Free Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty Page B
Authors: Megan McCafferty
a step backward to collect herself. "Well!"
"I'm sorry," Marcus says. "My issues are beyond any therapy."
"If you need me," Jonelle says breathily, gesturing down the concourse, "I'll be right there."
Marcus's eyes are drawn in the opposite direction of her hand, back to Jessica. The women who were on line in front of her are exiting the Clear Sky customer service center en masse. Some are sobbing, others are grimacing; no grievances have been resolved to their satisfaction. It's Jessica's turn to talk to the Clear Sky customer service center representative.
All at once it hits Marcus like a shaft of light in a darkened tunnel. The way out! The next step! Why didn't he think of it before? He had all the information he needed and still wasted all this time.
Jonelle has freed the heart charm from the D-cup danger zone and is now zipping it along the gold chain, back and forth against her breasts. "Ahem," she hints, unaware that Marcus's side of the conversation is irretrievable.
Marcus pauses just long enough to pay her a compliment. "I like your necklace," he says.
Jonelle hasn't had a chance to say thank you when Marcus waves a perfunctory good-bye and turns his back on her. Jonelle clickety-clacks in retreat as he pulls his cell phone out of his back pocket and dials the phone number on the closest Clear Sky Airlines poster.
(This one, for nonstop service to Paris, reads: the clear sky forecast? 100% chance of ... romance!) He presses certain numbers as he is told. He waits and waits some more.
When he finally gets a Clear Sky sales representative on the line, he asks, "When is the next flight out of Newark to St. Thomas?"
fourteen
"When is the next flight out of Newark to St. Thomas?!"
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
As far as Jessica is concerned, the sing-in was a smashing success. It worked well enough to get the Tristate Chapter of the Barry Manilow International Fan Club out of the Clear Sky customer service center and bring Jessica to the front of the line. But she's still a few footsteps from the counter and has blurted the question too soon, with barely a glance at the person to whom it was directed. The Clear Sky customer service representative coaxes her to come closer with a shiny pink fingernail.
Jessica does a double take. Wait, is that... Sylvia? she asks herself. Or have I been here so long that all Clear Sky employees are starting to look alike?
On another day, a surprise doppelganger wouldn't be a cause for alarm. But in light of everything that has already happened today, Jessica is starting to question her sanity. She turns to ask Garanimals whether she noticed a shift change while they were waiting on line, only to discover that Garanimals is gone. At some point during Jessica's conversation with Hope, or perhaps after, while in the midst of her gastronomic voyage to Donutopia, Garanimals was replaced by an assortment of new and unhappily waylaid travelers. Jessica is a bit surprised that Garanimals cut and ran without one last farewell poke. Hadn't she and Garanimals bonded? Briefly, of
course, but in the intense way that soldiers invoke, you know, in the trenches against a common enemy?
Apparently not. Jessica is feeling irrationally slighted by Garanimals's brisk disregard.
"Please step forward," says the woman who looks exactly like Sylvia, the Clear Sky gate agent who has already spurned her once today. It is only when Jessica gets within a few inches of the counter that she can read the employee name tag —SYLVIA—that confirms this is indeed the same woman she squared off against at Gate C-88 and not her (more) evil twin. Jessica thinks it's odd that Sylvia didn't bother to mention at any point during the finger-in-the-air cartography that a two-hour stint at the Clear Sky customer service center was the next shift of her rotating schedule, one designed by the Clear Sky Airlines Employee Satisfaction Task Force in the effort to
"I'm sorry," Marcus says. "My issues are beyond any therapy."
"If you need me," Jonelle says breathily, gesturing down the concourse, "I'll be right there."
Marcus's eyes are drawn in the opposite direction of her hand, back to Jessica. The women who were on line in front of her are exiting the Clear Sky customer service center en masse. Some are sobbing, others are grimacing; no grievances have been resolved to their satisfaction. It's Jessica's turn to talk to the Clear Sky customer service center representative.
All at once it hits Marcus like a shaft of light in a darkened tunnel. The way out! The next step! Why didn't he think of it before? He had all the information he needed and still wasted all this time.
Jonelle has freed the heart charm from the D-cup danger zone and is now zipping it along the gold chain, back and forth against her breasts. "Ahem," she hints, unaware that Marcus's side of the conversation is irretrievable.
Marcus pauses just long enough to pay her a compliment. "I like your necklace," he says.
Jonelle hasn't had a chance to say thank you when Marcus waves a perfunctory good-bye and turns his back on her. Jonelle clickety-clacks in retreat as he pulls his cell phone out of his back pocket and dials the phone number on the closest Clear Sky Airlines poster.
(This one, for nonstop service to Paris, reads: the clear sky forecast? 100% chance of ... romance!) He presses certain numbers as he is told. He waits and waits some more.
When he finally gets a Clear Sky sales representative on the line, he asks, "When is the next flight out of Newark to St. Thomas?"
fourteen
"When is the next flight out of Newark to St. Thomas?!"
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
As far as Jessica is concerned, the sing-in was a smashing success. It worked well enough to get the Tristate Chapter of the Barry Manilow International Fan Club out of the Clear Sky customer service center and bring Jessica to the front of the line. But she's still a few footsteps from the counter and has blurted the question too soon, with barely a glance at the person to whom it was directed. The Clear Sky customer service representative coaxes her to come closer with a shiny pink fingernail.
Jessica does a double take. Wait, is that... Sylvia? she asks herself. Or have I been here so long that all Clear Sky employees are starting to look alike?
On another day, a surprise doppelganger wouldn't be a cause for alarm. But in light of everything that has already happened today, Jessica is starting to question her sanity. She turns to ask Garanimals whether she noticed a shift change while they were waiting on line, only to discover that Garanimals is gone. At some point during Jessica's conversation with Hope, or perhaps after, while in the midst of her gastronomic voyage to Donutopia, Garanimals was replaced by an assortment of new and unhappily waylaid travelers. Jessica is a bit surprised that Garanimals cut and ran without one last farewell poke. Hadn't she and Garanimals bonded? Briefly, of
course, but in the intense way that soldiers invoke, you know, in the trenches against a common enemy?
Apparently not. Jessica is feeling irrationally slighted by Garanimals's brisk disregard.
"Please step forward," says the woman who looks exactly like Sylvia, the Clear Sky gate agent who has already spurned her once today. It is only when Jessica gets within a few inches of the counter that she can read the employee name tag —SYLVIA—that confirms this is indeed the same woman she squared off against at Gate C-88 and not her (more) evil twin. Jessica thinks it's odd that Sylvia didn't bother to mention at any point during the finger-in-the-air cartography that a two-hour stint at the Clear Sky customer service center was the next shift of her rotating schedule, one designed by the Clear Sky Airlines Employee Satisfaction Task Force in the effort to
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