All the Ugly and Wonderful Things(20)

At least sex with Kellen would take Dee’s mind off Liam.

Or it would if Kellen weren’t so shy. Alone with her, he didn’t leer when she came out of the bathroom in a too-small motel towel. He didn’t even look at her, even though she stood between him and the TV. When he finally looked up, she dropped the towel.

“Are you too tired?” she said.

“Not too much, I guess.”

I guess. God, she didn’t ask for romance, but could he show a little enthusiasm? Not wanting the walrus experience, she pushed him back on the bed and opened his fly. As advertised, he had some equipment, what you’d expect from a guy his size. Also, he didn’t try to kiss her and he lasted long enough for her to get off. She went into the bathroom to clean up and when she came out, Kellen was taking off his boots.

“Thanks,” he mumbled.

It surprised her. She hadn’t really thought about the fact that she was doing him a favor. She hadn’t thought about him at all. Pulling back the covers on the other bed, she crawled in, relieved that she wouldn’t have to sleep next to him.

“Here.” He opened his wallet and counted out some money.

Dee never liked taking money for it, but she folded the bills into her purse. When she was with Liam, money wasn’t a problem, but what were the odds he’d even notice her with Val there? She needed the cash.

Kellen met her gaze for a second before he looked away. “I don’t mean—it’s not—Liam told me to give you this.”

“Oh, cool.” Curling on her side away from him, Dee tried to think of something nice to say and couldn’t.

Kellen was a lousy liar and he snored.





11

AMY

Mom came back to the kitchen with a crying little boy in her arms. She sat down and cried, too, rocking him back and forth on her lap. It scared me until I saw Wavy standing in the doorway with bruises on her face and a fresh scab under her lower lip. Then it all made sense.

“Oh my God,” Mom said. “What am I going to do?”

By the time Dad came home from work, things were calm. Donal was napping. Mom was cooking. Leslie, Wavy, and I were upstairs playing Barbies. Or Leslie and I were playing Barbies. Wavy was playing with Ken. We never used him unless Barbie got married, but Wavy undressed him and made him trade clothes with a Barbie.

“He can’t wear that,” Leslie said. Everything had to be just right with her. She and I had matching rooms, right out of the JCPenney catalog. Hers pink, mine yellow. Wavy in her black leather boots didn’t fit in the catalog. She tore open the catalog and made surprising things happen. Like Ken in a dress.

Dad came upstairs and stood in the doorway with a drink in his hand. He looked tired. It was the first time he’d been home before our bedtime all week. Mom stood behind him clutching her hands together.

“Hi, girls,” Dad said.

“Hi, Daddy,” Leslie and I said.

“Hi, Vonnie.”

“Not Vonnie,” Wavy said.

“Excuse me?”

“Not Vonnie. Kellen calls me Wavy.”

“Who’s Kellen?” Mom said.

“Jesse Joe Kellen.”

We all came under the authority of the unknown Jesse Joe Kellen, because Wavy wouldn’t answer to any other name. After dinner, even though it was a school night, Leslie and I got to stay up late. Wavy taught us to play poker with the money out of our piggy banks. We had to loan her money since she didn’t have any. She didn’t even have pajamas or a clean pair of undies.

From the bottom of the stairs, Dad yelled, “Vonnie! Come down here.”

Wavy didn’t move and after a minute, Mom called, “Wavy! Come down here.”

When we got downstairs, Dad was saying, “For God’s sake, Brenda, I thought we were done with this.”

“What was I supposed to do? A complete stranger dropped off my niece and my nephew. Was I supposed to say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, my husband and I decided we were done with this’?”

Dad turned and looked at the three of us.

“Vonnie—Wavy, have you been going to school this year?”

Wavy nodded.

“What grade are you in?”

She held up three fingers.

“You see how easy that was, Brenda? Val’s been sending her to school, so maybe you could cut the hysterics, okay?”

“Girls, go back upstairs,” Mom said.

“Is Wavy going to stay?” I said.

Mom looked at Dad, who looked at the ceiling.

“For a while,” she said. “Now, go to bed. You have school tomorrow.”

Wavy and Donal stayed. Dad made Wavy promise she wouldn’t sneak out at night, but it was still two magical weeks of Wavy’s games and Leslie’s cries of protest every time we played a prank.

On the last day of school, Wavy went with me, so everyone got to see my strange cousin who didn’t eat or talk, but who wasn’t afraid to pump a swing as high as it would go and jump off.

That Saturday, Aunt Val came to get them.

“She looks like a cheap hooker,” Dad muttered as she came up the sidewalk.

I thought she looked beautiful, in a tight black dress that laced up the front and left her legs bare, all the way down to her tall black shoes and her red-painted toenails. She had flower tattoos on her arms and shoulders, and when she hugged me, she smelled of perfume and cigarettes.