Goodbye Normal

by Lily N Anderson

  “There was no symptom really. It was like getting struck by a heart attack. I don’t have very good details on the disease, but what I know for sure is that, the eyes of the infected person became very black, like charcoal black. But this observation was only when they were found dead. It was very convincing to think it was witchcraft but it really wasn’t, I will try to dig out some data on this, although am not certain about getting anything helpful. No one likes talking about those awful times anyway. They were the hardest and darkest times for the people of Desolia.”

  “I really think that witchcraft is a pathetic craft.” Zoe said conclusively.

  “How can anyone even believe in such absurd nonsense?” Carol seconded her daughter’s motion “Everything about it is just deceitful, it gives false hopes to people who believe in it.”

  “It’s really creepy. But mom what if it really was witchcraft?” Zack’s thoughtful face was ashen.

  “You should never believe in such atrocity!” Carol hissed. For a second there, her eyes sparkled with anger and the room went still.

  “No way!” Liz gasped, making the rest attentive to what she had to say “The whole story is just fascinating, Witchcraft is fascinating. Desolia has a unique background that should be celebrated at some point. I never seem to get bored of it.” she defended.

  “You’re ridiculous! It’s very sad.” Zack forced a crinkle on the ridge between his eyes.

  “That’s why it’s fascinating. You lack…. dramatic insight.” Liz nodded to her new observation.

  “There is no such thing as dramatic insight” Zack muttered. His eyes squeezed in disdain.

  “What do you know, you are 5.” Liz scoffed.

  “Am 8 and you’re a psycho.” Zack grouched.

  “Look who’s talking.” Liz grumbled then met his piercing glare.

  For a minute there, both Zoe and Carol were stupefied with the energy circulating the two diametrical people. On the other hand it was rewarding to see how defensive Zack could get. While growing up Zoe was terrified and scared to think his little brother could easily get bullied around. But not anymore, he could put up a fight.

  Carol chuckled “The two of you look like nursery school children fighting for crayons.”

  Zoe joined in the laughter “No mom, it’s more like watching cartoons.”

  “Oooookay, Now that this storm is over, lets direct those energetic bodies to more productive stuffs huh?” Carol suggested while helping Zoe clear off the table.

  Zack said “whatever.” from under his breath; no one could possibly hear him. He shoved away from the table and started to head for the hallway.

  “Zackary! Stop those legs right now.” Carol ordered while his face crinkled to a frown. “It’s a Saturday and there is so much to do. I am not leaving anyone on this, on the contrary am relieved that we got us a new in the family member.”

  “Oh it’s soo good to be home.” Liz produced a fake smile.

  Carol went to the cabinets and took out a notebook which had a list of her neatly scribbled to-dos.

  “1. Groceries and cleaners…that’s me

  2. Dishes and dusting

  3. Laundry

  4. Household trash… that’s you Zack and the rest the two of you will decide who will do what. All I need is a clean house when I get back. Plus you can do whatever you want to afterwards…so it’s a win win.” Carol concluded.

  “That’s fine by me” Zoe breathed.

  “I don’t have a choice” Liz resigned twitching her lips.

  “Oh you surely did dear, and you chose me.” Carol grinned raising a brow at her. Liz uttered a groan in response.

  The roster was a success and eventually each one of them was able to do as they were assigned and a little more. The house looked neat, welcoming, brighter and clearly refreshing. This was the case if Zoe’s room was excluded in the picture. After being dutiful, Zoe and Liz went goofing around in her bedroom, then played dress up for the big day. It was no joke, 1st pay check, 1st car ever, those were two important firsts in a row. They knew they had to look beautiful for the big day.

  Her bed was a mighty mess with colorful clothes strewn all over the place. Garments and shoes cropped from different corners of her room’s thick brown rug. Liz was comfortably perched in between the colorful mess on the bed doing judgmental critics on every piece she put on.

  “Zoe dear, incase you were misinformed, the female fashion industry has very cool dresses and skirts these days.” Liz mocked.

  Ignoring Liz’s analysis, she let her mind do its own analysis on which sun goggle to pick.

  “You look like you’re going to buy a Porsche.” Liz quipped, observing Zoe in a neon green transparent top, a small orange waist belt and white pair of shorts.

  Zoe flipped her lips and pretended to be fuming then resigned to the obvious “jeez, how I wish, that would have been awesome.” she said dreamily.

  Liz hissed “boy, you sure have a lot of dreaming to do.” shooting a glance at Mickels.

  She groaned “Really Liz! How do I even stand you?”

  “Simple. You love me too much” Liz winked at her.

  “True, but don’t let that get into your head.” she warned.

  “Too late girlfriend.” she shook her head with a sarcastic face.

  Zoe’s outlook was completed with a peony pair of wedge sandals. They left for their adventure shortly after Carol was back from her share of chores. She wished Zoe good luck in choosing her first car with a heartbreaking voice and sad eyes. If one didn’t know better, it was easy to assume differently.

  “Hope you get a beautiful car darling just like you, you deserve it.” Carol murmured over her ear.

  “Thank you mom.” Sensing the pain in her warm voice, she added sincerely “It really is alright mom, don’t worry.”

  Carol was straining so hard to hold the threatening urge to break down on her daughter’s shoulders. She inhaled but it sounded like a sniff.

  “I love you baby” she told her, looking straight into her clear blueness.

  “I love you mom” she smiled, swelling in her mother’s warmth.

  When they drove out of her driveway, Carol stood still. Motionless.

  It was useless for Zoe to ask her not to worry, because that was exactly what triggered the emotions in her voice and eyes. She knew that her mother was sad because she could not provide everything she wanted. Although she did okay with what she needed. She was now a young woman; she’d like to think of herself as grown, responsible and reliable just like her father was. Ok, maybe not all that but she didn’t want to be a total pain to her mother.

  Penguin was a famous company in their little town. It dealt with buying and selling of used cars and motor parts. They were local dealers but very reliable and easily reachable incase of uncalled for inconveniences. They had a protocol not to buy a car that was not from the very first owner of an automobile. So that made the car a lot less scrappy, which was a major advantage to Zoe.

  They were received properly and graciously by a smiling salesman eager to make commission. He was thin short man with a face that looked aged more than it probably should.

  “Hallo ladies, welcome to Penguin automobile, where you get it cheap but reliable. What can I do for you?” he smiled cheerfully. He made the welcoming note feel like a customer service call and Liz was not good at letting things pass.

  “We know where we are dude, show us the damn cars.” Liz snapped.

  “Oh very well then, please follow me.”

  As the thin man strode in front of them towards the show area, with a neat two feet difference, Zoe turned her face to Liz.

  “Can you be nice to the poor guy?”

  “What did I do wrong?” Liz inquired then stopped walking “he was practically telling us we are illiterate, and excuse me I can…I read, very well.”

  “That is called salesmanship, give the guy a break.”

  “Why are you getting so worked up, its not like he is mad.”


  “It’s his job not to be.” Zoe snarled, irritated. She walked faster so as to catch up with the salesman.

  “Whatever.” Liz shrugged keeping up with Zoe’s speed.

  When he asked what kinda car they needed, Zoe named her price and asked to be shown every car available in that price range.

  An hour later, they had been through a dozen vehicles. That was until Zoe spotted a 2010 Silver golf Volkswagen. Its body outlook was good enough, simple and hopefully affordable. She smiled after picturing herself in it and it felt perfect.

  “Uhm excuse me, what about that silver Volkswagen.”

  “That’s a 2010 golf, and it’s in your range, let’s go take a look.”

  “Yeeey.” Zoe grinned, clapping her hands cheerfully.

  “Oh thank God, I hope we like this one, am super tired of this place” Liz complained.

  “I have a good feeling, this is it.”

  “It better be.”

  Everything the salesman explained about the car and its abilities was a yes for her. She tried the interior and was impressed. The seats felt comfortable, there was enough space and plenty cargo space too. If it was fatigue that was forcing her to make rash decision then she was doomed. But if it was she thought it was, like at first glance then she felt lucky.

  In the manager’s office, Zoe was trying so hard to concentrate on all the rules, regulations and terms of the transaction that the Manager was exuberantly outlining for her. Unfortunately, she was too charged up to understand what the man was saying. It felt like he was speaking a foreign language and the words printed out on the contract must have been mixed with a little Spanish or something. It had to be that or the exciternent was too overwhelming to reason decently.

  In due time, Zoe was done signing papers to complete her major transaction. She came from the manager’s office with a grin so wide she could almost feel her cheeks hurting. On her hands were a file and her keys. She ringed her keys on the index finger then swirled them around in the air purposefully just to enjoying the possessive feeling.

  Ready to brag about it to Liz, she found her leaning on her car, talking to someone on her phone. Her back was facing Zoe. When she got closer to her, she could hear a tiny fragment of the conversation but could not understand.

  “Whooa thank you so much.” pause “I will be there in no time.” another pause “okay no problem, bye.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Zoe asked as Liz turned to face her, she noticed Liz face was over lit up.

  “I was on the phone with your dream come true fairy! O.M.G Zoe Brown you are the luckiest girl alive.” Liz danced around to the music in her head.

  “Are we in the same page here.” she asked dancing along while showing of her rattling keys.

  “Hell no, not your car, this will make you scream.”

  “O…kay!” she looked confused.

  “Josh, Josh Mickels is in town.”

  Zoe remained silent for some seconds and let the words sink into her system.

  “How does that make me lucky?” she knew exactly what Liz’s intension were, only that for some reason she didn’t want to register.

  “He is doing a sunset photo shoot at Cocogroves private beach, and we got an inside man to sneak as in.” Liz said as she jumped all over the place. The enthusiasm she displayed was quiet opposite to what she was experiencing. Zoe felt her stomach churn with anxiety. It was all bizarre.

  It felt awkward that Liz looked so much more excited than her. She was suddenly unsure of what would happen if they got to actually meet. Face to face with her long time schoolmate – now celebrity crush.

  How would it really feel? Will they have an understanding? What if he doesn’t like her, what if he thinks she is not very fashionable? What if he is just that…A poster crush? What if…no they were becoming too many what ifs, she grimaced at her thoughts. The fact that there was a 98 percentile that he had a skinny giraffe of a girlfriend somewhere in the world had always crossed her mind. It did again, but she immediately shooed the thought away by concentrating on the present commotion.

  Liz stared at her in disbelief “Hey are you okay? I thought you’ll be overjoyed about this instead you look… confused and weird.”

  Her shoulders dropped, then she signed heavily “I don’t know…I don’t know about this, it feels like a pretty bad idea.” the words from her mouth felt like a surprise to her own ears.

  The roll of Liz’s eyes didn’t match up to her gasp.

  “Are you shiting me! That is bullshit, what is there to know? We should find that crush of yours and find out if it’s a bad idea or not. Don’t play games with me Zoe, we are so doing this. You might thank me one day.” Liz pressed.

  “What if he has a girlfriend?” she wondered.

  “Simple.” Liz raised a brow “Then he will break up with her to be with you.”

  Zoe chuckled-Liz’s reply was surprisingly refreshing but simply ironic.

  While heading to the coco groves private beach, they drove in separate cars. It was a good thing, actually a brave thing. She wanted to think beforehand plus prepare for her grand encounter and that separation allowed her not to suffer some more nagging time.

  She was reluctant to admit that Liz was right. It was a stupid thing not to see him. But she didn’t feel the need to it anymore. Although truthfully, her irrelevant stubbornness put to rest, she did have to see him for herself, this was in fact a chance of a lifetime.

  The last time she had an encounter with him was when his face was not on billboards. He had gone to school at Doomsberg high. They were very young and he was above her two classes. He had never spoken a word to her, she wasn’t sure if he even knew she existed. But probably the blue eyed black girl or late coach Brown’s daughter would give her away. After all, those were her fame names.

  She knew that his parents still lived in Desolia and that in the course of ascertaining education he had shifted a lot of schools. She wasn’t sure if he was a bully, troublemaker or it was his parent’s jobs that made them shift so much. All she was sure of was that she used to eye him constantly. Even as a young boy he had an exceptional coolness about how he carried himself around. She now smiled to her memories of stalking-hood. A blush washed over her and she felt the childhood embarrassment creep up on her once again.

  The parking lot was packed. Every fancy car one could think of was there. Most of them were sparkling, pimped up and clean. It looked like there would be too many people and she suddenly felt her chances of a face to face talk go slim.

  She lagged behind Liz as if by some magnetic force Liz was pulling her towards her direction. The beach was colorful and extremely busy. There was too many bikini bodied hotties, with so much cleavage in display and muscular tanned chests scattered all over the white sands.

  Their inside man was in a conversation with another man who looked like a photographer, he had on him a camera over his neck. Zoe looked like she was going to puke while Liz waved vigorously to their guy. The two men started moving toward them and Liz patted Zoe on her shoulder.

  “Smile damnit, you’re getting in to my nerves.” Liz fumed.

  By the time the gentlemen were already close enough, Zoe forced out a robot like smile.

  Liz went down memory lane with their inside man, of whom she was not introduced to just yet. While as Zoe was left with the photographer who was taking an interest on her features.

  “My names are Jean Pierre, you are.” with a throaty French accent to match his name.

  “Zoe—” before she could properly introduce herself, he had already jumped to another interest.

  “Mon Dieu! vos yeux.” Zoe blinked, what the hell did he say? She didn’t understand that he said My God your eyes. She wasn’t a multilingual of any sort. Her mother was French but one that was born and raised in the states. She wasn’t to be blamed.

  “Zose contacts fit in zem perfectly mon cherie.” he continued, she was about to say they were her real eyes but it didn’t look like he would listen. As
it is, he was already pulling her away from Liz to a cabin.

  “Have you ever considered modeling?” he continued “You will look spectacular on a magazine cover.” his eyes twinkled and smiled, revealing perfect teeth “or as you Americans put it, a total cheesecake.”

  “Ammh… Jean, I don’t model.”

  “But you can, you can start. You are tall, stunning and you should keep zose eyes.”

  “These eyes are-“

  “Oh cammon cherie, let me introduce you to my star zen maybe he will want to feature you in zis shoot, you may never know, this maybe our fate.” Before she was able to protest on his good natured offer, they were already inside the cabin.

  Her face creased with disgust.

  They were in a foreign territory. It felt like they had bumped into a sexual scene in a rolling film. Only that there were no cameras on set; It was as real as it appeared to be. A tall muscular shirtless guy was shoving his throat down a girl with a bikini, while another girl who was equally underdressed busied herself by caressing the guy’s back.

  Zoe was too stunned to blink. Jean faked a cough, and the party broke.

  To her surprise, not one of the party members looked embarrassed. The girls gave out sassy giggles as the guy turned to face them. Zoe could feel her ears burn. It was Josh.

  His usual white skin was beautifully tanned. The abs on his abdomen couldn’t possibly get any tighter. He looked as handsome as ever, but the image she had bumped into was blocking all else.

  “josh, take a break from women mon garcon, we have work to do. And see if this one can replace Moira’s absence, I’ll be back in about fifteen minutes” Jean instructed, heading for the door.

  “Mind your own shit Jean.” Josh called out to him as he headed outside.

  Zoe was so baffled that she barely noticed Jean’s absence until Josh trailed a hot finger over her jaw line.

  She jerked his hand from her face with so much energy that nearly landed as a slap.

  “It’s okay honey.” He said. Zoe huffed, honey really! Josh then raised his hands with pretence of surrender “There is no need to get feisty. What can I do for you? Or let me rephrase it, how can I do you?” he made his impudent inquiry while going for her waist, a grim smile stretching on his face. The girls supported his boldness by a chorus of annoying titter.