Little Divas (8 page)

Rikki was rocking back and forth, like now all of a sudden she was in tremendous pain.

“You all right?” I asked, even though I knew she was doing better than me.
I
was the one who was not okay. Rikki should have been asking me.

“I can’t
wait
to go back to school,” she said.

Rikki had a chronic case of the couldn’t waits. She couldn’t wait to turn sixteen, couldn’t wait to drive. She couldn’t wait for Mary to turn eighteen, and couldn’t wait to go live with her when she did. She couldn’t wait until she, too, was grown, and she was leaving Ohio first thing when she was.

Now she couldn’t wait to go back to school.

She said, “I hope Darwin is in every last one of my classes.” And of course, she couldn’t wait to find out.

I stared out into the acres of trees and felt my eyes burning again. What if Daddy did make me go to Clara Ellis? What would I do? Tosha. Lane Benson.

I’d run away. I’d go live out there in the woods with nobody to bother me except maybe a friendly deer every once in a while, a quiet bird looking for a worm down by my feet, or an occasional squirrel to feed.

I sighed, and began wondering what kind of trees Mom was looking at right then. Was she okay? Was she afraid? She’d sounded so happy on the phone the other night. She’d gone on and on about how rewarding her trip was, how when I’m older she’s going to take me back there so that I can experience true humanity. I had tried to sound cheerful, but in a strange way it was weird that she didn’t sound at least a little bit sad. She sounded
extra
cheerful, in fact, and it seemed like her voice was coming from so far away.

We didn’t get to talk long. Mom asked me if I’d been writing in my journal, and I told her I had. I told her that when she gets to read it, she is going to be amazed at how much fun I’ve been having. I would too, she said, when I read hers.

I continued staring at the trees, partially lost in my own thoughts, partly listening to Rikki still complaining.

Only a couple more weeks left of summer vacation. Soon the leaves will fall. The trees will be nothing but plain old brown and naked twigs. And
still,
Mom would be gone.

I closed my eyes and swallowed the anguish I felt.

The more I thought about Daddy telling Aunt Beanie before talking to me, the more furious I became. I didn’t know if I ever wanted to talk to Daddy again. In fact, I was pretty sure I didn’t.

Rikki kicked a pile of gravel rocks. “Maybe I should be a gospel singer.”

“You could,” I said with a sniff. “If you really wanted to.”

“What are you gonna be?”

I thought for a moment. “I don’t know,” I said. “I guess I never really thought about it.”

“You’re always writing in that journal of yours. You could travel the world and write about fabulous places.”

“Maybe,” I said.

“As long as we’re important in the world.”

“Definitely,” I agreed.

“And can go wherever we want, whenever we choose.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“As long as we’re
respected,”
Rikki added. “You know what I mean? I want people to know my name when they see me coming. I want ’em to salute me.”

I thought about that. “I think I’d rather just be rich,” I concluded. “Not famous.”

“Still, we’ll have our own private airplanes and everything.”

“Every day I wanna wear white linen suits and high-heeled shoes with open toes.”

“And walk down a red carpet that’s been laid out especially for me.”

“Blowing kisses to the crowds of people.”

“Lane Benson is gonna be begging you for your autograph one day, Cassidy. Watch.”

“Sorry,” I said, and then blew on my fingernails. “I don’t have time.”

“Not for stupid idiot girls. That’s right.”

“Yeah…”

“I can’t wait to grow up,” Rikki said. “And to be able to make my own decisions about my own life.”

“Me either,” I said. For the first time ever, I knew
exactly
how Rikki felt.

“Look at Mary. She still has to sneak around to see that big fathead boyfriend of hers.”

I felt bad for Mary, always on constant lockdown. You’d think Aunt Honey and Uncle Lance would at least let her have a little more of life now that she’s sixteen. She’s practically an adult.

“I bet if Mary was ugly,” Rikki said, “they wouldn’t make her stay all cooped up in the house like that. Bet if she looked like Tosha, they’d be
hoping
a boy would look at her. It doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that kids aren’t allowed to have boyfriends. If Mary ever does run away, I swear I’m going with her.”

“I’m going too,” I said without hesitation.

Rikki sulked some more. “But yeah, right. And go where? Everywhere you go in this little bitty town, somebody knows your parents.” She stood up, brushed the gravel off her backside, and looked up the street. “We’d probably only make it down there to the corner before somebody would see us and call our parents.”

Rikki gazed down the street, and I got up and let my eyes follow hers. Forrest Hills. One of the smallest cities in Ohio, where it really seems like everybody’s parents know everybody else’s.

I had just started humming my agreement when we saw a big orange and white U-Haul truck coming our way.

eight

Two hours after
we saw the moving truck pull up, Rikki and I were sitting on Daddy’s front porch watching as the movers went in and out of the house to the left of us. We’d been sitting still so long by now that the plastic lawn chairs were stuck to the backs of our thighs. I hate it when that happens.

A few weeks ago Daddy and I had noticed that the “For Sale” sign in the lawn next door was gone. He’d said then that he bet that the new people were going to move in just in time for school, that they probably had kids. More than anything, I was just hoping they’d be normal. The neighbors to the right of Daddy, the Thompsons, are not.

The Thompsons own and operate a funeral parlor with the help of their grown children, and I am terrified of their entire family. I never look at them if they’re outside. Rikki says that their hands probably smell like dead people, and there is
no way
I am ever getting close enough to find out.

After a while Daddy’s Cadillac came rolling up the street. When he pulled into the driveway, he had a great big old grin on his face and threw his hand up to wave. I didn’t think there was anything in the world to be smiling about, and I did not wave back.

Just how long did he think it would be before I found out about his underhanded little idea, anyhow?

Daddy stood in our driveway for a moment and looked over at the moving truck. “See anybody yet?” he asked us.

Rikki nodded at a boy standing in the driveway who looked like he was about fifteen years old. His hair was dirty blond, his body too skinny, and his skin pale. He was twirling on the string of a red yo-yo. “Just weird-o over there,” Rikki said.

Daddy looked over to the boy and hollered, “Welcome!”

The boy looked up, blew the hair out of his eyes in order to see Daddy, glanced at the moving truck, and then at their opened garage. “Thanks,” he mumbled back.

Still grinning and loosening his tie, Daddy came up the steps. “Well, well, well,” he said. “What have my little girls been up to today?”

“Hey, Uncle Ray,” Rikki said.

I just glared.

“Whoa.” Daddy saw the look on my face. “You okay?”

I could hear Aunt Beanie inside, mumbling and fussing as she came closer to the screen door. “Is that you, Ray?” she called.

“I’m here,” Daddy called back. “I appreciate you staying over, Beanie. Sorry it took so long.”

Daddy slid off his tie. “Everything okay, pumpkin? You look bothered.”

I stared up at the skyline and bit down on my tongue. I thought I could speak at first, but when I tried, I couldn’t. It was all just too much even thinking about it.

Daddy shifted a bit and cleared his throat. “Rikki?”

But she just shrugged.

“Daddy”—my voice cracked as I finally spoke—“how could you?”

Rikki tapped my foot.

“Hey, hey,” Daddy said with a concerned voice. “Look at me.” He was silent as he waited for me to do so. When I finally did, he searched my face and my eyes real hard for a clue as to what was troubling me. “How could I do what?”

“I can’t believe you, Daddy. I can’t believe you would do this to me. Away from all my—”

“Whoa.” Daddy held up his hand. “Pump the brakes.”

Aunt Beanie was standing in the doorway listening. “I apologize, Ray,” she said, “but, Cassidy, go on and tell your daddy what you did. She made me say it, Ray.”

He looked at Beanie, at Rikki, and then back at me. “Well? I’m waiting.”

“Because we were jump roping,” I said.

“Yeah,” Rikki added with a huff.

Beanie shrieked, “And what else? That ain’t all, Ray!”

I folded my arms across my chest. “Oh, what difference does it make? Aunt Beanie said that you’re sending me to Clara Ellis.”

Daddy used his thumbnail to scratch his forehead and waited a moment. Then he sighed. “Well, we did receive a letter from the school at the beginning of summer, right before your mother left. We thought about it, but it was never more than a consideration, Cassidy. That’s all.”

I titled my head and stared. “Daddy.”

He actually looked a little nervous. “Yes?”

“What do you mean the ‘beginning of summer’? Are you telling me that everyone else has known about this since—”

“Now, now, look here. Clara Ellis sent a letter regarding your aptitude test scores. Your mother called me to discuss it—”

“What?” I sat straight up.
“Mom
knew?”

“All right now, you need to watch your tone of voice.”

“But Daddy! Mom knew and didn’t say a—”

“Now listen. There was no point in telling you. We didn’t want you to get excited and then—”

“Excited!” I shouted. “Do you honestly think I would be
excited
about going to that stupid school? That I wouldn’t want to go to King? That I don’t—”

“Well.” He smiled a bit. “You
are
going to King, pumpkin. That’s what matters, right? Clara Ellis was merely a consideration.”

“But you discussed it with everyone in the whole world, even Aunt Honey—”

Rikki took a real deep breath.

Oops.

Daddy got a strange look on his face and looked over at Rikki. “Did your mother say something to you about this?”

“No,” I answered before Rikki could. “Daddy, see! You’re not even listening to me. I said I bet you
probably
discussed it with Aunt Honey. I said you
probably
told—”

But Daddy was still looking at Rikki. He raised an eyebrow. “Rikki, I’m going to ask you this again. Did your mother say something to you about this?”

Rikki shrugged and shook her head. “First I’ve heard of this was today, Uncle Ray,” she said. “When Miss Beanie said it.”

Daddy looked like he wanted to discuss the matter further, but just then a Volkswagen station wagon pulled up and parked behind the U-Haul next door. A woman emerged from the driver’s side, and a girl with long dark-blond hair got out of the passenger seat. The girl went inside the house without even looking our way, but the woman bounced right over to our porch and stood at the bottom of the steps.

“How do you do?” she said in a way that reminded me of a camp counselor. Her blonde hair was cut into a bob and moved easily when she talked. Her big brown eyes were bright and cheerful as she scrunched up her nose.

“Raymin Carter.” Daddy walked down the steps and shook her hand. “Welcome.”

“Kate Anders,” she replied. “Thanks. Good to meet you.”

“Can we offer you a glass of lemonade?”

“Oh. Thanks. I’ve got my water bottle. I thought that if we waited until the sun went down, we’d avoid some of the heat. Silly me.”

“Yeah, seems like the humidity stays out with the moon these days,” Daddy said.

She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her shorts and smiled at Rikki and me like we were cute little baby dolls or something. “These your little girls?”

“Yup,” Daddy said. “The one on the left is my daughter, Cassidy. And the one on the right is Rikki, my niece.”

“Oh, great.” Mrs. Anders grinned.

Daddy cleared his throat and laughed a little. “Uh, don’t let the frowns fool you. They’re nice young ladies, good girls.”

Mrs. Anders seemed to find that amusing. “Well, then. I am pleased to meet all of you. That’s my son over there with the yo-yo. Freddy. Give him a skateboard and a yo-yo and he’s happy. I’ve got a daughter, too. She’s inside.” Mrs. Anders gasped. “And
I bet
she’s the same age as you girls.”

Daddy nodded. “Great, great.”

“I’m divorced,” Mrs. Anders explained to Daddy, “so the kids, you know, they’re adjusting.”

“I see,” Daddy said. “Same here.”

“Will your girls be attending King Junior High?” Mrs. Anders asked Daddy.

Daddy laughed a stupid, goofy-sounding laugh. “As a matter fact, yes,” he said.

“Oh, great!” she exclaimed. And then she put her hands on her knees and bent down to talk to Rikki and me. It was just like my first-grade teacher used to do, like if she sounded really excited we would be too. “Would you girls like to come meet my daughter? I just know you’ll be great friends.”