In week 18 we were asked to tell a story about Felicia who has accidentally dialed the wrong phone number, but the person who answers sounds familiar. Immediately the person recognizes Felicia, but because Felicia made the call she is too embarrassed to ask who it is. Using only dialogue, figure out who the person is.
The character was to be one of our characters from previous weeks and since Quinn was still on my mind I tied one more story into the Marcia Mayville arc.
hello cranton creek
“…and to re-cap our top story, actress Marcia Mayville was found dead in her home last night. She was 28.”
Felicia hit the mute button on the television, grabbed her cordless phone and her fingers began dialling a familiar number before her brain could catch up. It had been almost ten years since she last called Mike May but at this moment the time and distance seemed irrelevant. She needed to talk to him and tell him how sorry she was to hear about Marcie.
“Hello?” the voice on the other side of the line sounded strangled and broken.
“Hi. I hope this isn’t a bad time… I just heard the news on television and I am in complete shock. I am so, so sorry.”
“Felicia? Is it really you? How long has it been? It’s gotta be at least ten years. Are you coming home for the funeral? It is the day after tomorrow and I know it would mean a lot to Mike to see you there.”
Mean a lot to Mike? Wait, who was she talking to? There were only a handful of numbers from Cranton Creek that could be stored in her brain. Which one had she dialled? The voice was one from her past and hauntingly familiar but who did it belong to…?
“Have you seen him today?” Felicia asked the man on the line hoping to pick up clues.
“The whole town has seen him. You know Cranton Creek; people have been cooking up a storm since the news hit. At last count there were fifteen casseroles and twelve pies in Mrs. May’s freezer and there is no sign that the deliveries will stop anytime soon. There has been a steady stream of people in and out of that house all day,” the man on the line said with a chuckle.
“Sounds like nothing back home has changed.”
“Everything’s changed,” the voice said and Fiona was struck by the anger and remorse.
“Are you OK?” Felicia still had not zeroed in on the man’s identity but it did not take a psychic to know he was hurting.
“I feel like I have just been punched in the gut. I haven’t cried since I was a kid but I have broken down about a dozen times since yesterday.”
“I know that feeling.”
“It is like I am going through the motions, you know?” he continued. “I have been with Mike almost 24/7 since he heard and we drove back together yesterday.”
Felicia’s mind began to review a revised list of possibilities: males around Mike’s age who had escaped Cranton Creek. It narrowed the field considerably.
“We turned off the radio during the drive trying to avoid the radio reports. The speculations are rumours are making me sick,” the man said with a bite in his tone.
“I totally understand. I was watching the news re-cap and during the full three minutes of footage there was not one second where they showed the real Marcie,” Felicia agreed. It did not matter who was on the telephone line, anyone in Cranton Creek was sure to feel the same. “They showed her playing a druggie in a movie, they showed her playing a university student on television and that horrible clip of her walking into rehab but not a second of that report showed her being Marcie.”
“I loved her you know,” the voice said quietly. “After all of these years, I don’t know why I am telling you this but it’s true. I have loved her since she was six years old. It doesn’t matter that she never loved me back.”
“I know Quinn,” Felicia said quietly. The confession was the only clue she ever would have needed. Everyone knew that Quinn loved Marcie. It was the worst-kept secret in Cranton Creek. “I’ll catch a flight tomorrow. I promise.”
We first met Quinn last week in Troika.
Marcia Mayville made her first appearance in The Dailies.
