All the Ugly and Wonderful Things(68)

Donal jumped out of the car and ran to hug her. Then he took off toward the garages. The Barbie doll came down the porch, cigarette in her hand and said, “Hey, are you Donal’s auntie? And his cousins? I’m Sandy.”

We waited for an explanation of who Sandy was but she didn’t offer one.

“Do you want to come in for a drink or something?”

“Do you know where Valerie is?” Mom said.

Sandy was the prettiest sad woman I’d ever seen, and for a second, she frowned, more sad than pretty. “No, but she’ll be back later if you want to wait.”

“It’s okay to leave Donal here, with you?”

“Sure, hon. I’ll get him a snack here in a while. Did Wavy come back with you?”

Mom didn’t answer, so I said, “She’s at Kellen’s.”

Sandy was pretty again, smiling.

“Oh, he’ll be glad to see her. They’re so sweet to each other. Yesterday he took a big cooler full of ice and drove over to Garringer. They have a Baskin Robbins there, and he bought her a scoop of every flavor of ice cream they have. You know, for her birthday. Isn’t that the sweetest thing? Sure you don’t wanna stop for a drink? Donal could show you his little motorbike. He’s so cute on it.”

“No,” Mom said. She didn’t even wait to say good-bye to Donal.

An hour into the drive home Mom turned down the radio we’d turned up to avoid talking, and said, “How do you think Wavy seemed?”

My sister glared. Like the girl who stole her lifeguard, that’s how she seemed to Leslie.

“Happy,” I said.

“She didn’t seem hostile to you?”

“Only because you wanted her to stay for her birthday.”

“Oh, good grief. Would it be so terrible to spend her birthday with us?”

“She wanted to spend her birthday with Kellen. He bought her a lot of ice cream.” I laughed at the thought of her eating thirty-one scoops of ice cream, but nobody else did.

“I thought she’d outgrow having a crush on him. Some big, dumb motorcycle hooligan. And that filthy tattoo on his arm. I mean, do you girls think he’s cute?”

“Gag me with a spoon,” Leslie said.

I did a Wavy shrug, because I didn’t even think Leslie’s lifeguard was cute. I hadn’t yet seen a boy I thought was worth having a crush on.

“Well, she’s always been different,” Mom said.

“I bet she’s pregnant by the end of the school year,” Leslie said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I wanted to say, “It means Leslie is a bitch,” but I kept my mouth shut.

“You know she’s having sex with Kellen,” Leslie said.

“I most certainly do not know that.” Mom tapped the brakes and looked at Leslie, who stared straight ahead.

“Well, she is having sex with him. Now you know.”

“You don’t know that,” I said. I still thought it was one of Wavy’s weird games.

“She said she went all the way with him,” Leslie said.

“Yeah, but—”

Mom braked hard and pulled over to the shoulder.

“What do you mean she said she went all the way with him?”

Leslie sighed like she was bored. “We asked her about her wedding ring, and Jana said, ‘Do you go all the way with him?’ and Wavy said, ‘Yes.’”

“What wedding ring?” Mom’s hands shook as she put the car in park.

“That ring she was wearing with the diamond.” Leslie smirked.

“Oh my God.” Mom said it about ten times and then she said, “I can’t believe you two have been keeping this a secret. Shame on you. Shame on you both. Tell me everything. Right now.”

We told her everything. No, not everything. Neither of us was brave enough to say, “Hot. Hard. Desperate.”

Mom put the car in drive and turned around. We were going back.

I felt like a traitor and I was glad the lifeguard had ditched Leslie. She deserved to lose her boyfriend for ratting Wavy out like that.

On the drive, Mom talked to herself, saying, “Oh, God, Val, how could you let this happen? You let this guy come around and you didn’t ever think there was something funny going on? It didn’t seem right to me. The way he touched her.”

I didn’t say it to my mother, but that was what struck me: Wavy let Kellen touch her.

*

Mom didn’t go back to the garage. Either she didn’t remember how to get there or she wasn’t ready to confront Wavy. At the farmhouse, there was a car in the driveway.

“Thank God, she’s home,” Mom said. She parked and opened her door, but Leslie and I stayed put. “Come on, you two. You’re involved in this.”

“Mom!” Leslie’s desire for revenge had gone to cold fear. Mom was going to make us tell Aunt Val everything.

I trudged up the stairs behind Leslie and Mom, my stomach in knots. The door stood open a couple inches. Mom knocked on the frame and called, “Val? Val? It’s Brenda.”

Nobody answered, so Mom pushed the door all the way open.

Beyond a certain amount of blood, your brain freezes up, like there’s a limit to how much blood it can understand. There was more than that in the kitchen. Past Mom’s shoulder, I saw a body lying in the doorway to the hall. A man in jeans and cowboy boots lay facedown in a puddle of blood. More blood was splattered on the wall and bathroom door.