Outside Beauty

by Cynthia Kadohata

  “How do we make it go?” Maddie said.

  “It can’t be too complicated,” Marilyn said. “I mean, even stupid people can do it, so I’m sure we can.”

  I opened the little door on our gas tank and unscrewed the cap.

  Marilyn put the hose in, but nothing happened. Finally, the man who worked there came out. “Can I help you young ladies?”

  “We need gas,” Marilyn said crisply.

  “You got money? You have to pay first.”

  “We do? Okay, here’s five dollars.” She reached into her purse, trying to hide the contents from the man. “By the way, do you know where Mountain View Road is?”

  “Yep, it’s that road right over there.”

  “We just came from that direction,” I said. “We’re a little confused because we don’t have much experience.” Marilyn shot me the evil stink eye to shut me up.

  A few minutes later we were gassed up and heading down Mountain View Road on our way to our new life as runaways. It was almost too easy. Once we reached Larry’s cabin, we’d be made in the shade. There were no addresses anywhere, but there was only one house on Mountain View as far as we could see. “I recognize the trees in the yard,” Lakey said excitedly. Maddie, Lakey, and I screamed as Marilyn pulled in the driveway.

  We got out and peered into one of the windows in front. All we could see inside was murky dimness. I looked at Lakey. “Is this it?”

  “It looks like it might be,” she said.

  “What do you mean, it looks like it might be?” I said.

  “It looks like it might be,” she said again.

  “All right. Let’s figure out how to get in.”

  We tried the front door, just in case, but of course it was locked. We found a screwdriver in the trunk of the car, but we couldn’t figure out what to do with it. Marilyn pried at the lock, but nothing happened. We tried the back door and every window.

  “We might need to break a window after all,” Marilyn said. “We should have brought goggles or something. What if the glass goes flying?”

  We decided that Marilyn should break in because she was the oldest and probably also the strongest. “There’s a bunch of fallen branches,” I said, pointing to the ground. I handed one to Marilyn. She tried swinging it and shook her head.

  “It isn’t exactly right,” she said.

  So I found another one. It was nearly twice as thick as the last one and certainly appeared to be the perfect branch for breaking a window. But Marilyn tried swinging it and said it was too heavy for her to swing it hard enough.

  We went through three more branches before Marilyn found the perfect window-bashing branch.

  She put on three sweatshirts plus another three over her head, so if the glass went flying, it wouldn’t cut her. I guided her to the window and she lifted the branch. I held her hands and showed her where she should hit. Then Maddie, Lakey, and I stepped back.

  “Okay,” I called out.

  She swung—a direct hit! We all screamed. The glass cracked but didn’t break. We all groaned. “One more time in the same place,” I encouraged her. She hit the window again, and glass fell inside, a few shards flying toward her. Boy, she would be good with a piñata. Maddie, Lakey, and I cheered. Marilyn peeled off all the sweatshirts on her head and looked with satisfaction at the window. Using the branch, she pushed in the last of the glass. Then we all stood still and stared at one another.

  “I’ll go first,” Lakey finally offered.

  We hoisted her up and she jumped inside. She looked out the window at us. “It’s the wrong one.”

  “The wrong what?” Maddie, Marilyn, and I said at the same time.

  “The wrong house.”

  “The wrong house? Are you sure?” Marilyn asked.

  “Yes.”

  I said accusingly, “I thought you said it looked like Larry’s house.”

  “It does look like Larry’s house,” Lakey replied defensively. “But it’s not.”

  She climbed back out. “Well, we need to leave some money for the broken window,” I said. “How much does a window cost?”

  Nobody knew. “Let’s just leave a hundred,” Marilyn said. “That’s twenty-five dollars each, but Maddie doesn’t have her money, so it’s thirty-three apiece.”

  We took out our money and gave some to Marilyn. She leaned into the window and dropped the money inside.

  “Now what?” Lakey said.

  Marilyn said, “We’ll have to stay at a motel until we can decide what to do.” She looked at Lakey. “Unless you still think you can find his house.”

  “It’s around here somewhere. I remember we had to drive a long way to get to it for the wedding. Maybe we should take the road up farther.”

  We got back in the car, throwing our branch into the passenger side with Lakey. After we’d gone a little way, I said, “Well, does it look familiar?”

  Marilyn snapped, “Stop pressuring her, she’s trying.”

  “I’m not pressuring her, I’m just trying to figure out where this cabin is.”

  “All right, let’s just drive a little more and see,” Marilyn said.

  We followed the road until the odometer said we’d gone one and a half miles. Lakey called out, “There it is! I think that’s it!”

  So we got out, and Lakey studied the cabin.

  “Why did you say, ‘I think that’s it’?” I asked.

  “It looks the way I remember.” She walked around the house as we all followed. Then she spotted something and walked toward the backyard. “This is definitely it,” she said.

  “How do you know?” I said.

  “Because I touched that tree over there and made a wish.

  I walked over to where she was standing.

  I turned to Marilyn for a verdict.

  “All right,” she said. “But this is the last window I’m going to break. I can’t be breaking every window we come across.”

  Rewrapped in all the sweatshirts, Marilyn slammed our branch against one of the side windows. Lakey crawled into the window, chanting “This is it” the whole time. After she got inside, she triumphantly repeated, “This is it! I told you I recognized it. I’ll open the door for you.”

  We went around to the front door, and she let us in. It was a lovely cabin, with flowered curtains. I couldn’t imagine Larry with flowered curtains. His new wife must have hung them up.

  “I told you I knew where it was,” Lakey said.

  The phone started ringing, and we all froze. “It’s my dad,” Lakey said. “I can just feel it.”

  “Don’t answer!” Marilyn said. We all stood around staring at the phone until it finally stopped ringing.

  We couldn’t find a can opener in the cabin. And we couldn’t get the mayonnaise jar open. So we ate crackers, sardines, and oranges. The crackers seemed as good as any cracker anywhere, anytime. “Who doesn’t have a can opener in their house?” I said.

  “It’s a cabin, not a house,” Lakey said.

  “Well, we need to buy a can opener,” I said. “Shall we all drive back to town together, or should someone stay here?”

  “We should all go together!” Maddie cried out. “I don’t want to separate!”

  “Don’t worry, nobody’s going to leave you,” I said.

  Marilyn said, “I think we’ve had enough stress for one day.”

  The phone rang again, and we stayed perfectly still, as if whoever was on the line would know we were there if we moved.

  Larry had a VCR and a shelf of movies. We let Maddie pick the movie, and she chose Alien. “Are you sure?” I said. “It’s scary.”

  “Yes, I like alien movies.”

  “Maddie, you’re going to be scared later,” I said.

  “Pluhthegeeeease,” she said. “Pluhthegeeeease.”

  “Okay,” Marilyn said.

  We watched the movie, eating our crackers like popcorn. We pulled blankets off of the beds and all sat together on the floor.

  Maddie clung to me during the sca
ry parts, and Lakey clung to Marilyn. When the movie ended, Maddie said, “I’m scared. I think we should go to a motel.”

  “That would cost money. We can stay here for free,” Marilyn said.

  Maddie said, “Pluhthegeeeease. Pluhthegeeease.”

  I could tell Marilyn was considering it, but in the end she said, “No, we need to save our money.”

  Maddie clung to me in bed, and every so often she would say, “Did you hear that?”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” I kept saying.

  Finally, she went to sleep and Marilyn and Lakey went to sleep, and I was awake alone. Even though hours had passed since I drank my last cup of coffee, I still felt hyper. All of a sudden I heard noises that I hadn’t noticed before. The wind made a woooo sound, and something seemed to be scurrying outside. I could hear every little thing through the broken window. We needed to get that fixed first thing tomorrow. We were out here in the middle of nowhere. I got up and went into the kitchen and found a big knife. Then I put it under the bed where I was sleeping. I would have put it under the pillow, but I didn’t want to accidentally cut my head off. Wow, I was surprised that coffee was legal.

  Finally, I couldn’t keep myself up, even with the strange noises I kept hearing. I fell asleep and dreamed that Mr. Bronson had discovered us. Then I heard Maddie calling, “Shelby. Shelby.” And I was awake.

  “What?” I said. It was still dark out.

  “I need to go to the bathroom. Will you come with me?”

  “Sure.” I didn’t tell her that I was scared too. But I grabbed the knife.

  “What’s that for?” Maddie said.

  “In case I need to protect us.”

  “Okay, that’s what I thought.”

  Walking through the hallway with my knife, I knew that I would do anything to keep my Maddie from getting hurt. It was just one door down the hall, but you never knew what might happen.

  Then we got back in bed and Maddie said, “Will you stay up until I fall back to sleep?”

  “Okay,” I said. “Maddie?”

  “What?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Are you glad you came?”

  “Uh-huh,” she said. “It’s fun to run away. It’s like going camping.”

  She fell asleep again. I closed my eyes and could see parts of the movie as clearly as if I were watching it. Then I felt scared again.

  The next morning I was the last one up. My sisters were dressed and walking through the house making a list of what we needed to do or buy:

  1. Fix window

  2. Can opener

  3. Ak-Mak

  4. Popcorn

  5. Peach yogurt

  6. Another big knife (for Marilyn)

  7. Shampoo

  “Can you think of anything else, Shelby?” Marilyn asked.

  “I was thinking we need a cat,” I said.

  “A cat?” my sisters said in unison.

  “We need a pet.”

  “For what? Then we’ll have to pay for cat food,” Marilyn said.

  The phone started ringing again, and we all stayed still and quiet. When it stopped ringing, we relaxed again.

  “Do we need dishwashing soap? Regular soap? And detergent?” I said.

  “Okay, bath soap. There’s enough dishwashing liquid and detergent to last until the end of time,” Marilyn said. “Anything else?”

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “Except a cat.”

  “No pet,” Marilyn said. “Maybe later we can get one.”

  So we all piled into the car and drove around until we found a grocery store. This time we weren’t scared at all. In fact, we walked into the store as confident as we’d been since before our mother had her accident.

  When we got back to the cabin, we unpacked our bags. I noticed Maddie had packed a thick book.

  “What did you bring that for?” I asked.

  “Mr. Bronson got it for me. It’s about manners for young ladies. He said I had to memorize it.”

  I randomly opened up the book. A young lady never laughs in a loud manner. It is more appropriate to laugh in a lighthearted but quiet manner. It’s vulgar to show your teeth while laughing. “I didn’t know laughing was so complicated! I don’t think you need manners like that when you run away,” I said.

  “Blech,” Marilyn said. “He got you that book?”

  “You don’t think I might need it?”

  “No,” I said. “I think we should destroy it.”

  “Me too,” Marilyn said.

  “Me too,” Lakey said.

  “Let’s burn it!” I said.

  So we found some matches and took the book outside. We put a lot of sticks inside and on top of the book, and then Marilyn lit a match. It took nearly the whole box of matches to get a good fire going. We weren’t really nature girls. If we were, we probably would have burned it faster. Finally, flames shot up out of the book and we watched the burning paper shrivel up. The cover was a bit harder to burn. We found some newspaper inside to keep the fire hot so that we could destroy the cover. The heat felt good against my face.

  “Let’s hold hands and twirl,” Lakey said.

  “Around the fire!” Maddie said.

  “But we could burn ourselves,” I said.

  We all looked at Marilyn. “Okay, we’ll twirl around the fire, but be careful.”

  We twirled as fast as we could around the fire. The wind blew, spreading ash and embers everywhere, and we had to stomp on some leaves and embers. For a second there we were losing the battle, and I worried we were going to start a forest fire. But after a while there were no more embers, and the book was gone.

  I pounded my chest. “For we are the all-powerful daughters of Helen Kimura!”

  Maddie pounded her chest and said, “For we are powerful girls!”

  We went inside to eat and to plan our new life.

  “I guess I should get a job,” Marilyn said between bites of cracker. “But there’s no hurry. Since we don’t pay rent, we won’t be spending a lot of money.”

  “Maybe we should make a budget,” I said.

  Marilyn said, “If we spend ten dollars or so a day on food, that’s . . . uh . . . uh . . .”

  “Maybe two hundred days,” Lakey said.

  We were still eating and planning when someone knocked on the door. We didn’t move until we heard “This is Deputy Jensen. Come on, girls. Your fathers are looking for you.” We looked at one another. A man peeked through the broken window. “Girls? I can see you. Don’t make me climb through this window. Your fathers are on their way here. They called the station. They’re coming to get you, and you can make it a lot easier on yourselves if you come to the station with me and wait for them.”

  We looked to Marilyn for an answer. But what could she do? She said softly to us, “I guess we’re caught.”

  Deputy Jensen had brought another deputy, a surly man with a huge paunch. We packed up our stuff while the paunchy guy got the keys from Marilyn and drove Tony’s car away. In the squad car, the four of us crammed into the backseat. Deputy Jensen helped each of us in, as if we were honored guests. As we pulled away from the house, Maddie whispered in my ear. “My father is going to kill me.”

  “So is mine,” I answered.

  “No,” she whispered. “I mean, is my father really going to kill me?”

  “Of course not.” But I knew Mr. Bronson would be really hard on Maddie, and I didn’t think I could stop that.

  “What are you talking about back there, girls?” Jensen eyed us through the rearview mirror. Nobody answered him, so he eyed me. “Which one are you?”

  “Shelby.”

  “Well, Shelby, what are you talking about back there?”

  “Ah . . . using the bathroom?”

  “Are you asking me or telling me?”

  “Asking. I mean, telling.” Before Deputy Jensen could say anything else, the radio squawked, “We have a 371 in progress at Al’s Liquor. Are you availa
ble, Carl?”

  “I’ll swing by there, but please send backup. I’m carrying a load vis-à-vis the 424.”

  “Affirmative. Uh, can you pick up something for lunch?”

  “Sure. See ya.”

  He started his siren and we were racing down the street. “Put your seat belts on, girls.”

  At Al’s Liquor, he ran inside with his gun drawn. In a few minutes he came out with a middle-aged woman in handcuffs. He looked at us. He looked at her. “Well, this is a little unorthodox,” he said, then he sat her in front while we stayed squished together in back. The woman turned to look at us and then leaned forward and ripped off a piece of upholstery with her teeth!

  “You need to settle,” Jensen told her calmly.

  We all glared at one another. I don’t know what my sisters were thinking, but I was worried that we were going to be put in a cell with the woman. Finally I couldn’t stand not knowing for sure.

  “Are you going to put us in jail?” I asked.

  “Not unless you want me to.” What kind of answer was that? At a stop sign, he turned back to look at me. “I ought to, but your fathers might not appreciate that.”

  “They’re going to be mad at us,” I said.

  “Yeah, and you know what? You deserve that. See, if I put you in jail, they’ll be mad at me, but if I don’t put you in jail, they’ll be mad at you. Got that?” The car behind us honked. “Who honks at a deputy?” he said.

  When we got to the station, Deputy Jensen told us that our fathers would be a few hours and we had no choice but to wait. Then he said, “I need to book her.” He gestured toward the woman.

  This running away business was exhausting. “I feel all spent,” I said. I’d never used the word “spent” like that before, but our mother said that sometimes, putting a hand to her forehead dramatically. She might not have been teaching us the things Mr. Bronson wanted, but she was surely teaching us a lot.

  Marilyn put her hand to her forehead and said, “Me too.”

  We sat on a bench watching another deputy cut pieces of paper in half for some reason. It probably wasn’t what he’d envisioned when he’d joined the force. Deputy Jensen had gone somewhere. We could have made a break for it, but there was nowhere to go. The car keys were in a drawer—we’d seen Jensen put them there. The station was quiet and empty. Maybe the other deputies were out on patrol. Or maybe there wasn’t much crime here so there weren’t many deputies. The man who was cutting looked at us. “First time?” he said.