by Unknown
“Daylight already.” Eyes closed, she checked off a mental calendar. “Damn, it’s a school day.”
She heard the scurrying on the stairs; that would be Mother rushing down in floppy slippers to make breakfast, and counted to ten.
Right on cue: “Lucy, are you awake? Time to get up!”
A normal mother would have called to her daughter from right outside the bedroom door, not waited until she was in the remote reaches of the kitchen, but then, Lucy doubted Minnie was all that normal. She flung feet first out of bed and rolled to stand, staring into the mirror perched at a dangerous tilt on her dresser. Critically she arched her eyebrows, puckered, made a face and examined her teeth. Definitely her best feature, she thought, now those baby teeth had been replaced.
“Lucy, breakfast!”
She shook her head, letting loose the rat’s nest of coal-black strands that settled as they pleased around her thin face. Lucy squinted. Minnie always said she took after her father. Where Minnie was fair and blonde, Father had the traditional Hardkin narrow face, thin nose, and shaggy ebony hair. At least he said that was traditional; she’d never met any of her paternal relatives. Of course, Mother’s family seemed to avoid them too, now that she thought about it. Lucy idly wondered what her father had ever seen in Minnie. Perhaps years ago—
“Lucy!”
Of course breakfast wasn’t really ready, she knew that. Minnie just expected her daughter to spend some quality time with her father before he turned in to sleep the day through.
Lucy threw on her T-Rex-print robe and headed down the stairs. Today they creaked louder than usual.
“Have a seat. Breakfast will just be a few minutes.”
“I’m not hungry.” She knew well enough to sit.
Father raised his eyes from the Free Press. “Don’t talk back to your mother.”
Lucy kept quiet. His eyes were a piercing ice-blue today. He’d changed his contacts again. She remembered coming across the containers of different coloured lenses one day rummaging through his dresser. Lucy also vividly remembered the night, when she was six, opening her parent’s bedroom door because she thought she’d heard a cry. Father’s head jerked up, startled, from where he lay sprawled across her mother, and glared at her through scarlet eyes, brilliant as twin suns. She’d run screaming, and it took Minnie all night to calm her down. Some things you don’t forget.
“By next week we will have you registered at a different school.”
“But I just started this one.”
She could feel the glacial chill across the table.
“We have discussed this. You will be attending a private school. A girl’s boarding school.”
She smothered the urge to mutter, “Whatever.” Actually, they hadn’t discussed it. She never discussed things with her father. He could be as persuasive as melted butter over fresh hot popcorn, or as rigid and cold as an iceberg at forty below. She glanced across to where her mother, back turned to them, worked furiously at scrambling eggs as though they might try to escape the bowl at any moment.
Don’t worry Minnie, Lucy thought, I won’t set him off. Besides, I know it was mainly your idea. Lying in her room one night last week, staring at the ceiling, she had overheard them talking downstairs.
“She’s getting to that age; she’s almost grown up.” Minnie trying to maintain a calm voice. “She should be with girls her own age.”
“Are you certain that’s the only reason?” Cold as the mythical witch’s tit.
“And we move around so often. It would be better if she could stay in one school for a while.”
Yes, they had moved a lot. Lucy remembered asking Minnie “Why?” one afternoon when she came home to find her mother sitting in the darkened family room, staring into space. The TV flickered silently, showing a black and white movie with the sound muted. A half-empty bottle of red wine graced the table beside her. After a minute, Minnie looked up at her daughter standing in the doorway.
“Why do we have to move again? It’s your father’s work. It’s time to relocate.”
“But why does the whole family have to move? It’s not as though he can’t take a plane or a bus or drive himself.”
“The company prefers he doesn’t have to go too far from home when he’s on business.”
Lucy took advantage of her mother’s abstract gaze that drifted somewhere beyond the TV. “Just what does father do again, sell refrigerators, or used cars?”
“Don’t be silly dear,” Minnie whispered, “he has an important position, does important work.”
“He works for The Bay or Sears, right?”
“No dear, he works for The Service. You know, the one we’re not supposed to talk about. He does things for them, and he does them very well.” Minnie’s voice had faded to somewhere below a whisper. “Don’t want to know what he does for them, never ask, don’t talk about it.”
Then Minnie had turned slowly to stare up at the silhouette of her daughter in the doorway. “Lucy! You startled me. What are you doing home at this hour?”
The rattle of his newspaper brought Lucy back to the present. She toyed with her spoon, thought just for one reckless minute of suspending it from her nose, and then her survival instinct took over. Minnie approached with a pot of black liquid.
“Everyone for coffee?”
His hand extended a cup without ever looking up. Lucy sighed and shook her head.
“You know I don’t drink coffee, Mother.”
“How about some freshly squeezed orange juice, dear?”
Lucy waited for a reaction from across the table. When none came forth from behind the newspaper, she nodded. He was having his regular glass of tomato juice from his private stock. She decided to give a break for freedom one more try.
“I just signed up for the school soccer team.”
He didn’t bother to look up. “They will get along without you. I’m sure there will be extra-curricular programs in your new school, although, looking at your last grades, perhaps you should concentrate on academics instead.”
“Lucy is a growing girl. She does need her exercise.” Minnie’s soft tone barely topped the sizzling eggs.
She glanced at Minnie hoping for more support. Three schools since January, move in the summer, register at a new high school, then this new nonsense about private schools. Her eyes narrowed. They were trying to get rid of her!
Lucy noticed the familiar red silk scarf around her mother’s neck. Silly woman, she wore the thing everywhere in the mornings. It really highlighted her pale skin. This morning Minnie seemed even paler than usual. Lucy felt her father’s eyes appraising her over the sports pages. She concentrated on the orange juice. When he looked at her like that it gave her the willies.
It reminded her of last March when she’d brought home a friend to spend the night. She’d only known Suzanne for a month, but the girl was new at school too, and her parents were going away for the weekend. Father turned on the enchantment, dripping with pleasantries, treated her to the full blast of his charm. Suzanne couldn’t stop chattering that night about how wonderful he was, how lucky Lucy was to have an understanding parent like that. Foolish girl, and wouldn’t you just know it, Suzanne picked that weekend to have her first period. Lucy thought Minnie would throw a fit, calming the silly girl down. For a change father hadn’t gone out that evening. She could hear him roaming around, and then Minnie kept peeking in all night, checking up on them. It had been a disaster as far as sleep-overs went.
Lucy caught a whiff from the frying pan, heard the sizzle. “Sounds like fried blood pudding, can I have some?”
“No, you may not.” Minnie scraped a mass of scrambled eggs onto her plate. “And I wish you would wear something different to breakfast. That old robe is not very ladylike.”
Lucy patted the T-Rex stalking across her tummy and ran her finger over the frayed cotton fangs. “It’s my favourite.”
“You are too old for that sort of thing. Your mother will take you downtown afte
r school and get you something more suitable.” He looked at her over the edge of the entertainment section, as though daring her to speak. “You will need it for the boarding school anyway.”
This time the “Whatever,” escaped her lips before she could snare it.
Steel-blue eyes narrowed. “Speak proper English, young lady. We respect old-fashioned values in this family. Don’t you forget it.”
His breakfast arrived and he set down the paper and ignored her.
Lucy downed the orange juice, inhaled the eggs, and hurried upstairs. Her stomach felt like goblins inside were practising knitting and poking her with their needles. The sensation passed and she threw on an outfit from her closet and then stood thoughtfully examining a zit in her mirror.
“Speak proper English,” Lucy snarled, making a face. She knew why they were sending her to boarding school. They never wanted her in the first place. She knew that. She had the proof: the Saturday morning she’d come downstairs to find Minnie at the kitchen table with a bottle of cooking sherry was burned into Lucy’s hard drive. Father hadn’t come home that night, probably out on one of his business trips. It was her seventh birthday. Minnie looked up at her through red-rimmed eyes.
“You weren’t supposed to happen,” she said.
Lucy froze, her hand on the refrigerator door.
“Said you were an impossibility. Later, he said it must have been because he died in the throes of passion. Did you know that? All those years, he carried the seed.” Minnie took a long sip right out of the bottle. Some of it trickled from the corner of her mouth and across her chin. “Said there’d always just be the two of us, then you had to come along.”
Lucy had blinked, trying to change the image.
“Lucy! I didn’t hear you come down. Would you like me to make you some breakfast?”
“Don’t bother, I’m not hungry.”
Lucy tossed her head to break up the painful remembrances. She wondered whether to highlight her eyes in black, decided they wouldn’t approve. “I’m still not hungry,” Lucy muttered, abandoning the bedroom mirror. “Not anymore.” Her stomach seemed to be churning. Must be nerves.
Someday she’d escape this weird family. She recalled the night she’d been poking around under her parents’ bed. The sitter thought she was asleep. Lucy knew her mother’s wedding dress was stored in a box under the bed and just wanted to have a quick look. She found a flat wooden box and dragged it out to peer inside. No dress, just a layer of dirt. Dirt! What kind of people keep a box of dirt under their bed? She did finally dig out a cardboard box holding a black silk gown, but by then it was anticlimactic.
She’d waited a whole year before asking Minnie about the wooden box. Minnie had muttered something about it being an old family keepsake, and then grounded Lucy’s computer usage for a week. Weird parents, no wonder she didn’t have any friends!
“You’ll be late for school!”
He was speaking with Minnie as Lucy headed for the door. “I have to leave tonight for Ottawa and I’ll be gone for a few days. The President and First Lady are coming for a State visit and I’m on assignment.”
“Going to interview him?” Lucy asked, struggling into her backpack.
He gazed at her for a moment. “No. I will be working the night shift.” Shaking his head he ascended the stairs to his room. At the top he turned and for a minute she almost believed he was going to smile. “I don’t do interviews, I interrogate.” Then he disappeared and the door closed.
“Would you like a ride to school?” Minnie said brightly.
“No, I have time, I’ll walk.” She needed to burn off some frustration.
Lucy paused on the school steps and watched, irritated by the mindless herd flowing around her. Sheep, she thought, a whole flock of sheep. Weak sheep, all dressing the same, trying to sound the same, look the same, baa, baa, baa. After surviving being the new kid at schools, and tip-toeing around her weird parents, weak was not in her private vocabulary. She narrowed her eyes and growled under her breath. I’m more like a lone wolf. The cramps hit then, painful and sharp.
“Shit, what the hell was that?” She almost doubled over with the sudden pain. Minnie must have used rotten eggs!
By mid-morning the aches had eased and she got ready for soccer practice; ready to take out her growing bad mood on the first person who dared cross her. That happened with five minutes to go. Lucy had been tearing around the field, trying to drive her foot through the ball, and running over anyone who got in her way. The ditsy teacher’s aid in charge of the class had warned her once, then, just as Lucy was closing in like a rogue missile toward the net, Mary-Beth Johansson tried to block her. That was Mary-Beth’s first mistake; the second was not ducking when Lucy elbowed her in the nose. Crimson blood spurted like a broken water main. Lucy pounded the ball past the cowering goaltender, then turned and grinned down at Mary-Beth.
“You did that on purpose!” Mary-Beth screamed.
“You, whatever your name is, go to the showers. Now!” The teacher’s aid pushed Lucy back and knelt to examine the victim.
For a minute Lucy looked at Mary-Beth sprawled on the grass, stared at the blood spilling across her chin, watched the teacher’s aid trying to staunch the flow. For just a minute Lucy imagined she could actually smell the sweet, rich stream, see it pulsing to the beat of Mary-Beth’s heart.
“My nose! It’s broken!” Mary-Beth screeched.
Lucy turned and pushed her way through the growing crowd. She was enjoying the luxury of being the only one in the showers when she felt something warm on her leg. A tiny stream of blood mingled with the water then trickled across the floor to escape down the drain. She stared at it.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! Just what I need. Something else to hide from Minnie.”
Outside she could hear the excited chatter of the other girls at the outer doors; practice was over.
Lucy shook herself free of a growing numbness and grabbed her towel and a tampon from the dispenser. She dressed and was leaving as the others poured into the change room clucking like a flock of chickens.
“You’re screwed. Wait ‘till her brother hears about this!”
Lucy almost knocked a skinny redhead over as she escaped. Fortunately, most of these girls were not in her next class; unfortunately, it was English.
“Students, I want you to write me a two page essay on the topic, “My Summer Vacation”, Miss Deavor said, beaming. “You have the rest of this session to complete it. Start now.”
Lucy mentally groaned. They didn’t really want to know about her summer vacation. She was still trying to forget it. After much whining they had gone to the beach and rented a cottage for a week. What was the use of living near a lake if you couldn’t go sit on the sand and enjoy the sun? Lucy could have died at the sight of her father, after much prodding, sitting on a blanket, under an umbrella, wearing a large straw hat, and clothed from fingertip to toe. He even wore gloves. She knew he always used the highest SPF rated sunblock he could find, but this was ridiculous. Lucy wouldn’t come out of the water until he had gone inside. She had avoided her parents for the rest of the week. Now she was expected to write about her summer vacation? She clenched her teeth and lied.
Science class had that young teacher, Mr. Deed. Lucy listened to his voice. She’d never noticed before how pleasant he sounded. He had a nice smile, too. Instead of staring out the window, or listening to the two girls in the next row dissing her, as if they didn’t think she could hear them, she focussed on Mr. Deed. He was wearing some blended essence of spices. When his lips moved, so did the vein in his neck. There was a rhythm to it. She felt very relaxed.
“Lucy, are you falling asleep?”
“No … sorry … just resting my eyes.”
“Well then, could you explain to the class just what Darwin meant when he was talking about how a species might change? What would a creature need to become successful? How would new adaptations help?”
She squirmed in her seat
, trying to remember the class discussion. “He meant … that … um … in order to succeed, an animal would do better if it had some advantage over the rest of the other animals.”
“But how would a new adaptation give it an advantage within its own group, eventually cause it to change?” He stared at her.
Lucy suppressed a sudden urge to give him a sly smirk. Instead she calmly gazed into his eyes, caught his sudden start as though seeing her for the first time.
He blinked and looked out over the other heads in the room. “The main thrust of what Darwin was saying is that a species begins to evolve when a member of the group possesses a new adaptation that gives it an advantage over other members of the same species. Because it is successful, it is more likely to breed, and that new adaptation is then passed on through its children. The end result is a new species.”
Lucy’s mind drifted away from Mr. Deed’s smile to the conversation of the two girls at the back of the room. They were discussing her and what Mary-Beth’s brother was liable to do when he found out about his sister. She shut them out. After class she lingered by Mr. Deed’s desk but he appeared in a hurry to leave.
“I had some questions about Darwin and species,” she said softly. His eyes were a deep brown.
“Sorry, I have to leave right after school.” He fumbled with his books.
“Maybe later?”
“Just pay attention in class.” He hurried out.
Lucy had a sudden urge to purr but she suppressed it, along with a giggle. Strangely, she wondered what Mr. Deed would taste like. Probably salty, with a hint of spice, she thought. Grinning, Lucy headed for her locker.
David Johansson was waiting for her; so were a gaggle of girls lurking at the far end of the corridor. He leaned casually against an adjoining locker, watching her approach. She squared her shoulders and pressed on, ignoring him as she spun the combination.