Sisters, Ink

by Rebeca Seitz

  “Hey, yourself,” Tandy said. “Ready to do some serious scrapping?”

  “Absolutely. Let me just go lay her down, and I’ll come back to help carry up the food.”

  “Sure. Do you need some help?”

  “No, I’ve got it. You’ve got her for a second?” Meg nodded her head toward Savannah.

  “Yep. Go.” Tandy shooed Meg out of the kitchen.

  “Granddaddy!” James was still walking through the house, his little voice carrying.

  “He’s out in the barn,” Tandy called back. Savannah resumed her somersaults as they heard the front door open and slam shut.

  “Granddaddy!” James’s voice carried through the windows from the front yard.

  Kendra shook her head. “That child is attached to Daddy like fuzz on a peach.”

  Tandy looked out the window. “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here.”

  “Joy?”

  “Coming down the drive.”

  “Then let’s get this party started!”

  Tandy nodded. “Yeah, because I have a feeling I’ll have a hot date tonight.”

  “You and Clay looked as tight as my jeans after a Chinese food binge last night.”

  “We’ve got nine days. Might as well use them.”

  “And then what?”

  “What?”

  “After nine days,” Kendra said, “then what?”

  “I go back to Orlando, and he stays here.”

  “You’re just going to walk away from him?”

  “Weren’t you the one telling me last night to love ’em and leave ’em?”

  “I was kidding, Tandy. I didn’t think you’d do it.” Kendra reached up and adjusted the brightly colored scarf in her hair.

  “Well, I did.” She heard the defensiveness in her tone and made an effort to correct it. “I’ll be here for nine days, regardless, Ken. It makes sense to spend time with him.”

  “He makes you happy?” Kendra quirked an eyebrow. “This setup makes you happy?”

  “It’s more than that. Yeah, he makes me happy. But he’s Clay. He’s, you know, Clay.”

  Kendra sighed. “I know. But you be careful, sister. In about nine days it’s going to hurt like a thousand Band-Aids ripped off at once.”

  Tandy bit her lip and stared out the window at nothing. “I know,” she whispered as Joy came into the kitchen. Meg followed on her heels.

  “Hannah’s down, James is out with Daddy, and,” Meg looked down at Savannah on the floor, “this one is about to watch some VeggieTales. I’d say the time for scrapping has come!”

  Tandy shook herself free of the melancholy. There’d be time enough for sadness later. Like eight hundred miles’ worth.

  “What are we waiting for? Grab a sandwich and get your behinds up those stairs!”

  They filled plates with sandwiches and chips, snagging drinks from the refrigerator, then headed up the stairs to the scrapping studio. Meg stopped along the way and put in a video for Savannah.

  Each girl settled into her scrapping station. Tandy kept her sandwich in one hand while she resumed arranging photos she’d laid out last night. Too keyed up with energy to sleep, she’d come up here and grouped her pictures in preparation for scrapping today. The remembrance of last night made her hands still on the prints.

  Dancing with Clay, being with Clay, was easy as breathing. She’d forgotten how they could finish each other’s sentences, debate with humor, have intelligent conversation. Every song seemed more perfect than the last, and she’d tried to record every single second in her memory banks. They hadn’t talked much, just reveled in the feel of being together again.

  Kendra snapped her fingers. “Earth to Tandy.”

  Tandy blinked and noticed the sisters staring at her. “Sorry.” She smiled and went back to pushing pictures around into various layouts.

  “Hey, Ken, how’s your sculpture coming?” Meg asked. “Think it’ll be ready in time for the Iris Festival?”

  Kendra shook her head. “I don’t know. I worked on it this morning, but there’s something that’s off about it.”

  “What are you sculpting?” Joy eyes were intent on her layout. “You haven’t told us much about it.”

  “I have an image in my head of this woman running, but she’s caught.” Kendra waved her hands in the air, her gold bangles clinking together as she outlined the shape of the sculpture. “She’s fighting and struggling, and there are wisps and tendrils around her, weaving in between her arms and legs, holding her back in their tangle.”

  “Wow. Sounds intense.”

  “It is.” Kendra sighed and dropped her hands to the table. “Which is probably why I’m having such a hard time with it. Every time I work on her, she exhausts me emotionally.”

  “Do you think you’ll finish her?”

  “I hope so. If I could figure out what she’s running from, what those tendrils represent, it might help. Or figure out if she wants to get away, then I would know her facial expression and could start on it.”

  “Why wouldn’t she want to escape?” Joy applied rub-on letters to circles of chipboard.

  Kendra shrugged. “If she doesn’t want to leave what’s holding her back, then she wouldn’t want to get away.”

  “But then why run at all?” Meg pushed a distresser up and down the edge of paper striped with brick red and dark brown. “I mean, if she wants what’s behind her, why doesn’t she just turn around and quit running?”

  “Because she wants what’s in front of her, too.” Tandy’s voice was soft. Kendra’s ability to tap into Tandy’s mind had always amazed the entire family. They shared no blood relation, yet their hearts and minds were as connected as identical twins. “She wants them both.”

  “Sounds like you got your facial expression,” Meg said.

  Kendra nodded, her eyes on Tandy. “Yeah, it does.”

  Tandy gave a half laugh. “Glad I could help.”

  “Okay, we’ve got Kendra’s sculpture back on track,” Joy said brightly. “How about you, Meg? Do the children have any floats to ride in the parade this year?” She reached for a roll of glue dots, then began applying the chipboard pieces to her layout.

  “Savannah’s riding on the float for Lakewood Gymnastics.”

  Meg finished distressing the paper and applied adhesive to its back. “But I got out of serving on the float committee this year.”

  “How’d you manage that?”

  “Pretended I was Winona Ryder and they were a shoplifting charge. If celebrities can pay their debt to society in checks, so can I. Lakewood Gymnastics is now the proud owner of fifty new floor mats.”

  “Nice,” Joy said.

  “I thought so.”

  “Does Grace Christian have a float?” Tandy cut some ribbon and applied it across her page.

  “No.” Meg pulled a paper piercer from the tool turnabout in the center of the table. “They’re serving free ice cream during the festival, though.”

  “Sounds like a mess in the making.” Tandy uncapped a journaling pen and bent low over her layout.

  “Oh, yeah.” Meg began sliding her finished layout into page protectors. “But you know Daddy. He loves a good mess.”

  “That’d be why we’re here,” Kendra said and the sisters nodded.

  Tandy left her chair and walked over to the pegboard. Selecting a set of rub-on letters in dark brown, she walked back over to the table. Her layout—pictures of Cooper at the beach—was coming along well. Cooper’s big basset eyes looked up at her from a shell-strewn patch of sand. His paws were covered in grains of sand, and his ears were tipped in it as well from dragging the ground. She smiled. People would be nice, but Cooper was a good substitute. Most days.

  The phone on the wall trilled, and Kendra jumped up to grab it.

  “Hello? Oh, Clay, hi!”

  Tandy’s head jerked up and her eyes locked on Kendra, who was now twirling the phone cord around her finger.

  Kendra laughed. “Well, you weren’t doing too bad yoursel
f out there.”

  Another pause.

  “Yeah, she’s here. Hang on, and I’ll get her for you.” Kendra held out the phone, and Tandy’s eyes opened wide.

  “Phone,” Kendra said.

  Tandy went over and took the phone from Kendra’s hand. “Hello?”

  “Tandy?” His voice made her smile. She turned her back to the sisters to hide her reaction.

  “Last time I checked.”

  “Whatcha doing?”

  “Talking to you.”

  “You know, it’s a good thing I like a sassy woman.”

  “Good for whom?”

  “By the look on your face last night, I’d say you.”

  “Must have been the bad lighting.”

  “Yeah, I guess that was it. No way were you actually enjoying yourself or anything. That was some other woman dancing with me, singing along to the songs, right?”

  “Must have been.”

  “Good, then I need to let you go and correct a few conversations happening here.”

  “Here, as in the diner?”

  “Yep. Seems we’re the talk of the town.”

  Tandy groaned. “Please tell me you’re lying.”

  “I’m lying.”

  “Wait, are you lying now or were you lying before?”

  “Tell you what, you do me a favor, and I’ll make sure the folks around here talk more about the Iris Festival than you and me.” Tandy heard conversation in the background and pictured a roomful of diners leaning as close to the phone as they dared, as desperate for an earful as paparazzi for a money shot.

  “Why don’t you just make them hush out of the goodness of your heart?”

  “My heart’s not that good. Come on, it’s just one little favor.”

  “Then why are red flags flying in my head?”

  “Do these red flags have black boxes?”

  “What?”

  “Red flags with black boxes. One signifies a tropical storm. Two means a hurricane warning. You live in Orlando and don’t know these things?”

  “When the weather turns bad, I turn on the television. The man who gets paid thousands of dollars to tell me a hurricane is coming tells me a hurricane is coming. No need for flags.”

  “What’s the fun in that? Takes all the guesswork out of it.”

  “I know. We’re funny like that in Florida.”

  “So, can I get a favor?”

  “Are you going to stop asking if I say no?”

  “You’ve known me this long and still have to ask?”

  She sighed, deliberately drawing it out. “What’s the favor?”

  “First you have to agree to it.”

  “Hang on, let me go check.” She clunked the phone against the wall and stomped away, knowing he’d hear her steps on the floor. The sisters looked up from their scrapping and watched her with questioning looks. She held her finger to her lips for silence, then walked back to the phone. “Nope, I looked and looked but not one single pig was flying.”

  The sisters laughed behind her.

  “Sassy women. God’s gift to mankind.”

  “The favor?”

  “Right. Well, I play in a band; and before you make fun of me, we’re not half bad. It’s something fun to do, and we even make a little money at it.”

  “So I heard.”

  “You knew I played in a band?”

  “It’s Stars Hill, Clay. If I wanted to, I could find out what you had for breakfast this morning.”

  “Good point. Okay, normally on Saturday nights I hang out with Darin, our bass player. Except tonight I wanted to be with you, not Darin.”

  “Sounds like a logical choice.”

  “But I can’t just call Darin and cancel last minute. We’ve hung out nearly ever Saturday night since the band started.”

  “Darin’s girlfriend is okay with this?”

  “I’m sure if he had one, she wouldn’t be. But his ex split over a year ago, and dating hasn’t been at the top of his to-do list.”

  “You guys just get together every Saturday and, what?”

  “Not much. Play pool. Hit a movie. Whatever.”

  “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the favor?”

  “Think you could get Kendra to go out with us tonight?”

  “You’re kidding me.”

  “It’s either that or you, me, and a third wheel. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather find something to keep Darin’s interest than spend all night sitting on his couch, just the cozy three of us, watching the Modern Marvels marathon.”

  “A smart woman would say no to this.”

  “Good thing I like sassy instead.”

  “Hang on. I’ll go see if she’ll come. But I’m warning you, if she hits me, you pay the hospital bill.”

  “Deal. But duck if you can, okay?”

  “Got it. Be right back.” Tandy let the phone fall again and walked over to the scrapping table. Joy looked up from her layout. Meg sat down her eyelet setter. Tandy waited until Kendra finished tying a knot in a piece of ribbon and met her gaze.

  “I don’t like that look,” Kendra said.

  Tandy blinked. “What look?”

  “The one that says you’re about to ask me to do something or say something I don’t want.”

  Tandy broke and made her way around the table to Kendra’s side. “Please, Ken, it’s just one little favor, and it’d mean the world to me, and dating him was your idea anyway.”

  Kendra turned on her stool and put one hand on her hip. “I told you I was kidding.” She reached forward and poked Tandy’s chest like a robin pecking the ground for worms. “You did it anyway, so don’t be laying that at my feet anymore.”

  “Okay, fine. It was all me. Just do me this favor.”

  Kendra quirked an eyebrow. “Will we end up in jail?”

  “Not unless the night goes way better than I anticipate.”

  “What is it?”

  “Clay spends Saturday nights with his band mate, Darin. He doesn’t want to flake on Darin last minute, so he wants you to double-date with us.”

  “A blind date? Tandy, how old are we?”

  “Old enough to know better, I know. But also old enough to do great, wonderful, fantastic things for each other even when we don’t want to.” She leaned forward and placed a hand on Kendra’s arm. “Please, Ken. If you hate him, we can leave. I promise. Unless your unparticular man would object.”

  “I told you, I don’t have a man, imparticular or otherwise.”

  “Then please, please, please, can you do this for me?”

  “Another one bites the dust …” Meg sang without looking up from her work.

  Joy laughed. “Oh, Meg, stop.”

  Kendra turned back to Tandy. “What does he play?”

  “Bass.”

  “Hmm, bass is good. Shows he’s got some rhythm in him, some art.” She paused a second longer.

  “You’re killing me here, sis.”

  “Okay, I’ll do it.”

  Tandy jumped up and down. “Yes! Thank you! You are the best sister ever!” She circled the table again and went for the phone.

  “What are we, chopped liver?” Meg asked.

  “Y’all are great, too,” Tandy said, snatching up the phone. “Okay, Clay, she said yes.”

  “Wow, remind me never to go up against you in court. Those powers of persuasion must be intense.”

  “I’m murder in a courtroom.”

  “I can imagine. So I’ll pick you up around six, and we can swing by and pick up Kendra afterward. Does that work?”

  “Like Julia Roberts on Hollywood Boulevard.”

  His chuckle sent warm shivers through her. “See you tonight.”

  “See ya.” She hung up the phone and stared at it, then turned to see Kendra walking over to the window.

  Kendra’s hand went to her hip, and she peered through the glass.

  “What are you doing?” Tandy walked over to her.

  “I know you said you didn’t see any—”
Kendra’s eyes darted back and forth—“but I’m pretty sure something’s flying out there that shouldn’t be if I just agreed to go on a blind date.”

  Meg and Joy laughed as Tandy laid her head on Kendra’s shoulder and looked outside. “Thanks for doing this.”

  Kendra leaned into her. “That’ll teach me to make dumb jokes about seizing the day. Or nine days, as the case may be.”

  Fifteen

  Any chance you can come down off the cloud long enough to tell me where we’re going?”

  Kendra’s question just barely got through Tandy’s pleasant fog. “Hmm?”

  “Tonight. Where is this blind date taking me?”

  “Oh, I didn’t ask.”

  Meg and Joy giggled and kept their heads down, eyes focused on their layouts.

  “You didn’t ask?” The disapproval in her voice made Tandy think of the nun from The Sound of Music. She glanced down to confirm she wasn’t wearing clothes made from the curtains.

  “No, I forgot.”

  “You forgot?” Kendra stood, one fist planted on each hip. Tandy knew that stance. It worked in court. “How am I supposed to know what to wear?”

  “Guess?”

  Kendra’s steely glare was louder than any amplification could have provided.

  “Does this man know I’m black?” Her voice had dropped to that quiet level reserved only for deep waters and hidden danger. “Is he?”

  “Um—” Tandy’s eyes pleaded with the tops of Meg and Joy’s heads, but both sisters were as focused on their work as a sniper on his target—“I may have forgotten to ask.”

  Kendra threw her hands in the air, her bracelets jangling. “Of course you did. I mean, why would Kendra want to know any details about the guy she’s going to have to make conversation with for hours on end so her sister can have fun? Did it occur to you he may not be okay with this?”

  “Wait, wait. Hang on. I’ll call Clay back and get some more information.” Tandy scurried over to the phone. “Just hang on. I’m out of practice at this, okay? I’ll get more info.”

  “You do that,” Kendra pointed a red-tipped finger at Tandy. “You just go do that.” She sat back down on the stool with a flourish, her colorful caftan billowing out, then settling in around her. Tandy had the impression of a regal princess assuming her throne.

  She tapped the Caller ID button on the phone, then dialed the number Clay had called her from earlier.