LA Song
Stacy's life took on routine after Shannon left for the desert. She took care of Jeulie's daughters, worked on the farm, and for the most part sat out on the porch, studying the sun and stars.
Her purpose felt vague.
She looked back to what had been sacrificed to attain this progress. A broken engagement. A lost job. She had given up her professional and personal identity to try and regain Shannon's trust, and she had taken off to the desert alone.
Fuck Shannon Spurril, then.
Jeulie informed Stacy that there was a spot open where she valeted every weekend, the Pheonix Wrestling Alliance. "Ms. Handcock" would be richly rewarded for an appearance at their shows.
She would consider it. But her heart pined for Shannon's return.
Months passed; the seasons changed. Her sexy, leggy shape hardened and tanned. When April rolled around she emerged from the house a steely-eyed goddess.
The PWA begged her, wagering her nearly a quarter of the federation's earnings. But she put them off.
A man came to her then.
He drove a dusty pick-up truck. His eyes were mud-colored, his hair sandy, jaw square, rangy body draped in plaid and denim.
"Mr. Coffee," Juelie said it was. "My distributor."
Stacy felt nothing for this man. She had renounced heterosexuality, it seemed, when she let David go. But he persisted, promised.
"I'll take you to Los Angeles," He said, his drawl singeing her heart, "And we'll make you a great big star."
"I was a great big star." She said, "I don't want that any more."
Of course, he couldn't afford her that; she would get a ranch, horses, an irrigated patch of flowers if he'd given her a ring. A wise deal, only a fool would reject it.
Took her a day to say yes when he did. There were no other roads to walk at the Escape.
***
Shannon's life had narrowed in the half year she'd been gone. Time passed in the scorch of the Arizona desert, which she survived.
The sun circled the earth. She ate cactus for nutrition. She explored, meditated, centered.
Her camera filled up with photos of rattle snakes and desert foxes. Shannon understood the coyotes; their solitary stance necessary for the distance they must maintain.
She thought often of Stacy, who haunted her dreams.
When the winds changed and April came again, it was time to return to Escape. Time had passed too quickly. She feared and wondered what Stacy had done to herself since she'd been gone.
And how she would react when she said, "I'm here to claim you."
...She met a man he took her in
but fed her all the same bullshit again....