Miscount

Times Square, New York, 2019

     “Hi.”

     Marquette Winters stopped in her tracks and stared.  Business in Times Square rushed by as usual, but Marquette couldn’t take her eyes off him.

     “Don’t you remember me?” He stepped forward and grinned.

     Marquette couldn’t speak. She turned and ran, shaking her head in disbelief.  It’s a coincidence, She told herself. It can’t be possible. As impossible as it was, she still couldn’t shake the feeling that that person was her best friend. 

     Lucius Fox.  

    Basically the same in every way, Marquette and Lucius had been practically inseparable.  Work kept them apart five days a week, as Marquette held an office job and Lucius was a gun dealer.  On the weekends, though, you wouldn’t see one without the other.  Marquette smiled, remembering how they used to talk over coffee. Marquette would beg him to tell her about the time he stopped an armed man from stealing a rifle. 

     “...I had him pinned against the counter, and he almost shot me, but I wrestled the gun out of his hand and-”

     “-You escorted him outside just as the police arrived!” Marquette would finish. “You’re so brave, Luc. I could never do that.”

      It was true; Lucius had courage to match a lion’s. He had tried to join the police forces as soon as he got out of college, but was rejected for health reasons. 

     The police lost a great asset that day, though, because with his sharp wits and keen sense, not to mention his muscle, Lucius was the ideal police officer. After his rejection, he never stopped trying to fight crime, like when he apprehended the gun thief. Marquette liked to tease him that he was “Too brave for your own good!” He would never deny it, shrugging and smiling.  

     But her smile quickly disappeared as Marquette came back to the present, and thought of when her joking predictions came true. 

New York, 2016

     “Isn’t this amazing!” Marquette yelled to be heard above the noise of the guitar and the crowd.  

     “I know!” Lucius grinned at her and she grinned back.  After all, there was no reason not to grin at the Britney Austin concert Lucius had bought two tickets for.  

     It was the perfect last get-together before Lucius left for a 3-year art school. The strong, brave gun dealer actually had a great appreciation for the arts, and this school would be a wonderful opportunity. The weather was wonderful, an added perk since the concert was outdoors. Everything was going great.

     Until Lucius spotted that the guy standing next to them didn’t seem to be enjoying the concert as much as the rest of the crowd. In fact, he seemed downright unpleasant, and before Lucius could ask what was wrong, he spied a gun in the man’s pocket.  Knowing the situation could get tense if he wasn’t careful, he said to Marquette, “I’ll be back, alright?” She nodded, waving her hands and jumping to the beat.  

     Lucius stepped up beside the man, and said casually, “Enjoying the concert?”

    “No.”

    “I’m sorry. Why not?”

    “Listen, why don’t you run back to your girlfriend, and stop bothering me.”

     Lucius smiled thinly. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can.”

     The man raised an eyebrow. “Because why?”

     “That.” Lucius nodded towards the gun. 

     In a flash, the gun was out and pointed at Lucius, but the man wasn’t expecting the brave gun-dealer to tackle him, trying to wrestle the gun away. He couldn’t, though, and a few wayward shots rang out. They were halfway muffled by the loud music coming from the stage, but not muffled enough.  Several people in the crowd noticed and became rather nervous.

     “Was that a gun?”

     “Probably just a backfiring truck.”

     “Of course it’s a gun, look at those two fighting!”

    “Mom, is it a shooting?”

     “Lucius!”

     More shots could be heard, accompanied by screams and followed by a stampede of frightened people.  Lucius continued the struggle, but it was futile. 

     Of all the scared, frantic people at the concert, Marquette was the most scared, the most frantic- and the most despondent when Lucius Fox was nowhere to be found, and proclaimed dead.

     She had tried to accept it, to move on.  She tried, but something in her couldn’t. She would never have as close a friend as him again. 

     2017

     Her therapist said it would be good for her to start dating.  Marquette didn’t even want to think about it. Her and Lucius had never been close romantically, but she couldn’t imagine a date without the two of them laughing about it afterwards. 

     Nevertheless, she tried. The first date was torture. It was a blind date with Orlando Malik, a self-centered sportsman who never, throughout the whole date, asked Marquette one question about herself. 

     After that terrible first date, reluctance was an understatement for how she felt about dating. But, at her therapist’s kind but firm suggestion, Marquette accepted an invitation from Rob Tuxe, who worked at the same coffee shop she and Lucius were patrons of.  

     Rob was a gentleman, unlike Orlando. He was nice, funny, and charming. She wanted to give Rob a fair chance, but her thoughts kept drifting back to Lucius. After he noticed Marquette wasn’t having a good time at the coffee shop, he took her to Central Park and tried to make her laugh by making up conspiratorial things about everyone passing by. 

    “See the lady with the two poodles?”

    “Mm?”

    “I bet the crown jewels of London are in their collars.”

     Marquette giggled in spite of herself. 

     “Wouldn’t we have heard about that by now?”

     “Not if she was the world’s greatest spy, and replaced the real jewels with the most realistic fakes you’ve ever seen.”

     “Or maybe…” Marquette leaned in as if to tell a deep, dark secret, “She’s a dog walker.”

     Rob pushed her playfully. “You’re no fun.” As they bantered back and forth, Marquette found herself slowly warming up to Rob. He was almost perfect. When it started getting dark, Rob put his arm around Marquette, and she let it stay there as they watched the sunset together.  

     Just before the last sliver of light disappeared from Central Park, Rob escorted Marquette back to her apartment. Before he bid her good night, he asked, “Could we meet again, sometime?”, and she heard herself telling him yes.

     One thing led to another, and they were soon a couple.  Even though Lucius still lingered in her mind, Marquette couldn’t help being attracted to Rob. After 5 months, he “accidentally” dropped a napkin on one of their dates, and stood up with a jewelry case in his hand and love in his eyes.  Marquette only had one thing to say.

     “Yes!”

     The Tuxe House, New York, 2019

     “Mommy, I spilled the milk!”

     Marquette sighed. The last two years had been great; the wedding, her first pregnancy, then her second.  Two sweet bundles of joy running and crawling around the house. Unfortunately, the “joy bundles” were also curious tornados.  

     “I’m coming, Iris! Get a towel to stop it from spreading, okay?”

     “Mommy, Luke is chewing on the towels!”

     Marquette rushed into the kitchen, with only half of her frizzy wild hair tamed.  She gently removed Luke from the slobber-covered towel, and sopped up the milk with it.  Plopping the towel into the sink to drain, she poured Iris some more milk.

     “Remember to be more careful this time, Iris.”

     “Okay Mommy.”

     Marquette smiled at her two year old daughter as she popped a piece of toast into the toaster. Rob had had a tough time convincing her, but Iris was a blessing, and so was baby Luke, named for his uncanny likeness to Lucius, even at such a young age.

     Rob came into the kitchen and kissed his wife. He smelled of sweet pea violet.

     “Rob, I told you not to use my shampoo, Hon.” Marquette turned her warm smile on him and returned his kiss.

     “But it smells better than mine!” Rob gave Marquette a fake pout and puppy dog eyes. She raised her eyebrows at him.

     “Well, I won’t buy you any more shampoo then; just extra for me!” She laughed, and extracted herself from Rob’s embrace just in time to stop another milk spill, and take the toast out of the toaster.

     “Iris, why don’t you go put on some nice clothes for daycare,” she told her daughter.

     “Okay, Mommy!” The exuberant Iris rushed out of the kitchen.

    Rob called out after her, “Iris, don’t run that fast, you’ll-”

     There was a loud crash, followed by a wail.

     He shook his head. “I’ll get her.”

     Marquette mumbled through a mouthful of toast. She swallowed, and repeated, “Make sure she’s dressed in something. . . suitable.”

     “Don’t worry, I got this covered.” Rob winked before heading into the hall and scooping up a stricken Iris.  

     Marquette turned her attention back to Luke, who was wetter and smellier than before. She grabbed her little one and a diaper, and headed to the bathroom.  

     Ten minutes later, she was kissing Rob and the kids goodbye as he headed to daycare to drop off Iris and Luke.  She put on her nicest tennis shoes, and began the walk to work.

     Marquette loved walking. With someone or without, it was peaceful.  The Lord knows she needed some peace nowadays.  Sometimes she talked to Lucius, and imagine his responses.  Walking was just her way of relaxing.

     Also, their family only had one car.

     Work was uneventful. Her job as a secretary was necessary, but certainly not enjoyable. Marquette had always wanted to pursue her dream of owning her own coffee shop, but it did not seem to be in her future anytime soon.  The closest she could get was visiting Rob at his job, which she did every day after work.  

     On her way there, something, or rather someone, caught her eye.  He looked like Lucius. She shook it off, though, unnerved. After his death, she would do this all the time, see his face everywhere.  After all, Hispanic males with black hair weren’t particularly rare.  But he seemed to have caught her eye too.  

     Marquette started walking faster.  She wasn’t sure who that person was, but she didn’t need a stalker following her around.  The man, though, was undeterred, and tapped her on the shoulder.

     She whirled around, ready to give him a piece of her mind, but something stopped her.  The man didn’t just look like Lucius. He was Lucius.  Or at least, so her grieving brain thought.  Marquette pushed all possibility out of her head, but then he spoke and they  came flooding back.

     “Hi.”

     She couldn’t speak.

     “Don’t you remember me?” He grinned at her.

     Not able to say anything, Marquette ran, but Lucius was faster. He caught her gently, and said, “What’s wrong, Marquette?”

     She choked out, “You-you’re not supposed to be here.”

     Lucius’ face filled with confusion, and he led her over to a nearby bench, helping her sit before he joined her.

     “What do you mean?” he finally asked. 

     “You- you’re- you-” Marquette struggled to talk, overwhelmed by emotion.

     “What? Mar, you’re scaring me,” Lucius said in a concerned tone.

     Marquette looked him straight in the eyes and managed to speak. “You’re dead.”

     “What?”   

     “Dead. You died in the concert shooting- didn’t you?”

     “No! I tried to stop the guy, but he was stronger than me, so I couldn’t diffuse the situation. I was just making him madder, so I slipped away. I almost thought you had died in the shooting when you didn’t show up at the coffee shop to send me off.”

     Marquette was speechless. Then she pinched him.

     “Ow!”, he complained. “What was that for?”

     She threw her arms around him. “So you are real! We have so much to catch up on. Coffee?”

     “I was thinking something more special,” he said, and winked at her. “Ice cream?”

     “Definitely. But I have to make a call first.” Marquette pulled out her phone, and dialed Rob. “Rob, honey? I’m going to need you to pick up the kids from daycare. I know, I’m sorry. I- I met an old friend, and he wants to catch up. I’ll explain later, okay? You’re the best. I love you too. Bye.” She blew a kiss into the phone and hung up.  Lucius was staring at her. 

     “Rob? Kids? We really do have a lot to catch up on. When did you start dating?”

     “Well, I didn’t want to at first.”

     “Why?”

     “Ya know, the whole ‘you being dead thing’?” She laughed. So did he.

     “Right, right. Continue.”

     They talked and laughed all the way through two ice cream cones each, and on the way to Marquette and Rob’s house, where she introduced him to Iris, Luke and Rob. They all accepted him with hugs, and sat down and have a long talk, where bedtimes would be annihilated and the neighbors would wonder just what was so funny.