Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

“Please just go.” Tibby’s voice wobbled.
Carmen, being Carmen, kissed the side of Tibby’s
head and got up to leave.
“Thanks,” Tibby whispered after her.
Unfortunately, Carmen, still being Carmen, arrived
back in Tibby’s room about an hour later without being
invited. This time she didn’t even knock. She just appeared.
“Tibby, you have to go see her,” Carmen said softly,
floating in Tibby’s half dream at the side of her bed.
“Go away,” Tibby ordered groggily. “I can’t move.”
Carmen let out a long breath. “You can so. I brought
you the Pants.” She laid them down over Tibby’s feet. It
was the only place in the room where they wouldn’t be
swallowed by ravenous mess. “Put them on and go.”
“No,” Tibby rasped.
Carmen disappeared out the door.
Tibby chattered and shivered. Didn’t Carmen understand
that her heart wasn’t working and her brain had an
aneurysm and her nose ring was getting infected?
She fell into comatose sleep for hours and awoke to see
the Pants glowing at her in the bluish light of The Tonight
Show with Jay Leno. The Pants were telling her that she
was an awful person, and they were right. She sank back
down, feeling the weight of them on her feet and ankles.
They seemed to weigh about fifty pounds. Who could
walk in such heavy pants? “Surprise yourself,” Jay Leno
told her. She stared at him. He had not just said that.
She leaped out of bed, scared, her arrhythmic heart racing.
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