Melting the Ice

Time passed painstakingly slow after Gru and Lucy were blasted off on the rocket.  The minions had managed to distract Edith and Agnes so they didn’t think about the fact that their father was quite possibly burning in a volcano.  Margo wasn’t so lucky.  The oldest sister sat on the catwalks that had been put up, looking at the half full jar of jelly on her gun.  She felt like she needed to do something or else she was absolutely useless.  She pushed herself and up walked back down to the ground level.

“I’m going to go see if we missed any of the minions,” she said to Dr. Nefario.  The old man nodded with understanding and she shuffled towards the oversized doors into the courtyard where the party had been.  Before she pushed them open she lifted her gun into position, then she nudged them open with her foot.

In the courtyard, Margo was not greeted by a raging purple monster, but something equally unpleasant.  “Oh, wonderful,” she sighed and dropped her gun again.

Off to one side of what had been the dance floor, a girl was sitting on the floor with her arm at an awkward angle.  Her hand was trapped by a boy who was mostly frozen in a block of ice.  A good portion of the boy’s head had been freed, but his mouth was still covered.

At first, Margo was angered by just the sight of Antonio.  He’d swept her off her feet and then broken her heart.  That feeling was almost immediately shoved aside by pity.  The poor kid was still standing there frozen.  His father had been so involved with his evil scheme he hadn’t even thought about what had become of his son.  And now he was surely going to be arrested.  What would become of Antonio?

Antonio spotted Margo standing by the door and his eyes widened.  His emotions seemed to be caught somewhere between relieved and terrified.  He squeezed the hand of the girl and she looked up.  When she saw Margo she jumped to her feet and shouted, “¡Ayúdanos!  ¡Ayúdanos!”

As slowly as she could, Margo walked over to them.  “I suppose you want my help,” she said.  Antonio nodded and nodded as best as he could but the girl just looked at Margo.  “You don’t speak much English, so you?” Margo asked the girl.  She continued to stare and Antonio signaled that it was true.  “Just my luck,” Margo grumbled.  She set her gun on the ground by her feet and pressed both hand to the ice covering Antonio’s mouth.  Thinking that that was probably going to take way too long, she took off her glasses and angled them so the sun was magnified onto the ice.  She waited to free the good-for-nothing’s mouth while she looked anywhere but at him.

After a while, Antonio could finally speak.  “Thank you,” he said, moving his lips around to get rid of the numbness.

“Yeah, whatever,” Margo said.  She put her glasses back on.  “Do you have a hairdryer somewhere?  It’ll make this go much faster.”

“Yes, in my room.”  He gave her directions and Margo left.  Moments later she returned with a hair dryer and an extension cord.

She found an outlet and got the hairdryer plugged in.  She picked up the jelly gun and handed it to the other girl.  “Tell her that if one of the purple monsters comes she needs to blast it with that,” Margo ordered Antonio.  He translated and it seemed that the girl understood.

Margo powered up the hairdryer and started with Antonio’s hand that was trapping the girl.  As soon as she was free the girl dropped the jelly gun and ran away, screaming.  Margo simply continued to blow hot air, now moving up to the ice around Antonio’s neck.

“Margo,” Antonio said after an awkward silence.

“Hm?” she answered, refusing to look at him still.

“Why did your father blast me with a freeze ray?”

Margo paused for a moment.  She wasn’t quite sure how to answer that.  She ended up going with the truth.  “Because you were dancing with another girl.  I was upset and hurt.  Gru never liked you anyway.”  She shrugged.

His eyebrows furrowed.  “Who, Rosa?  Margo, she’s my cousin!”

She stopped and looked him straight in the eye for the first time.  “Your – your cousin?”

“Of course!  You left for a moment to stop your sister from gorging herself on churros and Rosa asked for a dance!”

“Well I missed the beginning of that!  How was I supposed to know?” Margo cried.  She looked away again and went back to melting the ice.

“Why were you upset?” Antonio asked.

“Because I came back, you were dancing with another girl, and didn’t even say anything,” she muttered, the overwhelming feeling of heartbreak coming back.  “You just sort of smirked at me and kept dancing.”

“That was meant to be a reassuring smile,” he laughed lightly.  “I apologize if I made you doubt me, Margo.”  She said nothing.  “Margo.  Please.  I didn’t mean to hurt you.  I’m sorry.”

Still not looking at him, Margo whispered, “Say it again in Spanish.”

Antonio could barely hear her voice over the roar of the hairdryer, but he still caught her request.  As well as the tiny smile she wore.  “Lo siento, Margo.  Lo siento, mi amor.”

She blushed, but nodded.  She racked her brain for anything she remembered from Spanish classes and finally came up with what she wanted to say.  “Te perdono.”

He smiled.  She smiled.  They both laughed.

Margo continued to free him.  When his arms got free he relieved her of the hairdryer and worked on his legs.  As the ice had melted it had soaked his hair and his clothes.  The combination of the cool ocean breeze and the frigid ice water was making the boy shiver, even with his leather jacket.

She took the hairdryer and set it down.  She took his jacket and handed him hers.  “Wouldn’t do us any good to have you freeze to death,” she explained, shy.

He accepted the dry jacket gratefully and put it on, even though it was a bit too small.  He leaned forward and kissed Margo on the cheek.  She blushed furiously and gave him the hairdryer back.

When Gru and Lucy finally got back, he found Margo sitting at Antonio’s feet trying to melt the last bit of ice.  Antonio was still wearing her jacket.  And they both were smiling.