Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (15 page)

Samantha smiled at him.

“
Are you going to be all
right?” Samantha asked.

“
I think so,” Charlie
said. “Before you say it, I will be careful.”

Samantha smiled at him.

“
Why are you doing all of
this?” Samantha asked. “When I was your age, all I cared about was
getting nicer clothes, and what boys would ask me out, and why, oh
why, was I related to the weirdo twins?”

Charlie smiled.

“
I don’t know if I would
do it,” Samantha said.

“
If you had the chance to
maybe save someone’s life, would you have done that?” Charlie
asked.

Samantha turned to look at him.

“
I mean, Aden always says,
‘Run the tape, Charlie. Where’s this gonna go?’ Mostly he means on
using drugs and being an asshole, but when I run this
tape . . . These guys . . . they’re
gonna kill someone. Maybe they won’t mean it; maybe they’ll want to
kill that person; maybe that person will be me. But sooner or
later, they’re gonna kill someone. They almost killed Tink. I was
there at the hospital. She was mostly dead.”

Charlie shrugged.

“
What would you do?”
Charlie asked. “If you were my age?”

Samantha looked out the windshield. She
didn’t say anything for a while.

“
That’s what I thought,”
Charlie said.

“
I’ll do anything I can to
help you,” Samantha said. “And my anything is pretty
big.”

Charlie gave her an impish grin and she
laughed.

“
Come on,” Charlie said.
“Mrs. Valerie told me to make sure you came in when you dropped me
off, and I don’t want to make her mad.”

“
Val? She’s a
sweetie.”

“
She’s really scary when
she’s mad.” Charlie gave an exaggerated shiver.

Samantha laughed. They got out of the car
and went into the house. They heard muffled laughing and loud
thumps.

“
What’s going on here?”
Samantha asked.

“
Oh, Delphie’s got
everyone cleaning out a room downstairs,” Charlie
smiled.

“
I thought work and
teenagers didn’t mix,” Samantha said.

“
You haven’t worked with
Delphie or this house,” Charlie said. “There’s always something
spooky or weird, in this house. Or beautiful. So many people have
lived here. We cleaned out one room downstairs where some vagrants
had stuffed all their possessions in hidden wall compartments. It
was sort of gross and sort of great. Delphie was able to send the
vagrants’ families photos, and even an old pocket watch. I wanted
to keep the watch, but Delphie was sure the family would want it
back. They did.”

Charlie shrugged.

“
You should join us,”
Charlie said. “We have lots of pregnant clothes here.”

They heard a loud boom and a loud laugh.

“
Honey and MJ are
helping,” Charlie smiled. “This is going to be fun. Let’s take a
look.”

Charlie waved Samantha toward the stairs to
the basement. They went down the long stairwell, turned the corner,
and were confronted with a cloud of black dust. Charlie stepped
back. They heard a high pitched girl’s laugh.

“
That’s Ivy.” Charlie
smiled.

“
You really like her,”
Samantha said.

“
She’s just a kid,”
Charlie said. “She’s wild and very fun. I bet she’s scaring the
crap out of Noelle.”

“
No she’s not!” Carrying a
box, Noelle appeared right in front of him. She punched his
shoulder and walked past him. “I like her.”

Noelle was down the hall
before she yelled back, “Nash
really
likes her.”

“
Of course he does,”
Charlie said. “Are you game?”

“
Sure,” Samantha
said.

“
Sandy!” Charlie
yelled.

For all his maturity, in this moment,
Charlie was every bit a sixteen-year-old boy. Samantha scowled at
him, but Sandy appeared from a room along the hall.

“
Charlie!” Sandy hugged
him. “Welcome home! Samantha! Thank you so much for helping
us.”

Samantha smiled at Sandy.

“
You need to change,”
Sandy said to Charlie. “Go now before you see the
girls.”

“
But . . .”
Charlie’s entire posture shifted. The strong, thoughtful young man
was gone, leaving a grouchy child in his place.

“
Now!” Sandy pointed up
the stairs. “You better hurry because Tink and Ivy are leaving in a
bit and I know you want to see them.”

Charlie scowled at her. He opened his mouth;
Sandy shook her head. He slunk up the stairs.

“
That’s impressive,”
Samantha said in a low voice.

“
He wants to see his
girlfriend,” Sandy laughed. “It’s all about leverage.”

“
He said you might have
some clothes I could wear?” Samantha asked. “I thought I’d stay for
a while. It would be good for me to see how Charlie and the girls
interact.”

“
Sure. You’re taller than
I am, but just as huge.” Sandy pointed down another hall. “Some of
my old clothes are down here in the community closet.”

“
I got big right away,”
Samantha said.

“
Me too,” Sandy said.
“Have you seen Jill?”

Samantha shook her head.

“
She’s having twins,”
Sandy laughed. “She’s taller than I am. I mean, who isn’t? Right?
But she looks . . . I mean, she could pass for just
being heavy around the middle.”

“
Not me,” Samantha
smiled.

“
Me either,” Sandy said.
“Jake let Jill out of her house arrest, that’s what she calls bed
rest. She traipsed down the stairs. Incredible. She’s due in less
than two months!”

Samantha laughed.

“
She was that way with
Katy. She waited tables until the day she had Katy, and then she
was back up a couple days later. Of course, necessity drove some of
that.” Sandy pushed open a swinging door. She turned on the light
and four long closet rods full of clothing appeared. “Jake made
this room for all our old clothes. It’s great for the kids because
they can swap. Honey’s smaller than I am, but she wore some of my
maternity clothes. She can even wear some of the kids’ clothes. Val
is really generous. She leaves all her designer clothes here when
she’s done. Except the dresses, of course.”

“
Where are her dresses?”
Samantha asked.

“
They have their own
special climate controlled closet,” Sandy said. “It’s above Mike’s
studio.”

“
That’s right.” Samantha
smiled. “I was there helping Val find something special to wear
when she had Jackie.”

“
When she was crazy?”
Sandy nodded.

Samantha nodded.

“
You’re a good friend.
Now, let’s see . . .” Sandy waded into the closet.
“Everything is set up by size so it’s easy for the kids. Katy’s
just starting to grow so she’s wearing some of Noelle’s old
clothes. Tink and Ivy are going to look through the closet before
they go. They’re welcome to anything we have, of
course.”

“
There isn’t a lot of
boys’ stuff here,” Samantha said.

“
Our boys destroy
clothing,” Sandy said from somewhere in the closet. “Plus, Noelle
went through and took all the men’s shirts. She uses them when she
paints. Are you having a boy?”

“
I’m not supposed to say,”
Samantha said.

“
Here.” Sandy brought out
a huge muumuu looking thing. “This should work. It’s one of
Delphie’s old house dresses.”

“
This is huge!” Samantha
held it up. “Delphie wore this? She’s not that big.”

“
When she was cleaning up
the house,” Sandy said. “It’s actually really great. It has lots of
pockets that hold stuff. You’ll like it.”

Sandy helped Samantha put the dress over her
clothing. Sandy grabbed a belt to tie up the dress.

“
Voila!” Sandy said. “I
can assure you, Val or Delphie will want the dress when you’re
done.”

“
Oh look,” Samantha said.
“My purse fits right here.”

“
Exactly.” Sandy turned to
leave the room.

“
Before you
go . . .”

Sandy turned back to Samantha.

“
I wanted to ask
you . . .” Samantha’s eyes scanned Sandy’s face. “Is
it hard for you that Charlie’s taking this big risk? I mean Sissy
and the girls are too, but Charlie . . .”

“
It’s hard,” Sandy said.
“Sometimes it’s hard to let them leave the house.”

“
That’s what I mean,”
Samantha said. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way, but
now . . .”

She gestured to her baby and Sandy
nodded.

“
I see a lot of parents
clutch onto their kids,” Samantha said. “They have to eat this
specific thing and do these after school programs. Everything is
scheduled and structured and just so. Then I come over here and
your kids . . .”

“
We’re kind of wild,”
Sandy smiled.

“
Paddie loves it here,”
Samantha said. “He’s one of those kids. Julie has him on a special
diet for his allergies and he doesn’t cheat. That’s not what I
mean . . .”

“
We have a lot of space,”
Sandy said. “They can be kids and still do what’s best for
them.”

“
You trust them,” Samantha
said.

“
I don’t know about that,”
Sandy said. “You haven’t seen the epic battles between Charlie and
Aden.”

Samantha smiled.

“
To answer your question,
yes it’s hard for me that Charlie and Sissy and Noelle and Nash and
Teddy are taking this huge risk,” Sandy said. “But they really want
to do it. I feel like it’s my job is to help them test themselves
while they’re here in our house. Someday, they’ll be on their own.
If they don’t test themselves now, how will they know what they can
do?”

“
My Dad was kind of like
that,” Samantha said.

“
Did it work?”

“
I still hate him for it.”
Samantha smiled. “But yes, I know my capabilities and my limits,
especially in the wilderness.”

“
I have to let Charlie try
to help,” Sandy said. “I want to nurture his better instincts. At
the same time, I’m willing and able to pick up the pieces if it all
falls apart.”

Samantha nodded.

“
Auntie Sami?” Paddie’s
voice came from the other side of the door. “Mrs. Valerie is
looking for you.”

Samantha smiled at Sandy. She nodded and
Samantha left the room. Sandy closed her eyes. She thought she was
the only one who was worried about Charlie. Samantha’s concerns
made her own worries seem all the more valid and worrisome. Sandy
scowled at herself and turned off the light.

“
Pan!” Ivy’s high pitched
voice came down the hall.

“
Look it’s Charlie!” Honey
said.

Sandy groaned to herself. She’d better get
over there before it got too wild. She trotted past Samantha and
into the fray.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday afternoon—1:35 p.m.

“
I think that’s about it,”
Jacob said, as he walked into the kitchen of the yellow house. “I
have to get back to Lipson.”

Jeraine looked up. He had been working at
the kitchen table. He pulled off his reading glasses and stood
up.

“
I made a list of the
things we need to finish.” Jill gave Jeraine a copy of the list. He
looked at it, smiled, and set it down. Jill took Jeraine’s hand
that was holding his reading glasses and put it up to his face. She
gave him the list again. He looked embarrassed, but put on his
glasses and read the list. “Most of it will be done by contractors,
but things like those storm windows? Jake or Sam will need to put
them on when they come in. Jake or I will be back to check
everything when we’re done.”

“
When do you think that
will be?” Jeraine asked.

“
We’re going to do some
planting, but we’ll wait to finish things like sprinklers until the
spring,” Jacob said. “So we won’t be totally finished until
sometime next year.”

“
It looks nice though,”
Jeraine smiled. “Miss T is so happy. She slept like a baby last
night. This house . . . It’s a really big deal to
us.”

“
Yea!” Jill clapped her
hands.

“
What were you reading?”
Jacob asked.

“
It’s some stuff my dad
asked me to take a look at,” Jeraine said. “Our family has some
land in Dearfield.”

Jacob leaned over the table to take a look.
Jill sat down at the table to look at the map.

“
Where you got kicked by
the Donkey?” Jill smiled.

“
I’m gettin’ my teeth
fixed tomorrow,” Jeraine said.

“
I didn’t say anything
about your teeth,” Jill said.

“
Hmm.” Jeraine gave her a
sour look. She had to look away to keep from laughing.

“
This is a geological
survey,” Jacob said and stood up.

“
That’s right,” Jeraine
said. “Dad thinks there’s something fishy about it. Well, actually,
don’t tell Miss T, but her dad thinks there’s something going on
out there. He talked to my dad about it, and my dad requested this
stuff. ‘Course it’s all print, no digital. I can’t make heads or
tails of it either way. And I’m not stupid. I certainly don’t need
no white man explaining nothing to me.”