Francisco looks around the air conditioning unit trying to see what could be broken. Of all the times it had to break, it had to be during an unusually hot summer day, in the same week that he can't get a repairman to come out. He wants to curse the sun as it beats down on him, but he doesn't have time; the day's getting hotter and he is not going to force his family to sleep in a hotbox.
He wipes the sweat off his brow, and grabs a crescent wrench from his toolbox to tighten a loose bolt. It probably isn't going to fix whatever is wrong with the unit, but with any sort of luck, it might.
He looks inside the dark house and calls out to Lynn, so that she can check. When she declares that nothing has changed he mutters to himself, "Dang it…"
Kiké looks over at his little brother hunched over the air conditioning unit, "What are you doing?"
Francisco drops the wrench and looks over in the direction of the voice. He wasn't expecting his older brother to have appeared out of nowhere, especially since he hasn't talked or shown up for months.
He doesn't notice any bags, so he might be in the clear.
Rather than focus on his brother, Francisco decides to focus back on the A/C. He grabs the wrench and tries to look for anything that could be broken with the air conditioner, "Just trying to fix this aging heap."
"Why are you trying to tinker with that like you know how to fix it?"
"It never hurts to try. Why pay some guy a buncha money when the problem might be something really small."
"Or pay him more when you break it," Kiké snickers.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing, I was in town, and I thought I'd swing by and see my favorite brother."
Without skipping a beat, Francisco asks, "Chuy was busy, wasn't he?"
"Can you believe it? Still working like a sucker."
"Well, we can't all afford the luxury of living like a bum and not caring where money comes from, some of us have families that we take care of."
"Oh, yeah… Where are they?"
"Hiding. She must've felt a headache coming."
Kiké scoffs, "Like she doesn't like fighting with me."
Lynn stares outside as the sun's rays beat down on Jackson's birdbath, reflecting on her neighbor's house, reminding her of how hot it is. Between opening doors, turning on fans, and a softening cup of cold concrete in her hands, she can't get cool and neither can Victor, who is crying from the heat. She can't blame him, she's sick of the heat too. It's all she can think about - the sweat dripping down from her head, how her clothes stick against her skin, and how she really doesn't want to be holding Victor right now.
She didn't think a body as small as his would be so warm, but every time she tries to set him down he cries.
"You know, you're lucky, you can sit around in a diaper and no one cares. And even then you're still hot." She tries to put him down, "There, you're going to be a lot cooler on the floor than holding onto me."
When Lynn lets go of him to walk towards the kitchen, Victor stops crying for a second, but resumes crying when he notices that his mom isn't holding him.
She picks him up and rocks him in an effort to soothe him, but he doesn't stop crying. Lynn looks around the room, wondering what she could do to relieve her son. She looks at the frozen treat. She knows that he shouldn't be eating such a thing, but it has to be better than opening the freezer and sticking their heads in it.
Lynn grabs a small spoonful of her treat, making sure to not grab any nuts or pieces of pie crust before offering the spoon to her son. He begins to suckle on the treat, quieting him down.
"Don't tell Daddy, or your sister. They'll have my head."
When Victor finishes up eating the concrete, Lynn grabs a bite for herself before offering another spoonful to him.
They can't wait around like this any longer.
Lynn sets Victor down in his playpen and he immediately starts to cry. She can't tell if it's due to the heat or because she's not around, but he should be able to handle a few minutes alone.
Unfortunately, his cries pierce through the walls of the house and she can't ignore them long enough to focus on packing their bags.
"Okay, okay, you win," she tells him as she runs back to the living room to get him.
Once he's in her arms, he quiets down a bit, but he still whimpers on for a bit while his mom gets the bags ready.
Lynn doesn't know how long they'll be gone, but anywhere is better than sitting in the dark and in the heat. She makes an overnight bag with a day's worth of diapers, a blanket, some clothes, and a few toys before heading back to the living room. She takes Victor outside to let Francisco know that she's heading to her parents' house.
"Hey Francis-" she starts before noticing Kiké, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I'm bored and Chuy's at work, so I'm stuck with you people," he remarks, but silently surprised by the sight of his sister-in-law.
'More like lonely and you can't find an open bar…' thinks Francisco.
"What, you don't have friends?"
"I see them plenty," he answers back, "but I don't get the same joy from pissing them off as I do you," he jokes.
"Yeah, well you can get your jollies somewhere else," she says before turning to Francisco, "I'm taking Victor to my parents' place."
Francisco wipes away the sweat on his forehead, "That's fine. I'll call you if I'm able to fix the A/C. If I can't, ask your parents if they don't mind an extra guest for the night."
"Deal," she says before giving him a kiss.
As Lynn walks away, Kiké turns towards his brother, surprised by what he saw, "She gave birth to that baby?"
Francisco is confused, "Yeah, why?"
"Seriously?" he asks as he looks at Lynn putting Victor into his seat.
Lynn grabs her duffel bag and heads out the door. It's the last couple of days before she has to go back to school, and like the year before, it's been filled with summer training. Ever since school let out, she has been focusing on her softball career, but more on focusing so that she can catch up to her teammates.
All season long, she has struggled being a second-string player on the team. She wasn't used to that, she was always the captain, the one who's name everyone knew on the team, but that hasn't been the case at Michigan. Here, everyone was good, everyone was used to being the best on their old squad, and standing out is harder than anything.
So what does she have to do? She has to train - hard.
Before summer even started, she created the perfect regimen to get herself back into tip-top shape. It takes most of the day, but she's sure that she can cut it down once school starts again.
Lynn reaches the batting cages. There aren't many people around, just a few kids and their parents. A part of Lynn was hoping that she would, by some miracle, run into an old teammate or a friend or anybody that she could go up against in an effort to get her mojo back.
However, she doesn't want to look like some sort of weakling that's been struggling to keep up at the collegiate level.
Besides, if they did come back to Royal Woods, they're likely getting ready to head back to school.
Lynn sets down her duffel bag on a bench and pulls out her bag of quarters. She looks over at the kids currently in the batting cage and watches them. They look like older elementary schoolers goofing around with one another as they enjoy the last few days before school starts.
She feels envious of them.
To them hitting those balls is just a way to pass the time, but to her, it's a job that she has to take seriously.
Day in and day out, her days are constantly training for the next season, trying to keep up with her teammates. It shouldn't even be tough, she's gone up against kids all over the state before and managed to win. It wasn't a pretty win, but her team was able to edge one over her opponents.
Of course, nowadays, she has to study much harder to just stay on the team, and her schoolwork is not getting any easier. Between all the jargon, the distractions, and wanting to practice so that she can actually contribute to her team, it's difficult to balance everything. Most of the time, whenever she's in class, she looks in the direction of her professors, and stares blankly at them. She knows that they're talking, but it's like the words go in one ear and out the other.
The cracking sound of the bat takes her mind away from class and back to the kids swinging away at the balls.
There's no use sitting around and moping about school, she has to get training.
The twenty-year-old walks into an empty cage, puts in a quarter and takes a deep breath.
Lynn opens the front door and immediately shuts to keep any mosquitoes from following her into the house. She can usually ignore them pretty well, but those little, blood-sucking bastards were vicious in the short walk between Dutch and the front door.
"Mom! Dad! Is anyone home?" she calls out.
When no one answers, she settles on putting Victor and their things down, "It's heck of a lot better here, dontcha think?" she asks her son, who blinks back at her. "Yeah, you agree with me. Now you can take your nap, play, and eat normal baby food without worrying about being baked alive."
Lynn tries to step away, but when Victor can't see her, he begins to cry.
She picks him back up, "It's okay, Rookie, I've got you," she reminds him as she rocks him back and forth to get him to sleep.
Lily, who heard her nephew's cries, walks into the living room, where she is taken aback by the sight of her sister. The family last saw her maybe a few weeks ago, and she appeared to look like any other woman who just gave birth recently. Now, it appears as though she wasn't pregnant, or gave birth, or anything.
"Dang…"
"What?"
"Nothing, have you looked in a mirror lately?"
"This morning. Why?"
"You seriously don't notice anything?"
Lynn down at her body. Unless Lily is referring to the little red mosquito bites, or the sweat-stained clothes, she can't see what Lily is referring to, "What?"
Lisa goes down the stairs and looks at her older sister, "Hmm… fascinating," is all she could mutter as well. She leans in for further inspection, but Lynn, weirded out by how close her little sister is standing, steps away from her. Lynn attempts to step away from her, but with each step, Lisa follows after her.
Lynn tries to run off, and despite her own lack of exercise, Lisa is able to cut off Lynn at any corner.
"Stop following me!"
"I'm curious."
"About what?"
Rita hears the commotion and walks towards the direction of the noise.
"How are you able to catch up to me?!"
"I've mapped this house out to its entirety, you cannot hide from me."
"No, but I can outrun you!" says Lynn as she runs faster to escape Lisa.
Lynn Sr. enters the living room, and spots his two daughters running after one another, "What's going on?" he asks Rita and Lily.
Rita shrugs her shoulders, "I have no idea. Lily, why is Lisa chasing Lynn?"
"Well, you aren't going to believe me, so I'll wait until Lisa gets tired of chasing Lynn or something."
Shortly after, Lisa begins to slow down. She stops to catch her breath. She doesn't know what she was thinking, she can't keep up with her sister, especially with her sedentary lifestyle.
"I regret my hasty decision earlier."
Lily quickly answers, "I bet you do."
Lynn notices that no one is chasing after her and she begins to slow down. She continues to run in place but keeps her eye on Lisa in case she wants to chase after her again.
Rita and Lynn Sr. stare at their daughter. Like Lily and Lisa, they are surprised by the sight of Lynn, who appears as though she didn't give birth to her son just a few weeks ago.
Lily leans over to her mom, "We are not going to tell Lola about this, right?" she jokes.
"I don't think that she would believe us anyway," answers Rita, stunned at her daughter's physique.
She understands that Lynn would be able to handle an intense physical regiment, but she has no idea when she could have found the time when she's caring for a newborn. In fact, she's a little curious to know what happened, though she isn't sure if Lynn even knows herself.
"Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad. Do you mind if Vic and I stick around for a bit? Our A/C broke and we can't get anyone out to fix it."
"Yeah, that's fine," says Lynn Sr. as he steps towards his grandson, "but in exchange, I want lots of Grampa time with Victor."
When the boy is taken by his grandfather, he begins to cry. Lynn immediately takes him back, surprising everyone. They know that they shouldn't, she was like this the last time they saw her, it's just difficult to believe that she would still be so overprotective of her son.
Lynn rocks Victor and he begins to calm down.
A little nervous after making his grandson cry, Lynn Sr. slowly steps towards the kitchen, "Well, uh, I'm going to, uh… go back to making lunch. We'll try and find the bottle warmer or something for Victor, if you'd like."
"Yeah, that sounds good," says Lynn, without looking at her dad.
Rita follows after her husband, but she keeps her eyes on her daughter as she straps Victor into his seat.
Lily heads to the dining room to set the table and Lisa sits down on the couch to watch her sister and nephew.
With Victor strapped into his seat, Lynn stands under the vent and rocks his seat with her foot, feeling the cold air as it hits her skin. She has no idea how people survived before air conditioning and refrigeration, but she definitely doesn't envy any of her ancestors.
'They probably imagined snow and blizzards or something, anything, over that huge flaming ball in the sky.'
Of course, it's much easier to imagine frozen tundras and blizzards when she's in an air-conditioned house wearing shorts and a tank top. Luckily, she has family nearby, who were willing to take her and Victor in while not minding that she dropped in on such short notice.
Lisa takes a seat on the couch, "Elder sister, I don't recommend that."
"You sit in the heat and tell me you won't try this," complains Lynn. "It sure didn't help that I had to run from you after getting here."
Lisa can't argue with that. She can recall plenty of summer days where the kids all had to sit in front of an open refrigerator trying to keep cool whenever the air conditioner was on the fritz. No care for the cost of electricity or how the cold air could irritate their airways, nope, they only cared about cooling off.
Lynn Sr. walks into the living room to let his daughters know that lunch is ready.
Lynn walks away from the air vent and notices the silence. She walks towards the seat and notices that Victor is asleep.
Lynn Sr. looks down at his grandson, "Aww he's asleep." He pulls out his phone and snaps a quick picture, "That's a keeper."
Lisa looks over at her nephew and mentions to Lynn, "If you'd like, we could probably put him in one of our bedrooms so that he may nap in peace," she offers.
"Nah, besides, he'll probably wake up soon enough."
Hearing that reminds Rita of Lynn when she was a baby. She used to struggle sleeping, and it kept both parents up as they tried to soothe her back to sleep. They never really got the hang of it, considering her sleeping issues as she grew up, but one day, she did stop waking them up, and she did manage to get herself to sleep at a reasonable enough hour.
The food is placed on the table and everyone begins to serve themselves. Lynn takes a bite of the food. With a lot of her time spent watching and caring for Victor, she hasn't had a lot of time to make food like this. Most days, she's doing laundry, attempting to clean and trying to get him to sleep, so she reverts to her younger self, who settled on quick frozen meals and protein bars.
Everyone watches as Lynn eats as if she hasn't eaten in days.
Lynn Sr. leans over to Rita, and whispers, "We should probably offer to go help them before they starve."
"Maybe," she answers. Rita looks over at Lynn, "Are things going okay, Lynn?"
With a mouth full of food, Lynn nods her head, "Yeah, I just missed Dad's cooking."
"Thank you, sweetie. I'll make you a to-go plate if you want."
"If there's leftovers," says Lily as she watches Lynn pile more food onto her plate.
Hearing 'to-go' reminds Lynn that she was supposed to ask them something, she swallows her bite of food, "Oh yeah, I forgot. If Francisco can't get the A/C fixed before tonight, is it okay if we spend the night? Fans are not cutting it."
"Yeah, of course," answers Lynn Sr. "All of our kids are welcome back to their home. Although, if Francisco needed help, he could have called us. We've fixed that old air conditioner plenty of times."
"That's what I told him, but he said that he can handle it."
"Well, I get it, but, you know, if he changes his mind, I'm free to help," says Lynn Sr.
Lynn chuckles, she knows that Francisco likely wouldn't want to ask, but she tells her dad, "I'll remind him."
Lisa finishes her meal, "Father, that was excellent as usual, but if you'll excuse me, I should get back to my work."
Lynn watches Lisa walk away from the dining room, "What are you going? I thought that we could play a card game when we all finished."
Everyone glances over at each other, all of them silently agreeing that they weren't expecting her to want to play a card game, especially against them.
Lisa notices the looks on the rest of the family's faces, "Considering your skills in gaming tasks, I'd rather save myself an hour of you wiping the proverbial floor with all of us," she says before heading upstairs.
"We could play euchre. It's a team game! You can team up with any of us."
"I'm fine. Besides, if we do play the aforementioned game, we'd have one too many players and I have notes to catalog for my experiment. By the way, your son has fallen asleep again."
Lynn looks over at Victor, who is quietly sleeping.
"If you'd like, I can take him upstairs so that he can sleep in peace, away from the potential cacophony."
Lynn positions herself between Lisa and Victor, almost as if protecting her son from the rest of the family, "He'll be fine."
Lily watches the two. She can't believe Lynn would actually want to keep Victor around when he's napping, and their game could get ruined. She looks over at Lisa, wondering what she'll do, but she stands there, without putting up much of a fight.
"Consider this practice for when you have to go back to work," says Lily, as she pulls Lynn away from Lisa, who takes her nephew upstairs.
Lynn stands at the plate. She looks at the caged area and mentally takes note of what areas would count for homeruns, singles, doubles, and triples. It would be much easier if she could practice with somebody else at the park so that she would have to use her imagination, but her siblings are terrible pitchers and hitters, and her old pitching machine is on the fritz.
She places a quarter in the machine and stares at her 'opponent', waiting for the ball to come hurling towards her.
The first ball comes hurling towards and she hits it - a single.
Then another ball.
And another.
'This isn't that interesting…' is all Lynn can think after hitting a bunch of more balls.
She would have this same problem with her own pitching machine. Neither one can throw different pitches in an attempt to throw her off, all they can do is throw fast in a straight line. This is why she needs somebody to go up against, they could make it fun going up against each other, instead of going up against a machine that doesn't care about throwing her off or anything for that matter.
Lynn feels the sweat dripping down her forehead as she waits for the pitching machine to spit out the next ball, but she realizes that in all her staring, the machine ran out of balls.
"Wow, that's a lot of balls for a quarter."
She's sort of tempted to leave and save her quarters, but if she begins to stray from her training plan, then this whole day will be a bust. Lynn puts another quarter in the machine and goes at it again. She does her best to try to make a game out of it, going progressively from single to homerun and back again, then a whole basket of doubles, and then it happens.
With a sense of confidence, Lynn starts to get cocky. She can beat any stupid machine, no matter what challenge she gives herself. Pretty soon, beating some random college pitcher will be a cake walk.
Lynn puts in another quarter and positions herself on base, she feels a bead of sweat dripping over her eye. There's probably a few seconds before the machine pitches a ball towards her, so she quickly wipes it away, and is hit in the arm by the ball.
"Dang it!" she complains, startled by the sudden jolt of pain.
She glares at the machine, waiting for the next ball. The spot where the ball hit her is beginning to throb. She can't ignore it. Lynn's anger begins to grow and so does her impatience.
"What is taking that stupid ball so long?!" she complains.
The pitching machine launches the ball and hits her right in the chest, knocking the air right out of her. She tightly grips her bat and stares at the machine, ready to show it who's boss. With each oncoming ball, she swings the bat as hard as she can, without a care in the world.
With each miss, she gets angrier. She thinks about the sneers on her opponents' faces whenever she misses, the disappointment on her team's faces when she gives up a run or fails to help anytime she steps up to the plate, and the coaches, who look at her and silently talk amongst themselves, thinking that they made a mistake putting her on the roster.
This isn't how college ball was supposed to go!
Patrons can't help but notice Lynn, due to all her angry yells. They don't usually see a lot of adults acting out the way she is, and they are all thankful for the chain-link fence keeping her in and them out.
After the last ball gets thrown towards her, Lynn loudly groans in frustration. That was her last quarter, and she is still frustrated about what happened. She wants to take the baseball bat and teach the pitching machine a lesson, but she settles on throwing the bat towards it instead.
A staff member who witnesses what happens, heads over to the cage where Lynn is, and orders her to leave.
Lynn stares at the cards in her hand. She hadn't thought about what she was going to do about Victor now that she was due to go back to work soon. From what she knows, her dad recently brought someone in part-time, but it's not going to work in the long run unless the new person wants to take on more hours, and she can't leave her coworkers down a cook because she wants to be at home with Victor.
Whether she likes it or not, she has to go back to work and that means leaving Victor each morning. She and Francisco both have their families that can help out, and that'll definitely be cheaper than taking him to a daycare, even if the extra driving is inconvenient but at least he'll be around family instead of strangers.
"Hey," starts Lynn, "when I go back to work, can you guys watch Victor?"
Without hesitation, Lynn Sr. responds, "Of course."
Lily can see the look on her dad's face. Clearly, he won't have any issues caring for his newborn grandson, the problem is more from the other Lynn. During the interactions that she and the family have been around for, Lynn is clearly protective of her son. At first, she thought that it was a new mom thing, after all, she's seen her sisters be protective of their children, but Lynn seems to be on a whole other level.
She thinks about the last time she and some of the family went to visit. Apparently Mom mentioned Lynn's glaring, and how quickly she'll take Victor away if he cries, if anyone holds him for too long, she looks like she's ready to pounce on them, and she doesn't like leaving him alone for anything.
It sort of makes Lily wonder what might happen as Victor gets older.
The sound of cooing begins to come from the baby monitor. Lily notices her sister immediately turn her head and she reaches out to take the monitor away from Lynn, "How about you turn off the electronic umbilical cord for a few hours and try not to think about Vic?"
Lynn immediately smacks her sister's hand, earning her a stern look from Rita.
"You know, it's not a bad idea," says Lynn Sr. "Your time off was only for a few weeks after Victor was born, and with it almost being summer and all, the restaurant is going to get busier. We are going to need everyone to help get through those rushes."
Rita looks at her husband and youngest daughter. They aren't wrong. This is going to happen, but at the same time, she doesn't appreciate their butting in. She knows that if the same thing happened to her after Lori was born, she wouldn't appreciate it, so clearly Lynn doesn't either.
She would tell them to stop, but it might help to hear it, no good will come if she keeps delaying the inevitable. She's got to face it head on.
Victor can be heard from the monitor.
Lily makes another attempt for the baby monitor, but Lynn takes it away and heads upstairs.
The three look at each other. Lily looks at her mom, wondering if she's missing something due to not being a parent. Rita looks at Lynn Sr. wondering if they're both on the same page about what might be happening with their daughter.
It's been years since they were first-time parents, they could have forgotten something. However, their daughters haven't behaved the same way.
Lily breaks the silence, and asks her parents, "We're all thinking the same thing, right?"
Neither one wants to say anything, but the looks on their faces makes it clear.
Upstairs, Lynn opens every door looking for Victor and she finds him in Lisa's room next to her in a vibrating bassinet.
She quickly closes her laptop and turns around, "Hello."
"Hey… how's Vic doing?"
"I'd say he's faring well, especially once I put him in my specialty bassinet. You know, I find it difficult to believe that these devices are sold at such an exorbitant price, but that is what happens when we rely on others to build something so simple for ourselves."
'Simple for you,' thinks Lynn, but she doesn't tell her sister. "So how's he doing?"
"I'd say he's faring well, though I believe he might have a bite mark or two due to his time outside."
"Yeah…" Lynn looks down at her son, who is sound asleep. Then she realizes something, "Wait, did you examine him or something?"
She shouldn't have put it past Lisa to examine Victor, especially when he is alone with her.
Lynn notices the goofy look on her sister's face. She wants to lie, and she immediately calls her out, "You did, didn't you?"
Lisa's face relaxes, "Yes, I did want to continue testing his reflexes from the last time I saw him."
She'll definitely give Lisa points, no one ever heard her from the baby monitor.
"How's he doing?"
"Fine, as well as any other infant considering his adjusted age?"
"Adjusted age?"
"It wouldn't be fair to compare him to other infants who spent more time in the womb. By the way, how are you faring? Did anything interesting happen to you postpartum?"
"I'm not going to let you examine me."
Lynn runs around aimlessly. She was going to leave anyway, but they didn't need to kick her out or give a suspension. It wasn't even like she hit the dang machine; it's protected by a chain-link fence too! It doesn't matter, she'll be heading back to school soon and then she can practice there while she waits out her suspension.
All that's left for her morning routine is her run and then she can go back for lunch before she starts her afternoon routine.
It's smart, it's a good way to build up her appetite and get her home while building her endurance, but also wondering what happened. She never used to blow up like that during a slump. She used to find solutions, any way to help her overcome the obstacles in her path, but now it seems impossible…
Lynn shakes her head; she is not going to think like that. She will find a way around this. In fact, that's what her training is all about, to get better and overcome her slump.
She passes by the entrance to Ketcham Park and decides to run along the paths as a little detour before heading home. As she runs down the sun-beaten path, Lynn notices the lack of people around. There's no kids running around, no parents sitting on benches, nobody.
"Where is everybody?" she asks herself. Lynn's breath feels warm as she speaks, and it immediately tells her where everyone is.
'I can do this. Just don't talk and keep running. A little heat never hurt anyone,' she tries to convince herself. She stops and tries to keep running in place as she pulls out her water bottle from her duffel bag. It's empty. She puts it away and continues her run, 'Find a water fountain… get a little water… and finish running this lap…'
She continues running, seemingly unaware of her somewhat slowing pace. A fountain comes into view, and she immediately crashes into it. Lynn presses on the button, but nothing comes out. She looks at the fountain and notices how weak the water pressure is. She takes a deep breath and looks at the entrance that she came in from.
"It's not that far… I can run it…"
Lynn runs back towards the entrance. It's definitely much further than she anticipated, but she's run it multiple times, she can do it. Of course, it's never been this hot, and she's usually carrying something to drink.
Nope.
She can do it, just don't think about anything except a glass of cold water and ice cream. That actually sounds pretty good right now after what happened at the batting cages, but ice cream is for winners, not dumbasses who struggle with hitting a ball from a machine.
"Stupid… pitching… machine…"
She feels her lips shaking, her legs wobbling, and before she is able to think about the bench coming up in front of her, she crashes on the ground.
Kiké looks over at his brother. For hours, he has been at the machine trying to fix whatever could be wrong, but he still hasn't found what it could be. He's watched videos, bought parts, but nothing. Clearly, Francisco is in over his head, but he isn't willing to admit it.
"Do you want a beer or something?"
"No," Francisco quickly responds. "I just want to finish fixing this stupid air conditioner so that my family doesn't have to suffer in the heat," he says through his teeth, ready to throw the wrench at the unit.
It shouldn't be that hard, his in-laws used to do it all the time, but he isn't going to bug them to help with this. Not to mention, Lynn told him that sometimes the A/C wouldn't turn off, making their house a winter wonderland, and as tempting as it is, it's not the ideal solution.
Francisco walks into the house to grab a cold can of pop before taking another look. He feels dizzy from the heat and he's sure that he can't think straight because of it. Some time away from the sun will do him some good, if only the house didn't remind him of the heat. He looks at the freezer and opens it for a brief moment so that he can stick his head in and cool down.
He closes the freezer and leans back against the fridge, feeling a slight sting. Francisco looks over at his back and realizes that he burned himself. He doesn't recall how long he's been out in the sun, but it shouldn't have been a surprise considering that he was outside in the open.
"It would probably help if you got one of those canopies."
"Yeah, I'll think about it."
Kiké opens his beer, "You know, this is sort of the problem with houses built on this side of the world. It's great for when it's cold, it's all insulated and junk, which should help a bit in the summer, but if it's sealed up, then you're screwed. There isn't enough air flow. It's not like a mall I went to in Harare. It's actually interesting, because it's shaped like a termite mound, so it's able to keep cool."
With an uninterested tone, Francisco answers, "Fascinating…"
Noticing his brother's lack of enthusiasm, Kiké smacks him in the back, "You could pretend for a minute, pendejo."
Francisco, shocked by the pain, quickly punches his brother's arm.
The two brothers sit in silence. Kiké pulls out his phone and begins to text. The noise bothers Francisco, but he stays quiet, anything that keeps him from talking is better making conversation.
"Aren't you planning on going back outside?"
Francisco groans, "Let me sit here for a minute."
"You've had plenty of minutes."
"Fine, let me sit here until I can think of something else to fix that damn A/C."
Kiké, who can't stand the awkwardness, grabs his case of beer out of the fridge and goes out into the garage. Francisco can hear the door opening, but he doesn't move. He can hear his brother moving things around, but again he doesn't move.
Then there's silence.
Francisco doesn't know what his brother is doing, but as long as he doesn't hear his car speeding away, then he isn't going to worry. Soon, he doesn't hear anything, and that gives him a chance to think about what he hasn't already tried yet. He's replaced some of the cheaper parts, but it hasn't done him any good. He's tried figuring out how the air conditioner works, so that he can find what could be causing a problem, but he couldn't see anything. At this point, all that's left is waiting for the damn repairman, buying a new unit, or trying to take it apart and put it back together.
None of those are great options.
He lies back on the couch. He ignores the pain of his burning skin and closes his eyes. It's not often that he gets a quiet afternoon, especially when his brother shows up, but now it's like he isn't around. If it wasn't for the sound of crushed beer cans, he would assume that he left.
Francisco closes his eyes and lets his exhaustion overtake him. He isn't a heavy sleeper, and against his better judgment, he's going to trust his brother to not do anything in his house.
Hours later, the sound of a phone call wakes him, and he notices his brother sitting on the recliner watching tv. The lights are on in the house, all the doors are closed, and the sun looks like it's about to set.
'Dang, how long was I asleep for?'
Kiké takes the remote and lowers the volume, "About time you woke up. Do you always snore that loud?"
"Like you don't?"
"I have an excuse."
Francisco loudly sniffs the air to mess with his brother, but begins to cough, his airways irritated by the cold air.
Cold air.
"The air conditioner's working?" he asks Kiké.
"Yeah, I had a buddy who owed me a favor come by, now you owe me."
"If you knew someone, why didn't you tell me?"
"Because he wasn't available until a little while ago, Sleeping Beauty. He has his own job, you know."
Francisco walks up the air vent and feels the cold air against his skin, "This isn't one of those it's gonna break down in a few days sort of scenarios, is it?"
"I don't think so," Kiké answers with a smile.
That doesn't fill Francisco with confidence, but at the same time, his brother could be messing with him because he asked. He's willing to take the risk and say that it's fixed at least for the next few weeks or until he can get another repairman to look at his brother's 'friend's' work.
"By the way, I'm staying the night."
"What? Are you sure?" asks Francisco. He quickly tries to think of an excuse, afraid of what will happen with Kiké around. "Victor has a hard time sleeping through the night and you know how you and Lynn get at it over stupid stuff."
"Yeah, I'm sure."
Francisco is surprised that his brother would rather be here in the house after what he told him, "Does this count as me paying you back?"
"No."
"Fine, but it can't be anything that risks jail or community service again."
Kiké snickers, "Now you care."
A few minutes later, Francisco receives a phone call, "Hey Lynn, how's it going?"
"Not bad. Is he still there?"
Francisco looks at his brother as he searches through the fridge for something to eat, "Yeah."
"Great…"
"I know, but at least the air conditioner is fixed."
"I don't know if it'll be enough. I think I'd rather stay here," she jokes.
"Really? You're going to leave me alone with him?"
"Fine, we'll be home soon."
A few minutes later, Francisco gets a phone call, "Hey… can you come pick us up? Dutch broke down again."
He sighs, "Yeah, I'll be right there." Francisco gets up and gets his keys, "I'll be right back, I'm going to go pick up Lynn."
"How the hell did she get to her parents' place?"
"Her car, but it broke down," says Francisco as he grabs his keys and his cap, "By the way, be done with those beers by the time we get back."
"Fine, and I'm staying the night!" is the last thing he hears his brother tell him.
"I know!"
It's not ideal, and Lynn will clearly hate it, but maybe Victor might be able to help him out. He doubts that Kiké will overstay his welcome with a crying newborn around and Lynn might not even pay attention to anyone else but their son, so the arguments will be kept low, so no headaches for him.
"But just tonight!" answers Francisco from the truck.
He quickly drives to pick up Lynn and notices the lights on in the living room. He steps out of the truck and begins to feel mosquitoes landing on his skin. Francisco runs as fast as he can to the front door and knocks hard on it to make sure that somebody hears him.
Lynn Sr. opens the door and Francisco runs inside, "I thought the mosquitoes would have calmed down by now."
"I thought I'd be used to it after spending all day outside. Is Lynn ready?"
"Yeah, I think she's upstairs with Victor." Lynn Sr. calls out to his daughter, and then asks Francisco, "Did you want something to eat? We might have some leftovers from dinner."
"No, I think I'm good. I just wanna get home, maybe take a shower and go to sleep."
Lynn heads down the stairs, coughing, "Sorry, Lisa sprayed us with some bug spray. You ready to go?"
"Yeah." Lynn quickly thanks her family for putting her up and the two head outside to check on Lynn's car.
"So, what's wrong with Dutch?"
Lynn shrugs her shoulders; her guess would be as good as his.
Francisco looks under the hood, but the mosquitoes are constantly bothering him. After spending a good chunk of his day working outside, his brain is fried and he does not want to fight against little bloodsuckers. He drops the hood and settles on coming back tomorrow or something so that he can look at the car with a fresh mind.
"Well?" starts Lynn. "Do you think you can fix it?"
"Nope."
"Well, at least we have the truck."
He nods. Francisco hands Lynn the keys, "I'll get Victor's things, you two get settled in so we can head out."
While Lynn gets Victor's car seat into the truck, Lily realizes that this might be her chance. Francisco will be alone in the house and Lynn won't be around to say that she's wrong or anything. She quickly sidesteps into the house and tries to get a hold of her brother-in-law before he leaves.
Francisco coughs as he comes down the stairs, surprised by how strong Lisa's bug spray is. Lily thought that she had more time, but it's now or who knows when. She takes his arm and pulls him aside, "Okay, I'm going to talk to you because…" she quickly let's go of him, "Look, I don't know if you've noticed, but when it comes to Victor, Lynn is a bit, what's the right word?"
He has an idea where this is going. Heck, he's thought it too, but he didn't say anything since Lynn is a new mother and Caroline also had her moments of overprotectiveness with Elena was born.
"Smothering?"
"Yes! So you see it. Why aren't you doing anything about it?"
"I'm trying."
"Well try harder," she pleads, "Mom and Dad are worried about both of them."
"Alright, I'll talk to her or something," he says before heading to the truck.
"Good luck!" she says. Lily notices Lynn staring, and quickly says, "I mean, good night!"
Lynn looks up at the bench. It's so close, but still so far away. The way she looks at it, she has three options - drag herself to the bench and sit there under the sun, drag herself to the shade under the tree, or stay put. Lynn claws at the ground, dragging her body towards the tree.
"What is wrong with me?" she quietly asks herself. "I never… run without…"
She doesn't finish the rest of the sentence, but it is true. She never runs outside on a hot day without making sure that she's properly hydrated.
"Fucking… stupid…"
When she arrives at the tree, Lynn stops and turns around to face the sky. She takes plenty of deep breaths, trying to get her energy back, but it's not going to do much good without a little water or something.
Lynn tries to control the tremors, 'Focus… focus…'
Her mouth feels dry and she tries to swallow any saliva that accumulates in her mouth. This isn't going to work. With a shaky hand, she pulls out her phone from her pocket and sends a text to her family, letting them know what happened and for them to come and bring her a bottle of sports drink.
"Now to wait…"
Lynn doesn't want to move around much to maintain her energy, but at least she's able to think all she wants.
'No way Mom and Dad are gonna let me out again. It hasn't stopped me yet, but I don't want today to be a write-off. I need to train!'
Especially after what happened earlier.
She can't imagine what the heck has thrown her game off the way it has. She busts her butt, trains like no one ever has, and it isn't amounting to anything more than being a second-rate player amongst her teammates. At the rate she's going, she's going to stink even worse once school starts and her time is divvied up between softball and studying.
Why is she even thinking about that? She used to inspire her teammates, now all she's thinking about is screwing up. It probably wouldn't be so bad if she didn't notice how badly she was disappointing her teammates and coaches, or if she could ignore the fans and their muttering, or everyone's stares!
Why is it that no matter how hard she works she's still behind her teammates?
Here comes those thoughts again.
Lynn punches the ground with as much strength as she can muster, upset at herself for thinking about her struggles, but it's hard to ignore. Each time she looks at her grades, they stink, each time she plays, her stats are weak. She tries her hardest, but it isn't amounting to much. It sort of makes her miss the days when she was the best player on the team, but it also makes her worry about her teammates too. Were they struggling playing college ball too? Maybe. Then again, they have more time to devote to playing, they were usually doing much better at school than she ever was, college should be much easier for them.
How come she's struggling so damn much with everything?!
She's ready to pull on her hair in frustration when she hears something, "Lynn! Lynn!"
She looks up and notices her brother running towards her, "There you are. Are you okay?" he asks.
Lynn nods her head.
"What happened?"
She doesn't answer and instead grabs the water bottle in his hand and guzzles it down to quench her thirst. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath and is startled when she feels a cool towel on her forehead.
Lynn immediately opens her eyes and looks up at her brother, "Lisa, says that it'll help. What happened to you?"
She doesn't know what to say. She wants to tell him that she's stressed out about softball and schoolwork and how it's consuming her thoughts, how she's never going to catch up, how school is kicking her butt, and how everything feels like it's crumbling around her, but she doesn't want him to worry about her. He's about to start his senior year of high school, he should be worrying about his own things instead of her.
"I pushed myself a little too hard."
Yup, that sounds like her.
He takes her duffel bag from her, but stays put, waiting for her to get her strength back. All summer, he's watched her push herself in the name of becoming a better athlete. He's sort of impressed by how much faster and stronger she's gotten, especially compared to when she left for college, but she never seems happy with her results.
Anytime he asks or she brings up conversation at the dinner table, she's getting faster and stronger and beating her old records, but unlike when she was in school, she isn't happily boasting about it. Like it isn't enough for her.
"Maybe you should take a break."
"No, I'm fine," she says. "I need to be ready for the next season."
Looking at her, he already assumes that she is, but she probably doesn't want to hear that, so he nods his head and tells her, "If you say so."
Lynn gets up, "Ready to go?"
Lincoln is confused, especially when she gets to her feet she stumbles a bit, "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure, c'mon!" she says before running ahead of him.
Lincoln sighs and does his best to run after her while carrying her duffel bag.
Francisco drives towards the Burpin' Burger. After spending most of his day frustrated, the thought of a cold milkshake, hot fries, and a greasy burger sounded great. He's sure that it won't take much to convince Lynn to go along with it, and if they finish early enough, they can get home before Victor starts getting too fussy.
"What do you say we stop to get some takeout for dinner?"
Lynn nods her head. She isn't in the mood to cook, and a burger sounds great, "Yeah, that sounds good. What'd you have in mind?"
"Burgers and milkshakes."
He knows that it's not good for her, especially since she's breastfeeding Victor, but if he was able to handle months of junk food, then one meal shouldn't be so bad.
Francisco parks the truck in a space in front of the restaurant, making Lynn wonder why he didn't bother with the drive-thru window, "Why are you going in?"
"I felt like having dinner in the truck bed."
Lynn is confused, "Really? With your sunburnt back?"
"The sun's almost set," he reasons. "Do you want your usual?"
"Yeah," she says, before he heads into the restaurant.
Lynn steps out of the truck and gets Victor out of his seat. With how quickly she eats, there's no point in taking the whole seat out and she's sure that eating with one hand wouldn't hinder her too much.
Francisco brings over the food and hands her her meal. Lynn looks in the bag and grabs a few fries to start her off. The two quietly sit down as they watch the other patrons pass them by. It sort of reminds them of those lazy summer afternoons from when they were kids, when they didn't have responsibilities and only worried about going back to school.
"So, how'd you fix the A/C?"
Francisco takes a bite out of his burger, "Kiké…"
"He was able to fix it?" she asked in complete disbelief.
He shakes his head, "No, he knew someone."
"Someone that liked him enough to come over?"
"I know, right?
The two sit quietly as they eat.
Lynn looks over at him and wonders if now is a good time to talk about something that's weighing on her mind. They aren't entirely alone, but she doesn't want to wait around and lose her nerve or something.
This is her chance to ask - figure out how things really are at the restaurant, or maybe get the answer she hopes to hear.
"How's work going?"
"Not bad."
That isn't the answer that Lynn wants to hear, but it isn't like he typically elaborates. Good or bad unless it's a multi-day problem, Francisco rarely says much about how his day went. Before bed rest, she typically had an idea, since she could see or hear from the kitchen, or sneak into his office during a lull.
"How's everyone else?"
"They're good. Things have been going well since Jan came in. We've been trying to get things to run a little better since we're shorthanded."
"Oh…"
He notices her looking down at Victor. They haven't talked much about her going back to work, maybe a plan for when it happened like asking his mom or her parents to watch Victor, but it never felt like things are set in stone. It always felt like it would be a long way away.
"Were you planning on going back sooner?"
He won't admit out loud that he likes the idea of Lynn being at home while he goes to work; she gets to take the day at her own pace, no packing baby gear to take Victor to his grandparents, and no paying for childcare where he'll be one of who knows how many kids in a room.
Francisco keeps his face as still as possible as he looks over at her.
She's quiet. She tries to think of what she really wants to do. Lynn spends most of her days cooped up at home, alone with Victor, and she doesn't mind, but listening to her dad and sister, talk about how she's needed back at work and how her coworkers need her. She can't let them bear the brunt of it all between the three of them.
Her team needs her.
"I already asked my parents if they could take care of Victor when I go back to work."
"Okay, I'll tell my mom, just let me know when-"
"Monday."
He's surprised by her response, "Are you sure? I mean-"
"What? I can handle it. Besides, we both knew that wasn't meant to last forever. It'll be fine," she says before sucking down on the melting milkshake.
He's sure that she's using the sugar to calm her nerves, but to show her that he has faith in her, he nods his head and agrees, "Okay, I'm sure everyone would love to see you back." Francisco looks down and notices Victor burying his head into Lynn's bust. He lets out a chuckle, "Looks like somebody wants dinner too."
Lynn looks down, "Yeah, sorry Rookie, but we'll be home. C'mon, we gotta get going," she quickly finishes the rest of her meal. "Let's go."
Francisco takes one last bite and puts the rest of his food back in the bag to take home. That reminds him, "By the way, Kiké is staying the night."
"What?"
"I know," he says, not really sure what to say to make her feel better.
"Dang it," she mutters before smacking the back of her neck.
"I know."
"What? Not that, Lisa's stupid bug spray didn't work!"
I didn't plan on this chapter taking as long as it did to upload, but holidays do have their way of sneaking up on you, so I'm sorry to make you guys wait so long. As always, I want to thank everyone for reading and wish everyone a happy new year
