Unsound: A Horizons Book (33 page)

“Good Southern values,” Mindy said, continuing her drawl with an eye roll.

“Wow, Mindy,” Lena started as she walked further into the room to inspect the arrangements, “your parents must have been really—”

“Powerful people in the community, yes,” Mindy interjected, “they weren’t loved. They were feared and hated. They had a terrible reputation. This,” Mindy extended an arm sweeping out towards the flowers, “all this is bull shit. Southern hospitality and hypocrisy.”

“Melinda Luanne Davies, how dare you say that,” a very Southern female voice sounded from an entrance I couldn’t quite see through all the flowers.

“Your parents were loved. Not by me, I can assure you. But some of these people had respect for those two.” The disembodied voice got closer, but I still hadn’t seen anyone.

I looked over at Mindy and saw a rare smile across her face. Then it his me, “your middle name is Luann? As in Melinda Lu, Mindy Lu?” I fought back laughter.

“Remember the front stairs?” Mindy threatened with a glare. I stuck my tongue out as a woman finally appeared as though out of nowhere.

“Young ladies should never have such appalling manners,” the woman exclaimed as she witnessed my tongue sticking.

“Aunt Prue, don’t mind Julie there. She was raised by wolves,” Mindy teased.

“Pretty much,” I agreed. There were proper introductions, and Aunt Prue forced us to sit and drink sweet tea before taking Mindy into another room to discuss some details in privacy.

“This whole thing really isn’t a stereotype, is it?” Lena asked me quietly as we sipped our tea.

“This whole thing is surreal,” I offered.

Mindy-Lu

“I’m so sorry that we didn’t come get you ourselves, baby girl,” Aunt Prue was sitting in my father’s desk chair in the study. I had only been in this room a couple of times. I still didn’t miss the complete lack of personal affects. There wasn’t a single photo of me, but then again, there wasn’t even a photo of either of my parents.

“We didn’t know you where you were, Melly,” Aunt P explained, “We had no idea you weren’t living here anymore. We got the call from the police and it all happened so fast and everything was so confusing. Your Uncle Henry was here last weekend and he found some paperwork, some… enrollment forms to… to rehab?”

Aunt Prudence whispered the last part. She married my Uncle Henry and unlike my Yankee trash mother (my grandmother’s thoughts) Prudence was also from old Southern wealth and prestige. Thinks like rehab, alcoholism, depression and everything that seemed to make up my personality were taboo for the family.

Both of my parents had been in politics. That’s how they met, why we lived in Virginia. It was still considered the South, but it wasn’t South Carolina, where the rest of my family resided. My mother was actually born and bred in Virginia in a suburb of DC. My grandmother didn’t want to ever consider my mom to be a proper Southern Belle. Especially with her career in politics.

“It’s not what you think, Aunt P,” I stated, “I’m not an addict. Honest. I’ve barely even gotten drunk.”

“I don’t understand,” she asked, accent thick as ever. It was actually refreshing to hear it.

“I have depression. I’m not addicted to drugs or anything, but after the incident with dad, the police thought—”

“Incident?” Aunt Prue asked me. I stopped and studied her face. She didn’t know.

“You might want to call Uncle Henry so I don’t have to go through this twice,” I suggested, getting comfortable.

We put my uncle on speaker while he drove back up from South Carolina. He hadn’t been able to stay the week because of work, so Prudence had been handling all the arrangements with the house and funeral. I always liked Uncle Henry and Aunt Prue, but they lived far and we saw less and less of them over the years.

After months at Horizons, I decided it wouldn’t be so hard to tell them what happened. The drinking (them), the depression (me), the cutting (also me). It was surprisingly easy to talk about. At least easier than I would have imagined a few months ago. When I was living in hell.

“Baby girl,” Aunt P whispered for the hundredth time. She had tears spilling down her face and even Uncle Henry’s voice sounded thick with emotion when he talked. I was overwhelmed. By what? I’m not sure.

“Hey,” Lena said from the doorway. I don’t know how long she was standing there, but something told me she heard most of the conversation. She came into the room and put her arms around me in a hug.

Yup, she definitely heard all of that.

“I am
so
proud of you,” she said. At that, Aunt Prue blew her nose loudly into a handkerchief. The three of us looked at each other and started to laugh.

“Oh my word,” Prue said, trying to regain her composure. That’s when Julie walked into the room with a light tap on the doorframe.

“So this is where the part is,” she commented. She must have been in the kitchen the whole time, alone.

“So does this mean…” Aunt Prudence gestured to Julie.

“Oh yeah. Julie goes to school with me,” I stated, “and Lena is our counselor.”

“School? That’s what you call it?”

“The kids take classes almost daily along with therapy sessions. But our school system is right on par if not more advanced than the state’s. We also do the SAT prep, ACT prep and help with all the college applications and scholarships.

“Some of my kids may go a year later than planned, but we get them there and get them started on the right foot and in a healthy mental state. We give them a fresh start.

“Thank you,” a voice piped up from the speakerphone.

“Sorry Uncle Henry. I forgot you were there,” I called out.

“Don’t apologize to me, young lady. Listen, I’m gonna get off the phone so I can concentrate on driving. You know there’s all these crazy drivers… these… uh… days.”

Uncle Henry made a big to do about clearing his throat, but the reminder was already out in the universe. Two of the craziest (drunkest) drivers were about fourteen hours from being put six feet under.

“It’s okay, Uncle Henry. No kid gloves on my behalf. I’ll see ya soon.”

“Ya?” Julie asked with a smirk one the call was disconnected, “you’re real close to a ya’ll there Mindy-Lu. I know you want to.”

“Ha, ha, ha,” I remarked. I knew Julie was just trying to break the ice.

“Julie, are you also… attending school,” Aunt P added a wink to show she understood the secret code, “because of depression?”

Julie barked a laugh, “I guess you can say I’ve been quite depressed the last month or so, sure.” Then Julie looked over at me. She looked sorry. She felt pity for me and I didn’t like it.

“Is this how the next few days are gonna go?” I asked with an exasperated sigh, “I’m not the only one going through something. And on that note—I’m fine. I’ve processed this and I’m really okay.”

“I meant it to Henry and I’m saying it to your guys too. I am okay. No kid gloves.”

“Ya’ll,” Julie interjected, “you forgot the ya’ll.”

“Oh shut up,” I said with a laugh. I looked at Lena, “Can I call Hay? I told him I would call when I got home.”

Lena nodded and I left to hopefully have a normal conversation voice of any sympathy and compassion.

Jason

“Your girl landed,” I heard Tony shout from the other room. I spit my toothpaste in the sink and hurried to the front of the cabin.

“Thanks man,” I threw over my shoulder as I hurried out of the cabin and over to the main building.

I had expected to hear from Mindy earlier. The girls had been on the red eye and were supposed to land at 7:30am Eastern Time.

It was already breakfast time here so I had just started to worry.

“Hey,” I said out of breath into the phone.

“You run a marathon before picking up?” Mindy asked on the other end of the line.

“What if I did,” I challenged, “smart ass?”

“Thank you,” Mindy said.

“For what, Davies?” I asked, confused.

“For not asking how I’m doing. I can’t tell you how much that means to me right now.”

“In that case, I’ll never ask you again. You actually just made my life super simple. I can just stop caring all together about your well being and focus on me.”

“Too far,” Mindy interrupted me. I chuckled.

“Thought so. But once I got started, I had to let it run its course. So what your flight delayed?”

“No,” Mindy started and then stopped. I heard her inhale a couple times as though she was going to speak, so I waited it out. Let her come to me.

“I meant to call you when we got to the house but… well, my Aunt Prue is here and I guess she’s been here working on the arrangements. She and my Uncle Henry had no idea I wasn’t living at home. My parents shipped me off without so much as a warning to any of my family members.

“I’ve been catching up my aunt and uncle on the last year or so. You know what they say—time flies when you’re having fun!”

“And what’s more fun than reliving the abuse those assholes put you through,” I interjected, hoping the phone line and distance covered the anger in my voice.

“Jay,” Mindy said quietly and I knew she picked up the anger, “I appreciate where the anger is coming from. And I don’t think it’s misplaced or misguided. But isn’t there another saying, about not wish ill of the dead?”

I grumbled my agreement, which made Mindy giggle, which filled me a different kind of warmth than the anger that faded.
I love that sound.

“What sound?” I heard Mindy quietly ask. I didn’t know I had said that out loud. I pictured her gripping the phone, waiting for me to answer, lying on her girly bedspread with her eyes closed.

“Your laugh, Min. I love hearing it,” I admitted. I knew it was the kind of compliment that Mindy would hate.

“Thanks,” she said, even more quietly into the mouthpiece.

“How’s Julie?” I asked, changing the subject.

“She’s fine. She seems to be in a slightly better mood than I’ve seen her in lately.”

“Probably helps not being here,” I mused.

“I guess,” Mindy mumbled back.

“You sound tired,” I commented, “what do you have to do all day?”

“I don’t know actually. Hopefully nothing. I left Lena and Julie with my aunt downstairs. They can help.”

“Oh, some host you are!” Julie’s voice burst through the calm, “I thought you had bettah mannahs than that,” Julie’s voice took on a terrible Southern accent.

“Ohmigod,” Mindy groaned, “she found me. I should probably go.”

I chuckled, “Okay, babe. Does uh, Jules want to talk to anyone? I could run and grab Jon?”

“Why evah would I want that?” Southern Julie shouted towards the phone.

“Guess she heard me,” I said with another laugh, “Okay, you two Southern Bells stay out of trouble now.”

“We will,” Mindy said, “I’ll call you later. Maybe when I have a better idea of what’s expected of me.”

I hung up the phone and sat back rubbing my chest. I felt weird but I couldn’t put my finger on the feeling and what it was. But I did know that I was happy. And I couldn’t wait to have Mindy back here.

Mindy

Julie jumped into bed with me as I hung up the phone.

“You know, I was expecting frills and pink and canopy beds, I don’t know why. But this stark modernism is a bit disappointing,” Julie said, looking around my room.

“Actually… I did have the canopy bed with the frills. But everything was mahogany and yellow. No pink for this girl,” I admitted.

“Right, I forgot this is all new. I guess that’s better. Makes things easier,” Julie mused more to herself than to me, “this bed is amazing,” she commented to me this time.

“You don’t miss our comfy thin mattressed twin beds?” I asked, snuggling deeper into the pillows with a yawn.

Julie only responded with a grunt, and I looked over to see her eyes shut and holding a pillow to her chest. I reached down and pulled the blanket up from the foot of the bed to cover us and snuggled off to sleep.

*  *  *

I don’t know how long we napped, but I woke before Julie. I slipped out of bed, careful not to wake her.

I stepped into my walk-in closet and sat on the pouf in the center, looking around at my clothes. I started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Julie said from the other room. I felt bad for waking her, but couldn’t stop laughing suddenly. Julie walked in and looked around my closet.

“So, I think you’re gonna have trouble finding something for the funeral,” she said. Clearly understanding the irony. My closet was chock full of black clothing. Everything I had of color was in my cabin at school. Everything left behind was black and gothic, which had been my style of choice before being sent away.

“Wanna borrow something for tomorrow?” I asked with a laugh.

“Actually, kinda,” Julie said, rifling through the shelves, “you have some hot stuff in here.”