Playing with Fire #3
I opened the drawer underneath the phone and grabbed the notepad that had Nana’s number.
Dialing it, I squeezed the phone with both hands, praying she’d answer and tell me it was true, that she was getting on a plane. That Mom and Dad did decide to work on themselves, but it was okay, because we’d have her. And even if she did lie to Dad, that Nana would send for us anyway.
“Hello?” a tired voice answered.
“H-hi. May I please speak to Ms. Adaline Shaw?”
The voice waited for a beat. “May I ask who’s calling?”
“Yes. It’s Wynter Shaw, her granddaughter. I know it’s late there, but it’s really urgent that I speak with her.”
“Oh, honey,” she sighed, a little accent in her voice, “Ms. Ada has been in the hospital for the past month now. She had a bad fall. I passed the message along to her daughter-in-law, but she never got back to me.”
I leaned onto the counter as tears fell over my lids. “O-okay. When she gets better, could you call this number, ma’am?”
“Yes, sweetie, I will. And I’m Miss Abbie, her housekeeper. As soon as she’s home I’ll have her call you.”
“Thank you.” We said our goodbyes before we hung up the phone.
I stapled my lips together with my teeth, not caring that my braces were cutting into them.
I had to hold in my scream.
What could I do? Where could we go?
Dad had only said it would be “awhile.” What was “awhile” supposed to be?!
Then, the stack of money. I knew it was real, it had a sticker indicating how much.
What kind of parents leave forty-thousand dollars with two thirteen year-olds?!
The same parents that would punish one child for the death of another.
My hands itched to call Rico. He’d know what to do. I couldn’t tell any adult. They’d call the police, and Auty and I would be separated. We had no aunts or uncles, and Mom’s parents were dead. It was only Nana, across the country, laid up in the hospital.
Pops was rarely home, and Turkey’s sisters were having kids like it was the thing to do.
Frankie was the only other adult I trusted, and still, I didn’t think she’d take in both me and Auty.
It didn’t matter that we weren't talking. It didn’t matter that she hated me. I needed her, and I refused to be without her.
My hand flew into my cheek, and my tears stopped immediately.
Summy’s voice filtered into my head. It had been awhile since I thought about her, but her words came on time. Her promise to do what’s best for me and Auty.
I couldn’t let her down. Either of them.
There were bills on the counter by the phone. The phone bill, light bill, gas and water. Their cars were paid off, that I knew, and I’d heard Dad gripe about paying their car insurance for the year recently.
The house was in a trust, whatever that meant. But I knew I didn’t have to worry about that, either.
It was just these bills.
I grabbed them, grabbed the cash from the coffee table, and ran to my room, locking the door behind me.
In thirty minutes, I’d calculated how long we could survive with this, and put money away for groceries.
Give or take a year and a half.
We’d both have to get jobs.
Auty could have swept for Frankie in her shop, I reasoned. The strip mall had a dance studio she kept asking her about. More money from the main stack was added to the grocery stack.
There was no reason Auty couldn’t dance, since I was in charge. With me in charge, she could do whatever she wanted.
This boy who liked me at school, his family owned a liquor store around the corner. I made plans to cozy up to him and ask him to hook me up with an after school job. He had been crying about being on the flag football team, but there was no one to cover his shifts.
It was something.
We could do this.
I glanced at my phone; quarter to seven. My panic had simmered as I reached beneath my bed and pulled out some whiskey.
One big swig and my panic washed down my throat with the burn of the alcohol.
We could do this.
We could live without them.
Now, I just had to figure out if and how to tell Auty.
“She’d tell Pops… or tell Turkey, who’d tell Pops… I can’t risk it. Nope. Can’t risk it.” I took another gulp, stood from the floor, and got a shoebox from my closet for the money, bills, and plans.
Slipping out of my room, I tried to go into my parents’ room but the door was locked.
“Typical,” I spat, just as the front door opened.
I walked out of the hallway and stood face to face with Auty.
She looked around. “Where are they?”
“Gone,” I said, going to sit on the couch. “Come sit. We need to talk.”
She watched me sit, only moving once I shifted so that I was facing her.
“What’s going on?” she asked, fear rising in her voice.
“I talked to Mom and Dad,” I began, trying to sort through how I was gonna pull this off with her. Fortunately, Auty was so consumed in her own teenybopper world with Turkey, that she didn’t question much, especially if I could play on them being callous and neglectful.
More than they already were.
“They’re having money troubles. Both of them got new jobs, so they’re gonna be gone a lot, and we have to start working, too.”
Auty’s face screwed up. “Jobs? Mommy has never worked.”
“That’s how bad it is; they’re both working day and night, starting tonight. I guess they got called in, so they told me to relay the message,” I shrugged, trying to come off super casual.
“How are we supposed to work? Is that even legal?”
“Well, I know Frankie needs someone to sweep her shop on weekends. Maybe you can work there and take dance classes in the meantime?”
Her eyes lit up before she screwed her face up again. “That makes no sense, Wyn. How are we broke but I can take dance classes.”
“You’re thinking too hard.” I rolled my eyes for dramatic effect.
“I was just thinking, since it's right next to each other, Mom wouldn’t care if you did it. She wouldn’t even know, and you’d still get a job. I know Frankie will hire you because she likes you, even though you chopped off your hair.
We can take the bus after school Tuesday when she’s open again and get you set up on a schedule with that and dance. And I have some money saved up, so we can get your tights and shoes and stuff.”
Her eyes stretched as she toed off her shoes and pulled her feet onto the couch. “You’d do that for me?”
“Duh,” I snorted. “I’ma get a job too, at Isaiah’s store. I know he’d get me a job there in exchange for going to the Spring Fling with him. It’s right around the corner, and I can lift us some snacks.”
“That boy would do anything for you,” she agreed, shaking her head.
“I know right? Listen… Auty… I know things haven’t been kosher with us, but Mom and Dad are gonna be gone working, so it’s me and you. I know you have Pops, Renelle, and Turkey, but if I call, or need you to do something because they told me, I need you to do as I say, no questions asked.
I’ma give you my old cellphone, too.”
“You swear you’re my older sister,” she griped.
I ran into my room and grabbed my old cellphone. Making sure Mom didn’t turn that off, I gave it to her. “Six minutes, thirty seconds. And we’re born on different days. Just promise–”
“I get it, Wynnie, dang,” she said, taking the phone.
“Good.” I sat back down, and grabbed the remote to the tv. “Wanna watch a movie? We could order pizza, too?”
Auty looked at me, squinting her eyes, before she shrugged and settled into the couch.
“Sure. Please, no pineapple.”
“Well, you call on your new cellphone. Get one for you and one for me so I can still get pineapple.”
She fake-gagged before dialing the easy to remember pizza number. I exhaled when the call went through, and made a mental note to get the number switched to the plan Rico paid for on my iPhone.
My heart was beating so hard. I knew Auty may raise questions later, but for now, things were okay. Things were doable.
Mom and Dad would probably only be gone for a week, maybe two tops. A month at the very most. Dad would check in, and I’d tell him what happened, and he’d rush home. Mom was a lost cause, but not Dad.
He loved me. He still loved Auty.
He wouldn’t leave us that long.