Authors: Lurlene McDaniel
EIGHT
On Saturday, the group met for an early breakfast in the hotel dining room. The rain clouds were gone, and sunlight streamed through spotless windows looking out onto gardens of colorful hibiscus, roses and creamy white gardenias. Tessa, last through the buffet line, sat down in the booth with a groan.
“What’s wrong with you?” Wade asked.
“Every muscle in my body aches. Who knew a game played in water could hurt so much the next day?”
“I’m sore too,” Alexis said, rotating her shoulders. “I’m sticking with the debate team from now on.”
“I feel fine,” Kelly said, sipping orange juice and looking bouncy.
Between mouthfuls of scrambled eggs, Sawyer said, “Take a hot shower and hit the weight room. That’ll work out the kinks.”
Tessa gave him a sour look. “I’m talking major knots here, Sawyer.”
“Try a massage.”
“I could give you a rubdown,” Wade offered.
“Down, boy,” Adam said.
“What? My aunt’s a massage therapist.”
“Good one,” Sawyer said.
“No . . . really. She is.” He flexed his fingers.
“Let your fingers do the walking,” Adam said. He and Sawyer exchanged high fives across the table.
“Keep your fingers away from my body, buster,” Tessa growled.
“You’ve been warned,” Alexis said, smiling.
“Why are you all picking on Wade?” Kelly asked, bewildered. “He’s just trying to be helpful.”
Adam said, “You’re right. We should cut him some slack.”
“Why?” Sawyer wanted to know. “Wade’s cool about it, aren’t you, Wade?”
“Doesn’t bother me,” Wade said.
“But it’s bothering Kelly,” Adam said.
Alexis rolled her eyes, and Adam warned away any of her comments with a look. “Okay,” she said, suddenly all business. “Let’s plan our agenda for the day.” She pulled out a map of the Magic Kingdom and spread it out over the breakfast plates. In no time, she had prepared a list that included everybody’s choices.
“What if we finish and have time left over?” Adam asked.
“Disney isn’t the only attraction in Orlando,” Alexis said. “We have cars. We can get to others.”
They were in agreement, but when they all stood to leave, Adam took his sister’s elbow and pulled her aside. “Other attractions? You’re really sticking it to Dad, aren’t you?”
“He could have brought us and controlled spending.”
Adam’s eyes narrowed. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
She didn’t meet his gaze, because the image of her father with the other woman jumped into her mind, and although she knew it was impossible, she was concerned that Adam might see it in her eyes. “Nothing,” she said. “Come on. Let’s go have some fun.”
They spent the day hitting every ride in the park, including the ones targeted at small children. Kelly refused to consider another roller coaster, and even got queasy riding the teacups. She insisted that Adam ride the coasters without her, but he stayed with her while the others rode, which irked Alexis. She didn’t think it was fair that he should have to skip what she knew were his favorite rides because of Kelly. “She’s my girl,” he said to Alexis when she told him as much out of earshot of the others. “I like being with her, even if it means not riding anything at all. She can’t help it if some of the rides make her sick.”
Alexis wasn’t sure, but she kept her opinion to herself.
When they came to It’s a Small World, Adam balked.
“Come on,” Alexis urged. “It’ll be like when we were little.”
“I don’t think so, Ally. You made us go on it six times when we were little. I’ve never recovered.”
Alexis turned to Sawyer, who backed away. “I don’t mind sitting this one out myself, babe.”
“Party poopers,” Alexis said with a toss of her head. “Anyone coming with me?”
There were no takers, so she climbed aboard and went by herself. The ride was boring, but she enjoyed the sense of nostalgia she experienced. As she had during the time capsule ceremony weeks before, Alexis recalled simpler days, before Adam got sick and before her parents were constantly at odds. She closed her eyes, conjured up the photograph of her family from the bulletin board in her room. In a moment of remorse, she’d dug it out of the trash and taped the pieces back together. Yet try as she might, she couldn’t hold on to the image; reality nudged it aside. The happy smiles dissolved into angry scowls. Adam morphed from a soft-cheeked child into a gaunt preteen, bald from chemo treatments. Her own expression went from delighted to fearful.
She opened her eyes and stared hard at the scenery surrounding her. The puppets looked tired and trite, and the music began to grate on her nerves. It had been a mistake to go on the ride. She wasn’t nine anymore. The magic was gone.
Sawyer was there to meet her when the ride ended, and she fairly jumped out of the seat and into his arms when the carts stopped. “Wow— this is cool. Did you miss me that much?” he asked, a silly grin on his face.
“Longest ten minutes of the day. Where are the others?”
“Everybody went off in different directions. We’re supposed to meet up at six by the lake. We’re on our own.”
She shook off the last vestiges of her disappointment with the ride and asked, “So where do you want to go?”
“Anywhere that I can kiss you a hundred times uninterrupted.”
She shoved him playfully. “Second choice?”
“The closest coaster.”
They took off hand in hand and rode every daredevil coaster in the park for the second time that day.
Alexis couldn’t sleep. After watching the Disney parade on Main Street and the fireworks over Cinderella’s castle, she and her friends had played the video machines in the hotel game room. Around two A.M. they told one another good night and went to their rooms, insisting that they would all sleep in. They didn’t have to check out until noon, and it was a long drive back to Miami. Tessa and Kelly were sleeping soundly and Alexis didn’t want to disturb them, but she also hated lying in the dark wide awake. Finally, around five, she got up, dressed quietly and took the elevator down to the indoor pool. She told herself she’d watch the sun come up, then go back to bed and grab some sleep.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, it was still pitch-dark. Underwater lights made the patio area glow eerily. She was heading toward a lounge chair when she realized she wasn’t alone. She stopped short, surprised that anyone else was up so early. The person, half hidden by the back of a lounger, turned. She was looking at Adam.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Couldn’t sleep. And you?”
“Same problem.” She took the chair beside his. “Maybe our twin radar is working overtime.”
Adam said, “Sawyer snores like a buzz saw. Do you know that?”
Color crept up her cheeks. “How would I know something like that?”
He grinned but didn’t comment.
“As long as we’re swapping intimate information, Kelly talks in her sleep,” Alexis said coolly.
“I’d love to hear her sometime.”
“She mumbles. . . . Can’t understand a word.”
Adam looked out over the water, his expression pensive. “You still ticked at Dad for not making this a family vacation?”
“Not just Dad. Mom too. They acted like a family vacation was a death sentence.”
“Be honest—isn’t it a whole lot more fun being here with our friends than with our parents?”
Naturally he was right. Being stuck with their parents for three days might not have been much fun at all. “I guess it was just the way they handled it. If for one minute they had even
acted
like they’d wanted to come, to be with us and with each other, then I’d feel better about it. You know what our house feels like?”
“You mean besides tense?”
She swung her body around so that she was facing her brother. “It feels like a marina. Boats pull in and dock. They pull out to go off on the water alone. Their hulls don’t touch. Their berths don’t switch. Dock and go.” She motioned with her hand. “Little ships without contact.”
“Come September, we can set our own course.”
“And don’t think I’m not looking forward to it. I’m not sure what I’ll do if I don’t get accepted to Stetson.”
“You’ll pick another college.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want another college. Would you want to switch from baseball to soccer?”
“It’s too late for me.”
“Maybe too late to retrain your feet, but not your hands. You could be a goalie, like Sawyer.”
Adam shook his head. “No way.”
Through the windows, dawn streaked the sky with color. Alexis watched darkness fade to gray, then lighten to soft pink. “It’s going to be a beautiful day. Too bad we have to leave paradise.”
“Yes, too bad,” Adam said, his gaze on the brightening sky.
“You tired?” she asked.
“Not a bit.”
“The breakfast buffet opens at six,” she said, scooting off the lounger. “And all of a sudden, I’m starved. Let’s go raid it.”
“What about the others?”
“We can eat again with them.”
He grinned. “Eat breakfast twice? You up for that?”
“Absolutely.” She reached out and squeezed his upper arm through his jacket. “Besides, I think you’re looking a little skinny these days. Look how your jacket’s hanging on you.”
“Part of my plan,” he said smoothly. “Bulk up with muscle, not fat. It’s hard for a butterball to move very fast on the playing field, you know.”
They headed inside to the buffet table.
The ride home was subdued. “Do we have to go back?” Wade asked before piling into Adam’s car.
“Sorry, the party’s over,” Alexis told him. She was already thinking about undone assignments and incomplete homework. She and Tessa had a county-wide debate coming up in mid-November, and she’d barely started on her position paper for it. Then there was an English paper, and tests to face in four of her six courses—all before the Thanksgiving holiday.
They didn’t arrive in the city until after eight. Sawyer dropped off Tessa, while Adam took Wade and then Kelly home. They met up in a fast-food parking lot near the school at Alexis’s insistence. “I can take you home,” Sawyer said, sounding unhappy with her plan to ride home with her brother and not him.
“I’ll go with Adam. We’re already much later than we said we’d be.”
Sawyer kissed her lightly before she scooted into the car. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“Tomorrow.” She waved as Adam backed the car out.
“I had a good time,” Adam said as he drove toward their house.
“Me too.”
“Thanks for coming up with the idea and getting Mom and Dad to agree. And thanks for being nice to Kelly too. I know you’re not crazy about her.”
She started to protest but knew it would be hypocritical. “She’s lucky you like her. Think of all the girls who are eating their hearts out because you picked her instead of them.” Of course, Alexis was thinking of Tessa.
“You’re a riot,” Adam said, raising the garage door with the touch of a button. “Truth is, nobody wanted me when I was on chemo. Nobody.”
“That’s all over now,” she said sympathetically. “You’re healthy, wealthy and wise.”
He popped the trunk with the lever under his seat. “Not wealthy after this weekend. When are you going to give those receipts to Dad?”
She giggled and hopped out of the car. “When Visa sends him a bill, of course. No use risking being grounded before then.”
NINE
“Are you sure you don’t want to come down to campaign headquarters and watch the election results come in with me?” Eleanor poked her head into Alexis’s room as she spoke. “You’ll get to see the American system at work firsthand. Maybe pick up extra points for that poli sci class of yours.”
“I can’t vote, Mom, and no, hanging around Pressman headquarters isn’t my idea of a good time.” Alexis never looked up from her computer screen.
“He’s going to win, you know.” Her mother sounded defensive.
Just then, Alexis’s father passed by the doorway. “Good,” he said. “Then maybe you can move back home.”
Eleanor whirled. “I don’t need your sarcasm, Blake. I’ve worked hard for this victory, and it’s going to help me a great deal once he’s in office. And if you’d think about it instead of griping about it, it could help you too.”
Blake waved her off. “I’m going to the club.”
Alexis took a bite from a peanut-butter sandwich on a plate beside her keyboard.
Supper
. “I’ve got homework,” she said.
“Where’s Adam?”
“At Kelly’s.”
Her mother stood at the doorway, as if reluctant to leave. “Most of the results will be in by eleven. There’ll be a victory party.”
“So you’ll be in late.” Alexis finished the logical progression of her mother’s sentences.
“I don’t like your tone, young lady. And I sure as heck don’t owe you an apology for what I do with my time.”
Alexis threw up her hands, rotated her desk chair to face the doorway. “Didn’t mean to rain on your parade. Go. Toast Larry Pressman’s victory. See you tomorrow.”
Anger flashed across her mother’s face. Alexis held her breath, knowing she’d pushed pretty hard. “I need a life too,” Eleanor said. “Or is that forbidden?”
“You have a life, Mother. In fact, sometimes it seems like you have so much of a life that the rest of us are in your way.”
Her mother darted into the room, eyes blazing, and for a minute Alexis thought she might get slapped. Eleanor stopped short, glaring at Alexis. “I’m not going to let you spoil this evening for me, Ally. But you had better watch your mouth. You have no idea what my life is like. What it’s been like these past years. You have no idea at all.”
Alexis sat very still, knowing that the least provocation might send her mother over the edge. Her heart thumped hard as the standoff lengthened. Finally, her mother turned and stalked out of the room. Minutes later, Alexis heard the front door slam. She went cold all over, struggling to understand the terrible anger inside her mother and the sense of abandonment she felt from her father. What was happening to them? Why was it happening? Was it something lacking in her and Adam? Alexis tried so hard to be a good student, to excel. How had she let them down?
The phone rang, and she jumped. Grabbing the receiver, she said, “Hello?”
“Hey, babe.”
“Sawyer.” She sniffed, realizing that her cheeks were wet.
“You crying?”
She wiped her eyes. “No. I think I’m getting the sniffles.”
“I’m not scared of catching it. Can I come over?”
“I’ve got a paper due—”
“Who doesn’t? Look, I’ll bring some popcorn and soda and we can watch that TV show you like on Tuesday nights.”
Trust Sawyer to remember her favorite TV shows. She softened. “They’ll probably break in with election coverage.”
“We can ignore it.”
She knew he was waiting for her answer. Well, why not? She wouldn’t be able to study any more that night, anyway. “Come on over,” she said.
“On my way.” She heard his grin through the phone line.
At eleven o’clock that night, with two-thirds of the precincts reporting, Larry Pressman was declared the city-wide winner. Alexis sat curled on sofa with Sawyer draped across her lap and watched as the channel four news team showed the victory celebration at the Hilton ballroom. Pressman stood at a podium with his wife and three kids, waving at the cameras and his jubilant supporters. Balloons and streamers fell from the ceiling. Alexis saw her mother standing off to one side, clapping and smiling. “Hey, there’s your mom!” Sawyer said, tossing a piece of popcorn at the screen. It bounced off Eleanor’s electronic image.
“That’s her.” Alexis aimed the remote and flipped the channel.
“Don’t you want to watch?”
“Why? I know she’s happy. She’s worked for months for this.”
“
You
don’t sound too happy about it.”
“Who cares? It’s what she wants.”
Sawyer swung his legs to the floor and scooted upright. “What’s going on, babe?”
“My family’s falling apart.” She hadn’t meant to tell him that, but the words had rushed out in a wave of unshed tears.
“Hey, come on. It’s okay.” His arms went around her, and she sank against his chest.
She cried a little before saying, “I just don’t know what’s happening to us, Sawyer. It’s like my parents hate each other. And maybe me and Adam too.”
“You know that’s not true. Didn’t they just let you have a blowout at Disney World? That’s not because they hate you.”
She pulled away as another thought hit her. “What if they get a divorce?”
“That wouldn’t be your fault.”
“But what if they do?”
“Half the kids in our school have divorced parents. And remarried parents.”
“You don’t.”
He shrugged. “They fight.”
“How do people fall out of love? It’s not supposed to be that way.”
He searched her face. “Maybe they don’t. Maybe they just lose their way.”
She told him then about seeing her father in the restaurant. He could say nothing to console her about that. He leaned his forehead in to touch hers. “These are supposed to be the best years of our lives.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Just quoting my grandma, who says she knows these things.”
She managed a laugh. “I’m glad you came over tonight. I really didn’t want to be alone.”
“Me too.” He lifted her chin and, with great tenderness, kissed her mouth.
Alexis threw herself into schoolwork, especially preparation for the upcoming debate. The topic for the tournament,
Resolved: That the federal
government should establish an education policy to
significantly increase academic achievement in secondary schools,
wasn’t overly intriguing to her, but she prepared her affirmative arguments thoroughly. The burden of proof always lay with the affirmative position, and winning the round meant swaying the judges to accept her position and award her team points.
Cory, a junior, would be responsible for presenting the case and plan. Tessa would offer rebuttal when the opposition presented the negative side of the position. Following cross-examination periods between the speeches, it would fall to Alexis to summarize and cover all affirmative positions and negative rebuttals. This place on the team was usually reserved for the best speaker because it was the most difficult.
The day of the tournament, Alexis felt pumped up and ready. While Mrs. Wiley signed in the team at the site of the debate, Tessa whispered to Alexis, “You’re top dog, girlfriend.”
“What do you mean?” Alexis pinned her name tag to her blazer. Mrs. Wiley insisted that the team wear navy blazers and white oxford shirts when they competed.
“Everybody’s looking at you.”
Alexis glanced around, and sure enough, teams from other schools were giving her the once-over. Most turned away when she caught their eyes. “Wonder why. Is something wrong with me?”
“R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” Tessa spelled. “Your reputation has them scared. You’re a legend.”
“And you’re hallucinating. They’re just sizing up the competition.”
“No. . . . It’s you they fear.”
“Puh-leeze,” Alexis said skeptically. “It’s our whole team.”
Tessa smiled. “Well, bring ’em on. I feel lucky today.”
“You nut.” Alexis shook her friend’s shoulder.
Holding a packet, Mrs. Wiley walked up to her students. “I have our schedule. Shall we proceed to round one?”
Alexis fell into step behind their teacher and coach, with the other team members behind her. She walked quickly through the lobby area and toward the verbal battle she hoped would take her one step closer to the state finals and admission to Stetson. She hoped her parents would hold it together until after she and Adam were out the door.
“Chalk up another one.” Sawyer made an imaginary mark in the air above Alexis.
“Oh now, winning isn’t everything,” Alexis said with a satisfied smile.
Tessa, wearing a bigger smile, leaned into Alexis. “It’s the
only
thing,” they said in unison, then burst out laughing. They were standing in the hall the next day after school, waiting for Adam so that they could ride home together.
“How should we celebrate?” Sawyer asked.
“Ice cream usually works for me,” Alexis said.
Charmaine and Glory butted into the group. Glory said, “Heard you brought home a trophy.”
“We survived,” Alexis said. She felt exhilarated. Their team had taken first place and had placed in the top three in the individual events of every category they had entered. Her original oratory had taken first place.
“The queen rules,” Tessa said with a curtsy toward Alexis.
“Cut it out.”
Adam walked up with Kelly. “Do I have to bow to you too?”
She checked him over. He was grinning, but he looked pale to her. “Off with his head,” Alexis said, snapping her fingers.
Kelly ducked under Adam’s arm and hugged him protectively. “I like his head.”
“All right, all right . . . who’s up for ice cream?” Sawyer called out.
The entire group stormed the door.
At the ice cream parlor, they commandeered two tables and ordered a special called the kitchen sink, which consisted of a scoop of each of the parlor’s twenty-one flavors, ten toppings, butterscotch and hot fudge sauces and a can of whipped cream. It was served in a washtub, with spoons for everyone. Sawyer had insisted that the waiters and waitresses sing and clap for Alexis and Tessa as if it were their birthday. “We’re celebrating,” he said. “And we want to be entertained.”
Much later, when they had all gone their separate ways, Alexis sat alone with Sawyer in his car at the mall. “That was fun,” she told him. “Thanks for making such a big deal out of a little debate win.”
“You’re doing better than the football team,” he reminded her.
“That’s true,” she said with a laugh.
“Besides, I like seeing you happy.”
She closed her eyes and snuggled against him. “I think my sugar high’s wearing off.”
“Want a burger?”
“No . . . I’m really stuffed.” Suddenly she bolted upright as a sensation of dread shot through her like an electric current. Her heart raced, and she could hardly catch her breath.
“What’s the matter?” Sawyer’s eyes were wide with alarm. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Take me home,” she managed to say.
“But why—”
She grabbed his arm. “Something terrible has happened to Adam.”
“How do you know?”
Fear surged through her. “I just know, all right? Hurry!”