Page 60 of The Impact (Parachutes #3)

Yestercades in Westfield was a nostalgic arcade where Milo had his 11 th birthday party almost two years ago.

The walls were lined with old pinball machines, themed from Ghostbusters to Jurassic Park.

Classic video games like Pac-Man and Mortal Kombat were tuned up in pristine condition.

A leather sofa sat off in a corner hooked to a Sega Genesis gaming system.

Another, to a Super Nintendo. A pool table and air hockey were the centerpieces of the room.

The smell of mediocre pizza greeted them along with the sounds of Prince’s I Would Die 4 U .

Tahli imagined that everyone was sheltering in from the storm.

The place was practically empty besides the pimple-faced employee and a middle-aged man with a young blond boy.

“Tahli, what the fuck?”

“Shh.” She placed a finger to her lips, hushing him. “You can’t complain. You can’t leave. The only thing you can do is pick the first game. You said fuck me and all kinds of shit to me. And I let you. Now, you owe me, nigga.”

Tahli had a thing for using slang to make Vin laugh, an ode to her suburban upbringing pretending to rival his very urban roots.

Vin stood there, all manly and mad. Hands clasped behind his back, gawking at Tahli as she started a dance break.

“You know I love this song,” she reminded him.

Of course, he was hurting. She was hurting, too.

But this was a man who had taken her straight from her mother’s cremation to a private airport, flew Tahli to the white beach of Anna Maria Island near Sarasota, Florida to sprinkle Cree Autumn’s ashes beachside, because Tahli told him how much her mother loved the ocean.

“This place is beautiful, Vin. But…why here? We could’ve thrown her in the Raritan. She wouldn’t care.” Yes, the Raritan River was gray and gross, but Tahli could already hear her mother. ‘Those ashes aren’t me. I’m already out of one realm and into the next.”

“Because. You can come back whenever you want. The beach is private.”

He turned, pointing at the two-story yellow farmhouse with mirror glass windows, surrounded by sand, and shadowed by two tall palm trees. The only visible house on the beach’s stretch.

“The beach is private, Vin?” Tahli panicked. “Did you even ask the owners if I could sprinkle a dead lady’s freaking ashes on their private beach before you brought me here? This is what I’m always talking about. You’re so reckless.”

“Damn, you’re right. My bad. Hold on.”

Vin had taken out his cell phone, pressing thumbs into it before placing it to his ear. A second later, hers rang in her purse.

“Answer it,” a nod to her purse urged to Tahli’s incredulous look.

“What, weirdo?” She chose to pick up with.

“Hey, real quick. Is it okay if we sprinkle a dead lady’s ashes on your beach? My wife says I should ask the owner.”

Tahli’s head was already shaking before he finished. Letting her phone slip into the sand, she tossed tawny arms around his neck.

“Did you buy me a fucking beach just for my mother’s ashes, you outrageous-ass man?”

“Now you can come see her whenever you want. Or be with her. Whatever she believed.”

Buying her husband-no-more a beach house would be frowned upon. But she could take him to this little arcade blasted straight from 1985.

Tahli sang along with Prince on her favorite part about not being a lover or a friend, but instead something more.

The greatest gift her mother had ever given her was an appreciation for music.

Tahli sang and danced, moving her hands over her face like Prince in Purple Rain while scurrying about, until Vin cracked his shell, pulling in his lips to shake his head.

“Oh. He laughs. I’m funny.”

“Nah…you’re fucking crazy, though. This is outrageous.”

“Yeah, yeah. Darling if you want me to!” She sang along, poking his steel chest. “Pick a game.”

His lazy finger chose Mortal Kombat. He won twice with Sub-Zero, and Tahli blew his ass away the last time with Kitana. Was next to certain he let her win. Next, they battled in Pacman and Tahli destroyed him.

“I still don’t understand how you so good at this shit,” Vin grumbled through his focus.

“It’s an analytical game, baby boy,” she gloated, as he died onscreen. By the time they were knocking the puck back and forth across the felt in air hockey, Tahli’s stomach was sore from laughing so much.

“Stop fucking cheating.”

“I’m not cheating! How can I cheat in air hockey?” She giggled, quickly placing the puck down and knocking it to his side. He knocked it back with more force.

“I ain’t taking it easy on yo’ ass no more,” Vin warned.

“I never asked you to!” she laughed.

They were seated side by side on a racing game sometime later, no longer driving, just laughing at his last phone conversation with Munch. Vin revealed Munch had learned how to make wine in prison.

“Nigga thinks he Jesus or some shit.”

Tahli’s body rumbled with laughter. Didn’t notice how much she bounced around until a quick glance from Vin, before he lovingly adjusted the hem of her tank, pulling it back up over her bra. Tahli wondered if her nipple had played peek-a-boo.

“She was doing alright this time, too,” Vin muttered low. “I don’t know if it was gonna last…but this last spot seemed to work for her.” He spoke of Lola’s latest rehab stint.

Tahli sulked, watching him as he fiddled with the game’s gearshift. A tune started, and a blanket wrapped around Tahli’s heart. But it was a wet one, because something was sad about how much she loved this song.

“I kinda feel like it’s my karma,” he uttered, and Tahli wondered if she’d heard him correctly.

Drew’s words came to mind as Madonna started to sing on Crazy for You .

As his mouth moved, Vin spoke of regrets, and not just with her.

From his youth to his now, from prison walls to private jets.

How cruel he had been to Sophie, neglectful to DJ.

Dishonest to Tahli. His heartfelt, vulnerable verses intermingled with Madonna professing how crazy she was for the person she loved.

Tahli wondered, transported back in time in this 80’s capsule of fun, away from judgments, responsibilities, and concerns, if this was the feeling she hankered so desperately.

She had read another one of those books that Vanessa suggested when she went on her solo vacation—one about a girl in 1998. A little dark for her liking, but the sweet parts of the book were quite sweet.

It was like this.

Candy-coated memories that people held onto to get them through the mundane of what their lives had turned over to.

Her mother had escaped the mundane and Tahli always feared she would need to do the same.

Be a horrible human and abandon her children and commitments.

But maybe she never had the urge because anytime she was with Vin, they were on a parachute transported somewhere else anyway.

It never dulled. There was nothing wrong with the real world.

The parachute was just a rarity she would rather stay strapped to.

But by life’s rules, decisions and circumstances, now she’d have to live like everyone else.

“What’s going on in that mind of yours?”

Tahli pushed wind from her nose, smiling lightly. You stole my parachute, you fucker.

“Can I pick your brain?” Vin joked. “You know how white mothafuckas say that shit?” Tahli giggled as he carried on.

“But I wanna pick yours for real. Get a fork and just pluck out all those little worries and fears that drive you crazy. Have you tossing and turning, flipping off the covers, pulling on the covers…”

She clicked her tongue. He knew her; perhaps in a way beyond she knew herself. Because she couldn’t see herself. But Vin had watched her so closely over the years. He saw it all.

“And what would you do with them?” Tahli spun the steering wheel even with no money in the game.

Vin pushed out his enviable lips seeming to consider briefly. “Eat them.”

She laughed harder.

“Yeah, you’re an eater, alright,” slipped out.

He snorted.

“Thank you.”

“No sweat,” she replied.

“No sweat,” he mocked.

Tahli chuckled. “I should…”

“Yeah,” Vin agreed. “Let’s grab some of this nasty-ass pizza first.”

“Okay. Then I’ll drive you back home.”

“Like I’m a chick.”

Tahli smirked.

“You got a problem riding in my truck like you had a problem riding in my purple Acura?”

“I got a problem riding period,” he hit her with a line as nostalgic as this place, before his expression turned grave. “Thank you, Tahli. You really are too good to me.”

She blinked away watering eyes. Stood to her sneakers after.

As they made their way to the pizza counter, the next track forced a gasp from her. She locked eyes with Vin to see if he caught it.

Blondie’s The Tide is High , a song she drove Vin mad with over the years, drifted from the speakers as they ordered two slices.

Tahli couldn’t help but think that these songs were always finding her.

“Oh my God!” Tahli screeched, as Vin slammed the door on the storm behind her. Tahli shook water from her arms. Whipping wind blew rain and branches sideways across the pavement. A two hour ago drizzle turning over into a monsoon.

“I just gotta pee,” she let him know, kicking off her drenched Nikes.

“And wait out this rain,” he demanded, punching in the alarm code. Tahli chewed her lips.

“It’s really not that bad, Vin.”

“Tahli, it’s ten times worse than when you–” Vin stopped himself.

When she had her accident. When she scared the shit out of everyone she loved.

“Okay. I’ll…give it a little to calm down.”

Tahli wrung out her locs in the downstairs bathroom.

Washed her hands and came out to find Vin on the sofa, rolling a blunt.

The light flutter in her belly confused her.

It felt like beginning for a moment. Like first sleepovers at his apartment, bringing food to cook for them.

Preparing more than food for him to eat.