Firestone (42 page)

She picked up the note and a cookie.

“
Welcome to your new life!
Love you!” Heather read out loud, and grinned.

“
You really are Hedone,
aren’t you?” Tink’s voice came from Heather’s right.

Heather turned toward her voice. Tink was
standing in the doorway of the room Charlie used for school. Jacob
had set up a bed in there for her. Her hair was tousled and she
wore her bed clothes, but the girl was wide awake.

“
Would you like a cookie?”
Heather asked.

Tink nodded.

“
Let’s get some milk,”
Heather said.

Heather started toward the kitchen. She set
the plate of cookies on the table. Tink slunk in behind her and
settled on a chair at the table.

“
I don’t want to eat all
your cookies,” Tink said.

“
That’s okay,” Heather
said. “I know where they hide them.”

Tink smiled. By the time Heather returned
with milk and glasses, Tink had eaten two cookies.

“
Are you hungry?” Heather
asked. “I can make you something . . .”

“
Nervous.” Tink
nodded.

“
Why?” Heather asked, and
sat down across from Tink.

“
I
just . . .” Tink said. She leaned forward. “I’ve
never talked to a
god
before.”

“
Goddess.” Heather
corrected automatically, and then grinned. “Half.”

“
A half-goddess,” Tink
said. “Like half matters.”

“
Oh, you’d be surprised,”
Heather said. “In some circles, it’s all about who’s full blooded
and who is not. For the record, I am
not
a full-blooded
Olympian.”

“
Is that a big deal?” Tink
asked.

“
Not to me,” Heather
said.

“
Yeah, that’s what I don’t
get,” Tink said. “I mean, when you asked me to read about Eros and
Psyche, I thought it was just to learn about love.”

“
And evil mother-in-laws,”
Heather said.

“
That too,” Tink said.
“But I don’t have to deal with Charlie’s mother.”

“
Sandy’s more powerful
than you’d think,” Heather said.

Tink laughed. Heather grinned and took
another cookie.

“
I didn’t realize it was
about you,” Tink said.

Heather nodded.

“
Your dad’s
a . . .” Tink started and faded out.

“
At a loss for words?”
Heather asked. “Asshole works.”

“
At a loss
for . . . what’s that kind of word called?” Tink
asked.

“
Adjective?” Heather
asked.

“
Right,” Tink said. “He’s
lame, stupid, immature, selfish,
spoiled . . .”

“
I used to dream that he
would come and sweep us away from poverty and despair,” Heather
said.

“
I used to dream that my
real family would come and they would be . . .” Tink
snorted. “Like you and Blane.”

Heather smiled.

“
Blane’s pretty amazing,”
Heather said. “Meeting Blane and living with him, that’s when I
realized that my mom and dad . . . They’re
just . . . what they are.”

“
Big babies,” Tink said.
“That’s what Charlie said they were.”

Heather nodded.

“
We look to gods as if
they are special — better than us,” Heather said. “It’s really
humans who have all those god traits
and . . .”

Heather’s eyes welled with tears and she
nodded.

“
You mean that people can
love and be strong and be weak and be beautiful
and . . .” Tink said.

“
Everything,” Heather
said.

“
Don’t you think that’s
because that Zeus guy was so . . .” Tink leaned
forward to whisper, “rapey?”

“
Probably,” Heather
laughed.

Tink smiled.

“
You don’t seem to care,”
Tink started, and then scowled. “I don’t mean care, I
mean . . .”

“
I don’t care about this
stuff,” Heather said. “I’m happy to talk to you about it as much as
you want, but it doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“
Being
immortal
doesn’t mean anything to
you?” Tink asked.

“
I don’t know if I’m
immortal,” Heather said. “I’ve never had the chance to live a full
life. My mother always yanked me out of wherever I was and I
started over.”

“
If you don’t care, why
did you tell Tanesha?” Tink asked.

“
She’s half fairy,”
Heather said. “I thought she . . . was like me, you
know, not really fairy, not really human, a half. It took me a long
time to figure out that she wasn’t a part of the fairy world
and . . . everything. Really, I wasn’t thinking very
well. I’d just gotten here, become ten again,
and . . . Catholic school is such a weird experience
for someone like me.”

“
Never been,” Tink
said.

“
There’s a good thing,”
Heather said.

Tink grinned.

“
Tanesha didn’t know
anything about being a fairy,” Heather said. “Jill didn’t know
about her father.”

“
And Sandy?” Tink asked.
“Is she half . . . something?”

“
She’s fully human,”
Heather said.

“
Then why is she your
friend?” Tink asked. “I mean, she’s amazing, awesome, and so
pretty, but . . .”

“
I think I want to be like
her,” Heather said. “She’s not special, you know, genetically or
whatever. That’s what makes her so amazing. She’s smart and tough
and loving — God, she could really give my parents a lesson in
love. She’s wonderful in every way. With Tanesha and Jill, you
know, not knowing about their parents, I
just . . .”

Heather shrugged. Tink cocked her head to
encourage Heather to speak.

“
I guess I realized that
being ‘special’ isn’t such a big deal,” Heather said. “What you
are, you know, who made you, doesn’t matter very much,
really.”

Heather nodded.

“
I mean, look at my
father,” Heather said. “He could have made this entire situation
better, but he refused to use the power he had to change my life,
Mom’s life. He was just caught up in his own dreams, his own
games.”

Heather shrugged, and Tink nodded that she
understood.

“
Look at Sandy,” Heather
said. “She’s never had a break. No one ever said, ‘Let’s make life
easy for Sandy.’ And look at all she’s done.”

Heather paused for a moment. She picked up a
cookie and took a bite.

“
I guess, I realized that
what you are genetically, who you come from, matters a lot less
than what you do,” Heather said. “I want to be known for what I do,
not what I am. So I sort of cast off this stuff.”

“
You don’t think it
matters who you came from?” Tink asked.

“
No,” Heather said. “Look
at you. You’ve had a really tough time, and you’re taking your life
one step at a time. By the time your life is over, I’d bet you’ll
do a hell of lot more than my mother ever did in all of her
thousands of years of life.”

Tink blushed. Heather nodded and finished
her cookie.

“
What you do is more
important than where you came from,” Heather said, and nodded.
“When I look back on my life, that’s the only thing that stands out
as absolutely true.”

“
What about being raped
and thrown out by my parents and Saint Jude and all of that?” Tink
asked.

“
You have to get through
it, that’s for sure,” Heather said. “Go to therapy and stuff. But
you’re doing that.”

“
But don’t you think that
makes me . . . dirty?” Tink asked.

“
No,” Heather said. “Did
you want any of that stuff to happen?”

Tink shook her head.

“
Did you make it happen
with your actions?” Heather asked.

“
My stepdad says if I had
been a better kid, they would have kept me,” Tink said.

“
Is that true?” Heather
asked.

“
No,
but . . .” Tink said.

“
My dad says that because
my mother looked at his face, she deserved to be tortured by his
mother,” Heather said.

“
He really is an asshole,”
Tink said.

“
He is,” Heather chuckled.
“But we’d better stop talking about him. He might hear us and
figure out he’s been duped.”

“
Can he do that?” Tink
asked.

Heather nodded.

“
We won’t talk about them
again,” Tink said.

The girl’s sincerity made Heather well up.
She smiled through her tears.

“
How’s Blane?” Tink
asked.

“
Good,” Heather said.
“They think they’ll be able to start the treatment tomorrow or the
next day.”

“
He knows about all of
this?” Tink asked.

“
I told him when we
started living together,” Heather said. “I didn’t know when Mom
would take me again. That’s why we put Blane on Mack’s birth
certificate. In case Mom took me.”

“
It’s a secret.” Tink
nodded.

“
It doesn’t mean anything
to me,” Heather said. “I don’t tell people because they think it’s
a big deal.”

“
Like being raped,” Tink
said.

“
Right,” Heather said.
“You don’t tell everyone because it’s not their
business.”

“
Everybody’s gonna know if
I testify,” Tink said.

“
Do we care?” Heather
shrugged.

Tink wobbled her head back and forth.

“
Sort of,” Tink
said.

“
I know,” Heather
said.

They laughed.

“
We’ll deal with it when
it happens,” Heather said.

“
Sounds like Blane,” Tink
said.

“
It’s what he always
says,” Heather said. “Are you ready for bed?”

Tink nodded.

“
Can you sleep?” Heather
asked.

“
Will you stay with me?”
Tink asked. She quickly added, “I know you need to see Mack
and . . .”

“
Mack’s with Honey and
MJ,” Heather said. “He’s well cared for.”

Heather got up and they started toward the
room Tink was staying in.

“
You were very brave
tonight,” Heather said.

“
I was mad,” Tink said.
“Your father is a jerk.”

Heather shrugged.

“
Yeah, right,” Tink said.
“Welcome to the club.”

Heather helped Tink into bed and lay down
next to her.

“
Love you, Tink,” Heather
said.

“
Love you, Heather,” Tink
said. “Thanks for telling me.”

Heather stroked Tink’s hair until the girl
was asleep. Rolling onto her back, she looked up at the ceiling and
smiled.

She had one whole human lifetime before
returning to the bullshit. It was going to be great.

Hell, it already was great.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday early morning — 4:40 a.m.

“
Yvie,” Rodney said in a
loud whisper.

Yvonne gasped and pulled away from him. She
gave him a look of sheer terror that felt like a gut punch. He
rarely woke her because it was so upsetting to her.

“
It’s me, Yvie,” Rodney
said. “Just Rodney.”

“
Rodney?” Yvonne asked.
Her voice was so sweet that he smiled.

“
Your husband,” Rodney
said. He repeated what she needed to know every morning, “You’re
safe and sleeping in your own pretty yellow home.”

Yvonne nodded. He held his hand out to her
and she got out of bed. He led her to the blackboard wall he’d
painted in their bedroom. Every night before bed, Yvonne covered
the wall in everything she needed to remember. Every morning, she
read her own words in her own handwriting. After a moment, she
turned to hug him.

“
Good morning!” she
said.

She got up on her toes to hug him. He kissed
her neck.

“
Good morning,” he
said.

“
Why did you wake me?”
Yvonne asked.

“
Jabari’s not in his bed,”
Rodney said. “And I can’t find Mr. Chesterfield.”

“
What?” Yvonne’s voice
rose with panic.

She ran out of the room and into their guest
bedroom.

“
Jabari!” Yvonne
called.

She dug through the thick covers. Rodney
yanked the blankets off the bed.

The boy wasn’t there.

“
Jabari!” Yvonne
called.

Yvonne went into the closet where he’d
insisted on sleeping the first few days he was with them. Rodney
turned on the closet light. Yvonne flipped through all of Jabari’s
new clothing while Rodney looked below.

The boy wasn’t there.

“
He’s never left this
room,” Yvonne said. “We put him right in this bed. He was sick
and . . . Did I forget and put him someplace
else?”

“
No, we put him in this
bed,” Rodney said.

Yvonne went back to the bed to see if
somehow he was hiding underneath.

The boy wasn’t there.

“
Where’s Mr.
Chesterfield?” Rodney asked.