Melange

by Kristy Tate

  Maria shifted from foot to foot, her attention wandering from the marigolds to the hydrangeas. “I don’t get how you knew.”

  “Knew what?”

  “Well, I went into the woods near Baxter’s house, just like you told me. But I thought he knew I was going to be there. Turns out he didn’t.”

  “So, he was surprised?”

  Maria’s eyes widened. “Of course.”

  “But pleasantly, right?”

  Maria’s cheeks turned the same color as the roses she stood beside. “I think so.”

  “So, what happened?”

  “A bunch of people were there watching a movie, so he invited me in.”

  Lizbet shut off the hose. She really wanted to know if Declan had been there, but she didn’t know how to ask without sounding pathetic. “Great. See, it totally worked.”

  “Declan was there,” Maria said, sliding a glance at her.

  Lizbet cranked the hose reel and tried to keep a poker face.

  “Lizbet, oh good, you’re still here.” Mr. Neal poked his head out of the office. “Can I see you for a moment?”

  Lizbet tucked the hose nozzle into place, whispered to Maria that she’d be right back, and headed for the office.

  Mr. Neal leaned back in his chair and studied her with a puzzled expression. “Did you order Aconitum?”

  Lizbet swallowed. “I did.”

  “Whatever for? You do know it’s poisonous?”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “We can’t sell it. It’s incredibly toxic.”

  “I’ll pay for it. Maybe it was unfair to use the nursery, but I wasn’t able to buy it any other way.”

  “But why buy it at all?”

  “You know its more common name, right?”

  “Wolfsbane.” Comprehension flickered in his eyes. “My dear...” he began softly. “What happened to Declan’s grandfather was a random, unfortunate affair.”

  “But grizzly. And totally preventable.”

  “Had he had wolfsbane on hand,” Mr. Neal finished her thought. He stood and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Child, I’m afraid you don’t realize how incredibly dangerous this plant is. I know it’s lovely, but it’s deadly.”

  “I understand that.”

  “You can’t even touch it. The poisons can be absorbed through the skin and within a matter of minutes the heart will begin to fail.”

  “Mr. Neal, I assure you, I just want to—”

  “You can’t plant it in your yard as it will poison your cat! Not to mention any other animal that might wander too close.”

  Lizbet sank onto a chair. “You’re not going to let me take it, are you?”

  He gave her a stern glance. “I understand your fear, but I promise you, wolfsbane is not the answer. I’ll take the cost out of your wages, but you will not be taking wolfsbane home.”

  “What will you do with it?”

  His eyes got a faraway look. “I haven’t decided yet.” He gave her dismissive smile. “No hard feelings, I hope. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Lizbet slowly took off her apron. She found Maria waiting for her on a wooden bench near the break room.

  “Sorry about that,” Lizbet said.

  “What happened?” Maria stood and glanced at the closed office door. “He didn’t fire you, did he?”

  “No, of course not.”

  Maria waited for Lizbet to clock out and hang up her apron. “Then why do you look so beat up?”

  Lizbet twisted her lips into a half-smile and headed out the door. “I’m fine. Tell me about the movie.” Tell me about Declan. Was Nicole there?

  Outside, the clouds that had been merely threatening a moment ago opened up. Rain fell in fat, heavy drops on the green and white awning sheltering the entrance.

  Maria pulled her jacket’s hood over her head and tied the strings. “It was dumb. But that’s beside the point. I want to know how you knew Baxter would be outside at eight-thirty.”

  Because she couldn’t very well say that all dogs, but especially Schnauzers, are fierce people-pleasers and therefore highly dependable and responsible, Lizbet shrugged and said, “Don’t all dogs need to go outside before they go to bed?” She glanced at the raindrops bouncing in the parking lot and then the motorbike propped against the shopping cart stand. She’d never ridden in the rain before.

  “But I didn’t even know Baxter had a dog.”

  “Well, I did. His name is Tickles.”

  “I know that now...” Maria scratched her head. “So, you’re telling me that if I have a thing for any guy who happens to own a dog, all I have to do is wait outside his house before bedtime?”

  “Sounds stalkerish.”

  Maria acknowledged this with a nod. “Want a ride home?”

  Lizbet shook her head. “I just remembered there’s something I have to do.”

  “Like what?”

  “I need several boxes of baking soda.”

  “What for?”

  Tired of lying, Lizbet said, “So I can hide our scent from wolves.”

  Maria grinned. “So, when is the full moon?”

  “Next Tuesday.”

  “What happens if it’s rainy or cloudy and the moon isn’t visible?”

  Lizbet blew out a sigh. “Then we wait.”

  MARIA AND HER MOM COULD be heard yelling at each other through the open kitchen window. Lizbet felt bad about it, especially since she didn’t know what they were saying to each other because she didn’t speak Spanish. But since she didn’t want to spy on the wolves on her own, she didn’t know what else to do.

  “What are you doing?” Matias asked, coming up behind her.

  Lizbet glanced at the plastic bag on the picnic table, grateful that it was opaque so Matias couldn’t see her underwear inside. “The internet called this ‘clothes lasagna.’”

  “Uh. Why are you making wearable pasta?”

  Lizbet picked up the baking soda box. “I’m hiding my scent from wolves. Supposedly, baking soda can hide my scent from animals but I have to shower with it and douse my clothes with it.”

  “Wolves?”

  Lizbet nodded. “Maria and I are going camping. Hopefully, we can spot the wolves.”

  “Why?”

  “They make me nervous.”

  “Usually when something makes you nervous, you stay away from it. Not bathe yourself in baking soda and hunt it.”

  “True, but if I have proof that the wolves are still here and are threatening my grandmother’s ranch, maybe I can get government help to get rid of them.”

  “So, you’re not going to try and catch the wolves, you’re just going to take their picture?”

  “That’s step one.”

  “What’s step two?”

  “That all depends on what happens on step one. It’s possible we won’t see even one.”

  “Even one...” Matias repeated. “You’re hoping to find a pack?”

  “Maybe. I think there was more than one at the Forsythe house, don’t you?”

  “I have no idea.” He eyed the plastic bag speculatively. “That’s not a very big bag.”

  “The less clothes, the less odor.”

  “Ah. Now I think I know why my mama and Maria are yelling at each other.”

  “Matias!” his mom called.

  He grinned. “I think I know where this is going. I’ll be right back.” He paused on the back porch. “You okay if my clothes join in your lasagna?”

  “Are you willing to shower in baking soda?”

  He waggled his eyebrows. “Are you kidding? For the chance to be with you in the moonlight? Absolutely.” He strode into the kitchen. Soon, his voice mingled with his mom and sister’s.

  After some intense wrangling, Maria banged through the back door. “I’m allowed to go only if Matias comes with us.”

  “That’s okay, right?” Lizbet asked, feeling relieved but also a little worried about the scowl etched between Maria’s eyebrows.

  Lizbet dropped her voice to a whisper. �
�You didn’t tell her about the wolves, did you?”

  “No.” Maria picked up her bag of clothes and baking soda and began to shake it as hard as she could.

  “Good, because we’re not going to really try and catch one this time.”

  “This time?” Maria’s lips twitched and the lines between her eyes softened. “No, my mama doesn’t worry about wolves. She’s preoccupied with my reputation and what other people will think.” Maria stopped shaking her bag, sat down at the picnic table, and propped her elbows up. “It’s not really my mom’s fault. It’s my dad. He’s so old-fashioned. He didn’t want me to date—at all—until I was eighteen. Letting me go out at seventeen was like this huge compromise. And now he wants me to get married so he won’t have to pay for college! How can he expect me to marry when I wasn’t even able to go out until a year ago?” She blew out a breath.

  “You don’t want to get married, do you?”

  “Not yet! I want to finish college, travel, work... Sometimes I worry I won’t be able to do any of those things.”

  “Of course you will.” She and Maria were both signed up for classes at the community college.

  “You’re lucky you don’t have a father.” When Matias pushed through the back door wearing an enormous grin and carrying pairs of boxers and shorts, Maria added, “or a brother.”

  “You don’t mean that,” Lizbet said. “For a long time, meeting my father was my most desperate wish.”

  “It’s not now?” Matias asked.

  “Now, it’s a fear.”

  Matias pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket and stuffed his clothing inside.

  Maria watched him with a frown. “That’s all you’re going to wear?”

  “It’s warm.” He dumped a generous amount of baking soda into the bag. “You don’t know that Godwin is your father,” he said, meeting Lizbet’s eyes. “Just because we think he’s your birth mother’s ex doesn’t mean he’s your father.”

  “It would be nice to know,” Lizbet said.

  “Why?” Maria asked. “I think it would be nice to live in a matriarchal house like yours. You don’t even have an uncle or male cousins.”

  “You make us sound like an infectious disease,” Matias muttered.

  “I hadn’t thought of that comparison,” Maria said, “but I like it.”

  “You don’t mean that,” Lizbet said.

  “Have you met my uncles and cousins? That’s why I like Baxter—he’s so huge, no one will pick on him.”

  Matias smirked. “That’s what you think.”

  Maria picked up the baking soda box and shook it in Matias’s face. The white powder dusted his skin and clung to his eyebrows, lashes, and hair. He roared, picked up his bag, and charged at his sister.

  Maria yelped and ran while Matias sprinted after her. Seconds later, they wrestled on the ground, Maria screaming and giggling while Matias tried to pin her down.

  “Lizbet! Help me!” Maria called.

  Lizbet didn’t know what to do. The dynamics in the Hernandez family both baffled and intrigued her. She wanted to join in, but she didn’t know how. The easy comradery Matias and Maria shared made her envious but also uncomfortable. Glancing around, she settled her gaze on the garden hose. She picked it up, turned it on, and pointed at the back of Matias’s head.

  He leapt off his sister with a growl, and moments later he had Lizbet beneath him, straddling her while the running hose created a puddle beside them. Maria tackled her brother, knocking him to the ground. The three of them wrestled in the sopping grass.

  “Matias! Maria!”

  The brother and sister froze at the sound of their mother’s voice. She jabbered at them in Spanish and Maria and Matias both climbed to their feet and mumbled something in return.

  Lizbet slowly stood and tried to brush off the wet blades of grass, but they refused to move. “I better go home and shower,” she said.

  “Here, take this.” Maria shoved the box of baking soda at her.

  TEN DAYS AND FOUR SURGERIES after the accident, Gloria was allowed to go home. Declan helped her into a wheelchair, loaded the many flower bouquets onto her lap, and rolled his mom down the hall and out the door to her waiting Mercedes. A nurse carrying more flowers and Gloria’s bags followed. He held open the door and waited for her to climb in. Gloria looked tired even though it wasn’t even noon.

  “Would you like to stop for lunch?” he asked before starting the car.

  “If you want to pick something up, that’s fine.” Gloria wouldn’t meet his eye.

  He’d seen her attempts at feeding herself with her left hand, and it wasn’t pretty. “Mom, you have to eat.” Declan put the car in gear and headed for downtown.

  “Not right this instant, I don’t.”

  Declan drove in a tight-lipped silence.

  “Where are we going?” Gloria asked. “This isn’t the way home.”

  “I thought we’d go to Marciano’s to celebrate.” He slid her a worried glance.

  “Celebrate what?” She sounded bitter.

  “You’re coming home!”

  She made an ugly snorting sound.

  “About that... I hope you don’t mind, but I wondered if I could move in,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “You don’t sound pleased. If you don’t want me to...”

  “Declan, turn this car around right now. I’m not going to Marciano’s and you’re not going to move in unless... You know that you are always welcome at my house. I’ve begged you for years to move in, but now, I’m afraid, the answer is no.”

  “No? Really?”

  “You are not going to take care of me.”

  “Mom! That’s not what this is about.” Although it totally was.

  “The hell you say.”

  “Mom!” As far as he could remember, his mom had never sworn in front of him before.

  “You are not going to be my housemaid!”

  “Of course not. After all, I’m starting school in a few weeks.”

  She bit her lip and tears welled in her eyes.

  He reached over and patted her leg. “I want to stay with you. Dad is...dating Daugherty and it’s weird.”

  “How are things with you and Lizbet?”

  “Even weirder.” He pulled up in front of Marciano’s.

  “Sweetie, I really don’t want to be here. I don’t have any makeup on, my hair looks like a rat’s nest...”

  “No one will care. You know that Lorenzo will be happy to see you.”

  “I care. And if you love me, you’ll stop babying me.”

  Declan swallowed hard. “How about we try again in a few days?”

  “See? This is what I mean!”

  Declan put the car in gear and pulled out of the restaurant’s parking lot. “I’m not following you.”

  Gloria jabbed her finger into his arm. “You’re the kid.” She pointed at herself. “I’m the mom.”

  He chuckled. “Believe me, I get that.”

  “I don’t think you do. I think that since my accident, you’ve decided you wear the britches.”

  “Mom, stop. I don’t want your britches.”

  She folded her arms and settled back against the seat, looking cross. “You bet your sweet bippy you don’t.”

  “Do I have a bippy?”

  “Everyone has a bippy.”

  “Sounds like a girl thing.”

  “See, you don’t know everything.” She looked like she wanted to say more, but she froze.

  Declan followed her gaze to his grandfather’s house. A large dark Land Rover stood in the driveway.

  “Why is he here?” Gloria asked, touching her hair and adjusting her sweatshirt.

  “Who is it?”

  “That’s Leo Cabriolet’s car.” She eyed Declan suspiciously. “Did you arrange this?”

  Declan took his foot off the gas, allowing the car to slow. “No. I tried to railroad you into lunch at Marciano’s, but that’s about as devious as I get. I don’t know what he’s doing he
re, but you can ask him in about five seconds.”

  “I don’t suppose you want to drive around the block? Maybe he’ll be gone by the time we get back.”

  “I thought you liked Cabriolet.”

  “I do... I just...”

  “Are we back to the makeup and rat’s nest thing?”

  Gloria responded by pressing her lips together. A wave of pity—an emotion he’d never before paired with his mom—washed over him. She had always been a force of nature in his life—a whirlwind that he couldn’t control or manipulate in any way. He sometimes wondered if she’d been the same for his dad. She had been more evenly matched with Godwin—but that marriage, of course, had been a disaster. Mostly because Godwin was a psychopath.

  Declan could see Cabriolet in the driver’s seat talking on the phone. “I wonder how he knew you were coming home. You didn’t tell him, did you?”

  “I don’t remember. But I’ve been so loopy and drugged up this week, for all I know I could have told him my weight and age.”

  Declan laughed. “And that would be bad?”

  “Everyone has a different definition of tragedy.”

  “I guess,” Declan said as he rolled the Mercedes into the driveway beside Cabriolet.

  “Let me talk to him on my own, okay?”

  “Um, sure. Do you want help getting out of the car?”

  Gloria shook her head. “Do you mind taking my bags upstairs to my room?”

  Declan smiled and waved at the attorney, gathered his mom’s things from the trunk, and headed up the stairs. At the top, he considered the four empty bedrooms and chose the one overlooking the backyard for his own.

  LIZBET SMILED AT THE moon as she wrapped her sheet into a small roll and tucked a pocket-sized flashlight into her shorts.

  “That’s it?” her mom asked. “No sleeping bag or tent?”

  “Good thing it’s warm,” Lizbet said, tucking her roll beneath her arm and heading down the stairs.

  Daugherty trailed after her. “No fire? No marshmallows? What kind of campout is this?”

  “It’s a wolf watching trip,” Lizbet said without looking over her shoulder.

  “I’ve heard of whale watching, but not wolf watching.” She paused. “Maria and Matias are both going?”