I ended up being late to school. Kristin took forever inside her house, and I was getting impatient and anxious. I didn't want a tardy. Finally, when
the door did open, I was relieved, thinking she was coming at last. But, my relief was short-lived. It was Freaky Frank, himself, coming out.
He'd lost some weight since last summer. I guess that's what jail will do to a person. Other than that, though, he looked
just the same. Disheveled. In need of a shave. He came down the steps and towards my truck. I didn't have time to roll my window up, and
even if I'd had time to, I wouldn't want him to think I was afraid of him or anything. Even if I was. A little bit.
He put his hands right there, on the open window, and leaned in a bit. "Well, if it isn't the little girl with a boy's name," he said,
I wanted to tell him to take his hands away. I wanted to tell him that I wasn't a little girl. But, I didn't say either of those
things. Or anything else. I looked away, back towards the mobile home again, wishing that I could conjure Kristin up, as if by magic,
so that we could just get going.
"How've you been?" he asked then.
I considered being silent again, but then thought better of it. I didn't want him to start yelling or anything, saying that I
thought I was 'too good' to talk to him, or whatever.
"I've been good," I said.
"Is that so?" he asked. "Bein' good? Or doin' it good?"
There was no mistaking the meaning to that statement. What a nasty creep. I grappled just momentarily with what to do. I wasn't even embarrassed by what
he'd said. Just disgusted. And just wanting to get away from him.
And, I didn't know how to do that. I didn't want to drive off and leave without Kristin. But, who knew how much longer she was
going to be inside, talking to her mom, or whatever she was doing.
So, I made a split-second decision. Even though I'd been told last year by Adam, and Crane, to never, ever go inside Kristin's house
when Frank was around, I thought this might be the exception. He was already inches from me, breathing on me, and being
insulting. At least inside the house, Kristin's mom would be around, and maybe I could hurry Kristin along.
So, with that decision made, I opened my door. An action, which surprised Frank a bit, since he was basically dislodged.
I shut the door, and went really quickly up the few steps. I knew I should knock, but I could hear yelling inside, and thought they
wouldn't hear me. Besides, I didn't want to just stand there, in case Frank decided to follow along. I opened the door, and stepped inside, closing it behind me.
Kristin and her mother, I could hear from down the hall, where the bedrooms were at. I stood there, leaning against the
door, letting my eyes adjust after being out in the bright sun. And there, sitting on the couch, with his feet on the coffee table,
was Buddy, Kristin's brother.
I hadn't seen him for a long while, either. He's between Evan and Ford's age somewhere. I can never remember just what his
age is, exactly. He was watching television, which was also loud, and smoking a cigarette.
Buddy surveyed me, and then stood up, stepping the few feet to turn off the television set. Then he turned, and went right
back to where he'd been sitting on the couch. Same spot. Same position. Sort of slouched down, with his legs stretched out in
front of him.
There was silence from the bedroom area now. No yelling. Still, Kristin didn't come out. I looked at Buddy, and saw that he
was watching me.
"She's back there," he said, nodding his head towards the bedroom down the hallway.
I wanted to ask him, tell him, could he please go and get Kristin, but I didn't. I didn't think he would, anyway.
"She wants to live with your family, you know," he said, then. He said it in an off-hand sort of way. As if he was announcing
that it was going to rain that afternoon.
"That's what the fight's about," he went on.
I was sorry that Kristin had chosen this particular time to take the subject up with her mother. For one, we were going to be
late for school. Secondly, Buddy and Frank were both here. Not a good time to discuss things. And, me. I was here, too, feeling as
if I was ringside at a WWE fight.
"She needs to learn to live with things the way they are," Buddy said, and took a long drag off his cigarette. "She's just bein' a
stupid kid."
That riled me. I didn't swear at Buddy, or tell him he was the stupid one. I mean, he's 21 or 22 or something like that, and he
doesn't work, except very rarely at odd jobs. I know from what Kristin says, that he doesn't do much at all, except go out drinking, or carousing
around, and then sleeping most of the day. She doesn't know where he gets his money from. Besides mooching off of her mom.
I mean, for gosh sakes, Kristin had more sense in her pinky finger than Buddy the Bum had in his whole entire body-
I didn't tell him that, though. I mean, he's pretty good sized, and I know he's not above roughing Kristin around. He's done it before.
He doesn't do it much, because she just leaves him alone, and doesn't argue or fuss with him. Just gives him a wide berth.
I didn't think he would-well, shove me or hit me or anything like that. But, I wasn't gonna call him stupid to his face.
"She talks about that family of yours like they're perfect," Buddy said, and then just stared at me, as if waiting for me to
respond. When I didn't, he said, "So?"
"What?" I asked.
"Are they perfect? All those brothers of yours?"
"They never claimed to be perfect," I said, stiffly, feeling defensive. "They just try to-" I hesitated. "To treat people
right."
Buddy stared at me, his gaze hard.
I couldn't help it. I called out, "Kris! We've gotta go or we'll be late!"
"Be there in a minute!" Kristin hollered back.
I sank back against the wall again, feeling defeated, and wondering what I should do.
Buddy leaned forward, and crushed out his cigarette in the ash tray on the table.
He leaned back again, and tapped the pack of Camels in his shirt pocket. "Want a cigarette?" he asked me.
I shook my head. "No."
"Don't smoke, huh?" he asked, looking amused.
"No."
There was another round of yelling from the back of the trailer. Snatches of it I could understand. Enough to know that Kristin's
mom was angry or sad about whatever Kristin was telling her.
"Stupid kid," Buddy muttered, and pulled out the pack of Camels, shaking one out, and lighting it. "She's never satisfied."
"She could be," I heard myself saying.
He gave me a hard look. "What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.
"Maybe you should try to make it better around here for her," I said.
I swear you could feel the air crackling with tension. I mean, I did. Buddy stared at me, hard, and then he
said, "That's what you think, huh?"
"You could," I said.
The ash grew so long on his cigarette in the next silence, that I thought it was going to fall onto the carpet. He stood up, and took the few steps
over to me. I pressed against the wall, even though I knew that was futile, and dumb, besides. I mean, what could he do to me, here?
Nothing, right?
His eyes were glittering with anger. "You know what I think?" he said.
He leaned really close, like he was going to whisper in my ear. "I think you ought to shut your mouth and mind your own
business." He raised his head and stepped back. "That's what I think." Then he added, "Princess."
I knew he meant that in a derogatory way. I wanted so badly to tell him-well there was a lot I could say.
I stepped around him, my shoulder bumping his. "Kris!" I yelled again, and then went back out the door, outside. I planned on
getting in and rolling up my windows if Frank was still lurking about, but he wasn't in sight.
I got into my truck, started the motor, and then sat there, trying to still my breathing. I was literally shaking.
Kristin came flying out just a few moments later, thank goodness. She had her backpack slung over her shoulder,
and she got in, slamming her door.
She was breathing heavily, crying.
"Kris-" I began.
"Just let's go, Harlie. Please," she said.
So we drove to school. The ride there was punctuated by alternate silence, and then Kristin's sniffling. Finally, when we were nearly
to the school, she said, "I'm sorry about that-making you wait like that."
"It's okay," I said, though, really, it hadn't been okay at all.
"I know it wasn't," she denied. "I just wanted to try to get thru to my mom-"
"But, you couldn't?" I asked.
"No." She sighed heavily.
"Are you gonna spend the night tonight?" I asked.
"Maybe. I don't know. I told her I'd call her at lunchtime."
"Okay," I said.
By now she was reaching into her backpack, and pulling out some Kleenex. Wiping her eyes, she looked closer at me.
"You okay?" she asked me. "Buddy didn't hassle you, did he?"
I thought about telling her that Buddy had basically threatened me, well, in an off-the-cuff sort of way. And, that Frank had
been his usual lecherous self. But, I thought Kristin had enough to worry about right now. So, I just said, "He didn't hassle me too much."
I could tell my answer relieved her, a bit. "That's good," she said, and then pulled the visor down, to peer into the mirror on the back.
"I'm a mess," she said.
7
I handed in all my homework, but there was a quiz in trigonometry that I wasn't prepared for, and I knew when I turned that in,
that I hadn't done well. I was in between classes, shoving books into my locker, when somebody came up beside me.
"Hey, Harlie."
I looked up to see Bill standing there.
"Hi," I said.
"Everything good with you?" he asked.
"Not bad," I said. "How about you?"
"The same. Felicity and Ford went out again, huh?"
I pushed my hair out of my face. "Yeah. I guess they did."
"I sure never figured-" he hesitated. "Well, I mean, I thought they'd just out that one time-"
"Yeah," I said, in agreement. "I figured that, too."
"I mean, it's cool and all," he said. "Ford's a nice guy."
"I think I know what you mean," I said. "You're sort of worried about Felicity, right?"
"In a way, yeah," he admitted.
After a moment or so, he shrugged. "I guess we'll have to see where it goes, huh?"
"Yeah. I guess."
"So," he said, and hesitated. "You've been going out with Kenny-that's his name, right?"
"A couple of times," I said. Awkward! I fell compelled to explain a bit. "Kenny's sort of a friend of the family."
"Oh." He still looked puzzled, and a bit hurt, I thought.
I didn't know what to say, then. I wasn't sure if I should tell Bill that I still wanted to go out with him, or not.
I closed my locker door, and we stood there a couple of moments longer, neither of us saying anything.
"You want to go out this weekend?" he asked then.
"I think I can," I said, though, truthfully, I didn't know where I would find the time.
"Okay. Great," he said, looking happy. "I'll talk to you about it later, then, okay?"
"Sure. Okay," I said.
He smiled at me, and I smiled back.
7
I finished my school day, and drove to the vet office. I could hear noises coming from the back, and the phone was ringing as
I walked in. I grabbed it as quickly as I could, and took down a message for Ivy.
Then I got out my apple, and headed back to see what was happening.
Ivy was perched on a tall bar stool, an old one that had been stuck in a corner somewhere, watching as the roof on the
barn was worked on. There was a crew working, laying down shingles, and throwing others off onto the ground.
"Hi. What's up?" I asked her.
"Hey, Harlie. I thought I'd better do something with that roof. Shingles have been blowing off like crazy, every time the wind picks
up."
"Oh." I studied the men up on the roof. There were two of them, and, shading my eyes from the sun, I could tell I didn't recognize
either of them. "Who are the guys?" I asked her.
"Lawrence-Lonnie, something like that," she said. "I can't remember. They just showed up Friday night, late, answering my ad, and said they could
fix the roof up. They had a good price, so I said okay." She smiled at me.
We went back inside then, and spent the afternoon tidying up the shelves, and doing inventory. I knew I wasn't meant to, but I caught
a glimpse of Ivy's financial ledger. It was while I was stacking stuff up on her desk that I saw it. She came bustling up behind me,
and I jumped, feeling guilty. She seemed not to notice.
It was while we were having a cold Coke from her mini fridge that she asked me about Crane. How he was, and all that.
It made me feel sort of funny. I knew she really liked Crane, and that he'd been nice to her, even invited her over to eat. But, I
wasn't sure if he liked Ivy the way that she liked him. I didn't think that he'd actually taken Ivy out, you know, on a real date or
anything like that. I was pretty sure he was still seeing Cindy. Miss Noel.
So, when I answered her, it was sort of vague. "He's okay," I said.
Since we were mostly done with the inventory, I cut out about ten minutes before I usually left. I figured that ten minutes
was ten minutes. Since I had to go to the store for Hannah and everything, that little bit of time would help.
I was going up and down the grocery aisles, when I started to get a headache. I remembered the apple that I'd meant to
eat, but then laid down somewhere at the office. I remembered the sugary Coke I'd had. Gosh darn it. I finished my shopping,
and didn't stay around to chit-chat with Maisie, who checked me out.
I got in my truck, and sat there, out front, long enough to eat a granola bar, and take a couple of Tylenol that I keep in
the glove compartment.
I was tired when I finally drove up our long driveway, which ticked me off. I was too young to feel so tired. Having a busy weekend
wasn't a reason. I parked in my regular spot, looking out at Dark Commander. Old Charley was still standing nearby, as if
keeping him company. Warrior came running to greet me, followed at a more leisurely pace by Gus.
I heard a, "Hey, Harlie!" called to me, and looked to see Brian waving, from where he was perched on the roof of the feed
shed. I waved back, and went inside the house, dropping my backpack on the living room coffee table, and taking the bag
of groceries to the kitchen. Nobody was around, so I put stuff away.
I met Clare coming down the stairs as I headed up.
"Hi, toots," she greeted me.
"Hi. How are you feeling?" I asked.
"Today is a good day for me," she said. She paused there, on the stairs, looking at me. "How are you feeling?"
Perceptive. That's Clare. Plus, being a nurse, I guess she can't help it.
"Just a headache," I told her. "It's better. Where is everybody?"
"Oh, gosh. Here, there, and yonder. Hannah's up at the cabin, helping to do the last of the painting. I think Guthrie and Evan
are up there, too. Brian and Crane are working on the roof of the shed-"
"It's busy around here," I said.
"Crazy," Clare agreed.
7
