Howl

  ***

  The rest of the day went by ordinarily only to be made interesting by this strange new guy that kept popping up in the strangest of places. He didn’t actually speak to me, but just him being present through me off in a way that I had never been before. It wasn’t necessarily a sexy attraction like Scar thought, it was more of an interest—a need to find out more about this person who broke the social boundaries. Christopher actually shared a class with me, and that class was totally and completely awkward as he kept staring at me—and Scarlet kept pointing it out.

  “Bye, Halle, can’t wait to see you tonight!” Scarlet called as she climbed into the car with her mom.

  Scarlet’s mom drove away from the curb. Right on time as always, my dad pulled up in the dark grey Fusion and I walked around to the passenger side of the car. The minute her mom pulled away from the curb, Dad pulled up in the car. I pulled open the car door and climbed in the passenger seat. Dad took off almost before I could even close the door. I gave him a questioning glance. He never was a “happy” driver, but I did sense something was troubling him. I sighed remembering Mom’s continued grudge against me.

  “Your mother isn’t too pleased with your actions you know,” Dad said, steering the car out of the parking lot.

  I noticed a space to fall back into the graces with my parents, and I wasn’t about to pass it up. “I know, Dad, but I was scared.” The sad, little girl routine worked well with Dad.

  He sighed, glancing out his window. “But, you still should not have acted disrespectful towards us. We’re here for you; we’re not fighting against you.”

  “I know…” I said sweetly. Agreeing with the parents always puts the fire out.

  “I’ve been scared before too, so I don’t blame you for wanting everything to be fixed, but it was still wrong to go off on your mother like that.” Dad was trying to lecture me, I knew it, but he had a soft spot for me, he always has with me being his “only little girl”.

  “I really am sorry for what I said to her.” I wasn’t, she was out of line, not me. “I didn’t mean it, and I actually don’t even know what possessed me to act like that. Maybe I was delirious from passing out earlier.”

  “You passed out again?” He glanced at me, his eyes wide.

  “Mom didn’t tell you? I passed out, and when I woke back up I was like, totally color blind.”

  He shook his head, but kept his eyes on the road. It was a good couple of minutes before he spoke again. “Well, Jesus, you’ve been through a rough patch, Sweetheart.”

  “Yeah, I was just really concerned, I’ve never heard of a flu that can turn you color blind, I was just happy that it was diagnosed and I knew it wasn’t something—” I inhaled deeply. “—worse.”

  Dad turned the car into our driveway. “I’ve never heard of a flu like that either.”

  When he turned the engine off, I got out of the car slowly.

  He got out of the car on his side and twirled the keys around his finger as he walked to the front door. I took a few steps forward and placed my hands on the hood of the car. “Hey, Dad?”

  Dad stopped and turned around. “Yes, Sweety?”

  “There’s this party that Scarlet and her friends are having tonight…”

  “Yeah?”

  “And they invited me to join them.”

  “Oh, I don’t—”

  “There won’t be any drugs or anything, just a good clean party.” He exhaled sharply. “Where?” I shook my head, looking down at a fleck of dirt on the windshield. He wouldn’t let me go. I wouldn’t get permission from him or Mom. “It’s down by the river, we won’t be swimming in it or anything, it’s just a nice view there; you know, the forest, the water…” Dad nodded his head with an agreeable smile. “If your mom agrees, it’s fine with me. You could use to get out of the house a bit.” Dad turned and headed back into the house.

  Now I’ll have leverage with Mom if she insists on denying me my party privileges. I took a step toward the house when I heard a familiar voice, causing me to almost lose my footing again.

  “Hey!”

  I flipped around towards the end of the driveway to see Christopher walking up the sidewalk. “Are you following me?” I narrowed my eyebrows.

  Christopher shook his head. “No, I live right up the street here. Although, now that I know we live so close, I might have to start following you.”

  “That’s creepy.” I didn’t know what else to say. I felt tempted to follow him and walk him home just to see what his deal was. But at the same time I felt it best to leave him be. I’d find out anyways with time.

  “See you later tonight, Halle.” Christopher waved his hand and continuing down the street. I couldn’t believe Christopher lived right around the corner from me. This guy just comes and takes the best of everything. I watched him walk all the way down the street to one of the last houses on the street, wishing I could see him in color rather than in black and white.

  I walked through the front door and closed it behind me, happy for the warmth of the house. Though it was only October, it was freezing outside. Logan sat on the couch watching TV, his feet propped up on the coffee table. How was he so successful when I never, ever saw him studying? But, whatever, I was so done with thinking and wondering about his success. My A’s and B’s were just fine for me—more than a passing grade. I didn’t need or desire honors.

  Heading off towards the kitchen, I knew I’d find Mom cooking dinner, I thought I might be able to sweeten her up easier there. I opened up the kitchen door to find a sour-looking Mom stirring a pot of wonderful-smelling mystery food. I approached slowly, wiping my sweating palms on my jeans.

  “Anything I can help with?” My voice shook.

  “What do you want?” Mom knew I was up to something.

  I took a few steps closer. “Peace on earth, goodwill towards man, and you not to be angry with me.” I fluttered my eyelashes and hoped my playful demeanor would lighten her up and earn a peaceful conversation. The way I figured, this would either make her angrier or help the situation. But, I didn’t know what else to do, so it was a chance that I had to take. When she held her silence for a while, I knew I had to say something else, I just hoped whatever came out of my mouth would not offend her more. “I’m really sorry for what I said before.”

  Mom turned around, and then leaned her back against the counter. I didn’t know if she was going to scold me or accept the apology, it was always hard to tell with her. “Halle, I’m not angry with you; I just wished you handled the situation better.”

  “I know, and I’m sure I could come up with a million excuses, but none of them really suffice for what I did. I never should have spoken to you like that.”

  I craned my neck to see what Mom was cooking, but in black and white I couldn’t really tell, it could have been some kind of beans, but it could have also been a number of other things as well. With my wonderful vision I couldn’t really tell, I really had to rely on the shape of objects rather than their details; which annoyed the hell out of me.

  “It’s pinto beans, we’re going to have burritos for dinner today,” Mom said almost as if she forgot her anger completely, or maybe she pushed it behind us just for the moment being. This woman had a passion for food and cooking and was a sure way to lighten any conversation.

  “I love burritos; do you need any help making them?” I asked.

  “You can help me roll them, I just heated up the tortillas, and everything else is on the kitchen table.” Mom motioned towards the kitchen table as she stirred the pot of beans one last time, flipped the stove off, and then carried the beans to the table.

  I grabbed a tortilla off the plate and sprinkled a line of shredded cheese and beef down the center. Next I grabbed a ladle full of beans and added that to the tortilla. Mom reached over me and grabbed a bag of shredded lettuce and sprinkled some on my tortilla and then some on hers. I flashed her a smile,
and began rolling up the tortilla. It was times like these that I spent with Mom that I missed. We hadn’t cooked together in such a long time, cooking with her almost made me want to open up a restaurant and her and I could become the chefs.

  “Hey, Mom?” I said casually.

  “Yeah?” she questioned not looking away from the task at hand.

  “Scarlet is having this party tonight. I told her I couldn’t go though.”

  “You can go,” Mom said suddenly. I couldn’t stop my jaw from dropping. “It’s not too late to tell her you’ll go is it?”

  “Uh, no, it isn’t, I can just show up.” Yes, things were finally adjusting nicely and the rough path was over. I succeeded in charming my parents back to their normal state, and whatever was causing them to act as they did before didn’t matter anymore. Even if I didn’t agree, and everything that I told them was a lie, it didn’t matter and I knew I would not win anyways. They would not find out, and my words made them happy anyways.

  “When and where is it?” Mom asked. I was waiting for this question, so I had a good answer to it.

  “It’s near the river south of here, and it’s directly after dinner.”

  “Oh, so you will get to eat the burritos.”

  I let out a laugh. “Yeah, I’d rather miss the party!” Another lie, but it made her feel better and I knew she caught it. But, it was one of those lies that was okay to tell. Even though I wasn’t eating breakfast or lunch, I couldn’t get out of eating dinner, as Mom and Dad thought it was a good idea to get the family involved to eat dinner together. I thought it was a stupid idea, but that was just my opinion. “Scarlet is having a sleep over afterwards too,” I said just to cover my butt if we stayed out too late.

  “Oh, okay,” Mom said.