The Princes of Tangleforest (5 page)

“Noon?” He scratched his head. “That’s some line at the post office.”

“Funny. I have other things to get done, too. I start work Monday and today is my only free day.”

“Go, go. We’ll be fine.”

“Thanks, you’re the best.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

***

Bonnie sat at the table eating a bowl of cereal, her legs dangling under her. Grabbing a bowl and a spoon, Tanner sat down beside her and made himself a bowl of Lucky Charms.  “So what do you want to do today?” he asked as he took a huge bite.

“I don’t know. Play Barbies… with you, or something.”

“I’m sixteen… and a boy. I don’t play Barbies.”

“What about,” she put a finger up to her mouth. “What about dress up? I can be Barbie, and you can—”

“Hold up. Hold up. No. Why don’t we go outside today, you little vampire? Get some sun. Maybe I’ll teach you some moves on my board.”

“Yay!” She jumped up and ran out of the kitchen.

“Not… yet,” Tanner said, as her heard her run up the stairs.

Not exactly the Saturday he had planned, but she did have a way of bringing him back to reality.

Bonnie had lost interest in the skateboard ten minutes in and had decided that her Barbie dolls wanted to skateboard. She sat on the sidewalk with ten Barbies on Tanner’s board, giving them rides back and forth.

Tanner sat on the front porch, half watching Bonnie and half gazing up at Poppi’s window. He thought maybe Poppi would walk outside or wave to him from her window.  He even daydreamed about her crossing the street and sitting down to talk to him. He knew staring and trying to will it to happen wasn’t going to get him anywhere. He had to stop being such a chicken and walk over to her house. 

But what Julia had said about Poppi’s grandmother being a witch kept creeping into his mind. Their house was probably the hotspot of the neighborhood on Halloween.

“Tanner… Tanner… Tanner… Tanner…”

“What Bonnie? What?”

“Play with me.”

“Not right now. I’m busy.”

“Please… pl-plu pleeeeese…”

“Why don’t we take a walk and go meet our neighbor.”

“Okay,” she said and smiled.

Tanner got up and dusted the dirt off of Bonnie’s knees. “Now I want you to be good. No whining and no asking stupid questions.”

Bonnie nodded and jumped up and down.

Tanner took a breath. He knew he couldn’t spaz-out now. Not unless he wanted to hear Bonnie complaining about it for the rest of the day. He took Bonnie’s hand, and they walked across the street to Poppi’s house.

The house seemed even creepier in the daytime, and he knew it wasn’t his imagination because Bonnie had eased close to him. He patted Bonnie on the shoulder to let her know that everything was all right.

“I want to go home,” Bonnie whispered anyway.

“It’s just a house,” he told her and himself. “A pretty girl lives here. Don’t you want to meet her?”

Her face lit up. “And play with her?”

“No.”

Her face drooped again.

“She’s not a little girl. She’s my age.”

They stood at the door. Tanner tried to muster up the nerve to knock when he noticed Bonnie touching something… the doorbell! “Stop,” he said and moved her hand away. He had no idea how many times she had pushed it. And he had no way of knowing if it even worked. He guessed he would wait a couple of minutes, and if no one answered he would knock.

They waited.

“Can we go home?” Bonnie whined.

He knocked.

They waited.

“I guess they’re not home,” he said, but then he heard rattling like locks being unlatched. Bonnie looked at him with her mouth opened into a huge excited smile. His heart pounded. What was he going to say?

The door crept open. “Hello?” An eye stared at them for a second above a chain that showed through the crack in the door, before closing again. Bonnie’s eyebrows were drawn in and her lips puckered. Tanner shrugged his shoulders, ready to walk away when he heard the door opening again. This time it opened all the way. 

Even though Tanner didn’t really know what to expect, the words Julia had said came to mind: “She’s a witch,” because she did look like an actual Halloween witch, minus the hat and broom. The long, stringy, gray hair, the long nose, the wrinkled up, haggard skin, and the ratty old clothes all screamed witch. He wanted to grab Bonnie and run. Instead, he nudged her behind him. She didn’t resist.      

“May I help you?” the lady said in a witchy voice.

“Um… yeah, I mean… I’m here to see Poppi?”

The old woman’s mouth gaped open, and her tongue played with the inside of her bottom lip. She finally said, “How do you know my granddaughter?”

His mind raced. Of course, how would he know her name? He didn’t want to get Poppi in trouble. He didn’t want the witch to nail her window shut or move her to a room with no window or, worse, one that didn’t face his. He had to think fast and talk fast…“A friend of mine from school said she lived here across the street from me; she said she knew her from school; she asked me to tell her ‘hi’ for her.”

The ladies face seemed to soften. “I’ll tell her.”

When she tried to shut the door, Tanner didn’t want to let it go so easily; he had to get something out of the visit, anything. “I… this friend wanted to know if she could keep in touch with her. Can I have her number or email address?”

“We don’t have a computer.”

 “Phone?”

“I’m really sorry young man. My granddaughter has way too much school work to be socializing. Tell your friend that Poppi is fine and says hello.” With that, she shut the door in their faces.

They stood there for a moment.

“She was nice,” Bonnie said. “Can we go home?”

Tanner exhaled. “Yeah. I guess so.” Suddenly, he had another idea.  “Come on,” he said and grabbed Bonnie by the wrist.

“Ouch! You’re hurting me.”

“Shhh. We’re going to play spy.”

“What’s that?”

“If you were my little brother instead of my little sister you’d know.”

She frowned.

“All right,” he said. “We’re going to play hide and go seek.”

“Oh, I know that game. I wanna play. I wanna play…”

“Bonnie,” he whispered sternly. “I said we’re playing.”

She pulled her arm away from him and stood still in the yard, her hands on her hips. “No fair. I can’t count very high.”

“You hide. I’ll count.” He put her behind the bushes on the side of the house. “Now stay here until I find you.”

“Okay.”

Tanner walked a couple of feet until he stood right underneath Poppi’s window. He whispered up, “Poppi… Poppi.”

“Do I come out now?” Bonnie asked.

“Not yet.” He waved her back.

“Poppi,” he said a little louder.

Still nothing.

He found a couple of acorns on the ground and threw them at the window, followed by a couple of pinecones. They didn’t make much noise, but it seemed to have accomplished his goal because he watched the curtain move to the side a little.

“I don’t like this game,” Bonnie said.

“Shhh,” he said and waved his hand at her.

He waited for a couple of minutes before the window opened. The curtains remained closed as a hand reached out beyond them holding a piece of paper. He watched the paper fly softly to the ground. When he looked back up, the window had been closed again.

“What’s that?” Bonnie ran from her hiding spot and grabbed the paper.

“Bonnie, no,” Tanner said. “Let me have it.”

“What does it say?” Bonnie asked handing it to him.

“Grandma sleeps at midnight.”

Chapter 9

Since Julia knew her dad would have said no to any suggestions, she made the plans for his birthday without telling him. Inviting both sides of the family over for a party would be interesting, to say the least. Aunt Mary and Uncle Howard, from her dad’s side, would probably be a tiny bit uneasy with all the ethnic music and decorations, but Julia could only think of her dad’s needs at the moment. Her ultimate goal was to help him feel closer to her mom and for him to be happy and to smile again. Therapy with Zachary’s dad’s had helped a lot by enabling her dad to function in day-to-day activities; however, she wanted to give him that little push to get back to actually living again.

She planned to have him out of the house by 6:00 p.m. so her nana and aunts could decorate and prepare their dishes like frijoles refritos, tomatillo salsa, tamales, and chocolate cake. She was to have him back home by 8:00 p.m. to be greeted by a house full of caring friends, loving family members, and the familiar smells of her mom’s favorite dishes.

“Dad?” Julia said after she found him in his chair watching TV… again. “I need to go shopping.”

He put one finger up, watched the TV for about thirty seconds longer before turning it off. “What can I help you with?” he asked as he gave her his full attention.

“Shopping. I need new clothes. All I have are these black ones.” She smiled.

He put his hand up to his mouth. “How could I not know you needed clothes that bad?”

“Joking. I mean, I do need them, but mine aren’t rotting or anything.” She thought she would use this as an opportunity to take a step herself. If she expected her dad to get on with his life, so should she. Even though she had worn black since her mom’s funeral, now she could see herself in different colors. She knew she wouldn’t go as far as pink, but perhaps, hunter green or brown.

He nodded. “When do you want to go?”

“Now?”

***

The last guest didn’t leave until after midnight. Julia thought her father had seemed a little distant at first, and she had been afraid that she had upset him. Thankfully, as the night progressed, he had come out of his shell; he had laughed and socialized with his guests.

It had been good for her, too. She spent as much time as possible in the kitchen. Her grandmother was more than happy to show her how to make the dough for the tortillas. Julia knew she had a long way to go, but felt in her heart that this would make her mom happy, and so it made her happy. She especially enjoyed spending time with her mom’s sister, Mia and her cousin Natasha. It gave her the chance to apologize about the way she had acted at the funeral. Her mother and Aunt Mia favored each other so much they could have been twins, and it had been too soon to look at her aunt.

Even though Natasha acted young for her age, six months younger than Julia, the party had also given them a chance to talk girl-talk. Julia had almost forgotten what it was like to have a girlfriend. She had even raved a little about Tanner, stopping before she gushed too much. 

Julia had attempted to stay focused on her dad; however, she never completely stopped thinking about Tanner. She wanted to talk to him. She wanted to see him. She checked her phone every once in awhile to see if he had texted.

After the party she lay on her bed staring up at the white ceiling. She smiled. Tanner was so cool and so cute; so different from Zachary. Even though Zachary had been her boyfriend since grade school, it felt more like they had been best friends, not boyfriend and girlfriend. He had been too shy to even kiss her. She wasn’t sure why she had even stayed with him so long.

 She hated that sixteen years had passed without her ever kissing a boy. Still, in a way she felt thankful that her first kiss hadn’t been with Zachary, who had turned out to be a psychopathic, power-hungry, devious nerd. She figured it would have been bland anyway.
For sure
. It would have been like, “Oh. That was a kiss?”

She sat up and wrapped her arms around her pillow and smiled as she thought how a kiss from Tanner would be. Closing her eyes, she puckered slightly and imagined his lips on hers. It actually made her giggle to think how great it would be. A guy like Tanner had never even glanced her way. “Maybe Zachary did me a favor.”

When she realized what she was doing, she threw her pillow to the side and placed her face in her hands. “Why can’t I get him out of my mind?” However, the next thought was, perhaps she could invite him to over for lunch… no! She couldn’t do that. But it wouldn’t mean anything. Not really. She fell back on her bed. There were a lot of leftovers from the party
.
Her and her dad could never eat that much. It would be such a shame for it all to go to waste… And maybe, for one cool afternoon, they could forget about the Princes and school and just hang out. And… maybe, just maybe, they would enjoy each other’s company so much, the day would turn into the day she got her first kiss from the guy of her dreams.

Chapter 10

Tanner didn’t really consider what he did as sneaking out. His mom had gone to bed, and he simply didn’t want to wake her. He locked the front door behind him and crossed the street. After dark, the entire neighborhood shut down. Far scattered dim streetlights and the lack of cars seemed to make the sound of the frogs and crickets louder, creepier.