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care, I decided to avoid the question entirely. "You can't skip school on a
whim, Allie. And you can't not study something just because doesn't involve
boys or cheerleading."
it
"I like algebra," she said.
I gaped at her. "Are you sure you're my daughter? Because I'm thinking you're
a pod person."
She made a face. "Don't even try to change the subject. I'm coming with you
tomorrow, and that's all there is to it."
She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in her chair, looking so
much like me at that moment, that it was eerie.
"I really don't think it's such a good idea." What if Father Oliver blurted
something out about our demon-hunting days?
Her body seemed to sag, and I was certain I'd won the battle. "It's just& It's
just that I'm starting to forget him."
My heart started to break around the edges. "Daddy?"
She nodded, then wiped the back of her hand under her nose. She looked small
and young and lost, and
I couldn't bear the thought that she'd ever, ever
, forget her father.
"I don't want to, but I was only nine, you know? And I look at pictures and it
all comes back, but I'm really afraid, Mom. What if I look at a picture
someday and that's all it is?"
"Oh, baby." I was crying now, too, and I opened my arms wide, hugging her
close. Timmy lost interest in his television show and came over to join us,
crawling up on the couch between us and snuggling.
I still wanted to say no. So help me, I wanted to scream no at the top of my
lungs. But in my heart, I
knew she had to come with me. If Allie found out the truth tomorrow, I'd deal
with it then.
After all, I thought, isn't that what this whole parenting thing is all about?
Because Allie was anxious, she woke me up at the crack of dawn even before
Stuart had rolled out of bed.
He sat up, blinking in the dark. "Wha ?"
I kissed his forehead. "Go back to sleep," I whispered. "You still have twelve
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minutes before your alarm goes off."
By the time I was showered and changed, Allie was waiting at the kitchen
table, Timmy's lunch already packed, and the boy himself eating dry Honey Nut
Cheerios and drinking milk out of a sippy cup. "Can we go?"
I melted into one of the chairs. "Administer at least one dose of coffee
intravenously. Then we'll talk."
"Mo-om."
"Tim's day care doesn't even open for another fifteen minutes. I have time for
one cup."
"Fine. But I'm putting it in Stuart's commuter cup. If you're not done with it
in five minutes, you can take it with us."
Exactly five minutes later, we were in the van, the Starbucks cup tucked into
the console beside me. We got to KidSpace with three minutes to spare, and
ended up waiting in the parking lot for Nadine to unlock the doors.
"Why can't you do this on a school day?" I asked, as soon as we were underway.
"Do you have any idea what a hassle it is getting you up in the morning?"
She just rolled her eyes, then kicked her feet up onto the dashboard. "Can we
drive through McDonald's for a sausage biscuit?"
"What about your no-fat, wholly organic, must-be-a-paragon-of-food virtue
diet?"
"Road trip, Mom. I can bend the rules for a road trip."
"Right." And since a sausage biscuit sounded pretty tasty right then, I pulled
into the first McDonald's I
saw. Why not? With this latest insurgence of demon activity, I was burning an
insane number of calories.
And besides, we had a long drive ahead of us. More than an hour without
traffic, but since Los Angeles's morning rush hour covers a four-hour window,
I expected that we'd be moving at the speed of lethargic snails once we hit
the outskirts.
Since I didn't want to spend the entire day in the van, we avoided the Coast
Highway, picking instead the significantly less scenic 101. Allie, naturally,
dozed off about ten minutes after she finished her biscuit, leaving me to my
mishmash of thoughts and questions. All familiar territory. What were the
demons up to? Which demon was their master? What secrets would Father Oliver
reveal to me? And the biggest
question of all: Why had Eric kept secrets from me?
Around and around the questions spun until I was so sick of my own thoughts
that I clicked on the radio.
A CD was in, so the first thing I heard was "Hot Potato." I actually listened
through the entire song and the beginning of "Shaky Shaky" before I remembered
that when Timmy wasn't in the van, I wasn't required to listen to his
Wiggles
CDs. I switched over to the radio and tuned to an oldies channel, letting
Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" fill the car.
The song did the trick, too. Beside me, Allie stirred, then reached for her
Diet Coke and downed about half of it in one swallow. "This music is lame,"
she said offhandedly. Then she flipped down her visor, checked her reflection
in the mirror, and touched up her lips.
"You're gorgeous," I said, ignoring the music critique.
"I'd be better with eyeshadow," she said, hopefully.
"Nice try," I said. "You don't need to wear eyeshadow to school. It's not a
fashion event."
"I'm not at school right now," she pointed out, quite reasonably I thought.
Really, the girl should join the debate team.
"School hours," I said. "No eyeshadow during school hours."
"How about on dates?"
"Sure," I said. "As soon as Stuart and I say you can go on dates, you can wear
eyeshadow."
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"Sixteen, right?"
I checked my rearview mirror, changed lanes, then nodded. "Right."
"So, if it's a double date, I should be able to go when I'm fifteen. I mean,
that makes sense, right?"
"I can't even begin to describe how much that does not make sense."
"Mom! Of course it does. You're just not paying attention."
"Allie. Sixteen. That's the rule."
She flopped back in her seat. "Whatever."
"And take your feet off the dash."
She dropped them to the floorboards with a huff that represented the start of
a snit that lasted another fifteen miles. Then she yawned, stretched, and
twisted around to face me. "So how about you talk to
Stuart? If he thinks I can double-date, will you at least think about it?"
"Allie& "
"Come on. Please? I'm responsible. Aren't I?"
I stifled the urge to close my eyes since we were currently doing eighty, but
I did let my shoulders slump.
"Yes, you're responsible. I'm very proud of my responsible, manipulative
daughter."
"So you'll talk with Stuart?"
"Yes, I'll talk it over with Stuart."
She settled back in the seat, a grin slathered across her face. After a bit,
the wattage decreased a bit.
"You can talk to him, right? I mean, he's not around a whole lot these days."
"Of course I can talk to him. What do you think? We leave each other Post-it
notes in the bathroom?"
"I dunno. Mindy says her mom and dad hardly talk at all anymore. She thinks
they're going to get a divorce."
I turned sharply. "She does?"
"Yeah." A pause, then, "Are you and Stuart okay?"
"Oh, baby. Yeah. Stuart and I are great. He's working his tail off, and, yes,
I get annoyed when he's not home as much, but there's nothing wrong with our
marriage."
"You're sure?"
I reached over and squeezed her knee. "Positive." I wasn't positive, though.
Not really. Things had changed in the last few months, shifting slightly off
their axis. I didn't see a divorce on the horizon, but I
also wasn't taking our marriage for granted anymore. Probably a good thing
when you thought about it, but it still made me a little sad.
"How about Daddy?"
"What about him?"
"I dunno. I guess, I mean, well, you always tell me how much you loved him."
"I did love him. I do still." I glanced sideways at her, trying to think like [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]