A Life of My Own

The next few days with Aunt Chloe were relatively peaceful. The police hadn’t caught Dad yet and we didn’t think it was safe to go back home. We only made one visit to our house, to get extra clothes and Tyler’s school books.

Over the weekend, Aunt Chloe insisted on bringing us to the market to buy us gifts; Tyler and I resisted wholeheartedly, but she ignored us.

At a toy store, she bought several jigsaw puzzles and Rubix cubes for Lily, who seemed pleased for a moment before growing distant again.

In a department store, she chose a large camping bag for Tyler, disregarding his protests that he never went camping. “You never know,” she said mysteriously, before demanding to know what I wanted.

“I don’t want anything,” I told her, which was true. Aunt Chloe made an excellent living as a novelist, so she wasn’t lacking in money, but I’d always been uncomfortable with getting gifts for no reason.

“Nonsense. Let’s go look at some clothes,” she decided, eyeing my worn jeans, a hole in the left knee. She strode toward the clothing department before I had a chance to argue.

I sighed and followed warily, not looking forward to clothes shopping. Upon entering the department, however, I noticed a rack of belts that made me pause.

The rack was on clearance, for obvious reasons; every belt suspended there was horrible. Most were too wide for the average belt-loop, some had pointless designs carved into them, and the remotely suitable ones were in sickening shades of green or brown, or some disturbing mix of the two.

One belt, however, caught my attention. It was narrow and a dark brown, four plastic gems glued to it, set a few inches apart; one was a mixture of blue and white, one red, orange and yellow, one silvery blue, and one green and brown. When I picked the belt up off the rack, the colors swirled a little in the light.

It was a terribly tacky strip of leather, and I’d never really been interested in accessories, but I couldn’t resist examining it. I ran my fingers over the gems thoughtfully, each one feeling oddly warm to the touch.

“Oh, Jai, there you are,” Aunt Chloe said as she returned from the depths of the clothing department. “Look, I found these shirts for you. What do you think?”

I looked at the three shirts she held and tried not to grimace. Each one was cute but likely made for high school girls, which didn’t really suit my style, more ‘middle-aged-housewife’ than anything else. Plain, simple cuts, light colors, easy and effective.

Boring.

“Can I get this?” I found myself asking, holding out the belt I’d found. I didn’t know why, but I wanted it. Maybe because it wasn’t boring.

Aunt Chloe looked at the belt and quirked an eyebrow. “That?” she asked, wrinkling her nose. “You can have anything you want in the store and you pick that tacky thing off the clearance rack?”

I shrugged and strapped the belt around my waist, observing the result in one of the many strategically placed mirrors. “I don’t know, I kind of like it.”

Aunt Chloe sighed. “If that’s what you want, hon,” she said warily.

“Thanks,” I said, and continued wearing it as we finished shopping. Tyler didn’t like the belt, and even the cashier gave me an odd look, but Lily seemed to approve, occasionally running her fingers over the gems.

At four, Aunt Chloe dropped me off at Jumping Beans, a small coffee shop that I worked at four afternoons a week. Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons were spent in a flower shop called Bunches. Thursdays were my days off.

I waved until Aunt Chloe’s brown van was out of sight before heading inside. The café was dimly lit, the black floor tiles shiny and reflective. Small round tables had been set up with two or three chairs each, a corner dedicated to a lounge where worn out couches and bean bag chairs were placed closely together near a book shelf and magazine rack. Rock music played quietly from the speakers.

The entire place had a quiet, intimate feel that didn’t draw a lot of attention, but kept the attention once it had it.

It was almost empty when I entered. Three teenage girls wearing fedoras sat in the lounge sharing a magazine, and a young boy sat with them, ignoring them in favor of a GameBoy. A very thin woman sat at one of the tables, deep in a book, her coffee untouched in front of her. A young man sat alone, busily typing on a laptop, occasionally pausing to take a sip of coffee and read over what he’d written.

I headed to the counter, where the cashier hadn’t noticed me yet. He was cleaning the smooth black countertop, green eyes focused on his work, lips moving slightly as he sang along with the speakers under his breath. His hair was blond and fluffy, sticking up in every direction; it looked like he was wearing a mop on his head when it was wet.

As I got near, I realized that he was dancing, moving his wash cloth to match the beat of the music. I couldn’t help grinning. “Having fun, James?”

He jumped when I spoke and looked up. He grinned and straightened, tossing his cloth from one hand to the other. “Hey, Joy,” he greeted. “You’re early.”

“I’m also Jai,” I replied, rounding the counter and heading into the back room. My dark blue apron hung from a peg on the wall with several others; a silver nametag pinned to the front bore my name, making it easy to identify it from the others. I tied it around my waist as I returned to the counter, where James quickly finished cleaning.

“Is Tory coming in today?” I asked curiously. She usually worked the afternoon shift with us, but had a habit of skipping work. It was a wonder she hadn’t been fired, though I supposed it helped that her father owned the place.

“Nope. She called in sick,” James told me with a shrug. “So it’s just the two of us, Joy.”

“Jai.”

“Suits me fine, anyway,” he continued. “It’s dead in here, and you know how it goes. ‘Two’s company, three’s a crowd’…”

I smirked. “Very subtle.”

“I thought so,” he replied cheerfully.

“Get to work.”

“Yes, master.”

I liked working with James, even though he insisted on calling me by nicknames like ‘Joy’, ‘Julie’, and occasionally ‘Jaybird’. When I’d asked him about it, he simply shrugged, smiled and said that ‘Jai’ was too serious. Also misspelled.

Ha ha.

Every day while we worked, James interrogated me. How are your siblings? How’s your aunt? Seen your dad at all lately? Where’s your car?

I answered him as honestly as I could without telling him everything. I could tell he knew I was hiding something, but I didn’t want him to think I was crazy.

“So, since you totaled your car,” James began around closing time, “do you need a ride home?”

“I didn’t total my car.” I rolled my eyes and tried to resist smiling.

“Oh? The tree hit you, then?”

“I told you, a garbage truck hit my car and pushed it into the tree. Do you ever listen?”

“You know I hang from your every word, Joy.”

“Obviously not.”

“So do you need a ride?”

“No, thanks. My aunt’s coming to get me.”

“Okay.” He smiled, but looked oddly disappointed as he went back to work.

We closed the shop at ten, long after the last customer had left. I sat on the curb to wait for Aunt Chloe, and though he had his own car, James decided to wait with me.

“So, listen,” he began slowly after a short silence. “Maybe tomorrow, after work… would you want to see a movie or something?”

I paused in the act of looking through the contents of his mp3 player and turned to him, surprised. “A movie?”

“Yeah.” He awkwardly picked at a loose thread in his sweater. “I mean, I figured you’d be able to, since you and your brother and sister are staying at your aunts’ place.” He shrugged. “If you want to, anyway. I can drive you home, after…”

I hesitated, considering quickly. I had never gone to hang out with my coworkers, since I’d had to go home to look after Tyler and Lily. While we were at Aunt Chloe’s house, they wouldn’t be alone. And I couldn’t help thinking that it’d be nice to go on my first date before I turned twenty.

“Sure,” I said finally as I noticed Aunt Chloe’s van approaching. “That sounds like fun.” I stood and handed him the mp3 player, smiling softly at his stunned expression.

Aunt Chloe stopped a few inches away, and I waved to James as I went around to the passenger seat. He waved vaguely, watching as we drove off.

“Who was he?” Aunt Chloe asked, glancing at me with a curious smile.

I shrugged. “James. A coworker,” I told her. “Do you mind if I go out tomorrow night?”

“Really?” Aunt Chloe asked, startled, before she beamed at me. “Of course, honey. I can keep an eye on Tyler and Lily.”

“Thanks.” I leaned against my door and gazed out the window, my attention waning as she told me how happy she was that I was going on a date and finally getting a life of my own.

X X X

I quickly learned to regret mentioning the basement to Tyler. At every time he could get me alone, he tried to convince me to join him and Lily to investigate.

“Come on, Jai,” he tried as I was brushing my teeth Saturday night. “What’s it hurt to look?”

“’er trusht,” I replied around my toothbrush, before spitting the white paste into the sink. “Besides,” I continued after rinsing out my mouth. “Even if we wanted to, she always has it locked, and we don’t know where the key is.”

Tyler frowned, then brightened a little. “So if we find the key, we can go look?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, fine,” I said dismissively. “If you find the key we’ll go look.”

Oops.

At four-thirty on Sunday afternoon, I was late for work, and Aunt Chloe wasn’t home.

“Honey, I’m so sorry,” she said into the phone. “The grocery store was swamped and there was an accident with like, five cars on the road, traffic was held up for miles. But it’s moving now, so I’ll be home in twenty minutes, tops.”

I told her it was no problem, that James and Tory could cover for me for a while. I was worried, though, hoping Tory’s father wouldn’t choose today to come supervise.

As soon as I hung up the phone, Tyler raced into the kitchen, Lily following him closely. “Jai!” he said with a grin, and thrust his hands out at me.

“What?” I looked at him and stiffened. A tiny, rusted key was rested in his palms. “Where did you find that?” I asked warily, dread filling my heart.

“In Aunt Chloe’s office,” Tyler repeated cheerfully. “Don’t worry, I put everything else back where I found it.”

“Tyler-”

“It’s got to be the key to the basement,” he continued. “It’s so old. We have to try it.”

I hesitated, but I knew Tyler well enough to know he wouldn’t let it go. “We’ve got twenty minutes.”