Everything (11 page)

“Yeah, Mick.” He grunted something about him being an asshole.

Our disliking of Mick Holmes was probably the only thing Dad and I had in common. The guy just made everyone’s skin crawl, and the fact that he had hurt Mom in the past just made Dad want to punch him in the neck every time he saw him. But he refrained because Mom asked him to, as she and Mick were trying to rebuild their relationship. It did make me feel somewhat connected to him the times that Mick was around to know that we both wanted the same thing on some level—for Mick to leave.
 

Mom came out to say that dinner was done, and we all made our way around the table to eat.

Dinner was as I thought it would be: Mick talking about himself way too much, not letting anyone else get in a word. When he finally shut up, Aria got a chance to tell everyone about the play she was auditioning for.

“It’s called
The Frost
. It’s a contemporary play based off a collection of Robert Frost poems. Get it,
The Frost
?” she said, animatedly.

“Oh, yeah, I see what they did there,” I replied amusedly.

“Well, anyways, it’s split up into different acts or poems, and I’m auditioning for act 5, or poem 5, his ‘Fire and Ice’ poem.”

“I love that poem,” Mom mused.

“I know, it’s why I picked it,” smiled Aria, as she winked at me knowingly.

“Do you girls remember that one year we had those series of real bad hurricanes and we had no power for a week? All I did was read books to you, mostly poem books because that’s all I had. That poem was my favorite, and Dacey, if I recall, you wanted me to read it at night until you fell asleep.”

“I don’t remember that, Mom,” I said quickly but smiling—showing her I did remember.

“Oh, I do. Every time she would go to close the book, you would whine and ask her to read it one more time,” Aria said, starting to laugh.

“How do you even remember that? You were six!”

She pointed to her head. “Steel trap. I remember everything.”

“No, you don’t.” I laughed because she really did have a horrible memory.

“How does it go?” asked Mick, putting me on the spot. “It sounds like it was your favorite too, and if you’re good at journalism, you have to be good at recall as well. So let’s hear it.”

“Oh, I haven’t read it to them in years. I’m sure she doesn’t remember it, Mick.” Mom tried to save me.

Aria had a huge grin on her face and mouthed the words “just do it,” rolling her eyes from across the table.
 

I looked Mick dead in the face and begin to recite the poem I knew by heart. After I was done I looked over at Mom and saw she had tears in her eyes, as I knew she would.

“I can’t believe you remember, after all these years,” she said softly, as she dabbed at her eyes.

“Yeah, well, it’s a classic, and it’s your favorite. And I only heard it a million times that week.” I tried to act as though it wasn’t a big deal, when really it had meant the world to me. It was truly when I knew she loved me. It was only a year after the marriage, and I was still calling her Ann when the storms had hit. I had been terrified of the dark, and to be without electricity for a week was traumatizing for me. Wally was no help. The only thing that helped was for me to know that I wasn’t alone, so Ann would read to me until I fell asleep, and I just happened to like that poem. I felt it kind of fit the occasion at the time, with the hurricane winds blowing and everything, and I guess we bonded. When it was all over and the lights were restored at the end of the week, she was telling me good-night one night and, instead of saying my normal “Good night, Ann,” I said, “Good night, Mom.” I’ve been calling her that ever since, so I knew she would cry when I recited the poem, because in a way it was
our
poem, and Aria knew that as well. I looked over to her and mouthed the words “thank you,” and she smiled big and proud.

Wally and Mick just looked at us, then back at Mom, and then asked why she was crying, to which she replied that it was just a moment she had with her girls, it was nothing.
 

After dinner, Aria and I helped Mom clear the table and Wally excused himself to his bedroom while Mick just hung back and watched. Then he and Mom went to the living room to talk, and Aria and I went upstairs to work on her play.

“Surprised?” she said as soon as we got in the room we once shared, her room solely now.

“‘Fire and Ice’?”

“Yeah, I know how much it means to you and Mom, and I wanted it to be a surprise to Mom for opening night, but I couldn’t hold in. I’m so bad at that.” She was bouncing on tippy-toes in excitement at her gift.

“You are bad at that, but it was a great surprise. But why did you give up going out for a lead part because you wanted to do this for me and Mom?” I asked her suspiciously.

“Welllll,” she drew out, confirming my suspicion.

“Aww, A,” I moaned. “Don’t tell Mom that, whatever you do.” Now I felt bad. I knew she did it in part because of me and partly because of Mom.

“I wanted to do something for you both. You are always there for me, and I wanted to give a gift that came from the heart.”

“And you did. I just don’t want you to miss out on something by trying to give us something. Mick is right about one thing—you can be a lead.”

“Really?” she squealed, tackling me with a hug on my old bed.

“Umph.” I caught her elbow in my side on accident. “Ow!”

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” she rushed, then smiled devilishly and added, “If you were in school for nursing, you would know if you had to worry or not if I damaged something.”

“Damage this!” I shot her my middle finger.

“Oh, I’m telling Mom,” she said, laughing.

“Whatever. What is she going to do, ground me?” I laughed back.
 

“But really, you think Uncle Mickey was right? ’Cause when he said it, it sounded all...” She screwed her face up in a scowl. “But when you say it, it sounds all...” and she made this happy angelic face.

“Thanks,” I shook my head sarcastically. “Are we going to run lines or not? It’s getting late,” I said, looking at my cellphone and seeing it was going on almost 8:45 p.m.

“Oh, I don’t need to run lines,” she said playfully.

“What?” I asked, stunned.

“Yeah, I just said that to get you to stay longer so you wouldn’t bail right after dinner, and so I could explain about the play. Clever, huh?” She wagged her eyebrows.

“Those classes are really paying off—I didn’t suspect a thing,” I said, flabbergasted.

“I know, right!” she yelped, and I had to cover my ears she was so loud. When she got this excited, there was no bringing her down. Soon she would...

“Dance party!” she proclaimed loudly as she turned on her iPod to a very loud pop song boasting about being a hipster and twenty-two. It was time for me to go.

“Aria!” I yelled over the music until she turned it down. “I’m leaving if I don’t have to help you.”

She pouted. “Boo. You are no fun, Dac. You could have dance-partied with me for a little bit. I did just give you, like, the best gift ever.”

“You did, didn’t you?” I considered, and then held up two fingers. “Okay, two minutes, then I’m going home.”

“Yes!” She fist-pumped the air and turned the music back up. Only she could get me to dance-party with her. Two minutes turned into forty-five, and us lip-syncing in the mirror like we used to do when we were younger. I have to admit, it was fun, and I didn’t even realize so much time had passed until my cellphone went off with a text message from Tina asking how the dinner went.

“Dammit, it’s nine thirty. I have to go, A. It’s late,” I breathed heavily from the workout-slash-dance party.

“Okay. Thanks for running lines with me.” She made air quotes around the words “running lines” and grinned.

“Anytime. Who knew it’d be such a workout? Love you.”

“You too, bye.”

I stopped to say good-bye to Mom and Mick on my way out.

“Why are you all sweaty?” Mom noticed.

“Dance party,” I said by way of explanation.

“Ohhh,” she said, smiling to herself. “You girls haven’t done that in a while. I thought I heard music. What happened to learning the play?”

“Turns out she has it in the bag already, Mom,” I answered, kissing her on the cheek. “Bye, Mick.”

“Dacey,” was all he said.

“Drive carefully, dear.” Mom hugged and kissed me back.

“I will. Love you.” And I walked out, happy that this turtle night with Mick was over.

While I was driving home, I realized that I didn’t tell Mom or Aria about Aunt Opal and Mr. Davis, but it was just as well that I didn’t because I did not want to discuss Opal in front of Mick. It was one thing for him to think of me in a certain way, but I wouldn’t have him thinking that way about Opal too. When I got to the dorm, the hall was quiet. Most people were in bed at this time or in their respective rooms doing whatever. After showering, I decided to call Trevor to see if he was done with his mom date and to grill him about Mr. Davis. He picked up on the second ring.

“Hey, baby. I was starting to worry.” His voice was low.

“Things ran later at home than expected. There was a dance-party thing with A.” I shook my head and then realized he couldn’t see me and stopped.

“Do I even want to know what that means?”

“No. Did you have fun tonight?”

“Yes, it was nice. We just rented a movie, and she cooked dinner. I missed you, though.”

“I really missed you. One day you will meet that pretentious jerk and know what I mean.” I shuddered, remembering his nurse remark.

“Do you want me to come over and make you forget that pretentious jerk?” he suggested.

“Tempting, but no. It’s late baby, but you can tell me something.” I perked up at my oncoming question.

“Yes, I still love you even though you used the word pretentious,” he joked.

 
“I know you do. You love my brain. But that’s not it. Did Mr. Davis ever ask about my aunt Opal?”

“Mr. D, my boss?” he asked—and I could tell my question startled him.

“Yes.”

“Um, well, she called like a million times when Rufus was there checking on him and demanded to speak to the owner to make sure we were going to take care of him properly, so we gave her Mr. Davis’s office number, but we didn’t think he would actually call her back. Oh god, did he—did she say something to him about our service?” He was panicking, with good reason, as Mr. Davis was known by his employees to be an asshole. On a number of occasions, Trevor would come from work saying Mr. Davis had chewed him a new one over something minor.

“No, baby, calm down. It’s nothing like that. I went over to Opal’s this morning, and, well, I’m about 99 percent sure your boss is doing my aunt.”

Silence.

“Babe?”

“Shit,” he breathed.

“Funny, that’s the same thing Tina said.”

“You told Tina before you told me?” He sounded hurt.

Oh, shit. “All that I just said, and that’s what you want to focus on?”

“Well, yeah. He’s my boss, so you should have told me first.” Now he sounded like he was getting upset.

“Babe, really?” I sat up in bed, like that would help me better focus on the conversation. “You were at work. I wanted to call you, but I figured Mr. Davis was going in to work and I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”

“So you text me with 911. This was one I should have known first, not Tina.” Now he was yelling. Oh, boy.

“This was girlish gossip, not something that warranted a 911 text message.” I tried to reason with him.

“You always do that. Don’t decide for me if something is a 911—let me decide that. You don’t have to call someone two hours away if you need to talk. That’s what I’m here for,” he bellowed.

“Okay, okay,” I assured him, “you’re right, babe. I’m sorry!”

He was silent for a bit, and then he said he was tired and going to bed and hung up.

What just happened? That conversation did not go how I expected it to go at all, and it left me wondering what it really was about. I remembered my earlier text message from Tina and decided to text her back to let her know that the dinner was over and I was fine.

Made it through dinner in 1 piece

Is Mick?

Sigh, yes

Crap, there is always next time

Yea

What’s wrong?

Crap, even by text message she could tell I had something on my mind.

Just tired

Liar, but ok you’ll tell me when u r ready

It’s nothing

Its something

I’m tired

Wally giving u shit?

No, goodnight

Did Mick the Dick?

Lol that’s a good 1. But no. night

Then it’s the lump

Night Tina

Ding ding we have a looser

If I ignored her, she might think I fell asleep and stop texting.

I’ll kill him if he hurts u

Don’t act like ur asleep

Fine but I meant it

No such luck. I texted her back, because she would keep this up all night, and told her with finality good-night and that I loved her.

I was about to fall asleep when I remembered what Riley had offered yesterday to Aria. Even though she said she didn’t need help, I still wanted her to get a good shot so she could get a part in the play. I looked at the time. 10:45. She would still be up, so I texted her to let her know. When she asked me what was wrong, I was stunned. How could everyone tell by my text there was something the matter with me? Geez! I texted her back to let her know I was just tired and would talk to her tomorrow.

Did my argument with Trevor affect me that much? It’s not like we never fought. I guess it has never been over something so trivial before. I don’t see the big deal. It was big news and Opal news, and I usually always call Tina with my Opal news, or Mom, or Aria. Trevor wasn’t really part of my crazy life. Sure, he was in it being my boyfriend, but he was apart from it, detached. I liked him and realized I kept him that way because I didn’t want him mixed up in my craziness. He was the one thing that I could count on for normal, young-adult stuff. I didn’t want to mix the two. I would have to make him see that he was special in my life in his own right. Special in a different aspect. I would call him first thing in the morning and apologize again and try to explain. If I called him tonight, he wouldn’t pick up, as he was too wound up. I settled back in the bed with a firm resolve to keep the two separate, and before long, I was fast asleep.