Page 49 of Lips Like Sugar

Cole: Hi Mira.

Mira: Hi Cole.

Cole: Want to hear something weird?

Mira: Always.

Cole: I was walking downtown today, and this man came up to me, pointed a three-pound sleeve of frozen ground beef at my chest, and said, “They told me you need this more than I do.” Then he gave it to me and walked away.

Mira: Seriously?

Cole: Yep.

Mira: He just had a three-pound sleeve of frozen ground beef? Like just walking around with it?

Cole: That’s the weird thing. He must have produced it from thin air because I definitely would have noticed if a dude was coming at me with a three-pound sleeve of frozen ground beef. I might have turned around, or at least dropped eye contact.

Mira: I think you met a bona fide meat magician.

Cole: If I hadn’t been so shocked, I might have asked for his autograph.

Mira: Well, did you?

Cole: Did I what?

Mira: Need the three-pound sleeve of frozen ground beef more than he did?

Cole: I guess we’ll never know. I gave it to Benji at the studio. He’ll literally eat anything.

Mira: That is super weird. But you live in a big city. Doesn’t shit like that happen all the time?

Cole: A complete stranger gifting me frozen meat? Far less often than you’d think.

May 23,10:32pm

Mira: Hi Cole

Cole: Hi Mira

Mira: Did I ever tell you I’m scared of the dark?

Cole: I don’t believe that came up in the two days we hung out.

Mira: I’ve been thinking about the time my stepdad took me to the Elktooth Caverns when I was ten. The tour guide led us down to this deep part of the cave, and with barely any warning, he turned off all the lights. It was so dark I couldn’t see anything. I was so scared I couldn’t move. Then the guide told us no matter how long we stayed down there, our eyes would never adjust to the darkness. I screamed so loud I lost my voice for a week.

Cole: That sounds traumatizing.

Mira: After they got me back up to the surface, they kindly invited me never to return. And I never did. But I was wondering how I’d feel if I went back to the caverns today. I still don’t like the dark. I still have to sleep with twinkly lights in my room. But would it be as scary now? Or do some things stay terrifying no matter how old you get?

Cole: Maybe it depends on why you’re scared of the thing you’re scared of. Do you know why you’re afraid of the dark?

Mira: Do we ever know why we have irrational fears? I mean, they’re irrational.

Cole: Fair point. So nothing bad ever happened to you in the darkness?

Mira: Aside from some bad seven minutes in heaven sessions in middle school?

Cole: Ha! But we all had those, and we’re not all afraid of the dark.