Chapter 43
The shadow of a woman in giant curlers towered over me when I woke up that morning. “What’s this polygamy nonsense your aunt’s telling me about?”
My face sank into the crack in the couch. I stared down a black abyss of crumbs and hair ties.
“Catherine Elise, don’t you ignore me.”
I ignored her, marching upstairs to brush my teeth.
She followed me. “Does Jay know about this?”
I exhaled. “We’re on a break right now.” I regretted saying it immediately. Not only was it not the point, I already knew what my mom’s reaction—
“A break? A break! What’s a break?” She sounded like a cawing parrot. “Either you’re together or you’re not.”
I turned into the bathroom.
“Don’t shut that door while I’m talking.”
I let the door hang open and washed my face with her watching me.
My dad ambled down the hallway asking what was going on.
My mom angrily moved a curl from her face.
“Your daughter and her boyfriend of seven years are on a ‘break’ and now she’s polygamous.
As if there’s not enough going on in the world.
” She brought her wrist to her forehead.
“A what?” my dad said.
“I’m not polygamous, but whatever.”
“It means she’s running around like a little hussy. It means she doesn’t realize a good man when he’s in front of her. I told you to just marry him, didn’t I? You wouldn’t be on a break now had you listened to me for once.”
My mom had some of the worst logic I’d ever encountered, as if divorce didn’t exist.
My dad turned to me in his wrinkled shirt. “Why’s your mom calling you a hussy?”
Flapping her arms, “Joel, I just told you! She’s polygamy!”
“Is that the they/thems?”
I cried, “Would you fucking stop!”
They barked, “Watch your mouth.”
Bowing over the sink, I stared at the thread of black hair stuck to the bowl.
My mom was in the doorway now. “Some women would’ve moved to LA years ago. They never would’ve let him roam around that city alone in the first place.”
“Why are you talking about him like he’s a baby antelope?”
“I’m telling you, if you mess this up, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. I know you don’t know how that feels yet.”
“I’m not gonna mess it up.”
“You will if you keep this up.”
Finding my resolve, I sped past them and ran down the stairs. My aunt had come to stand at the top of the staircase, drinking tea in a teal kimono, like all this wasn’t her fault.
The three of them looked down on me like a Greek chorus preparing to deliver my fate from a scroll while I shoved my work shoes into my bag. My mom boomed from over the railing, “I can tell you right now I already know how this story ends. And it’s not the ending you want.”