Todd sat up in his bed, feeling a jumbled mess of emotions. His heart beat faster as he realized he now had to face Tea the morning after. If there had never been an “it,” there would be no need for the morning after, but being true to form, he was realizing that he would have to face the inevitable. Tea would want to know where they went from here. She would want to know how long was his commitment and how much more he was willing to do, give, be. He knew this meant that there would be an ever after and that he was probably stuck in the “death do us part” scenario. She would probably talk him into going back to Llanview and being a part of a package deal…one that included Shorty. He knew Tea. He knew her better than he knew himself. He knew she’d want the whole family package, deluxe. He knew that he’d never be able to fake anything in his relationship with her again. He was hers completely and he’d have her no other way. But instead of the dread feeling that usually envelopes him, he had come to accept it, almost wanting it.
“Be honest with yourself, Manning,” he taunted himself as he stared in the mirror. “You WANT a family too. And not just any family. And no longer a pretend, fake family just to make some statement to the family courts.” This time, he no longer wanted the deal. He wanted it all to be real. He knew that from now on, whatever he did, thought or felt, would all be bearable now, because Tea was here to do it, think it and feel it with him!
He used the restroom and noticed that Tea’s all natural toothpaste was unsealed on the porcelain. She had jump-started her morning. “She can’t sleep, either,” he thought. “So where’s she hiding?” He laughed out loud. “She’s not hiding anywhere. And she didn’t go anywhere except into the kitchen to make coffee and I just didn’t see her. She was being quiet as not to wake me.”
Todd looked around the cabin and began to get a little anxious. He looked over by the door and noticed that her hat and boots were gone. Her coat was gone as well. “So that explains it. She’s in that big ol’ chair out there. I’ll have to tell her that’s where I spent most of my time when I was here alone. She’ll like that. On second thought,” he pondered aloud, “maybe I’ll save that part for another day. It’ll only give her a bigger head than the one she obviously already has.” Todd put his slippers on and strolled quietly onto the porch. Her chair was empty. His chair was empty. And he realized in that second that his heart was empty.
Todd: Tea? Tea? Hey Delgado. Where you at? Delgado? (his voice slightly raising) Tea.
He ran back into the cabin and got his boots and threw his arm through one armhole of his coat and raced back into the snow.
Todd: (desperate) Teaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! Teaaaaaaaa!!!!! He wrestled with the thoughts that were now racing scrambled through his brain. Had the good people of Llanview been right all along and she had only bided her time until she could escape from him? But if that was the case, why did she sleep with him? Had she just fucked him off so she could fuck him over? Had she finally found the weapon she could use against him that would make the most desperate of differences possible? “She couldn’t do that to me,” he thought. “She wouldn’t. Would she?”
Todd sat on a fallen tree trunk deep in the forest. He stared up at the treetops and heard the rumblings of forest’s animals, scampering wildly at his disruption of their home.
Todd: This is absolutely absurd Manning. Knock it off. Go back up to that cabin and find her. She’s there. You just didn’t look carefully enough. She’s probably standing on the porch, unaware that you’re making a complete idiot of yourself. Why would she leave you? You are, Todd Manning, after all. And that’s exactly why she left you.
Todd ran back to the cabin. He ran through the doors calling out her name. Maybe she’d find it romantically inclined if she heard him calling for her frantically. Then he could beat the crap out of her while he tells her that he loves her. She would have to learn never to scare him like this again, even if he did love her. That wouldn’t excuse this momentary lapse that had him in such a panic. How pathetic he felt that he needed to find her immediately. How much he loathed how much he realized he needed her. How much he could overlook all for her. Now if he could only find her to let her in on all these insightful things he was feeling.
Todd: Where the hell are you Delgado?
Todd fell upon the bed. He could smell her scent on the sheets. He could feel the indentation where she had spent the night in his arms. He again found himself lost in his thoughts. “Didn’t what we did mean anything to her? Wasn’t it a great beginning to the rest of our lives? Or was it…goodbye for her? Oh my God!”
Todd raced from the cabin and stood in the front yard staring back at the door. If his instincts were wrong, there was still a chance. But if he was right, life’s most poetic tragedy was about to become his biggest irony. Romeo and Juliet had nothing in the love department if what he believed had happened, HAD happened. He stood silently with his thoughts in front of the cabin.
Nothing. Not a sound. Not a broken limb on a tree branch. Not a footprint in the snow. Footprints. I’ll follow her footprints. She had to have gone somewhere. I know the people of Llanview sometimes seemed alien, but he didn’t believe there truly was “something out there.” He raced back to the cabin porch, prepared for whatever happened next. Or was he? Slowly, he retraced his footsteps, her footsteps to see where his destiny led.
Todd took his next steps with trepidation and fear. Was he ready for where her footprints would actually lead, especially if they lead away from him? Would that really surprise him? “Why did she do what she did last night if she was only going to run away in the morning? What is wrong with her? What’s wrong with me for getting messed up with someone like her…someone that made me believe…believe…in me? In us!”
Todd retraced his own footsteps and was able to differentiate Tea’s footsteps from his own. Her’s had gone off to the left toward the road. His had gone everywhere. He followed her footsteps and noticed they had gone right up to the road. There seemed to be two sets of footprints, almost like someone had gotten out of the driver’s side and opened the back passenger side to let her in before getting in and driving away. Had she called a cab? Was there a limo hidden somewhere in the forest picking up desperate women running through the woods in the middle of the night? Had she called someone to her rescue?
