Fourth Dimension Hiatus
Chapter One
Winter. season of short cool days and long cold nights.
Back in Brooklyn, where I spent my first fifteen of them, summer—when it had snowed—had meant hanging out on the backyard with my best friend Gina and her brothers, having a snowball fight. When it wasn't too cold, we would build snowmen and toast marshmallows around the fireplace.
When we got older, of course, we quit playing with snow. Gina and I also started laying off the marshmallows.
Not that it mattered. None of the neighbourhood guys, the ones we used to play with, wanted anything to do with me.
I don't know what I expected from my sixteenth winter, my first since moving to California to live with my mom and her new husband… and, oh, yeah, his sons. I guess I envisioned the same short, cool nights. Only these, in my mind, would be spent at home, watching a movie with my boyfriend rather than at my stepgrandmother's house.
Serious. My mom and Andy are going to Switzerland for their second honeymoon, as we're "progressing so well as a family". And Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, and I are going to Alabama, where old Gran Ackerman is staying.
"Honey," my mom had said, "Andy and I will be going to Switzerland for a season of relaxation and reminiscence. I feel bad about living you alone without a friend, but Andy assures me that his mother is very eager to meet you. Promise me that you will be good and look after the boys."
"Am I ever anything but?" I rolled my eyes. My mom just smiled and embraced me.
It wasn't until that evening that I realise: there I will be tomorrow, in a foreign land (OK, not foreign, it's still America, but still) with only Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, and an old lady for company. What if anything in the likes of spiritual phenomena came up?
And what about Paul? He's the guy I met during my shift as babysitter in Pebble Beach Resort. He's a hot guy, and very nice to me. Though sometimes, well, he's a bit domineering. Like evil. I don't know. You'd think this was a free choice. But I'd seen it in Paul's eyes, as he was inexplicitly giving me a choice: Suze, are you free tonight? If not, too bad. I'll just have to tell your supervisor about taking my brother out of town.
I don't know why I still stay with that jerk. It's like in Meducci's case: Paul's got one hot bod, plus when you look in his blue eyes, you totally lose it. Like I did.
So I was grateful for this break. However, that would mean not
having anyone to talk to in the whole winter. No one to snowball fight or toast marshmallows with (OK, I might do that with Sleepy or Doc, but still… watching boys eat marshmallow is just too… Eew).
Still, I'd miss CeeCee. And Adam.
"You," CeeCee had shrieked over the phone, "are so lucky! You know what I had? Parental supervision and staying in the house twenty-four-seven to do work, like gathering firewood and shovelling snow off the drive, that's what! You'll be doing whatever you like! The old lady can't do anything to stop it!"
"Gee," Adam had said, "what a pity. My parents are bringing me to Australia for a summer Christmas, where I'll be hanging around the beach. So long now, Suze."
See? What different peer reaction. Either I'm too lucky for words in CeeCee's words, or my situation really sucked, by Adam's point of view.
Either way, that was better than the confrontation with Paul.