by Mav Skye
“Chloe! Chloe! Watch me.” Sharon spun in circles on her tiptoes in the water. “I’m a ballerina.”
Chloe gave her a thumbs up.
She glanced back toward Donny’s crowd. The girls fanned out on the lounge chairs, and two of the guys were setting up a small chess board on their towels. She didn’t see Donny.
“Hi.”
Chloe jumped for the second time that afternoon. She pulled the towel up over her bikini top and smiled at Donny. “Honestly, I don’t scare that easy.”
“My bet would have been you don’t scare at all.” The affectionate look on his face held pure admiration.
Chloe felt herself glow on the inside, and she forgot about the towel.
“Mind if I sit here a while?”
“Oh no, go ahead.”
He spread out his towel beside her chair and sat back, leaning back on his arms. Chloe couldn’t help but stare at his biceps.
He caught her looking, and red-faced she looked back toward the twins.
There was an awkward moment between them before he said, “What’s your plans for the rest of the summer?”
“Uhh…” She tugged on Godzilla. It was such a normal question compared to the drama of the past few weeks.
He raised his sunglasses to the top of his head, and squinted at her earlobes. “Godzilla fan?”
She nodded, “He’s my favorite.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Your favorite what?”
She forced a smile, and brought her hand to her lap. “Monster?”
“Ah.” He jutted his chin toward the twins. “I’d have figured they’d be your favorite monsters.”
“Oh, they are. After Godzilla I mean.” Chloe bit her lip, and subconsciously reached for Godzilla again. Could she sound any dumber?
“So… this summer?”
Chloe said, “Yeah. Um… I’m babysitting those cute monkeys; I mean monsters.” She giggled nervously and he gave her a weird look. She continued, “And…I don’t know?” She hadn’t made any of those mixtapes she kept thinking about. And she hadn’t seen Kelly since that night.
Donny said, “I’ll be hanging here or at the park after the river warms up.”
Chloe laughed. “That’ll be the middle of August.”
“Right?” He grinned at her. “I know you live out in the county, but if you ever want to come and hang with us, Weasel can give you a ride. I should be driving soon, too, by the end of summer...” He flipped the sunglasses back over his face, looking stylishly rad.
He left the sentence dangling. Was he asking her out? She didn’t dare look at him, and even if she did, he was wearing sunglasses and Chloe wouldn’t be able to read his face. So, she said, “Cool.”
She watched the girls giggle and splash in the water. “Have you always been best friends?”
Donny said, “Nah, I lived with my parents in California during my younger years. My dad and I live with my grandparents now. Their house is right next door to Weasel’s.”
“Is your mom here, too?”
He was quiet, so quiet that Chloe turned and looked at him.
“Hit and run,” were all the words he could manage. “Dumb police never caught the guy.”
Chloe couldn’t think of any words to say, so she put her hand on his shoulder instead.
He said, “Thanks.”
Erin waved her arms in the air. “Chloe! Will you bring me my axe?”
“Yeah, mine, too.” Sharon dog paddled to the side.
Chloe picked up their axes by the cooler and handed them to the girls. They immediately started bopping each other over the head. The lifeguard blew her whistle and warned the girls they’d have to put their toys away if they kept hitting each other. Chloe was glad the lifeguard told them instead of her, she didn’t like to be the bad guy.
Chloe walked back and ignored Donny staring at her. She fished a few quarters out of the beach bag and asked, “Want a Coke?”
He shook his head. “I’m good.”
She said, “Keep an eye on the twins for me?”
“Sure.”
She dodged little kids and stepped over towels as she made her way toward the building. She glanced back once or twice at the girls and they were playing and splashing happily. She noticed Donny wasn’t sitting by himself anymore. A girl had come over to talk to him, and it wasn’t a friend from his chess club group.
Chloe felt her gut sink. She couldn’t tell over the heads of everyone, but she could see the glow of bleach blonde, similar to someone she’d rather not think about right now—or even the rest of her life.
Between the building and fence of the pool was the coke machine. She popped in a few quarters, and pressed the button for a Diet Dr. Pepper. The machine clunked and clanked, taking its time to spit out the can. She was growing impatient with it, and pushed the button several times when she heard someone call her name.
Chloe.
She looked back toward Donny. He was still occupied with the girl. The girl he was talking to wore a baggy black sweatshirt and torn blue jeans with flip-flops. She had drawn the sweatshirt hood up over her hair.
Please, don’t let that be Kara Leigh, she thought when she heard a clunk and her pop fell into the machine’s bucket. Maybe the world wasn’t against her today. Chloe moved to retrieve the Diet Dr. Pepper when she heard her name called again.
Chloe.
The voice hadn’t called from the pool area. Chloe turned and looked outside the fence toward the city park where the youth group had fed her and Joey hotdogs at the beginning of summer.
What she saw took her breath away.
Two balloons bobbled like blood drops against the ever blue sky. Thin balloon strings trailed down to a white gloved hand that would usually be holding a hatchet. Her eyes followed the red suspenders with the smiling skulls up, up, up to a dark and light painted face separated by a lightning bolt. His nose was as feverishly red as the balloons. His eyes were dark as burn pits. And of course, the torn pink bunny ears fluttered to and fro in the afternoon breeze.
Behind her, at the pool, panicked voices shouted. But Chloe couldn’t turn away from the clown. All Chloe could do was stare at him, mesmerized. She blinked several times, then wiped at her eyes and looked again.
He was still there holding the balloon that bobbed and drifted in the breeze. The commotion at the pool grew louder. Voices called out, familiar voices, but still Chloe couldn’t look away.
Mr. Jingles raised his free hand and waved at her.
Chloe swallowed hard; something was going to happen. And it did. He let go of one of the red balloons.
It loomed above him, drifting, drifting and yet dominating the sky with its crimson brilliance. It was fire. It was blood. It was…an omen.
Chills crept down Chloe’s spine. She heard the shake of a rattlesnake tail. There was one thing she understood: something bad was going to happen.
Someone shoved her hard and Chloe was forced to look away from the balloon.
And that was when she saw Erin floating face down in the pool.
“Erin!” Chloe leaped over a woman tanning herself on a towel, and dove into the water. She swam as fast as she could to the little girl.
But the lifeguard had beat her to it.
She was already pulling Erin out of the water, screaming at the crowd to back off and immediately started CPR.
Chloe drew herself out of the water and shoved herself into the middle of the crowd that had gathered around the little girl. Donny held Erin’s head while the lifeguard breathed air into Erin’s mouth, and pumped her chest. Chloe fell to her knees and grabbed Erin’s hand, pressing it to her lips. “Please, please, please…”
The young woman in the baggy black sweatshirt and loose jeans stood behind Donny. She had pushed back the hood and Chloe could see her better now. The girl had stitches in her nose. It was bent slightly toward the left. Her blonde hair was cropped close to her head. She raised her tired, blue eyes and Chloe was shocked to discover it was Kara Leigh.
Kara Leigh averted her eyes, and Chloe returned her attention to Erin.
The little girl was white as snow with her dark hair slicked behind her back, and she lay there lifeless and limp as Snow White in the glass casket.
Chloe whispered, “Please, please, please…”
The crowd grew silent, watching the lifeguard breathe into Erin’s mouth again, then pumping on her chest.
Donny stayed focused on the girl, absolute horror on his face. His hands shook, but he held Erin’s head steady as the lifeguard worked on her.
A minute ticked by, two, and then a miracle.
Erin sprung to life, she spat out water and gasped for air.
“Erin! Oh, Erin.” Chloe shoved the lifeguard aside and wrapped the little girl in her arms. “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
The lifeguard stood and put her hands on her waist. “You make a sucky babysitter. This girl could have died.”
‘Thank you for saving her.”
The lifeguard pointed at Chloe. “Did you hear what I said, this girl could have d-i-e-d.” She spelled out the word died as if it made her point stronger somehow.
Donny was touching her hand. “I’m so sorry, Chloe. I swear she was fine and then she wasn’t—”
“Get away from me!” She screamed at him. She rocked Erin in her arms, crying.
She heard Kara Leigh’s voice. “Donny, who is that?” She pointed, and Donny looked at what she was pointing to.
“No, don’t!” Donny yelled, then started moving through the crowd who still gawked at Erin.
Chloe ignored him, ignored all of them; one thought racing to the next. Something was still wrong, but she couldn’t grasp quite what it was. The red balloon, still rising in the sky, caught her eye and it hit her all at once. “Sharon!”
She searched the crowd and found Kara Leigh’s sad eyes once more. “Where’s Sharon!”
Kara Leigh said, “Do you mean that little girl?”
“Where? Where?” screamed Chloe.
Erin coughed some more, then pointed. “She’s over there, Chloe.”
Chloe followed her finger, and as if by magic, the crowd parted, and they all turned to look. Sharon was standing by the fence, holding a red balloon. She stared out toward the park.
Donny swept her up in his arms.
“Sharon!”
Donny carried Sharon to Chloe’s side, and now that both little girls were discovered alive and well, the crowd broke up, growing bored now that the drama was over.
Donny shivered despite the hot sun on his back. “Chloe, there’s something wrong about—”
Chloe interrupted him, “Gee, you think?”
Donny was clearly upset, as he should well be, but there was something else, he looked frightened. But what he was frightened of wasn’t her problem right now.
Kara Leigh said, “Chloe, you should listen to what he has to say.”
Chloe growled, “I kicked your ass once, don’t make me do it again.” Kara Leigh held up her hands and backed off. Her sweatshirt sleeves fell down her arms toward her elbows, revealing razor cuts on the girl’s forearms. She covered them up quickly.
Chloe shifted her focus back on the twins.
Sharon asked, “Will Erin be okay?”
Chloe wrapped her arms around both girls. “Yes, yes, she’ll be okay.”
She nestled both girls onto the lounge chair near the table and wrapped their giant beach towel around them. “Let’s just sit here in the sun for a while, okay?”
Chloe ignored the mean mother stares and quiet gossipy whispers, and saw Donny walking back with Kara Leigh to their group. He had his hand on the small of Kara Leigh’s back and she walked with a limp. The bottom half of the leg that limped filled out the calf of her jeans more tightly than the other side. Chloe realized Kara Leigh was wearing a cast. Maybe she’d sprained it during cheer training? But Chloe knew the truth in her heart.
There was another truth in her heart, and that was what she focused on. Donny. Chloe was so angry she could have slapped him. He was so busy attending to his ex-girlfriend—and even now, she wasn’t sure if Kara Leigh was his ex or if they were still together—that Erin was floating face down for who knows how long? The beast inside of her roared, and there was nothing she’d like better to do than hold his face under water and see if he liked the way death tasted on his lips, how it felt to have water fill his lungs and hold him hostage as he gasped for air.
When all was said and done, Chloe had to admit, the girls were not Donny’s responsibility, they were hers. And she let herself be distracted by that dumb clown. That dumb clown who existed to no one else but her.
Chloe closed her eyes, breathing in and out. Slowly, her nerves calmed.
Erin sat very still, cuddling up to her twin sister. Occasionally, she’d cough, and Chloe would pat her on the back until she stopped, and snuggled up to Sharon once more.
Sharon sat faithfully next to Erin, bouncing her balloon in the air, and kept looking outside the fence. It wasn’t just any balloon; it was a red balloon.
“Sharon, where did you get that balloon?”
Sharon scratched her nose. “The clown gave it to me.”
Chloe did a double take. “What?”
Sharon’s blue and brown eyes took on a seriousness that was much older than she was. “The clown gave it to me.”
“Where did you see the clown, honey?”
“Over there.”
She looked again but saw no one. Chloe turned back to Sharon. “What did the clown look like?”
Sharon frowned. “I thought he was a nice clown, but he was scary. I don’t like clowns anymore.”
“Why was he scary?”
“Because of his bunny ears. I don’t like them. And he had a slasher down his face.”
“Slasher?”
Sharon drew a z-shape in the air.
“Like a lightning bolt?”
Sharon nodded. “Chloe, why are you crying?”
Chloe stared at the girl in unbelief. Her voice broke when she said, “You really saw him?”
“Uh huh. I weally did.” She tugged on her balloon and Chloe brought both hands to her mouth, then touched her cheekbones. He was real.
Real.
“Don’t you believe me?”
“Oh, of course, I do, sweetheart.” She leaned in and embraced both twins, letting the tears soak into their beach towel. They both patted her back.
Mr. Jingles was real, and Chloe wasn’t sure if this made her feel better or worse. She had so many questions, but she wasn’t sure how to go about getting the answers. None of that mattered right now, all that mattered was that for the first time in her life she didn’t feel crazy. One part of the puzzle had been solved; she was one step closer to having the answers.
“Chloe?”
Chloe wiped her eyes and turned, expecting to see Donny, but found Joey instead. “Oh, thank God.” She jumped up and hugged him without thinking. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
He hugged her back.
“So, so glad,” she said, then Chloe drew back. “Why are you here?”
“Dan told me to come join you at the pool. Too hot to work. Now,” Joey squished his eyebrows together the way he did when he was concerned. “I’d like to think these are tears of joy from seeing me—”
Chloe gently flicked the back of his neck.
“But somehow, I doubt it.” Joey took her hands. “Tell me what happened.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but the words wouldn’t come, and Chloe felt like she was going to throw up.
“Shhh. Calm down, kiddo.” Joey put his hands in her hair, his thumbs on her cheekbones. He gently rubbed up toward her temples. “Breathe.”
Chloe realized she’d been holding her breath, refusing to let herself breathe. She wanted to punish herself for neglecting Erin. She wanted to feel what Erin had gone through, the water breaking into her lungs, stealing her breath.
Joey’s voice was gentle, yet firm. “Breathe, Ay
ita.”
And this time, his words broke through to her, and she gulped for air. She focused on Joey’s touch, his warm breath on her skin.
“Can you tell me now?”
When the words came, Chloe spoke them so fast that it sounded like a different language. “Erin drowned when I went to get a Coke and then the lifeguard brought her back to life and Sharon saw Mr. Jingles and he gave her that balloon.” She swirled around and pointed at the balloon.
Joey understood every word, just like she thought he would. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m not kidding.” Chloe picked up the towel that the girls had tossed aside, and spread it on the ground near the lounge chair. The twins were holding hands singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
A little kid nearby sneered. “It’s daytime not nighttime. You’re not allowed to sing that until it’s dark.”
Sharon yelled, “We don’t care! We can sing about stars anytimes we want.” They started singing again.
Joey and Chloe sat down on the towel, and Joey said once more. “Tell me everything.”
And Chloe did, the words pouring out frantically.
He listened, occasionally nodding, and when she finished, he said, “It’ll be okay, Chloe. We’ll figure this out together.
“But what if he tries to hurt them? He could have hurt Sharon today. He could have picked her up and—”
“Shhh…” Joey said, “I won’t let him hurt you or the girls. Okay?”
Chloe said, “Promise?”
His teal eyes gazed deeply into hers. “I promise, Ayita.”
Relieved, Chloe threw her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
Joey stroked her hair and she fully leaned into him.
He said, “I’ve always been here, Chloe, you know that.”
They sat that way for a while. The twins sang about stars; the sun warmed their backs and a cool breeze brought the smell of summer BBQ and the sound of children laughing.
Soon, the girls bored of singing and began to stir with energy once more. Sharon leaned forward. “Look, Erin. They lovveess each other.”
Chloe drew back, suddenly self-conscious of the way she’d been leaning into Joey. Ultra-aware, that he was aware, that she was in a black and pink zebra striped bikini.
