The Summer the World Ended (4 page)

“Bye, Mom.” Riley laced her fingers through her mother’s for the last time. She held on for a moment before lowering the arm to rest at her mother’s side. “I love you.”

Riley backed away, unwilling to turn her back on Mom. Maybe, if she waited just one more second, she’d stir and open her eyes. At the doorway, Riley’s legs gave out, but Mina caught her. The nurse rushed over and helped Mina carry her back to the waiting room bench. Riley curled up, hands clutched to her chest, too sad to cry.

eaf-shadows bounced on the peach-colored wall six feet away, paint on cinderblocks. Dark brown metal framed an immobile window with a small, rectangular bit at the bottom that could open inward. Too small for even a child to squeeze through. The sweet scent of blueberry pancake syrup wafted in from the not-quite-closed door, followed by the echoes of a handful of much younger kids. If not for the lack of bars on the door, it might as well have been juvie.

Riley lay on her side, semi-fetal, still wearing the same sweatshirt, pajama pants, and sneakers she had on when her mother died. She didn’t remember sleep. At some point, staring at patches of moonlight had become staring at patches of sunlight. Aside from a supervised visit back home to collect a few belongings hours ago, she hadn’t moved from that spot. None of this felt real, this
shelter,
this place that wasn’t home. Again and again, she went over the layout of the house, walking through it in her mind.

Every piece of furniture called back memories, as did all the little figurines and random crap her mother had decorated the place with. Mina didn’t let her take anything like her Xbox or TV, just some clothes and toiletries. She glared at the shifting patches of sunlight; that was still
her
house. Being ‘escorted’ through it as if she no longer belonged there made her angry. She wanted her mother to show up and tell her it was all a bad dream. Even if Riley accepted she was gone, why couldn’t they let her sleep in her own room, in a house that still smelled like Mom?

How can I steal my own stuff?

Frantic, high-pitched shrieks broke through distant murmuring in the outside hallway.

“He’s gonna find me. He’s gonna kick in the door, and find me, and he’s gonna kill me. He’s gonna kill me, and you, and Sadie, and everyone.”

A child’s wailing followed.

Riley shivered.
This isn’t happening.
I’m not in this crazy place.
Mom… please get me out of here. Please don’t let them keep me here.

“Calm down, ma’am,” said a husky voice, also female. “He ain’t going to find you.”

“You don’t know Boyd. You don’t know what he’s capable of. You fu―”

“Ma’am. Please calm down. You’re not being detained. You’re free to leave at any time, but you’re as safe as you can get here. He can’t get to you if you stay with us.”

Figures moved by the door: a big woman, a skinny woman, and a sniveling three-year-old girl. The door to the next room opened and closed, muted voices murmured through the cinderblocks behind her. Riley debated the odds of a psycho ex rampaging through the shelter and picking her room by accident. The place went from feeling like a prison to feeling like a death trap.
Am I ever gonna see my home again? They can’t just take all Mom’s things away, can they?

The conversation next door stopped. A few seconds later, a soft triple-knock invaded her cocoon of spaced-out silence.

“Hey there,” said the deeper feminine voice. “You’re new here, aren’t ya? Name’s LaToya. You let me know if you need anything, ‘kay? You hungry?”

“No,” muttered Riley.

“Did you sleep?”

“No.”

“Would you like to get cleaned up? Have a shower or something?”

“No.”

The door creaked. Riley shifted enough to look at a more-than-six-foot tall woman in medical scrubs. The pants were teal, but an explosion of color spread over the smock with little regard for the lines of a scene of palm trees and tall birds. Short dreads sprouted from a fist-sized polished wooden ring at the back of her head, making it resemble a humanized pineapple sitting atop massive shoulders. Riley stifled a gulp, a measure less afraid of any and all enraged exes.

She’d kill him.

“What’s wrong, dear? Can I get you anything?”

Riley slid back on the bed. “I wanna go home.”

“Child, you know we can’t leave you alone in a house all by yourself.”

As opposed to being alone with someone else?
Riley made a face. “I’m fourteen. I can handle it. Mom trusted me alone. I’ve been home alone after school since, like, forever.”

A loud metal crash outside preceded the sound of a different screaming child, and several sets of running footsteps.

“You ain’t ready to handle a job yet. Rent payments, taxes, driving…”

Her mother’s voice floated through her memory. Next summer she’d have to get a job. She flung herself over and stuffed her face in the pillow to hide tears.

After a few sniffles, she yelled, “I hate it here.”

“You’re one of the lucky ones, child.”

Riley pushed herself over on her side and glared. “How the hell am I lucky?”

LaToya’s placid smile showed no dents from the angry scowl directed her way. “It’s horrible what happened to your momma, but you stills got a dad to take care of you. Most of the little ones who come through here ain’t got even that.”

“My dad?” She sat up. “He doesn’t want me. He left us. I wanna go home.”

“You want things to be like they were before. Going back to that house might let you think everything’s the same, but it won’t be.”

Riley wiped her face.

“You need to eat and get cleaned up. Imma give you a pass on lunch, but if I hear you skipped dinner, I’m gonna drag you to the cafeteria and feed you like a baby.”

The threat would’ve been terrifying if not for the huge grin on the woman’s face.

“‘Kay.”

“You need anything, you find me and ask, okay?”

Riley nodded.

LaToya walked to the door. “Remember… you eatin’ dinner later.”

“‘Kay.”

She collapsed onto the mattress on her side, daydreaming about her mother’s last meal.
How long before I forget what her voice sounded like?
For at least an hour, she lay there drifting in and out of periods of crying and staring off into space. An attack of sniffles stopped at a chirp from the bag on the floor. A little rummaging unearthed her iPhone, showing a series of texts from Amber:

BRB = few mins.

Rile? Wtf. Where are you?

Guess you got reamed for being up too late. Txt me.

Rile? Hello? Text me, k?

Going offline, on plane.

Back. WTF x 3.

Riley McCullough… Mexico calling Riley.

She stared through her reflection at the blue bubbles of text. Her best (only) friend was probably sitting on a beach in Puerto Vallarta, possibly enjoying her ‘graduation present.’ She teased at the keypad with a thumb, battling between her need to let everything out and not wanting to ruin Amber’s trip. Better to drop a bomb like that in person.

She typed:
I’m okay. Mom went to hospital. Sry for leavin you hang. Talk when u back.

No sooner had she put the phone on the little nightstand than a reply came in.

Hospital wtfomg. Ur mom ok?

Teardrops splattered on the screen, magnifying the text into red, blue, and green spots. Her hands shook as she forced herself to reply.

Will talk when ur back in Jerz. Have fun in Mex.

The phone beeped a few seconds later.
BS. U like don’t go to Mex now u say have fun.

Don’t waste ur trip worrying 4 me. I’ll explain all when you come back. How is the food?

Riley couldn’t stop crying as the texts bounced back and forth for at least twenty minutes, as though nothing at all had happened.

G2G, dad raging @ me for texting since I do it @ home. Txt if u wana talk.

“Later,” Riley spoke and typed at the same time.

She curled up around the phone for a while, watching the waving shadows of trees fade with the onset of evening. A touch past 5:30 p.m., Mina poked her head in.

“Oh, Riley…” She walked in, clucking her tongue. “You’re still in the same clothes.”

“Oh, hey, your eyes work.”

“Come on, get up. You’re taking a shower and going straight to the café. Toya told me you skipped lunch.”

“You’re not my mother.”

Mina folded her arms. “You’re right, young lady, I’m not. You’re skin and bones. Would your mother want you starving yourself?”

Riley cringed. “How long do I have to stay here? Can I shower at home?”

“Maybe when your Dad gets here… I assume he’ll want to take you there instead of a hotel.”

No way!
She shot upright. “You found him? W-what did he say? Wait, ‘gets here?’ He’s coming?”

“It will take him a while because he’s driving.” Mina sat on the end of the bed. “He’s worried about you. I… told him you weren’t coping too well.”

“How am I supposed to ‘cope’ with my mother dropping dead in front of me?” Riley felt her face scrunching in preparation for another bout of sobbing, and tried to resist it.

Mina threw an arm around her. “I’d be worried if a kid your age coped ‘well’ with news like that. Anyone, really. Your reactions are perfectly natural given the situation. Don’t bottle things up.”

This woman is obsessed with rubbing my back.
She frowned at the white iPhone 4 on the nightstand. “I wanted to tell Amber, but I didn’t.”

“Who’s that?”

“Friend.”

“I see. Why didn’t you tell her?”

Riley shrugged. “She’s in Mexico. Parents took her on vacation for graduation. I didn’t wanna ruin it. Besides, it didn’t feel right to text that my mother―” She swallowed the word ‘died,’ unable to spit it out without bursting into tears.

Mina patted her on the back again. “That was very mature of you to think of her like that.”

“I don’t have a lot of friends… at least not ones I’ve met for real.”

“Sometimes I worry about our society. Everyone’s online all the time these days. No human contact. What about at school?”

“Everyone there thinks I’m anorexic or bulimic ‘cause I’m so thin.” Riley fidgeted. “I’m not. I got tired of being picked on, so I ignore everyone. Not my fault.”

Mina failed to conceal a pained expression. “I got teased in school too.”

Not gonna say it.
“Sorry.”

“I’d always been a little heavy.” Her knuckles whitened around her knees. “Diets never worked, exercise never helped. This is just who I am. It took me a very long time to come to terms with that.” Mina bit her lip. “My own father used to call me Miss Piggy.”

Riley gasped.

“Oh”―Mina waved dismissively―“he wasn’t trying to be mean about it… he thought I looked like the puppet. He didn’t know how it felt, and I never told him.”

“I’m sorry. People at school call me Anna.”

Mina looked puzzled.

“Rexia. Anna Rexia.” Riley scowled at the floor. “I’m not. Really. I swear.”

“I believe you.” Mina patted her back again. “I stopped giving them power over me. Took me too long to convince myself that the only opinion that mattered was mine.”