rudy & elle 2

“I used to pretend I was Jasmine when I was little,” she reminisced while waiting in line for a chance to spin in circles aboard a teacup. “I would take Mom’s curtains off the window and wrap myself in them, then try to ride Rocky’s back around the house like he were Rajah.” Rudy laughed, imagining his girlfriend trying to saddle up on the aging canine mix with only a couple of good years left in him.

“I had this little kettle, and I’d rub it to make Genie come out. I’d rub and rub and rub, hoping he’d grant me three wishes.”

“What’d you wish for?” Rudy asked, smiling.

“A Barbie convertible. And pretty jewelry so Mommy wouldn’t get mad at me for wearing hers,” she giggled, shoving her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.

“Didn’t the genie give three wishes?” Rudy wondered aloud.

“Yep!” Elle chirped. “My third wish was for a million more wishes!”

Rudy nodded and cocked a grin, taking a few paces forward as the line started to move again. “Which one would you have been?” Elle asked, wanting a little more insight to Rudy’s relatively quiet childhood.

“Easy,” he responded blankly, void of emotion. “Scrooge McDuck. If you don’t want to dive into an indoor pool of money, you must be brain dead.”

“You probably would be after your head hit a bunch of gold coins,” she mused.

They balanced one another out with exchanges of rational versus irrational. When one head was in the clouds, the other was glued to the neck. Elle laughed as Rudy hip-checked her into the railing. Her counter was a perfectly placed rib tickle in the sweet spot just below the nipple. Some looked on with smiles, others questioned their age, and the guy portraying Goofy exchanged changing-area banter about the crazy loon who put him on his ass that day in a fit of excitement. If Disney World were less than a vile exploitation paradise, there’d be no way that these two collegiate “celebrities” would come out of it more in love than the had ever been.

The night sky was no match for the parade of color that marched down the streets surrounding Cinderella’s castle. All of the characters of Walt’s universe that they had met earlier that day danced and waved atop twenty thousand-dollar floats wearing two thousand-dollar costumes. Rudy’s chin was perched on Elle’s shoulder, holding her close around her belly with fingers pinned by the palms of her hands. She reveled in the display of pageantry while his mind wandered in anticipation of the future. They’d be back in this very spot at some point in time, watching this same show, arms in the same position. What will they have made of themselves five years from now? Would his rocket to other dimensions be complete? How a mind who yearns for the absolute truth in the most uncertain of questions felt like it would collapse before time would reveal the answers.

The sight of the blue mustachioed giant in the distance was enough to deter him. A balloon rose out of the open end of a lamp ten feet tall, its smirk was unmistakable as the float grew closer. Elle nuzzled her cheek against Rudy’s as the cast aboard tossed candy to their audience. Dressed in curtains of cerulean, the Princess of Arabia waved as if she had been crowned Miss Universe. Her peasant prince guided his palm against the surface of the large antique as the balloon inflated once more, the Genie ready to do his duty.

The future lay in Rudy’s front pocket, and as he freed his hand to reach inside for that future purchased with a heavy advance on a student loan...

She thinks she missed the train to Mars, she’s out back counting stars…

Rudy opened his eyes and reached for his cell phone laying on the nightstand beside his bed in the Comfort Inn Kissimmee. Matt Talbot’s somber voice over the twinkling of guitar immediately registered her name in his head.

Elle.

Silencing the phone with a press of his thumb, he turned to the opposite side and exhaled. It hadn’t exactly been their most pleasant of good-byes as he hopped the cab to the airport alone. It was the battle of rational versus irrational, and she could not see the point in missing an exam for another appearance. While he couldn’t justify being upset at her for something she couldn’t help (apparently celebrity status falls upon deaf ears when it came to Calculus professors,) he couldn’t help but feel abandoned by her lack of commitment. The two of them would have to charge headstrong into Mickey Mouse some other time.

Needless to say, the Comfort Inn wasn’t nearly as comfortable without her.