Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (26 page)

“
Bigger than last night?
Or last weekend? How about when you ran out of paint and the world
was going to end?” Aden asked. “Sandy ran all over town to get you
exactly the right paint from precisely the right place. That was
Monday!”

None of the kids would look him in the
eyes.

“
All I’m asking for is one
night of no drama,” Aden said. “I’m taking Sandy to a nice dinner.
We need to look at her apartment and decide what we want to do
about with it. Boring stuff. We’ll be back to tuck you
in.”

The kids were so quiet that he looked at
each of their faces to make sure they were even awake.

“
We can’t go if any one of
you goes off the deep end again,” Aden said. “Okay? No
drama!”

“
How’s dinner going to
make it better?” Charlie sneered.

“
She needs time to talk
about herself,” Aden said. “She needs to get dressed up, eat food
that’s way too expensive, and unwind. She’ll relax and feel better.
You’ll see.”

“
Why does she need that,
Dad?” Noelle asked.

“
I don’t know why,” Aden
said. “I just know that she does.”

“
How do you know?” Sissy
asked.

“
I’ve known Sandy a long
time; I’m her husband,” Aden said. “Plus, I’ve received no less
than ten texts from the girlfriends informing me that Sandy’s near
breaking point.”

Aden smiled and the kids laughed.

“
This is Valerie and
Mike’s last night here,” Aden said. “They want to spend some time
with you tonight.”

“
Is Ivy coming over?” Nash
asked.

“
Tink?” Noelle asked,
because Charlie was too cool to ask.

“
As you know, Tink had a
seizure today,” Aden said. “She’s at home resting. Ivy is staying
with them until they work out where she’s going to
live.”

“
So they’re coming over?”
Charlie asked.

“
No,” Aden said. “You’re
stuck here with a world famous actress and her incredibly talented
painter husband. He and Jake are taking you and Nash to play
hockey, by the way.”

“
Oh,” Charlie
said.

Aden laughed to himself. They heard movement
on the stairs.

“
Let’s go over this one
more time,” Aden said. “What’s going to happen?”

The kids wouldn’t look at him.

“
Anyone?” Aden asked.
“Sissy.”

“
No drama,” Sissy
grumped.

“
Noelle?” Aden
asked.

“
No drama,
but . . .” Noelle started. She caught the look on
her father’s face and confirmed, “No drama.”

“
Boys?” Aden asked.
“Charlie?”

“
No drama,” Charlie said.
“I’ll take Rachel.”

“
You can’t take Rachel!”
Noelle said. “I’m taking Rachel.”

“
Kids!” Aden
growled.

“
Ok, we’ve got it,” Nash
said. “No drama.”

“
Good,” Aden
said.

“
I’m taking Rachel,” Nash
said.

The girls started screaming. Charlie
snatched Nash’s computer away and he started screaming. Aden looked
up to the heavens for help.

The door opened. Sandy came in the apartment
with Rachel on her hip.

The kids stopped moving.

“
What’s going on?” Sandy
asked.

The kids scattered like mice.

“
Wait, what just
happened?” Sandy asked. “I could hear them yelling
downstairs.”

“
They’re fine,” Aden
hugged Sandy. “How would you like to go to a quiet dinner with
me?”

“
Quiet dinner?” Sandy
asked. “What about homework? What
about . . .”

Sandy leaned forward.

“
Drama,” Sandy
whispered.

“
We’re practicing
our
no drama
skills,” Aden said with emphasis.

Sandy smiled.

“
Why don’t you get
dressed?” Aden smiled. “We have reservations in an
hour.”

“
Where?”

“
Beatrice and Woodsley,”
Aden smiled.

“
Oooh!” She was almost to
the bedroom when she said, “Are we taking Rachel?”

“
Rachel is staying with
her friend Jackie tonight,” Aden said in a loud tone. “It’s Val’s
last night and she wanted some quality Rachel time.”

A general moan came from the direction of
the kids rooms.

“
Val brought a dress up
for you,” Aden followed her to their bedroom. Sandy had set Rachel
on the bed and was holding a dress. “She said her French dressmaker
made it. She made it for some curvy mistress in Paris, but the lady
got dumped. The dress is paid for, but the lady couldn’t ‘possibly
wear it’ and the man who paid for it doesn’t want his wife to find
it. They sent it here because it matches your hair or something
like that.”

“
It’s mine?” Sandy
squealed and clapped. “I have just the shoes!”

“
I know,” Aden
smiled.

“
Out!” Sandy pushed him
out of the room.

“
We only have an hour,”
Aden said.

“
I’ll be ready in time,”
Sandy said. “You’ll see.”

Aden smiled. When he looked down the hall,
the kids’ heads were sticking out of their bedrooms. He gave them
some silent applause.

When he turned to go into the living room,
he heard their bedroom door open. He crept into the hallway. When
Sandy waved the kids into their bedroom, he pointed at them. They
nodded and crept into her bedroom to talk to her while she got
dressed. Smiling, he left the apartment to arrange the rest of
their evening.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday evening—6:59 p.m.

“
Wha . . .”
Tink sat up and looked around. She was lying on some kind of a
table in the basement of the house she was living in.

“
You had a seizure,” Blane
said. He came to the side of the table. “Lie back. We’re almost
done. How do you feel?”

“
Awful,” Tink said. “Why
are there all these needles in me? Are you torturing
me?”

“
Do they hurt?” Blane
asked.

“
No,” Tink
said.

“
It’s acupuncture,” Blane
said. “I’m a doctor of Chinese Medicine.”

“
How come you work as that
guy’s secretary?” Tink asked.

“
That’s a long story,”
Blane said. “And I’d like to know about you.”

“
What do I do?” Tink
asked.

“
Just lie there.” Blane
smiled.

He picked up her wrist to listen to her
pulse.

“
You seem better,
stronger,” Blane smiled. “What do you remember about
today?”

“
Um, I woke up here, at
your house,” Tink said.

“
Our house.” Blane
corrected. Tink smiled.

“
We had breakfast and
Heather took me to school,” Tink said. “Wanda texted me that she
was sick and I knew Sissy was at a ballet thing. She’s probably
going to leave in January.”

“
Nothing’s happened yet,”
Blane said.

“
If she doesn’t go soon,
she’ll be too old.” Tink nodded. “They’re coming from all over the
world to check her out. That’s where she was today.”

Blane smiled.

“
How was school?” Blane
asked.

“
Okay, I guess,” Tink
said. “Just school. I’m starting to get the hang of it.”

Tink nodded.

“
I think I’m going to do
okay this term,” Tink said. “That feels kind of unbelievable. Of
course, I couldn’t do it without Sissy’s tutoring. But even she
says I’m starting to get it.”

“
Do you remember meeting
up with Heather?” Blane asked.

“
No,” Tink said. “Did I
have a seizure then?”

“
It was a little more
complicated than that,” Blane said.

“
What did I screw up?”
Tink asked.

“
Nothing,” Blane said.
“Let me take these out.”

He started taking the needles out. Tink lay
very still to be the best patient she could possibly be, but her
heart raced and her stomach turned over.

What if they wouldn’t let her stay
anymore?

Did they figure out what a horrible girl she
was?

“
Huh, that’s weird,” Blane
picked up her wrist. “Your pulse is racing.”

He looked at her face.

“
What’s going on Tink?”
Blane asked.

“
You’d tell me,” Tink
said. “You’d just be straight, right?”

“
About what?” Blane
asked.

“
About whether I get to
stay or not,” Tink said.

“
Stay . . .
here?” Blane asked. “Why wouldn’t you be able to stay
here?”

“
I had a seizure
and . . . whatever happened that I don’t
remember . . . and . . . whatever’s
wrong with me . . .”

Blane nodded.

“
What?” Tink
asked.

“
I get what you’re saying,
that’s all,” Blane said. “I’ve felt like that for
a . . . for a long time. I know there’s nothing I
can say that will make it better. I know that you feel this way
because you feel this way. I can tell you, Tink, someday you won’t
feel like this.”

Tink snorted and Blane smiled.

“
I probably would have
responded the same way,” Blane said.

He kept pulling needles out. In his warm
compassionate company, Tink began to calm down. He snuck a few
needles in while he was taking a few out.

“
What changed it?” Tink
asked.

“
How I felt?” Blane
asked.

Tink nodded.

“
A couple of things,”
Blane said. “One was connecting to people who loved me no matter
what—like Jake, Sam, and eventually Heather and Mack. Loving them,
caring for them, it changed me. Probably the next thing was
learning that bad things happen.”

“
Everybody says that,”
Tink artificially lowered her voice and added, “Bad things happen
to everyone, Tiffanie. Stop whining.”

“
Stepdad?” Blane
asked.

Tink nodded.

“
I’m not saying you should
give up your own suffering.” Blane snorted. “If I’d given up mine,
you wouldn’t be here. We wanted to adopt a teenager because of my
suffering.”

“
Wha’j you mean then?”
Tink’s eyes drooped.

“
I think what’s hard is
feeling like I suffered because of something inside of me, like it
was personal,” Blane said. “Seeing that so many people suffer made
me realize that suffering isn’t personal. My suffering is mine,
belongs to me, and I can do whatever I want to with it. I can feel
bad about myself. I can hate the world. Or I can accept that it
happened and move on to a better life.”

“
How do you move on?” Tink
asked.

“
I think first, you have
to get through it.” Blane smiled. “You’re still in the middle of it
all.”

He squeezed her arm.

“
Why don’t you rest for a
minute?” Blane asked. “I know Heather wants to see you. Mack’s been
trying to get in the whole time we’ve been down here.”

“
Ivy?” Tink
slurred.

“
She’s upstairs,” Blane
said. “She wants to tell you all about meeting her aunt, but she is
scared you might be too sick. She’s a wreck. I guess we’ve all
been.”

“
Why?”

“
We love you and were
worried about you,” Blane said.

Tink was asleep. He touched her shoulder and
left the room. He found Heather playing with Mack in the den.

“
How’s Tink?” Heather
asked.

“
She doesn’t remember
anything,” Blane said. “She got upset so I put her out. She’ll wake
up in a few minutes.”

“
They told us she might
not remember,” Heather said.

“
Where’s Gracie?” Blane
asked. “Ivy?”

“
Gracie went to get
settled in her hotel,” Heather said. “She’ll be back for dinner.
Ivy went with her to get a little time together.”

“
Is that all right?” Blane
scowled.

“
It was either that or
dissolve into a puddle while waiting for Tink,” Heather
said.

“
Do we know
what . . .?” Blane asked.

“
The boy’s parents and
their lawyer are meeting with Max and Samantha right now,” Heather
said.

“
Max too?” Blane
asked.

“
Max does civil law;
Samantha does criminal law,” Heather said. “We’re keeping her
pretty busy.”

“
I guess,” Blane smiled.
“What are the police doing?”

“
The police confiscated
his phone. He had the video of Tink being assaulted. His friends do
too. They are preparing to charge them with possession of child
pornography.”

Blane nodded.

“
They’re pretty mad,”
Heather said. “The parents, I mean. Tink’s Taser is considered a
concealed weapon. They’ve asked the district attorney to charge her
and the school to ban her from the premises.”

“
Well, I’m pretty mad,”
Blane held out his arms and Heather stepped into them. “It’s going
to be all right.”