Intermission Read Online Free PDF Page B

chair.
    “Natalie?” she breathes.
    “Yes, Claire. Zach and I stopped by because I desperately need your advice about some camels. You see, my new job with Molly requires me to do some crazy stuff. Now, I’ve done some crazy shit in my life, but I never thought I would have to create the Sahara Desert on the Upper East Side.” I pause to see if she’s following and she’s grinning.
    “So my mom suggested I just get a bunch of hookah pipes and set up tents and let everyone get really high and imagine the camels. I could even get a couple cardboard cutouts to enhance the mirage. Zach seems to think that monkeys with fez hats would be more fun, but I really don’t want to disappoint Molly or my eccentric clients.” Claire’s chest starts to flail and I’m nervous I did something to hurt her, but she’s smiling and tapping her hand against the rail. I place my hand on top of her frail fingers and she mumbles a few words—
    “Il t’adore. Sa femme, Natalie.” She quiets to silence and the only noise is the pressure of the oxygen tank filtering in clean air. Her eyes close, but her chest is still inflating. Goosebumps invade my skin and I contemplate holding a mirror under her nose.
    “Natalie? Are you ready to go?” Zach is standing over my shoulder and I know he senses my anxiety. “You did a great job. She’s happily resting.” I release Claire’s hand and stand next to him. He leans over and kisses her head then whispers at a volume I, too, can hear. “La vie est un interlude au salut.” Life is an interlude to salvation.
    On the train ride back to Manhattan, I snuggle into Zach and think about the peculiarity of what I witnessed. Claire speaks French. Zach speaks French. And I still don’t know what’s going on.
    “She said you loved me,” I blurt.
    “She’s on morphine.” Zach smiles playfully and I jab him in the stomach.
    “Be serious for one fucking minute! Stop patronizing me. Stop giving me things to distract me. Stop making me assume you’re full of secrets.” I cross my arms but remain firm. He cannot actually think he’s the one saving me.
    “Have you ever wanted something so badly that you would sacrifice a life in order to save one?” He yanks my hand from my chest and pulls it close to his heart. “Can you feel what you do to me? You’re my pleasure from the pain, my distraction from the voyage and the best friend I will ever have.”
    I mumble and shake my head, “I don’t—“
    “That day on the train, I wasn’t visiting my mom or taking her to treatment, I was getting my things in order. I went to see my physician, update my passport and take care of my trust with the family attorney.”
    “Oh god, no! Are you sick? What’s happening?” I cover my mouth in fear and collapse my weak body into his.
    “I’m not sick, I’m a Marine.” He strokes my hair and kisses my forehead. “I’m leaving for Afghanistan. Tomorrow.”
    “What?” My scream is blood-curdling and every passenger stares in our direction, wondering what could be so horribly wrong between two young lovers. “No! No, you cannot leave me. Absolutely not. What about your family? What about me?”
    “This was decided long before I met you and I didn’t realize I would fall so deeply in love with you. But I need you to be okay with this, Natalie, please. Those fuckers impacted our lives but I refuse to let them take our dreams.”
    “You’re wrong, so wrong. I’m selfish! I’m a selfish, selfish baby and I want you here. I’m not built like you and I have no honor, please Zach, stay with me, be with me.” My sobbing and hyperventilating muffle my plea, but it doesn’t matter, Zach is leaving tomorrow. So that I, a girl he barely knows, can drink Diet Snapple and interview for high-paying jobs and sleep with as many men as I want and buy expensive shoes and say Shit and Fuck whenever I want and watch crappy television and look for fucking camels to rent for a desert-inspired party. Irony is a