“Lilly, that’s totally radical,” Stormy-Rain was the only person on the planet that still used the word radical. In fact, she was famed for using words that hadn’t been uttered in decades, and when she wasn’t doing that, she was making them up. A couple of months ago she’d tried to get the word “Groove-alicious” circulating- she hadn’t succeeded.

“So what’s the date?” Stormy was forced to move to the other side of the room, her cell phone reception was a nightmare, which undoubtedly had something to do with the fact that her phone was a prehistoric relic from the 90’s. She just didn’t understand everyone’s obsession with having the world at their fingertips 24/7, and on a phone no less. Besides, the more you logged onto things like Facebook and Twitter, the more the government could spy on you.

‘The wedding will be on the 20th of September,” Lilly shouted down the phone noting that the line had gone bad, she was used to this.

“Wait? What’s Damien’s star sign again?”

“Leo.”

“Okay, hold on I need to do something quickly. Please call me back in exactly five minutes, I’m running out of airtime. K, bye.”

Stormy hung up and raced across the room, almost tripping over her pet tortoise Frank Zappa as she went. Once safely installed at her bookshelf, she pulled out her large trusty astrology book.

“Index, index.” She flipped it open and ran her finger down the wordy column, “Leo, leo, leo where are you….Ah, page 22.”

Stormy scanned the words on the page, ‘Uh-ming’ and ‘Ah-ing’ as she went. She pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil, which had been sharpened within an inch of its life, and began scribing some numbers down.

The phone rang…

“Hey Lil, it’s okay, you can have your wedding on the 20th, the numbers say it’s a favorable day,” Stormy’s tone was serious. Astrology and numerology were no laughing matters, as far as she was concerned they were as cut and dry as science. So were things like Crystal healing, tarot, aura’s and ancient aliens- obviously.

“Well that’s a relief, I’ll let Damien know.” Lilly said with a smile in her voice.

“So where’s it going to be… NO, let me guess, some fancy place in the Wine lands or the Drakensburg?”

There was a pause on the phone, “Okay, don’t hate me but-“

“No!” Stormy exclaimed. “It’s not-“

“I’m sorry, it is.”

“Where?’

“Prague, it’s really beautiful and you’ll love it there and-”

“Lilly, you know I can’t.”

“Please, I need you there, it wouldn’t be the same without you. Besides, who’s going to help with our mother when she gets drunk and falls off a table, or gets up to make one of her famous inappropriate speechs?”

Even though Stormy and Lilly had only technically been stepsiblings for a few months, during a rather tumultuous and explosive marriage between their dysfunctional dramatically inclined parents, she still referred to Ida as her mother, since Ida was the only one she’d ever known.

“But, but, but…” Stormy sounded panicky and twirled her hair around her finger, something she’d done since childhood whenever she felt anxious- which had been often. Her childhood hadn’t exactly been the picture of stability. Having an alcoholic theatre director as a father didn’t mean picket fences, parent teacher meetings and home cooked meals. This was something that she and Lilly had in common, and probably the reason they were so close. Of course it didn’t help that her mother had run away to join a hippie cult a few hours after she was born either.

“Lil, I don’t know…” The tip of her finger was going blue she was wrapping her hair so tightly.

“It’s been proven that’s it’s more dangerous to drive than to fly.”

“Did you read that on Google?”

Lilly hesitated; she knew what was coming, “Yes.”

Stormy let out that do-I-really-have-to-explain-this-to-you-again, sigh, “Lilly, when are you going to realize that the world government is controlling us with fake information on the world wide web?” Who still says world wide web? “I mean, I bet you think they really landed on the moon?”

“Didn’t they?”

“No.”

“Please…” Lilly was begging now. “With a hundred cherries on top and stuff like that.”

Stormy could almost taste the panic. Planes were not safe. If humans were meant to fly, they would have been given wings.

“But…”

“Please, pretty please, after all, I need a third bridesmaid.”

“Seriously?” Stormy couldn’t hide her excitement, “Really, you want me to be your bridesmaid?”

“Of course.”

“Hang on, you don’t expect me to organize anything do you?”

Lilly laughed out loud, Stormy couldn’t organize her way out of a paper bag, let alone a wedding, but it was all part of the famous Stormy charm.

“Don’t worry, you know Sue and Val, they’re on it like crazed braidsmaid-zillas’”

“Oh thank God!”

“Is Jess going to be the Damien’s best-woman?” Damien’s bestie was a super-hot lesbian named Jess, and if she didn’t have a girlfriend, Stormy would have liked a little smooch. She’d never kissed a girl before, and figured that if you were going to do it, Jess would be the perfect choice.

“Yes, she’s even wearing a suit.” Lilly added.

“She’ll look totally smoking.”

“She always does. But lets come back to the conversation at hand. The flight?” Lilly knew Stormy was trying to steer the conversation in the opposite direction.

“Please Strom….another guest, one of Damiens cousins Marcus will be on the same flight too, so you won’t be totally alone.”

“Like that’s supposed to be comforting. It’s not like I know him from a bar of Adam…” Another component of the Stormy charm, was her uncanny ability to confuse every idiom that had ever been created. Some of her more interesting ones over the years had been;

Back to the square drawing board

To flog a dead monkey

And everyone’s favorite, don’t count your chickens before they cross the road.

Stormy thought for a second, “Okay what’s this Marcus guys star sigh? If you find that out, at least I’ll be more prepared to meet him.”

“So you’re coming?” Lilly squealed down the phone with excitement.

“I can’t miss your wedding.”

“If you’re really nervous, you can always get one of my brothers magic white pills?”

Again with the do-I-really-have-to-explain-this-to-you-again sigh, “Don’t you know how many toxic chemicals can be found in pharmaceuticals? No thanks. If I’m desperate I’ll chew on some Chamomile stalks.”

“What about a plus one, do we need to get you another ticket, or has that last guy reached the six week mark?” Lilly asked.

“The Reiki instructor? No, he passed the six week mark two weeks ago, so no plus one.” Stormy was also known for her unique dating style, she dated men for six weeks exactly and then broke it off. To date, no one had ever made it through the six week cut off.

She loved those first six weeks. The honeymoon phase, when you’ve still got butterflies and don’t know each other’s foibles and flaws. And that’s when she ended it- before anyone landed up hating each other. And hate was inevitable, her father had been married and divorced four times and they had all ended in catastrophic animosity. By ending it at six weeks, she was ensured happy, loving, perfect relationship memories that never ended in pain and suffering- for her anyway, she’d left a string of heart broken men in her wake. But she was not looking for anything long- term. Long- term didn’t work. Happy bursts of fun, carefree short-term, were perfect for her.

“I’m so excited Storm. I’ve got to go, Val and Sue are waving invitations in my face.”

“Love and light Lilly,” Stormy put the phone down.

***

The last thing Marcus wanted to do was baby sit some anxious woman on a flight- but he’d promised Damien.

Who the hell was afraid of flying in this day and age anyway? And while he was contemplating the “who the hell was thing”, Who the hell was named Stormy- Rain? There were only two options, either it was made up for whatever reason, or her parents were Acid-popping hippies.

He wasn’t looking forward to this at all, and he didn’t even know what she looked like, and when he’d asked Damien all he’d said was, “You’ll know when you see her.”

What was that supposed to mean anyway?

Marcus made himself comfortable at the boarding gate; the flight was due to take off in forty-five minutes and people had already started lining up like ants. He’d never understood that, scrambling to get on when your seat was already allocated. Luckily he didn’t need to worry about such things; the business class passengers always got priority boarding. He opened the ‘Business Day’ and flipped to the stock report. Playing the stock markets was a hobby of his, and over the years it had made him quite a bit of pocket money. Not that he needed it, as CFO of a publically listed company; he already made a pretty penny.

He was just about to pat himself on the back for another shrewd investment, when his phone lit up with a message. He pulled it out of his pocket and a wave of discomfort washed over him.

It was his ex, they’d broken up two weeks ago. She'd been booked to come to the wedding, but that had been cancelled. The break up had completely blindsided her, or so she’d claimed. But after a year together, Marcus realized that she wasn’t right. She just wasn’t wife material, which is what he was looking for. She was too career focused, to much of a party-girl and when he’d brought up the topic of kids, her face had scrunched up as is she’d just bitten into a lemon.

Marcus was looking for someone very specific, someone who would make a good wife and mother to his kids. Someone stable and mature. Someone who did not fall over after Tequila on a Saturday night. Marcus was looking to settle down, after all he was 33. He was successful, stable and he could provide a good home and life for a family. Unfortunately, Mrs. Right was hard to find.

Hey

Have a safe flight and send Lilly and Damien my love.

Em xx

He put his phone away without responding, and continued to read the paper. But his solitude was interrupted once again when he heard a rather loud and irritating ruckus….

“Excuse me.”

“Thanks- coming through.”

“Thanks”

“Scuse moi”

“Thanky, coming through”

Annoyed, he looked up in in direction of the commotion and that’s when he smacked eyes on her.

She was tall. Thin. Waif like. She was wearing a hideous dress- something that looked like it had been picked up in a charity store and had belonged to an old hippie. It was a cream color, splashed with a large canary yellow sunflower print. It was also long she looked like she was going to trip over it.

He ran his eyes down the length of her dress and came face-to-face with the ugliest pair of shoes he’d seen in a while; old, worn brown leather sandals.

“Thanky- Thanks”.

“Sorry, just squeezing through”

It wasn’t only the loud jet of words flying out of her mouth that was responsible for the public racquet -it was also her bangles. Large wooden bangles and what looked like a bangle made of shells, and strange pewter things clanked together as she walked.

His eyes moved up and settled on her face and he almost did a double take.

Her hair! It looked like a rainbow had thrown up on it. Pink, blue and even green. The colorful strands were braided together into a plait and hung over her shoulder. And what was that he saw as she came closer? A nose ring? Yes, she had a nose ring.

He’d never seen anyone with rainbow colored hair before; in fact, he’s never seen anyone so strange. And then it dawned on him….

This must be Stormy- Rain.

Shit, he was going to kill Damien when he saw him.

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