by Mav Skye
Mama Nola sat across the table from the trailer court manager and his son. A white candle sat between them; the flame burned low. The house was filled with the aroma of the blackberry pie in the oven and the whisper of a rotating fan. It suited Mama Nola’s voice as she retold her favorite ancient tale of their people.
“Uktena,” she breathed, holding eye contact with Chris.
The boy was tall and lanky with bright blue eyes and a spray of freckles. As usual, Chris was decked in a pale yellow shirt. Dan claimed Chris’s closet contained exactly seven yellow t-shirts hanging on wire hangers. They were labeled with every day of the week.
Being autistic, the boy hardly ever made contact with his father, much less anyone else. But there was something about Mama Nola that Chris trusted. Chris was approaching his adolescent years, and his voice change became apparent when he repeated, “Uktena.”
Mama Nola asked, “Do you see the Horned One in the flames?” She swept her hand toward the candle.
The boy followed her hand and stared intensely into the flickering flame. His lips pursed to speak, and Chloe paused at the table, where everyone leaned in to hear what he would say.
“I see…” said Chris.
“Yes?” said Dan.
“I see a—”
Everyone jumped when the buzzer went off on the stove.
Mama Nola cursed in her native tongue and touched her heart.
“Sorry!” Chloe ran back into the kitchen, swiping the hot pads off their hooks on the wall before opening the oven door.
A heat wave greeted her. It was already in the nineties outside. The stove had made the trailer that much warmer, but no one else seemed to notice.
“Uh, Chloe? I think your ride is here.”
“Is she?” Chloe peeked at the clock. Twenty minutes had come and gone. She slid the pie on a cooling rack and sprinted over to the dining room window. Shirley waved at her from the station wagon. Chloe held up her hand. Five minutes.
Shirley gave a thumbs up.
Chloe dashed back to the kitchen. She grabbed the plates she had already placed sandwiches and potato salad on, and set them down in front of Mama Nola and her visitors. Then, she put a frosty pitcher of iced tea on the table.
Dan marveled at his plate. “Gee, thanks, Chloe, it looks delicious. This is the best lunch I’ve had in ages.”
Chloe glowed with the compliment, but couldn’t resist a tease. “You may want to take a bite before you say that.”
Dan snickered, running his hand over his bald head. Chloe noticed the tattoos of dancing skeletons and teardrops on his arms. An acquirement of his former addict days. “Anything would taste better than the meals I make, right, Chris?”
Chris had lowered his eyes, and began to hum to himself. When he heard his name, he paused, thought about it, then nodded.
Dan yanked his thumb Chris’ way. “See?”
Chloe laughed.
Mama Nola said, “Just wait until you taste Ayita’s blackberry pie. Ostu.”
Chloe said, “I learned from the best.”
Mama Nola smoothed back her hair. “Vv, she did.”
Dan guffawed, reached out and touched Mama Nola’s hand. “Shit. I would never have guessed such a sweet lady would have that kind of sassy.”
Mama Nola laughed and spoke quickly in her native tongue, all the while giving Dan a very stern look.
Chloe said, “She says you better believe it. She also says not to curse in the house.”
“Damn, I mean, dang it,” Dan said, “Did I say shit? I meant to say shoes.”
Mama Nola made a play of bringing her hand up to her eyes and shook her head, again speaking in her native tongue.
Chloe laughed. “She says you are hopeless.”
Dan laughed. “Agreed, ma’am.”
Chris’ shy face blushed red when he said, “O-stew.”
Dan shook his head. “No, son, we just talked about that. We don’t swear in this house. It’s bad manners.”
Mama Nola giggled, “He was not swearing. Ostu. It means good. Very, Udohiyu good.”
“Udohiyu.” Chris glanced down at his potato salad, pleased with himself, his cheeks as red as rose petals.
Dan smiled at Chris. “He’s so impressionable. Got to be careful with this one.” He rubbed his hand over Chris’ hair playfully.
Chris blushed further, and looked down at the table. “Bugs Bunny, that darn rabbit.”
To his delight, everyone laughed.
Chloe said, “I’ve got to change before Shirley gives up on me and leaves. Can I get you gentlemen anything else?”
“No, Ma’am,” Dan said, “but I mighty appreciate it.”
Chloe rushed to her bedroom, snatched her only bikini out of the dresser, and changed at Superman speed.
Shirley Pratt had asked her Friday night if she’d like to go to the pool with the girls. She had a short shift on Monday. Chloe had practically screamed yes. The heat was killing her, and it would be fun to get the twins out of the house.
Chloe dearly wished she could have borrowed one of Kelly’s bikinis. She only had the one she’d worn every summer for the past three years. It was hot pink with black zebra stripes. The top was filled out considerably more than it had last summer. Chloe liked the way it looked, and she wondered what Donny Hanks would think of her in a bikini.
And then everything about that one night, the most horrible night of her life, came crashing into her mind like an avalanche. The night she stood naked in front of everyone on the stage, including Donny. Not only that, but she had kicked his girlfriend’s ass. Literally. Then, Kelly’s words came back to her from the beginning of summer break. Donny Hanks will be hanging out at the pool most of the summer…
“Oh no,” Chloe glanced at herself in the mirror and said out loud, “I can’t go to the pool.” The only reason she had gone to the pool with Kelly two weeks before is that she insisted Donny wouldn’t be there. This time, Chloe had a feeling she wouldn’t be so lucky. She tugged on Godzilla as options flitted through her mind. She could pretend she had the flu; she could feign a sprained ankle; she could—
Shirley honked in the driveway, and Chloe realized that there was no getting out of this one. She would be at the mercy of fate. Kelly’s words from that night came to her as if her best friend was standing next to her, whispering in her ear. Trust yourself. Enjoy the moment, Chloe. Chloe squared her shoulders. She was going to enjoy herself at the pool, and that was that. She zipped out of her bedroom, accidentally bumping into her mother as she limped down the hall with her cane. Chris was shyly tagging along behind her. “Whoops! Sorry, Mama Nola. Enjoy your company today, okay?” Chloe grinned at Chris, who looked down at his sneakers, and turned crimson.
When Mama Nola replied, it was faint with a faraway look. “Ostu iga,” which meant have a good day, then she said, “Chris and I, we’re going to the circus.”
Chloe frowned. “Where is the circus, Mama?”
“Oh, just down the hall there, in my room. Chris wants to see it.”
The car honked again and there was a loud knock on the door. A little girl called, “Come on, Chloe, huwry up!”
“Mama, just don’t leave the house, okay?”
Her mother smiled a sad, forlorn smile. “It’s only the circus. Shoo! Shoo! Get out of here and tell that young lady to stop making so much racket.”
The knocking persisted at the door.
Chloe popped a kiss on her cheek. “Okay, Etsi.” She needed to remind Dan to keep an extra close eye on Mama Nola this afternoon.
“Dan?” Chloe rushed into the living room to find Dan opening the front door, and a surprised Shirley and twins, spilling in.
They bumped together as the twins squeezed through the door frame, knocking Shirley against Dan’s chest.
He put his hands on her waist to steady her, then quickly stepped away when their eyes met.
Shirley’s face turned a unique color of ruby. “Oh, oh my lands, please excuse us, Dan. We’re in such a r
ush.”
Dan put his hands on his hips, then dropped them, then folded his colorful arms across his chest, obviously nervous. “Shirley, isn’t it? Over on Gander?”
“Uh huh.”
“Chloe! Chloe!” Both girls threw their arms around Chloe, who embraced them while watching the curious exchange between the trailer court manager and Shirley.
Mama Nola and Chris emerged from the hallway behind Chloe, and the girls shrieked again.
Chloe grabbed the girls’ hands after they hugged the old woman, and managed to herd them toward the door, past Shirley and Dan as they made small talk, and out to the station wagon that was still running.
A few minutes later, Shirley jumped into the car and punched the gas. “Oh, man, am I late!” The car flew backward down the graveled street.
“I’m so sorry, Shirley.”
“It’s okay. Sara holds things together just fine. I don’t know why she keeps me around. Nice bikini.”
“Thanks. I’ve had it forever.”
“I wish I could look like that in a bikini again. Those were the days.”
Chloe grabbed the handle above the car door as Shirley gunned it out of The Misty Goose. Chloe turned to the girls in the back. “Your mother’s driving like she’s on a race track.”
Erin screamed, “The zombies are chasing us. Hurry, mommy!”
Shirley shook her head. “I don’t know where they get it from.”
Sharon said, “Guess what, Chloe?
“What?”
“I brought my axe!”
Erin said, “Me, too, Chloe! I brought mine, too.”
“An axe?” Chloe feigned being scared.
Erin said, “It’s not reals, silly willy.”
Sharon said, “We don’t hurts the nice peoples, just the bad ones.”
“Yeah,” said Erin. “The scary bad ones.”
Shirley rolled her eyes and rolled down the window. “For heaven’s sake, girls, are you trying to scare off your babysitter?”
Chloe laughed with the twins. “What have you been letting them watch?”
“Dear Lord Almighty,” Shirley shook her lovely brunette locks. “I ran up to the grocery store yesterday, and when I get back they’ve got Tales from the Crypt on, and they are jumping up and down on the couch playing with those inflatable axes they won at the fair last October.”
“I bet you’ll both make wonderful crypt keepers when you grow up,” Chloe said, and looked back at the smiling twins.
Erin said, “I like the crypt keeper.”
Sharon said, “I like my axe.”
“Okay, let’s not talk about axes or crypts anymore, huh? Let’s listen to the radio.” Shirley gave Chloe an exasperated look and messed with the dials on the dash. Def Leppard begged someone to pour some sugar in the name of love. The girls immediately began to sing with him.
Chloe popped down the visor and looked at her scar in the vanity mirror. She touched it. The scar was a constant memory of what she feared the most: both the clown and losing her mind.
Shirley said, “It’s looking better, Chloe.”
Chloe flopped her bangs down over the scar. “Ugh.”
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Everyone has their fair share of scars. It’s just that we can’t always see them.”
Chloe shrugged. “It looks ugly. I wish it would just go away.”
“Scars may fade, but they remain for a purpose. They remind us of the past and the mistakes we must never make again.”
Chloe pressed her hair against her face. “But I didn’t do anything. It was an accident.”
“Sara told me something a long time ago. She said there were no such things as accidents. I didn’t believe her at the time, but now, every day when I look at those two precious faces,” Shirley adjusted the rearview mirror and gazed at the twins bopping each other with their blow up axes, “I believe her.”
The way she said this made Chloe wonder about Shirley and the twins’ past. Where was their father? Why wasn’t he in their lives? It was then that Chloe realized that Shirley must have had scars too, only hidden on the inside.
Shirley turned to Chloe after she switched off the ignition. “Don’t you worry one second about the way you look. You’re the prettiest girl in Spindler, and don’t you forget it.” Shirley tucked Chloe’s bangs behind her ears as she might do to one of her girls, and swiped her finger tenderly down Chloe’s cheek, the way only a mother could do.
“I think you’re pretty, too, Chloe,” said Erin.
Sharon said, “I think she’s prettier.”
“No, I do.”
“No, I do…”
Shirley said, “Girls, out of the car.”
They both shrieked, “Yay!”
Chloe grabbed the cooler from the back while Shirley helped the girls collect their towels, beach bags, arm floaties and blow up axes.
While they walked to the entrance of the Parks and Rec building, Shirley said, “The sun lotion is in the beach bag, if you wouldn’t mind putting it on the girls. With this sun, maybe you ought to use it, too.”
“Thanks,” Chloe said, “but my skin is so dark, I only tan.”
“So lucky. I burn every single time.”
Chloe glanced around the parking lot before they entered the lobby, then froze when she saw him.
Donny Hanks.
He was walking with a handful of teens she didn’t recognize. They were obviously not cheerleaders, though, and she didn’t see anyone else from the BBQ. Chloe’s stomach did a flip flop, and she found herself wishing that she’d grabbed a long t-shirt to cover up in.
The girls had already gone through the door, and Shirley was holding it for Chloe. As she walked through, she heard his voice call her name across the parking lot. “Chloe?”
Shirley let go of the door, and it slammed behind her.
Great, now he thinks I'm ignoring him, Chloe thought, and maybe that's not a bad plan.
At the desk, Shirley paid, and kissed the girls. “Thanks again for watching them.”
“No problem.” Chloe felt surprised when the woman hugged her.
“I gotta run. Lunch is in the cooler. Bye, girls!”
“Bye, Mommy!”
Chloe managed to load up the cooler, towels, and floaties in her arms and struggled to keep up with the twins as they raced past the locker rooms and toward the outdoor pool.
Chloe claimed a plastic table and a lounge chair toward the shallow end, and the girls sat down on the warm cement, trying to blow up their arm floaties. After trying to organize all the pool stuff and then giving up, Chloe plopped down beside them to help. She filled up Erin’s first, then Sharon’s, then helped them into the water. It was cooler than she’d expected and she decided not to go for a swim quite yet. The girls didn’t seem to notice and started splashing each other.
Chloe climbed out of the pool and stood by the edge, smiling at them.
“Chloe.”
At the sound of his voice, she whipped around and almost bumped into Donny. He was standing so close to her.
“Oh!”
“Didn’t mean to startle you.” He touched her arm and steadied her.
“I didn’t know you were here.” Great, that sounded dumb.
“Mmm…” He smiled that lopsided grin of his again, and Chloe felt her insides melt. She wrapped her arms over her bikini top, trying to cover herself as much as possible. The girls had brought a giant beach towel. Where was it?
He said, “You don’t have to do that, you know.”
“What?”
He flipped his black sunglasses over his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, mimicking her. He said, “I’ve seen more of you than this.”
Oh, my, gosh. Did he really just say that? Chloe put her hand over her eyes and wished a bolt of lightning from the sky would strike her dead.
“Come on, Chloe. You’re gorgeous, and everyone thinks you’re a rock star.” He lowered his voice. “Well, except Kara Leigh, but…” He shrugged, trai
ling off.
“How is she?”
“Eh.”
“What does that mean?”
Donny didn’t reply. They both watched the lively activity in the pool and were soaked when a heavy kid did a cannon ball directly in front of them. The twins cheered.
Chloe said, “I don’t recognize any of your friends from school.”
“Oh,” Donny blushed. “I’m hanging with my friends from chess club today.”
“Chess club?” Chloe’s jaw dropped.
“We meet every other Tuesday at the library.” He shrugged. “I’m half decent at it.”
Chloe laughed. “Spindler High’s football star is a total nerd.”
Donny put a finger to her lips. “Shhhh…promise not to tell Weasel? He’d skin me alive.”
Chloe grinned, happy she was privy to a secret that none of his regular group knew about. “Promise.”
He said, “Now that the cat is out of the bag, do you want to come sit with us? I think we’re going to tan for a while before getting in.”
“Oh, I can’t. I’m babysitting.” She nodded toward Erin and Sharon who were asking the boy to do another cherry bomb. “Thanks, though.”
“Looks like you got your hands full.”
“Um, yeah.”
A dark haired beauty from Donny’s group yelled from across the pool. “Donny! Where is my tanning oil?”
He shrugged. “How am I supposed to know?”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
He turned back to Chloe. “Guess they need me over there. See ya.”
“See ya.” She watched him weave through the crowd of excited kids and parents that hovered around the edge of the pool. The lifeguard blew her whistle. “No beach balls allowed in the pool!”
A kid argued with her.
Chloe walked back to the table and tidied up the twins’ things, while keeping an eye on them. She sat down on the lounge chair and leaned back, enjoying the feel of sunshine on her skin.
She glanced over at Donny’s crowd and caught him looking at her. She held his eye for a moment, then turned back toward the girls. She nonchalantly picked up the girls’ beach towel and draped it over her waist and hips.
Someone brought a portable boombox and popped in the latest Paula Abdul album. Chloe liked it and decided she needed to try to record Opposites Attract off the radio for her next mixtape.
