He cocked his head to the side, and then relaxed his hand to his side but didn’t re-clip his holster.
“Why don’t you go and ring the bell and see if we can’t get to the bottom of this? I’ll follow.”
“See, my aunt has memory problems. She sometimes forgets who people are, namely me. Ask anyone. So if she doesn’t remember me, I’m not a trespasser—she really is my aunt! Ask anyone in this town, the neighbors, anyone on this street. I check on her three times a week. They all know.”
I turned to gesture to the neighbors and wasn’t surprised that a number of them were already outside their houses “pretending” to pick up the morning paper or walking their dog or letting out the cat. When they noticed me looking in their direction, the older ones kept staring while the younger ones had the common courtesy to look away.
“Let’s just go and see what Ms. Watson has to say, since she made the call, shall we?”
Sighing, I walked up to the front door, figuring it would be better than the side door. I said a silent prayer that the memory lapse was gone and that Opal would back to being Opal, and rang the doorbell.
Officer Parks stood directly behind me and chuckled.
“You can put your hands down now, Miss Harper.”
I hadn’t even realized I still had them at half-mast until he said something. Feeling stupid, I lowered them and knocked because Opal still hadn’t come to the door.
Finally, she yanked open the door, grumbling,
“I heard ya. You ain’t gotta keep...Oh, it’s you, chile. Whatcha doin’ knockin’ at this door for?” She tilted her head to the side in confusion. “And who is this fella?” She jutted her chin to Officer Parks.
I silently thanked her neurons for firing and making her okay, then I moved past her and offered for Officer Parks to come inside.
“Auntie, you called the cops on me,” I said matter-of-factly as I closed the door behind Officer Parks, shutting off the show for the nosy-ass neighbors.
“I did no sucha thing!” Opal said indignantly.
I didn’t have the patience to argue with her. I had things to do, like school, cemetery, and bed, in that order. I turned to Officer Parks, who was studying Opal, taking in her flowered housecoat and curlers. Great, he not only associated me with my dead parents; now, he also associated me with my aunt who called the cops on me and didn’t remember it.
“What did you need from me, my ID?” I asked, wanting this over as quickly as possible.
“Yes, we could start with that, then maybe an explanation for my report. I normally don’t do these calls, but I was actually coming to give you my report and intercepted the call and decided to give the local sheriff a break.”
Bet he’s regretting that, I thought as I went into the kitchen to retrieve my purse. I took out my wallet, and I went back into the living room and handed him my ID.
He examined it, then handed it back to me, noticing my age.
“You’re only twenty-two?”
“Yes, why?”
“I mistook you for older over the phone that’s all, at least twenty-four.”
“I act older than I am. I have a lot of responsibilities.” I eyed Opal, who was wandering into the kitchen looking for breakfast.
“No pudding!” I yelled, and then looked back apologetically at Officer Parks.
“I see,” he nodded, then took out a little black notebook and a pen and eyed me expectantly.
“Oh, right, what happened.” I proceeded to give him the CliffNotes version of what happened this morning, finishing with him showing up and almost pulling his gun on me.
“For the record, I didn’t almost pull my gun on you. You would have known had I done that.” He chuckled again.
“It looked like that to me,” I grumbled to myself.
“You weren’t armed and didn’t look like a threat, so I kept it holstered, but I was always assessing the situation.”
Assessing the situation, what the hell did that mean? Me? I averted my eyes, feeling a little uncomfortable.
“Does your aunt have these episodes often?” He was scribbling something down on his pad.
I was instantly on alert. I didn’t like people thinking things about my family, especially strangers.
“No, I mean, she has memory issues, but what older person doesn’t at times? It’s not a big deal,” I said flippantly.
He raised an eyebrow. “A big enough deal to call the cops out, apparently.”
“That was a mistake,” I said quickly. This conversation was going bad quickly. This was not how my morning was supposed to go.
“Look, she may have memory problems, but she has a doctor’s appointment set for next week. I can give you the name of her doctor. It’s in Orlando, and I promise she won’t call the cops anymore. Just don’t make a big deal about this. Please.”
His pen hovered over his pad as he contemplated something, then he closed the pad and tore out the paper and crumbled it up into a ball, putting the pen back in his pocket.
“Got a trash can?” he asked with a smirk, holding out the ball of paper.
“Thank you so much, really.” I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding and took the ball from him.
“Look, between you and me, kid, you’ve been through a lot these past few weeks. This is just going to add to it, and I’d rather not do that to you twice. I’m a cop, but I’m not a dick.” He smiled kindly.
“Kid?” I frowned. “You can’t be that much older than me, no offense,” I added last minute. I didn’t want to offend him, since he just let us off the hook for the false alarm.
“I’m twenty-six, so in my book, you are a kid, although I haven’t had to deal with as nearly as much shit as you have.”
“Whoa, cops cuss?” I asked, shocked.
“Cops invented cussing,” he laughed as he walked toward the door.
“Wait, you were going to give me the report, about my parents?” I was suddenly very nervous.
“I was just headed to the car to get it, actually.” He paused with his hand on the knob.
“Well, I was on my way to school, and my sister isn’t here. She wants to be present when you go over it.”
“Oh, I wasn’t aware you had a sister. How old is she?”
“Eighteen.”
“I see. Well, I could make myself busy around town, I suppose, and then meet you at your house, say, around five thirty?”
I knew he was doing this as a favor. There was nothing to make him busy in this town. I nodded my head appreciatively and said thank you. After closing the door behind him, I went to find Aunt Opal in the kitchen eating, you guessed it, pudding.
“Auntie, I thought I said no pudding,” I sighed, moving the four-pack away from her.
“Oh, pshh, chile. I’m grown.” She licked the spoon in a very nongrown way.
“You’ll be happy to know that you’re not being fined for a false call to the police.”
“I knew you’d handle it. Besides, that fella is sweet on you. That ol’ Trevor has some competition on his hands.”
I balked. “What did you say?”
“You heard me, chile. That there fella is sweet on you. Trevor had betta watch out.” She smiled like a Cheshire cat.
I hadn’t told her that Trevor had broken and then stomped on my heart with a combat boot. Hearing his name brought on a fresh wave of hurt, since she still thought of him as being in my life. I would have to tell them all eventually, but I couldn’t just yet.
“Auntie, I think you’re seeing things. That’s the officer who...who told me about Mom and Dad’s accident. We don’t know each other. This was our first time meeting, actually.”
“I don’t care when you met, chile. I saw the way he was lookin’ atcha, and that fella is sweet on you.” She tried to reach for more pudding.
“No, Auntie, he’s not.” I moved the pudding out of reach farther, and she huffed at me.
“He is, now I know what I saw. I may be crazy, but I ain’t blind. Fella�
��s used to fall for your momma like that. It’s your eyes. They the same as hers. Now give me my pudding!”
This wasn’t the first time she had told me that I had my mother’s eyes.
“No! And it’s still left to be seen if you’re blind,” I added under my breath. I got up and put the pudding cups in my purse and got some yogurt from the fridge with fruit on the bottom and handed it to her instead.
“What’s this?” She eyed it suspiciously.
“It’s a new pudding, with fruit,” I lied.
She shrugged and opened it and dug in, putting a big spoonful in her mouth.
“S’not bad. I’ll take three more of these then.” She shoved two more spoonfuls into her mouth.
While she was devouring the yogurt, I made a mental note to get her more fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt.
When she was done with the yogurt, I told her I was leaving for school and I would see her the day after tomorrow.
“That’s fine, chile. You don’t haffta remind me every time. I know.”
“I’m just making sure, Auntie.”
She eyed me as I was walking to the kitchen door, so much that I stopped and asked what was wrong.
“You all right, chile? You don’t seem like yourself.”
“I’m okay, Auntie, just tired lately.”
“No, it ain’t that. This is deeper. Your soul is wounded.” She tilted her head to the side.
“Well, my parents just died, so...” I trailed off, hoping she would buy that.
“You can’t fool me, chile. That ain’t it either. Somethin’ ain’t right about you. You off,” she poked me in the ribs.
“Ow! Auntie, that huts.”
“You been eatin’ right?”
While Mrs. D had kept to her word and fixed food every time she was in town, which seemed to be almost every weekend, I barely ate it, as I wasn’t hungry these days.
“Yes, Auntie. We still have leftovers from the last time Mrs. D was in town,” I lied.
“Well, all right, but still. Somthin’ off about you. Go on get to school.” She narrowed her eyes at me as I closed the door, then peeked at me from behind the curtain while I got into my car until I drove away.
I didn’t really give much thought to Aunt Opal’s accusations of something being off with me because she wasn’t wrong. Something was off with me. I just couldn’t put into words what it was. I couldn’t explain to Opal and Aria that everything that was wrong with me was them—not them literally, but the pressure of them, the impeding issue of Opal’s sickness, the pressure of this police report and what it could mean to Aria and her conscience, and then there was Trevor. I had thought he loved me, but he didn’t, and then I thought Wally hadn’t loved me when he did. Irony, like life, was a cruel bitch.
By the time I got to school, it was clear that everyone knew about the little fiasco at Opal’s that morning, although no one approached me as they would have weeks ago, and since I had closed myself off this past week, I walked the hall oblivious to the stares. Okay, not oblivious, just not caring as much anymore.
I pretended not to notice Riley pass me in the hall. Normally, he would get the hint and keep going, but today he turned around.
“So you made bail already?” he joked.
“Yeah, I gave the officer a blow job and he let me go,” I deadpanned, still walking.
He didn’t laugh. “I was kidding, Dac. I’m sorry,” he said, looking hurt.
“I wasn’t. Look, Riley, I’m in a hurry. Did you need something?”
He grabbed my arm to stop me from walking, and I let him.
“I know” was all he said, and I knew what he was referring to. I averted my eyes because I was not going to break at school. I was not.
“Yeah, well.”
“He’s a dick, and just say the word and I’ll avenge you for him.” He looked me in the eye very seriously.
It warmed my heart that he would offer. I gave him a weak smile and patted his arm. “Thanks, Riley, but no. You know Trevor would Hulk Smash you with like one hit.”
“I know, right.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for saying no,” he smiled.
I smiled big, something I hadn’t done since I couldn’t remember when. “Thanks, Riley, I needed that smile—you have no idea.”
“I know you did. I’ve noticed,” he said, turning serious.
“I need time, Riley,” I said in a small voice.
He let go of my arm, and I turned and walked to my next class.
Later in the day, I texted Aria and told her to come straight home from school, no exceptions, it was important. When she asked why, I told her just to come home and she said okay. If I told her Officer Parks had the report back, she would freak the rest of the day and not be able to function.
I was first to get home, at five fifteen, and wasn’t at all surprised to find that Officer Parks was already parked on the side of the road, waiting. When he saw me, he got out and met me as I was getting out of my car.
“Miss Harper,” he tipped his head by way of a hello.
“Dacey. Call me Dacey, please.”
“What an unusual name. I wanted to mention it earlier, but there were other pressing things going on,” he commented as he followed me up the walkway to the front door.
“It’s Gaelic. My birth mom picked it out before I was born,” I explained as I unlocked the door. He held it open for me.
“So it was your stepmom that was in the accident?”
“No, she was my mom,” I said defensively. I had come to despise the word “step” since Mick had put such an emphasis on it.
Officer Parks held his hands up defensively. “Whoa, I didn’t mean to offend you. I was just trying to get the familial bonds straight.”
I immediately felt guilty. “I’m sorry, it’s not you. It’s just that Ann raised me since I was nine, and before that, I didn’t have a mom. She’s all I’ve ever known, so she is my mom, no ‘step,’ and Aria is my sister, ‘no step.’ Got it?”
“I think I do now,” he said with a smirk.
I gestured to the kitchen. “Would you like a glass of water?”
“Sure.”
We went into the kitchen, and he sat at the kitchen table, legs spread apart, just like a cop, I assume to make room for what I like to call their utility belt. Or other things.
“Aria should be here any minute. She will want to hear the report too.”
For the first time, I noticed that he had a manila folder tucked under his arm that was now placed on the table in front of him. My palms had started to sweat, even though I had told Aria that this didn’t matter to me. If Mom was driving, this would shatter Aria. There would be no coming back from this for her, and I didn’t know if I could live with that.
“It’s just a field report. Why do you look like you’re going to be sick? There is nothing telling in the report,” he said, misunderstanding my unease.
“It’s not that. I’m just...It’s nothing.”
He crinkled his forehead. “Part of my job as an officer is also to talk to the families, so you can talk to me, Dacey. What’s on your mind?”
I don’t know what made me confide in him, maybe because he was a stranger and not from this town, or maybe it was his eyes—they were the color of an autumn leaf, a golden brown, and made me want to tell things to them. Maybe I was just tired of keeping everything to myself and wanted someone to talk to who was an outsider. Whatever the reason, I found myself telling him the information about the text message and how it was crucial that we knew who was driving so that my sister could be put at ease. And when I was done, I felt marginally better, but I wouldn’t feel better until I knew.
He sat and listened, and when I was done, he looked sadly at me.
“Even if the report says your mother was driving, you girls should get some kind of counseling. This type of loss is great and can’t be dealt with alone, and I can recommend some places.”
“Uh, maybe. I’ll have to talk to A. Let’s just get through
the next ten minutes, huh?”
I heard her car door slam, then ten second later, I heard her barrel through the door.
“Dacey! Oh, no! What’s the matter? Why is there a cop outside—” She stopped short once she saw Officer Parks sitting at the kitchen table.
“A, this is Officer Parks. He’s the one who was on the scene when Mom and Dad had their accident,” I calmly explained, although I was anything but, my insides in knots.
She registered why he was there quickly enough. “You have the final report.”
He nodded and extended his hand. “Hello, Aria. I’m Officer Parks. Why don’t we all have a seat?” He gestured to the chairs in front of him.
We sat stiffly in the chairs as if they were foreign to us and waited for him to begin.
“I’m no good at speaking in layman terms so that you guys understand, so please forgive me. I’m going to make this as civilian as possible, all right?”
We each nodded, unable to speak, choked by fear. Aria grabbed my hand under the table and squeezed it. It was the first kind of physical contact we had in a week. I felt guilty that I hadn’t been there for her this past week. That guilt had me longing for my parents’ room once more.
By the time Officer Parks finished up, the kitchen had become so quiet you could hear a mouse fart.
Aria cleared her throat. “Who...who was the driver?” she asked softly.
Officer Parks made a show of looking back into his notes, though I knew he already knew the answer since he had told me he typed up the report. “Um, Mr. Harper appeared to be the driver. He was ejected, and Mrs. Harper was still in the vehicle when I arrived on scene.”
Aria’s hand, which had been white-knuckling mine, relaxed, and she let out a small sigh that only I could hear.
Internally, I let out a sigh. Finally, she could forgive herself and not think she was responsible for our parents’ death.
“I really am sorry, girls. It’s a hard thing to lose someone, especially a parent. I can’t imagine what this must be like for you guys, but know you can start to put this tragedy behind you. It does get easier with time, I can promise you that. Here is my card. If you guys have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to call me.” He handed the business card to me and stood to leave, gathering his manila folder.
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