CHAPTER TWO: Scene II
Scene II
Has me frozen
On cold concrete.
It’s so awkward.
I wish . . .
I wish I could leave.
But no.
I must stay.
There,
Now I’ve done it.
All eyes are on me.
Please don’t listen
To a word
They say.
It’s so hard
To stand barefoot
In the rain
And light this
God-damned cigarette.
I must exit
Yet I’d really rather
Not go.
And would someone
Please tell me
Where in the hell
I left my shoes?
Four days after Bigalow’s arrest, I leaped across the floor on seeing him. I landed on the polished Formica tiles of the King County Correctional Facility visitor center, which seemed too institutional to care. “It’s Christmas. Your lucky day.” I tried to look jubilant while I said it.
Bigalow’s face lit up behind the thick plexiglass. He looked like a big panther confined to a phone booth. His muscles bulged at the seams of his orange jumpsuit, #519 stenciled on the front. “Merry Christmas, beautiful. Thank God you’re here. That’s the best gift.”
I removed my beanie, settled into my seat, and tucked my mittens into my coat. I still found the intensity of my husband’s wolf-like eyes disarming. Before him, I’d never seen a dark-skinned man with blue eyes. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you locked up. It’s pulling me to shreds. It took twenty-four hours to figure out which jail you’re in. The only reason I’m seeing you now is because your attorney told them to add me to your visitor list, and I scheduled it online. It took me an hour to get through security. Are you okay?”
Bigalow winced. “This is not how I pictured us starting our life together. I searched the world over to find you, and it seems we just keep getting separated at every turn.”
My soulmate held his hand up against the thick plexiglass. I raised my hand to meet it, wishing I had the power to dissolve the barrier. It was what I felt when we first video chatted. In my heart, I felt no barrier. He had told me that I was unique to him within the entire universe, that our love transcended time. It was a heady brew. Too intoxicating to resist for a struggling artist like me.
I pushed my chair forward and asked, “Is it safe to talk?”
“They can’t record us unless we sign consent forms,” Bigalow answered. He took a deep breath and said, “Jonathan, you’re the only one I can trust here. Will you help?”
I put my hand on my heart. “How could I not? What do you need?”
“I need you to believe I’m not guilty, baby boy.”
I couldn’t imagine him killing anyone. “Of course I do.”
Bigalow leaned forward. “It’s a setup. Someone else wearing an identical Blue Velveteen Dormouse costume did it.”
“Who?”
“I’m pretty sure it was my business partner, but I can’t prove it. I need your help finding the costume.”
“Eduardo? How?” I asked.
Bigalow raised his eyebrows and put his hand to his chin like a Greek statue. His aura relaxed me. “Yes. Eduardo the Impresario. Go to his office and borrow his keys to get something for me,” he directed. “One key opens the door beneath the grand staircase. Go to the basement and find the last storage unit to the right. Another smaller key on the ring opens that. There’s a trunk there that should have the other costume in it. Get it. Eduardo doesn’t know I know it’s there, so don’t tell him you’re after it.”
A second costume in the Bijou? The request didn’t seem too hard. I pulled up from my chair and took a moment to find my balance. Every ion in my body seemed to pull toward this beautiful man. “That’s doable. We’ll get through this together. I promise. I love you so much,” I said. And I meant it.
###
I returned to Eduardo’s office. “Bigalow sent me to borrow your keys.”
The Bijou partner reclined in his swivel-oak chair on wheels. “What for?”
“They want his birth certificate,” I lied. Bigalow hadn’t said to lie. It didn’t seem a good idea to tell the real purpose of the mission, not if Eduardo was the real murderer. “They’re threatening to deport him. He said it’s in the basement.”
No doubt the old dude was thick-skinned. But did he suspect me of snooping? “Can you lend me the keys so I can get it? I’ll bring them right back. It’s for Bigalow."
“Of course. We all love Bigalow.” Eduardo rolled his eye and adjusted his eye patch.
###
I tried key after key on the brass ring packed with orphans from the old, shambling building. My hand shook as I opened the chipped, grimy door. It had been painted over so many times it lost the detail of its moldings. I flipped the industrial light switch and started down the creaking stairs.
I wondered if Eduardo really was a wizard and Charlie his actual familiar. How mind-blowing would that be? I almost could believe it, based on how smart the bird was. No doubt Charlie the Crow could read and voice-activate a computer.
I went down through the maze of corridors dividing stalls made of boards and chicken wire. The basement had the musty smell of mildewed magazines. An accumulation of abandoned sets, lights, and costumes haunted the space. I heard dripping water while the fluorescent lights buzzed above.
Each storage unit had a padlocked door. The stall Bigalow told me about was on the right at the end, next to the boiler room’s heavy metal door. Heat emanated from behind it.
I fumbled with the padlock, trying various keys until one clicked and turned. Once inside the chicken-wire cubicle, I searched the shelves crammed with junk and found the trunk Bigalow told me about. I opened it and found a Blue Velveteen Dormouse suit.
“Bingo.” I put the sparkly costume in my backpack and did a little elbow-dance. As I turned to leave, the shadow of a crow appeared in the frosted window near the ceiling.
###
Bigalow beamed behind the plexiglass with a toothpaste-commercial smile. “Excellent, baby boy! Woot! Woot!”
The praise filled me with the sort of pride that came from getting gold stars in second grade. “What next?” It was hard not to bounce in my seat. “It feels great to be making progress.”
“Hang onto the suit. Hide it. Don’t let Eduardo know you have it. My arraignment is tomorrow. We’ll figure out what to do after that.”