Kelly Harwood

C H A P T E R 4 Kelly Harwood

The Paolo Soleri Amphitheater overlooked the foothills on a cloudless, windless day in Santa Fe. I popped a mushroom into my mouth and made my way down the purple stairs of the theater as music played. What a perfect day for a solar eclipse wedding—no doubt part of Caitlyn’s plan to impress. After all these years she was still a theater kid at heart. I settled into one of the upper rows, amongst a few guests wearing Star Trek costumes and two men wearing black leather robes and sunglasses. As I looked around, I noticed all of the

guests were in costume and I wondered for a moment if I’d missed something on the invitation. I wanted to be close enough to see Caitlyn and assess this Rayne person. Part of me wanted her to see me as well, to remember our time together and the times fate had robbed us of sharing. I’d managed to ind a rental tux similar to the one I’d planned on wearing to the junior prom with Caitlyn all those years ago, before her parents sent her away—a powder blue number with tails that matched her dress. I can still remember the day we rented it. She insisted on the color of course, and on the sequined cumberbun that cost extra. I didn’t really care for the tux, it was a bit theatrical, even for Caitlyn’s taste, but I would have worn a pair of assless chaps if she’d asked me to. That’s the kind of power she had over me back then, perhaps even now. But years had passed. The cumberbun, this time without sequins, felt like a sausage casing around my waste. As the sun beat down, I felt sweat soaking through the armpits of my rufled shirt making it impossible to take off the polyester jacket. I waited for the mushrooms to kick in, but so far nothing. I’d purchased them from a kid at the skate park across from my hotel the night before. He looked a bit like me back when Caitlyn and I were planning our future together and seemed just as clueless. I tried to be subtle in my request for drugs, speciically psychedelics, but eventually I had to be more direct when he accused me of being an undercover cop. “For the eclipse tomorrow,” I told him and he reached into his back pocket and pulled out what he said was a mushroom, but what looked more like a piece of lint from the dryer. I’d purposely chosen a hotel near the prison where Sammy Ortega Lawrence was being held. I knew Olivia would see the credit card statement and I wanted all of my ducks in a row as far as my cover went. The neighborhood wasn’t great, three city

blocks surrounded by barbed wire didn’t help. But I igured at the very least I’d ind some stupid kid willing to sell me some drugs. Looking around at the other guests at the wedding, the family of Coneheads sitting in front of me, Spock to my right, Voldemort to my left, I wasn’t sure if the drugs had been a good idea, or the worst one ever. The music stopped abruptly and I noticed that the theater was full. The crowd hushed waiting for the ceremony to begin and then the drugs kicked in. Was it all in my mind, or did Caitlyn walk on stage dressed as Princess Leia complete with braided buns over each ear? Rayne joined her wearing a white robe and long white hair I hoped was a wig. I guessed he was trying for Gandalf or perhaps Dumbledore, but I couldn’t be sure it didn’t matter. I only had eyes for Caitlyn, who despite the costume, still looked like the girl I knew from high school, minus the braces. Suddenly, the sky darkened as the moon moved across the sun. From each aisle ushers dressed as elves passed out glasses. I handed a few pairs to the Matrix duo next to me and kept one last pair for myself. They looked similar to the average eclipse glasses available at the gas station, but these were different. When I put them on, the darkened theater turned into a kaleidoscope of color. The ceremony was about to begin. I could feel it in my bones. A vibration of excitement or perhaps I was inally feeling the effects of the mushrooms.

That’s when I saw her. Out of the corner of my eye. Walking up the aisle past the elf ushers and the other guests, my wife. Olivia.