by C. Elizabeth
Mom shook her head in despair. “Hi, honey.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, noticing that she seemed off in space, somewhere else.
“Mom?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, honey. It’s just sad.”
“What is?”
She gave me a tight smile. “Three separations over the weekend.”
“Who?”
“Set the table, please. Carson and Mary, Jack and Louise, and Mike and Carmen. Apparently, all were quite physical and nasty.” She shook her head and muttered under her breath, “They were the happiest of all our friends.”
“That is strange,” I mumbled as I put the knives and forks beside the plates. “Why are we eating so early?”
“Hmm.”
The way she was acting was weird, like she wasn’t even there.
“Mom?”
“Huh?”
“Are you okay?”
She nodded, again muttering under her breath, “Two more murder/suicides.”
“Mom! What are you talking about?” She was scaring me.
“Oh, I’m sorry! It’s so hard to hear all the horrible news that happened over one weekend.”
“What? The break ups?”
“Yes that, but there were two more murder/suicides in the same neighborhood as Lilly and Ted.”
A shiver ran down my spine. “Really?”
“Mm-hm.” Mom put the casserole on the table and seemed to snap out of it. “Come on, dig in. Now, how was your day?”
Just like that, my mom acted as if she was half loony, then was fine. I shrugged without answering.
“That good, huh?”
“Yeah, everyone’s mad at me.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s been a crazy day. It seems like everyone’s angry.”
She creased her forehead. “It’ll be better soon, honey.”
The food on my plate wasn’t appealing to me, and instead of eating, I picked at it.
Mom reached over and patted my hand. “I’m sorry, Saydi, for the other night. I had no right to act like that.”
Her eyes were moist and she was still struggling with it, I could tell. “Mom, what’s the big deal?”
She shrugged. “You know me. I got a bad vibe from that book and it took me off kilter.”
“All that for a bad vibe?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“It seems funny, but you know I take those feelings seriously.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve finished the book. I’m going to take it back after we eat. But why did you freak out about the Braxtons?”
The look on her face told me she was trying to figure out an answer to my question. “It was just that they were connected to it. You know, it gives me bad vibes, so the owners do too.”
“You know, Mom, you’re weird.” I laughed. As much as I wanted to ask her about her drive, I didn’t, fearing it would upset her again. A later time would probably be best.
“This I already knew.” Her laugh was tight.
~ * ~
It was a good thing we ate early, because there was enough daylight left to get to Nathanael’s and, hopefully, he’d drive me home. I bundled up and put the book in a bag, just in case, and clutched it to my chest. By the way the wind was whistling through the windows at home, I thought it was going to be especially harsh. But it wasn’t so bad. It was tolerable.
My mind went through everything that had happened, trying to figure out how things got turned around on me and about Nathanael’s rethink on kissing me. A little ache started to fester and as usual, instead of turning up the street, I took the path that led me either to the park or the swimming hole. The smell of a campfire caught my attention, luring me to the swimming hole instead of the park.
When I stepped out from the edge of the trees, my heart skipped a beat when Nathanael and his brothers came into view. They had no shirts on—that intrigued me, not just by how muscular they were, but how they withstood the cold. They were crouched down, moving their hands in such a way as to either block a blow or throw one... Weaving in and out from one another, they always seemed to know where the other was. At first I was going to call out, but the way they easily shuffled around one another looked so neat. There was a need to watch. Quietly I drifted back, fading under the shadow of the trees.
“We don’t have a lot of time to practice. Father will be here soon,” Nathanael said, then with agility and super speed, so fast I wasn’t sure if I saw it at all, he threw his legs up and did a flip in midair, landing the other way.
I threw my hand up to my mouth to stop the “wow” from leaking out.
“Come now, brother, you can’t take on two of us,” one of his brothers said. I still didn’t know which one.
Nathanael grinned. “I beat you every time.”
“Well, tonight might be our lucky night,” the other chimed in.
Nathanael stood tall and motioned with his hands to come and get him...and they did. Both flew through the air, not by inches, but by feet, poised with their arms out ready to grab him.
My hand clenched against my mouth to stifle the huge gasp that threatened, leaving my breath in my throat.
Nathanael’s laughter ricocheted against the air as he leapt straight up into the trees, landing on a branch about ten feet up. “Have to do better than that, bros.”
Joshua and Job didn’t crash or land. Instead they twisted in midair with the same speed and agility, using each other for leverage to get to Nathanael.
Nathanael jumped at his brothers—they moved so fast, a blur...yet graceful. Then came a loud crunch, sounding like bone breaking. It echoed in the clearing, then next, a very loud growl.
My eyes stung from not blinking. I pulled in a quick breath and held it.
Laughing, Nathanael landed on his feet. One of his brothers stood beside him and the other was on the ground holding his head.
The one standing held his hand out to help the other up.
“Joshua, you do that time and time again,” Nathanael said.
Joshua was rubbing his head hard. “How is it you see that move every time?”
My legs shook, while my head tried to wrap around what I had seen. Saydi, your mind is playing tricks on you. It was only the shadows from the fire and the sun going down. No one can actually do that.
“Because it’s the only move you have.” Nathanael chuckled, slapping him on the back.
“True, bro.”
“Shall we try it again?” Job asked.
“Yeah, let’s.” Joshua had a funky grin on his face, then gave one quick nod to Nathanael as he crouched back down to join his brothers in the dance again.
“How’s the love life, brother?” Joshua plugged at Nathanael.
Nathanael smiled. “Not great. Yours?”
“It’s progressing. Have you tried to make a move?”
“Not so much.”
“Why not?”
Nathanael shrugged. “Not interested.”
“That good, huh?” Job said sarcastically.
“Yeah, you could say that,” he confirmed.
The searing pain began as an ache—I should’ve listened to my initial intuition as Mom always told me. Nathanael had been wearing a mask the whole time, using me; none of it was real. I backed away, stepping lightly so they wouldn’t hear my footsteps, and when they were out of earshot I wheeled around and ran. The ache exploded into my throat. Sobs lurched forward when my breath let loose. The tears stung my face while the wind lashed against it.
Bursting out of the trees, my feet flew across the pavement and with a single beat of my heart, it crushed in the wake of Nathanael.
~ * ~
I stood in front of the safety fence that surrounded the old abandoned diamond mine, five kilometers from town. I had no recollection of being on the highway, nor on the overgrown path that took me there—I literally had no idea how I got there.
Years earlier it was one of the busiest places for a hundred kilometers,
when trucks constantly hauled away the earth in hopes of getting that next big strike. Instead, it simply made a hole sixty feet deep and wide, and with passing time, the trees and bushes started to reclaim it as their own.
There were a couple of places where the fence had been breached and I squeezed through one, then followed it around until I came to a rock that jutted out toward the middle of the cavern.
Wiping the tears from my face, I eased my way to the edge and perched on it, letting my legs dangle. How did you get here so fast? I asked myself. How did Nathanael and his brothers seem to fly? Nathanael said they didn’t have a lot of time to practice—wires. Aha! It had to be wires strung up in the trees. Maybe they did some kind of acrobat act on the side and the clearing was the perfect place to give them the room they needed. Nodding to myself, I thought, Yes, of course.
Thinking about him wasn’t one of my brightest ideas, because figuring out that mystery had my chest heaving again. It was dumb to feel so lost, hurt, and alone over some guy I only knew for three days. You had no right to feel the way you did so quickly. You silly, silly, girl for allowing him to get to you. At least I had found out sooner rather than later. Later would have been even more of a disaster.
Trying to talk myself into believing it would have been worse ‘later’ didn’t loosen the twist in my stomach, nor did it relieve any of the burning pain that lodged on my insides. My tears fell quietly as the sun slowly disappeared. Off in the distance, a fog was rising, one that had a pink shimmer to it, obviously a reflection from the sun against the cool dampness on the ground. It was quite pretty.
Then my mind wandered again, considering my options. When Nathanael came around, how was I going to handle it? There was no answer—it was simply one of those situations that could only be dealt with at the precise moment it was happening.
The wind picked up quickly and alerted me to the fact it was time to go home to give Mom the good news—there was no more Nathanael. I rose to my feet and brushed off my cold butt. Oh great. Now I’m gonna get hemorrhoids. But before I was able to navigate myself off the rock, the unmistakable feeling of being watched washed over me—that fog hovered ominously a couple feet away. It looked alive, watching me.
It slowly inched its way toward me and upon closer inspection, it no longer looked like fog and the pink wasn’t just a reflection—it was imbedded in each individual particle. As a whole, it rippled like water, yet was suspended in midair and remained completely untouched by the strong wind all around me. It had me mesmerized, locking my feet to the ground.
The sun was almost completely down and only a glow remained in the western sky. With the threat of being swallowed up by a pink mine monster, my feet decided moving would be a good idea—slowly I scaled back toward solid ground until the lip of the rock could be felt on my heel.
The pink flowed forward, crawling until it found my hands, shrouding them in a veil of pink—it felt like a soft blanket, even tickling a little. What are you doing? Run! A charge of pure adrenaline pushed blood through my veins so fast that it had me struggling to catch my breath, my legs wobbled underneath me, threatening to disappear. Gripping the book in one hand, I flicked my other, trying to shake it off.
“Get off me!” The hair on the back of my neck and arms stood on end; the darn thing wasn’t letting go. Then across the cavern a silhouette of a person appeared. My heart couldn’t take any more! It rammed against my chest and seized any rational thought from processing. I had no idea what to do.
In a moment of terror, my legs finally found me, but before I could shoot off down the path the silhouette raised its arms and the pink mine monster slid from my hands and drifted away. I screamed, taking off like a bullet, tearing down the path, barely feeling the branches from the overgrowth touch my face. I remembered my feet hitting the pavement, but didn’t remember how I got to my front porch.
Fifteen
I never said anything to Mom about the mine incident. If she knew about everything, she’d definitely lock me up and throw away the key. However, I did tell her about Nathanael, and though she said she was sorry, her eyes lit up some when the news fell out of my mouth.
The concern and worry I had about what to do when Nathanael came around or called turned out to be completely unnecessary, because after that day, he never did call nor did I see him.
Days passed, and with each morning I’d wake up praying the heartache that ate at me throughout every waking hour had diminished some during the night. But it was a lost hope and the slow burn over Nathanael steadily got worse, proving he wasn’t just any boy. In those three short days, he’d interwoven himself through me so deeply he was imbedded in my soul, deeper than I even knew. That is, until he wasn’t there anymore, leaving behind an emptiness that felt like it would never be filled. But even with the pain, eventually my outward daily routine went back to normal and the weird dreams and daydreams stopped.
With a little bit of groveling on everyone’s part, my friends and I worked things out and laughed about it when we did. Angie even forgave Norma and Job easily when they both begged for her forgiveness. Mind you, there was a bit of suspicion on my part—Angie wasn’t usually that quick to forgive. But it didn’t matter. My girls were together.
The snow finally fell, bringing with it the cold and the miserably cold when the wind came up. On those days, I’d watch the horizon carefully, making sure no fuzzy pink mine monster was hanging around ready to eat my hands again. Making fun of what happened was the only way I could cope, because if I didn’t, the fear would take over. I didn’t want to be caught standing in the middle of Main Street screaming for no apparent reason, because that would only confirm to everyone else what I already knew—I was half crazy.
“Come on, Saydi, come to Sloppy’s,” Becky whined, tugging on my hands.
“No thanks, it’s not somewhere I want to be right now.”
Angie looked at me sympathetically. “Saydi, Nathanael has been out of town, so maybe you did misunderstand,” she suggested. Again.
A week before, they informed me that Nathanael and his dad had been called out of the country on an emergency—something about a well that blew up. For me there was more to it than that. When I told the girls a less nuts version of what happened, I secretly hoped it would get back to Nathanael and he would call to apologize. It made sense to me that if he was interested, he’d be worried about me overhearing something like that. Instead, it was clear it only made it easier for him to ignore me.
“Has Job said anything?” I asked.
She shook her head and all I had to do was look at Becky with the same question on my face. She shook her head, too.
I gave them a small smile. “I don’t think I misunderstood, Angie. Besides, if he were interested, he’d have phoned and told me he was going out of town, or maybe called while he is out of town. I’m not stupid and I know when I’ve been dumped. Hanging out with his brothers just isn’t something I want to do.”
Norma smiled. “I always feel like the fifth wheel when you’re not around.” Norma never did say anything about what happened with Todd, and Todd never revealed anything either. We all knew something happened just from the way they avoided each other.
“I’m sorry, Norma. You can come over to my place and study with me.”
She wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out. “I think I’ll stick with the fifth wheel.”
That made me laugh.
A rumble from a car engine came up behind me and by the way Becky was bouncing on her toes, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who it was—Joshua. He was one of the last people I wanted to see.
“Hi, ladies,” he addressed us all.
Everyone else waved and said their hellos. Becky, of course, threw herself at him. It would be the first time in a week and half that I’d seen any of them. I had even managed to avoid Job and Joshua in church.
Joshua looked directly at me. “Hi, Saydi.”
Giving him a tight smile, I responded, “Hi.” Then
I turned to hurry away. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
Across the field, I could see Todd leaning against his car and when I got close enough he waved. “Hi!”
“Hi,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Just thought I’d offer you a ride.”
I laid my head slightly to the side. “Why?”
He pushed away and opened the passenger door. “I hate seeing you so sad all the time.”
I sighed. Apparently I wasn’t very good at hiding my feelings. “I’m trying not to be.”
He gently took my hand. “I know you are, but you’re crummy at it. Come on, I’ll take you home.”
Once on the road, he didn’t drive his usual maniac way. In fact, he drove just below the speed limit, which made me suspicious. “Why are you driving so slowly?”
He shrugged, not saying anything.
Though it was a losing battle, I tried again. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened between you and Norma?”
He belted out, “Saydi, that’s between me and Norma!” Then he snapped his eyes back to the road.
His outburst was ineffective in the wake of his revelation. I blurted, “Then you admit it!”
“Shit!” he muttered under his breath.
Getting him to open up that far was a miracle. If I were going to get the rest of the info, kid gloves were in order. With a softer tone, I asked, “What happened?”
He glowered my way, debating whether to say anything or not. Then he popped off, “Things! Stuff!”
From the look on his face, I knew exactly what “stuff” meant. “Have you talked to her about it at all?”
“No.”
“Todd, you should. You really hurt her.”
His voice went up two octaves. “Did she tell you that?”
“No, but I could tell. You know she’s had a crush on you since sixth grade.”
“It just happened,” he whispered.
“Just talk to her, clear the air. It’s always so thick when we’re all together.”
His face wrinkled up. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Take her for a pop somewhere other than Sloppy’s and explain things to her.”
