two

NO such luck. It was almost  ten in the morning, and I was rudely awakened by an, “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!”, and a slam of a door. I tried to nod back to sleep, hoping that Mitch’s slamming of his door was the end of the argument. I was dreaming right up until I was awakened that I had been floating on my back, in the middle of a lake. It was so quiet and peaceful, and when the sudden yell broke my sleep, I was drowning. 

Just as I was about to doze back off to sleep, Gabby ran into my room and plopped on my bed. She has probably been up for hours, since six year olds don’t sleep in. She had probably listened to the whole argument.

“They’re scaring me...” She whispered. 

Another uproar from the kitchen downstairs erupted, this time from my mother.

“Mitch,” She yelled into his room. “You come out here right now. You don’t EVER talk to us that way! Ever!” 

I could tell from her voice how livid she was, and I knew it was about to get ugly.

“I know.” I said to my sister. “Get dressed. We’re going on a walk.”

We snuck out the back door fifteen minutes later after I had carelessly thrown on a tank top and a skirt. I didn’t want them to see us walk out, because I knew that suddenly I’d get pulled into the argument, and I’d rather face them when the fight was good and done. 

I made sure Gabby had her light weight jacket and her cute little purse that had Ariel and Flounder from The Little Mermaid printed on them. I had found that lately I had been the one to make sure Gabby was alright. I made sure she wasn’t hungry, or cold, or that she had her favorite mint chocolate Lipsmackers in her purse. 

Mom seemed so stressed out lately, and a few things had slipped from her hands. She had started a new job two months back, and it had made her insane. She worked for a travel business, and starting this new job meant working from home. This meant that she couldn’t work without Gabby screaming in her ear every five minutes, or the dog barking at her in her own office. Since she got this job, she’s been different.

We walked past Deb’s house, which looked inactive, as a lot of houses were at 9:20 in the morning. The early morning joggers were just finishing off, pacing back into their driveways and resting their hands on their knees taking their huffs and puffs after the run. Bikers still occasionally zipped pass, without glancing back at Gabby and I to make sure they didn’t run us over or something. 

“Where are we going, Liz?”

“I don’t know.” My stomach growled. “Maybe breakfast?’

There were a bunch of places we knew around here that were local, and just down the street from us. I brought a wad of cash that I had gotten off of mom’s burrow in my back pocket. I didn’t like to take it without asking, but like I said, I didn’t want to be seen by my parents until the argument was over.

“Lizzie!” She wined. “The Radley’s aren’t there!”

I looked over to the large house on our right, which was empty and had a FOR SALE sign in the front yardq, and a big red SOLD sign plastered over it. 

I led her along. 

The Radley’s were two over-tired parents, with four kids to take care of. They were all around Gabby’s age. Two of them were twin girls, and the other two were one and two years older, a pair of boys. Gabby had grown close with these children, and was excited to see them again this summer.

I thought to myself, whoever bought this house should be prepared for colored and sticky walls, and the accidental hole in the wall that Gabby and the twin girls covered with a poorly drawn picture of the house and the five children. The parents didn’t even notice the hole was there, probably, until they were moving out and took the picture down. 

We stopped by a bakery not far down the main stretch, clustered by other brick built stores and shops. We bought two doughnuts, which Gabby was happy for, because our mother decided to put the family on an all new health diet, starting today. She had decided this the night before, as she watched my father wolf down his pizza in less than five minutes. We weren’t heavy. In fact, as a family, we were quite thin. My dad had just earned a potbelly over the last month or so.

I soon regretted giving Gabby the chocolate frosted doughnut, as it resulted all over her face, and left her with sticky fingers which I had to hold on to while walking down the sidewalk. 

We still had twenty bucks left, so I asked Gabby if she wanted anything else. I didn’t want to go back just yet, they were probably still fighting. 

I sat down on the bench as Gabby finished her last few bites of her doughnut, and she pointed up at a small shop beside the bakery.

“The bookstore?” I asked, looking at the shop.

There was a sign outside that read LIGHTHOUSE BOOK SHOPPE AND CAFE.

She nodded excitedly, and we entered the store. A bell twinkled when we entered, announcing our arrival. There were a few people there, browsing through the isles, sitting and reading, and a bunch of people sitting at the coffee bar having a drink. 

Gabby cut over to the children’s section, and I stood where I could see her. The place was small and cozy, somewhere I would like to hang out. The store was filled with my favorite smells. Coffee, cinnamon, and books. I took a deep breath of it, and then noticed a heavy woman with short wavy hair eyeing Gabby from behind the front counter. She then looked over at me, and motioned me to come towards her. I did, making sure that Gabby was in full sight. 

“I hope she’s not yours.” The woman scoffed, and looked over at my sister.

“Sorry?” I inquired in disbelief.

“You heard me. I hope she’s not your child.”

I was baffled. This was none of her business. Who is this woman, and who does she think she is?

“No, of course not.” I managed to say, but I really just wanted to respond with a good smack in the face.

“Good. Teenage pregnancy has certainly become the rage. Just irresponsible, that’s what it is.”

I didn’t say anything. I had nothing to say. This woman sure knows how to make a great first impression.

“Don’t listen to her.” A voice said behind me. 

I turned around to see a younger girl, carrying a stack of books in her hand. She had shiny ginger hair pulled back into a tight pony, and rapid green eyes. Her skin was pale, like mine, and her fingers were bony underneath the heap of books she was bearing in her arms.

“She’s a bit grouchy sometimes.” This girl says, and smiled at the heavier, older woman. “I’m Lia.”

She reached out a hand beneath the books. 

“Liz.” I said, and shook her hand carefully, as to not jostle the balancing books.

I felt a tug on my elbow to see that Gabby had picked her book.

“Nice to meet you Lia. This is a great place.”

I imagined being here during days like this. Sunny and warm and relaxed. It must be like floating on a lake.

“Well,” Lia said. “ We could use some help around here. Our old barista has gone home to California for the summer, and we’re a little short staffed.”

“Actually,” I started. “I worked at a Starbucks back home for about a year. I’d love to help out. I mean, I’m on vacation, but it should be alright.”

Lia gave me a big smile. “Well, drop by tomorrow, and Carol and I will certainly give you something to do!” 

She patted me on the arm, and disappeared behind the science fiction section. I walked up to pay, where the woman named Carol was still scowling in her long floral dress that unquestionably did not flatter her.

“Will this be all?” She asked me, and rang up The 101 Greatest Tales.

“Yes.” 

I paid for the book and walked out of the store, Gabby by my side.

We got home after our little adventure, and Gabby hadn’t stopped fiddling around with her book the whole way home. She dropped it numerous times on the ground, and it was already dirty and scuffed within five minutes of purchasing it. She didn’t seem to mind much, even after she dropped it in a small mud puddle on the dirt road.

“Where the hell were you two?” My mother demanded as soon as we stepped back in the house. 

“I walk up to your rooms to find that you and Gabby weren’t in your beds. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking,” I answered. “That Gabby really didn’t need to her her parents and brother fight it out. I didn’t want to hear it either! We were both hungry, and the kitchen didn’t seem safe for us at the time. We went out and got some breakfast, and I bought her a book. We’re fine.”

There was a pause, and Mom looked at Gabby and the pink, sparkly book in her hand. She seemed to be accepting this, or maybe, she just didn’t want to deal with it, and started to walk away.

“Cindy! Did you find them?” My father called for her as he came in from outside.

“Yes, they’re here. Nothing to worry about.” She walked out of the kitchen, and down the hall to her own room and shut the door.

My dad stood for a moment, and looked at the two of us. He breathed in to say something, but closed his mouth and walked into the room with my mother, shaking his head.

“Gabby, go read you book upstairs.” I told her. I wanted to talk to Mitch.

She happily trotted up the stairs, book in her hand.

Mitch’s room was on the ground floor, down the hallway from my parent’s room, with a GET LOST sign on the outside. Wherever we travel to, the sign will always remain on his door. I guess he never wanted it to be mistaken, no matter where we go in the world, that he didn’t want to be bothered.

I knocked twice, and I heard him grumble, “Read the door!”

“It’s Liz.”

I hoped he would talk.

“Come in.” He said. 

His room was a mess. We have been here for not even two days and there was a pile of clothes on the floor, and candy wrappers everywhere that he had been snacking on the day earlier, probably to avoid the living room and kitchen.

“Sorry for the mess.” He pushed some clothes out of the way. “I’ve made myself at home, as you can see.”

We talked for a bit. Not about the school issue, which had become taboo around the family,  but just normal Liz and Mitch talk. We talked about how stupid we found the current season of America’s Next Top Model was turning out to be, (it was the one show Mitch would admit to be a guilty pleasure), and we talked about  how annoying we found so many of the people on Lakeside Road to be.

The conversation dragged on for a bit, and came down to a weird and awkward silence. 

“Life is funny.” Mitch said flatly after a silence.

“Oh, great...” I laughed, knowing he was about to go off into a speech. 

“No, no. Just listen.” He paused again, making sure I was listening, and continued. 

“I’ve lived my whole life trying to please Mom and Dad, you know? I liked high school because it wasn’t really serious. I did things for fun and I knew that none of it really meant anything. But now, in college...” He took another pause and sat up straighter. “I hate it. I hate  it, Liz. Being a lawyer sucks. I thought I wanted it, I did. But it really sucks. They don’t understand that.”

“But quitting school completely? Why not just change your major, or transfer to another school?”

Mitch suddenly looked cross. “That’s what Mom and Dad said, Liz. I guess you don’t understand either.”

“Mitch, come on. Give me a chance to understand. Explain.”

Another pause.

“I want to take a year off. Travel. Think. I want to be sure of what I want to do before I go to school and do it. Plus, I have been so sheltered and I’ve stayed put my whole life. Now I am feeling so restless and I just want to... see things. Maybe I’ll go to Europe, or South America. I’m sure this year off is going to give me something I need.”

I hated to think it, but I actually agreed with my parents a bit. I didn’t find it necessary to take a whole year off to “find himself”. It didn’t sound like Mitch at all. Was my older brother changing? 

I didn’t say this though. Mitch had always taken my side if I had gotten in an argument with our parents, even if I was in the wrong. I had to try to understand and take his side.

We finished up, and I walked out of the room.

“We’re going to the beach later.” Mom announced as I exited Mitch’s room. 

She didn’t ask me if I wanted to go, she told me we were all going. It was probably Dad who told her we all needed to make an effort to be together all at once, so we all went to the beach an hour later for some much needed relaxing. 

Dad brought Gabby out into the water on his shoulders, Mom caught up with some reading, Mitch was listening to music, and I was making an attempt to get tan like Deb. 

I remembered the old days, where all of us used to be out there in the water. Gabriella wasn’t born yet, it was just Mitch and I. We’d all be swimming in the ocean, splashing each other playfully. My dad and Mitch would actually swim around, underwater, and Mom and I would stay in the shallower parts, complaining about how cold we were. 

We would all meet somewhere in the middle, and fish for sand dollars. We’d search for them with our feet on the ocean floor, for something round, and pick them up with our toes. There were so many of them that summer that it became a collection. A lot of them were different, with different marks and discolorations. Some of them were pissed that we took them from their homes, and bit our hands. After we had collected about ten, we’d take turns going back and forth up to our towel and put them in our bucket. That summer, we collected over a hundred or so the first time, planning to clean and bleach them, and keep them somewhere special, or use them for decoration. 

Somehow, we ended up loosing the hundred sand dollars that vacation. (Who the hell knows how). Mitch managed to salvage one, however, which was discolored, and looked like a deflated volleyball.

Now some seven years later, the last sand dollar went missing, and each time we go to the beach, nobody cares enough anymore to go out and try collecting again.

Gabby, of course, never got over the fact that she didn’t go ‘Sand Dollar Fishing’ as she calls it, and is too short to go to the deep end and try.

“Liz, honey. Pass me the sunblock.” Mom asked.

I looked around, and noticed the sunblock was on Mitch’s towel, not mine, and I think she knew that.

“It’s with Mitch.” I said to her.

“Yes, well, can you pass it to me, Liz?”

Mom was so disinterested in Mitch that she didn’t even want to ask him to pass the sunscreen. 

I picked it up from his towel, and handed it to her. 

I suddenly missed seven years ago. Not that I didn’t want Gabby around, but I missed how innocent the family was that long ago. Now, our family is held together by one string, one lone deflated and discolored sand dollar, that somehow got lost in a mess that nobody can really seem to communicate or understand.