“I can understand your confusion. It’s this thing that’s used to shave hair off men’s faces. It’s called a razor. Would you like to say it with me, RJ? R…A…Z…O…R.”
“I know what it is, Dani,” I said, eyeing the handheld mirror, shaving cream, and sensitive skin aftershave she’d also stolen. “I just for the life of me can’t imagine why it would be needed in our particular survival situation.”
“I thought maybe you might want a clean shave for your big moment when rescuers pull you out. Your face will be splashed across every headline in the world. I was just being forward-thinking… thoughtful.”
“No, you just hate my beard.”
“That too.”
I gathered up all her shaving paraphernalia and dropped it back in the bag. “The last thing I’m worried about is my vanity.”
“Good for you. High self-esteem.”
I couldn’t help but laugh through my misery. “Can you please use that brain of yours for good? Figure out a way to get me out of here. Everything I’ve tried has failed.”
“What have you tried?” she asked. “Napping?”
“No. I tried pulling my leg out from under the concrete… then I took a nap.”
“Ah. Okay. So, I do have one thing we can try.”
Dani pulled out two pink hammers with Do it herself written along the handle.
“You couldn’t find anything more gender neutral?”
“Enough with the judgment, RJ. When you’re looting, you don’t get to be choosy.”
“Sorry. I just didn’t know hammers were such high-ticket items. What are we going to do with them?”
“Bang the shit out of the concrete and free your foot.”
Rather simplistic, but it was as good a plan as any, so I picked up the hammer and got started. Using the claw end, Dani and I banged the hell out of the unforgiving surface. It was maybe fifteen minutes in that we realized the futility of the mission. A few small, insignificant chips had broken free, but it didn’t even come close to freeing my foot. Dani’s stolen seven-dollar hammers were a flop.
Frustration mounting, I’d finally had enough and flung the hammer at Dani’s car.
“Hey, watch it. That’s my ride.”
Her ride was now just a pile of junk, but that didn’t stop a thought from forming in my brain. “Do you have a car jack?”
Dani jumped up. “I’m on it.”
She tried opening her trunk first, but that was a no-go, so she began searching other demolished cars with her flashlight until she was finally able to pop a trunk and pull out a car jack.
Our enthusiasm quickly faded, however, when there was no way to even get it under the concrete to lift the block off my foot. She kept trying, though, salvaging anything that might help my cause, but in the end, our efforts were for nothing. I was still frustratingly and painfully stuck.
Dani plopped into the dust beside me, her face flushed with exertion. There was a feeling of finality. We’d done all we could do.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Don’t be. They were all long shots to begin with.”
“I know. But I really thought the nail file was going to work.”
I forced a smile at the levity she was trying to bring to the hopeless situation. “We tried… maybe if you’d stolen a jackhammer.”
“A jackhammer without electricity holds no value down here.”
She was right. I felt defeated. Bending over, I closed my eyes and rested my head in the dirt.
“Hey.” She rubbed my back. “You have to stay awake.”
“I’m trying. I’m just so tired. It’s getting harder to breathe, and my whole body feels like it’s shutting down.”
“Head up, RJ. Come on.”
“Just let me sleep for a little while.”
“No,” she said, trying to pull my head up. “You slept while I was gone. Now it’s time to stay alert and be here with me.”
“Because you think I’m going to die if I fall asleep.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Okay, yes. I worry about that.”
“What do you think is going to happen here, Dani? Nobody’s coming. The only way you can avoid watching me die is to leave.”
She looked down, brushing away the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. “And I already told you, I’m not going to leave you.”
“Why do you care what happens to me?”
“What kind of a question is that? Why wouldn’t I care?”
“Because no one else does.”
The words, they just slipped out, and I instantly regretted them. Dani would never let a statement like that lie.
“That’s not true,” she said. “You’re loved by millions.”
“That’s not love. At least not the kind that counts.”
“What’s the kind that counts?”
“The mom who tucks you in at night. The dad who coaches the Little League team. The brother who sticks up for you when others are being mean. The woman who sneaks back inside a collapsed building to try and keep a dying man alive. That’s the kind that counts.”
“And you didn’t have that growing up?”
We were stumbling into forbidden territory, a place I rarely ventured. It had happened only once before—with Bodhi. He’d confessed things about his controlling father and I’d unexpectedly reciprocated, giving him a glimpse inside. He’d climbed my walls only to discover the insecure boy who hid behind sarcastic wit and a biting tongue. He knew I was unwanted, unloved. That knowledge was power, and now I was considering giving it to another—a woman I barely knew, but one I could easily love if given the chance.
“No.” Just one word said it all.
Dani reached out and touched me. “I’m sorry your family wasn’t there for you.
I drew in a breath, shallow at best, and nodded. I was grateful she didn’t press for more.
“I’ll try to stay awake for you.” I sighed, feeling such affection for Dani that I wanted to see the smile return to her face. “You didn’t steal anything fun, did you?”
“Funny you should ask,” she said, dipping her hand in the bag and pulling out a deck of cards. “You wanna go fish?”
Somewhere midway through our first game of Go Fish, Dani equated fish to tadpoles and tadpoles to sperm and then suddenly she was balls deep in an incredible story of her father and his one hundred and eleven children. At first, I thought she was kidding, but her story was too out there not to be true. The Lucky Swimmers Club. Donny. She’d reeled me in. I was no longer tired. I was no longer waiting for death, so fascinated by this woman I could almost forget about the pain. I wanted to live, if only to meet the dozens of Donor 649’s offspring. It went to show you could make your own family, like I’d done with the boys. Like I could do with Dani if given the chance.
“I’m just speechless…” I shook my head.
“I know. It’s a lot to take in. My situation,” she said through air quotes, “isn’t for everyone.”
“I don’t know about that. You could make a documentary or film about this. Your brother Landry alone is worth the price of admission. Dude’s got some major Batesy vibes going on.”