Gold Hill (2 page)

“
Okay,” Noelle
said.

“
Your Dad was mad and
stopped him from asking questions about me. You know how he can be.
He just said, ‘That’s enough.’ Then, the asshole started ripping
into his own daughter calling her a whore and a slut,” Sandy said.
“Your Dad lost it. It wasn’t just me.”

“
Seven dollars,” Noelle
said.

“
Whore and slut too,”
Sissy said.

“
Nine dollars,” Noelle
said.

“
Officially, I was quoting
but let’s make it an even ten,” Sandy pulled up to the light at
Colorado Boulevard and put ten dollar bill on the pile.

“
What did you do,
Charlie?” Sissy asked.

“
I would have been
p . . . really mad,” Nash said.

“
What could I do? I met
Addy on the streets a bunch of years ago. Her dad had kicked her
out. He’s the reason she’s . . . ” Charlie
glanced from Noelle to Sissy. “. . . advanced for
her age. He thinks it’s
my
fault. But Sandy’s right. Shi-dai lost his shit
after he started saying stuff about Addy.”

“
What did he do?” Noelle
asked. “You said the s-word too.”

“
We’re almost there,
Charlie,” Sandy said. “Talk fast.”

“
Shi-dai told him that his
family wouldn’t be bullied,” Charlie passed two dollars forward.
“Me too. As family.”

“
Duh.” Nash shook his head
at Charlie.

“
Nash!” Sandy
said.

He passed forward another
dollar bill.

“
Aden’s going to call our
social worker today to see if there’s anything we can do for
Addy.”

“
Ok, Nash, there’s Teddy,”
Sandy said. “Good luck today. Call me if you need anything. Love
you!”

Teddy was standing near the
front of the school waiting for Nash. Nash got out and Noelle
followed him.

“
Sissy can you get her
back in the car?” Sandy asked.

“
Noelle!” Sissy
yelled.

“
There goes my ear drum,”
Sandy said.

Noelle got back in the car
and they continued on to the Marlowe school.

“
What happens now?” Noelle
asked.

“
I can’t go out with her
anymore,” Charlie said.

“
You’re not going to sneak
around?” Sissy asked. “That’s what you guys used to do.”

“
I don’t think I can get
away with it,” Charlie said. “I don’t drive and they live in
Westminster and . . . ”

He shrugged.

“
You promised you wouldn’t
sneak around,” Sandy said.

“
See, I promised I
wouldn’t sneak around. That’s what I meant to say,” Charlie nodded
to Sissy. “When do I get my driver’s permit?”

Noelle squealed a laughed.
They pulled into a spot in the Marlowe School parking lot. Sandy
was about to get out when Anjelika opened the back door.

“
Good morning,” Jill’s
mother said. “I can take beautiful Rachel. I know you’re in a
hurry.”

“
I hate
to . . . ” Sandy started.

Rachel cooed “hello” to
Anjelika.

“
She’ll be fine,” Anjelika
said. “Wish Tanesha good luck. I’m very excited for
her.”

“
Bye Mom,” Noelle leaned
over to kiss Sandy and was out of the car. Sandy waited until they
were across the lot before heading out onto Eighteenth Avenue back
toward the Castle.

“
What’s going on with
Tanesha?” Charlie asked.

“
The girls and I are
taking her to her medical school orientation,” Sandy said. “That’s
why I’m driving this boat. It fits her bicycle.”

“
Fun,” Sissy
clapped.

“
She’s pretty excited and
pretty scared,” Sandy said. “But mostly, we want to hear how her
interview went yesterday.”

“
Diane Sawyer,” Charlie
said.

“
How did it go?” Sissy
asked.

“
That’s what I’m going to
find out,” Sandy said. “Okay, Sis. You have your meds for the
nurse? Your notes? You know where you’re supposed to
go?”

“
I’m all set,” Sissy said.
“Jake took me through the school again last night so I’d know where
my classes are and stuff. Lucky he has those keys.”

“
Yes, keys,” Sandy said.
“You’ll remember not to tell anyone about his . . .
keys, right?”

“
I won’t tell,” Sissy
said. “And I won’t be lost. Love you.”

Sissy leaned over the seat
to hug Sandy. She hugged Charlie.

“
Good luck!” Sandy
said.

“
I have my phone,” Sissy
said. “I’ll call if anything happens and I’ll see Charlie at four
o’clock for basketball tryouts.”

Sandy and Charlie waved as
Sissy walked into the entrance of East High.

“
Are you ready for your
first day?” Sandy asked.

“
I’m all set,” Charlie
said. “I have my own office room. Aden and Jake set it up for me on
the first floor at the Castle. My computer and my books are there
waiting for me. Delphie’s going to check in on me. Don’t worry
Sandy. I can do this.”

Sandy stopped the big SUV
in front of the Castle to drop him off.

“
Anjelika will be here
after work to check my stuff and sign me up for basketball,”
Charlie said. “Love you.”

Charlie closed the door and
waved through the window. Sandy smiled at him. She waited only a
moment before Jill pulled up with Tanesha and Heather. Tanesha
stuck her bicycle in the back of the SUV as the women got
in.

“
How was drop off?” Jill
asked.

“
Crazy,” Sandy
said.

“
What’s this stack of
money?” Tanesha picked up the dollar bills from the passenger
seat.

“
Swear jar,” Sandy
said.

“
From one conversation?”
Tanesha asked.

“
At this rate, we can buy
ski passes.”

“
At this rate, you’ll have
enough money to fly to the Alps,” Tanesha laughed.

Laughing, Sandy started the
journey toward Tanesha’s new life.

~~~~~~~~

Monday morning — 10:37
A.M. EDT
New York City

“
Which clip do you want to
use?” the editor for Primetime turned to look at their
host.

“
Let’s watch them both,”
she said.

“
This was my favorite,”
the editor said. “I like how she’s not intimidated by you and how
she ends it with talking about relating.”

He leaned over, pressed a
button, and Tanesha’s image came on the screen.

“
Um, what was the
question?” Tanesha looked up from her tea cup and into the
camera.

“
You’re a smart,
independent, attractive woman,” the host said. “Why would you stay
in this abusive relationship?”

“
In the first place,”
Tanesha set her tea cup down. The camera closed in until it framed
her face. “Jeraine isn’t abusive. At least not to me. I think if
you talked to all of his women, you’d find he’s funny, smart, and
great to be around. We have great conversations and laugh a
lot.”

“
Don’t you
think . . . ”

“
But I agree with you that
this addiction is abusive to both of us,” Tanesha said. “And for
his part in it? The drinking and drugging to bring out his
addiction? I
have
been injured by his choices. There were a few times in my
life when I thought I’d never be able to take another breath
because of something he did or didn’t do. He has hurt me. His
addiction has hurt me even worse.”

“
So
why . . . ?”

“
I’m getting there,”
Tanesha smiled. “Just like he did, I’ve made my choices along the
way. Sometimes, I’ve waited for him. Sometimes, we’ve spent weeks
together in absolute bliss. And there’ve been years when I haven’t
thought of him at all.”

“
You haven’t waited around
for him.”

“
I have,” Tanesha said.
“But not always. I made choices for my life as it made sense to me
at that place and time.”

“
I guess the
money . . . ”

“
I don’t have access to
his money,” Tanesha said. “I didn’t even know we were still married
until he was in rehab last time. I mean, he says I have access to
his money but . . . That’s what I mean by choice. I
chose to live free of his money. And it’s not like I’ve been
knitting my chastity belt while he’s out hot dogging it. I’ve lived
every day. I’ve loved, gone to college, had relationships, worked
jobs, dated, and . . . Today, my choice is to see
where this goes.”

“
She gave me one last
chance,” Jeraine’s voice came from the side. The camera zoomed out
to show him standing by her chair. “At rehab this last time. I
asked and she said she would try it one more time. But we both know
this is our last round.”

“
I guess the biggest thing
for me,” Tanesha glanced at him and then back at the camera. “I
didn’t sign on for a pleasure cruise or something out of a teen
romance novel. I signed up for a relationship – the good, the bad,
the highs, the lows, the hard times and the joyful times. We
relate. That’s what’s interesting to me.

“
I mean people throw away
relationships now because of stupid stuff like his Mom wasn’t nice
to me or he doesn’t work as much as I do or I make more money or
whatever. Toss him away. That kind of throw away relationship keeps
people from the actual juice of love – the relating.”

Tanesha looked up. The
camera angle caught her eyes in such a way that they looked almost
amber. She smiled.

“
He has problems,” Tanesha
said. “I have problems. He’s not perfect, but I’m not either.
That’s where the relating comes in. I get to really know him. He
gets to really know me. That’s pretty great. So being in this
relationship is my choice. Today.”

The camera faded out and
the screen showed the tag line for the interview: “Miss T speaks to
Diane Sawyer.”

“
I see what you mean,” the
host said.

~~~~~~~~

Monday mid-day — 11:37
A.M. MDT
Denver, CO

“
Okay Sissy, step on the
scale for me, please,” the school nurse said.

“
Do I have to?” Sissy’s
voice went up with panic. “I didn’t realize I would be weighed in
and I’m not ready and . . . ”

The nurse touched Sissy’s
arm.

“
You wouldn’t happen to be
Sandy Delgado’s sister, would you?” the nurse asked.

“
Sandy?” Sissy beamed.
“She’s like my mom and my sister all rolled up in one.”

“
I went to school with
her,” the nurse said. “She was a couple grades behind me at
Machebeuf. I see her every once in a while when I want my hair to
be really fancy.”

Sissy smiled.

“
Does she still hang out
with . . . ”

“
The girlfriends?” Without
thinking, Sissy stepped on the scale. “Sure, they took Tanesha to
her med school orientation day today. Did you know them
too?”

“
Heather and I went to the
same church growing up,” the nurse moved the weights over on the
scale.

“
Tanesha’s dating that
hunky Jeraine,” Sissy said. “We went to see him on
Saturday.”

“
Jeraine? He went here, to
East.”

“
So did Jake,” Sissy said.
“We live with him. Jake Lipson.”

“
He and Jeraine are like
royalty here,” the nurse said. “You can get off.”

“
Is that a bad thing?”
Sissy asked.

“
It makes you kind of a
celebrity by association,” the nurse said.

“
Oh, well, we live with
Valerie Lipson too,” Sissy said. “She did my fingernails. Aren’t
they pretty?”

“
Very pretty,” the nurse
said. “That’s some house you live in.”

“
It’s huge,” Sissy said.
“We can go a lot of days and not see anyone or see them all the
time. It’s fun. I live in an apartment with Sandy and her husband
Aden and their baby Rachel and my new sister Noelle and my new
brother Nash and my old brother Charlie. It’s great.”

Smiling, the nurse held out
a pill and a Dixie cup of water for Sissy. She took her
pill.

“
I’ll need to weigh you at
least once a week. Can you do that?” the nurse asked.

“
I can try,” Sissy said.
“If I get too focused on my weight, I get sick again.”

“
Let’s not focus on it
that then,” the nurse said. “Let’s spend our time talking about
your life at school. Deal?”

Sissy nodded.

“
I need to check your
bandages.”

Sissy pulled up her top for
the nurse to see. She touched each of them to check to see if they
needed to be changed.

“
It looks like you’re
healing well,” the nurse said. “When does ballet practice start
again?”

“
As soon as I’m better,”
Sissy said. “Today, we’re just doing leg exercises. Ivan, my
teacher, wants me to learn how to run. I’m going out with Jake this
evening so he can help me and Noelle. But I bet everyone will come.
That’s usually what happens. Everyone decides to come. It’s more
fun that way. We’re going to go slow so the boys will probably
complain.”