Skellyman

by Rie Sheridan Rose

  She felt Sanchez’s hand give her arm a reassuring squeeze. The man has the eyes of a hawk!

  She smiled up at him tremulously.

  “Now, children, we have a special treat for you. One of the most famous traditions of Día de Muertos is the giving of candy skulls personalized for the recipient. Now, that was a lot of big words. Can anyone guess what all that means?”

  “Personalized means with your name on it,” offered Tommy the Encyclopedia.

  Well, if Daisy has a boyfriend, at least he’s a smart one.

  “Right. And a recipient is the person you give something to. And since we here at the museum knew who would be coming to see us today, we made something just for you.”

  She led the whispering children into a room behind the exhibit halls. The refrigerator and vending machine against the back wall and the counter with a double sink told Brenda this must be the staff break room. Sitting on the table in the center of the room was a covered tray.

  “Everyone sit down at the table,” Mrs. Sanchez ordered. The children scrambled for chairs. “Adults too,” prompted the curator, with a twinkle in her eye that reminded Brenda of Sanchez.

  He pulled out one of the remaining chairs for her, and then pushed it in once she had seated herself. He snagged the chair next to her and sat down.

  With a flourish, Mrs. Sanchez uncovered the tray. It was filled with small white skulls. Even though she had been expecting it, the sight turned Brenda’s stomach.

  With the help of Mrs. Castillo, the curator passed out the sugary treats. Each one had a child’s name on it, and the little ones giggled with delight.

  “For you, Phillip,” said his sister, passing him a skull with a smile. “And for you, Mrs. Barnett, in appreciation for all your help.”

  Brenda looked down at the candy skull, and her blood turned to ice. Scrawled on the forehead was the name Brenny—a nickname that only Ethan had known.

  Chapter 15

  “Is something wrong?” Mrs. Castillo looked from her face to the skull in Brenda’s hand. “What in Heaven’s name…?” She looked at the final skull left on the tray.

  “Oh, dear. I am so terribly sorry.” Holding up the last skull, she chuckled ruefully. “It looks like they mixed up our names when they did these two. Must have been the last ones.”

  The skull in her hand read Penda.

  “I told them Brenda and Penny, but they must have heard me incorrectly. I should have been formal and gone with Mrs. Barnett. I am so sorry your treat is spoiled.”

  “No problem,” Brenda answered automatically. Was it a mistake? Or was some cosmic joke really playing out at her expense? She had had about all she could take of this craziness. Her nerves were at the breaking point.

  The voices on the phone came back to her: “Geez, Mom. If you are gonna be a bitch about it—”; “—almost home, Brenda. Can’t wait to see you again…”

  She shook herself. No. She couldn’t think about it anymore. Someone thinks all this is funny. It’s just some big joke. It has to be…

  As the children munched happily on their sugar skulls, Mrs. Sanchez showed them a slide show of famous calaveras. The costumes on some of the caricatures were very ornate.

  Phillip Sanchez leaned over in the semi-darkness and whispered, “Is everything all right?”

  “Of course. Why do you ask?”

  “Because you looked like you’d been handed a poisoned apple when Penny gave you that skull.”

  “Just a little mistake with the food coloring, that’s all.”

  “You sure everything’s okay?”

  She smiled up at him.

  “Thank you for the concern, Officer Sanchez, but everything’s fine.”

  “You know…you could call me Phillip—since we have broken skulls together and all.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Seriously, Mrs. Barnett…Brenda. I’d really like to get to know you better.”

  Brenda felt her cheeks growing hot.

  “I hardly think this is the time or place to discuss this,” she murmured, staring down at the skull in her hand with distaste.

  “I’m a take-action kind of guy. I see something I want, I go for it.”

  “And that line gets you dates?” Raising an eyebrow, she glanced up at him. “I’ve never really played the dating game, but that sounds a bit lame to me.”

  He grinned.

  “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

  There was something about this man that appealed to her. She couldn’t deny it. Even the sound of his voice made her feel all warm and safe. Maybe it is time to move on with my life.

  “Would you like to come to dinner tomorrow night?” she asked him.

  “I’d love to. I’m off duty at five.”

  “Good. I’ll plan for…six-thirty?”

  “Sounds good to me. Can I bring anything?”

  Just those gorgeous eyes and that sexy laugh, Brenda thought then gave herself a mental shake.

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  The lights came back to full, and Brenda leaned away from Sanchez. She wasn’t quite ready to commit to ‘Phillip,’ even in her own head.

  Mrs. Sanchez and her assistants passed among the children, handing out black and white line drawings of male and female calaveras in their fancy costumes.

  “Let’s see what you can do to help dress these poor skeletons,” said the curator, setting a basket of markers and crayons in the center of the table. “You’ll have twenty minutes to decorate your picture, and then we’ll let my handsome son over there pick which one’s the best.”

  She pointed at Sanchez.

  He protested loudly, shaking his head. “Too hard to choose. Don’t make me.”

  The children laughed, and began grabbing for their favorite colors. Brenda watched Daisy labor over her picture, tongue tucked into the corner of her mouth as if it would steady her hand. Where had that notion come from…people do it all the time…is it really any help?

  When time was called, the children swarmed Sanchez, clamoring to have their picture evaluated first. With the finesse of a true diplomat, the policeman declared a twenty-way tie as to the best skeleton.

  Brenda mouthed “chicken” at him, and he nodded vigorously.

  She laughed. This man was good at making her laugh. She liked that. It’d been far too long since she was happy.

  After all, how long is one supposed to grieve when your world is destroyed in a flash of fire?

  She’d heard of widows who never remarried, never even dated again after the death of their husbands. But the thought of living the rest of her life alone terrified her… On the other hand, was she merely responding to the first man who was nice to her? Was she attracted to Phillip, or just the thought of a man?

  She almost canceled the dinner, but thought better of it.

  This is for me, damn it! I deserve it. It’s my turn.

  The final surprise of the field trip was a skeleton stick puppet for each of the children to take home. Brenda pretended pleasure as Daisy showed her the gaudily dressed female she’d been given. The calavara gave her the creeps.

  “Can I put it on my bully board, Mama? Please…” Daisy wheedled.

  “We’ll see when we get home, Daisy.”

  “I can’t wait to show Bones.” Suddenly the child gave a bark of laughter. “Show Bones the bones, get it? Get it?”

  “I get it,” Brenda answered, more sharply than she intended.

  Daisy’s mouth dropped open, and then her lip began to tremble. Brenda gathered the little girl into her arms.

  “Sorry, precious,” she soothed. “Mama didn’t mean to snap at you. I-I’ve just got a bit of a headache is all. She’s a lovely puppet. I’ll put it on your bully board when we get home.”

  “And my picture too?” Daisy sniffed, holding up her coloring project.

  “Sure, baby.” Brenda studied the drawing.

  Daisy had always shown amazing eye-hand coordination for her age. She rar
ely strayed outside the lines when coloring. The dancing couple was resplendent in bright pinks and greens with flashes of yellow.

  “That’s really beautiful, Daisy,” Brenda murmured. Even though the mere sight of it sent a shiver through her.

  The ride back to the school was uneventful. Sanchez sat up front with his sister, leaving Brenda feeling a bit bereft. She listened to the children chattering on about the field trip and wondered how the reinforcement of all this death would affect Daisy.

  I’ll take it up with Elise…she told herself, and the decision made her feel better.

  Because of the field trip, the class was getting an early dismissal, and Brenda helped Daisy gather her things.

  “Can Tommy come home with us and meet Bones?”

  “My mom doesn’t care,” offered Tommy eagerly.

  Brenda took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure she was ready to start handling the dating scene in her own life, much less that of a four-year-old.

  “Today isn’t a really good day for it, Daisy. Maybe some other time.”

  “But I want to show Tommy all the tricks I taught Bones.”

  Brenda looked at her daughter in bemusement.

  “You just got him yesterday.”

  “He’s real smart.”

  Then teach him not to shit on the bed, Brenda thought to herself.

  Aloud she said firmly, “Not today, Daisy. I’ll see if I can talk to Thomas’ mother and set something up soon.”

  Daisy pouted.

  “See you tomorrow night,” Phillip Sanchez called as she and Daisy made their way to the waiting station wagon.

  Brenda felt herself blush as she nodded, painfully aware of the concerned expression on Mrs. Castillo’s face.

  “Looking forward to it.”

  “How come he gets to come over?” Daisy protested as she was led toward the car.

  Brenda snuck a look back at Sanchez. His sister was confronting him as Brenda helped Daisy into her car seat.

  Well, tough toenails. We’re big enough to play on our own now. Supervision not required.

  A giggle welled up in her throat at the analogy.

  “What’s so funny, Mama?”

  Big ears…

  “Nothing, honey. Just thinking about something.”

  “Why is that policeman coming to our house again, Mama? Is there something wrong?”

  “No, baby. He’s just coming to have dinner with us.”

  “But why?”

  “Because I think it would be nice to say thank you to him for taking care of us the other night,” Brenda improvised. “And for talking me into getting a dog. It was his idea, you remember.”

  “Oh! Bones will want to say thank you too.”

  I’ll just bet he will, Brenda thought. Hopefully not all over the man’s shoes.

  On the way home, she stopped to pick up the packet of pictures she had forgotten to retrieve the day before. A few other items at the grocery store for Saturday’s dinner, and then Brenda sat Daisy down in front of the TV while she finished cleaning up the morning’s mess. She hated using the idiot box as a babysitter, but at least Daisy was watching a movie and not network television.

  As she remade Daisy’s bed, Brenda let her mind wander to the upcoming dinner. Phillip—okay, there…in her mind, at least, the transition was made…he had ceased being Officer Sanchez somewhere around the dancing skeletons—struck her as a meat and potatoes kind of guy. She hoped the steaks she’d picked up would be satisfying. She seldom bothered with expensive cuts of meat anymore. Daisy would just as soon have hot dogs, and it hardly seemed worth the fuss when she was cooking for herself…

  “Mama! Mama! Hurry!”

  Daisy’s shouts galvanized her into action. She ran for the living room, barking her shin on the corner of the dresser as she bolted from the bedroom. Limping toward her daughter, she saw the reason for Daisy’s distress.

  Bones stood on the back porch, head proudly tilted to one side. At the sight of Brenda, he dropped what he held in his mouth and gave a sharp bark, as if looking for praise.

  Brenda’s heart sank into her shoes. How did she explain to a four-year-old the nature of a hunting spaniel?

  “Mama! Mama, is it okay?”

  One look at the motionless bird was enough to tell her it was definitely not okay.

  Chapter 16

  Brenda finally got a hysterical Daisy to calm down long enough that she could go out and dig a hole for the bird. It was no use trying to explain the dog was only doing what came naturally. To be honest, she felt rather better about the puppy knowing that it had a touch of the killing instinct. A timid, cowering shadow made for a lousy guard dog. At least he was showing a little spunk…it was just too bad Daisy had seen it.

  Bird buried, Brenda now sat in Robbie’s old beanbag chair in front of the sliding glass door to the porch, Daisy on her lap. She shivered a little, and pulled a blanket up over both of them. It was chilly outside, but the door was open—with the screen across it. Bones had his nose pressed so hard into the screen that it was indented into the room.

  “Now, are you going to forgive Bones, Daisy? He didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to play with the birds. Sometimes a puppy plays too hard with a bird, and it gets…”

  “Dead.”

  Brenda sighed. “Yes, dead. He didn’t mean to.”

  Daisy stared at the puppy; tear tracks still visible on her cheeks. “That was a bad thing, Bones. Bad.”

  The puppy lowered his head to his front paws, butt in the air, tail wagging furiously.

  “He’s very sorry, Daisy—see?”

  Daisy giggled. “He looks funny, Mama.”

  The bubble of laughter lightened Brenda’s heart. She had worried that Daisy might never be able to forgive the dog for…well, being a dog. It was good to know things would be all right.

  “You want to go hang your pictures on the bulletin board now?” she asked softly.

  Daisy nodded, casting aside the blanket and scrambling to her feet. “Yes, Mama. I want to decormate, for Hallyween.”

  “Decorate, darling.”

  Good lord. Halloween is only two weeks away. I’ll have to hustle to get Daisy a nice costume this year. I’m not about to skimp on any more holidays.

  “What do you want to be for Halloween this year, Daisy?” She emphasized the correct pronunciation of Halloween, hoping that it would sink in without overt corrections. She didn’t want to be constantly making a big deal of Daisy’s mispronunciations. They were so precious…and she was only four. She’d outgrow it.

  “A skellyman!” Daisy shrieked, with no hesitation whatsoever.

  Great.

  “Wouldn’t you rather be the princess from that movie we saw the other night?”

  “Nope. Want to be a skellyman.”

  “All right,” Brenda conceded with a sigh. “I’ll see what we can do.”

  Daisy skipped toward her bedroom, the drawing and puppet clutched in her chubby fists. “Come on, Mama. I’ll show you where they should go.”

  They tacked the pictures to the bulletin board, and Daisy nodded in satisfaction. “Beautiful!”

  That wasn’t the word Brenda would have chosen, but she wasn’t the one they would be staring down on at night. She hoped the skeletal decorations wouldn’t give Daisy more nightmares.

  “So, Daisy Melissa, what shall we do tonight?” Friday night…once upon a world, she would have called her parents to watch the kids overnight and she and Ethan would have…

  No good going down that road.

  “Can we play Space Invaimers?”

  Fragments flashed through her mind: Ethan carrying in the old cocktail cabinet video game three years ago Christmas; Robbie’s face when he saw it; the boy patiently teaching his little sister how to work the controls so he would have someone to play with. It had been a terrible extravagance—the game was an original restored to pristine condition. The machine had cost almost as much as her car.

  But Robbie loved it so. He played it almos
t daily.

  The machine had sat idle most of the last year. Brenda wondered if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Daisy suddenly wanted to play with it.

  “Sure, baby. If that’s what you want.”

  “Yay!” Daisy clapped her hands.

  “Just let me make some dinner first, okay?”

  “Hot dogs?”

  “Excellent choice.” When would Daisy not choose hot dogs if left to her own devices?

  “Be right back. You can let Bones in for a few minutes if you want to.”

  Brenda heard the screen sliding back as she went into the kitchen. It was good to know that the dog’s little escapade hadn’t turned Daisy completely against him. She wanted him to be a playmate for the girl.

  Speaking of playmates, she thought to herself, where is Mask?

  She called to the kitten as she got out the hot dogs and set them in the microwave. There was an answering mew from the pantry, and she found the kitten sitting beside its empty food bowl.

  “Oh, my. Did I forget you this morning?” She could swear she hadn’t, but how much food could a kitten eat in one day?

  She scooped half a can into the bowl, and Mask fell to with a will. Brenda stroked the kitten’s soft fur. “I’m sorry, baby. I’ll try not to let it happen again.”

  The kitten looked up at her and purred then dove back into the food bowl.

  Chuckling, Brenda pulled the hot dogs out of the microwave and made two for Daisy—just buns, no junk—and two for herself.

  They ate while watching a rerun of The Simpsons.

  Brenda didn’t watch the news much anymore. She figured if anything terribly earth-shattering occurred, someone would mention it. Day-to-day, she didn’t want to deal with it.

  “Tell you what, baby girl. Why don’t you put on your nightie before we start playing? That way you’ll be all ready for bed when the time comes.”

  “Okay, Mama. You put on your nightie too.”

  Why not?

  “All rightie. We’ll have us a slumber party.”

  Slipping into the oversized t-shirt she wore as a nightshirt, Brenda shooed Bones into the backyard for a few minutes, hoping to avoid a repeat of last night’s performance.