“I don’t see how being gay is going to affect our relationship with Pen,” Lexus said.
“Because I don’t know if Bernie is gay and what’s wrong with you at least giving Wesson a break? She’s been coming around the shop and talking to me.”
“Wesson has been around?” Lexus said. “Is that why you’ve been working here?”
“Because I have a thing for Vibro and I think you just came out of the closet and I know for a fact Bernie is gay and has the hots for you.”
“I think Vibro has the hots for you,” Lexus said.
Everyone stopped and looked at Sparky.
“I thought she was in a committed relationship,” Milton said.
“Not anymore,” Lexus replied.
“Bernie isn’t going out with anyone,” Sparky said.
“It’s just so complicated and sort of uncomfortable,” Milton said.
“Because you’re in the closet?” Lexus asked.
“Yes,” Milton said. “You really like this Vibro person? Oh, and I think you’ll make a great mother, Lexus.”
Sparky was glad the three-way conversation was over. She was exhausted. “You’re the life coach. What are we going to do?”
“About what?” Lexus asked.
“My closure and his closet and don’t you dare breathe a word of this to Vibro.”
Lexus was quiet. “Let me think.” She walked to the window. Milton glanced at Sparky.
“You’re not surprised about me being gay?” Milton said in a whisper.
“Milton, you might as well be gay. Everyone thought you were anyway,” Sparky said.
“I suppose it was the stainless steel appliances and the Fiestaware.”
“Stainless steel appliances? Everyone has those now,” Lexus said.
“I was the first and my old appliances were still in working order. I just had to have stainless steel ones,” Milton said.
“You match a lot and you’re the only one I know who irons their coveralls,” Sparky said.
“Okay, so there were telltale signs,” Milton said, scratching Marlowe’s ears.
Lexus walked toward them. “Here’s what I think you should do. Milton, I think you should start dating. I take it the thing you dread is the proverbial ‘coming out’ part of it. This is a perfect example of how the hegemony of our culture influences even those of us that are outside the Venn diagram. You need to date Bernie or whomever you choose and behave as if this is the norm—everyone assumed you were gay anyway, so run with it.”
“I can do that. It was the coming out part that had me stumped. I have dated before. I just kept it quiet.”
“Who?” Sparky said.
“Stan Jawoski.”
“Really. I never knew—he’s so manly,” Sparky said.
“You just never can tell. He was really in the closet. That’s what I like about Bernie. He’s so relaxed. That’s why I didn’t know if he was gay or not.”
“Now, you,” Lexus said, pointing at Sparky. “You are in a much more precarious situation. First, you and Vibro need to wait so as to avoid the ‘Rebound Syndrome.’ I think you’d be so cute together. Second, you have to do something about Wesson. It’s not fair for you to avoid her and it’s not smart because not talking to you and resolving your issues makes her want it more. If you just get it over with, then she can be done and move on. Right now she’s in limbo and it’s killing her, I’m sure. I’ll go with you.”
“I don’t know about that,” Sparky said.
“I’ll help. Often in cases like this the presence of a third party allows for the necessary step-back-and-take-a-look kind of thing. If it doesn’t work what do you have to lose?”
“Not much, I’d say,” Milton said.
“I’ll talk to Wesson if you take Bernie out,” Sparky said to her uncle.
“Deal.”
“Now…how’d you get fired?” Lexus asked.
“I got mad at him and told him to stop being such a big old queen,” Sparky said.
“It was derogatory,” Milton said. He put his hands on his hips.
They looked at him.
“But it was true. That’s why I rehired her,” he said, smiling.
“Session over—life problems solved,” Lexus said. She put her hands out. Marlowe stood on his back paws and slapped his front paws against her outstretched palms.
“Did he just give you a high five?” Sparky asked.
“Technically, it was a low four, but that’s the canine equivalent,” Lexus said. “Okay, gotta go. I expect everyone to follow through on their assignments.” She and Marlowe left.
“Wow,” Milton said.
“Yep, just another day on Moon Street,” Sparky said.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dancing with the Devil
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Sparky said, wiping coffee off her white T-shirt with a napkin she’d dipped in her water glass. The napkin, not up to the task, was shredding. She was only making the stain worse. Great, she was going to meet Wesson for the first time in two months and she had a coffee stain dead center in her shirt. This would not do.
“It’ll be fine,” Lexus said, putting more cream into her coffee. “Have I told you I absolutely love IHOP?”
“Yes, it was your idea to come here.” They were at the Madison Street one. Vibro had taken her around the coffee shops—Bauhous Books and Coffees, Café Vita and the Black Coffee Co-op, but they’d missed the International House of Pancakes. “I’m going home to change. I can’t see her looking like this.”
Sparky’s heart pounded. She remembered getting gas several weeks ago and seeing Wesson coming out of the convenience store. Wesson hadn’t seen her, but Sparky had felt paralyzed. She just stood there holding the gas pump even after it had clicked off. She was feeling the same deer-in-the-headlights heart pound right now. It hadn’t occurred to her at the time to wonder why Wesson was at that particular store. Now she knew she’d probably been to see Uncle Milton. There was no other reason for Wesson to be there.
“It’ll be fine. Here, wear my vest,” Lexus said, taking it off. “If you button it up, the stain won’t show.” She took the vest off and handed it to Sparky.
Sparky wasn’t convinced. “I’ll go see how it looks.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the restroom,” Sparky said.
“Don’t be long. It’s five minutes until showtime,” Lexus said.
On the way to the restroom Sparky saw three people dressed in fur suits waiting to be seated—one was a blue dog, one was a ginger cat and the other a red bear. She didn’t understand the latest craze of people dressing up in fur suits and full head gear so that you couldn’t see their faces. She’d seen them having lattes outside Café Vita. Vibro said it was a new sort of avatar-fursona thing.
She put the vest on and buttoned it up. Lexus was right. It did cover up the stain. She stared at her reflection. Her eye was completely healed. She was thinner but not gaunt. She figured it was her lost beer gut. Not drinking made her feel better. She felt now that if she did drink again it would take her back to that dark place. Meeting with Wesson felt like going back to that dark place too. Why did she have to see her? Did she have to?
After all, she no longer wanted anything from the house. The house itself still remained in limbo. She was probably going to have to get a lawyer to deal with that. But meanwhile she couldn’t stand to look at the few things she had managed to take. It was like they were tainted. She’d already thrown some of them away, including the fob watch that Wesson had given her their first Christmas together. It had stopped working one day—most likely it only needed a new battery—and Sparky took it off. It sat on the counter for a week before she threw it away and bought a new watch that felt clean and untainted. That’s the way she felt about most of her stuff. She wanted new, clean and fresh. She didn’t want closure. She wanted amnesia. Total amnesia.
She washed her hands, gave herself a long look in the mirror and knew what sh
e was going to do. She exited the restroom, and through the big glass windows of the lobby she saw Wesson’s car pull up in front. Sparky turned into the kitchen like she’d seen done in a thousand movies and walked through it. No one said anything as she walked out the back door.
Despite her lack of transportation, Sparky was a happy camper. The sky was a perfect blue, an oddity in itself since Seattle was notoriously cloudy. She didn’t even feel bad that she’d ditched Lexus. She was a life coach and would know what to do. There was probably a chapter on being ditched in one of those life-enhancing books.
She opened her cell phone and dialed Vibro. “Can you come get me?”
“Where are you?”
“On the corner of Broadway and Madison—a block down from the IHOP.”
“Did your truck break down?”
“No, I’m supposed to be having breakfast with Lexus and Wesson and I walked out before Wesson got there. Did you know you really can walk through a restaurant kitchen and no one stops you? My absence is probably just now being noticed.”
“Go down to Pike Street and take a left. You’ll see a used bookshop down the alley. Ask for Jackie. Tell her you need the hidey-hole for ten minutes.”
“Are you serious?”
“Would you rather wait on the corner until Lexus and Wesson find you?”
“I’ll ask for Jackie.”
“Right.”
Sparky went to Pike Street and found the alley. It wasn’t really an alley, just a side street from the old horse and cart days. Part of the way down a shingle was hanging that read Lorelei’s Lesbian Lights Bookstore. Sparky headed for it. She hadn’t thought about it before, but Wesson combined with Lexus could be a dangerous cauldron of willfulness. They might come looking for her, figuring that she couldn’t have gotten far sans an automobile. She glanced over her shoulder and slipped into the bookstore.
A young woman with dreadlocks that were dyed green, pink and blue stepped out from between the shelves. “May I help you?”
She had an Australian accent which seemed incongruous with her hairstyle and an organic cotton outfit that made her look kind of Peruvian. “Do you know Vibro?”
The woman laughed. “She’s an absolute corker.”
“Are you Jackie?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I’m on the run from my ex. Vibro is coming to get me, and she said you’d find me a hidey-hole.” Sparky felt ridiculous saying “hidey-hole,” but, seeing as she had found the gay bookstore, it stood to reason that so would Wesson and Lexus. She thought it prudent to mention that fact. “They might come here looking for me any minute.”
“Ditched them, eh? Come with me, mate.”
“I’m Sparky, by the way.”
“Yes, I suppose you are.”
Sparky didn’t know what that meant. Jackie led her to a wall at the rear of the store. Sparky expected it to swing open and expose a secret room, but instead Jackie pointed to a step that had been painted to resemble a bookshelf. It blended perfectly—a Magritte-like trompe-l’oeil. You had to look closely, but an actual staircase had been built into the wall. They headed up it to the second floor. “We’ll put you in the pod. I’ve got a bit of this and that up there to keep ya busy.”
“The pod?”
“We put the kiddies and bored spouses up there during readings or if mum just wants time alone to shop.”
“But it’s still a secret spot?”
“Yes, mate, it’s still secret. You really don’t want her to find you, do you?”
“I walked out through the restaurant kitchen before our brunch date. She’s not going to be happy.”
Jackie smiled. “Trying the old closure stunt, eh? You Americans. Us Aussies we have a blue and we’re done.”
“What’s a blue?”
“A row. The only closure we do is slamming the door.”
“Oh, I wish it were that simple. My ex is convinced that I wasted her life and she wants a refund or retribution or…” Sparky trailed off. “I don’t know.”
“Women—can’t live with them, can’t live without them,” Jackie said.
That was true and so gender-biased that it made Sparky laugh. The hidey-hole was in a corner with a small octagonal window. Bookshelves lined the walls and beanbag chairs sat littered around the room as if the previous tenants had walked off for a second and might return at any moment. There was a low games table and a puzzle table where a half-finished puzzle of the solar system sat waiting for someone to finish it.
“You can browse, read, puzzle—whatever floats your boat. Want a coffee?” Jackie said.
“I’d love one.”
“Cream and stuff?”
“Please.”
“Right, back in a bit.”
“Jackie?”
She turned.
“Why did you say ‘I suppose you are’ when I introduced myself?”
Jackie smiled. “Because you look just like Vibro described you.”
“Oh.” Sparky might have asked more questions, but the bell on the door jingled.
Jackie gave her a meaningful look. She put her finger to her lips. Sparky nodded and quietly eased into a bright yellow beanbag chair.
“Anyone here?” Lexus called out.
“Coming,” Jackie said as she stepped down. Sparky heard her gentle footfall. She hoped Lexus didn’t.
“What can I help you with? I’ve got the new releases right here and the remainder table—the other end of the spectrum, so to speak—is over here.”
“Actually, we’re looking for a woman,” Wesson said.
“Aren’t we all?” Jackie replied.
“I’m not. I’ve got a great one. Hey, do you have that Heather Has Two Mommies book?”
“I do. It’s over here in gay parenting.” Jackie took Lexus by the elbow.
“What about Sparky?” Wesson said.
“This’ll just take a second. Have you seen a woman with short dark hair, blue eyes and a stain on her shirt?” Lexus inquired.
“Not recently,” Jackie said, pulling the book off the shelf and handing it to Lexus.
“This is great. Do you have anything on gay adoption?” Lexus said.
“Arggggh! I can’t FUCKING believe this. I just want to talk to her,” Wesson screamed. She clenched her fists and turned crimson.
Lexus and Jackie stared at her. “I think you would seriously benefit from an anger management class,” Lexus said.
“I’m taking one. I counted to ten before I screamed,” Wesson said. She stamped her foot three times and then exhaled three times. She unclenched her fists.
Jackie got her a drink of water from the water cooler by the checkout counter. “What I don’t get, mate, is why you want to yabber with this Sheila when she’s gone missing on your account?”
Wesson sipped the water. Her face was a paler shade of red and the vein in her forehead receded. “Her name isn’t Sheila. It’s Sparky.”
Sparky crawled across the floor and lay on her belly as close as she dared to the landing so she could eavesdrop. She felt like a child spying on the grown-ups. Maybe if she got a heads-up on Wesson’s emotional state she could do something about it.
“I need to know it wasn’t all a waste,” Wesson said. “That I didn’t waste nine years of my life.”
“Why would you think that? Nine years would’ve passed by regardless of Sparky,” Lexus said, glancing up from the pages of a book on Adoption for Those Challenged by Paperwork.
Sparky couldn’t figure Wesson out. She never had been able to. Perhaps that was the problem. She thought about how well she connected with Vibro. They could talk about everything and did. Sparky felt at peace with Vibro. With Wesson it was more like she was trying to be what she thought Wesson wanted without knowing what that was. She was a facsimile of herself.
“Yes, I know that. But did she love me?” Wesson said.
“A better question would be, did you love her?” Jackie said, bringing over two more books on gay parenting.
&nbs
p; “Of course I did,” Wesson said.
“We all say we do, and then we turn around and we’re right bossy and mean to the ones we love,” Jackie said.
“I think what you should do is write down a history of all the good times you remember during your years together, all the happy, loving moments,” Lexus said. “I think you’ll see that you didn’t waste your life. It was simply life and you shared it with Sparky and now it’s over.” She plucked a journal off the shelf. “Here, start with this.”
The bell jangled over the door and Vibro walked in. Sparky could see her reflection in the window. Sparky’s heart pounded in her ears. Would she give things away? No. Vibro wasn’t stupid. She’d add things up in a second and play her part to perfection. See, Sparky told herself, you already know Vibro better in two months than you did Wesson in nine years.
“Hi, there, I was wondering if you had a book on tantric sex. Lexus! What are you doing here?”
Vibro was brilliant. She should’ve been an actress. Sparky didn’t know where she was going with the tantric sex thing, but what the hell.
“You’re that woman,” Wesson said, jabbing a finger in Vibro’s direction.
“Excuse me?” Vibro said.
Sparky didn’t think baiting Wesson was a good idea. She hoped Lexus could handle this.
“Sparky’s friend, the one with the baseball bat,” Wesson said, glaring at Vibro, who smiled benignly.
“Oh, that’s right, you’re the awful ex-girlfriend,” Vibro said.
Wesson’s face burned red.
“Take ten deep breaths and then take ten more,” Lexus instructed Wesson. She turned to Vibro. “Step away from her this instant,” Lexus commanded.
Jackie picked up a spray bottle. Sparky wondered what was up with that. This was better than reality TV.
“Do you know where she is?” Wesson said, glaring, her fists clenched.
Wesson really did have an anger management problem, Sparky thought.
“If I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” Vibro said, arms akimbo.
That did it. Wesson leapt at Vibro. She almost had her when Jackie sprayed her full in the face. Wesson stopped, sputtered and swiped at her eyes. “Why’d you do that?” She glared at Jackie and dried her face with her shirtsleeve.
Love Over Moon Street Page 23
