by Mark Tufo
“I’ll take that vacant stare as a ‘no’. It’s okay, I’ve got plenty of time to teach you. You coming to practice today?” he asked hopefully.
“Where else would I go?” she answered truthfully.
Occasionally Mindy would look back at the pair, but neither noticed as they talked about teachers and their classes and – more importantly – football.
“See you later,” Kevin told a smiling Callis as she strode off to her first class.
He felt a claw-like grip pull on the back of his arm.
“What are you doing?” his sister asked vehemently.
“Hi, sis, always a pleasure.”
“She’s white trash. You can’t be seen with her, you’re the quarterback of the J.V. football team. You’re just starting high school here. You can’t associate with her or you’ll drag us both down.”
“Wow, my sister is an elitist snob. When did you become so shallow?”
“Kevin, high school is important. People are already talking.”
“Mindy, haven’t you figured it out yet? You and I care for very different things. I see the person Callis is…not the things she owns.”
“They’re the same thing,” Mindy said without skipping a beat.
“I feel sorry for you,” he said as he walked away.
The next couple of weeks went by in pretty much the same manner; Callis stayed every night trying to grasp the elusive game and they would walk home together talking about everything. It was all Callis could do for the weekends to pass so she could see him again. Her pulse quickened at the sight of him beaming at her from the back of the bus. She was so focused on him she did not even hear the disgusted ‘hurumphs’ of Mindy and her crew. The school day dragged on nearly as long as the weekend had.
Callis had her notebook out as the football team came to the field. She was going to take notes so that she could crack the complexities of the game. Kevin laughed when he saw her furiously scribbling away.
“It’s not that hard,” he yelled over to her.
“What’d you think?” he asked when practice was over.
“Okay…I sort of get it, but you said you were the quarterback. How come you’re not always getting the ball?”
“I am one of the quarterbacks, and since I am a freshman, I’m pretty much the backup to the backup. Alan Pender is a senior and the starting QB. Derek Paulson is a junior and he’s the second string.”
“Second string?”
“Backup.”
“Oh, will you play at all this year?”
“Definitely, they have a varsity team with all the starters and then they have a junior varsity team which is usually all freshman and sophomores. We play on Saturday mornings, early, probably before you roll out of bed…so you’ll miss most of them.”
“I’ll be there,” she said defiantly.
“You’d better. Listen…I know you’re in foster care at the Lowries.”
“Yeah,” Callis answered warily.
“I was just ummm...wondering, do you know how long (he swallowed hard) you are going to be there?”
“I don’t...why?”
“Well shit I guess I’ll just come out with it. There’s a dance next Friday night and I was wondering if you’d go with me.”
“Aren’t I a little below your station?”
Kevin looked hurt.
“I’m sorry, some of Mindy’s friends said….forget it. I’d love to.” She smiled.
He grabbed her hand quickly and then just as quickly let it go. “Awesome,” he said beaming. “Same time tomorrow?”
“Looking forward to it.” She lingered for a second before turning to go in. She bit her lower lip as she walked to the door.
“Mindy!” Kevin yelled as he slammed the front door.
“What’s the matter, baby brother?” she asked, looking down from the balustrade.
“I told you to leave Callis alone!” he shouted up at her.
“You’re an idiot, I didn’t say anything to your precious Cinderella. You do know she’s not a princess, right?”
He ignored her comment. “That goes for your friends too, Mindy! They need to leave her alone as well.” Kevin said as he ascended the stairs hoping that his proximity would reinforce his words.
“How can I tell other people what to do?” she answered innocently.
“Listen, Mindy,” his voice getting threateningly low, “I have enough dirt on you to make sure you spend a year under house arrest.”
“You are such a drama queen, what could you possibly have?” she asked laughing, but out of the corner of her eye she was watching cautiously.
“Where do you want me to start?”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Do you remember two months ago when Mom and Dad went out to California for the week?” She nodded. “You took Mom’s car out.”
She looked at him. “How do you know? Forget it…you can’t prove anything. It’s your word against mine.”
“All that beauty you possess, sis, and not a brain to match. Yeah, I was sleeping when you took the car, but we have a home surveillance system.”
Mindy’s face blanched.
“The next morning when I woke up I noticed that the car was outside the garage instead of inside where mom had put it. I checked the tapes out and it’s you getting in as clear as day. If you zoom in, you can actually see the bottle of Grey Goose vodka you pilfered from the liquor cabinet. So you stole mom’s car, and were drinking underage. And there’s more, so don’t try me, Mindy. I hoped the better side of you would start to show through, but instead, this pettier version of my sister keeps rearing its ugly head. If you aren’t coming back to the friend and sister I remember, then stay out of my life.”
The tension was thick as Mrs. Denton walked in. “Oh, Kevin, great! Please take this bag, it’s heavy.” She said as she looked up the stairs.
Kevin broke contact with his sister. “Hi, Mom,” he said cheerfully, coming down and grabbing the grocery sack. “Mom, I need some help,” he told her after he’d helped get all the bags out of the car.
“I’m listening,” she answered as she put the soup cans in the cupboard.
“I asked a girl to the dance Friday and I have no idea what to wear.”
Mrs. Denton turned. “Who is this mystery girl?” she asked smiling.
“Is she a hobo?” Mindy asked, sauntering into the kitchen.
“A hobo? Why would you say such a thing?” Mrs. Denton asked perplexed.
“Are you going to tell her?” Mindy asked her brother.
“Tell me what? I really have no idea what you two are talking about.”
“Mindy believes that me asking Callis Rose out on a date is besmirching our family name,” Kevin said, angrily, looking over at his sister.
“Is she a criminal?”
“Worse,” Mindy interjected.
“Oh relax, Mindy. Mom she’s a foster child, she’s staying with the Lowries.”
“What do you know about her?” Mrs. Denton asked.
“I know I like her, isn’t that enough?”
“Usually, now I’m not saying your sister is right. But we don’t know anything about where she comes from or if she has been in any trouble. We run a successful family business. Anything we do in our personal lives for good or bad will reflect on that.”
“How about I invite her over for dinner and you decide then.”
“Oh GROSS NO! I don’t want her in my house. She probably has lice or something!” Mindy shrieked.
“Mindy, I’m sure she doesn’t have lice. What day do you want to have her over?” Mrs. Denton asked.
“Seriously, you’re going to have her over here?” Mindy was nearly on the verge of a tantrum and a much larger diatribe before Kevin’s one sound made her be quiet and quickly leave the area.
“Vroom,” he mumbled. A few moments later, the house shook from the force of Mindy’s bedroom door slamming shut.
“What has gotten into her?” Mrs. Denton asked, not expec
ting an answer.
“Your daughter is becoming an ass.”
“Kevin!”
“Callis is poor and Mindy gave her crap on day one because she was wearing an old dress. Almost had her crying…and for what? Because she didn’t have as much as us?”
“Is that why you’re going out with her, to spite your sister?”
“You know on that first day…yeah, I talked to her and gave Mindy crap. But now I like her.”
“Is she pretty?”
“In a Quasimodo kind of way,” he answered laughing. “Does that even matter what she looks like if I like her?” He grabbed an apple and exited the room.
Mrs. Denton was left to wonder how she could have two kids be so dissimilar to each other. “Saturday work?” she yelled to Kevin’s retreating back.
“Yup,” he said as he held the apple up in acknowledgement.
“No, no, no,” Callis said in rapid-fire succession when Kevin told her about dinner over at his house to meet his folks. “I can’t, Kevin, your sister hates me. I can’t take it if another family member of yours feels the same way. I don’t have much practice in this kind of thing. I’ve been alone for a while now. Most of my company has been with a baby and a kid that used to crap on floors.”
“They’ll love you.” He almost said ‘like I do’, but cut himself short wondering where that had come from.
“Please, Kevin, I’m scared.”
His heart was breaking at seeing the torture in her features and he almost called the whole thing off.
“Plus, I don’t have anything nice enough to wear. I don’t even know what I’m going to wear to the dance.”
“Wear that dress from the day we met.”
She looked down thinking he was poking fun at her.
“No…wait, I love that dress! It was the first time I ever saw you.”
“I’ll see what else I can find,” Callis said nervously.
“Awesome!” He kissed her lightly on the cheek before they parted. Where they made contact a brief fire seemed to erupt.
“Mrs. Lowrie,” Callis started as she walked into the trailer.
“Shhh!” Mrs. Lowrie said, motioning angrily with her hand. “Don’t you see? The man is trying to see if he picked the right case, the one with the money! Don’t you know when to be quiet?”
Callis waited patiently until the commercials came on.
“What, girl? What do you want that could be so important you feel the need to interrupt Deal or No Deal?” Mrs. Lowrie asked, although she did have a slight smile on her face.
“I was invited to a dance and a friend’s for dinner.”
“Well she won’t be eating any of our food,” Mr. Lowrie said, never taking his eyes off the Cialis commercial although he had a smile to match his wife’s. He loved having the girl around. She seemed to be breathing new life into them. It was a slow process, but nonetheless one in which he was enjoying immensely.
“So go dance…eat. What do you need me for?”
“I don’t have any clothes to wear.”
“Does this look like Walmart? We don’t have much extra money, Callis.” Mrs. Lowrie told the downtrodden girl.
“She’s about the same size as my sister Sherrie. Give her the suitcase,” Mr. Lowrie said.
Mrs. Lowrie’s eyes narrowed as she looked over at her husband.
“You said them clothes was mine.”
Mr. Lowrie finally looked away from the television. “We’ve had those clothes for three years now, you’re the same size now that you were then. You ain’t ever gonna fit in them. Let the girl use them or we’re going to have to use some of the food money to get her clothes.” He smiled at Callis.
“Fine,” Mrs. Lowrie said, getting up. She hastily sat back down when the show abruptly came back on. “Under my bed is a brown suitcase, but don’t ask me for anything else.”
Callis didn’t know if she meant today or forever, either way she didn’t care. The prospect of having some new clothes thrilled her. Although she wasn’t sure how fashionable they would be coming from Mr. Lowrie’s sibling, the same man who consistently wore white t-shirts and sandals over socks.
“Wow,” Callis said as she popped the suitcase onto her bed and opened it up. She was in amazement that someone had even been able to close it considering how much clothing was in it. There were vintage jeans she knew were worth hundreds, some Marc Jacobs dresses, and some blouses from designers around the globe.
“My sister was a model,” Mr. Lowrie said, startling Callis. He was leaning up against the door, toothpick in his mouth, scratching his pregnant-looking belly.
“These clothes are beautiful,” Callis told him.
“So was she,” he said wistfully.
“What happened to her?” Callis asked, figuring it was some great tragedy like an ocean liner going down.
“Got pregnant, blew up like a damn balloon, bigger ‘un me now. She got rid of the clothes ‘cause they reminded her of what she’d lost. Never knew why people hold on to the past so hard,” he said, turning back before the commercials were over.
Callis could only think of the wall of pictures they had for their son, but holding on to the past of a loved one was infinitely more important than possessions. There was nothing she had or would ever own in life that she wouldn’t give up to have her parents and her old life back.
“We still on for tonight?” Kevin asked cautiously as they stopped in front of her house.
“Of course, this week couldn’t go by fast enough.”
“I’m a hundred percent okay with whatever you have to wear tonight…you know that right?”
“Thank you,” she answered demurely.
“My dad said he’d drive. We’ll be here around eight. Is that okay?”
“That’s only three hours…I have to get ready!” She gave him a peck on the cheek and ran into the house.
“She’s acting like three hours isn’t enough time to get ready, how long does it take to take a shower and put some pants on?” he asked the breeze as he walked home swiftly, wondering if he should be concerned with the amount of time available to him.
Callis spent most of the time preparing the midnight blue dress. She had no make-up, and even if she did, she had never put any on and didn’t know how. She took a quick shower, hoping that the warm water would calm her nerves…it didn’t help.
“Mom, I need you,” she said, pressing her hand to the mirror.
She was thankful Kevin and his father were ten minutes late. She had just put the dress on and realized she only had the Ked sneakers she’d been wearing. She was going to call Kevin and let him know she couldn’t go to the dance. How could she without shoes?
“Holy shit,” Mr. Lowrie said as Callis came down the hallway. “Sherry never looked that good in those clothes. I always thought she looked a little anemic. I think it was too much coke. Whoever he is, is going to be mighty happy to see you.”
“I can’t go,” she told him.
“Go have fun. What are you going to do, stay home and watch bad TV with me and the missus?”
“I don’t have any shoes.”
“Come here.” He smiled and brushed past Callis to his and Mrs. Lowrie’s bedroom. He pulled back a curtain to reveal dozens of shoes. “The ones on the left are my sister’s.”
“I can’t use Mrs. Lowrie’s shoes, she’ll get mad.”
“Why? She’s never used them. I love the woman, but she has boats for feet. I think she wears a man’s eleven.” He laughed. “What size are you?”
“Five and a half.”
“Close enough, pick a pair of shoes, have fun, and don’t get pregnant like me,” he said gripping his belly.
“Thank you, Mr. Lowrie.”
“You’ve earned it, now have a good time.”
They both looked up at the sound of a horn bleating.
“Your chariot awaits.”
Callis grabbed a pair of medium heeled shoes that perfectly matched the color of the dress.
�
�Do I look alright?” she asked Mr. Lowrie.
“Oh if I were single, fifty years younger, and seventy pounds lighter.” He smiled.
Callis stepped out on to the porch of the trailer, the small light overhead illuminating her perfectly.
“Whoa,” Mr. Denton said involuntarily.
“Dad!”
“Sorry, kid, but she’s a beauty.”
“Wow…she really is.”
“You mean you’ve been hanging out for close to a month now and you’ve never noticed?”
“I um…we’re just friends. I guess I never really looked at her that way until now.”
“Bit of advice, Romeo, you’d better snatch her up before someone else does. Now go show some manners and escort her down her.”
“Right, sorry.” He quickly exited the vehicle.
Mr. Denton wondered if some of her beauty would fade as she came closer. Distance was sometimes the great mask of the imperfect. If anything, she grew more radiant as she neared. “Man if I was single, twenty years younger and twenty pounds lighter.”
“Hi, Mr. Denton,” Callis said as she got into the back seat of the car.
“So you’re the infamous Callis Rose my son has been talking about non-stop.”
Callis blushed.
“Dad! So not cool.”
Mr. Denton laughed. “Hey that’s my job and privilege as a parent…to embarrass you.”
“Nobody said you had to take it to an art form.”
“Fair enough. Where you originally from, Callis?” he asked, looking in the rear view mirror.
Callis’ face clouded over for a moment before she answered. “I used to live in Denver, Fort Morgan, Wheat Ridge, Aurora…and now here.”
Mr. Denton felt awkward for a moment, slightly embarrassed that he had brought up such a sensitive subject. He could feel the anger radiating off his son, but Callis felt the unease and worked to move the conversation away from it.
“I’m learning a lot about football from watching Kevin play.”
“Oh yeah?” Mr. Denton said, expecting her to possibly say something about the uniform colors.
“Yeah, like how he always gives away when it is going to be a passing play and that he never looks off his primary receiver.”