Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 (11 page)

“
I haven’t done anything,”
Jacob said. “I don’t plan on doing anything. I’m not interested. I
don’t cheat!”

“
Better keep it that way,”
Heather said.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday afternoon — 2 P.M.

“
I missed a day of work for
nothing!” Nash said.

Sandy put her arm over his shoulder. She,
Nash and Noelle were walking out of the Denver Public School
office. Teddy, Nash’s best friend, and his father, Captain Zack
Jakkman, walked just behind them.

“
I missed a day of school,”
Noelle said.

“
That whole thing sucked,”
Teddy said. Imitating the school official’s voice, he added, “If
you hadn’t gone to the papers, we would have more
options.”

Noelle ran ahead to hit the handicap button
for the exit doors.

“
If we hadn’t gone to the
papers, we’d still be in the same position,” Nash said.

“
Not really,” Sandy said.
“They freed you to go to another Denver Public School. We can go
look at them tomorrow and pick one.”

“
We still can’t go back to
Smiley,” Nash said.

“
That sucks,” Teddy said.
“All our friends are at Smiley.”

“
Sandy, Teddy can go to
Catholic school,” Zack said. “His brother and sister go to Blessed
Sacrament already. He doesn’t want to because…”

“
I won’t go without Nash.”
Teddy repeated what he’d said many times before.

“
I’m not Catholic,” Nash
said.

“
Actually, you were
baptized Catholic, Nash,” Sandy said. “Your Dad did it when you
were born. Nuala didn’t want Noelle baptized in the heathen
religion or something like that. That’s more than I had when I went
there. I had to start from scratch.”

“
I would start from
scratch,” Noelle said. “I don’t mind.”

“
It’s not a bad idea,
Sandy,” Zack said.

Sandy looked into the intense blue eyes of
the handsome pilot.

“
Hey kids,” Zack said. “Can
you give us a minute?”

“
Why?” Noelle
asked.

“
We don’t really…” Nash
said.

“
Here’s my phone,” Sandy
said. “Why don’t you decide what you want to do to celebrate?
Movies? Ice cream?”

“
Dave and Busters?” Zack
added.

Nash snatched Sandy’s iPhone from her.
Arguing, the kids wandered toward Zack’s car.

“
What’s up,
Zack?”

Zack’s fingers touched Sandy’s cheek. He
moved a renegade piece of her hair behind her ear.

“
You look very tired,” he
said.

“
I’m exhausted.”

“
After all this time, I…”
He smiled. “I miss the carefree Sandy.”

“
I thought you and your
girlfriend…”

“
I’m in intelligence now.
I’ve learned that you do that to intentionally fluster me,” he
said. “If I had known that when we…”

“
You’d never have left
Tina, ever,” Sandy said. “Plus, you and Bestat belong together, no
question.”

“
That’s very kind of you,”
Zack said. “Bestat is… Yeah, you’re right. It doesn’t change the
way I felt or feel about you.”

Sandy kissed his cheek. She moved to meet
the kids.

“
Aden seems like a nice
guy,” Zack said. “You’re cute together.”

“
You didn’t tell him,” she
said.

“
Did I tell your boyfriend
that I was going to leave my wife and children for my beloved
sixteen-year-old pen pal but she wouldn’t let me? No, only Alex
knows that.”

“
You really loved
me?”

“
Still do. You know that,”
Zack said.

Sandy nodded her head slightly.

“
You’re not yourself.
Haven’t been since all that crap with your father,” Zack said. “The
Sandy I know would have laughed this school stuff off and found a
new solution.”

“
What solution, Zack? I’ve
tried everything I can think of,” she said.

“
This is me, Sandy,” Zack
said. “We’ve known each other too long and been through too much
heartache, for you to lie to me. What’s going on with you? Not with
Aden, or his kids, or the baby but what’s going on with
you?”

He put his hand over her heart.

“
Here.”

Sandy shook her head at him. She shifted to
walk to his car. He held her in place.

“
I’ve always been the
person you could talk to, about everything, even when things were
awful,” Zack said. “I’m still that person.”

Sandy’s pursed her eyebrows then shook her
head.

“
We have these kids to take
care of.” She tried to move again.

“
They’re fine,” Zack said.
“Did you notice Teddy and Noelle?”

“
What about
them?”

“
They’re like us,” Zack
said. “Quick looks, blushing, very cute.”

“
I wondered why she wanted
to spend time with them. But… I hadn’t noticed.”

“
See what I mean,” Zack
said.

She moved to leave and he pulled her to him
in a hug.

“
Tell me,” he said in her
ear.

“
Everyone knows now, Zack,”
she whispered. “Everyone. You heard what the school administrator
said about me. Everyone knows. The newspaper reporter fumbled all
over himself before he asked if he could interview me about… my
life.

“
I fought so hard to be
something… more. Now, I’m just some stupid pregnant whore,” she
whispered. “Bad enough she was fucked by her father on video. But
look at her now, the idiot’s pregnant by some criminal.”

“
Oh Sandy, it’s so easy to
judge. Why take this on? You never cared what people thought of
you.”

“
I cared enough to keep the
stuff that happened a secret,” she said.

He shook her a little bit.

“
I don’t want to be taken
advantage of anymore,” she said. “I get taken advantage of all the
time.”

“
By whom?”

“
Aden,” she
said.

“
Only if you let him,” Zack
said. “And before you say it, you didn’t
let
your father take advantage of
you. You didn’t
let
those men take advantage you. And, much to my chagrin, you’ve
never let me take advantage of you.”

Laughing, Sandy shifted away and punched his
chest.

“
Ow,” he said. “Knowing
you, loving you, changed my life forever. Don’t let them steal your
shine.”

“
What shine?”

Zack laughed. He held out his hand and she
took it. They walked to the car where the kids were arguing.

“
Hey I didn’t know you knew
each other,” Teddy said.

“
We’re old friends,” Zack
said.

“
Is she one of your
ladies?” Teddy asked.

“
Your mother’s paranoid
fantasy ladies?”

“
I am,” Sandy said. “Tina
hates me.”

“
It’s okay, Sandy,” Teddy
said. “She hates me too. She really hates Nash because he’s my
friend.”

“
My mom hates me too,”
Sandy said.

“
Welcome to the…” Teddy
started

“
Country of Fucked Up,”
Teddy, Nash and Zack said together.

Noelle laughed and clapped her hands.
Blushing, Sandy laughed.

“
It’s a crowded country but
we take immigrants,” Zack said.

“
Immigrant? I’m a founder!”
Sandy protested.

Zack opened the passenger door and helped
her inside his SUV. He went around to the driver’s side.

“
Where to?”

“
We want to know if there
are cute girls at Machebeuf,” Nash said.

“
I went there,” Sandy
said.

“
Then I’ll go,” Nash
said.

“
Me too,” Teddy
said.

“
Let’s go look,” Zack said.
“We can check out the girls and boys for Noelle.”

“
Noelle doesn’t need any
boys,” Teddy said.

Noelle giggled and batted her eyes at Teddy.
He blushed. Leaning against the seat, Sandy felt a moment of
peace.

Maybe Delphie was right. Maybe, she was
loved.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday evening — 5:25 P.M.

“
You were right,” Jill
said. She was in the middle of making meatloaf for dinner.
“Pantry’s full.”

“
I
told
you!” Honey said.

“
Our household pantry’s
full too,” Jill said. ”Yours?”

Honey nodded.

“
I was here most of the
day.”

“
Magic,” Honey said. “It’s
got to be magic.”

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday evening — 7:30 P.M.

“
Welcome home.”

After the Department of Corrections checked
the Castle, its telephone connection and radio coverage, they
attached the device on Aden’s leg and released him to Sam’s
custody. Sam hugged Aden and retreated upstairs. Jacob picked up
Aden’s bag and carried it into the Castle living room.

“
Thanks,” Aden said. “Where
is everyone?”

“
They wanted to let you get
settled before you felt like you had to do anything,” Jacob said.
“Come on. We made a place for you in the basement.”

Aden started down the basement stairs after
Jacob.

“
I can’t thank you enough,”
Aden said. “I…”

Sandy and the kids stood at the bottom of
the stairs waiting for them.

“
I’ll leave you in good
hands,” Jacob said.

CHAPTER
NINETY-SIX
Road-a-Vores

Thursday morning — 6:30 A.M

Aden stood in front of the apartment where
Sandy and his children lived. He’d rushed through his return to
work with the sole focus of getting to this door by six-thirty.
After all the rush, he couldn’t bring himself to knock. His
nervousness surprised him. Sandy opened the door.

“
There you are.”

She smiled. He was taken back by how
beautiful she looked.

“
Thanks for inviting me to
breakfast,” Aden said.

“
The kids are excited to
see you,” Sandy said. “Nash begged me to make cinnamon
scones.”

He followed her into the apartment.

“
Dad!” Nash said. He ran
forward to hug his father. “Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“
I helped them get started
this morning,” Aden said. “I didn’t want to miss breakfast. Today’s
your big day, isn’t it?”

“
We’re going to talk to the
people at Blessed Sacrament. My old teacher called like five
minutes ago and suggested the Park Hill School too. They do seventh
and eight grade. Sandy’s going to call Teddy’s Dad to see if they
can meet us there. Teddy’s already set up at Blessed
Sacrament.”

Nash spoke in a rush of words. His eyes
never left his father’s face. When he was done, he impulsively
hugged his father again.

“
Did you sleep good?” Nash
asked.

“
Well,” Sandy said. “Sleep
well.”

“
Sleep well,” Nash
said.

“
I’m really happy to be
home,” Aden said.

“
This isn’t our home,
Daddy!” Noelle said.

Noelle came in wearing her new tailored
uniforms and her fancy new bra. Her hair fell in waves at her
shoulder. She wore a little mascara and eye shadow. Aden’s little
girl had transformed into a young woman. Aden was so surprised, he
took a step back.

“
What are you wearing?”
Aden asked.

“
My uniform,” Noelle
said.

“
We’ll be right back,”
Sandy said.

Sandy pushed Aden back out the door of the
apartment. Flustered, he didn’t protest.

“
What’s wrong with you?”
Sandy asked.

“
What… I mean
how…”

“
Your daughter is growing
up,” Sandy said.

“
She’s only ten. She’s
still a baby and… and… I wasn’t gone that long!”

“
She’s almost eleven. In
some cultures, eleven year old girls get married and have
children,” Sandy said.

“
Not this culture,” Aden
said.

“
She’s a lovely young
woman,” Sandy said. “She really cares about how she looks. Do you
have some problem with it?”

“
I’m just surprised. That’s
all,” Aden said. “She’s… beautiful. My Noelle…”

“
Watch what you say,” Sandy
said. “She’s very sensitive. She’s been teased by the cute girls at
school.”

“
She’s been teased by a
group of girls for a long time,” Aden said. “I’ve talked to her
teachers about it but there’s not much they can do.”

“
Well, be nice,
complementary,” Sandy said. “Valerie helped her get her uniform
tailored and helped her with new undergarments. Noelle feels pretty
special to have a movie star’s help. So be nice.”

Aden nodded. Sandy turned back to the
apartment door.

“
May I kiss
you?”

“
What?” Sandy whipped
around.