BR088 Late For Rehearsal

Jilly and Jazlin and I squeezed into the Jackster and were waved off by Don and Ella. I puttered down Frognal and then zipped over to Orbital Drive where we picked up speed, taking advantage of the special speed limit for pedal-powered cars. Tugboat Alley and Liner Row were both full and the sea was choppy. There weren't any boats visible out to sea. Low, dark clouds were banked overhead and at the Ferry Docks it started raining hard. By the time we turned off on Park Street West it felt like a real storm.

I drove down Oxtail and turned into the warren of streets around the Theatre District. Traffic was fanning out from Central Circle and all the tiny streets were clogged. Jilly was getting nervous as she was late for a rehearsal and she knew the whole band was waiting for her to get there. Her creepy boss, Tobias Turtle, always takes an interest in rehearsals and she knew he'd be there. I'd held things up at Ella's, making phone calls. I had to get out of various meetings planned for today at the Jackster Plant and I set up for going to Woody Spit for a couple of days.

Jilly struggled to pack up and put on her cagepack while leaning forward in her seat with the windows steaming up. Jazlin flew around nervously, outside of the cagepack. I found myself getting tense again, not that I was feeling too weird or anything. Not like yesterday. Just tense with the traffic and all the action in the car.

Finally I pullled up in front of the Egret Club. Jazlin Fly hopped into the cagepack and I sealed it as Jilly opened the door. A quick kiss and she was out of the car and striding under the blue awning with the giant plastic Egret on top of it. Looking at her from behind she suddenly looked very sexy and I had a pang of lonliness, even while I watched her going away. Jilly has my favorite walk and everything about her presence looks beautiful to me and painfully familiar. There she was with Jazlin (peeking back at me from the top of the cagepack), my dear little family, walking away from me in the rain under the awning and through the double doors of the Egret Club.

I was on my own.