Two Girls Down(2)

“Why do you guys even have to come in?” said Kylie from the passenger side, eyebrows wrinkled up over her big hot-cocoa eyes, a sneer in her angel lips.

“Fine, we’ll wait outside in the car,” said Jamie.

“Everyone will see us,” said Bailey from the backseat, anxious.

Jamie looked in the rearview, taking in Bailey’s face, a palette of worry. How can she care so much about what other people think already? thought Jamie. She didn’t want the girls to care; she missed the days when they were too little to worry about appearances or be embarrassed, back when they would streak like hippies before jumping into the tub.



“We’re not waiting in the car, Kylie,” said Jamie. “Hey—won’t Stella Piper be there with her family? Bailey can play with Owen.”

From the corner of her eye Jamie saw her shrug, and felt the weight of it.

“They’re not friends anymore,” said Bailey.

“They’re not?” Jamie said to Bailey. “You’re not?” she said to Kylie.

“Why can’t you shut up?” Kylie said, craning her head around the seat to glare at her sister.

“Mom!” shouted Bailey, pointing.

“I heard it, Bailey.” To Kylie: “Don’t talk like that to your sister. Why aren’t you friends with Stella Piper anymore?”

Another shrug.

“She thinks Stella’s dumb. And her glasses are funny,” Bailey reported. “She says they make her look like a creature.”

“She’s been your friend forever, since you were in kindergarten,” said Jamie.

“I know,” said Kylie, hushed and hissing.

Jamie stopped third in a trail of cars at a light and said, “You shouldn’t be mean to someone just because they look funny.”

Kylie stared out the window.

“Someday someone might think you look funny, and then how’ll you like it?”

Kylie kept staring.

“Well?” Jamie took Kylie’s chin in her hand and turned her head. “Well?”

“I won’t like it.”

Jamie let go and looked up to see a policeman directing all the cars in her lane to the left.

“What’s this now?” said Jamie.

Bailey looked up over the seat.

“What is it? What’s happening?”

“I don’t know, for God’s sake,” said Jamie.

She pulled up even with the cop and rolled down the window.

“I need to go straight ahead to the Gulf on Branford.”



“Branford? That side of the highway’s closed for the parade, Miss,” said the cop.

“Fuck me,” Jamie said, remembering.

Spring Fest. The town’s annual parade of toilet-paper-covered floats and high school bands slogging their way through “My Girl.”

“Mom!” the kids shouted, embarrassed.

“Well, Officer, I’m about to run outta gas, so what do you recommend?”

The cop leaned into her window.

“Tell you what, I’ll wave you through to St. Cloud; then you can take a right to Route 1080 and you can get to the Hess over that way.”

Jamie pictured the route in her head and nodded. “That’d be just great, thanks.”

“No problem, ma’am,” said the cop, tapping the roof of the car.

Jamie drove the path laid out for her by the cop.

“I can’t believe you said the f-curse to the police,” said Kylie, a look of quiet shame on her face.

“I’m full of surprises,” said Jamie.

“Can we go past the parade? Miss Ferno’s on a float from her church,” said Bailey.

“What? No, we’re already late for this thing,” said Jamie.

She glanced at both of them. They stared out the window. Someday you’ll think I’m funny, she thought. Someday you’ll tell your friends, No, my mom’s cool. Once she said “Fuck me” right in front of a cop.

Finally, when they got to the Hess, Kylie asked, “Can we split a Reese’s?”

She had yet to outgrow an unwavering devotion to sugar—she would pour maple syrup over Frosted Flakes if you turned your head the other way.

“No, you’re going to have all kinds of crap at this party; you don’t need a Reese’s.”

Then the wailing began—you’d think someone was pricking their cuticles with sewing needles. Jamie held her head and leaned over the wheel, thinking she should have smoked the very last bit of resin in the pipe this morning. She didn’t like to drive stoned, but there wasn’t enough in there to mess her up proper, just enough to help her push through, get to the party where it might be acceptable to have a light beer at noon.



“Enough, stop it!” yelled Jamie, feeling her voice crack, the muscles in her neck tense up. “Fine, go get a goddamn Reese’s. Get me a coffee with a Splenda, please.”

She threw a five in Kylie’s lap.

“Go before I change my mind,” she said.

The girls unbuckled their seat belts and scrambled out of the car. Jamie watched them run into the mini-mart, heard the clicks of their dress-up shoes. She checked her makeup in the mirror and shook her head at herself, then went out to the pumps.