Alicia's Misfortune (28 page)

There was nothing she could do right now except watch the
two girls as they both held scissors at each other’s heads.
 
“I’m cutting yours just like the girl in the
superhero’s movie!”
 
One of them yelled
out loud.
 
Emily didn’t know what to say,
but she wanted to know why Dylan wasn’t having much of a reaction to the entire
scenario.
 
Instead, he looked at the
woman who was sitting on the couch and then stepped over a pile of laundry that
was piled on the floor.
 
Emily still
waited in the doorway.
 

“They ate some pita pockets around seven and then watched a
movie.”
 
The woman flicked ashes from her
cigarette into an ashtray.
 
“Hey, you
two, put them scissors down.”
 
She got up
slowly and Emily saw that she was wearing a tank top and skin tight jeans.
 
“I guess kids will be kids.”
 
She laughed and then snatched the scissors
out of the two girls’ hands.
 
Dylan
shrugged and then wandered into the dining room.

“Come with me, Emily.”
 
He gestured for her to come inside and she walked slowly toward the
children who were now jumping off the chairs and onto the couch.
 

“Hello, there.”
 
Emily
knelt down and smiled at the young girl with the brown hair, and the girl stuck
out her tongue.
 
Emily backed away as
Dylan waited patiently for her to follow him into the kitchen.
 
A foul stench emanated from the sink and when
he flicked on the flights she saw that there was a mountain high pile of dishes
leaning off to the side.
 
Emily didn’t
think it could get much worse, but when he opened up the back door, the screen
fell off the window.
 

“As you might be able to tell, it’s not the most organized
house in Texas.”
 
Dylan let out a chuckle
and then peeked around the corner, just in time to catch one of the girls
throwing a pile of crayons at the woman in the tank top.
 
Emily was floored.
 
How could he just let these children run
wild?
 
She still didn’t know how to
react, and she was truly baffled by the woman’s lack of disciplining.
 

“Well, gimme a call next time you need me, okay,
Dylan?”
 
The woman called out from the
front door and then stood with her hands on her hips, apparently waiting for
him to pay her.
 
She chewed on a piece of
gum and then watched as the girl with the red hair threw a pillow across the
room.
 
It hit the lamp and knocked the
shade over.
 
Emily gasped as the shade
then hit a glass of water which broke and fell all over the floor.

“Dylan.”
 
Emily
couldn’t restrain herself any longer.
 
“One of these children is going to hurt, and possibly badly, if you
don’t do something about their behavior.”
 
Emily couldn’t believe that the words came out of her mouth, but they
did and there was no taking them back.
 
He looked at her with an expression of relief.
 

“I know, Emily.
 
That’s why you’re here.”
 
He
walked toward her and then patted her on the shoulder. It was the first gesture
that he’d made toward her that really caught her attention.
 
His hand was large and strong, but she felt a
certain comfort from it, as well. The woman in the tank top remained by the
door.
 
She cracked her gum and then Dylan
snapped out of his daze.
 
“Yes.
 
Of course!”
 
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill and
handed it to the woman.
 
She stuffed it
down her bra and then winked at Dylan and left.
  

“Well I’m not sure I can…”
 
Emily’s voice trailed off as she tried to speak.
 
Just then the girl with the brown hair took a
pile of books and started ripping the pages out of one of them.
 
Emily’s eyes widened.
 

“Stop!”
 
She grabbed
the book from the girl and then held it tightly against her chest.
 
Growing up she had always been taught to
respect books and her parents had always showed her an appreciation toward them
with their elaborate library.
 
Emily was
appalled at the children’s behavior, and watching one them attempt to destroy a
book put her over the edge.
 
“Go upstairs
to your room!”
 
Emily snapped again and
then shooed the young girl away.
 

“You know, I realize that I didn’t even introduce you to
Anna and Eisley.”
 
Dylan shook his head
and then attempted to pull one of the dishes out from the pile in the sink. The
entire tower toppled over and a loud crashing sound ensued.
 
Emily covered her ears and then tried to
think of what she should do.
 
There were
so many levels of dysfunction to what she saw around her that she didn’t know
where to start.
 

“It’s fine.
 
I think I
just a few minutes to…”
 
Emily’s voice
tapered off just as a loud boom came from upstairs.
  
“I just need to adjust.”
 
She looked at Dylan and then rushed out of
the kitchen to see what had happened upstairs.
 
“Is everything okay?”
 
She yelled
from the foot of the stairs and then craned her neck to see if she could see anything.
 
The girls let out a roar of laughter.
 

“Anna and Eisley.
 
If
you get into your pajamas I’ll let you sit up and watch a movie with our new
family member, Miss Emily.”
 
Dylan called
out from downstairs and the girls gushed with excitement.
 

“I want to watch The Muppets!”
 
The one with the red hair yelled with
excitement.
 

“No!
 
I want to watch
The Roughkins!”
 
The one with the brown
hair and freckles piped up.
 
Emily could
see that this was going to be much more than she had bargained for, but what
could she do now?
 
Here she was, in the
middle of a broken down ranch in Texas, with nowhere else to go, and with
someone counting on her to save his life from falling apart.
 

“I’ll tell you what.”
 
Emily called out loud and then took a deep breath.
 
“First, we’ll put the movies down on the
floor and then we’ll draw cards for it.
 
Whoever gets the highest card gets to pick what movie we watch.”
 
It was the first idea to come off the top of
her head, and while it wasn’t the best strategy, she knew it was better than
watching them duke it out over preferences.

Both of the girls stood silently and then looked at
Emily.
 
The one with the red hair smiled
and started jumping up and down.
 
“I want
to sit next to Miss Emily for the movie!”
 
She smiled and then looked at her cousin with a glimmer in her eye.
 
Dylan smiled and then approached Emily with a
sigh.

“Please don’t run away.”
 
He whispered in her ear and then looked at the two girls who were now
patiently waiting to pull the cards and see who would be declared the
winner.
 
Emily didn’t know if she’d
survive this experience, but she didn’t see that she had much of a choice right
now to get out of it.
 
Then again, she
hadn’t even unpacked her suitcase yet.
 
Maybe she could slip away in the middle of the night, she thought.

The girls stared at Emily and for once, the room was completely
silent.
 
“We’re ready to pick the cards,
Miss Emily.”
 
The one with the red hair
smiled and then Emily handed them each a card from the deck she’d seen lying on
the floor earlier.
 
Dylan folded his arms
and then watched while the first child, Eisley, pulled a Queen of Hearts.
 
He watched in suspense as the second child,
Anna, pulled a 3 of Clubs.

“Okay, girls!
 
Eisley
is the winner this round so she gets to pick.
 
Go ahead and put on those pajamas then bring down your movie.”
 
Emily felt a sort of calm descend on the
house and she watched as Eisley fled the room to get into her pajamas.
 
Anna, looking forlorn, trailed behind Eisley
and then turned around and looked at Emily.

“I’m sad that I didn’t win.”
 
She sighed and Emily gave her a pat on the head.
 

“Don’t be sad.
 
You’ll
have a chance next time.”
 
She smiled and
Anna went off to put on her pajamas, as well.
 
With both of the children out of the room for a few minutes, Dylan had a
brief moment to give her the rundown of their situation.
 

“So, Anna is the one with red hair.
 
She’s eight.
 
Eisley has the brown hair, and she’s seven.
 
They are both my nieces, and it’s a long
story, but they’ve been living with me for the last five years.
 
They lost their parents to a tornado, of all
things.”
 
Dylan shook his head and then
frowned. “I was married around the same time, but found out that my wife of ten
years had been cheating on me with our neighbor.
 
Together, we we’re doing all right raising
the girls as our own, but as soon as the marriage fell apart, pardon the
expression, the shit hit the fan.”
 
Dylan
sighed and shook his head.

Emily didn’t know what to say.
 
She looked at her suitcase, still sitting by
the front door.
 
Then she looked up just
in time to see Eisley running down the steps, her long hair flowing behind
her.
 
“Hey, girls.
 
Before we get this movie going, I think we
have a few things to do round here.”
 
Dylan spotted the broken glass from earlier, the toppled lamp shade, and
the pile of books.
 
He knew that it would
be too overwhelming to ask them to clean all of it, and so he said nothing.

“I think that your… uncle?”
 
Emily paused, not sure if they referred to him as a dad or an uncle, or
maybe something else.
 
Dylan nodded and
Emily continued.
 
“I think that your
Uncle Dylan wants you to help clean up some of the books first.”
 
Emily smiled and then diverted them to the
pile they had tried to destroy earlier.
 
Then she stepped toward the broken glass and got to work cleaning it up.

By the time the room had been restored to some semblance of
order, it was almost nine o’clock.
 
Emily
was wiped out.
 
In fact, as soon as they
had popped in The Muppets, she fell asleep on the chair that Dylan had told her
to sit in.
 
The next thing she knew,
Dylan was tapping her on the shoulder, telling her to get up and go to
bed.
 
“Come on, I’ll show you to your
room.”
 
He had already put the girls to
bed and had Emily’s suitcase in his hands.
 

“I’m sorry.
 
I fell
asleep.”
 
Emily was slightly
embarrassed.
 
Dylan led her up the stairs
and down a long carpeted hallway.
 
Both
of the girls were sound asleep in their bedrooms.
 
Emily watched as Dylan opened a door and then
flicked the light switch. A small twin bed sat in the center of the room, and a
tiny dresser was situated to the left.
 

Emily wasn’t disappointed in how small the room was, but she
did feel surprised when she reflected on the ad she’d originally responded
to.
 
She thought about saying something
right then and there, but bit her tongue and smiled, instead.
 
She didn’t want to come across as ungrateful
but she wanted to understand why Dylan placed an ad that insinuated he was a
well-off business man when this was clearly not the case.
 
Maybe the truth would come out later, she
told herself as she looked around the room.

“Make yourself at home.
 
The bathroom is at the end of the hall, and there’s a linen closet in
the hall if you need a towel.
 
We’ll talk
more tomorrow.”
 
Dylan smiled and then
turned around to leave.
 
Emily watched as
he made it about a quarter of the way down the hall.
 
Then he wheeled around and came back to her
room.
 
“And by the way- I’m glad that
you’re here.
 
I think you’ll make a great
wife.”
 
He winked and then left.

Emily sat down on the edge of the bed, unsure of what to
do.
 
She wanted to get settled in and
un-pack, but she was so tired that all she could think about was going to
sleep.
 
She unzipped her suitcase and
pulled out a pair of black cotton pajamas.
 
Then she took off her skirt and her sweater, folded them neatly, and set
them both on the floor beside the bed.
 
She turned off the lights and then pulled back the covers.
 
She could hear a dog barking outside and
wondered if it was Dylan’s.
 
Then she
laid her head on the pillow, closed her eyes for a moment, and drifted right to
sleep.