Coffee with Stacy

Chapter Fifteen: Stuck Together

"Maybe gum art should be my new medium," said Stacy, staring up at the colorful mass splayed on Seattle's Gum Wall.

"You'd get a sore jaw pretty quickly," mumbled Keke through a wad of gum on the inside of her cheek. She handed Stacy a stick of Double Mint and squinted at the wall, "It's almost like all of the colors blend together to make a weird new color that no one's seen before." Stacy closed her eyes halfway and tilted her head.

"Yeah, I can see what you mean. . . kind of. Are you ready to add to the artwork?" she asked. Keke pinched the green piece of gum out of her mouth.

"You have to aim as high as you can so that your gum will stick to the bricks right above everyone else's. Then you can come back and visit your piece years later." Both girls brought their arms back as far as they could and catapulted their masses of sticky gum onto the wall. Keke's planted itself high above the chaotic mess, while Stacy's ricocheted back and barely missed the same elderly couple Keke had displaced in the coffee shop just minutes before. The two seniors glared and shook their heads. Stacy covered her mouth, stifling a half-laugh-half-gasp. Keke paid no mind to the incident and retrieved Stacy's gum from the ground.

"Do you want me to throw yours?" she asked.

"Yes please. It would be best for everyone if you did," Stacy said. Keke chucked the piece of gum effortlessly onto the open wall right next to her piece.

"I had to throw Charlie's piece for him too when we came here on our eighth-grade field trip," she said, pointing to a pair of blue pieces next to their green, "I've always had a good arm." Stacy noted how often their conversations led back to Charlie, but decided to keep the observation to herself. She glanced at her watch.

"The furniture we picked out this morning should be packaged and ready to go by now," she said. Keke peeled her eyes from the sentiment-filled blue lumps.

"Okay, lead me back to where we parked and we'll head right over," she said. Stacy turned to leave, then stopped.

"Keke, thank you for being so helpful all the time. You're making this transition so much easier on me. I'm really glad to have you around. You're a great road trip buddy too." Keke threw her arm around Stacy's shoulder and started walking towards their ride.

"It's no problem, dude. Truth be told, I haven't had much luck finding a close girl friend in Caribou until you came along. It's nice to have someone to talk to," she said, "but I seriously still have no idea where we parked."