Chapter 4
Mallory waited until dessert before she started asking some of her most pressing questions, which she felt demonstrated just how patient she was being. Not to mention, she started out with the easy ones. Or so she thought.
“So, Sasha, where are you from?” Mallory smiled across the table. “Ferndale or…?”
“I’ve lived in a lot of places in my life,” Sasha said without missing a beat. “I never know what to tell people when they ask me that, since there wasn’t one single place that we stayed in for more than a couple years at most.”
“Ah, okay. Why did you move around so much?”
“We just did. I’ve lived in a few other towns in California, plus a couple in Oregon.
We lived in Denver for a year when I was a teenager.
Oh, but Ferndale is definitely the prettiest place I’ve ever lived in.
I really like it here. I love how if you drive ten minutes west, you hit the beach, and if you drive ten minutes east, you end up in the middle of a huge forest. Amazing. ”
“Isn’t it though?” Callie agreed. “There’s a reason David and I chose to raise our kids here.”
“Have you lived in the Ferndale area long?” Mallory asked next.
“Depends on your definition of long.”
Mallory frowned. “Well, I guess what I mean is when did you move here?”
Sasha eyed her for a moment, then took a huge bite of chocolate cream pie, and wasn’t able to answer for some time. If it was a tactic to avoid the question, it ended up working swimmingly, because while Sasha chewed, Callie managed to change the subject.
“Mallory, did your father tell you about his river rafting trip that he’s planning in Australia? I want to know what you think about the whole thing. Seems a little dangerous if you ask me.”
Mallory could feel her mother’s eyes trained on her and she knew she would get an earful later if she tried to steer the conversation back onto Sasha.
After a few seconds of charged silence, she sighed and admitted defeat.
“No, dad didn’t mention anything about going river rafting.
All I’ve heard about is his plans to go to Dubai. ”
“The river rafting trip is going to be a blast,” David chimed in. “I’m pretty excited, although I’m also a little worried. Not about the things your mother is worried about though. I just don’t want to run into any of those huge spiders they have out there.”
“Oh yeah,” Sasha agreed. “I saw this video of a huntsman spider, have you ever heard of those? I think they might be the biggest spider species in the world. They can get up to the size of a dinner plate! Can you believe that?”
Callie shook with a chill. “Please, let’s not talk about spiders at the table. I try my best to not be afraid of the ones I find around here, and I never kill them, but I’m not sure how well I’m going to sleep tonight if you give me any more details on Australian spiders.”
“Sorry.” Sasha smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to gross you out.” She looked at David. “You really like to pick exotic places, huh?”
“I just want to see as much of the world as I can while I’m still alive.
Callie and I started our family pretty young, so we didn’t get a chance to travel much.
” He smiled at his daughter. “Not that I have any regrets. It’s just exciting to be at a place in my life where I can really explore everything the Earth has to offer. ”
“I get that,” Sasha said. “I hope one day I get to do the same.”
David then asked what places Sasha wanted to visit when she had the chance.
Mallory knew she was going to have to bide her time, wait for another opportunity to ask Sasha more questions.
She picked at her dessert and wondered if her mom was going to leave the table any time soon.
Callie must’ve known what her daughter was planning, however, because she stayed put until everyone was done with their food, then she stood up with a determined look in her eye.
“Mal, sweetie, will you help me with the dishes?”
Dang it.
Of course Mallory couldn’t say no, but that meant she was going to lose her chance to speak to Sasha without her mother in the room. This was clearly exactly what Callie wanted, and Mallory had to go along with it. “Sure,” she muttered, getting up from her seat. “I’m right behind you.”
Stationed at the sink a minute later, Callie rinsed while Mallory loaded the dishes into the washer. “You didn’t have to do that, you know?” she said when her mother handed her the first plate.
“Do what?” Callie asked innocently.
“Pull me out of there like I was a ticking time bomb. I already promised dad that I wasn’t going to give Sasha a rough time.”
“It seemed to me like you were giving her a rough time, no?”
“By asking her where she’s from?” Mallory snorted.
“That’s a very normal question for someone to ask a person they just met!
The fact that she didn’t give me a straight answer is a sign that she’s the one acting weird, not me.
And it’s kind of weird that you’re not letting me ask her normal questions either. Why are you so protective of her?”
“Mallory, think about what she’s been through.”
“I would if I knew what she’s been through.” Mallory took the next dish and loaded it on the bottom. “Do you even know what her life was like before she came here?”
Callie stared at her wide-eyed for a moment. “She was homeless! What else do I need to know?”
“So she says.”
“She has no reason to lie about something like that,” Callie insisted.
“And I don’t think I have to tell you that people who end up homeless at her age generally don’t have very good childhoods.
She’s only twenty for god sakes, Mallory!
Think about how scary it would’ve been had you been living on the streets when you were her age! With a baby no less.”
“That’s terrible, nobody is arguing otherwise,” Mallory explained.
“I just don’t understand why she’s being so secretive.
Or why you are getting so defensive. Asking her some basic questions really isn’t that big of a deal, but the more you two dodge those questions, the more I’m going to think that something is going on.
I promise you, Taylor and Ariel will feel the same way. ”
This seemed to get Callie’s attention. She rinsed off the next few dishes in silence.
“Look,” Mallory said in a softer tone of voice. “I’m not trying to be a jerk. I realize that of all the people in this family, I have the least amount of legs to stand on here.”
Her mom frowned at her. “Huh? Is that a saying?”
“You know what I mean. I get that this is probably ironic coming from me, since I’m also in need of a roof over my head, and I have many times in the past… But I’m worried. If you would just let me talk to her a little more freely—”
“Not yet,” Callie interrupted. “She’s still getting comfortable here, and she was so upset over the whole thing with your bedroom. When she found out that she was sleeping in your room, she thought for sure you were going to hate her for it. She was crying and everything.”
This gave Mallory pause. “She—she was crying?”
“Yes. Mallory, she’s young and scared and this is all very new for her as well.
We need to give her more time. Once she realizes that we are good people who are going to help her no matter what, then we can start asking her some questions.
If we pry into her private life too soon, however, I’m afraid we’re just going to make her shut down even more. You can understand that, right?”
“... I guess.”
Callie handed her the large mixing bowl. “I think you’ll feel better once you spend some more time with her.”
Mallory said nothing. She struggled to get a mixing bowl to fit on the bottom row. Her mom came over to help her, then clicked her tongue as she surveyed the way the rest of the dishes were organized. “No offense, love, but have you ever loaded a dishwasher before?”
“Rude!” Mallory replied, but she was laughing. “It’s fine. They all get clean anyway.”
“That’s not true.” Callie bent down and pried two sheet pans apart.
“When the dishes are crammed in too close to one another, the water can’t get between them.
We don’t have one of those fancy new washers.
This thing is probably at least twenty-five years old.
” She started to re-do the work her daughter had already done. “I’ll do it.”
Mallory shook her head and grabbed another beer from the fridge.
“I really think it would’ve been fine,” she said. “But if you’re dead set on doing it your way, I won’t stop you. If you need me, I’ll be in the living room with dad watching a bad shark movie.”
Callie laughed to herself. “You two and those movies. Oh—invite Sasha to join you, yeah? I think she has better taste than that, but who knows?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll invite her,” Mallory said over her shoulder on the way out of the kitchen. “But if she’s one of those people who talks a lot during movies, then I’m really going to have a problem with her.”
*
Sasha politely declined their offer to watch the movie, stating she was tired and wanted to put Dot down before it got too late.
Mallory was glad to watch the movie alone with her dad, like usual.
They polished off four more beers between the two of them and laughed through the ridiculous ending of the ‘film’.
When the credits were rolling, Mallory held her aching stomach and rested her head back against the couch.
“Brilliant,” she declared. “Five stars! Ten out of ten!”
“Ten out of ten?” her dad whistled under his breath. “High praise. I was going to give it a nine out of ten. Only because I totally saw the ending coming.”
“We always see the ending coming. These movies aren’t exactly original.”
“No, not in that one movie with those women in the shark cage!” he said. “I thought for sure they were both going to live. So tragic.”
Mallory shook her head. “Yeah, well that was just you being naive.”
“It’s more fun that way,” he said. “Next time, try not to guess the ending. It’ll enhance the experience, I promise.”
“We’ll see.” She picked at a loose thread on the couch cushion. Her dad turned the TV off but didn’t immediately get out of his lazy boy chair. “Hey, would it be possible for me to borrow your car in the next day or two?”
“Sure,” he said. “Where are you going?”
“I was going to see if Ariel would meet up with me somewhere halfway. I know she’s a good five hours away, but I want to see her before the holidays.”
“And by that, I’m guessing what you really mean is that you’re going to talk to her about Sasha.”
Mallory shrugged. “Would that be such a bad thing?”
“No,” David said after a moment of thought.
“Although I probably wouldn’t tell your mother that’s what you’re going to do.
Not that I advocate for lying to her, I just think she’d take it personally if you said you were going to meet up with your sister to talk about all of this behind your mom’s back. ”
“I would happily talk about it in front of mom, if she didn’t shut me down every time I tried. You saw how she was at dinner. You didn’t think I was asking Sasha anything that intrusive, did you?”
He put his hands in the air. “I want to be left out of this one. It’s between you and your mother.
But go ahead and take the car whenever you want.
I can always get a ride into the office if I need to.
” He gestured at her with his empty beer bottle.
“But if I were you, I’d text your sister first and make sure she’s even up for the drive.
She’s been pretty busy these days with the kids. ”
“Does she visit you guys often?”
“Hardly ever.”
“Huh.” Mallory got her phone out to send Ariel a message. “I just assumed she would come over a lot. This is the closest she’s lived to Ferndale since she left for college.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. None of you kids visit much. Why do you think we had to go and replace you with a new daughter?”
Mallory gawked at her dad, who found his own joke to be very hilarious. She ignored his laughter and texted her sister, then got up from the couch. “For the record, that was not funny. Not when that woman is staying in my bedroom.”
“I was just kidding!” he said. “We could never replace you guys. Never ever.”
“Whatever,” grumbled Mallory. “Make your little jokes. We’ll see how humorous Ariel and Taylor find this whole situation once I tell them what’s going on.” As she was leaving the room, she got a text back from her sister. “Oh, good news! Ariel said she’s free the whole day tomorrow.”
“And she’s willing to meet you?” David said, sounding doubtful.
“Well,” Mallory said mischievously. “I might’ve worded my message a little… frantically.”
“Meaning?”
She paused in the doorway to the next room and smiled over her shoulder. “Meaning I told her that she had to meet with me because it was an emergency. A matter of life or death.”
David shook his head, laughing a little. “Oh Mallory. When Ariel finds out you were lying, she’s going to be furious.”
“Yeah, but Ariel being mad at me?” Mallory shrugged. “What else is new?”