Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 (35 page)

“
When the movie starts,
you wanna . . .” Charlie gestured away from the
room.

Tink gave an emphatic nod and Charlie
smiled. They waited through more interviews and more pictures. The
movie stars were so perfect they looked weird. Even Valerie looked
strange in her get up.

“
That’s it, folks,” the
video crew chief said and they were able to move around. “We need
you back here in a half hour for the movie.”

Charlie bided his time. He knew that as soon
as the movie started he would have Tink to himself. He and Tink
found Ivy to see if she was all right. Ivy was very upset by
everything. Mostly he thought she wanted Honey to adopt her, and
not Gracie, but Ivy was like that. She always wanted impossible
things. If it was impossible, Ivy was sure to want it. But, Ivy
promised Tink she wouldn’t leave. Heather walked in as she said
this, and they stopped talking like it was a secret.

There was a loud noise and they went back to
the room. When Charlie went to sit down, he noticed Nash was trying
to sit next to Ivy. Since Jeraine had helped Charlie out, he
thought he’d extend the favor. He called Ivy over and had her sit
next to Nash. Completely oblivious to anything but her own inner
turmoil, Ivy acted like she was just meeting Nash. By the time the
movie started, their heads were pressed together. Charlie smiled,
happy he’d helped Nash out.

After the opening credits, Tink pulled on
his hand and he followed her out of the room. They slipped
downstairs to the corner they’d staked out in the basement. She
kissed him.

“
You want
to . . .” Tink’s eyes held a glazed look he didn’t
recognize.

“
We could if we want to,”
Charlie said. “But I thought we could also talk and stuff
first.”

“
Oh,” Tink said. “Talking
is okay?”

“
Sure,” Charlie said. “A
lot has changed, and I . . .”

He scowled and tried to remember what Aden
had told him to say. He shrugged. She kissed him and they kissed
for a while. Tink was a really good kisser.

“
I got something for you,”
Charlie said.

“
You did?” Tink looked
really surprised, which made him happy.

“
Aden said we could go on
a date tonight,” Charlie said. “Since we’re here, I asked him if we
could get something for you instead.”

“
Oh!” Tink beamed. “That
was really nice.”

Charlie nodded. He reached into his jeans
pocket. The kissing had made his pants super tight, so he had to
squirm to take the small jewelry box out of his pocket.

“
It’s not rich,
but . . .”

Charlie held the box out to her. She set the
box on her hand and looked down at it. She was looking at the box
when Charlie remembered what he wanted to say.

“
I wanted you to know that
I care about you,” Charlie said. “Whatever happens, wherever you
go, I care. There’s a lot of hard stuff we have to do, but this
way, you’ll have something to help you remember that at least one
person really cares just about you.”

Tink opened the box to find a small gold
heart on a chain. She flushed bright red and her eyes filled with
tears.

“
Plus you can take off
your Saint Jude,” Charlie said. “He didn’t really care about
you.”

Tink hugged him tight. He lost focus and
felt some wetness in his underwear. He cleared his throat and she
smiled. He could never pull anything over on Tink. He grinned.

“
Will you help?” Tink
asked.

“
Sure,” he
said.

He helped her take off the old Saint Jude
pendant and put on the new shiny gold heart.

“
How does it look?” Tink
asked.

The heart sat in the hollow of her neck.
Between the smile on her face and the heart, Tink looked very
pretty. When Charlie told her so, she got teary again. She hugged
him.

“
There you are!” Sissy
said. “You have to come up.”

Charlie sneered at her.

“
Ivy’s in trouble,” Sissy
said. “She got super upset and argued with her aunt
and . . . You just have to come.”

Charlie looked at Tink and she nodded. He
let Tink go first so he could adjust himself.

“
Did you see what I got?”
He heard Tink ask Sissy as they went up the stairs.

Sissy squealed and clapped the way she did
when she was happy.

Charlie smiled. He hadn’t remembered quite
the right thing to say, but Tink was happy anyway.

That felt really good.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Forty-Three
Honest Life

Saturday morning—9:12 a.m.

“
The property ends just
over here.” Jacob pointed to a dirt road on the rise ahead of
them.

Jacob, Aden, and Sam were walking Jacob’s
farmland to get a feel for whether moving the large construction
project made sense. Sam and Delphie had returned on an early plane
so that Sam could participate in this review. Jacob glanced at his
father. He was glad Sam had made it.

Sissy, Tink, Wanda, Ivy, Charlie, Nash, and
Teddy were flying kites in the middle of the autumn-bare field in
front of the house. From where men stood, the children looked like
an oil painting against the bright fall sky.

“
We can see the whole
expanse from right here,” Jacob said.

He turned around and gestured to the fields
and houses behind him.

“
The farms on either side
are for sale,” Aden said.

“
I’m sure everything went
up for sale the moment we started the other project,” Sam said.
“Most small farmers have one foot out the door.”

“
If they can get top
dollar, why not sell?” Jacob shrugged.

“
Would you buy?” Aden
asked.

“
I wouldn’t be able to
swing it,” Jacob said. “With everything—and the babies coming—we’re
pretty tapped out right now.”

“
We could probably put our
resources together,” Sam said. “Get Val
and . . .”

“
Just more to do,” Jacob
said. “Don’t you think we have enough to do?”

Sam and Aden turned to look at him. Jacob
shrugged. They turned their backs to the open fields and looked at
the homes. The oldest son of the Amish family on the nearest farm
came out of the barn with a pail of milk. They watched the young
man carry the milk to the house. Jill opened the door. From where
they stood, they could tell Jill made a fuss. The boy turned to go
back, but Sissy yelled to him. He nodded and went back to the barn.
A few minutes later, the older boy came out with two kites and four
younger siblings. The kids joined the teenagers.

“
I always wanted this
life,” Aden said.

Jacob turned to look at him.

“
A quiet, safe place to
raise my kids,” Aden said. “No gang rape or whatever. Just land, a
farm, someone to love . . .”

“
Open air and sunshine,”
Sam said.

“
Wake up, deal with what’s
right in front of you, work all day, back to bed at sundown,” Jacob
said. “Sounds like bliss.”

The men watched the kids play. The oldest
Amish boy laughed at something Sissy said. He responded and Sissy
laughed.

“
It’s a way of life,”
Jacob said. “Maybe that’s what gets me.”

Aden and Sam turned to look at him. Jacob
collected his thoughts.

“
This way of life seems so
much better than what we do—get up at the crack of dawn, work until
your brain is oozing out of your ears only to have people tell you
what a spoiled and lazy son of a bitch you are.”

“
Honest,” Sam said. “It
seems like a more honest way to live.”

Jacob nodded.

“
Would you move out here?”
Aden asked.

“
Jill says she’d move,”
Jacob nodded. “But, honestly, I can’t imagine it.” He
shrugged.

“
I am what I am,” Jacob
said. “I’m the guy who works until my brain oozes out of my head.
If it’s not Lipson, it would just be something else.”

“
I was going to say that
we could join you,” Aden said. “It would be really good for our
boys to spend their summers on a farm like this,
and . . .”

Aden scowled and turned back to watch the
kids.

“
And?” Sam
asked.

“
Charlie’s going to have
to get out of town,” Aden said. “No one’s said it yet
but . . . After talking to Bumpy, we decided to let
Sissy take a ballet contract and
Charlie . . .”

Aden shook his head.

“
The kid only tried to
help,” Aden said. “He saw those girls
and . . .”

Aden shook his head.

“
It’s like he’s doomed,”
Aden said. “Doomed to live on the streets; doomed to live in the
shadows . . .”

Sam put his hand on Aden’s shoulder.

“
You weren’t doomed,” Sam
said. “Why should Charlie be?”

Aden scowled.

“
What’s that?” Jacob
pointed to a battered, orange work truck as it pulled off the road
and stopped. A burly man wearing overalls got out.

“
Wade?” the man
yelled.

“
We should go,” Jacob
said.

Jacob ran down the hill with Aden and Sam
behind him. He saw Sissy push Wanda behind her and Charlie come
between the man and Sissy. The Amish kids edged back toward their
house.

“
What’s going on here?”
Jacob asked.

“
I just want to talk to my
son,” the man said. “And this kid
won’t . . .”

“
It’s okay, Charlie,” Aden
said. “We’ve got this.”

“
But
he . . .” Charlie started.

“
Why don’t we head back
into the house?” Sam asked. “Sandy was baking when we left. I bet
she has something wonderful waiting for us.”

Jacob’s eyes fell on Wanda. Her face was
blotchy and her eyes fixed on the ground. She clasped her hands in
front of her. Jacob could see that if she could erase her
existence, she most certainly would. She looked at him and then ran
to catch up with Tink.

“
I don’t get to see my
kid,” the man was telling Aden . “I haven’t seen him in three
years. I was driving to work and I saw him
and . . .”

The man tried to get around Aden.

“
Wade?” The man’s voice
was almost as desperate as Wanda looked. The man turned to Jacob.
“You’re that rich kid, that Jake Lipson, right?”

“
I’m Jacob,” he said.
“What can I do for you?”

“
You’re running that job
down the road, aren’t you?” the man said. “I’m on the plumbing
crew.”

“
We run the job,” Jacob
said. “This is Aden Norsen and my father, Sam Lipson.”

Jacob gestured to Sam, who was walking back
from dropping the kids at the house.

“
I don’t want any
trouble,” the man said. “I just want to see my kid. He’s had a lot
of problems and I didn’t handle it really well. I mean, when I was
a kid we didn’t talk about problems. I thought if I was tough with
him, he’d toughen up—like my Dad was tough with me. But his
mom . . . I . . . I just want to see
my kid.”

Wanda made it to the house before turning in
place. She ran across the field toward the men. Sissy and Tink took
off after her, but Wanda was too fast. Her dad barely had a moment
before Wanda hugged him tight.

“
I . . .”
the man said. “Oh.”

Wanda let go. She met Sissy and Tink in the
field and the girls ran to the house. The dumbfounded men could
only watch.

“
He’s always been the
sweetest kid,” the man gave an exaggerated sniff.

“
He’s a she now,” Jacob
said.

“
I read that in the report
the ex has to send me.” The man nodded. “You think he’ll get over
that?”

“
No,” Sam said.

The man nodded.

“
Is that a problem?” Sam
asked.

“
Who cares?” the man
asked. “That’s what I said the first time his mom talked to me
about it. I don’t care if he wants to be a girl or a boy or a
Martian. But . . . That was definitely not the right
thing to say.”

Jacob and Aden smiled.

“
Listen,” the man said.
“You should know, there’s something going down on that
project.”

“
Oh?” Sam shifted forward.
Aden and Jacob took the cue. Sam would handle whatever this man had
to say.

“
Yeah.” The man
nodded.

“
Any idea what?” Sam
asked.

“
Sure,” the man said. “My
buddy’s in the middle of it. He says if we don’t get involved,
we’ll get screwed, and who cares if those rich kids get screwed,
you know?”

“
Would you like to tell
us?” Sam asked.

“
Can I see my son?” the
man asked.

“
Daughter,” Sam
corrected.

“
Right, my daughter,” the
man said.

“
I think it’s up to her
mom,” Sam said.

“
She won’t mind,” the man
said. “She’s always bugging me to see . . . What’s
his name now?”

“
Her name is Wanda,” Jacob
said.

“
Wanda.” The man smiled.
“That was my grandmother’s name.”

“
Why don’t we go inside
and call her?” Sam asked.

The man looked like someone had handed him
an ice cream cone.