gentlest of speakers. Every breath was a thick, bronchial roar. He turned back to them as if awaiting a sentence, clutching the tray he'd brought Ellie's order on a little tighter to his chest while Kate scoured the menu for something to her liking.
Ellie and Jason exchanged a laughable cringe when Kate let out a series of low, guttural coughs.
"Hell. I'll have a large latte and the biggest slab of chocolate cake ya got. This is a celebration." Kate folded the menu back up and slipped it back into its stand, a broad smile on her face that looked more menacing than pleasing. Jason left and Ellie took a fork to her English muffin.
"So what are we celebrating?" Ellie asked.
"My divorce finally came through." Kate said, wearing that unsure smile again. "We've got a new apartment, too. It's lovely."
When Kate's order arrived they delved into the proverbial topics. Things seemed to be going rather well for Kate.
Ellie, too. She told Kate about her new job -- dressed it as a grand career move. And maybe it was, only time would tell she supposed. Being single, she spent her Saturday nights with her good friends Ben & Jerry, flipping the pages of a Jane Austin novel between spoonfuls. The sad thing was, when Ellie looked in the mirror she didn't see herself anymore; she saw a raisin where a youth once beamed. It could be worse, but she was lonely. Maybe she'd meet some sharp, blue eyed clerk at her new job. Someone who'd take a shine to her laugh lines and slightly off-set chin.
She sighed, casting her eyes around the cafe. Kate went on about something with her sister.
Ellie had tuned it all out. The jukebox the corner was burbling out Jackie Wilson's "Baby Workout". The melody was drifting through the cafe like the twirl of a young girl's skirt. It created a kind of smoky renaissance stir up a smile on her face. But her eyes slid back to the happenings of the real world after a time. She found her own memories too bitter to indulge them anymore.
On a table by the window an middle aged man. He was spreading crushed Prozac over his piece of dry toast. He was mumbling softly to himself. While, across the room on a table near the bathrooms, a young couple were arguing noisily. The girl cried out, getting to her feet in a loud and obvious manner.
"She was my sister you Jackass!"
"Baby, wait! I'm sorry! I can change!" The young man called after her, but she had already sped out of the cafe by the time he'd stood. He groaned and sat back down, trying to shrink into his own shoulders as around him eyes narrowed and tongues clicked in judgment.
Ellie looked away.
Jason was shuttling from table to table while giggling teenage girls slipped dollars into the back pocket of his jeans. He smiled at them, but it was a flustered smile.
Little pangs of childishness crept up from Ellie's stomach. She felt herself fidgeting with her skirt. It was long enough to hide her dimply thighs but still short enough to inspire a second look. Then she realized what she was doing and nearly laughed. She didn't fancy herself a Cougar. Kate continued to go on about something but Ellie was distracted by nostalgia spreading like a frost throughout all her insides.
It had been going on all day. She'd known she was acting strange. Was it because of the tattoo? Had the words soaked so deep into her skin that they'd melted into her blood -- into her psyche? Was that why she was craving some fresh excitement so badly?
The jukebox, as if on que, played "Careless Whisper" while Ellie remained lost in her thoughts.
Kate had noticed that Ellie wasn't quite listening to her halfway through one of her rants about the bus system and how inept it was. One ear might as well have been cocked in a different direction. Finally she took her fork and jabbed Ellie in the arm. Ellie emitted a small squeal, jumping a little in her seat, turning to Kate incredulously.
"Your phone is ringing," she said.
"What? Oh, sorry." Ellie fumbled in her purse for her mobile. "It's a text from Dad."
"What's he saying?"
"Nothing. He's got arthritis in his fingers so he just sends me a blank one whenever he wants me to phone him. And he doesn't like to phone in case I'm busy." She saw that she only had 2% battery life left on her phone. “ I need to use the payphone phone in the back.”
Ellie got up and walked the length of the cafe, towards the payphone mounted on the far wall. It was directly under a fan, the cold air felt good on her neck. Dialing, she awaited her dad's first uncertain "Hello?", before he'd repeat it as soon as she answered him.
She wound the cord busily around her fingers, suddenly feeling uncomfortable in her own skin. The tattoo, an ambiguous spritz of black on her arm. Standing up there in her little skirt and strappy heels, what was she thinking? A nervous smile rippled over her lips, the kind that came before a bout of badly timed laughter. Jason must have thought she was smiling at him because when she looked up he was grinning pleasantly in her direction. He was shaded behind a strap of light, giving his sweet smile a sneaky edge. Maybe he didn't want the teenage girls who had been coquetting him to see....like it was just for me? The first spark of something yet to blaze? She wondered.
Or, maybe it was just the light.
In the distance, she thought she heard the rumble of thunder.
Her dad picked up and she averted her eyes to the floor as they began to talk. He launched into what he was saying perilously, something about the kettle not working. He misplaced his anger a little, but not enough to upset her. Ellie suggested he just buy a new one, but mother had just had her hair and nails done so it was impossible. Not enough money! He'd practically sang it.
The man at the window, who was chewing down the last of his Prozac, suddenly gave a cough and a splutter in a sort of strangled gasp. He clutched at his chest and smacked his palm down on the table. A young, dark haired waitress came to his aid and when she began to thump him on the back he just shook his head and pointed outside. The waitress looked out of the window and screamed an almighty scream. Far too loud for someone with such a tiny frame.
Everyone in the cafe turned to look and a few ran to the window to see what the commotion was about. Ellie hadn't been paying attention to the happenings around her. Unaware of the sudden terror now spreading throughout the room, she just talked louder to be heard over the noise. But she suddenly realized that she couldn't hear her voice anymore over a wild, chaotic noise, getting louder. She turned her head to the window and the receiver fell from her hand.
Hurtling through the sky was a plane. It's tail was on fire, with black smoke pluming from its flames. It looked like it was trying to land on the stretch of road and its wings were tearing through every building that lined the street. The landing wheels were down but broken. The entire plane tilted and the left wing sliced through an executive building in a burst of fire, sparks and glass.
I'm going to die on a Tuesday. Was the last thing Ellie Peyton said before the plane wing crashed through the front of the cafe.
The mellow sound of jazz was replaced by a cataclysmic smash of warping of metal, crunching tiles, chairs and tables. All breaking under the weight of the falling debris. It was followed by the thunk and pitter-patter as the roof slumped down into the serving area, and bits of mortar and concrete rained down from the sky. Sliding past the open gash where the front window had been the wing tore out the cash register, the cake display and the antique spice cabinet.
Nobody screamed inside the cafe.
Ellie kept her head firmly locked between her hands. She didn't want to look. She knew she'd been hurt. Her face and knees stung and throbbed. There was an eerie silence she dared not experience with any more senses. Gradually, trembling, she lowered her arms and lifted her head. She pushed herself up, sitting on her legs, choked sobs rattled in her throat. There was a large gash on her forehead that was bleeding. Her knees were destroyed, cut up beyond all shape.
She looked around at the chaos, disbelieving. The whole front of the cafe had been torn off, and the plane lay curled like a silver dragon at the end of the road, sleeping peacefully after a meal. Ellie saw no movement in the cafe. The silence was so sereal that she thought she had gone deaf.
It was then as her gaze was drawn down the gap between where the tables used to be, that she saw him. Creamy jaw slacked and mouth hanging open, blood trailing down his chin. Jason. The sparkle still in his dead eyes. It hadn't quite faded yet. He'd been crushed when the cashier desk had toppled. Ellie crawled over to him, only to stare as she couldn't bare to touch. She felt too numb to know if she should cry.
There was a quiet shuffling further down the cafe and another blast of fear hit her. Raw and sweaty. She continued to crawl through the broken tables. Over napkins blotted with crimson. When she finally stood she wished she hadn't. She came to the table she had been sharing with Kate and a scream tore out of her throat.
A steel pipe had run through Kate. Shattered coins of light fell on her body through the destroyed ceiling, making the blood all that much redder, brighter. Ellie dropped to her knees and sobbed for her friend.
Fire engines, ambulances and police cars soon swarmed around the wreckage. News cameras, too. They assumed no one in the cafe had survived. Ellie could see them tending to those sprawled out on the pavement. Even with the sirens wailing outside, a reminder of human life, it was a long time before Ellie found the strength to stand again, but she did.
Paramedics quickly rushed in when they spotted her and guided her out to the awaiting ambulances. Her wounds were treated then and there with the rest of the causalities at the scene.
Ellie sat in the back of the ambulance. There was a huge slash from wrist to elbow on her arm, cutting right across her new tattoo. Ruining the pretty words. Only they didn't seem so pretty anymore. She had just wanted a new start, there was no time wasting, no wallowing in the misery. She'd made a move towards it, towards a new future. Now what was there?
Her left arm ached from the wound. Ellie howled with grief, loud and unrestrained, so the whole world could hear just what it sounds like to get what you wish for.
