Little Red Gem

by D L Richardson

  “Texas has loads of opportunities.”

  “I don’t like opportunities.”

  Dad scrunched his eyes up and pressed his fingers to his temples. “I regret not spending more time with you and your sister,” he said softly. “And now your sister is gone. I want to be a part of your life and I don’t think I can live without you for another day, let alone an entire year.”

  Even though my brain was scrambling to make sense of this conversation, smack bang in the middle of the swirling pattern was one nagging hypothesis. “Leo’s mom said she ran into you and told you I was at her house.”

  “Is there a question looming behind your statement?”

  There was, but I was afraid to ask. Luckily I didn’t have to. Dad seemed to have read my mind. “Mrs. Culver and I are acquainted.”

  My mouth acted without approval from my brain. “Did you marry her too?”

  Mom’s grip on the tray loosened and the glass bowls clinked together but stayed put. I honestly didn’t know where the snide remark had come from. But I regretted the outburst and I wished it could have been taken back. Especially considering the way Dad’s hardened eyes drilled into me.

  “I wasn’t born an adult,” he snipped. “I was once young like you and I had friends. Mrs. Culver and I used to live next door to one another. Now, my dear, you owe Mrs. Parker an apology.”

  Mom plastered a fake smile on her face and dished out the desserts. “It’s okay, David. I’m fine.”

  His fingers touched hers as he grasped the glass bowl of chocolate mousse from her. His voice was more sugary than the dessert. “You’re an amazing woman, Suzanne. Don’t ever let me forget.”

  The chocolate mousse should have been the highlight of the meal. Instead, the three of us ate as though one of the bowls was laced with poison only we didn’t know which one. After dinner, Dad told me to wait in the car while he said goodbye to my mom. I disobeyed him and hid among the overgrown bougainvillea that was taking over the porch.

  “I’m sorry if Audrey upset you, Suzanne,” Dad said. “I promise it won’t be like this when we’re all together.”

  My mom sighed. “Audrey didn’t upset me, David, I can handle a teenager. It’s just…she reminds me so much of Ruby. My sweet baby used to drive me nuts with her piano lessons, and her demands for a horse, and the final straw came when she met a boy and I was driven mad with worry that I was going to lose her. To my credit, I did the right thing and took the time to get to know Leo and I came to the conclusion I liked him.”

  “I don’t trust him.”

  “David, the boy isn’t without his flaws. Were you and I much different at that age? Anyway, our arguments settled down for a few weeks, and the next thing she drove me nuts about was talk of giving up school to follow Leo all over the world as a singer. Music was the only subject that set us at odds with each other. But I tell you, I’d give anything to be in a sparring match with my daughter again.”

  As Mom’s heart-wrenching sobs shook the house, I snuck off to the car wishing I’d taken my dad’s advice sooner.

  ***

  The moment I was back inside Audrey’s bedroom I noticed the faint blue glow of my phone. Still plugged into the charger, I pulled the cable as far as it reached and lay down on the bed. I stared at the blank screen letting the millions of questions take flight inside my brain, and for the first time in ages, none of these flying thoughts were about me.

  Did Audrey have a boyfriend? Did she send a text good night to a special person? Did she update her social networking sites? Did she even have social networking sites? I belonged to most of them and I’d never come across her profile once.

  After a minute I told myself to put the phone back on the bedside. After another minute I was still clutching the phone to my chest, warning myself that nothing good could come from playing with fire, still I couldn’t put the phone back on the bedside table.

  I gave up humoring myself and typed in the words GOOD NITE then I punched in Leo’s number and hit SEND.

  Leaning my head against the headboard, waiting for a reply that might never come, my mind drifted back to the dinner conversation. Years ago, I’d have given anything for my parents to be together. Months ago, before I’d hooked up with Leo, I’d have seriously considered moving to Texas to play happy family. The prospect of leaving Providence now was out of the question.

  A thousand minutes flew by where I drifted off and jerked myself awake. The final time I jerked awake, the screen of the phone was glowing. I checked the message.

  THAT U AUDREY

  Giddily, I clutched the phone to my chest. A whole other dimension separated us, yet Leo and I were connected spiritually, telepathically, emotionally, wherever this connection came from, I was convinced it existed.

  GOOD GUESS I texted back.

  Leo texted back SWEET DREAMS AUDREY and I realized I could live a thousand lifetimes and never would I have known such physical and emotional torture like I did now. I would never be Leo’s Little Red Gem again. Not while I was Audrey Adams. And Audrey Adams was the only person I could be.

  I didn’t hear again from Leo. I also didn’t sleep a wink that night.

  ***

  The next day rushed by in a blur. Every minute was spent counting down the hours till I could set eyes on Leo again. I didn’t even stop to think how disappointed my mother would be with my obsession over Leo.

  “Men always do the running.” Said during one of Mom’s book club luncheons. “They run to you when they want you, and they run the other way when they don’t. Don’t ever give them the satisfaction of seeing you run in any direction.”

  Much of my inner strength was sculpted from my mother’s advice. None of that strength resided in me today. Like a slow moving beast I dragged my feet through the corridors and only snapped out of my funk when Hannah showed up.

  “You’re obsessing over Leo, and that’s totally understandable, but it’s also crazy. He’s a senior.”

  I glared at her. “What makes you think I’m obsessing over him? And don’t call me crazy.”

  She counted on her fingers. “You act like a girl obsessed. You’ve ditched your girlfriends. You’re dropping behind in class. You’ve lost tons of weight. And my ultimate proof is that I saw you with him at lunch yesterday.”

  “He was my half-sister’s boyfriend. We’re practically family.”

  Hannah’s gaze was lethal enough to cut through steel. “Family doesn’t look at each other the way you look at him. I’m worried you’ll get hurt. Cleo says you should never, ever, ever get involved with a boy who’s lost his girlfriend.”

  “I don’t expect you to approve or understand.”

  “Oh, I understand.”

  Hannah stormed off and I shrugged my shoulders. She was Audrey’s best friend, not mine. Still, I recalled how I was at her age so I made a mental note to buy her a gift so she wouldn’t hate me enough to sabotage my plans by blabbing to everyone in school how infatuated I was with Leo. That would have given him a reason to avoid me worse than if someone spread a rumor that I had head lice.

  At 3:20 p.m., I leaned my bicycle up against the side of Leo’s house and rang the buzzer. The tune playing was Greensleeves and I was overcome with the impulse to spin like one of those ballerinas inside a jewelry box.

  Mrs. Culver opened the door and looked at me quizzically.

  “Hi, Mrs. Culver,” I gushed breathlessly. “Is Leo home?”

  She opened the door wider and turned her head slightly. She sang out in a loud voice, “Leo, you have a visitor.”

  When she turned to me she wore a confused look on her face.

  “Is everything all right?” I asked.

  “I didn’t notice before how alike you and your sister are. Ruby used to spin like a ballerina on the porch, too, whenever she rang the bell.”

  Leo bounded down the steps and swiped a jacket off the coat rack, slipping into it by the time he’d reached the porch. “Come on, I need your help.”

  Part of m
y reason for coming here was to drag Leo out of his depression. Yet it was obvious that yesterday was a blip and he was back to his old self. He grabbed my arm and literally dragged me down the path.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “I gotta do something and I can’t do it on my own.”

  He steered me into his mom’s Toyota and we were off with a screech of tires. I bit my tongue not to nag him about his reckless driving, which is what Ruby would have done.

  Leo and I had been going out for six months but we’d known each other for years. So I was totally surprised he could surprise me. He didn’t drag me to Rock-A-Lilly’s like I’d expected. Instead, he pulled the car into the mall parking lot. Leo hated shopping. The only way to get him there was under the pretence of shouting him a double-chocolate milkshake at Wendys.

  He acted like he was under the influence of a sugar high as he steered me through the shops. Finally, he pulled to a stop out in front of the jewelry store.

  “Leo, what are you doing?” I asked.

  Whatever it was, I got quivers in my stomach, warnings, although I didn’t know why I’d be terrified of standing out front of the jewelry store. Whatever he was keen to show me sent every alarm bell in my head into overdrive. I’d drooled at this store window even before I’d officially fallen in love with Leo. My insides were churning like something bad was coming.

  “Let’s go grab a milkshake,” I said, trying to drag him away.

  “Please. I can’t do this on my own.”

  Leo’s shoulders drooped and then he leaned in close like he was trying to figure out how to pass through the glass. Curiosity won out and I leaned over his shoulder to mentally inhale the sight of pendants, brooches, rings, earrings, charm bracelets. Even the cuff links attracted my eye. Of which Leo would never in a million years wear, so why were we here?

  Leo grabbed my hand and pulled me into the store. Then he dragged me to the counter, my head reeling in worry and confusion. I was in a jewelry store with the man I loved. This was every girl’s dream. But the image also had the shadow of something dreadful hanging over it.

  Leo handed a slip of paper to the saleslady and she spent a minute in the tiny back room, only to emerge wearing a beaming smile on her face.

  “Is this the lucky girl?” she asked.

  Leo’s face blanched. So did mine. The saleslady must have gotten the hint there was nothing ‘happy occasion’ about our presence because she whipped a sheet of silver wrapping paper out from beneath a crystal paperweight in dead silence.

  Leo’s voice cracked when he interrupted her. “Don’t bother wrapping it.”

  The saleslady was ever the professional. Her face froze into a polite smile as she handed Leo the pink velvet box, which he handed immediately to me. Yikes. I’d expected the love potion to work, but not to this extent.

  “You can have this,” Leo said. “It was paid for weeks ago. I was waiting for the right time to give it to Ruby but now there won’t be a good time.”

  “Don’t you want to keep this as a memento?”

  His eyes clung to something unseen hanging from the ceiling. “I have enough memories to last a hundred lifetimes. Sorry, I’ll be outside but take your time, I know girls like looking through these places.”

  Stunned, I watched him leave, yet seconds later I pried open the box. Inside, hanging on a gold key chain was a blood-red garnet. And wedged into the top of the box was a note written in handwriting I recognized – Leo’s.

  I tilted up the box to read the note:

  A LITTLE RED GEM FOR MY LITTLE RED GEM.

  Chapter Nine

  After the mall incident where the meaning of the note became abundantly clear – in Leo’s eyes I was not and never would be Ruby Parker – I sat quietly in the car. Every time I opened my mouth, I clammed up. What would I say if I could? Sometimes it was worthwhile saying nothing, rather than saying nothing worthwhile.

  When I got home, Teri at least was sensitive to my mood and didn’t push me to talk. And when I finally dragged my weary body up the stairs to bed, I still couldn’t open my mouth without tearing up. In the end, I gave up dwelling on the key chain, even though it swung like a pendulum right in front of my eyes. I still hadn’t found my voice by the time I crawled into bed.

  I woke up the next morning, even though I was sure I hadn’t slept a wink. Despite the sleep-deprived blur in my head, one thing was clear; I had to hide the jewelry box from Teri. Something told me she’d tell my dad and this would add to his list of reasons to whisk me away from Providence.

  Dressing was a chore; I was growing more and more despondent by the second. My inner voice took up the chant of, “I am Ruby Parker, I am Ruby Parker”, and in the background another voice took up another chant of, “You are not Ruby Parker, You are not Ruby Parker”.

  Less than an hour later, I was hurrying through the school grounds toward C block when I bumped into Natalie, Ruby’s best friend and fellow band member.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I gushed.

  Natalie clutched her textbooks to stop them falling to the floor. I was prepared to cop an earful from a senior, especially Natalie who could be a bitch when she wanted to, yet she didn’t appear angry.

  “Audrey, I’m glad you found me,” she said. “I want to apologize for my rudeness the other day. Shanessa and I should have let you buy us coffee. Is it too late to accept your offer?”

  Natalie smiled at me. I could tell her fake smiles from her real ones, and this one was genuine.

  “I’d like that.”

  “Great. Stop by Art Café this afternoon. It’s where we tend to be all the time lately.”

  The bell rang and Natalie wiggled her fingers at me and headed off in the opposite direction. I was flattered she would want to hang with me, but now that the idea of coffee with Natalie and Shanessa had had time to blossom, I should have told her I had plans. Keeping up this charade of pretending to be Audrey was exhausting.

  Kids peeled themselves off walls and scrambled off to class. Running to make my first class, I slammed straight into a door that had opened unexpectedly. I squealed out as needles of pain lacerated my face. My hands flew to press gently on my nose. I removed my hands, relieved they weren’t bloodied. But my nose stung like nothing on earth.

  “Who’s the idiot responsible for breaking my nose?” I growled.

  The pain was already subsiding, but my anger wouldn’t placate so easily. I went inside the room only to see it was empty. I sped off down the hall not wanting to be late for class and kept back.

  And I rammed straight into the water fountain. My hip banged into the metal container. My foot got wedged up under the rim. Audrey’s runners were acting like they were possessed or something.

  That word ‘possessed’ struck a nerve. At home, cutlery used to drop out of my hand even before I’d connected. Knowing what I knew now, I was reconsidering whether my clumsiness had anything to do with me at all. Maybe poltergeists existed and they were haunting kitchens, bathrooms, and the halls of Providence High.

  The last echoes of the bell died and I knew I was going to be late. I ran along the corridor.

  And I tripped over.

  I tripped over nothing. Now I knew I was in the presence of poltergeists. There was no other explanation. As a ghost, I’d banged against windows to get Audrey’s attention. This ghost may have been invisible to me; didn’t mean it wasn’t there and trying to get my attention.

  Not Anne. She couldn’t leave the cabin. Which meant only one other person.

  “Stop messing about, William. I have to get to class.”

  I slid into the classroom with a stern look from Mr. Musgrave and only my pride injured. For the moment anyway. On my way to my desk, something stuck its foot out and tripped me up. I sprawled face first onto the floor. My text books spilled onto the floor. Everyone burst out laughing yet thankfully there was a rule about cell phones not being allowed in class or they were confiscated, so nobody could ruin my reputation further by plas
tering my spill onto YouTube.

  “Settle down,” Mr. Musgrave said wearily. “Someone help Audrey with her books.”

  Hannah rushed over to help me, wearing a dark scowl on her face. “Stop being a klutz. You’re embarrassing me.”

  I clenched my teeth. “I’m not doing this on purpose.”

  Mr. Musgrave started the lesson, and I sat down making sure I grabbed a tight hold on the chair with both hands so my tormentor couldn’t get his thrills from pulling the chair out from under me. But my crazy tormentor found other ways to embarrass me. Throughout the rest of class my pens fell off my desk, people bumped into me (I could tell from the puzzled looks on their faces perhaps the connection wasn’t intentional), and when something burped in my ear and every head spun to accuse me of the act, I grasped from the shade of red of Hannah’s face that our friendship was on tenterhooks.

  On a slip of paper I scribbled the words PLEASE GO AWAY WILLIAM but he either couldn’t read or he was having too much fun picking on me. By the end of class, however, I was positive my tormentor wasn’t William and that I was being attacked by one of the poltergeists Audrey had warned me about. So now I was slightly terrified. I sent a silent plea to William to show up and protect me.

  The next class wasn’t any better. The ghost lifted my hand so I had to attempt to answer a question I didn’t know the answer to. It pulled at my hair. It threw my text book at the window which got me banished from class. Honestly, I was glad to leave the room. I needed to find somewhere to wait out this malicious and unseen attacker. But where? The library offered no escape, too many books my invisible bully could throw at me. The cafeteria served hot food which was guilty of scolding a few students a year and I had no intention of gathering a burn scar. No way would I go near the music rooms – I couldn’t get the image out of my head of a piano falling on me.

  I ended up sitting in the middle of the sports field because the worst my tormentor can do was throw grass at me. Which it did. I was covered in slivers of green when the next class arrived. P.E. I didn’t have to feign illness when the students set up the hurdles around me.