Everything (31 page)

“Are you going to be okay from this?”

“If you have to ask, then you already know the answer.”

He stared at me, and when I wouldn’t make eye contact with him, he stood to leave. “Take care of yourself. I’ll see you around,” he said, and he left.
 

The bad part about living in a small town was that I would most definitely see him around.

I had always thought myself as being strong, as never taking shit from anyone and never showing a weakness, being tough as nails because Wally never gave out hugs and kisses. Given enough pressure, nails break.
 

And I broke.

Chapter 15

To the naked eye, I functioned perfectly. I went to school, came home, turned in my homework like normal, but I was different. I didn’t hang out in between classes with Riley. I avoided Kelly like the plague and officially moved out of the dorm early and cleaned out my belongings without help from anyone. It was mostly clothes and my TV. I finally found Trevor’s missing boxers and contemplated burning them but opted for just trashing them. I didn’t go out for fear of running in to Trevor. The only places I did go were school, Opal’s, home, and lately, the cemetery. I found myself there a lot when I needed to talk to someone, especially Mom. I would sit there and pour my sorrow out until dusk, then go home and lie in their bed and fall asleep.

Aria didn’t know what to do to make me feel better, and I wasn’t talking to her about it. Tina would text me, but I wasn’t talking to her about it either. I would text her back saying that I was fine, but she wasn’t buying it.

I hadn’t told Tina he had broken up with me. I didn’t want to hear her say, “I told you so” or anything. In the end, she had conceded, knowing she couldn’t force me and I would tell her when I was ready. All she could do was tell me to call her if I needed her.

I could tell she wasn’t convinced, but I just didn’t want to relive that with her just yet. I was getting pretty good at my poker face around Aunt Opal, but I would catch her staring at me when she thought I wasn’t looking. It was a week before her appointment in Orlando, and she hadn’t had an episode, until today.

It was my morning to check on her, and I went over like clockwork after Aria had left for school. I didn’t knock because it was my day, so, using my key, I went in through the kitchen door and found her in her robe as usual standing in front of the fridge.
 
“Auntie, what are you looking for?”

She didn’t answer, just stood there not moving, staring in the fridge.

I went up to her and placed my hand over hers to try and draw her to attention, and she flipped out. She started screaming and looked at me with wild eyes, eyes that didn’t recognize me, and backed up into the corner, knocking over the trash can.

“Who are you? Whatchu doin’ in my house?” She scrambled back against the wall with her hands outstretched.

“Auntie, it’s me, Dacey.”

“I don’t know no Dacey.” She went to reach for the broom.

This wasn’t going to end well. “I’m your niece, Dacey. Remember?” I said patiently.

“I ain’t got no niece name Dacey. My niece name Susan.” She grabbed the broom and pointed the end at me.

I held up my hands, palms up to show I wasn’t going to hurt her, and backed up.

“Auntie, yes, you do. I’m Dacey,
Susan’s
daughter,” I stressed.

“Susan ain’t got no daughter.” She tried to jab at me with the end of the broom.

I backed up closer to the door, and she got her footing and inched closer with the broom.

“Get, get out my house!” she screamed with each jab.

I knew there was no point in trying to reason with her. I could tell by the glassy look in her eyes that Aunt Opal was not there. This was the Opal I didn’t know, the Opal who didn’t know me. I reached behind me for the knob to the door and opened it and slowly eased myself out.

“Auntie, I’m just going to step outside, but I won’t leave, okay?”

“You damn right cha leavin’, and if you don’t leave my property, I’m callin’ the poleece!” She did one final jab, and I was down the last step. She slammed the door, and with a loud click, it was locked.

“Shit,” I said to myself, as my things were inside. I had no choice but to sit on the step and wait. Whether she called the cops or not, I wasn’t getting arrested, but it was another thing for the town to talk about. I was just hoping that she would snap out of it before she actually called.

When I heard the sirens, I knew she hadn’t.

Shitshitshit.

I went around the front of the house to meet whatever cop was here to humiliate me and tell him it was a false alarm when I saw an unfamiliar highway patrol car pull up. Why was a highway patrol car here? Then I saw a tall man in a tan-and-gold uniform with broad shoulders step out from the car, hand on holster.

“Stop right there, ma’am. I got a report of an intruder. I’m going to need you to put your hands where I can see them,” he commanded.

This guy couldn’t have been more than my age, but with his hand on his gun, I wasn’t inclined to disobey. Still, I wasn’t really in the mood.

“Officer, there has been a misunderstanding. This is my aunt’s house, and she gets confused sometimes.” I raised my hands as he unhooked his holster as if he was going to draw his gun.

“Right, we hear that all the time. Hands where I can see them, lady.”
 

As he came closer to me, I noticed his name tag read J Parks.

“Officer Parks?” I asked tentatively.

“Have we had a run-in before?” His hand twitched to his gun.

“I’m Dacey Harper.”

A hint of recognition flicked across his face, and his hand hesitated, hovering above his gun. “You got identification on you?” He eyed me suspiciously.

Yeah,
inside
. “It’s inside my aunt’s house,” I said and jutted my head toward Opal’s house.

He looked as though he didn’t believe me, and, thinking fast, I started to think back to something he would remember talking to me about.

“I can prove it. You told me about my parents’ accident. You were supposed to give us the official report soon,” I rushed out.

He cocked his head to the side, and then relaxed his hand to his side but didn’t re-clip his holster.

“Why don’t you go and ring the bell and see if we can’t get to the bottom of this? I’ll follow.”

“See, my aunt has memory problems. She sometimes forgets who people are, namely me. Ask anyone. So if she doesn’t remember me, I’m not a trespasser—she really is my aunt! Ask anyone in this town, the neighbors, anyone on this street. I check on her three times a week. They all know.”

I turned to gesture to the neighbors and wasn’t surprised that a number of them were already outside their houses “pretending” to pick up the morning paper or walking their dog or letting out the cat. When they noticed me looking in their direction, the older ones kept staring while the younger ones had the common courtesy to look away.

“Let’s just go and see what Ms. Watson has to say, since she made the call, shall we?”

Sighing, I walked up to the front door, figuring it would be better than the side door. I said a silent prayer that the memory lapse was gone and that Opal would back to being Opal, and rang the doorbell.

Officer Parks stood directly behind me and chuckled.

“You can put your hands down now, Miss Harper.”

I hadn’t even realized I still had them at half-mast until he said something. Feeling stupid, I lowered them and knocked because Opal still hadn’t come to the door.

Finally, she yanked open the door, grumbling,

“I heard ya. You ain’t gotta keep...Oh, it’s you, chile. Whatcha doin’ knockin’ at this door for?” She tilted her head to the side in confusion. “And who is this fella?” She jutted her chin to Officer Parks.

I silently thanked her neurons for firing and making her okay, then I moved past her and offered for Officer Parks to come inside.

“Auntie, you called the cops on me,” I said matter-of-factly as I closed the door behind Officer Parks, shutting off the show for the nosy-ass neighbors.

“I did no sucha thing!” Opal said indignantly.

I didn’t have the patience to argue with her. I had things to do, like school, cemetery, and bed, in that order. I turned to Officer Parks, who was studying Opal, taking in her flowered housecoat and curlers. Great, he not only associated me with my dead parents; now, he also associated me with my aunt who called the cops on me and didn’t remember it.

“What did you need from me, my ID?” I asked, wanting this over as quickly as possible.

“Yes, we could start with that, then maybe an explanation for my report. I normally don’t do these calls, but I was actually coming to give you my report and intercepted the call and decided to give the local sheriff a break.”

Bet he’s regretting that, I thought as I went into the kitchen to retrieve my purse. I took out my wallet, and I went back into the living room and handed him my ID.

He examined it, then handed it back to me, noticing my age.

“You’re only twenty-two?”

“Yes, why?”

“I mistook you for older over the phone that’s all, at least twenty-four.”

“I act older than I am. I have a lot of responsibilities.” I eyed Opal, who was wandering into the kitchen looking for breakfast.

“No pudding!” I yelled, and then looked back apologetically at Officer Parks.

“I see,” he nodded, then took out a little black notebook and a pen and eyed me expectantly.

“Oh, right, what happened.” I proceeded to give him the CliffNotes version of what happened this morning, finishing with him showing up and almost pulling his gun on me.

“For the record, I didn’t almost pull my gun on you. You would have known had I done that.” He chuckled again.

“It looked like that to me,” I grumbled to myself.

“You weren’t armed and didn’t look like a threat, so I kept it holstered, but I was always assessing the situation.”

Assessing the situation, what the hell did that mean?
Me? I averted my eyes, feeling a little uncomfortable.

“Does your aunt have these episodes often?” He was scribbling something down on his pad.

I was instantly on alert. I didn’t like people thinking things about my family, especially strangers.

“No, I mean, she has memory issues, but what older person doesn’t at times? It’s not a big deal,” I said flippantly.

He raised an eyebrow. “A big enough deal to call the cops out, apparently.”

“That was a mistake,” I said quickly. This conversation was going bad quickly. This was not how my morning was supposed to go.

“Look, she may have memory problems, but she has a doctor’s appointment set for next week. I can give you the name of her doctor. It’s in Orlando, and I promise she won’t call the cops anymore. Just don’t make a big deal about this. Please.”

His pen hovered over his pad as he contemplated something, then he closed the pad and tore out the paper and crumbled it up into a ball, putting the pen back in his pocket.

“Got a trash can?” he asked with a smirk, holding out the ball of paper.

“Thank you so much, really.” I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding and took the ball from him.

“Look, between you and me, kid, you’ve been through a lot these past few weeks. This is just going to add to it, and I’d rather not do that to you twice. I’m a cop, but I’m not a dick.” He smiled kindly.

“Kid?” I frowned. “You can’t be that much older than me, no offense,” I added last minute. I didn’t want to offend him, since he just let us off the hook for the false alarm.

“I’m twenty-six, so in my book, you are a kid, although I haven’t had to deal with as nearly as much shit as you have.”

“Whoa, cops cuss?” I asked, shocked.

“Cops invented cussing,” he laughed as he walked toward the door.

“Wait, you were going to give me the report, about my parents?” I was suddenly very nervous.

“I was just headed to the car to get it, actually.” He paused with his hand on the knob.

“Well, I was on my way to school, and my sister isn’t here. She wants to be present when you go over it.”

“Oh, I wasn’t aware you had a sister. How old is she?”

“Eighteen.”

“I see. Well, I could make myself busy around town, I suppose, and then meet you at your house, say, around five thirty?”
 

I knew he was doing this as a favor. There was nothing to make him busy in this town. I nodded my head appreciatively and said thank you. After closing the door behind him, I went to find Aunt Opal in the kitchen eating, you guessed it, pudding.

“Auntie, I thought I said no pudding,” I sighed, moving the four-pack away from her.

“Oh, pshh, chile. I’m grown.” She licked the spoon in a very nongrown way.

“You’ll be happy to know that you’re not being fined for a false call to the police.”

“I knew you’d handle it. Besides, that fella is sweet on you. That ol’ Trevor has some competition on his hands.”

I balked. “What did you say?”

“You heard me, chile. That there fella is sweet on you. Trevor had betta watch out.” She smiled like a Cheshire cat.

I hadn’t told her that Trevor had broken and then stomped on my heart with a combat boot. Hearing his name brought on a fresh wave of hurt, since she still thought of him as being in my life. I would have to tell them all eventually, but I couldn’t just yet.

“Auntie, I think you’re seeing things. That’s the officer who...who told me about Mom and Dad’s accident. We don’t know each other. This was our first time meeting, actually.”

“I don’t care when you met, chile. I saw the way he was lookin’ atcha, and that fella is sweet on you.” She tried to reach for more pudding.

“No, Auntie, he’s not.” I moved the pudding out of reach farther, and she huffed at me.

“He is, now I know what I saw. I may be crazy, but I ain’t blind. Fella’s used to fall for your momma like that. It’s your eyes. They the same as hers. Now give me my pudding!”
 

This wasn’t the first time she had told me that I had my mother’s eyes.

“No! And it’s still left to be seen if you’re blind,” I added under my breath. I got up and put the pudding cups in my purse and got some yogurt from the fridge with fruit on the bottom and handed it to her instead.