Green Man Red Woman

Part 3. A Story in 14 parts, based on Pacific Northwest Mythology

3.

Cherise wakens at eleven, alarmed that she’s missed her shift at the Nethers. Her reliability as a senior barista means she’s counted on by the owners, but the coffeehouse will survive without her for a day. What disturbs Cherise more is the fact that she can’t remember how she ended up back in bed this morning. The last thing she recalls is that sip of whiskey burning its way down her throat. She half expects to see the old homeless couple sacked out in her living room, but she’s alone, no sign of anyone else having been here. Had she dreamed all of that? Had she really followed a deer down to the Max stop?

Unsettled, she pushes the thought out of her mind. She drags herself from bed, makes some toast and dresses for school. Even though she’s slept in, she feels as though she’s still in some dream, halfway between sleep and consciousness.

Outside, the temperature has risen once more above freezing and the snow from the night before is melted, leaving only scattered traces in the doorways. The homeless man across the street has long since moved on.

On her journey to school, and throughout Western Civ class, she continues to be bothered by the true or imagined events of the past night. It all seemed so real at the time, more real than she feels now. Maybe she should call Mom, get some of her famous insight, and a little sympathy, but the more she thinks about it, the worse the idea seems to her. Mom nearly had a nervous breakdown when Cherise left home for college in the big city. How can she explain that she’d taken a walk at three in the morning and shared whiskey with a couple of old homeless people before blanking out for several hours? It will never do.

On her way home from class, she stops by The Nethers, a little hole-in-the-wall coffee shop, quaint, with a Victorian Faerie motif. Rhianna is behind the bar, slinging her amazing lattes, each a work of exquisite art, like Rhee, herself, who is adorned with a national forest of stylish tattoos and enough hardware to start a small jewelry store. Rhee smiles and gives Cherise a wave. The two girls get along well together and are quite a team when they end up on the same shift. Cherise smiles back, but with a contrite, how-much-trouble-am-I-in squinch.

“Don’t worry,” says Rhee. “I covered for you.”

“Thank’s so much, Rhee. I just… I think I had a bad night. I don’t remember it all…”

Rhee throws Cherise a concerned look. “Do you want to talk about it? I’m off in ten.”

As though on cue, Gillian sweeps into the café with her usual dramatic flair, giving Cherise a moment to think about Rhee’s offer. Will her coworker think she’s crazy? Is she crazy? In the end, she decides it doesn’t really matter what Rhee thinks. Everyone has their eccentricities, and Cherise is just the girl who chases white stags in the middle of the night and blanks out for hours. Rhee can handle that, can’t she? Cherise nods and within minutes Rhee sweeps her out the door, leaving Gillian alone at the espresso counter.

When Cherise arrives home that evening, she feels better about herself, almost convinced by Rhee that it must have all been a dream. “Maybe it was a lucid dream,” Rhee said over lunch. “Those can be spookily real, sometimes. I dreamed once that I had sex with Mark Woodall and after I went down on him, he said my performance was passable for a cheap ho. When I saw him later at school, I nearly slapped his face. I couldn’t look at him for a week. Bastard.”

That made Cherise laugh.

“Yeah, it’s true, sometimes dreams can seem pretty real, but what about my blackout?”

“That was just part of it. Your dream didn’t really happen at 3 o’clock. It happened just before you woke up.”

“But I don’t remember getting into bed, Rhee.”

“Maybe you were so tired you just forgot.”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

And maybe was where it stood. She wasn’t quite willing to go all the way, but there was no use fighting it. It would have to remain one of those strange, inexplicable things that sometimes happened to people.

For the next episode of our novelette go to Part Four.