The Miracle

Paradise Valley, Arizona
Thursday, December 21, 2023
(7:30 pm)
****

"You'll see that life is a ball again, laughter is calling for youuuuuuuuuuu...Down in our rendezvous...Down in our rendezvous, three is company too..."

Stevie had just taken a burrito out of the microwave and transferred it to a festive green paper plate with a reindeer on it, gleefully singing along to the theme song to Three's Company as a rerun of the classic 1970s sitcom began its third of four back to back episodes which, she'd discovered that fall, played nightly on a Cable TV channel. She'd gotten out of work at three o'clock and run a few errands before heading home - to Party City for a few items she'd still needed for her Christmas party the following night, to Petco for dog food for Lily and Luna, to the post office for another roll of holiday-themed stamps for a few Christmas cards she still had to mail out...and, mercifully, she'd thought in the car, to Starbucks for a venti caramel brûlée latte from their annual holiday drink menu. She'd arrived home that evening just as darkness was setting in, immediately turned on her exterior Christmas lights and the ones on her tree in the living room, and immediately gone upstairs to shower and change after feeding the dogs and letting them out in the yard to do their business.

Dressed in black leggings, an old gray tunic sweater and her gray Ugg slippers, Stevie made her way to the living room holding her burrito plate and a large glass of Sprite filled with ice. She had just sat down and noticed one of her favorite episodes of Three's Company was on - the one in which a psychiatrist is hilariously mistaken by Jack and Janet for a mental patient - when the phone began to ring. She grimaced as she set her burrito and soda down on the coffee table and picked up the cordless landline phone on the lamp table beside her. "Hello?"

"I took a chance you'd be home and sitting down by now," she heard an instantly recognizable voice say, and her heart leapt. Lindsey.

"Your guess was correct," she said, already smiling uncontrollably at the sound of his voice, which, she had to admit, she'd been looking forward to every night since they'd met at the school. She kicked off her slippers and curled her legs underneath herself, settling into the corner of the plush velvet sofa cushions. "What's up?"

"Oh, not much," he said in a nonchalant tone she almost believed. "How about you? How was your day today?"

"Not bad," she said with a sigh. "I spent most of it just sitting back and watching the entire eleventh grade sweat it out during their midterm on The Crucible." She laughed. "Same with the twelfth...only their exam was on Macbeth. Today was the last day before Christmas break, so it's smooth sailing at this point." Her dinner all but forgotten on the coffee table in front of her, she reached over with her free hand and pulled over her lap the gray and cream-colored couch blanket she had received as an early installment of her Christmas gifts from Barbara. Most of her conversations with Lindsey in the past week had taken place while she was in bed, and somehow she'd begun to associate their nightly talks with comfort and coziness and blankets, and she almost laughed out loud but caught herself, thinking of the Harry Styles song she'd fallen in love with awhile ago on the radio in the car - "We've been doing all this late-night talking and anything you want until the morning; now you're in my life...I can't get you off my mind..."

"Smooth sailing, huh? Sounds good to me."

"How about you, Linds? What was on the agenda today?" She found herself wondering where he was while they were talking, knowing that for pretty much every phone call they'd had this week, he'd also been in bed.

"Nothing, really," he answered honestly. "The kids all came home and got cleaned up and just piled into the car about an hour ago for that Christmas party for Jen's work that I told you about, and I just nuked a burrito and sat down to watch TV."

"A burrito?" Stevie began to laugh. "Lindsey...I know you're not going to believe this but...I literally just pulled a burrito out of the microwave to eat! I swear to God I'm not making that up!"

Lindsey had begun laughing too. "Oh that's too funny! Man...some things never change, huh? Mexican all the way." When the laughter died down, he said, "Hey, do you remember when that guy with the band called to invite us out to Mexican...you know, the tall British guy who was a drummer in that band?"

"Yes! I do!" Stevie had a sudden vivid recollection of the British blues band that had wanted Lindsey to join them as their guitarist in 1974, shortly before she'd made the decision to leave. "I remember we almost went and heard them out just for the free food!" She laughed again, as did he, and the laughter finally ended in a mutual sigh. "Hey Linds...what do you think would have become of us if we'd actually joined their band?"

"Well, we'd either have become rich, famous rock stars or...we'd be starving on a London street somewhere, playing for money with a coffee can." And we probably would have stayed together, he thought but didn't dare say.

Stevie, who had sensed his loneliness from the beginning of the phone call, said, "Hey...do you remember what you and I talked about on Friday night before your Uber showed up? You know, about breaking out the old Buckingham Nicks vinyl?"

"Of course I do," Lindsey said.

"Well listen..." Stevie took a deep breath and dove in. "Since you're on your own for awhile tonight...would it be too forward to ask you over for a Buckingham Nicks listening party tonight? I know you're already coming over tomorrow night for the party, but there's going to be people all over, you know, and that's no way to play the album and reminisce...so what do you say, Linds?"

Lindsey wondered if it was possible for his heart to actually leap out of his chest. Trying to mask his excitement at the invitation, he said, "Well, here's a question I have for you, Stevie...Are you still, by any chance, a pot smoker?"

Stevie erupted into a flurry of giggles that took her a bit to recover from. Finally, she answered. "All I can say is...teachers do not get drug tested and for that, I have always been grateful."

"I'll bring the weed, you bring the turntable?" He was smiling from ear to ear and thought he'd die now if he had to stop.

"Deal." Stevie was smiling so hard she wondered if he could hear it by phone.

"I'll see you in twenty minutes," he said. As he spoke, he was already opening the Uber app on his phone.

"I'll dig out the album," she said, her heart pounding in her ears now with excitement and nerves. "Hey Linds...are you sure about this? You don't want to hang around and wait for your family to come home?"

"I have been seeing the kids all week," said Lindsey. Then, in a lower tone that was so sincere it took her breath away, "It's you I want to spend more time with, Stephanie."

Stevie felt her cheeks turning twelve different shades of crimson at his confession, and half of those shades were because ever since she'd come home that evening, those words had been the only ones she'd been dreaming of hearing.