Bittersweet (5 page)

He took another half hour to show me how to push the stupid barrels around that I had to throw the bags into.

“Now yer gonna need a partner. Park Services works in pairs. I think Julia will be here soon, you can pair with her. She’s good at this. She’ll make sure you don’t screw up.”

I sat on the low brick wall and waited. A few minutes later Julia came bouncing toward us. I thought it’d be someone else that had the same name. But it was the same gorgeous girl who did surveys with Dallas. Finally, someone who might actually be decent to me.

“Oh hey, Savannah. You must’ve screwed up if you got sent here to work with me.” She beamed.

“I thought you did surveys.”

“I do, but it’s only thirty hours a week so I pick up extra hours in Park Services.” Why would she want more hours? Maybe she was saving up for something, too.

She took the big rolling bin and pushed it toward the cedar gates, back into the park. I shrugged and followed her. She kept talking and I found that I liked it. For the last week I’d been working in near silence with Becca who gave me a death stare just for being in her presence. Julia was a nice change.

“I like Park Services. It’s hard to mess up. It’s quiet. No one messes with you much. Most Ride Ops hate it.” She grinned at me.

“I’ve never done it before so I’m not sure if I’m going to hate it or not.”

Yeah, I pretty much hated it.

The whole day was spent emptying trash barrels and putting in new bags. It was smelly, boring, sticky work. The only good thing about it was Julia. She made the day go by fast.

At first we talked about superficial things. TV shows, music, boys. Eventually though, she brought up Dallas.

“What do you think of him?”

My heart began to beat a little faster. Just the thought of that smile. I felt a grin spread over my lips. Oh gosh. She’s gonna see right through me.

“Um, I don’t really know him that well. I thought maybe you two had something going on.” Deflect, deflect, deflect.

She snorted.

“He’d never go for a girl like me.”

“Why?” I asked, wondering what would make her think she wasn’t worthy of someone like Dallas. She was gorgeous.

“Because, I have a son. Three and a half years old.”

Holy smokes. Julia had a kid. Inside I recoiled, but I kept my face blank. The idea terrified me but I didn’t want her to know that. Kids change everything. You have to worry about screwing up two lives instead of just one.

She dug out her phone from her pocket to show me a picture. “His name is A.J. Looks just like his Daddy.”

A smiling face with a mop of dark brown curls shone out of the picture.

“So, where is Dad?”

She took the picture back and emptied the trash out of a bin in the queue line at Zombie Run.

“Disappeared right after I told him I was pregnant. I was sixteen. Now my mom and I are trying to raise him on our own. I got my high school diploma and now I’m working to try to pay for college. I’m going to give him a good life.”

She was quiet after that. I thought about how easy my life had been. I didn’t have to worry about a baby. I couldn’t imagine how hard that would be on top of grieving for my dad. If I had a kid, I’d have to pretend like life was okay when it was not. Julia was a hundred times stronger than I’d ever be.

An hour later we were almost done and I was ready to go home.

“I’ll go catch the trash cans at the Witches’ Wheel. Will you grab the ones by the picnic tables?”

“Sure.”

I hadn’t really been paying attention to my surroundings. It wasn’t until I was on top of the trash can that I saw who was sitting at the table right next to it.

Spitter and two of his buddies. Damn.

He, however, noticed me right away.

“Well, if it isn’t the garbage queen. Did I get ya demoted?”

My face burned but I ignored him and took the bag out of the bin.

“I am talking to you, bitch. Didn’t your mother teach you to respect your betters? Answer me.”

I continued to pretend like I couldn’t hear him. It was better that way. Plus, I’d gotten pretty swift at rebagging. But before I could leave, he was standing right in front of me.

“Answer me.” In one hand he held an empty hamburger basket and in the other a half empty cup of Coke. He smirked.

“Move,” I demanded, looking him straight in the eye. Then I took a step to the side.

An ice-cold chill sank into my chest. I gasped. He’d poured his Coke all down my front.

“Oops, I must’ve mistaken you for the trash can, garbage queen.”

I was speechless. Didn’t have time to react, which was probably a good thing. His buddies followed his lead. Within seconds I had nacho cheese poured over my shoes and the remains of an ice cream cone smushed into my face.

Europe was not worth this.

“I’ve got a season pass so I’ll be around all summer, bald-garbage-bitch. You haven’t seen the last of me.”

Before I could so much as yell “Asshole,” he was gone and Julia was by my side. She handed me a bunch of napkins and knelt to wipe off my shoes.

“The nastier side of Park Services, I’m afraid. People think we are lower than dirt. It’s too bad security wasn’t around. They would’ve kicked them out. This is probably going to stain.” She pointed to my shoes.

I wiped the ice cream from around my nose and looked down. Nacho cheese everywhere.

“You asked earlier what I’d done. I spit in his face after he spit on my shoes.”

Julia laughed. “You should’ve done it again.”

“Right, and risk the wagging finger of Karl again? No, thank you.”

Julia grinned and wagged her finger in my face. She looped her arm through mine and led me to the bathroom.

I cleaned up as best I could. My once white shoes were now a pukey yellow color and one had a touch of blue. A mall trip might be in order this weekend. Those poor shoes didn’t even last two weeks. At this rate I would never afford Europe.

Julia and I both clocked out. She had some paperwork to take care of so I walked to the lockers by myself. I practically ran into Dallas just before I reached the door.

“Hey, I was just looking for you. We’re going out, you wanna come?”

His eyes held absolute sincerity. He wanted me to come. The ugly-bald-garbage-queen. I was sticky, cold, smelly, exhausted, and I almost said yes.

“Who’s going?” I asked, to buy some time.

“Becca, Karl, and few others. We’re planning to eat at the Casino and play some slots. You only have to be eighteen. Please come. It’ll be fun.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m really tired and it has been a shitty day. I just want to go home and head straight to bed. Maybe another time.” My stomach clenched.

No need to tell him that I didn’t want to go because Becca hated my guts. If I told him, I’d have to explain why. That was one story he didn’t need to hear.

I was surprised to find that he looked disappointed, but he recovered quickly and smiled. With that smile I very nearly changed my answer. How did he do that? But before I could say anything, he waved and walked away.

“See you tomorrow.”

My locker was right next to the door so I didn’t have walk far to get out of those horrid clothes. I wished they had showers. I stripped off my shirt and shorts and wondered how awful it would be to go commando. My underwear was drenched in coke. Thank heavens my bank of lockers was empty. No one needed to see my predicament.

Voices floated over from the next set of lockers.

“Can you believe she spit on a guest, who does that kind of stuff?” Becca’s voice was clear.

Another girl replied, the area manager who’d been at the ride when I came back from the bathroom. “I don’t know. She acted all blasé about it too, like it didn’t matter. You know the only reason she didn’t get fired was because Grant is her uncle.”

“I know, it makes me sick. She’s so whiny too. ‘Oh my ears. If they get wet I’ll die.’” Becca’s mocking voice was strangely high pitched.

“We’re in a freakin’ amusement park, you work outside. She’s gonna have to deal with the fact that her ears are going to get wet. If she wanted to be inside all day she should’ve gone to work at the Mall of America. Maybe you should dump a pail of water on her head. Do you think that’ll get rid of her?”

Becca laughed.

“She’s bald, too. Am I the only who finds that weird? I wanted to ask why’d she deliberately make herself look ugly, but thought that would be rude.”

They came around the corner just as Becca finished her sentence. I stood there clutching my soaked clothes, wearing only my bra and underwear. They stopped immediately when they saw me. Lucky for me, I recovered quickly.

“Yeah, that would be rude. But while we’re on the subject of rudeness, is there anything else you’d like to ask?”

I turned around and opened my locker. Neither girl responded, not that I expected them to. A minute later, the door closed behind them and I sighed. Humiliation swam through my veins. I should be grateful that I actually felt something other than numbness. Instead, I was horrified that a girl who was supposed to be my boss was badmouthing me.

Julia poked her head around the corner.

“You wanna go to the park with A.J. and me? It’s such a nice day, I don’t want to waste it. I could use some adult conversation. Most of the other mothers at the park just ignore me.” I knew she thought it was because she’s young. That they were judging her. But I suspected it was because she’s gorgeous and they were either intimidated or jealous.

“I’ll need to go home and shower first.” I waved at my now yellow and blue tennis shoes.

She grimaced. “That’s right. No problem, I’ll meet you there.”

She gave me directions and I went to look for Grant. I didn’t want him to worry if he came home and found the place empty. When did I start caring about that?

I heard voices coming from Grant’s office.

I waited. One voice was sobbing.

“Please, just give me another chance. I’ll change, I swear.” The voice was female, and the words came out slowly.

Grant answered her.

“Once is forgivable, everyone makes mistakes, but this has become a habit. People’s habits don’t change overnight and Haunted Valley is not the place you learn to be on time. Too many people depend on you to be punctual. Find a job that doesn’t care and learn it there. Keep that job for a year and then we might reconsider your employment here.”

A brunette with a long braid came out with a tear stained face. She brushed past without looking at me.

I stopped when I saw Karl sitting there, too.

He grinned when he saw me. “How was Park Services?”

Grant looked up, surprised.

“It was fine.” I gave him a tight smile.

I waited for him to respond or for Grant to ask what happened, but nobody did. Finally I spoke again, hoping that the whole thing would be dropped.

“I’m going out with Julia, I don’t know what time I’ll be back.”

“Thanks for letting me know.”

I left the office in a hurry, not wanting Karl to bring up my day again, but as I cleared the door I heard Grant’s voice.

“Why was Savannah in Park Services today?”

Oh lord. Pretty soon it would be my turn to beg for my job.

May 27

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Kiddo,

I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on things up here. You know how I used to tell you that when your mom and I divorced it was because we were too different? That’s a lie. Always was. I just said that so that you wouldn’t hate me. You were too young to understand what was going on. The divorce was all my fault. Your mother didn’t want it and couldn’t understand why I left her. I didn’t know then, about my affliction. If I had, your mother and I might have been able to work things out.

Ride On,

Dad