Taming of the Shoe

by Rebekah Dodson

  Amy grinned from ear to ear and stuck up her littlest finger, then gripped mine. “Deal, but on one condition.”

  I eyed my sneaky little sister. “What is that?”

  “We do it again next time Mom goes out of town.” She turned to shoveling eggs in her mouth.

  “Whoa, slow down,” I cautioned her. “And which part do we do again?”

  “Oh, all of it. I know we’ll get fat and Taylor will move in eventually, but I had a lot of fun.” She put her fork down and crossed her lips with two fingers. “My lips are sealed, EE. We pinkie swore.”

  I smiled at that. She hadn’t called me ‘EE’ in forever.

  Amy finished her breakfast and shoved the plate back at me. I chided her about taking care of her own plate, which she did with a grumpy hmph, just as Taylor returned with her dry skirt and shirt from last night, and somewhere she’d tamed her hair, too. It was still messy in the back, but I smiled around my coffee while I didn’t say a thing

  There’s something to be said for that being my fault, I thought, and it made me smirk even more. Taylor sat at the island again and downed the rest of her coffee. “Want some eggs?” I asked her, hoping she’d say no, and we could get out of here quicker, but to my slight dismay she nodded.

  “When’s Mom gonna be back?” Amy fidgeted in her seat as she stared at her tablet.

  I patted my pockets; I still hadn’t found my phone. “I don’t know,” I answered honestly, cracking four eggs into the pan and quickly scrambling them. I figured both Taylor and I should eat something after night. “But I’m sure she’ll let us know as soon as she leaves the city.”

  “Hmm,” Amy mumbled, and went back to sipping her hot chocolate hands free while she focused on whatever app she was playing.

  “Do you think you can give me a ride to the hospital this morning?” Taylor asked while I scooped the eggs onto two plates. I put a fork on each one and slid one to Taylor while I turned to make toast.

  “Who’s in the hospital?” Amy asked.

  Taylor and I both looked at her, then at each other. “My grandfather, but he’s okay,” Taylor told her hurriedly. “Just had a little scare where the doctors had to watch him overnight.”

  “Oh!” Amy swung her legs on the stool. She looked at me. “Ethan, do we have grandparents? I can’t remember.”

  “We do, but they live in a different city. We haven’t seen them in a while.” When Amy turned back to her tablet I shot a panicked look at Taylor. Luckily, she intercepted it immediately and turned to Amy.

  “But after the hospital and I check on my Papa, maybe we could go to the park?”

  My eyebrows shot up at that, but Taylor frowned at me, before a smile played at her lips.

  “That’s good, but maybe not the one that’s across town, the slide isn’t very much fun.”

  I smiled around my coffee mug and turned away from them.

  Taylor, God that woman was amazing, didn’t miss a beat. “We can go wherever you want.”

  “I have a before the park,” I told them, taking a crunchy bite of toast as my thoughts about my conversation with Taylor from last night started to return. “If you don’t mind.”

  Taylor cocked her head at me. Just then, Amy hopped down off her stool, dragging her tablet behind her. “I’m gonna go change,” she announced. “Sleeping in clothes from yesterday is unacceptable, as Mom would say. Isn’t that right, EE?”

  “You’re absolutely right.” I winked at her and shot her a finger gun, just like our father used to do.

  Taylor laughed as Amy pranced out of the room. “Why does she call you EE?”

  “When she was a baby she couldn’t say Ethan properly, so it came out like Eeeeee! and it just stuck ever since.”

  “For a girl who likes sports, she’s certainly very girly sometimes, isn’t she?” she remarked.

  “That she is.” I gathered up our plates and mugs and put them in the dishwasher. “Hey ... wanna help me find my phone?” I tucked my hands in my jean pockets. “It’s somewhere in my blankets.”

  “That depends.”

  “Ut oh.”

  “Can we trust ourselves in your bedroom?” She winked.

  I smiled widely. “Whoa, calm down. Amy’s awake...” I whispered.

  She winked again and pushed away from the island. “Come on, lover boy, let’s find your phone.”

  “Lover boy?” I followed her down the hall and up the stairs. “Lover boy...?” I said again when we got to my room.

  “I know, I suck at pet names, but I guess you’ll have to get used to it.”

  “No, it’s cute. I like it.”

  She reached my room first and threw my blankets off the bed. I heard a thud as my phone went with them, and then saw the black rectangle fly across the room. Taylor lunged for it and barely caught it before it hit the back of my desk chair, but then turned to the bed and froze. I followed her eyeline to see she was staring at the condom wrapper left on the bed.

  “Amy woke me, I couldn’t very well get up and throw it away,” I scrambled to explain as I grabbed it and tucked it in the can under my desk, under some papers and empty mechanical pencils. I turned to see Taylor smiling at me; that was a relief, at least. I was afraid our argument from last night would rear its ugly head again.

  “What?”

  “Did you just say cute?” She held the phone out of my reach. “It’s cute?”

  “Yeah, sue me,” I told her, reaching for the phone, but she danced away from me. “What, a guy can’t think things are cute? What about puppies, kittens, and baby snakes?”

  She laughed and handed me my phone. “You’re weirder than I originally thought,” she announced.

  “But yet you’re the one who let me—”

  “Uh, uh!” She held up a finger. “We have a park to get to.”

  I motioned in front of me. “After you.” I paused, glancing at my phone.

  Twelve missed calls – two from numbers I didn’t recognize, the rest from my mother.

  Four emails – three of them from school reminding me of due dates. No surprise number four was my mother.

  Sixteen texts.

  “Holy crap,” I murmured.

  “What?” Taylor turned from the doorway to look at me.

  “It’s my mother.” I scrolled through the call log. They were all from my mother, every single one. The texts were almost identical: Are you okay, call me, I hope everything is okay there. Then the last one: I found a great place I think you and Amy will love. There’s even a pool here, too. The next one was a little more demanding: Text me when you’re free. And finally, Ethan, is everything okay there? You two must have gone to sleep. Amy’s not answering either. Please call me as soon as you get up.

  I shot her a text back: Yeah, sorry, we’re all good. Amy and I had a movie night and my phone died. I wasn’t expecting a text back this early in the morning, so I tucked my phone in my pocket.

  “Everything okay?” Taylor asked, concerned.

  “Yeah, I’m sure it is.” I tried not to frown. Taylor linked her arm into mine as Amy nearly collided with us. She was wearing red polka-dot overalls, a blue long-sleeve shirt, and sandals; an outfit that would have horrified my neurotic mother. She even had her purple soccer ball tucked under her arm and knee pads strapped over her pant legs. But it was Saturday, and my mother wasn’t here, so I didn’t really care. “You ready?” I asked her.

  “Yup!” She skipped down the stairs as she always did, with some surprising level of balance, and leapt the last three. If I tried that, I’d bust my head open, I thought. My mother always got after her for it, but I was too preoccupied by Taylor still hanging my arm. I squeezed her closer to me.

  A wave of nostalgia ripped over me just as she reached the last step, and I shivered.

  “You okay?” Taylor frowned this time.

  “Yeah.”

  I didn’t have the heart to tell her Maeve had held on to my arm the same way Taylor did; but this was so much different. Maeve’s touch had
been light, friendly, playful. Taylor clung to me like I was the only man in the world.

  I couldn’t deny I enjoyed every minute of it.

  Amy already had the front door open, so Taylor pulled away from me and hurried after her. I snagged my keys and wallet and locked the door behind me. Once out on the porch, I let out a heavy sigh. We successfully evaded my parents. At eight in the morning on a Saturday, that was not a conversation I wanted to have with them – or ever, really. I think the last talk a teenage boy ever wants to ever have with his parents is what he did with a girl under their roof.

  Luckily, we got away scot-free.

  This time. As I slid into the Silver Beast and cranked the engine to life, I convinced myself it would be the only time. Taylor and I would have to find somewhere else. My house, my bedroom – too risky. Especially now.

  You do realize you have to tell her about the divorce sometime, that little voice crept up the back of my skull. I pushed it away as Taylor’s fingers curled around mine.

  When the time is right, I tried to convince myself for the dozenth time in the last week since my parents announced it. They hadn’t even told Amy,

  Taylor let me hold her hand on the way to the hospital while Amy played with her tablet in her booster seat behind us. I squeezed Taylor’s hand as we pulled up to the hospital, sad I’d have to let her go.

  “We’ll be at the park on eighteenth in about an hour if you want to join us,” I whispered to her. I wanted to kiss her, but with Amy’s keen eyes watching, I didn’t dare risk it.

  “Okay,” she said, but her eyes were so sad. I hated it.

  After we pulled away from the curb, I drove by the park but didn’t stop.

  “Where are we going?” Amy whined.

  “The pharmacy,” I told her, without providing any more detail. My mother had insisted not keeping my depression meds a secret from Amy, but we just told her they were medication I needed to be able to go to school. She never asked any more after that. But little did Amy know I wasn’t picking up my prescription this time, and the more in the dark she was, the better.

  After the pharmacy – and an alarming fifty dollars charged on my parents’ credit card that I would have to explain eventually – I took Amy to the park downtown a few blocks from the hospital. It was a huge area with a dog park on one end and an open field on the other, but since it was so far from our house we almost never frequented it. Amy, however, loved it. As soon as she showed up with her ball, a dozen dogs swarmed her, all barking happily that a ball had entered the dog park game.

  I chuckled as I kept an eye on her and found a bench to set up shop. By shop, I meant my homework. I was slightly behind on French and had an essay to write. I didn’t know how Taylor kept up with our after-school activities and her homework and having to go to church all the time. My only solace was she probably didn’t have my good grades, though I never really cared to ask. I made a mental note to ask about that sort of thing.

  Nearly an hour went by. I texted Taylor, but no response. I didn’t even know if she had her burner phone and could respond. I thought about calling the hospital but decided against it. I texted my mother again, but no response.

  Knee-deep in French verb conjugation, I found myself unable to concentrate. I didn’t even know where my father was, but that was nothing new. He was so far removed from our lives, I found myself not even caring. I ran a hand through my hair. When did my life get so fucked up?

  A scream split the air, and I jumped up from the picnic table. Where was Amy? I’d been so preoccupied I’d lost track of her. My papers scattered everywhere, some caught by the breeze, others flying in different directions at my haste. Panicked, I looked around, and across the park, a cluster of dogs were gathered. I could hear the snarling from here. A half dozen adults rushed to the scene, and I ran as fast as I could toward the commotion.

  “Amy!” I yelled. I could see her silver-sneakered foot under one of the dogs in the corner, and I picked up my speed. “Amy!” I shouted, just as another scream sounded.

  A burly man in just a white tank top and dingy shorts was busy pulling a tan dog from the middle of the fray, and another lady in a summer dress stood nearby, armed with a spray bottle she was furiously targeting at the dogs.

  I pushed through them and felt another large dog nip at my leg, and I kicked it away from me. The adults formed a ring about the child on the ground, her blond hair splayed out around her.

  “Move! That’s my sister!” I shrieked before I could even process what was coming out of my mouth. Two college-age kids were busy dispersing the snarling, barking mess, and I was finally able to reach in and grab Amy. Somewhere to the side her soccer ball, a torn-up deflated mess, lay abandoned on the ground.

  The chaos was overwhelming. A man yelled, “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t watching!” From behind me another person screamed, “I’m calling 911!” And yet a third, “Is she okay? What happened?”

  Amy cried and reached her arms at me. I scooped her up in time to see a dark red stain spread over her left pant leg, and she yelled again, “I just wanted to play with him, I just wanted to play...”

  My hands were slick with blood as I watched Amy’s eyes roll in the back of her head. She clung to me, but her grip weakened.

  My heart sped to an alarming speed and I worked my legs to take me towards the Silver Beast. The adults behind me were clamoring that the ambulance was on their way, but all I could think about was my sweet, sassy sister was bleeding all over me. I didn’t even hear sirens in the distance, and the hospital was literally two blocks.

  “What are you doing?” someone yelled after me.

  “Getting her to the hospital!” I screamed, but by that point I was out the gate and trying to get my keys to unlock the car. Someone was chasing after me, but I ignored them. I laid Amy as carefully as I could in the back seat, shoving her booster seat out of the way and half-ass buckling her in.

  “Hold on, baby girl, we’re going to get some help!”

  I threw myself in the front seat and peeled out of the dog park as fast as I could. I nearly collided with a truck pulling into the lot and swerved at the last minute. My heart pounded so fast in my ears I couldn’t hear anything else. The only thing I could think of was Amy.

  Five minutes later, I squealed to a hard stop in front of the ER entrance, opposite from the main doors where I’d dropped off Taylor an hour ago. I barely had time to put the car into park, leapt out, and scooped Amy into my arms. Her pant leg was soaked now, and my head pounded.

  A nurse ran out from the ER doors with a wheelchair. “What happened?”

  “She got bit by a dog, I think,” I panted, barely able to catch my breath. “Please, help her!”

  The nurse, instead of answering, disappeared in the doors, and reappeared a few seconds later with two male nurses and a stretcher. They urged me to lay her down, and I did, but she reached up and grabbed my hand.

  “What’s her name?” the female nurse was asking.

  “A-Amy,” I stuttered. Her hand dropped from mine as she lost consciousness, but I picked it up again.

  One of the male nurses, a tall man wearing a face mask, gently pried her hand from mine. “We have to get her into triage!” he yelled at the others. “We have a juvenile with a dog bite and she’s bleeding profusely!” Without even waiting for me, the two male nurses yanked her stretcher through the doors, around the corner, and out of sight.

  The female nurse stopped me as I started to follow them. I tried to push her out of the way, but she put a hand on my chest. “Are you her dad?” she asked in a calm voice.

  I wanted to flip out at her, shove her away, and follow my sister, but the tone in her voice made me hesitate. What had she asked me? I tried to focus. “N-No...I’m her big brother.” I blubbered and my eyes started to burn. “We were just at the park. I was watching her... Oh, god.” I tugged at my hair and stepped back. “Will she be okay?”

  “Where are your parents?” the nurse asked softly. “Do you ne
ed a phone to call them?”

  I fiddled with my phone in my back pocket, pulled it out, dropped it, and grabbed it from the pavement. The screen was cracked on one corner, but still workable. “I’ll... I’ll call them,” I muttered.

  “Let me show you to the waiting room. The doctors will take good care of her, okay?”

  She turned through the ER doors and I plodded behind her, my legs aching and heavy. My breathing slowed, but my head still pounded as I dialed my mother’s number. It went straight to voicemail, and as calmly as I could I told her to meet me at the hospital. I tried my father’s number, which again went straight to voicemail. I left another message, more harried than the first, begging him to call me or Mom, just as the nurse stopped and pushed open a door to the waiting room. There were a few other people in there, but I ignored them. I found a chair in the back and plopped down.

  “The doctor will be out soon, okay?” She touched my forearm, maybe to console me, but I yanked away. She smiled and nodded. “What’s your name?”

  “Ethan. Ethan Hersbill.”

  “I’m Jackie. If you need anything, let the front desk know, okay?”

  “I called my mom, but she’s out of town...” My tongue felt thick and my lips didn’t want to work. I didn’t know what else to say.

  “Do you have any other relatives you can call?”

  I shook my head.

  “Ethan?”

  Taylor’s head poked around the corner, and upon seeing me, rushed into the waiting room to stand beside me. “I was going to a vending machine. I thought I heard your voice...” She trailed off when she saw me fully. “What happened? Are you okay?” She stepped between me and the nurse and reached for my hand. I squeezed it and drew her to my side.

  The nurse looked between us. “I’m glad you have a friend. Please keep trying your parents. We will update you as soon as we can...” She turned to go, and I let her. Mostly because I was having trouble standing.

  Taylor gripped my hand harder and led me to a nearby chair. I sank into it, my legs spread out in front of me and my hands gripping my pounding head. I was vaguely aware she was sitting next to me.