Word Count: 485
“I should’ve taken you,” Kari said.
Yeah, I thought.
“Misti broke her leg the first day on the slopes and spent the whole week sitting inside the lodge drinking hot chocolate and reading.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” I said. I was glad she couldn’t see me grinning. I had thought she was going to ask me to go on the ski trip and was really pissed when she didn’t. I think I even wished a broken leg on one of them at the time.
I don’t know why I’m constantly vying for Kari’s friendship. I guess it’s because I don’t really have that many friend much less wealthy ones who take trips and do all sorts of neat things that I never can manage and probably never will in a lifetime.
When Kari mentioned an upcoming cruise I forgot all about Aspen. I’m a warm weather gal and the thought of a ten-day cruise was even more exciting. I Googled Aruba. The cruise line. Drooled over the luxurious dining, the three pools, the seven nightclubs and bars.
“Well, I’m sorry,” she said, “but I felt so bad that Misti broke her leg and didn’t get to enjoy the ski trip that I wanted to make it up to her somehow.”
“That’s okay, I understand,” I said. I was fuming inside. I wished Misti would get sick as a dog on the ship. Spend it all down in the cabin being violently seasick. Or maybe eat some bad clams. She deserved it.
And what do you know; she did!
Now I was feeling a bit of a witch though I knew I couldn’t possibly really have the power.
Then I forgot all about it until the holidays and she called to wish me a Merry Christmas and said she’d be back after the New Year. We’d get together for lunch. Lunch? Was Misti going up North with her? Yep.
I had all sorts of dark thoughts, stuck alone in my Chicago apartment. The electricity went out for two days and the roads went unplowed for three. I think as I ate my last frozen dinner I imagined the two of them stuck in a snowdrift.
Well it was really uncanny. I even felt bad as she told me about it. It seems they weren’t found for three days. Misti got an asthma attack and nearly died. She lost four toes to frostbite as well. I hung up the phone and–God forgive me–I felt a whole lot better.
It was in early-February when Kari called and asked how I was doing. We’d just had lunch the Friday before. Her voice caught, then she really started crying and said she was so very sorry.
I smiled to myself. “It’s okay, Kari,” I said. Still, I paused for the expected apology.
“Misti told me everything,” she said, “and I just can’t believe you have cancer!”
