Hum. Hum. It was only a matter of time before the limo driver would pull up looking for her. He might even hold up a sign with her name written on it, and she would be whisked away in the back seat of plush luxury, humming as the driver maneuvered the crowded streets of one of America’s finest cities.
Hum. Hum. Hum.
Mya stared at the endless stream of gnarled traffic trying to get past security and cops while the rain continued to fall. A chill swept over her. For a brief instant, she wished she’d been smart enough to pull a sweater out of her bag, but the instant passed when she saw a limo heading right for her.
Right on time…well…almost, but who cares?
Mya began to pull her luggage up to the curb when the limo stopped a few yards away and the driver got out.
“I’m over here,” she called, while waving her arms. She now stood out in the rain. She thought maybe the driver couldn’t see her. After all, the airport was extremely busy, so she began to walk toward him. Just then, a Chinese family of four approached the limo and the driver opened the back door.
“Wait! That’s my car!” she yelled, but no one paid the slightest bit of attention to her. When the family was safely tucked inside, and all the luggage, red Samsonite, was loaded in the trunk, the driver hopped back in the front seat and drove away…in Mya’s limo, no doubt.
The question of the moment was: How could the driver mistake a Chinese family for Mya? Could he be that stupid?
Okay, so apparently that wasn’t my limo, but where is it?
She told herself to relax. Take a deep breath. Slowly let it out. Count to ten, or twenty, or one million. Something. Anything to relax.
She rolled her luggage back under the overhang and waited.
So, maybe her plane was a little early getting in, which would explain why her limo hadn’t arrived yet, plus getting through all that security stuff had to take a long time.
It started to rain harder and Mya, wearing nothing but a sleeveless sundress, purple ankle socks and brown heels started to shiver.
There’s no shivering in California.
She pulled a long strand of golden-red hair off her face, and wrapped her arms across her chest for some warmth. All right, perhaps it was raining a little more and a little longer than she had expected. Not something to worry about. Her limo would arrive at any moment, and the driver would probably bring a warm towel for her to dry off with.
Could happen.
She pulled her cell phone out of her cigar-box purse. Hey, with some fifty purses to choose from, a girl’s gotta find one she likes, even if they were so last year.
She phoned her mom’s cell.
No answer. She wanted to leave a message, but her mother had never figured out how to retrieve them, so why bother.
Mya had left precise flight information with her mother, even faxing the itinerary as a backup. She just didn’t understand where that damn limo could be.
She called Franko.
Of course, there was no answer. He didn’t like cell phones so he never had it with him. She pictured his poor little lonely phone stuck in a drawer somewhere just ringing and ringing.
“Okay, I’ve reached my crazy point,” she said out loud.
After waiting a good twenty minutes, with the rain still coming down, and no limo in sight, total frustration took over and Mya decided to simply take a cab.
Just as she was about to call her mom and tell her the new plan, she noticed an old beat-up van idling off to the right. There was something white taped up to the side window. When she looked harder, her name was scribbled in big black letters on a piece of white paper.
Now what?
Her mind whirled with scenarios. Maybe things were worse at home than she’d thought. Maybe her mother had lost all her money in some bad cooking deal and the only thing she could afford was a used van. A white used van, with Georgia plates.
“No wonder she’s always crying.”
The woman in the obviously warm raincoat standing next to her threw Mya a nasty look and moved away.
“Fine,” Mya called after her. “You should move away from me. I’m even scaring myself.”
Mya knew she was having ridiculous thoughts, but the van had her name on it. That in itself was ridiculous.
She didn’t quite know if she should actually approach the van, or stay as far away from it as possible, but she was desperate to get home and out of the rain. She decided to check it out, just in case her mother was inside, hiding from a potential press scandal.
She gingerly stepped out from under her shelter and into the rain again, hoping this was worth it. She walked right up to the Georgian treasure, and looked inside. It actually had a foul odor wafting out through an open side window. She backed away, holding her nose.
Whoa! Mom, what have you got in there?
The van was even worse than she could have imagined. Her mother couldn’t possibly own it. There wasn’t any stove.
Mya peeked in a side window, putting her face right up to the glass, but she didn’t see anybody. Empty cans and jars, clothes and some very expensive-looking professional video equipment littered the inside. There were only two bucket seats in the front. Everything else had been ripped out.
Wait.
Somebody or something moved in the very back of the van. She couldn’t make out if it was man or beast because the lighting wasn’t quite right. She cupped her hand around her eyes to shield out any backlighting.
That’s when a white flash of huge teeth, attached to a head the size of an adult bear, growled and leaped right at her. Mya jumped back, screamed and fell right out of her Miu Miu heels, landing in a nice warm puddle.
“Damn!”
“Voodoo, sit,” a male voice said from behind her.
“Excuse me?” Mya said.
The crazed animal inside the van immediately sat down, but the barking didn’t stop.
Mya wanted to run for her life, but her cute little shoes sat right in front of the dreaded van. She refused to leave without her new shoes. They pulled her entire outfit together.
“I was talking to my dog,” he said as he stood in front of her offering his hand to help her up.
“I knew that,” she told him, trying for some calculated sarcasm.
She didn’t want his help. Instead, she stood up all on her own, and even though she was now entirely drenched, with a very wet bottom, she still had her dignity. Kind of.
“That animal is vicious,” Mya shouted. “He should be put down. Destroyed. What’s the matter with you leaving him in there to scare somebody to death?”
“He’s
