Miss Trailerhood

by Carina Taylor

  “Well, if you’re certain... I’ll go get him my racing helmet.” Eldon ran off to a stack of boxes lined up behind the barbecues.

  I leaned down close to Riley’s ear. “I don’t like the look in your eye. You’re planning something.”

  She held her hands up and shook her head. “What could I possibly be planning?”

  “Hmm, I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out.”

  Riley drew me closer to the group of people gathered along the edge of the street. Sure enough, there was a barbecue happening. Hot dogs flew around like butterflies. Well, not quite, but Nascar Jim was a barbecuing fiend. He must have been a short-order cook in his other life.

  “Riley!” a voice called.

  Eldon came hurrying over with a pink bike helmet. “It’s my granddaughter’s, but it’ll have to do.”

  He plopped it on my head, and I grimaced, thinking of the probability of lice.

  He snapped the buckle under my chin.

  “You look fantastic,” Riley said gleefully.

  A catcall caught my attention, and I turned to see Wren standing next to a younger couple, grinning at me and gesturing to the helmet.

  “What’s your name?” Eldon asked as he shook my hand with gusto.

  “Nate.” I guessed I hadn’t been formally introduced to him yet.

  “Well, Nate. Thanks for doing this for me. I’m Eldon. I’ll run and get her fired up for you.” He turned and sprinted toward the line of mowers. Rather spry for a man with a sprained back.

  A motor revved behind me, but when I turned to look, Riley grabbed both my arms. Her strong grasp on my forearms surprised me.

  I watched as she visibly swallowed. “I just wanted to say—“

  She cleared her throat and tried again. “I wanted to tell you good luck. And thank you for not making fun of Eldon for this.”

  “Do you think that lowly of me?”

  She raised her eyebrows.

  Apparently, she did. “Riley, I’m not thirteen anymore, and Eldon isn’t a cute girl I’m trying to impress.”

  Another engine revved. This one was louder than any lawn mower I’d heard before. I turned to look, but Riley planted a hand on my cheek and patted it gently. “You’re so sweet to call me cute. And of course you’ve changed. But most adults don’t understand trailer-park life and the things we do to entertain ourselves. Welcome to the concrete jungle.”

  I had difficulty swallowing; I could smell her perfume on her wrist. I’d never been good at identifying smells, but whatever it was smelled great.

  “If you want to win this lawn mower race, you’ll have to listen to me.” She cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders. “Now, you know how slow lawn mowers are, right?”

  I rolled my eyes exaggeratedly. “I’ve mowed lawns before. What kind of idiot do you take me for?”

  “An honest answer?”

  “No, it was a rhetorical question.”

  She smiled, pleased with her little retort.

  “Weren’t you going to give me some advice on how to win this race? Because you know what people are who don’t win—losers.”

  “That was very original. I’m so impressed.” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “All right. Since it’s three laps around, you have to start strong. A poor start can ruin the rest of the race. When you get on that mower, you’re going to hold your foot up above the gas. When the whistle blows, you’ll stomp on it as hard as you can. Do you understand? It’s an all-or-nothing race. Stomp on that gas when the whistle blows. It’s the only way you’ll win!”

  Shaking my head at her ignorance, I tried to explain, “I’ll flood the engine, and it will stall out. I’m not doing that.”

  Two surprisingly strong fists grasped my collar and tugged me down to her level. “Eldon made a few...modifications. It can handle it. I’m not sure I’ll speak to you again if you lose.”

  “Wow. You really are part of this trailer park. You’ve gone in all the way.” I nodded. Her eyes widened, and she started to pull back. “But you know I hate to lose as well. I’ll do it.”

  Her shoulders relaxed. “Great! You know I like to win.”

  I nodded. I did know. She almost got into a fistfight with my dad at family game night because she was convinced he was cheating at Monopoly. Turned out, he was. She had been fourteen at the time. My mom and I placed money on Riley to win that hypothetical fight.

  All throughout high school, she had never been the cool girl sitting on the bleachers, cheering her boyfriend on during a pickup game of basketball. Riley was in the middle of the game, competing. She wasn’t afraid of sweat, hard work, or pain. She’d even told everyone on her soccer team that if they didn’t make the other team bleed, they weren’t playing hard enough.

  So, yes, I was well-versed in the level of competitiveness that Riley had. She needed to win. I wondered if it was the years of disadvantage she’d had, or if it was an innate part of her personality.

  Her face shone bright with excitement. Because I had the perfect excuse to do so—ahem, competitive solidarity—I placed my hands on each side of her face, pressed my helmet-clad forehead against hers, and said in a gravelly, serious voice, “Don’t worry. I’ll use everything in me to win.”

  Then I turned and walked away as if I’d just promised to lay down my life for my country.

  I thought for a moment that I heard her snicker behind me, but I doubted it. She was too focused on winning to laugh right now.

  I made my way over to Eldon where he stood next to his lawn mower, stoically straight. He’d parked the lawn mower on the starting line for me, though I wondered if he should have even done that. His stiff movements made me hurt for him.

  “Can I trust you with this machine?” Eldon asked as he watched me suspiciously. I sat down slowly.

  “I’ll treat it as carefully as I would my Jeep.”

  “All right. I believe you.” He turned away but not before I saw the moisture in his eyes.

  The loud hum of motors distracted me from Eldon’s cry-fest.

  There were four other contestants. I was the only one wearing a helmet...

  “On your mark, get set, go!” A loud bang sounded—probably a gun supplied by Gunrunner Gabe. So much for the whistle.

  I did exactly what I promised Riley. I stomped on that gas pedal like it was an angry tarantula trying to eat me.

  Only...things didn’t go exactly like I thought.

  The engine didn’t flood.

  The mower didn’t slowly lurch forward.

  There was no need to rock back and forth to build up momentum.

  Nope. None of that.

  The mower shot forward like a rocket. My body slammed back against the seat, my head snapping backwards with such force that I felt the burn all the way down my spine.

  Someone screamed at me, and I finally leaned forward enough to see that I was about to miss my first turn.

  I wasn’t on a lawn mower. I was on a rocket in the early testing phases.

  I tried to turn the corner, but the mower hopped the small line of bricks, causing me to blaze across the smooth river rock in front of Tony’s house. I clung to the steering wheel as I tried to get the mower back on smooth ground. It lurched forward and back as it heaved and climbed over the river rock, sending my teeth clanking together.

  By the time I managed to get the mower back onto the flat ground, I wasn’t too far behind everyone. I was only in fourth place—out of five. Riley would disown me if I lost.

  I kept my foot on that gas as the mower proceeded forward. We were approaching the second turn, marked by a cardboard sign propped against a fake deer.

  It read: This way, losers.

  I watched as the three drivers in front of me hunched over their wheels. I didn’t understand why they needed to hold on so tight when we were on the straightaway. I chuckled. I was gaining on them.

  “Holy...” I swallowed as I watched one after another slam over a speed bump in the middle of the street. This was not going to
be good.

  I clung to the wheel but kept my foot on the gas. I didn’t have the luxury of slowing down. I was behind.

  The mower made a grinding noise when I hit the speed bump. We leapt together—I was beginning to think this mower was alive—and groaned when we hit the ground.

  But we continued onward, passing another racer who seemed to have a wobbly wheel.

  We turned the last corner, passing the crowd of people. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Riley laughing uncontrollably. When I was done racing, I’d have a chance to think about the fact that she’d tricked me. I stomped onto the gas a little more, earning cheers from the gathered crowd. I was gaining on the man in second place.

  This time, I was prepared for the first curve. With just the right timing, I made the turn without crossing over into the rock garden.

  I passed the second-place man. I was riding right on the tail of first place—a woman with stringy, gray hair flying in the wind. I took the turn on the inside corner, easing past her. Now all I had to do was survive the speed bump. I’d be in the clear after that.

  I braced myself against the wheel, leaning forward slightly. I hit the speed bump.

  The grinding noise was louder than last time, and there was a loud clank that followed when all four tires landed on the ground.

  The mower chugged. I stomped on the gas. It lurched forward, but the chugging continued. I couldn’t regain my speed. The man passed me first, then the woman. I chugged behind them to the finish line, where I made a solid finish in third place.

  I drove the mower next to Eldon and parked it, shutting the engine off.

  “I think something dropped out.”

  Eldon nodded, a serious look on his face. “I should have bought new bolts. There’s a time and a place for thriftiness, and lawn mower racing isn’t it.”

  I climbed off the mower that had nearly killed me. Unbuckling my pink fashion piece, I tossed it onto the seat of the mower.

  I bent over, moving my back side to side, trying to stretch out the kink in my lower vertebrae. Now I knew exactly why Eldon had ended up in that back brace. At least when Eldon climbed on his mower, he knew what he was getting into. Unlike me, who had been caught completely by surprise, thanks to someone I knew...

  I straightened up, looked around, and narrowed my eyes when they landed on Riley.

  Her eyes widened when she spotted me coming for her. She turned and dodged through the crowd. She paused briefly to try to hide behind Wren, but when she realized that didn’t work, she hurried for the safety of her trailer.

  “Excuse me,” I said as I bumped through the crowd of hot dog eaters and children waving sparklers. It wasn’t even close to the 4th yet.

  I spun to the left to avoid plowing into Elise. Evading her made me step backwards—right on top of Gunrunner Gabe’s shoes.

  I stared into his cold, black eyes. We were the same height, but he still sent a shiver down my spine. He outweighed me by at least fifty pounds, and it wasn’t soft extra weight. The guy was built.

  I smiled as big as I could, mumbled an apology under my breath, and took off after Riley.

  With all the loud noises, no one paid attention to the shriek Riley let out when she spotted me sprinting after her.

  She ran down the street, straight for her trailer. She leapt up her steps, but when she realized she wouldn’t have time to open the door, she jumped down and ran around the back of the trailer.

  I reversed my steps and hurried around to beat her to the other side. I had to leap over a potted shrub that looked suspiciously as though it had been shaped like a cat.

  Riley rounded the corner in front of me, looking backwards over her shoulder as she frantically searched for me.

  She ran right into my arms.

  Riley shrieked, and I locked my arms together behind her back. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  She kicked at my shins ineffectually. “Nate! Let me go!”

  “No, I don’t think I will.” I grinned and carried her closer to the trailer, pinning her against the siding.

  “You set me up!” I accused.

  She stopped struggling and looked up at me. Her face contorted as she tried to stop laughing. “If only you could have seen your face. It was priceless!”

  Loud peals of laughter echoed off the metal siding.

  I held her as she shook in my arms. It felt good. Growing up around Riley, being close to her, being a sort of friend to her, I’d never held her.

  But in the span of a couple days, I’d held her more than I’d ever imagined. And it felt right—having her close, smelling her soft perfume, letting her flyaway hairs tickle my nose as she laughed about the brilliance of her prank. This was new territory. I only hoped I’d be able to convince her to explore it with me.

  “Your eyes were this big!” She gasped as she held up her hands, trying to show me how much of a surprise it had been to me.

  “Trust me, I know–I was there. Now the question is, why would you lie to me like that? Now I know why you grabbed my face. You thought you could distract me from seeing the fast mowers.”

  “It worked, didn’t it?”

  “It worked. What did you think was going to happen when a beautiful woman stopped in front of me and placed her hands on my arms and then my face?”

  “You think I’m beautiful?”

  “The most gorgeous girl I’ve ever known.”

  She laughed, but it came out as a gasp as she studied my face. She must have realized that I meant the compliment—that there was no punchline coming.

  She cleared her throat. “That—that’s—“

  I watched as the wheels spun in her mind. The confusion was apparent in her eyes.

  I decided to cut her some slack. “You know, I’m really excited about the most gorgeous girl I know rubbing my shoulders and back. Thanks to the mower race you tricked me into doing, I have a nice kink in my back. You’re going to help me with it.”

  I grabbed her hand and walked around to the front of the trailer. There was a small wicker chair that looked as though it would crack if someone sat on it.

  I sat down and tugged her to stand behind me. “You can give me a back rub since you tricked me. It’s only fair. I should have known what you were up to.”

  “Yes, you should have,” she said as she rested her hands on my shoulders. “Is this how I’m supposed to repay you?”

  “Yes.” I snapped my fingers in the air. “Hurry up, I feel a call to my chiropractor might be needed if you don’t.”

  “You’re such a pain in the—“

  I pulled my phone from my pocket. It had somehow survived the race. “You can just pay for—“

  I didn’t get to finish my sentence because those slender little fingers dug into my shoulder blades, kneading them like they would a lump of dough.

  “Ahhh!” I gasped. “Ouch, ouch, ouch.”

  Riley laughed from behind me. “Don’t be such a whiner. I’m working out the tight muscles.”

  A high-pitched moan escaped from me. She was trying to rip my shoulders off. “Ow. This isn’t helping.”

  “It will help; you just have to relax. Take a deep breath.”

  I tried to take a deep breath, but halfway into pulling in fresh air, she started poking at my shoulders with renewed fervor.

  “No more!” I wheezed.

  She laughed and started rubbing my shoulders fast enough to burn the skin. “I just feel so terrible for tricking you onto that lawn mower. I’ll make it all better.”

  I stood up abruptly and stepped out of reach of those treacherous hands. “I think it’s all better now, no thanks to you.”

  She came around the back of the chair. “Now, I can see how sore your back is. You need to let me help you. You might need help.”

  I turned around and jogged toward my house. “I’d love to stay and hang out, but I’d better go home and rest.”

  She followed after me, an evil sparkle in her eyes. This was not good. “I’ll help you get
comfortable. You might need someone to help stretch your back.”

  “Oh, no! I’ve got it just fine!” I assured her as I ran up my steps. She followed right behind me.

  Under any other circumstances, I would have been thrilled—ecstatic, even—to have Riley chasing after me. But when it was under threat of a back rub, it was a different thing entirely. I opened the door and slipped inside, hurrying to shut the door.

  She managed to get a leg inside. I grabbed her knee and pushed it back outside. “You’re so sweet to want to help me, but I’ve got to run!”

  “How are you going to run with a hurt back?”

  “With great difficulty, I’m sure!” I planted my hand on her face and gently pushed her out of my house. I shut and locked the door. Barely.

  I stretched my shoulder and tried to gently massage them myself. Riley had done more damage than the lawn mower had.

  “Should I come check on you in the morning?”

  “Are you going to try to rub my back?”

  “Not if you don’t want me to.”

  “Okay, you can come check on me. I’ll make you my special Spam-and-powdered-egg breakfast burrito! Bring Wren; she won’t want to miss out on that deliciousness.”

  Chapter Eight

  Riley

  I didn’t go eat breakfast with Nate the next morning. I didn’t want him thinking I was enjoying his company—even if I was. It was more important than ever that he leave. He was settling in too much.

  I stopped pacing my small bedroom. The two-foot-wide space between the bed and the wall didn’t give me much room to work with. I was practically turning in circles.

  He knew. Nate knew what I did. I’m not sure how he figured it out, but last night, while Wren and I watched a BBC movie, I’d checked my notifications. I had a couple hundred from Nate.

  He’d commented with things like, ‘Nice,’ ‘Pretty,’ ‘Look at that sunset.’

  Unfortunately, the sunset he’d mention had been photoshopped into the picture. Maybe he knew it was. Maybe he didn’t.

  No matter what, I needed to work. That would help me get my mind off my problems.

  I grabbed my camera from the shelf above my bed. I slung it around my neck. Next, I grabbed my small hand shovel and pink gardening gloves from the basket beneath the bed. Time to take some pictures of my new succulent planter.