My Angel is the Centerfold

Chapter 5

"Hey River!," Daryl said, pointing at his plate. His voice was coming out half garbled since he was talking through a giant mouthful of half chewed food. "This chicken is good as shit!" To prove his point, Daryl stabbed the chicken breast on his plate with his fork and added another bite to the mess in his mouth.

River was still positioned in front of the stove, stirring milk into a pot of boxed macaroni and cheese. But when Daryl hollered at her, glancing back over her shoulder and laughed. "That's 'cause Carol made it," she admitted.

Carol was leaning forward over the table, setting the salad bowl down. She was wearing one of the pink bakery tank tops, but with a sweater over it for more coverage. The moment she felt Daryl's eyes settle on her, she used her free hand to pull her sweater closed. She was trying to keep him from getting a look down her shirt. But at the moment, her fear of being ogled was unfounded. Daryl's only interest at the moment seemed to be the food in front of him. He only gave her a moment's glance before he gestured towards his plate with the fork in his hand.

"Good shit," he declared.

Carol returned Daryl's compliment with a shy, nervous smile. She was trying her best to act nonchalant, like his opinion of her cooking was of no importance to her. But secretly, she felt an inward swell of pride. Ed never commented on her cooking unless it was to insult her. Since she moved in with River and her daughters, they'd been generous with their compliments in regards to her culinary skills. But for whatever silly stupid hormonal reason, it felt different to have a man tell her that he liked her cooking. Even if it was obvious that the man in question would have eaten whatever she put in front of him whether it was good or not, it still made her feel good.

River hollered for the girls as she set the pan of macaroni down on the table. Sophia and Wren came stampeding out, racing to see who could get the seat next to Daryl. Sophia was smaller and faster. And she nearly whipped the chair over backwards as she flung herself into it. Wren groaned and headed for the seat next to her mom, grabbing her plate and scooping herself up a generous helping of macaroni.

River poured glasses of milk for the girls and wine for the adults at the table. As she sat down, Daryl washed the rest of his chicken down with a few gulps of the wine she handed him.

"Hey squirt," he teased, poking at Sophia with his elbow. "You want some chicken?" Without waiting on her answer, he speared half a chicken breast with his fork and plopped it down onto her plate. Sophia's eyes went wide as she glanced between him and the large piece of cooked meat. Her smile faltered and her chin began to quiver.

"It's okay," Carol said, reaching for her daughter's hand. Dinners at their old house were always a source of extreme duress for her daughter. Ed used food as a way to exert power and control over the girl. He would decide how much food Sophia needed on her plate. And if she didn't finish it, his punishments were violent and extreme. "You don't have to eat it," Carol soothed.

"Sophia!," River chirped. "Remember the rules at this house. If ya don't want something, just say no thank you." River gave Daryl a swift kick in the shin as she hissed, "...get that fuckin' chicken off her plate."

Daryl wasn't exactly sure what in the fuck was happening. But when River throttled him under the table, he snatched the chicken back off Sophia's plate like it was a snake that was about to attack her. An awkward silence fell over the previously rowdy table. No one was sure quite what to say about the one large alligator tear that was streaking down Sophia's face. It was Harley that broke the silence with her blunt and to the point explanation of the girl's sudden hysterics.

"Her dad got off on forcin' her ta eat shit that made her barf," Harley said, reaching for the salad bowl and dumping near half its contents onto her plate. "Can I borrow the red car tomorrow?" Harley's tone of voice was near the same when she was talking about the car as it was when she mentioned Sophia's past trauma. Like it was all just another day in the life for her. Which, given her past family troubles, it probably was. Carol wasn't sure if Harley's casual attitude made her want to laugh or cry. Maybe a little bit of both.

Carol watched the quiet interaction between her daughter and River's brother in law as she fixed her own plate. Carol couldn't hear what he said. But she saw Daryl lean down and whisper to Sophia. Sophia nodded her head. And then he grabbed the pan of macaroni and placed a scoop of that on her plate instead of the chicken. Sophia nodded again, giving him a small sad smile before she picked up her fork and started to eat.

"Whaddya need the red car for?," River asked, "...ya got softball practice?" Between Carol, River, and Harley, they had two cars they shared. One, the red car, was relatively new and in good condition. The other was an old junker that had doors on one side that didn't match the rest of the paint job and duct tape holding one of the side view mirrors on. Daryl fixed the engine so that it ran well. But it wasn't an attractive vehicle. River usually drove the junker herself and let Harley drive the red car. Mostly so that her more well to do classmates and team members wouldn't poke fun at her for driving a piece of shit car around.

"Naw," Harley admitted. "Well, sort of. We were gonna go to the battin' cages fer some extra swing practice. And then maybe out fer ice cream."

"You and some of the girls from the team?," River asked. Her tone was casual. And she was busy cutting up the chicken on her plate. Carol was the one that noticed the pink color rising in Harley's cheeks. That, combined with the oddly pleasant mood that normally sullen and serious girl was in earlier that day, was highly suspicious. At least in Carol's opinion. Harley had plans with a boy. She'd bet her last penny on it.

"No," Harley said. She took a few gulps of water and pushed the salad on her plate around a little before she added, "...I'm goin' with our assistant coach. He said he could give me some pointers, ya know… on my swing."

"Wait," River chirped. Suddenly, her older daughter had her full attention. Her voice rose with excitement as she came to the same realization that Carol had a moment before. "Do you have a date?" Harley rolled her eyes, snorting out air through her nose like a horse. "It's okay!," River added, "...yer seventeen. Yer old enough ta date."

"If I'm old enough," Harley grumbled, "...maybe yer too old."

Daryl started to laugh, nearly choking on the food in his mouth. Harley's insulting comment was meant to distract her mother from asking her any more questions about the young man she had plans with. But River was clearly not going to be side tracked so easily.

"Don't be silly," River countered. "A real woman is never too old." River grabbed for her wine, tipping the glass up and chugging down the rest of the liquid inside. Then she clapped her hands together like she'd just won the best prize ever. "I've been waitin' years for this! Who is he? What's he like? Tell me everythin'!" River managed to take a breath before she continued her harassment. "Oh! What are ya gonna wear? You can borrow somethin' of mine if you want…"

"Mom!," Harley groaned. "I'm not gonna wear some short ass dress to the battin' cages!"

"Oh," River replied, nodding her head. "...maybe I could help ya with yer makeup instead?"

"Do you really have a date?," Wren asked, speaking through the giant wad of macaroni she just shoveled into her mouth. "I thought you were in love with Jay Foggerty from Half Moon…"

At the mention of Harley's celebrity crush, River and Daryl both burst out laughing. Daryl snuck her into a Half Moon concert when she was younger than Sophia was now. And she'd been papering her room with pictures of the guy ever since. She loved his music so much, he was the reason she learned to play the guitar.

"I hate all of you!," Harley spit. The color was rising in her cheeks as she jerked up out of her chair. She left her mostly untouched salad behind as she stomped off into her room, slamming the door very dramatically behind her.

"Geez," Sophia huffed. "What did I do?"

Sophia's question made all the adults at the table start laughing. Daryl chuckled as he rose from his seat. He speared the piece of chicken he tried to give to Sophia, this time plunking it down on top of Harley's salad. Then he grabbed the plate and her fork and walked them down the hall to her room. Despite her loud objections, Daryl pushed her door open and set Harley's dinner inside her room on her desk before he hightailed it out of there.

"Ya didn't have ta do that," River said, favoring him with a gentle smile. "She woulda come out and got somethin' ta eat eventually."

"I know," Daryl replied. "...but ya know I can't let her go ta bed hungry."

Carol watched as River's expression turned soft. She reached across the table and grasped Daryl's hand in hers, giving it a quick squeeze before she let go and went back to her dinner. There was obviously a reason he felt the need to take his niece's dinner to her despite her loud objection. It wasn't really hard to guess that he must have gone to bed with an empty stomach a few times in his life. Maybe more than a few times. Carol sat quietly pondering as she ate. She supposed that lots of people had some sort of trauma in their lives. But this was the first time she'd ever really been around people that weren't trying their very best to hide it. She found it oddly comforting, knowing that she wasn't the only person at the table that had bad things happen to her.

Later that night, Carol leaned back onto her stack of pillows. River was lying on her side next to her with her nose stuck in a paperback book. The book had a picture of a scantily clad woman on the front cover that was pressed between the bodies of two half naked cowboys. Trashy romance was her reading genre of choice. But if she was bored enough, she'd thumb through the murder mysteries that Carol picked up from the local library. Or anything else the girls left lying around. She was the fastest reader Carol had ever seen. It made her wonder what River's life might have been like if she didn't get pregnant before she was old enough to drive.

Carol's eyes scanned over the page of her own book. She got about halfway down before she realized her mind was wandering yet again. She marked her place in the book and tossed it aside with a heavy sigh.

"If yer tired, we can turn the lights off," River offered, her eyes scanning quickly over the last few sentences on the page before she flipped her book shut.

"The light doesn't bother me," Carol assured her. She paused for a moment. Then she turned to River and asked, "How long have you known him?" From the way her eyes flicked towards the hallway, it was obvious that she was talking about Daryl. Carol already did the math in her head. Harley was seventeen. Which meant they'd known each other at least that long. Unless River married Daryl's brother and didn't meet him right away. "Seventeen years?," Carol added.

River smiled as a soft almost silent laugh bubbling out of her. "It's been a lot longer than that," she explained. She knew Daryl first. Not his brother. Merle was older. Daryl was in her same grade in school. Not that he showed up all that often. But they grew up in the same trailer park. The one out near the edge of town that was filled with so many stray cats the park manager would set traps for them. "We grew up together. Been friends since we were little."

River thought about the first time she met Daryl. The memory made her smile. They couldn't have been more than six or seven years old at the time. He was building a roof for an underground fort he dug in the woods out behind their trailer park. His hair was sunbleached nearly white from all the time he spent outside. And there was an old peeling sunburn across his shoulders. He was suspicious of her at first, unsure of why anyone would go out of their way to make friends with him. Most of the kids avoided him. Because of his brother. But River showed him the chewing gum the other girls in the trailer park wadded up and stuck into her hair. Once he knew why she was hiding in the woods, Daryl walked her back to her trailer. They used the baby oil her mom sunbathed with to get the gum out. And then River climbed up on a chair and cooked them both grilled cheese sandwiches. They'd been friends ever since. For most of elementary school, they were inseparable.

"Daryl usedta say that when we got big we were gonna get married and live on a fishin' boat," River said. "But that I'd have ta sleep in my own bed because it'd be gross ta sleep together."

Carol laughed at River's story as she pondered her own relationships. Any friends she managed to make, Ed ran them off years ago. Even her own sister didn't want anything to do with her. Being so close with a childhood best friend was a foreign concept to her. She felt sort of flattered that she was accepted so easily into their tight knit circle.

"I guess his brother wasn't as grossed out by the idea of sleeping in the same bed with you?" Carol joked.

"Lemme tell ya, there wasn't any sleepin' goin' on in that bed," River announced with a giggle and shimmy of her shoulders. Carol laughed along with her, leaning in and kissing River on the cheek before she climbed off the pull out sofa bed and headed down the hall to use the bathroom.

Carol exited the bathroom, shaking her hands dry because the girls threw all the towels all over the floor. She paused in the hallway, tilting her to the side. From behind Wren and Sophia's closed door, she heard muffled giggling. Carol shook her head, wrapping softly on the door before she turned the knob and opened it. The girls had bunk beds. But they were both cuddled together in the bottom bunk, reading one of River's paperback romance novels with a flashlight.

"Give it here," Carol scolded. She approached the bed and held her hand out. "These books aren't for you." Wren handed the book over and flopped back into the pillows as both girls dissolved into laughter. Carol tried her best not to laugh along with them. She knew it was only a book. But it was still adult content. She hadn't even really had the birds and bees conversation with Sophia. Not in detail. And she certainly didn't need her reading about it in one of River's double penetration cowboy stories.

After each of the girls got a goodnight kiss, Carol stepped out into the hall and eased the door shut. She could still hear Wren and Sophia giggling. But that was okay. She was slowly learning to let go of the rigid bedtimes and rules that her husband imposed. It still gave her a slight rush of anxiety to hear Sophia being noisy after she'd been sent to bed. But Carol pushed that feeling down with a deep breath. Ed wasn't here. No one was going to beat Sophia because she and Wren were giggling together in their room.

Carol took a step, intending to head back down the hall and to her own bed. But she paused there. Unlike Wren's room, there was no noise coming from behind Harley's door. Carol knew that River was fine with Harley's uncle staying in her room with her. But given her past experiences, Carol couldn't help but feel a pang of concern for the girl. Daryl didn't seem like a weirdo or a pervert. But the statistics Carol knew about rape and molestation began to cycle through her mind. Ninety percent of victims were abused by someone they knew. And forty percent of those were family members. There was no doubt in Carol's mind that Sophia would have been part of that statistic if she didn't get her out of there when she did.

Carol reached for Harley's door. She didn't knock to announce herself like she had when she opened the other bedroom. Carol eased the door open as slowly as she could and peeked inside. She let out a soft breath she didn't know she was holding as her eyes scanned over the dimly lit room. Daryl and Harley were both in her bed. But they had a barrier of rolled up blankets and pillows between them. Daryl was snoring softly with his back turned towards his niece. And Harley was lying flat on her back with her headphones on, tapping out a rhythm on the top of her blankets. The scene tugged on Carol's heartstrings. And she couldn't help but notice that Daryl looked years younger without the hard expressions that he wore on his face while he was awake. If Daryl's brother looked anything like him, Carol could see why River was so hung up on him.

Harley must have sensed she was being watched. Because her eyes fluttered open and she glanced towards the door. She stopped her tapping long enough to give Carol a small wave of her hand. Carol waved back before she clicked the door shut. She padded back down the hall to the living room. River was already asleep, her long dark hair spread out over her pillow. Carol climbed in beside her, wondering as she settled into her pillow just how long it was going to take before every man she met stopped looking like an abuser to her.