invited.

“I’ve been waitin’ for you. Watchin’.” She whispered and beckoned me to follow her. I was immobile with unbelief. Dante grabbed me by the right arm and pulled. I reached for her other arm and turned her by the shoulders so I could look into her face. Those eyes. Those mocha brown, swimming in chocolate and honey brown eyes. I was convinced at her graveside that I would never see them again. “I know you are confused but we don’t have much time. I need to get you out of here.” She warned. “I’ll explain later.”

I refused to move my feet. “How can I be sure it’s really you?”

“I should’ve known that you’d never believe me.” Dante smiled that half crooked smile of my old friend.

But how could I be sure?

“Ask me anything.” She pressed.

I had to find the right thing. The question that no one else in this world could answer. I lifted my eyes to the darkening sky. “Tell me what I said. I whispered something to you in the casket. Before they closed it. What was it?”

She was suddenly still as an ocean. And like the incoming tide, her eyes started to fill with water. “Come for me, you said. After you thanked me for taking your shit to the grave.” She laughed.

“Crap.” I stepped back. And shook with laughter. She was here again. “How are you here?!”

She grabbed me again and pushed. “I will tell you everything. Later. Move your butt! We gotta get outta here.”

She was running and I was following her deeper into the woods. I was gasping for breath because she was, in fact, the poster child for Lu Lu Lemon and I was, on the other hand, the poster child for Lane Bryant. I could already feel the stabbing pain between my fourth and fifth rib. My heart was beating wildly in my chest. My feet tripped over tree limbs and bracken while cursing my sit-at-a-desk, pounding-paperwork, trapped-in-my-cubicle simply-too-sedentary life. I was wondering if whatever was chasing us might be preferable to all of the exercise. I tried to shake it off and keep moving my feet behind her. She was a good fifty feet ahead of me and with the lowering of the light and the enveloping shade of the trees, I was struggling to follow her.

I stopped to catch my breath. At the cessation of my feet moving, I could feel my lunch churning in my stomach and before I could take another breath, it was coming out of my mouth and was puddling on the soft leaves. I lurched with forceful explosion of my core muscles. In a few convulsions, my stomach was empty and the last two heaves were mostly bile and spit. I wiped my mouth and wiped my wet hand on my sweat-soaked jeans.  I knew there wasn’t time to wait. I stumbled weakly forward trying to will my feet into a faster motion.

Just as abruptly as she had taken off, she stopped. Even with the distance between us, in the deepening darkness, I almost ran into her. She was tugging at something that I was struggling to see on the forest floor. Her hand was on a rope handle, and she was lifting a portion of earth, or rather a flat piece of wood covered in earth, opening a hole beneath. I was unsure if my hips were smaller than the diameter of the hole.  

She was motioning me inside. “Come, come, come Lola.” I tried not to hesitate. If she was truly my friend, back from the dead, I had nothing to fear from this unknown fate. I sat down, pointed my tennis shoes into the tube, shimmied my hips to the opening and slid into the earth. Somehow it was both a longer and shorter trip than I had expected. There appeared to be a tiny light at the end of the tunnel. My weight pulled me toward the light which was getting brighter as I approached it. It had the flickering orange and yellow blend of campfire.

My feet landed on a dusty surface that shifted underneath me. I stood but my legs would not hold me. I fell forward to my knees. I was sweating and it felt warm in the space, but I was shivering with cold.

Dante was only seconds behind me. She landed blithely at my right and solidly on her feet. She had the glow and energy of a track star who just finished a warmup. She put her arm around my shoulders and walked me to a flat rock that was near the fire which was burning at the center of the small room. She offered me her water bottle and I took a sip. The water felt cold and comforting in my mouth but when I tried to swallow, it felt wedged in my throat. I coughed and sputtered before spitting it near the fire. She offered the bottle again, but I gently pushed it back toward her.

She pulled the black hoodie over her head and wrapped it around my shoulders. I shook under the warmth of her touch. My lungs were finally slowing from their hyper shutter to a deeper and slower pace. I could hear the sound of my own breathing. It caught in my throat like the water was still trapped in my airway.

“What were we running from?” I asked between labored breaths.

“It’s more like we were running toward something.” Dante said softly as she stood. She moved from beside me on the boulder to behind me and sat again on the rock. She pulled me back into her arms so I could rest my head on her right shoulder, and I could recline into her. It was like the plug had been pulled and my energy was seeping out through each of my pores.  

“I don’t understand.” I gasped. “What…are…we….doing…here?” I sputtered each word trading it between dragging intakes of air. “What…is…this…place?”

“I am just keeping my promise.” She whispered.

“What…promise…Dante?”

“That I would come for you.”

“And…you…did.” I managed. I smiled a wan smile. Before I closed my eyes for the last time.