by Alex Tully
She smiled, and it was just the two of them. There was no algae, there was no Parker and Meredith, there was no anxiety or catastrophic thoughts—he forgot about it all.
“Ooohhh, kissy kissy…” Parker chimed in loudly, and whatever spell Ethan was under, was quickly broken.
Zoe pushed away, but she was still smiling, “C’mon Parker, we better get you back to Shirley. It’s getting dark.”
Back on the rocky beach, they decided on how to handle Shirley.
Parker was worried, “I know Grams is gonna be pissed. Meredith, you promised you would take the blame.”
“I know, I know…” then she turned to Ethan, “You need to come with us because Shirley doesn’t know you, so she might be a little nicer.”
“Oh she knows me,” Ethan said, “I met her yesterday.”
“Okay…well then you know why I’m afraid.”
“What Meredith isn’t telling you,” Zoe said, “is that she and Shirley have a little history.”
“Oh yeah?” Ethan asked.
Parker jumped in, “Yeah, Grams yelled at her because her car’s so loud, and she’s not supposed to be driving in the trailer park. And then she flipped off Grams!”
“Well, obviously I didn’t think she could see me!” Meredith tried to defend herself, “I did it inside my car, it’s not like I stuck my hand out the window!” Then she waved her arms in a big circle, “And look around! Are the standards so high here, that my car is really a problem? Please…”
Ethan thought all of it was pretty funny.
“Well, let’s just go see what happens,” Zoe said.
As they started their way up the gravel drive, the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon and the pink sky had turned a dusky gray. The faint chirp of crickets could be heard in the trees. It really was peaceful.
Parker pointed to a white trailer that looked like all the others, “That’s where Zoe lives. Lucky number seven.” He pointed to a trailer on the other side, “And that’s Frankie’s right there. Over there, that’s Mrs. Rooney’s, the cat lady’s…”
“Thanks for that Twerp,” Meredith said, “But I’m sure Ethan isn’t really interested in all of the residents living at beautiful Sunny Shores.”
“No, I’m interested,” he looked at Zoe, but her head was down.
Meredith kept at it, “Well I’m sure this is a little different from what you’re used to.”
God, Parker was right—she was annoying. What was he supposed to say to that? He could see Zoe giving Meredith a death stare, and he decided to ignore it.
“So Parker, which one is yours?” Ethan asked.
“Right here,” Parker said as they approached a pea-green trailer with wind chimes hanging from the porch. Little rainbow-colored pinwheels were spinning in the grass.
“Just stay here for a sec,” he said quietly. The kid slowly made his way through the porch and disappeared into the trailer.
A minute later they heard a loud, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! You’re dripping all over my carpet! Get your butt out on that porch right now!”
They all looked at each other and Meredith’s eyes widened, “Damn, Zoe can’t you say you pushed him in? Please! She likes you!”
“No!” Zoe snapped back, “She’d never believe it anyway, you need to own up, Meredith.”
“Ethan?” Meredith looked at him, “Can you say you did it, please?” Now, she was gonna be nice.
There was no way in hell he was going to do her any favors, but he didn’t even have to answer because Zoe lost her shit, “Are you kidding? Shirley barely knows him, she would probably have him arrested!”
Meredith rolled her eyes, “Whatever.”
The door flew open and Shirley came out onto the porch with Parker trailing closely behind, “Well, well, well…why am I not surprised to see Meredith here?” Then she looked at Ethan, “Oh, and pretty boy! You decided to join the party too?”
Oh god, not the pretty boy thing. He could see Zoe and Meredith cracking smiles.
Shirley definitely had a way to command attention. She looked them over, one by one, “Parker tells me he didn’t go in the water voluntarily,” she rocked back and forth on her heels, “he said he was pushed.”
Silence. Ethan and Zoe both glared at Meredith.
“Well…” Meredith started, “Parker pushed in Ethan first, and then Zoe jumped in…so I just thought—.”
“Okay, okay, stop,” Shirley put her hands up. She looked at Parker, “Well my dear grandson, you failed to mention that you started the whole thing.”
Parker, head down, said nothing.
“Parker?”
He muttered a weak, “Sorry.”
“Well, that changes things doesn’t it? It sounds to me like this was all in good fun. No harm done right?” Shirley smiled, and she almost looked like a normal granny for a second.
They all looked at each other like there had to be a catch, but Shirley was done, “Now you Parker, need to get out of those clothes. C’mon, let’s go.”
Zoe was quick to speak up, “Okay, well have a good night!” And then she added, “See you tomorrow Parker!”
As they turned to leave, Parker gave a pitiful, “Bye guys.”
And then Ethan suddenly had a thought, and before he lost his nerve, he turned back around, “Um, Shirley, could I ask you something?”
She stopped, “Okay…but hurry it up, cause my show’s coming on.”
Zoe and Meredith looked at him like he was crazy, but he kept going, “Well Parker mentioned to me that he doesn’t have a phone, and I just happen to have an extra one.”
Completely true.
“It’s part of our family plan, and already paid for, and we don’t use it.”
Partially true. Yes, they had an extra line, but it was supposed to be a reserve line for emergencies.
Shirley said nothing, she just stood there looking at him.
So Ethan kept going, “And for safety, it would be really helpful. You could call him anytime you wanted.”
And then she finally spoke, “You’re telling me this doesn’t cost you anything?”
“Nope.” Technically he wasn’t lying. He didn’t pay the bills.
“What about your parents?” Shirley sounded skeptical, “They would be okay with this?”
“Absolutely,” Ethan nodded. The truth was his parents would never know about it because they didn’t pay attention to that kind of mundane shit. “Like I said, it’s included in our bundle and nobody uses it. It’s really a waste of a good phone.”
All eyes were on Shirley, and Ethan really couldn’t tell what the final verdict would be.
“Grams,” Parker looked up at his grandma with the most pathetic stare Ethan had probably ever seen.
Shirley sighed, “There would have to be rules.”
Parker nodded his head so furiously, it looked like it would roll right off.
“Okay,” she smiled, “I guess we can give it a try.”
“Yes!” Parker screamed and began jumping up and down, “Woohoo!” He grabbed onto Shirley and hugged her, “Thank you, Grams! Thank you so much!”
Even Shirley had to laugh, “Don’t thank me, silly boy, go thank your new friend!”
Parker practically lunged at Ethan, arms wide open. He grabbed onto him and squeezed him tightly, “Thank you so much!”
“No problem Parker, no problem at all,” he realized in that moment the vast difference between them. A simple cell phone, something Ethan just took for granted, was something that changed the kid’s whole world.
Parker wouldn’t let him go, but Ethan didn’t mind. He enjoyed the moment, overwhelmed by the all-too-forgotten feeling of real happiness. He couldn’t stop smiling.
He looked over at Zoe and Meredith, and they were smiling too.
CHAPTER 22
ZOE
The next three weeks were a blur—a good blur—mostly because she had seen Ethan every day.
When she worked at the pool he would come by and say hi, b
ut he never stayed. He said he couldn’t stand to watch Crawford stare at her all day. Zoe was too busy to notice, all she knew was that the creep hadn’t called or texted her once, so she wasn’t going to worry about it.
In the afternoons or evenings, Ethan would usually meet her at the dock. Zoe eventually invited him over to her trailer, which she had majorly stressed about at first, but then reminded herself it was stupid to be embarrassed about something she couldn’t control. Of course, Debbie was always gone in the evenings, so she never had to worry about her mom—being her mom.
Zoe even went to Ethan’s house once and met his dad, who actually seemed really nice. But they only spent ten minutes there—she could tell Ethan wasn’t comfortable, even in his own home.
The Sea-quester was still the best place for them to hang out. They would sit on the bow and look out at the lake and just talk. Things were going slow and that’s how she wanted it. It was nice to know that he cared more about just being with her, than hooking up with her.
And, they’d been hanging out with Parker and Meredith a lot, too. They had a group text called Summer Squad that seemed to go non-stop. At first, it was a huge pain in the butt, especially when she’d go on break at work and there’d be forty-seven messages waiting, forty-five of them from Parker. And then, Meredith wouldn’t stop referring to Parker as Twerp in all of her messages which prompted Parker to boycott the group temporarily. But after they worked out all the kinks, it was kinda fun.
If they were in the mood for ice cream, they’d text Meredith and the four of them would rumble down the road in her crappy Civic to DQ. If they were in the mood for putt-putt, they would rumble down to Goofy Golf.
And Shirley was being really cool about Parker hanging out with them, even with Meredith driving. Of course, that was after a serious lecture, with a strict set of driving rules. But even Shirley admitted that she didn’t worry about Parker as much, now that he had a phone.
Meredith had been begging Zoe to try to find out what happened to Ethan last year—what gave him such bad anxiety that he couldn’t even drive.
But Zoe wasn’t going to bring it up, she just didn’t feel comfortable doing it, “Meredith, if you don’t want to drive, then we don’t have to go.”
To which Meredith responded, “I don’t care about driving, I am just dying to know what happened!” Zoe was dying to know too, but she still wasn’t about to ask.
In fifteen minutes she was supposed to meet Ethan at the Sea-quester. She had just showered and gotten into a clean t-shirt and shorts when she heard pounding at the door, “Zoe, you in there?”
“Come in!” she walked to the kitchen.
Parker burst through the door, red-faced and out of breath, “Something bad is going down! I don’t know what it is but Grams looked like she was going to cry!” He took a breather, “Zoe, she like never cries.”
Zoe couldn’t imagine Shirley shedding a tear, although she was sure that the woman had cried many times in private, considering her only daughter had died, “Hold on Parker, start from the beginning, what happened?”
He exhaled in and out in long, exaggerated breaths, “So Mrs. Hart came over and they were talking but I couldn’t hear what they were saying because Grams yelled at me to go to my room—.”
“You said, Mrs. Hart? Like Mrs. Hart in trailer one?”
“Yeah, and when I come out, Mrs. Hart is gone and Grams is just sitting at the kitchen table with her hands like covering her face, and she told me to go play outside... and her voice was so weird…I really think she was crying.”
Shit. Something was seriously wrong.
Just then, there was another knock at the door and Mrs. Hart stood on the other side. She looked terrible—big dark circles under her red-rimmed eyes.
Zoe’s heart sank.
“Hi Zoe,” Mrs. Hart attempted a weak smile, “Is your mom home?”
“No, she’s working,” she held the door open, “Come in though.”
Mrs. Hart stepped into the kitchen and looked at the two of them, “I’m going door-to-door to try to talk to people personally, but I wanted to give you this.” She handed a piece of yellow paper to Zoe, “If you could show this to your mom, I’d appreciate it.”
The paper read:
Urgent Meeting for all Sunny Shore Residents
Tomorrow July 3rd 6:00 pm
Outside our trailer – Please attend
Peggy and George Hart
Zoe’s heart was almost beating out of her chest. She thought back to the letter she’d hand-delivered to Mrs. Hart a few weeks ago. It was from a law office—could this have something to do with it?
“What’s the meeting about?” Parker asked anxiously.
Mrs. Hart looked down, “Can we sit for a minute?”
“Oh yeah,” Zoe pulled out a chair at the table, “here.”
“Well,” Mrs. Hart folded her hands in front of her, “George and I received some bad news last summer. George was diagnosed with prostate cancer.”
“Oh Mrs. Hart, I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you, dear. Well, he was doing radiation and chemotherapy and it seemed to go in remission and then we found out a couple of months back that it had returned. So we wanted to try some other treatments, but they’re not available around here and they’re not cheap.”
She paused and sighed, “So we decided we would have to sell the park.”
Zoe and Parker looked at each other but couldn’t speak.
“But… I found a buyer I trusted, and they signed a contract saying they would keep the trailer park in place. Of course, we had to sell it a lot cheaper because most buyers had other plans for the land.”
She reached over and grabbed Zoe’s hand, “But we were willing to do that because you all are like family to us.” A tear began streaming down Mrs. Hart’s wrinkled face.
Zoe couldn’t breathe because she knew Mrs. Hart wasn’t finished, but Parker thought it was over, “So are we gonna meet the new owners at the meeting tomorrow?”
“No, I’m so sorry Parker,” Mrs. Hart shook her head, “The park was re-sold before they even took possession.”
Zoe felt a wave of panic rush over her.
“What does that mean?” Parker asked.
“It means…” She trailed off and composed herself, “Marty Crawford immediately bought the land back from them. He gave them an offer they couldn’t refuse.”
What?!
“Wait,” that’s when Zoe felt the tears come, “can he do that?” She wiped her cheek.
Mrs. Hart sighed, “We thought he might try to, and so we also had a stipulation in the contract that the property could never be sold to him. But he has the best lawyers money can buy, and they found some kind of loophole. We just can’t afford a lengthy court battle.”
“What does this mean?!” Parker looked panicked, “Are we gonna have to move?” he screamed, his eyes welling up with tears.
Zoe tried to reassure him, “We don’t know for sure yet.” But she knew.
Parker jumped up and ran out of the trailer.
Zoe grabbed a paper towel and started blotting her eyes, “So how long do we have?”
“October first,” Mrs. Hart said quietly, “I’m so sorry dear. We were going to wait to tell everyone until after the Fourth of July, so we could have one last, happy celebration. But I’ve been told,” she paused, “that Mr. Crawford has already started spreading the news, and we wanted to make sure everyone heard it from us first.”
Zoe felt a slow tightening in her chest, “I’ve never felt like I’ve truly hated anyone, until this very moment.”
Mrs. Hart put her hand in Zoe’s but said nothing.
That’s what the feeling had to be—hate. Pure, raw, and all-consuming—it actually scared her a little. But there was no denying it.
She hated Marty Crawford.
CHAPTER 23
ETHAN
Something was wrong. Zoe was supposed to be at the Sea-quester twenty minutes ago. Ethan texted her and sh
e didn’t respond. So then he texted the whole group and only Meredith responded. She said Zoe wasn’t answering her either. What was even weirder was not hearing back from Parker—he never missed a text.
Ethan decided he would just go find out for himself and as soon as he stepped outside the Sea-quester, he heard yelling. It was a deep voice—definitely a man, and he was losing his shit, “He can’t do this! That mother fucker will pay for this, I swear to God!”
Okay…
Ethan walked cautiously up the gravel drive and could see a crowd had gathered in the middle of the trailer park. There were probably twenty people or so, most of who he’d never seen before. People were shouting over each other, some were even crying.
“I just don’t understand!”
“They can’t do this to people!”
“What am I going to do?”
“Where are we supposed to go?”
A huge guy with a long beard and sweat stains on his t-shirt bellowed out over all of the others, “I swear to god, I’m going over there right now! I’ll take care of that bastard!”
Then Ethan saw Shirley step in front of the man, “Frankie! Calm down!” She put her hands on his shoulders, “Listen to me, yelling like that isn’t going to help anything.”
Frankie actually seemed to listen. He backed away and began pacing back and forth like a caged animal.
Shirley tried to be the voice of reason, “I think we all need to go home and settle down, and everyone come to the meeting tomorrow with ideas.”
“Ideas?” Frankie wasn’t done, “Are you kidding me? We’re screwed, that’s all there is to it!”
“Okay everybody, go home!” Shirley looked like she had lost her patience, “C’mon go!”
People started to disperse and that’s when Ethan noticed Zoe. She was standing next to Parker with her arm around his shoulder. It looked like they both had been crying.
Shit. He slowly walked toward them and when Zoe spotted him, she immediately looked away. Shit. Shit
