The Sisters

by Rosalind Noonan

  “We’re going to miss you when you go back, Nani.”

  “I know. You’ve never had so much home cooking. But I need to return home. Your grandfather has had enough with bachelor life.”

  “Here, Ma.” Tamarind used the saucer to drain the rest of the liquid into the sink, then set the cup on the kitchen counter. “You can read for me while I get dinner started.”

  “Of course.” Rima peeked down at the cup, then went around the counter into the kitchen and filled another cup from the hot-water spigot. “And here’s a cup for Ruby. I need to read your tea leaves, my dear, before I go back to Seattle.”

  Feeling trapped, Ruby looked up from the computer. “You don’t need to do that, Nani. But I do want to hear about Mom’s.”

  “I’ll do both. No need to waste my talents.”

  “I’m just not in the mood,” Ruby said.

  “I insist.” Rima handed her a steaming cup. “When it cools, sip slowly. Thoughtfully.”

  Ruby had no choice but to accept the cup. Staring at the sparkling tree, she blew on the hot cup and wondered how far her grandmother would be able to see into her tormented soul.

  “Now, my dear daughter, let’s see your leaves. Mmm. As I said, you have many good omens. I knew that good things were coming for you. Here is a bird, a sign of good news, and I think that will be about your medical outcome. And let’s see . . . a fat jug for your health. This is all very good, Tamarind.”

  “Fantastic, Ma.” Tamarind flung her arms wide and then pulled a wooden spoon from the jar on the counter.

  Ruby took a sip of the tea and set it aside to return to her work as her grandmother searched for other patterns in Mom’s tea leaves. She found a donkey as a reminder to be patient, and a tiny ant for perseverance.

  “Are you sure it’s not a real ant in there, Ma?” Tamarind teased.

  “I am sure it’s only tea. And here, my dear daughter—the five-pointed star. This is very good.” Gratified by the sight, Rima waved Tamarind over to the teacup to take a look. “It’s the sign of good fortune, at last. I think the worst of that cancer is behind you now. One look at you and anyone can see it’s true. Not even a month since your surgery, and getting that terrible chemo, and yet you are making dinner for your family.”

  Tamarind returned to the stove to lower the fire on the tomato sauce. “It’s only spaghetti and jar sauce, Ma. And the star’s a little wimpy. One of its points is sagging.”

  “Still, it’s a star, most definitely, and you are up and moving around, on the road to recovery.” Rima turned to Ruby. “Do you want to see it?”

  Dutifully, Ruby brought her laptop to the counter and peered into the cup. “I see it. Reminds me of Patrick on Sponge-Bob. A little misshapen.”

  “You two are birds of a feather.” Rima tried to sound disapproving, but she was smiling. “Now, on to Ruby. Have you finished drinking?”

  “Not yet.” Ruby took another sip from her cup, hoping her grandmother would lose interest.

  “Leave her be, Mom. She doesn’t need us intervening with tea leaves. She’s got a lot on her plate, and I think she’s juggling it well.”

  “Sometimes not so well. I see the dark circles under her eyes, and she’s always tired,” Rima said.

  “She works hard in school. Teens are typically sleep deprived,” Tamarind said.

  “Um, guys? I’m right here in the room.”

  “Tell us, Ruby, and maybe we can help. We can advise. This is what mothers and daughters do. Tell us, what are your secret troubles?”

  Ruby frowned. “Well, if I tell you, they won’t be secret anymore.”

  “Let her be, Ma.”

  “Do you have a boyfriend?” Rima asked.

  The surprise question almost made Ruby spit out her mouthful of tea, but she gulped it back. “No?” Ruby snickered as her mom’s cell phone began to ring, “Pete” lit on the screen’s surface. “It’s Dad.”

  “Hello?” Tamarind turned away from the kitchen as she spoke. “All good. I’m making pasta for dinner. Yup . . .” She disappeared down the hall.

  “Perfect timing for a phone call,” Rima said, looking down into Ruby’s cup. “One more sip. Good. Perhaps you don’t want your mother to see beneath the surface. We all have secrets.” She took Ruby’s cup into the kitchen to strain it.

  “Do you ever worry that you’re going to see something horrible in someone’s cup?” Ruby asked. “Like, somebody dying, or a terrible accident?”

  “I’ve always found that the tea leaves give us only as much as we can fathom. And even the most dire predictions are tempered by some positive signs. Now, let me see what we’ve got here. There is such a big clump of leaves here. That’s trouble. But it’s across from the handle, so the trouble is not caused by you. It’s not your fault.”

  Ruby scraped her hair back. This was what she’d been dreading. “What kind of trouble?”

  “Some sort of deception. I see this bad, bad cat. It means you’ll encounter a false person, a trickster. He is not what he seems. But you say there is no boyfriend.”

  “Nobody on the radar now.”

  “Then it’s someone else who will cause you trouble. A bad influence.”

  “Really? That’s creepy.”

  “Do you know who this is?”

  Ruby shrugged.

  “If you do, be on guard. You have good common sense. Watch out for the tricky cat.”

  Ruby frowned. “What about good news, Nani? Do you see any birds in there? Hearts and flowers?”

  “No, none of that. But I do see a shoe.”

  Ruby hoped a stiletto heel. Or wedge sandals. “And that’s good?”

  “It means you can expect change for the better.”

  “Finally, something good.” Ruby went around the counter to the stove, where the saucepan was spitting tomato sauce. She stirred it, lowered the heat, and turned to her grandmother. She hoped that the tea leaves meant that Ruby wouldn’t be haunted by Glory’s ghost forever. “Thanks, Nani.”

  “I know you will be doing the right thing.” Rima patted her on the shoulder. “But just in case, I’ll be keeping my eye on you.”

  * * *

  She swung the axe into the ground, breaking up the hard crust of the garden bed. It was a cold day, not cold enough for the ground to freeze, but cold enough to see your breath. When she swung again, with all her might and sorrow, dirt clods and pebbles flew into the air and bounced down. The impact of the axe blade on the earth was so hard, Luna thought it might fracture her arms. Mama would never let her touch the axe. But Mama was gone now.

  Dead.

  How many days had they kept it from her? They’d finally told her yesterday after she’d gotten back from Hazel’s house. From Ms. Nicole’s burning looks, Luna had known something wasn’t right. But she’d had no idea it could be so awful.

  Natalie had been the one to tell her. “Listen, kid. Your mother was badly hurt in that fall. She was deprived of oxygen for too long. Once she got to the hospital, the doctors told us she was brain-dead.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Luna said. “A human body cannot survive without a brain.”

  Silence gripped everyone in the room. Julia stopped her knitting needles clicking. Rachel stopped setting the table. Over in the kitchen Georgina stopped clattering pot lids.

  “Glory’s passed,” Natalie said, breaking the silence. “I’m sorry to be the one to say it, but at least now you know.”

  “But she was coming back for me,” Luna said, swiping at the tears in her eyes. “She promised.”

  “Well, you can stop waiting on that, and stop asking everyone about her,” Leo said. He stood at the kitchen counter, restlessly clicking a pen in and out. Luna hated him. She hated the way he acted around Hazel’s mom. The way he ruined her fun at Hazel’s. The way he treated the sisters when he snapped. He thought he was Harry Potter, a wise and brave prince. But really he was Voldemort. He was evil incarnate.

  She hoisted the axe high and swung it through the air, ai
ming at a spot near Leo’s feet. It cut into the crust, cleaving the packed dirt.

  “Careful,” Leo said, pointing toward the fence. “Why don’t you work over in that direction. We don’t want any accidents happening.”

  Part of her felt that an accident would be perfect. What if she went too far over and chopped into one of his feet? The dark, evil dream brought a sour taste to her throat.

  But Leo would get back at her. She took a few steps away from him, watching as he searched the soil with a spade. He sifted through one of the holes she’d opened up, shoveling dark soil and shiny earthworms into an old bucket. Mostly he wanted the worms, reddish gray tentacles looping and flailing to escape into the dirt. Luna had read about earthworms in one of her textbooks. She knew they were both male and female and that they could usually regenerate if you lopped off one section of the worm. Interesting, but yucky.

  “You’re not going to kill the worms, are you?” Luna didn’t like worms, mostly because she thought it would be an awful life living in the dirt, alone most of the time. It made her think of Annabelle. But she didn’t want to be a part of killing them. She didn’t like killing any living thing—even the spiders in the attic.

  “Why? Do you want them as pets?” he teased.

  “No. I just want to know why we’re collecting them.”

  “You’ll see,” he said. “Just keep digging.”

  He kept her out there working, pounding away with the axe, through much of the afternoon. Finally, he sent her inside, told her to go upstairs and get cleaned up. “And don’t track dirt inside!” he called after her.

  Luna took her shoes off outside and left them neatly lined up on the patio. On her way to the stairs, she passed Sienna, who was curled up in a chair in the parlor with a mug of tea.

  “You didn’t do the vacuuming today, and I’m too sick to do it,” Sienna said.

  “Leo told me to work in the garden.”

  “Well, then, I guess it’s just not going to get done.” Sienna rolled her eyes and then sighed. “I don’t care about stupid chores, anyway. If Natalie wants shit done, she can get out of that chair and do it herself. Ha.”

  “Are you still sick?” Luna asked. Sienna seemed to be a little sick all the time now, and when she couldn’t do her house chores Leo pushed most of them onto Luna. But Luna didn’t mind a few extra chores if it made Sienna like her more. With Mama gone, Sienna was the only person who really talked to Luna.

  She nodded. “Killer cramps.”

  “Aw.” She touched Sienna’s arm. “I hope you feel better soon.”

  Sienna stared at Luna’s hand. “Your fingernails are filthy. What were you doing out there?”

  Luna pulled her hand away. “Just digging. Leo wanted worms.”

  “That’s disgusting. What for?”

  Luna shrugged, heading up the stairs. It took a while to get all the dirt out from under her fingernails, especially since the bristles on the old nail brush in the shower were nearly flattened. She quickly got dressed in a T-shirt and old sweat pants that were baggy, but her tights were dirty from working in the garden. Brush in hand, she sat on Mama’s bed, missing her as she tried to work the tangles out of her hair. Mama had always done that for her and Luna didn’t know how to do it without pulling and yanking. Every day, every minute, she missed Mama.

  With most of the tangles out she tossed the brush aside and reached under the pillow for her Harold book. The books for her lessons were stacked on the dresser, but she would do them later. She read through the familiar book, reciting the words in her head as she let her index finger follow the purple line of Harold’s crayon.

  If she had a magic crayon right now, she wasn’t sure what she would draw. She had longed for a car to take her to the hospital to see Mama, but now that Mama was gone, where in the world could she go? To Hazel’s house? It seemed like a lot to ask the Hansons to save her from Leo and the sisters.

  She looked out the window at Hazel’s house, where the colored lights of the Christmas tree glimmered in the back window. The car door slammed, and a moment later the car backed out of the driveway. Ms. Nicole was probably headed off to pick Hazel up from school.

  Leaning back, Luna saw her reflection in the window. The bruise around her eye was fading, but the scar on her cheek was an angry sliver like a crescent moon. Luna felt bad about lying to Hazel’s mom about her scar, but she hadn’t wanted anything to get in the way of getting a ride to be with Mama. That was yesterday. Today none of that mattered anymore.

  The clatter of breaking glass made her turn to the window again. Someone was in Hazel’s backyard. Leo! He’d broken one of the windows.

  He swung the axe again, popping the rest of the glass from the frame.

  “What are you doing?” she yelled at the closed window, then raced down the stairs. The slider was unlocked, and she swung it open and ran across the yard. “Leo! Leo, stop.” In a few swift moves she was through the fence and rushing up to him.

  He had dropped the axe to the ground but was hoisting a bucket up to the window frame. The window was over his head, but he managed to tip the bucket and shake the contents into the house.

  “Stop it! Stop!” Luna pounded on his back with fisted hands. “You’re wrecking their house!”

  He glared down at her, pushing her away. “That’s the point.” She pummeled him again as he reached down for the second bucket. The worms! He was throwing the worms she’d dug up inside Hazel’s house. Their back room with the television, their Christmas tree, the little sofa where the girls sat to watch Nickelodeon, would all be ruined.

  “Why are you doing this?” she cried as she jumped, trying to knock the bucket out of his hands.

  He smiled, lifting it out of her reach. “The Hansons need a reminder to mind their own business.” Taunting her, he pretended to hand her the bucket, then shoved her back with an elbow and hoisted it up to the window. She yelped as he dumped the second batch of worms and dirt into the room.

  “No!” Defeated, Luna sank back onto the winter grass, mindless of the shattered glass around her as she started to cry.

  This was her fault. She had brought this trouble on Hazel’s family. And now she could never visit here again. If she did, Leo would torture them even more. It broke her heart, but she knew she had to give up her best friend before he ruined her life. Luna could never visit Hazel again. She sobbed into her hands, not noticing as Leo slipped away through the fence, leaving her to cry over her shriveled world.

  CHAPTER 42

  One Month Later

  Jets of warm water buffeted her feet, so soothing. Ruby sighed and settled in as the hidden fingers of the massage chair rumbled up her spine. A pedicure definitely helped to chisel away the stress, and it was great to be here with her best friends. But still, Ruby was having trouble shaking off the lingering guilt that clung to her like a tiny crab clamped on to her toe. Right now, pleasures like this made her feel greedy.

  “We should make our next appointment while we’re here,” Delilah said. “We’ll need mani-pedis before winter formal next month.”

  “Wow. I wonder if last year’s dress will still fit me,” Maxi said.

  “That’s the beauty of having sisters. I get to raid the closet of abandoned dresses.” Delilah turned to Ruby. “Are you getting something new?”

  Ruby frowned. “Winter formal? Meh.”

  “Oh, come on,” Delilah said. “We agreed that we would go together again. Three silly singles? We had so much fun last year.”

  Last year had been a blast. The winter formal, also called MORP for backwards prom, was supposed to be a girls’ choice event, though Ruby and her friends thought that was hopelessly old-fashioned and demeaning to women. “If I want to ask a guy to a dance,” Maxine had insisted, “I am going to ask.”

  The truth—none of the girls had a guy to ask. Maxi was close with Tyler and Adam Capeci, senior twins who were family friends and seemed like brothers to Maxi. Delilah had a lot of guy friends in the theater tech departm
ent, but she wasn’t really into any of them. Ruby admired the way Delilah dealt with the guys—some of them tall, low-voiced seniors who were more men than boys, seeming to have crossed a line that Ruby and her friends hadn’t yet approached. Delilah was totally comfortable giving them instructions and working beside them for hours in the control booth during a show.

  For Ruby, interaction with guys was kind of awkward right now. Sometimes she felt them staring. Sometimes they made flirty comments, and sometimes the comments were so blatantly misogynistic she gave the guys a scalding glare. But she looked forward to a time when guys weren’t such alien creatures, incapable of intelligent communication. And to be honest, part of the communication deficit was her own lack of experience.

  “Hello?” Delilah prodded. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking of bailing on us?”

  “Thinking about it,” Ruby said. “But when I mentioned it to my mom, she kind of freaked, too. She said there are certain opportunities that only come along a few times in life. I guess winter formal is supposed to be one of them.”

  “That’s so funny.” Maxi wriggled her shoulders, adjusting her neck warmer. “My parents could care less if I go. Actually, I think they’d prefer to save the money for the ticket and everything.”

  “Listen, guys, I have to pay for my own ticket, and I think it’s worth every penny.” Delilah was getting annoyed. “We are so going. End of story.”

  “I’ll go.” Ruby sighed. “It’s just so commercial. Materialistic. Capitalistic.”

  “Nothing wrong with that!” Delilah said, and they laughed.

  “It’s just that, recently, I’ve become aware of how advantaged we are. I guess I got woke.”

  “We know what’s going on, Rubes,” Maxi said. “You’re worried about the mystery girl.”

  “I just wish I knew that Luna was okay. If I could make sure she was fine, maybe Glory would stop haunting me.”

  “I don’t believe in ghosts,” Maxi said. “Science is the only thing that’s real. But if it really bothers you, call the police and tell them what you know.”