Taming of the Shoe

by Rebekah Dodson

  “What’s up man? You leaving?” Gavin looked at me, ignoring the brunette sitting next to me.

  I frowned for a moment. Was Gavin oblivious to girls or something? I knew he swung both ways, but Susanna had been eying him for the last few weeks of the play. There was clearly something there.

  I cleared my throat and tried, “So... Susanna here was saying she wanted to go see that new nerdy Vin Diesel movie.” I eyed Gavin, hoping he got the hint. “What’s it called again?”

  Gavin beamed. “You mean Roll D20 For Damage?”

  Susanna’s eyes grew wide at the mention of Vin Diesel, as I knew they would, but I wasn’t sure if she was panicking or not. She probably was.

  Gavin sat down and scooted closer to her. “You play Dungeons and Dragons, Susanna?”

  To my surprise, she literally answered, “Well, no, but I’d love to learn.” She batted her eyes at him, and it took about three seconds for Gavin to be lovesick.

  The kids sometimes called me the matchmaker before my accident, but really what I'm good at is just hooking smart guys up with good looking girls. And I considered this another success.

  I walked out the cafeteria with a smile on my face, until I remembered Taylor was acting weird. I had about ten minutes until choir started, so I pulled out my phone and texted her as I headed toward the choir room in the next building over. The sky outside was dark gray, heavy with rain clouds, and the wind picked up. I felt the electroactivity in the air, and it excited me. I loved storms.

  Do you want to come over and study with me? We don’t have to watch a movie. We can just study.

  I deleted that one and tried again.

  Do you want to hang out tonight? We can do whatever you want.

  I sent that one, but she didn’t respond. I waited, staring at my phone and flipping mindlessly through social media until it was time for class. I figured she probably had her phone in her locker – if she even had the pre-paid one today. We almost never texted during class until we were checking on locations of each other, and even then, it was a small school. Just easier to try another hall and there the person was. I shrugged, tucked my phone away, then turned the corner of the hallway, and filed in the choir room with the rest of the students.

  No sooner had Jackson tried to start class than the room shook with a belt of thunder. The air conditioning, making it always freezing in this room, kicked on then, but we could hear the heavy pelt of rain on the roof above us.

  I took my place next to Taylor, who was studying her hands, while Jackson tried to excite this tired, post-lunch class into shape – as he did most days.

  “Come on, you can sing louder than that rain, let’s do it!” He was yelling from the front of the class.

  While I was belting my baritone notes, Taylor, who usually kept up just as much with her higher first soprano notes, today I could barely hear her.

  The whole hour of class quickly turned into some kind of torture. She wouldn’t stand close to me, preferring to keep a foot or so between us, and she was only moving her lips to keep up with motions. I nudged her shoulder and she glared at me.

  What had I done?

  Was she upset about last night?

  Was she ... upset with me?

  I couldn’t figure it out.

  After class was over, I tried to catch her again, but she fled away from me and out the door while Jackson stopped to talk to me about theater practice next week. When he finally let me go, school had been out for a good twenty minutes. I fled the building back to the main area, but I didn’t see her.

  I recognized Callie, her friends from science class, heading out the door to the parking lot. I jogged to her, only to find as we headed outside it was still drizzling. “Hey.” I was nearly breathless as I held the door for her. Remember chubby kids don’t run? Yeah, that. “Callie? Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “Hey?” She looked up at me, then put her books over her head to shield herself from the rain.

  “I’m Ethan,” I told her. “Theater...”

  “I know who you are. We took French last year. I sat behind you.”

  I frowned. “Oh, okay.”

  “What do you want, Ethan? My mom’s waiting.”

  Nervousness flooded me suddenly and I tucked my hands in my pockets. “Have you talked to Taylor today?”

  “Yeah...”

  “Did she say anything about me?”

  Callie started walking away. “I don’t think it’s my place to say anything.” She turned and hurried backward for a moment. I envied her ability to walk backwards. “But, you should really call her. She’s not doing too great. Her Papa’s in the hospital. But you didn’t hear it from me.”

  I ran a hand through my hair, then waved at her as she fled to the parking lot, to a white minivan, and hopped in the side door. I ducked back into the school and pulled out my phone, only to have it die right in front of my eyes. Had I forgotten to plug it in last night? I must have.

  “Oh, crap, Amy!” I told absolutely no one in the hallway. It was amazing how quickly high school emptied out when the last bell rang. Nevertheless, neither of my parents were in town, and she was my responsibility, and I was already screwing it up. I ran back into the school to grab a textbook and my keys, then hurried out to my car. Thankfully, I had a charger in my car, so the first thing I did was plug in my phone.

  Regardless, it was too much damn running for a fat boy like me, that was for sure. It briefly occurred to me that I should maybe eat less bacon and do more sit ups. Or something.

  But I really didn’t have time to think about that now. With Taylor and her grandfather on my mind, I hurried as fast as I dared to pick up Amy. Ever since the accident, I followed traffic safety to the letter. The elementary school was empty, much to my dismay, so I pulled into the first open spot I found and rushed up the stairs to the front of the building.

  Amy was sitting in the secretary’s office, playing with Legos, and still wearing her purple backpack. “Hi, Ethan.” She continued playing and humming to herself.

  “Ah, Mr. Hersbill,” Pamela, the secretary, looked at me from her desk. “We tried calling your parents, and you, but there was no answer.”

  “I’m so sorry, Miss Pam,” I gushed, still a little out of breath from the stairs. “I got delayed at school today.”

  She waved her hand and smiled. “No worries. Amy is a delight to have in here. Next time, let us know you’ll be late, all right?”

  “Sure thing.” I gave her my famous fake smile and took Amy’s hand.

  “Are we still having movie night?” she asked as we headed to the front door.

  “Sure.” I hoped she wouldn’t see the worry I was sure was plastered all over my face. “Let me make a quick phone call in the car, and then we’ll go to the store, all right?”

  “Hooray!” She dropped my hand and rushed down the stairs, skipping the whole way to the Silver Beast.

  Oh, to be as lighthearted as a seven-year-old!

  When we got to the car, Amy crawled in her booster and buckled, while I fought with my phone to get it to turn on. Finally it came to life, and I text both of Taylors numbers, until I finally gave up and called her main cell. No answer.

  “Is Taylor coming over later?” Amy quipped.

  “Why?” I said, starting the car and adjusting the rear-view mirror so I could see her.

  “I like her. She’s fun.” Amy had her coloring pages out from behind my seat and was busy scribbling.

  “Maybe. She’s not answering her phone right now,” I admitted. If I didn’t, my smart sister would probably guess it anyway.

  “Oh, well maybe she’ll be over later, then.” She looked up at me. “Store time?”

  I laughed a little at her exuberance, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Taylor. Before I pulled away from the curb, I made one more call: the hospital. When the receptionist answered, I gave them Taylor’s last name and asked if anyone was there by that name. They said yes; my heart dropped when I heard that, but they
couldn’t tell me anymore. I asked them to forward a message from me to call me back at my cell number.

  The drive to the store was mostly quiet, with Amy humming some silly tune. I let her skip in front of my cart, laughing and singing, as she picked out Twizzlers, buttery microwave popcorn, and even ice cream.

  “We learned salty and sweet at school today,” she protested when I tried to say no. “So, technically, it’s educational.”

  I shook my head at her. “When did you get so smart, young lady?” To the cart I had added some canned nacho cheese, tortilla chips, some hamburger, and sliced jalapenos.

  “Um, I wonder, probably when Mom started being gone all the time and you started taking care of me.” She put the cookie and cream ice cream in the cart and started to eye the popsicles. I turned her toward the front, hoping she’d skip getting any more junk food. We already have enough.

  “So who’s in the hospital?” she asked when I was busy putting our purchases on the conveyor belt. I froze with the popcorn in my hand, and the cashier eyed me curiously.

  “Nobody you know,” I told her. “How did you know that?”

  “I heard you on the phone, someone answered ‘Warner Creek Hospital.’ Then you left a message.” The cashier was busy bagging our groceries, and Amy was trying to put them in the cart. I swatted her away and swiped my parents’ credit card through the machine.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I told her. We went out to the car, and Amy didn’t say a single thing on the way home.

  I was kind of bummed. I wanted to tell my sister Taylor wouldn’t be over, that she had some stuff going on. But the way Amy had looked at me when she asked if Taylor was coming over, I knew it would break her little heart. So I didn’t say anything, either. And it was a terrible, silent car ride. I didn’t even dare turn on any music like I usually did, in case my phone rang, and I’d have to pull over and take a call from Taylor.

  But my phone never rang, and we made it home safely.

  Worry weighed heavily on me as Amy flipped through our endless streaming services in the other room, and I set about making us two plates of nachos, popped the popcorn, and dumped the assorted candy in a bowl. At this rate, Amy would be up all night, so I pulled some candy out and stashed it in the cupboard. I also put the ice cream away, hoping she would forget about it. It was hard to tell with Amy. She was either razor-sharp with things or completely oblivious.

  Just as I was getting ready to carry the nachos into the living room, the front door rang.

  “I’ll get it!” Amy called. “I’m closer!”

  I heard the patter of her little feet down the hallway as she raced to the front door.

  “Amy? What are the rules?” I called after her, but by the time I’d put the nachos down and followed her, she had already had her hand on the doorknob.

  “I looked through the keyhole, it’s fine.” She ripped the door open. “It’s Taylor.”

  I rushed to the door and caught it from Amy as she opened it. “Taylor?”

  At some point after we had gotten home from the store, it started raining. It wasn’t raining currently, but Taylor was obviously soaked through. Her hair hung in stringy piles down her head, her sweater, drenched, hung off one shoulder, and her wet skirt clung to her legs, leaving little to the imagination.

  “Taylor!” I exclaimed again. “What are you doing here?”

  She wrapped her arms across her chest. “They ... sent me home from the hospital. I didn’t want to be home alone. I left my phone at school, so I couldn’t call you. I w-w-walked here.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke. “I didn’t know where else to go.”

  I reached out and yanked her inside.

  “We’re gonna start a movie and have nachos!” Amy cried, hopping on one foot. “You wanna watch a movie?”

  Taylor just stared at her. I pointed to the door after the stairs. “The bathroom’s right there,” I told her. “I’ll go grab some of my mom’s sweats from the dryer. She’s about the same size as you, I think.”

  Taylor padded down the hallway, water dripping in every direction.

  “You go eat,” I told Amy.

  She skipped off to the kitchen, yelling, “Yay nachos!”

  I hurried into the garage off the kitchen and yanked open the dryer. After a couple of minutes of fumbling, I finally found a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. They looked like Taylor would drown in them with her thin frame, but I grabbed them anyway and headed back to the bathroom. I could hear her teeth still chattering through the door when I handed them to her, and she finally emerged with her hands laden with her wet clothes. I took them without a word and put them in the dryer. When I came back, she had set her shoes by the front door to dry and stood in the entrance to the living room to the left of the front door.

  “Hey, you,” I said, because truthfully I didn’t know what else to fill the silence with, besides the noises of Amy saying, no, not that one, and oh, I hate that movie! Over and over again.

  “Hey,” she greeted me, turning around.

  “Did you eat today?”

  “Not really.” She rubbed her stomach. “But I’m not hungry.”

  “That’s fair,” I told her. “Do you at least want some water or something?”

  “Water would be great.”

  “Okay. Kitchen’s this way.”

  She followed me into the kitchen, where I pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and tossed it to her. She nearly dropped it and then finally caught it and held it up like it was a prize.

  “Nachos, huh?” She smirked, looking at Amy’s half-eaten plate and my untouched one.

  She stood on the other side of the island; it was probably safe for her, because I was about two seconds from pulling her into my arms and carrying her upstairs – if she’d let me. But Amy was in the other room, and Taylor looked equally close to bursting into tears. Her damp hair hung off her shoulders, and her eyes were bloodshot and lined with dark circles. I’d never seen her look so bad, but she was still gorgeous to me.

  “Yeah, nachos,” I remarked lamely, realizing I hadn’t answered her. “You can have some if you want.” I pushed the plate toward her.

  Despite her protest about not being hungry, she picked up a chip with a ridiculous amount of cheese and popped it in her mouth. She closed her eyes as she chewed slowly. “This is one thing I do love about the States,” she murmured, “the copious amounts of nacho cheese.”

  “They don’t have nacho cheese in Germany?” As soon as I said it, I knew it sounded stupid.

  She half-smiled. “No, they don’t.”

  “How do the Mexican places even stay open then?”

  “First of all, you know nacho cheese isn’t very Mexican, right?” Her eyes teased me. “And in Germany, there are almost no Mexican places. It’s usually Italian, Greek, or Turkish. No Mexican – at least, not in the village I’m from.”

  “No Mexican?” I scoffed, acting offended. “How do you live?”

  She took another chip. “It’s easy, you learn to love spanakopita and gyros. And sausages of every color, flavor, and shape.”

  I blinked at her. “He-ros and what’s the other thing?”

  She laughed this time – success! “Spanakopita. It’s a spinach pastry. My mom calls it spinach baklava.”

  I tried to think of a time I tried baklava, but I couldn’t recall. I shrugged, not sure how to respond. I finally said, “I’d love to try it some time.”

  “It’s hard to make, but if you’re ever in Germany...” She trailed off as she shrugged, too.

  The silence dropped between us, besides the blare of whatever cartoon Amy had settled on. I wanted to reach for Taylor’s hand where it rested by the nachos, but after lunch today I decided better of it.

  “Are you all right?” I asked, then shook my head. “I mean, how is your Papa?”

  “How did you know about him?”

  “Callie; I caught her after school.”

  Taylor smiled. “She was the only person I ran into when
I got the call after choir.”

  “So what happened?”

  “Insulin shock,” she explained. “Usually he’s good at keeping it under control, but his blood sugar levels got too high. He passed out at the VFW this afternoon.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay – really. It’s happened before. It’s always scary, and the last time it happened, my parents were here. Susie was ...” She left that sentence unfinished. I knew why.

  Something about her timeline today bothered me, though. “After lunch?” I asked. “So today you didn’t know until ...”

  She crunched on a chip thoughtfully and chased it with some water. “Ethan...” she pulled out a stool and sat down. I envied her for not making it creak like I did. “I don’t know if we should...see each other anymore.”

  I blinked at her. She might as well have slapped me in the face. Did I hear her right? “What are you saying?” I gulped. My heart was beating faster than a racehorse on the last lap.

  Chapter 16

  Taylor

  I fought to control my emotions as I blurted out my next sentence. “I don’t think we are right for each other.”

  All the hurt in Ethan’s face tore me to shreds. I so badly wanted to tell him how I really felt. I’m not that kind of girl, who has sex in a park with a guy she met a few weeks ago, and who shares all their family secrets! Who acts like she needs a man to take care of her. That’s not me. The longer I thought about it, and then after getting the call from the hospital, the more I knew that Ethan was changing me into something I never intended to be.

  But most of all, I’d forsaken my God, my religion. Everything about Ethan made me question who I was, really? Am I promiscuous? Am I ready to give up on church and prayers just for a boy? Everything inside me screamed no, but when I saw him standing there, the confliction weighed heavily on my soul. I couldn’t deny my feelings for him, and I knew he felt the same, but after last night, I didn’t know if I was making the right decisions anymore. Was I that lonely that I’d let Ethan Hersbill, the boy with a terrible reputation around school, ruin my life?