All the Ugly and Wonderful Things(41)

Uncle Sean laughed and stood up to shake hands. “Come on, pull up a chair.”

“Thanks, but I just came to get Wavy.” Kellen looked at me for a second, not long enough. Liam made me invisible. I needed Kellen to see me.

“Get Wavy for what?” Mama said.

“To go for a ride.”

“Uh-oh, Wavy, Donal’s gonna eat your meatloaf if you don’t.” Uncle Sean reached out with another green olive stolen from the meatloaf. Donal opened his mouth and took it.

That scared me. What if it wasn’t dangerous for Donal to be with Liam and Sean, because he was one of them?

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mama said. “It’s dinner time, Kellen, and we’ve got company. She’s staying here to visit with her uncle.”

“Sorry, I didn’t know. Maybe tomorrow, Wavy.”

Kellen went out and closed the door. His boots thumped down the porch steps, but I didn’t hear his bike start. He was outside waiting for me.

“Make her go up to her room,” Liam said to Mama.

I thought about going after Kellen. The only question was whether to leave Donal. I slipped my fingers between the slats of his chair and pinched him hard in the side.

“Ow!” He turned around and looked at me with confused, almost-crying eyes.

“Wavy, what did you do to your brother?” Mama said.

“Nothing,” Donal said.

He wasn’t one of them.

*

I pressed my ear to the floor in my room, but all I could hear was laughing and talking. Later someone came up the stairs, slow like Kellen, but not as big. Donal.

“Mama says for me to sleep up here so Uncle Sean can have my bed,” he said.

I fell asleep beside Donal and woke up to something that wasn’t laughing.

“Yeah, well, I’m your brother, so I think that makes the situation special.”

Was it Liam or Uncle Sean? Through the floor it was hard to tell.

“Is that the whole reason you came here? Put on this big brother act?” Liam.

“Baby, why couldn’t we?” Mama.

“Stay the f*ck outta this, Val. It’s not your money, so shut your trap.”

“It’s just a loan. I guess I thought it mattered that I took care of Val after you got arrested,” Sean said.

“Don’t throw that in my face,” Liam said.

Then it was all shouting and the sound of things breaking and someone getting hit. I couldn’t tell who was who until Mama screamed. Then it was Liam who said, “You f*cking whore,” and Mama who said, “Don’t. Don’t. Please, Liam.”

Deputy Vogel told me to call him if I ever needed something. It’s what they taught in school, too. They said the police were there to help you, but I don’t think they knew what happened when the police came to your house. Cops ruin everything. They kick in the front door, throw people on the floor and handcuff them. They break things and steal things. They lock you in a patrol car, make you spend all night in the police station wearing your nightgown, and then send you home with strangers. That’s why I would never call Deputy Vogel, no matter how much Mama and Liam fought. I’d thrown away the paper with his number as soon as he gave it to me, because I remembered what happened the last time the police came to our house.

Eventually, they stopped fighting and passed out. They always did. After everyone was quiet, I opened the window and looked down at the trellis Kellen climbed up on his birthday. The stair door was locked, and I had the only key, so no one could come upstairs while I was gone. Donal was safe.

The trellis was like climbing down a ladder, and then I was free.

I cut across the fields to the north, to a house I’d never visited. Like Liam’s ranch, it wasn’t a real farm. No chickens in the yard and only a car in the barn. All the windows were open. I went along, tugging at the bottoms of the screens until I found one where the hook had come loose.

Always check the fridge first. The best foods are kept there. Homemade things. Also apples. And pickles. Open the jar, take out two, stuff one then the other in my mouth. Tangy and sweet on my tongue. Fried chicken, salty and firm. Nibble the wing down to bone and slip it into my pocket to throw away later. Something smooth in a bowl, but hard to tell with no light. Dip a finger in and lick it. Vanilla pudding. Chocolate was better, but vanilla was good.

Eating was most important, but once it was done, I looked at the things people think they own. I didn’t take things very often, but I liked to move them. Car keys, purses, glasses, one shoe out of a pair.

The living room smelled like flowers and powder. There was a piano with pictures on top, and a candy dish on the coffee table. I lifted the lid and took a piece. Licorice. I put it back and lowered the lid. It made a tiny ching sound, but nothing worse.

“Lolene? Is that you?”

I jerked my hand away from the candy dish and took two quick steps back.

In the shadows, a woman was sitting in a chair. She had white hair in the moonlight, like Grandma.

“Do you want candy? Ma’s not here to catch us. We can eat all the candy we want.”

I took another step back.

“Why won’t you talk to me, Lolene?”

Another step and my shoulder knocked against the piano. A picture fell over.

“Do you want me to play the piano? Ma says I play almost as well as you. Almost.”