My Name Is Venus Black(58)

He glances at his clock radio. He has a customer in five minutes, but he’s reluctant to move from his spot. Tony doesn’t use his den very often, but he likes the idea of it. It makes him feel like there’s more to him than being a tattoo artist. He bought a bookshelf, and now and then he goes into the den to read a novel.

Now he reaches for a big green atlas he got at a garage sale. It takes him a few minutes to locate the map of Washington State. He’s never been to Seattle, but he’s heard that all it does is rain. He scans the map and there it is. Everett is located about thirty miles north of Seattle, right on the waters of Puget Sound.

Who knew a single black dot could seem so ominous?



* * *



—

WHEN TESSA DOES laundry, she always checks Leo’s pockets for crayons—he still likes to draw with them. She checks her dad’s, too—because she gets half of any money she finds. Usually it’s only some change, but today it feels like dollars. It turns out to be an old tire-store receipt with something jotted on the back: “Miss 2-80 Born 8-7-72.”

Who is “Miss”? It would be great if this was about a woman, but it’s obviously not a phone number. She’s always regretted that her father doesn’t date more, especially when she realizes it’s partly her fault—her fault and Leo’s. Between the tat shop and being a parent, he probably doesn’t have time to chase women, as he’d say.

She puts the receipt in her pocket to ask her dad about later.

By the time her father comes home from work, she’s forgotten about the receipt. Tessa loves Thursday nights, because they always have pizza, and they take turns choosing the toppings. Since Leo always orders the same thing—Canadian bacon and pineapple—and removes all the toppings when it’s not his turn, that’s often what Tessa orders, too, even though she hates Canadian bacon and pineapple.



But not tonight. She’s still bugged by something her best friend, Kelly, said to her today. “You need to stop being so nice, Tessa. Guys don’t like girls who don’t have personality or stick up for themselves.” The comment surprised Tessa and hurt her feelings, but she didn’t say so.

Now she realizes that her reaction only proves Kelly’s point. If she was the kind of girl guys would like, she would have told Kelly that what she said wasn’t nice. It’s all so confusing. How can someone be too nice? Maybe what Kelly really means is that Tessa is too shy, which is something she’s heard all of her life.

She goes to the door of her dad’s den and asks, “How about mushrooms and green peppers tonight?”

“Sure,” he says. But she can tell he’s not listening. “Tess, actually, can you wait for a sec on the pizza? I need to talk to you.”

She takes a seat on the only other chair in the room. It always makes her nervous when her dad says he wants to talk, perhaps because he does it so rarely and it’s usually an awkward conversation about boys or sex or something like that.

“I need to leave town for a few days,” he says. “There’s a big tattoo convention I want to go to. I can learn some new techniques, check out some of the latest equipment. That kind of thing.”

“Really?” she asks. Her dad never went anywhere. She can’t remember the last time he left the Oakland area, besides the couple of times a year he takes her to visit her grandparents on her mother’s side in L.A. “Where’s it being held?”

“It’s in Seattle, Washington.”

“Oh,” she says. “That’s pretty far. What are the dates?”

“I’d be leaving tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” She couldn’t be more surprised.

“I’m sorry, Tessa,” her dad says. “I know it’s really sudden. And I’m not going to leave you and Leo alone. Your aunt Maureen is going to come and stay while I’m gone.”



“I don’t need a babysitter!” she objects. “Dad, I’m seventeen!”

“Just barely,” he reminds her.

“Still, I’m more than old enough to babysit other people’s kids, so why not Leo?”

“Not overnight. I’m not going to leave you alone overnight.”

She can tell her dad’s not going to change his mind on this one. “Will she be here all the time, the whole time?” Tessa can’t bear the thought. She likes Maureen, but she wants to be treated like she can handle being alone.

“I don’t know. Maybe she could just come in the evenings and sleep over.”

“That’d be better,” Tessa says.

Her father takes a deep breath and Tessa realizes he’s upset about something. He’s shaking his knee, a telltale sign that he is nervous. What’s he so nervous about? And why did he decide at the last minute to go to a conference in Seattle? It just seems weird.

“So you’re flying?” she asks. If he’s flying, she’s going to be jealous. Neither of them has ever been on a plane before—which right there might explain her dad’s anxiety. Maybe he’s scared of flying.

“No,” he says. “I’ll actually just be driving. And that’s part of why I need to be gone for at least three or four days.”

Tessa gets an idea. “What if Leo and I come with you? It could be fun! And we’d only miss a couple days of school.”