Two Thumbs Up

The computer monitor illuminated Rintia’s dewy olive skin. She stared at the circular blue Skype icon on the left side next to the Internet and Word Processor icons. Rintia wondered what her husband would say. Kevin had been in Pakistan for the past month. She double clicked on the Skype icon. Her contacts appeared with a confirmative popping sound. The sound felt like the comfort of Kevin’s warm arm brushing against hers in the kitchen while they made dinner. It symbolized that her husband was near, and soon they would be face to face. The clock in the bottom right corner of the monitor read 9:34 PM.  Kevin would be online at 10 o’clock, her time. She pulled up her emails and read the letter once again.

June 7, 2006         

            Rintia,

            It is with great eagerness that I write to you. The last time we spoke was in the fall of 2003, when Tidal Wave Movements took a hit along with the economy. We were greatly discouraged by this. Those were the hardest letters to write and send. We were very eager to travel, perform, and serve alongside the Crew of 2003. Then, as you know, we lost $550,000 in revenue due to the economy. It put everything on hold but we didn’t give up. Since 2003, we have poured our passions into fundraising so we can continue traveling and performing.  We are very proud to say that Tidal Wave Movements will be traveling globally once again in the fall of 2006. For the past year, we have been scouting for new performers and reviewing folders from the Crew of 2003. We understand it is possible that you are no longer available. However, we do have a prospective Crew of 2006. Since you have already been accepted, we want to give you first choice. We invite you to join Tidal Wave Movements in Lubnick, Arizona to kick start the exciting year of 2006. Although we took a major hit in 2003, we will not allow our past wounds to scar the future. We believe in what have and will achieve. We hope this letter finds you well and able to join Tidal Wave Movements once again!

Please respond by: August 1, 2006. If you are unable to join, please notify us so we can pick a new applicant.

            Thank you and Regards,

                                    Don Williams

                                    Director of Tidal Wave Movement

                                    Lubnik, Arizona

            She read the letter as if it were from a lover. After reading the email, she would stare. Vacant to her physical world, she watched her old dream acted out, play by play. Rintia hadn’t danced for years, but she pictured herself on stage again. TWM was overwhelmingly popular for newly graduated high school students. Their limbs are well oiled. Their ambitions are naively high. Could Rintia scratch through her older life and find young “Rinnie” once again?

            A catchy tone introduced a small box on the screen with Kevin’s picture and words reading, “Kevin is calling”. Rintia quickly flipped her hazelnut wavy hair to give it some extra volume and sat up in her chair. An innocent corner smile displayed on her face as she pressed the answer button. At first, the image was blurry.

Kevin spoke, “ Good Morning, babe. Can you see me? You are pretty blurry.”

Rintia answered in a shaky voice like it was their first date: “ It’s getting better, yes, I can see you. It’s almost bedtime back here in Rhode Island.”

Kevin would get up at 5 in the morning to Skype with Rintia once a week before drill.  It was a time they both looked forward to. Rintia tried to calm her nerves as Kevin shared about his week so far. She was thinking about the letter. When she tried to focus on what he was saying. She would then get side-tract by his prickly auburn facial hair, sun squelched skin and speckled green eyes. It was on their third date, right before their first kiss, when she noticed that his eyes weren’t just green. They had flecks of slate gray, ocean blue and even some golden yellow. His voice was still raspy from lack of sleep and the dirty air resting on his lungs. Rintia took a deep breath, and let the air slide from her nostrils.

Rintia spoke, “You look rough, like when you return home from hunting trips. It’s actually really attractive.”

Kevin smiled, “I’m glad you find this attractive. I feel like dirt. I’m even eating dirt.” He held up an open soup can from yesterday’s dinner and showed her the dust that had accumulated over the night.

Kevin and Rintia filled each other in on everything since the last time they had Skyped. There was silence in the conversation. Similar to the intermittent silences at a dinner table set for two. Rintia could have taken advantage of this moment to share the exciting news about TWM. She didn’t.

            Rintia was twenty-three and Indian-American. She attended the University of Rhode Island, which is where she met Kevin. Kevin attended the Academy of Rhode Island but took several classes at the University. Kevin was twenty-six, three years older than Rintia, and enlisted in the military soon after graduating college. He chose to join the Army, just like his father and grandfather had. Kevin and Rintia met in the summer of 2005. She was working in the Admissions Office. Kevin needed to get transcripts from URI. Through a series of emails and meetings, he decided he wanted more from URI than just transcripts. Rintia was the new trainee at her job, and had lots of questions. Her trainer, Cathy, sat next to her and eased Rintia into her new job. Kevin picked this moment to ask Rintia out. Kevin was her first transcript transfer, and Cathy was helping her along with each step. As soon as she finished the process, Rintia printed the transcripts and then handed them over to Kevin with a proud smile. He stood at the desk, holding the papers in his hands. Rintia wondered if she had messed up somehow, the student didn’t seem satisfied.

 She asked, “ Can I help you with something else?”

He stared into her eyes, which were almost a foot below his, and asked her out to dinner. Rintia lifted a hand to her hair and began to shyly follow the waves. Looking down, then at Cathy, to see if her reaction was just as shocking.

Cathy grinned and said, “Sorry hun, I can not help you with this one” and announced she was going to get coffee.

Rintia turned her head sideways and gave Cathy a heated stare as she walked behind Kevin and out of the office. Once outside the glass doors, Cathy turned and faced Rintia giving her two thumbs up and shaking her head in an obvious nod of approval. Rintia looked down and examined the edge of the desk to hide her smile. Kevin’s eyes were focused on her as if he had just proposed they get married. Rintia answered yes to that question just eight months later. Cathy gave Rintia the same thumbs up from the pew on their wedding day. On their wedding night, Rintia said that angels sent him to get his transcripts that day.

            Kevin got deployed to Pakistan just months after their wedding. One year, away from each other. When they got news about Kevin’s deployment, Rinita would wake up in the middle of the night with fear. She would dream that he was gone, at war and her bed swallowed her whole. She found it odd that she was the one that died in those dreams. Another time, she saw him getting shot at and the bullets missed Kevin and hit her in the shoulder and chest. She didn’t die right away but fell to the ground and got stuck, like she was locked to the ground. Blood pooled around her, while Kevin yelled at her to stay awake. He tried to pull her from the ground, but she was stuck. During those dreams she would suddenly awake and then reach for him. Instinctively, his heavy arm would embrace Rintia and pull her close. Feeling safe and calm, she would fall back asleep on the pad of his chest. The same dreams kept coming months after he was gone. Except when she woke, his arm was not there.

            Since receiving the letter from TWM, Rintia started to practice dance again. She had not visited the studio since high school. Dancing made her feel like she was eighteen again. The music moved her body in a way that was natural. Her extensions were not quite where the used to be, but it gave her joy. She would think about telling Kevin. He knew about the first disappointment with TWM. Rintia thought traveling right out of high school would give her greater opportunities to dance overseas. It was her dream. That was in the past now. She wondered it if was too far gone to uncover. Kevin would question her motives and the logical side of the whole idea. Would he approve of her trying to uncover a lost dream? Spending another year apart? Rintia was not sure she approved just yet.

            Weekly Skype dates passed and she failed to mention TWM. Rintia wrote in large purple letters on her calendar, “ TELL KEVIN” for the next time they were to Skype. She had exactly five days. Kevin called on day three.

“Tia, I need to you to listen to me.” Kevin spoke in serious voice.

 “There is a hurricane about to hit the coast. I’m sure you haven’t been watching the news, because you never do. I need you to follow my exact instructions, okay?”

Rintia’s response escaped her mouth, “I am going to Arizona.”

“Now?”

Rintia spanked her forehead into the wall. “I mean, I will be leaving in August. I am going to join Tidal Wave Movement again. I was going to tell you when we Skyped. Or I was going to ask... or see if… ”

“Tia, that is a subject for another time. You need to go to safety.” Kevin dismissed her attempt at sharing.

Rintia dismissed her attention on hurricane instructions after blurting the news about Arizona. She had grown up in Rhode Island, and knew that it was hurricane season. She said goodnight after convincing Kevin that she would be okay. Rintia kept busy for the next week, noticing slight changes in weather pattern.  The clouds were a slate gray and appeared to be cuddling with the treetops. She knew that Kevin was reacting a bit strongly. The beaches were rocky and the streets were silent, just like they used to be when she was a child. Rintia didn’t feel comfort from the weather like she used to as a child. Something was different. She turned on the TV to check if any hurricanes were actually close. A red light flashed across the screen. Loud alarms sounded. The message on the TV scrolled repeating words, “HURRICAN WARNING IN EFFECT, SEEK SHELTER NOW.” Rintia turned the TV off but the alarms kept going. They were the city alarms.

            Scrambling around the house closing blinds, locking doors, and unlatching the escape door to the roof, she prepared for a hurricane. The last open window displayed a wall of water snaking towards her house, devouring the houses along its path. Rintia screamed at the window as if the high pitch could stop the wave. The escape route leading to her roof would set her up like a sweet treat for the hurricane. She knew her house wouldn’t last. Rintia unlatched the back door and began to sprint through the yard. The dewy grass licked the arches of her feet as she sprinted toward town. She could see people running yards ahead of her. The wind used her own head of hair to blind her path. Rintia could hear the waves ransacking houses and yards behind her. The ground was drenched in rain.  Puddles of water soaked her feet from behind. Rising higher and higher, the water began to slowly coil around her ankles. Waves of wind brushed the backside of her bare arms with angry blows. The shelter was straight ahead. Two men held open the doors, getting a couple more in before unobtrusively shutting and locking them. She watched a woman in a blue dress with two children slip in the doors, yelling and crying out, “Please wait! Save my babies!! Do not shut that door!”

            Kevin had tried to call her that day, but the telephone lines were already down. The town resembled a dollhouse trapped in a basement after a flood. Some houses were uprooted and washed into the ocean. Kevin’s heart ached as he watched video on the news of Hurricane Dayton. The news broadcasted the same video over and over, explaining that more was to come. Kevin turned to the Internet for more information. His hands were shaking as he waited for the search engine. The loading signal spun around and around. The images appeared one at a time. The hurricane was a Category 4 with winds reaching one hundred forty mph. Pictures showed the coast dipped into the ocean like soggy bread in a wash bin. Kevin tried to call again. The dial tone rendered dead. He kept scanning the pictures, preparing himself for anything. He saw one of a woman in a blue dress that flowed strongly in front of her; blown in the same direction as the tree she was running past. The dress was light blue but scattered fog caught the camera lens and produced a murky hue. The woman held a baby on her hip and a young child ran next to her knees. Her mouth was wide open, as if she were yelling.

             Kevin received word five days later that his wife was missing. Six days later, she was still missing. One year later, he stood in front of a casket, holding the hands of Rintia’s mother and sister. He visited the remains of his old house. The roof was gone, furniture was molded and the kitchens linoleum floor curled up. Kevin took a rough grip of the floor and ripped the remains up. Kevin threw the linoleum against the kitchen wall, hitting the calendar. He lurched forward, pounding his fists against the wall. He cried. Through fuzzy eyes, he saw large purple writings on the calendar. It was Rintia’s handwriting. In all caps, he read the words, “TELL KEVIN”. The calendar was rippled, but dry. He took out his lighter and lit the corner of the calendar. It caught fire slowly at first, then swallowed the calendar whole. The flame ate through each month, the old ones she had written on and the ones she never had the chance to live through. Kevin kissed the calendar, feeling the embers burn and blister his lips.