Flat-Out Love (20 page)

“Take your time,” Julie murmured. “There’s only a lifetime of good mental health at stake here.”

Julie pushed out the blade from the utility knife and repositioned Flat Finn on the thick towel that she’d spread out on the kitchen floor. “Inhale and exhale, Celeste. Inhale and exhale.”

“Flat Finn is having second thoughts! Flat Finn is having second thoughts!”

“Flat Finn is not having second thoughts.”

“You are going to cut him into two pieces,” Celeste said in a severely accusing tone. “That is a rather monumental injury.”

“It’s not an injury. It’s a modification. I agree that it’ll be pretty creepy for a few moments. He will indeed be in two pieces. But I swear to God that I’m going to put him back together.” Julie held up the hardware that she’d bought the day before. “See these hinges? They’ll hold him together, just like we talked about. Then he can bend at the waist. He can even fold in half, which is a damn good party trick if you ask me.”

“Flat Finn does not attend parties.”

“He might after this.” Julie pushed the metal ruler against the cardboard and checked the cutting line again. She poised the blade at the edge of the cutout. “You ready?”

Celeste moved away from Julie. “I think that I will stay on this side of the room and turn my back to you.”

“Fine,” Julie agreed. “Why don’t you talk to him while I work.”

“Talk to him about what exactly?”

“Reassure him. Tell him everything will be peachy. That he’ll be happier in the long run. Stuff like that. OK, here I go.” Julie pressed the knife into Flat Finn’s waistline and etched a cut across the width. “Start talking, Celeste!” She began to retrace the line, sinking the blade deeper into the cardboard.

“This is a great day to increase limberness!” Celeste yelled unconvincingly. “Think of all of the things you will be able to achieve, Flat Finn!”

“He’s doing great. Keep going,” Julie encouraged.

“Um…It was stupid Julie’s idea, and so you will hold her responsible if this surgery ends in tragedy!”

“Very funny. Try again. Tell him that this is an important and necessary step in his development. That he will thank you for helping him fit in with others. This is a challenging time, but you are here for him and will get him through this.” Julie finished the cut and separated Flat Finn into two parts. OK, even she had to admit that this was pretty freaky. “There!”

“You did it? He has been divided?” Celeste’s voice trembled. “Hurry. Julie, hurry. Please!”

“I am. Don’t look.” She grabbed the screwdriver and a set of hinges. “Your boy here needs to know that you support this step, Celeste.”

“OK, OK…Flat Finn? I support this modification?”

Julie could hear Celeste pacing at the other end of the room. “With a little more conviction, please.”

“I support this modification!”

“You will be his pillar of strength!” Julie prompted.

“That is a vile cliché, and I will not say that.”

“Then come up with your own phrases,” Julie said as she continued screwing in the silver hinges.

“This is difficult. I
cannot
think of the appropriate thing to say.” Celeste let out a frustrated, guttural sound that made Julie flinch. “Help me. You talk to him.”

“Oh, Flat Finn, my dear. This is nothing to get all stressed out about. I realize that you’re having an understandably nervous reaction to this simple procedure. Just because you want this doesn’t mean it’s easy. You’re doing very well. Much less complaining than most flat people. Really. I’m quite impressed.”

“Julie, hurry up. You have to hurry up.”

“Almost done, kiddo. Just one more minute, and…Ta da!” Julie rolled back on her knees and examined her work. Not bad for someone who could barely identify most tools. “Want to see him?” She lifted Flat Finn to a standing position and turned the small semicircular dial that she had put on the back to prevent him from collapsing in half at inappropriate times.

Celeste turned around and eyed Flat Finn warily. After a few moments, her face softened. “Actually, I quite like his appearance. It’s as though he’s wearing a belt buckle. You might have selected gold, but the silver isn’t terrible.”

“Yay! You have some contractions back
and
an added concern for fashion.”

“Do I really do that? The thing with the contractions? No one has ever mentioned that.”

“You do. It’s sort of cute sometimes. You sound like Matt. But you might want to ease up on it. It’d make you sound more relaxed and casual. Comfortable.”

“I will try to pay more attention to my speech. I mean,
I’ll try
.”

Julie bent Flat Finn forward and back a few times at the waist. “Look! He’s exercising. Or practicing to pick up pennies off the sidewalk. Oh my God, he’s a cheapskate, isn’t he? What a loathsome quality.”

“He is not a cheapskate.” Celeste cracked a smile. “He is conservative. Thoughtful.”

“Yeah? Christmas is coming up. I expect big things.” Julie brushed a smudge off his arm. “If this hinge deal works out, maybe we can add more later? At the arms, legs, neck?”

Celeste examined the spot that Julie had wiped off. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“Come on. Let’s take him for a test run. Follow me.”

“Where are we going?”

“Just follow me.” Julie led the way up to the second floor, with Celeste and Flat Finn close behind her. She knocked on Matt’s open door. “Hello! You have visitors!”

As usual, he was seated in front of his laptop. “Hey.” Matt looked tired, but his eyes widened as Celeste toted Flat Finn into the room. “What’s going on here?”

“Flat Finn has expanded his repertoire of possible poses.” Julie took Flat Finn from Celeste’s hands and sat him up on Matt’s bed. “Now you two can hang out and shoot the breeze without feeling socially uncomfortable because you’re sitting while he’s always standing.”

Matt eyed the figure on his bed. “Yes, this will be significantly less socially uncomfortable. Celeste, you’re fine with this? This, um, alteration?”

“I am. What do you think Dad will say?”

Julie sat at the foot of the bed. “It should be the first thing he hears when he gets back from his trip tonight. He’ll be proud of Flat Finn. And so will your mom.”

“If she notices,” Matt added in a soft singsong tone.

“So perhaps,” Julie started hesitantly, “you’d be willing to hang out with Flat Finn once in a while if Celeste and I want to go out by ourselves and do girl stuff?”

Celeste stiffened. “Wait, you never said—”

“Just assessing the options now available,” Julie said. “You could do that, right, Matt? Should the need arise?”

“I guess I could do that,” Matt agreed, doing a less than spectacular job of hiding his reluctance. “What’s the pay rate?”

Julie smirked. “There is a sliding scale dependent on your enthusiasm. So far, you are at the rate of a penny per hour.”

Celeste crossed her arms. “Are you two done entertaining yourselves?”

“I didn’t realize we had started.” Matt got up from his seat. “You ready for lunch, Celeste?”

“Sure. Will you make egg-and-cheese sandwiches?”

Matt nodded and walked by Julie. “Whatever you want.”

“Matt!” Julie hissed.

He turned back, confused. “What?”

Julie tossed her hands up. “Nothing.”

She hung back in Matt’s room while they went downstairs. God, she had just made a step in the right direction with this hinge thing, and here was Matt acting as if his sister were six years old. Seriously, Celeste could make herself lunch.
Way to inspire confidence, Matt
.

Would someone let this kid grow up, already?

“Hi, Seth.” Julie tucked the phone in the crook of her neck while she folded another T-shirt and added it to the pile of clean laundry on the bed.

“Hey, you. I feel like I haven’t talked to you in weeks.” Seth sounded sweet, but she could detect a frustrated edge.

“I know. With finals coming up, I’ve been mobbed. Sorry I didn’t call you back yesterday.”

“It’s just that it’s the middle of December, and you’re leaving soon for three weeks. I was hoping we could hang out some more before then. You know, a little alone time?” Julie could tell he was smiling now.

“You mean you’ve had enough time with Celeste and me in the coffeehouse?” she teased. “You don’t find that romantic, and sexy, and hot?”

“While I very much enjoy watching you sweat over your calculus assignments, and I’m equally fond of Celeste’s detailed and ruthless assessments of my beverage-making skills, I’d kill for a night alone with you.”

Julie opened the bottom drawer of the dresser and picked up a stack of folded clothes. “You got it. How about tonight?”

Seth groaned. “I can’t. I’m leading a study group for one of my polisci classes. Tomorrow? Besides, Friday is a better date night anyhow.”

“Works for me.”

“Come over around seven and I’ll make you dinner.”

“OK, see you then.” She tossed the phone down and went to set her clothes in the drawer. Finn’s skydiving shirts sat in the bottom. She took out the weathered blue shirt that read,
Don’t forget to pull
. Without thinking, she lifted it up to her face and inhaled.

“What are you doing?”

Julie whipped around. This was the first time that she had heard Matt laugh uncontrollably. She felt herself blush, but threw the shirt at him. “I found some of Finn’s clothes in here and wanted to make sure they weren’t all stinky and gross. I just did laundry and don’t need my clean stuff next to smelly boy stuff.”

“Uh-huh. Whatever you say.” He tossed the shirt back to her.

“Shut up!” Julie rolled her eyes.

“If you want to smell Finn’s clothes, be my guest. I think there is a pair of his old hiking boots in the attic. Do you want me to get those? I’m positive they’ll still have a good Finn scent. Believe me, Odor Eaters never did a thing for my brother’s feet.”

Julie’s phone rang again. “Middle child syndrome,” she mumbled as she reached over to answer it. “Hello?”

“I can’t wait to see you,” Seth said. “I just had to tell you that. Gotta run. Bye!”

She smiled and hung up just as Celeste brushed past Matthew and held her fingers out to Julie. “My polish is chipping. Can I redo my fingernails?”

“Sure thing. Help yourself to whatever color you want. You know where the stuff is.”

Celeste turned on the radio, picked up the bag of nail polish, and took a seat on the end of the bed.

“Hey, Celeste,” Matt said. “This came for you earlier.” Julie hadn’t even noticed that he had been holding a bulging Fed Ex envelope in his hand. “It’s from Finn.”

Celeste dropped the bag and slowly lifted her head. “Finn sent me something?”

“Yeah, sweetie. He did. Here you go.” Matt walked the package to his sister and then left the room.

Julie scrambled over the two laundry baskets to reach Celeste, who sat silently beaming at the item in her hands. “Open it! Open it!”

“Oh. Of course. How did he…? I can’t…I can’t believe that he sent me something. But I
knew
. Look at how far this had to travel.” She pointed at the postage marks and strange writing on the front. “I don’t know how he…”

“For God’s sake, open it!”

Celeste’s hands shook as she tore off the perforated tab and upended the mailing envelope. “Oooooh, Julie, look.” She held up a silver barrette with beautiful turquoise and amber stones. “It’s lovely, isn’t it?” she asked breathlessly.

“It really is. It will look amazing in your hair.” She peeked inside the envelope. “No card?”

“I guess not. That’s OK, though. Will you put it in for me?”

“Of course.” Julie gathered Celeste’s thick hair at the nape of her neck. As she undid the clasp, she noticed something. “Honey, look. It’s engraved on the back.”

“It is?” Celeste turned around, her eyes sparkling brightly.

“Yes.” Julie squinted at the small etching. “It says,
Love is a portion of the soul itself, and it is of the same nature as the celestial breathing of the atmosphere of paradise
.”

Celeste beamed. “Finn used to find quotes with
celestial
in them for me. That one is Victor Hugo. It’s my favorite.” She turned around again so Julie could put the barrette in. “Although Finn always liked to tease me with quotes from the Jean de Brunhoff books. Do you know those? The stories about the elephants? King Babar and Queen Celeste?”

“I do know those stories. My mom used to read them to me.”

Celeste seemed energized and illuminated by Finn’s gift. And while Julie doubted this would eradicate Celeste’s attachment to Flat Finn, it couldn’t hurt.

Julie sighed softly as she tousled Celeste’s curls. Five more months. Julie had told the guidance counselor at Barnaby that Celeste would make significant progress by May. But five months until what exactly? Until she turned into a typical teenager? Julie couldn’t see that happening, nor did she want it to happen. Celeste’s uniqueness shouldn’t be obliterated. What was the marker of acceptable progress? When she ditched Flat Finn? When she had a given number of friends? When she stopped talking like someone from a Victorian movie? Well,
something
would need to change, and Julie figured that she would know it when it happened.