Chapter 11
Tanner gazed out the car window, watching for Julia’s house. He had been surprised to receive the text from her inviting him over for food; he never declined a food invite. He hitched a ride with his Mom and Bonnie who were on their way to visit a new church in the neighborhood. He had to promise he would go with them next time.
He saw Julia sitting on a front porch of a yellow trimmed two-story. “This is it. Stop here.”
“That’s her?” Joanne said. “She’s… pretty.”
“Don’t worry. She’s not my girlfriend. She invited me over to eat. No big deal.”
“Did I say anything about girlfriend? I’m only saying she has such pretty blue hair.”
“Who?” Bonnie said from the back seat. “I wanna see. I wanna see...”
“Do you want me to pick you up after church?”
“Nah. I can walk,” he said wishing he had grabbed his board. He turned to Bonnie, who was stretching her neck up to see out her window. “See you later, Squirt.”
She dropped back into her booster seat with an exaggerated frown. “My name’s Bonnie.”
“What was I thinking? I’ll see you later, Bonnie.”
“Bye,” she said and waved.
“Hey,” Julia said walking up to him. “I um… figured I’d wait out here so you could find my house.”
“Thanks. Yeah. Most of the houses do look the same.” Confused by the unexpected awkward tension between them, Tanner suddenly didn’t know how to use his arms. He put them on his hips, crossed them over his chest…
“Come on in. My dad’s not up yet. He had a late night,” she said as they walked into the front door. “We celebrated his forty-fifth birthday last night.”
Tanner could see beyond the foyer and into the party-littered living room. “Sure looks like he had a great time.”
“Yeah, I hope.” Julia sighed as she shut the door behind them. She gave him a quick smile, but her eyes reflected what she was about to say. “It’s been hard on him since my mom died.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“No… I…” She shrugged her shoulders. “Anyway, I’m glad you came over.”
He nodded and looked away when the silence between them became uneasy.
“Let’s go to the kitchen,” she said quickly. “There is soooo much food. I hope you’re hungry.”
“Yeah, starving.” He followed her through the living room, kicking a balloon lolling in his path, and into a spacious bright yellow and white kitchen. “I actually had a late night, too.”
She opened the refrigerator door. “Really,” she said with her head inside. She brought out bowls of food and set them on the counter and opened a cabinet above her and reached inside.
“Well, yesterday after Poppi’s grandma—who by the way, actually does look like witch—wouldn’t even let me talk to her, I got Poppi’s attention by throwing stuff at her window. She then actually dropped a note that said to come over after midnight when her grandma was asleep. So I did.” The loud bang of the cabinet door distracted him for half a second before he continued. “Umm, anyway, she’s really different… strange, even.”
Julia said, “Oh, she’s really weird, huh. Figures if what they—”
“No, no not weird, just quiet and kind of helpless, I guess. You know.” He followed Julia to the small breakfast table. “Kind of lonely and sad. I feel sorry for her but at the same time I kind of like her. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. About the way she kissed me.”
“Oh. Uh huh.”
“And wow. That second kiss...”
Julia started shoveling food onto the plate. A lot of food.
“Woah! I’m not that hungry.” That’s when he noticed only one plate. “Aren’t you going to eat with me?”
“I’ll be right back.” She walked out of the kitchen.
Tanner scratched his head, stared at the food on the table and then to where Julia had walked out. Obviously, he had said something to upset her. He sat down on one of the chairs at the table and waited. When he thought perhaps he should go look for her, she walked back in the kitchen. She grabbed the plate off the table, stuck it in the microwave and pushed a couple of buttons, all without glancing at Tanner and without saying a word.
“Something wrong?” he asked as he stood up. “Did I say something? Julia?” An odd thought hit him. Perhaps what he had said about Poppi affected her. But that couldn’t be right. Julia hadn’t shown any interest in him. Quite the opposite. He wasn’t even her type. Whatever that might be… was he? He tried to hold back the smile that ached at the sides of his mouth. “Hey, we’re just friends, right? What I said about Poppi… you’re not… jealous are you?”
“Yeah right!” she snapped and swung her gaze to the microwave. “I’m… worried about my dad, you know. He acted all like he was happy last night, but I know him, so I had to go check on him… and you know… he’s not doing all that great after all.” The microwave beeped. “Can I put this in some Tupperware and send it with you?”
“What? Really? Sure. I guess.”
Julia retrieved the food from the microwave and put in on the opposite counter. With her back to Tanner, she grabbed a bowl out of the cabinet. Tanner shook his head feeling really self-centered for thinking Julia got upset because she had the hots for him or something. He couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been losing her mom. Even though Tanner didn’t live with his dad, he could call him anytime he wanted. He didn’t want to even think about life without his mom.
Julia turned and handed him the bowl without looking at him, but he could tell she had been crying. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll give the bowl back to you tomorrow at school.”
“Keep it,” she said.
“No, I’ll bring it with me. Thanks. It really smells good.”
She nodded.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow?”
She shrugged her shoulders, and he walked himself out.
***
After Tanner walked home and ate most of the food Julia had so curiously packed for him, he went outside to skateboard and wait for signs of Poppi.
When dusk arrived and he hadn’t noticed any movement of any kind from her house, he went inside, ate dinner, and ended the day by playing on his computer and watching out of his window. Once he thought he saw a shadow. Once he thought he saw the curtains move downstairs. Her grandmother had to leave some time or another. The night ticked by slowly.
Right after midnight, he made his way back across the street and called her name quietly. This time she waited for him with the window open. He climbed the tree with more speed and skill and landed in her room in under a minute.
Poppi wrapped her arms around him, giving him a friendly hug. “I’m so glad you came back!” she said as she pulled away.
He had an internal struggle as to whether he should initiate a kiss or not. That was what he had been waiting on, but she walked away before he finished the debate and sat down in a child-sized rocking chair. She rocked back and forth, back and forth…
He couldn’t just stand there and stare at her like he wanted to, so he moved about a little, stopping at her vanity, pretending to admire her Little Mermaid hand-mirror. “So why are you here?” he asked after a brief moment
“I live here,” she said, her words sweet and innocent.
Amused, he laughed gently as he turned and smiled at her. “I mean, why your grandmother’s?”
She stopped rocking and stood up. “Oh, I haven’t thought about that in forever.” She plopped right down on the floor, her nightgown up around her snow-white thighs. She tucked her hands in her lap, and for a moment it seemed as if she had fallen asleep.
“Poppi?” Tanner walked over slowly and sat down in front of her. “Are you all right?”
When she finally opened her eyes, Tanner could see a glimmer of tears developing.
“Hey, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It’s a
ll right. I remember now.” Suddenly, she squeezed her face in, and he thought she would burst into tears.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” The last thing he meant to do was make her cry.
“One day I found my Mommy passed out,” she said. “I called my Daddy and he brought me here to stay with Grandma. He told me he didn’t have a choice. He had to take Mommy to a hospital in Mexico City, and I had to stay here. I understood. Grandma has lots of money. I remember now. Grandma gave him money. They sold me to Grandma to help Mommy.”
“Maybe they were borrowing some money—” He stopped when he noticed her expression had changed from sad to daggers.
“No! They, they argued before. I heard them. They said grandma wanted to take me from them forever.” Her face softened. “How could I have forgotten? How could they forget me? They didn’t come back. I never saw them again.”
“How old are you? Julia said you were two years ahead… When you’re eighteen, you can leave. Are you eighteen? You can leave.”
“I can’t leave,” she shrilled. “I can never leave. She told me if I left I would die.” She dropped her head down and began to sob into her hands.
“Shhh.” Tanner crawled to her side and drew her close. It didn’t seem to comfort her because her cries grew louder. “Shhh. Everything is all right. I’m sorry.” He was afraid her cries would wake her grandmother. No matter what he told his mom, if he got caught in a girl’s room, in the middle of the night, without permission, she wouldn’t listen to anything he had to say about Poppi’s situation. Not wanting any problems, his mom might even pack up the family and leave that second.
Tanner heard something. Footsteps? “Poppi, I should get out of here.”
“What?” she looked at him abruptly. “Why?”
“I’m sorry I upset you. I have to go.” He ran to the window and put one foot out and straddled. “I’ll be back tomorrow night.”
The door handled moved. “Crap,” he said and got his other foot out the window.
As he hung by his hands, he heard a woman’s voice say, “Poppi? Poppi?” He let go and fell to the ground, landing on his feet in a squat. He dove for the bushes, hearing the window slam shut.
His heart pounded in his chest as he wondered if she had seen him. He waited by the house in the shadows for a few minutes before sprinting across the yard.
Chapter 12
Julia had spent most of Sunday night pounding her pillow crying, “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! How can I be so stupid?” and thinking how she didn’t care if the Princes changed Tanner or not; they could have him and his Poppi-kissing lips.
By Monday morning she had fully recovered. Even after she and Zachary had broken up she hadn’t let it get her down for long. She figured she had two choices when it came to heart break: let it go, or let it destroy her. After all, she had survived the death of her mom and the alienation of all of her friends. What was the rejection of some stupid boy she had only known for a week? So she dusted herself off, ready to face another day.
At least that had been her plan until she saw him standing there smiling at her like nothing had happened. It made her angry that she had shoved him out the door, food in hand, after she had invited him over, and he seemed to have forgotten all about it, just like that.
Now she faced another choice: not talk to him or pretend nothing was wrong. If she ignored him, she knew he would chase after her for sure, hounding possibly, most likely even asking annoying questions like, “Did I do something wrong? Are you mad at me? What did I do? I’m sorry, blah, blah, blah.” On the other hand, she could smile, pretending everything was peachy, and maybe even convince herself that her heart hadn’t been shredded to pieces the day before.
“Hi Tanner,” she said and smiled.
“How’s your dad?” he asked, handing her the borrowed bowl.
She looked down at the bowl. “My dad was so pissed. You know, it felt like someone shredded his heart into tiny bloody pieces. It felt like someone stuck a knife into his stomach and turned it… slowly. He wanted to throw up, and he didn’t want to get out of bed.”
“Yikes, I’m really sorry,” he said. “I can’t imagine if something happened to my mom.”
“But he’s better now.” Actually she felt better after getting it off of her chest. It was a little something she had learned from her time studying the book with the Princes. A dissociate technique. She used it a lot with her dad. Since he hadn’t been well, she didn’t want to make him any worse. So if she wanted to yell at him she’d say something like, “Did I tell about my idiot teacher, Mr. Jacks? He’s treating me like such a baby. Sometimes I want to tell him, “You are such a jerk!”
“That food was some fantastic!” Tanner said. “By the way, my mom… oh… I’m sorry.”
“Tanner, you can’t be sorry that you have a mom. Everything’s okay. I’m getting okay.”
He nodded as they walked into the school. She remembered how awkward it had been when she came back to school right after it happened. No one knew what to say to her or how to act, so she ended up feeling like she had some sort of disease. “So how is Poppi?” Why the hell did she bring her up? Was it really worth changing the subject?
He shrugged his shoulders.
Julia quickly analyzed his reaction to the question: maybe it’s over before it started. Maybe Miss Golden Tresses decided she was too good for skater boy. She turned away from him so he couldn’t see her blurted smile. She smiled all the way to her locker and while she opened it up. She could feel Tanner standing behind her, probably moping, needing someone to cheer him up. She began to feel a tiny bit guilty for her pleasure at his dismay. But then he began to talk...
“The strangest thing happened when I was in her room last night.”
Just grab a book, any book.
“I asked about her situation. It’s really bad. Her grandmother is keeping her a prisoner up there in that dungeon.”
“Uh huh…” Not listening, can’t listen…
“Apparently, her dad sold her to that witch. I don’t even know if she’s ever been out of that spooky, old house. Her room looks like belongs to an eight-year old. Poppi doesn’t even have a computer. And get this, her own grandmother has some sort of threat over her head, saying if Poppi leaves, she’ll kill her.”
Julia slammed her locker door shut. Great, damsel in distress. “I’ve got to go to class,” she said and left him standing in the hall as she scolded herself. You asked.
***
As Tanner skated home that afternoon, he thought about how distant Julia had been the entire day at school. He couldn’t figure out girls. He didn’t want her mad at him, for whatever reason. She was the only person he had to talk to. True, he didn’t know her that well; it was possible she liked her space. Maybe she didn’t want to talk about all his problems or perhaps she was still upset about her dad being upset.
He stood in front of his house, staring at Poppi’s window. He didn’t have time to wait for Julia to get in a better mood. He didn’t think anyone should be treated the way Poppi’s grandmother treated her. He really needed to figure out what to do about her situation. He had to help her. He wanted to go back over to Poppi’s, to tell her how sorry he was for upsetting her and make sure that if her grandma did see him, she didn’t hurt Poppi or something. Maybe he could even persuade her to leave with him.
He had an idea. As he walked to his room, he texted Julia with small talk, hoping she would respond, before asking her a favor.
Tanner: hey you there?
Julia: yup
Tanner: howd u do on the math test?
Julia: 88 :(
TheTanMan: thought u were smarter than that lol :P
Julia: me too lol
Tanner: can u help me with a prob?
Julia: about Math?
Tanner: no lol
Tanner: personal
Tanner: u there
Julia: about poppi?
Tanner: yes… I think I got caught last night but idk. Poppi might
get upset if I don’t go, so what should I do??
Julia: ur gonna get in trouble.
Julia: stay away from there!
Tanner: Can’t! Can you come over and distract the witch while I go up?
Julia: Ha, no.
Julia: My dad needs me here.
Tanner: I understand
Julia: ru going?
Tanner: idk probably
Julia: Don’t be stupid!!
Tanner: can’t make any promises.
Tanner knew Julia had been right. Perhaps he should just cool it and wait a day or so. However, as soon as his clock read 12:00, he became jittery. He had to see her. The next thing he knew, he had climbed the tree and crawled through the open window.
“Get out!”
Tanner’s entire body froze as his mind analyzed what his eyes and ears received: The old woman stood before him, not Poppi.
She pointed a long skinny finger at him. “Get the hell out of my house, little boy.”
He wanted to. He really wanted to run, but he couldn’t move. He searched the room for Poppi and found her sitting on her bed, her arms wrapped around herself. He felt so sorry for her, sitting there, scared out of her mind.
He knew now was his only chance to save her. Heart over mind pushed him to take a large step towards Poppi instead of back out the window. The grandmother moved in front of Poppi, like she had anticipated his move, and flung up her hand. Instantly, his eyes burned with raging fire. It felt so much worse then any shampoo-in-the-eyes incident. His hands went up to his face as he screamed out in pain. He could hear Poppi over his own cries, calling out his name, but he had become nauseated and disoriented. He stumbled frontwards and then backwards, tears rolling down his face, and the next thing he knew, he was falling.
***
“Oh crap,” Julia said as she walked up the sidewalk towards Tanner’s house. For there he was, lying on the ground across the street in Poppi’s yard. “Dumb ass.”
The Princes of Tangleforest Page 5