Rainbows from the Attic
Chapter III
Astrid stood at the white rails of the ferry that was chugging them across the small stretch of the Atlantic. She stubbed out a cigarette on the metal bars and then after only a moment's hesitation, flicked it overboard.
The gap between the two land masses was big enough to loose sight of the land at either end, as the white mists rose over the steel blue waters to hide the coasts from view. Astrid stood, eyes waiting for a glimpse of red soil over the crest of ocean, ear plugs in and blaring, sunrise hair whipping in the wind.
Mari was jumping over shallow puddles on the paved deck, squealing and tempting smiles out of the people sitting on the chairs nearby. Astrid looked over at her morosely, and Mari flashed her a gap-toothed grin and skipped over on skinny white legs.
"I'm hungry," she announced proudly
"Stop whining please, you're killing me," Astrid said coolly, "We'll eat once we get to the island."
"How much longer?" Mari asked, slinging her arms over the rails like Astrid, and stood on tip toes to peek over
"I don't know like 10 minutes probably."
"Who are we staying with Astri?"
"Like, some lady."
"Which lady stri?"
"Mom's family or something. I don't know."
"Mom, real Mom or Mom pretend Mom?"
"Veronica's not your pretend Mom she's Jeremy's wife. She's your step mom kind of."
"Is Jeremy the same Jeremy that's our Dad?"
"YES!...Now please stop talking or something. There's some kids playing down there."
"So real Mom or pretend Mom?"
"Real. Now woudjah go please? I'll find you when we get there and I'll buy you a sandwich or something. God. "
They had arrived in Halifax late the previous night. Then Astrid had dragged Mari to the bus stop where they waited two hours for the eleven o'clock to Caribou. About ten thirty Astrid was dozing off when her cell phone rang. She knackily flipped it open and pressed its plastic it to her ear.
"Hullo?" she had said groggily, the night air was purple and muggy with a cool, damp clearness to it
"Hay gurl! What the hell is up?"
Astrid cleared her throat and lowered her voice; speaking in slow, swooping syllables.
"Omigawd Sarah! I'm so glad to hear from you. You're too sweet." Astrid could hear herself saying
Sarah was two years older but they had still shared some classes last year. Astrid had skipped grade one back in elementary school, and Sarah had stayed an extra year at high school to pick up a few credits.
"Where are you even?" she sounded distracted, music was playing on her end of the line
"Some bus stop in Nova Scotia...My gawd I'm actually going to die. Where are you?"
"We're all partying at Emma's." she laughed and yelled something Astrid couldn't hear to someone Astrid couldn't see, "Too bad you're not here," her laugh was sickeningly sweet, Astrid got a jolt of something in between anger, envy and regret.
"Sweet?" she did her best to sound cool and indifferent, but it came out as a question somehow.
Suddenly and inexplicably Astrid's chest felt hollow, her eyes watered and stung. She bit her lip and dug her nails into her palm.
She tried to place the feeling, tried and failed.
They were all in a kind of impersonal line dance at the top of the social ladder; throwing each other about from arms to arms never really looking each other in the eyes. Just laughing always laughing, and talking but not speaking and never, never stopping the perpetual movement for a second.
Did she miss them? She missed the attention. She missed the power. She missed the respect, if that's what it was. Of course she missed them. They were her friends.
Don't be an idiot she told herself
"Got to go babes," said Sarah unflappably, "see you later."
Beeep. Was there any sound more full of despair than an empty dial tone?
A coach bus pulled up to the curb, the fumes from the exhaust filling Astrid's nostrils. She shook Mari awake rudely and then tramped through its open door and up the stairs. Mari stumbled in after her.
Then they had driven for hours in a very purple bus with cushioned seats of maroon. Mari fell asleep immediately but Astrid stayed awake, forehead glued to the cool dark window.
The first glimpses of sunlight were orange and faded in the distance when they got to Caribou where the ferry would take them to the Island. Little happened in between except waiting, handing over the tickets and then some more waiting, not to mention Mari tripped while running up the stairs and scraped her knee.
Astrid felt a little unnerved with ocean all around her, strangers all around her. Detached and desperate, quivering and sniveling like a lost child in a mall.
It was awkward to be alone with herself. Uncomfortable, unbearable to be listening to her own thoughts. She longed to be back where she was invincible. Everything bounced off them like light off mirrors.
Stupid Mr. B she said to herself This was all his fault.
She could feel herself wriggling to get away, distracting herself so as to not listen to what was threatening to pop up in her head any second.
A few fiddlers were playing a wild and windy jig with swooping bows and savage fingers. A horde of tourists were laughing and snapping pictures in the salty spray at the bow of the boat. A group of teenage boys were sitting comfortably on the white plastic benches...Bingo
Astrid turned around completely and leaned against the rails coolly. She let her hair be whipped off her face and she looked up at the sky so that they'd get her good angle. It was her bad habit; she just could not help it. She felt better all of a sudden, like when the freezing kicked in at the dentist's. The grief counselor had called it something else, but she'd prefer to ignore that. Then she seeped back into the comfortable seams of apathy and out of the corner of her eye, glinting in the pale sunlight, she saw a hazy red smudge on the horizon.
They arrived on the island and Mari got her sandwich, Astrid had a diet coke. A fair amount of scoffing took place on Astrid's part, due in large part to the life size smiling statue of a certain Red-headed orphan lording over them all as they peeked in and out of gift shops and perhaps the fact that her pop had been in a glass bottle.
"How quaint," she had remarked bitterly. Mari was content to leap around in the tall, unbelievably green grasses pointing out to her older sister how there were 'little baby rainbows' where the water was crashing on the rocks.
Astrid took a piece of paper from her pocket, in her father's scratchy and sporadic script it told them to get on the next tour bus that would take them to the Eastern part of the island. At the end of the line they were to get off and wait for their great Aunt's friend to come and 'collect' them. 'Ask for someone named Matt' it said.
Astrid looked up, Mari was gone. Her heart lurched and surged with frustration. She stood up quickly and walked purposefully towards a crowd of children who were watching a man playing the bagpipes. She peered at the upturned faces, but Mari's grey inquisitive eyes were not among them. Her palms were sweating buckets and she wiped them hastily on her pants.
But then she saw a jolt of black hair out of the corner of her eye. She turned on her heel to see Mari, sitting patiently on their suitcase. Some sort of releasing sensation washed over her. She couldn't place it.
"Where were you?" Astrid exploded angrily
"I went to look for you," Mari smiled and scrunched up her nose
"What do you mean? I was right here!" she yelled, eyes glaring, nostrils flaring
"Oopsie." Mari shrugged cutely and smiled again
"Well, just stay where you can see me next time. I don't feel like running after you all the time."
"Astri why are you crying?" Mari asked, wide eyed
"I'M NOT!... Look there's our bus, let's go."
A monstrous tour bus had snarled into the parking lot.
Three hours later, they were the only ones left on the bus. Seascapes of navy blue and red and rolling white dunes had flashed by. The driver pulled off the narrow road, up beside what looked like an abandoned train station platform.
"Last stop ladies. Off we get." The driver turned around in his seat and looked over his aviator sunglasses at them
"Thanks," said Astrid lowly
"Bye bye," chirped Mari
Astrid lugged the suitcase down the bus stairs. The driver tipped his hat to them and the bus screeched off. She hauled the one piece of luggage up onto the platform and sat down on a crummy old bench.
Sure enough embedded in the gravel and sprigs of grass she could see rusty crumbling old rails. She looked around her. The platform was fairly substantial, wooden, with badly chipping and flaking white paint. She looked at the wall behind her, there was a dark, faded sign. Astrid squinted to make out the letters. G...GL? No, it was no use. Not that she cared to know or anything.
A loud ringing bang sounded quite suddenly from a small metal shed at the other end of the platform. Her heart pounded and she breathed very quickly and deeply, looking towards the source of the noise.
And then from the door of the ominous metal shack... A small black head peeked out and giggled insanely.
"It's only me," said the laughing Mari
"Eww that's disgusting, get out of there!" shouted Astrid
"I think a doggy lived in here. Arf Arf," said Mari thoughtfully, wriggling out the door
Astrid took her mp3 player out of her purse and shoved the earphones in her ears. She checked her watch and then looked out in front of her. The forest of greenery opened up onto a network of reddish-orange cliffs. Beyond that was a blinding, glistening lattice of waters, with the occasional frothing whitecap charging it's gallant cavalry against the rocks.
Ask for someone named Matt
Ask who exactly? Planning had never been her father's forte.
Well, caring about other people had never been his forte, Astrid mused.
She walked down to where Mari was playing in the dirt and shielded her eyes as she peered down the road. She strained for the spark of the sunlight of a car, but there was nothing. And then... a slow moving black dot materialized on the horizon. She squinted and decided at least they could ask who Matt was, or if they knew Roslyn. Then she settled herself on the wooden step and leaned her head in her hand.
It took a lot longer than she had wagered, and the sun was high and livid in the sky. She looked again to see that the dot had grown considerably larger, then, laid back and lifted her arms over her head. Her ears picked up a faint singing in between the lyrics from her music. When it grew louder she looked questioningly at Mari, who seemed to be enjoying it and was humming along. Astrid pulled out an earphone and sat up slowly.
It was someone, a boy, riding towards them on a bicycle, dragging a...was it a wagon?... behind him. Astrid took out her other earphone and smiled in spite of herself. He was belting out, at the top of his lungs, a song that was strangely familiar to her, somehow.
'Every
person in the nation
Or
of great or humble station
Holds
in highest estimation
Piping
Tim of Galway
Loudly
he can play or low
He
can move you fast or slow
Touch
your hearts or stir your toe'
He swerved on the road and almost fell, then straightened himself and rode on, still singing.
'Piping Tim of Galway
When
he walks the highways pealing
Round
his head the birds come wheeling
Tim
has carols worth the stealing'
He wheeled off the road and into the empty lot. He approached so that Astrid was hidden from view. He put his bike up against the platform, walked over to Mari and kneeled down to her level.
"Hi kiddo... Is your name Mari Cleary?" he asked in a laughing and gentle voice
Astrid heard Mari giggle. The boy laughed too, airy and bubbly and rich.
"Well we had better get going, I promised Miss. Ford I'd bring you back soon. She's really excited to meet you, you know," the voice said kindly
Mari glanced over to where Astrid was hidden from sight, the boy looked too.
Astrid peeked out suddenly and said; "Are you Matt?" in a gesture uncharacteristically curious and animated.
The boy looked a little alarmed. He raised a quizzical dark brow and his honeyed eyes were darting.
Silence
And silence still.
Astrid cleared her throat.
"She's my sister?" offered Mari sweetly
"Oh..." he shook his head briskly, " I'm sorry. You must not be who I'm looking for then. Excuse me" he said to her and then gave Astrid a little half smile before scratching his chin and turning around
"No, no," said Astrid, standing up and brushing off her pants, "Someone was supposed to come and get us at 4 o'clock. And she is Mari Cleary. And I'm Astrid Cleary. And we are going to a Miss Ford's."
"There must be some mistake," he said smiling slightly and holding his helmet in his hands, "They told me there was only one of you...Mari."
"Nope sir," said Mari
"That's weird," said the boy who must be Matthew
"Yeah...well... My dad said that Roslyn was expecting us both," said Astrid lowering her voice and settling into monotone
"Alright then..." he scratched his head, his hair was black, and messy from the wind, "I guess you can put your suitcase in my wagon. You can ride my bike if you'd like," he gestured awkwardly to Astrid, "And I'll pull Mari in the wagon."
"Hooray!" exclaimed Mari clapping her hands, Astrid glared at her
"How far is it?" asked Astrid
"About a twenty minute walk I'd say," his sentences hung expectantly in a way that made Astrid keep answering without meaning too
"Okay," she said
"I'm Matt by the way," he said smiling again, extending a hand.
Astrid didn't take it, she merely pulled her earphones back on and headed for the bike. Matt wheeled around and held it out to Mari instead, who gave it a quick slap and jumped up, then ran off to the wagon.
"Com'on horsie!" she called then squealed with glee
"Cute kid" he said to Astrid who had dismantled the wagon from the bike and was making to hop on the seat.
"HAH!" she said sarcastically
He narrowed his eyes at her and shielded them from the sun. Then he gave her the same quizzical look as before
"What?" she demanded rudely
"I don't know... You look so familiar... I swear I've seen you before somewhere."
Astrid tied up her hair
"You got a last name?" she asked a little defiantly
"Yeah... it's"-
"HORSIE!" Mari screamed before letting out a shriek of laughter. He chuckled and jogged over to where she was standing beside the suitcase.
Astrid rolled her eyes automatically. Then turned on the bike and urged it forward, but it wouldn't go. She had to stretch to reach the handlebars and tried to jiggle the front tire a little. The whole thing wobbled and she screamed and threw her hands over her head as it toppled over with her still on it.
She landed on the gravel and salty dust swirled around her upon impact. He came running over.
"You okay?" he said, concerned
Astrid coughed and spluttered.
"Do you need help?"
Astrid looked up and didn't say anything for a moment
"God no, get off me please. What's wrong with this thing?" she said harshly, looking down
"Uh..." his eyes were dancing a little, but he managed to keep a straight face, "kickstand." He shrugged
Astrid decided it would be most advantageous to not respond. So she slithered up from under it and dusted off her chalky legs with chalky hands, fretting over her nails. Matt picked the bike back up and set it straight. Mari was looking on, with a worried look.
"Happens to the best of us," Matt said jollily, "Maybe I should put the seat down a little?"
"No...no, that's quite alright. I think I'll walk after all actually," said Astrid callously, enunciating each syllable with care
"Alright,"
The three of them set off down the road, Mari in the wagon; marveling at the red dirt and gazing at greenery and the sea in the distance, bracing her freckly face to the wind and Matt pulling the wagon and whistling expertly. Then after them, Astrid; walking the bike and staring at the pavement beneath her rock filled shoes, the same irate sun beating down at the back of her neck.