Gold Hill (3 page)

“
I’ll see you every day
for your pill. Can I help in any other way?”

“
I don’t think so,” Sissy
said.

The nurse took Sissy’s
hands.

“
It seems like you have a
really great life with lots of people who love you,” the nurse
said. “Do you know that?”

“
Sure,” Sissy nodded. “I
still get crazy sometimes.”

“
I think we’ll be good
friends,” the nurse smiled.

“
Okay,” Sissy said.
“Bye.”

Sissy went out the door and
onto her next class. When she left, the nurse picked up the
phone.

“
Sandy?” the nurse
asked.

“
How did it go, Ginny?”
Sandy asked.

“
You were right about
weigh-ins,” Ginny the nurse said. “She doesn’t want to do it. But
we got past it. I think she’s going to be fine.”

“
Thanks Ginny,” Sandy
said. “I really appreciate you helping Sissy like this.”

“
Don’t worry,” Ginny said.
“She’s a bright girl with a lot of energy. I’m happy to help. See
you tomorrow?”

“
You bet,” Sandy clicked
off her phone. One at a time, her family was transitioning into
their next phase. She smiled and went back to her
accounting.

~~~~~~~~

Monday afternoon — 2:37
p.m. EDT
New York City

“
So that’s two votes for
the clip I like,” the editor said. “Two for yours.”

“
Show them again so we can
decide,” the host said. “It’s getting late and we need to make a
decision.

“
Ok, here’s your favorite
clip.”

The screen shifted to an
image of Jeraine and Tanesha sitting on the couch.

“
And is it different? Do
you still obsess on sex and women?”

“
No, it’s different,” he
said. “Calmer, warmer, and there’s Tanesha.”

“
How is that
different?”

“
How is sex with Tanesha
different from the press of sex with all those other women?”
Jeraine asked.

“
Oh no. Uh huh,” Tanesha
said. “You are not talking about our sex life on national
television.”

“
But . . . ” Jeraine gestured to the host
as if she was forcing him to answer the question.

“
You know what will
happen,” Tanesha said. “Your Grannie Louise will call my Gran and
have
the talk
.
‘Now I know you did your best with that girl,’ Grannie Louise will
say. ‘But that girl leads my sweet grandson away from
righteousness. Did you see how she made him talk about physical
intimacy on television?’ And it always ends with ‘There’s only so
much you can do with a hellion like that.’ And they’ll cluck and
crow and then I’ll have to hear about it.”

Jeraine smiled as if she
was daring him. She scowled at him. He looked back at the
camera.

“
Let’s say that there’s a
playground,” Jeraine said. “You might have been to the same
playground with lots of people – some you like a lot, some you
don’t know well. You might swing high or play on the jungle gym
until after dark or do something scary with these other people. But
you only ever remember those amazing days at the playground with
your best friend. It’s the same playground, same sand, same swings,
but everything is better when you and your best friend are there
together. That’s what I would say.”

“
That’s very sweet,” the
host said.

“
And, you’re right Grannie
Louise, Tanesha is a hellion. She gets me into all kinds of
trouble.”

The clip faded into the
show’s lead in.

“
Why is that your
favorite?” the producer asked the host.

“
It shows how much they
love each other,” the host said. “How deeply they know and
understand each other. Their lives are intertwined.”

“
Let’s go with that one,”
the producer said. “Can we send Grannie Louise some flowers or
something?”

“
You fell for them too?”
the host asked.

The producer
nodded.

“
We all did,” she
said.

~~~~~~~~

Monday afternoon — 4:57
p.m. MDT

East High Gym

“
Just one last question,”
the East High basketball coach asked. “Why here? You could easily
play at any school in DPS.”

“
My sister’s going to
East,” Charlie nodded to Sissy sitting in the stands.

“
That’s your sister?” the
captain of the Varsity team said.

“
Sissy,” Charlie looked at
the older boy. “Why?”

“
Oh nothing,” the boy
said.

“
We live just a few blocks
from here,” Charlie said. “It’s easy.”

“
We haven’t had great luck
with online students,” the basketball coach said. “Especially ones
with drug problems.”

“
Hey, I get there’s a
risk. But I’ve been clean for three months. I live close.
And . . . ” Charlie nodded to Jacob when he
entered the gym with Nash, Noelle, and Teddy. “I’m a pretty good
player.”

“
You know Jake Lipson?”
the basketball coach asked.

“
We live with him,”
Charlie said. “My sister and I live with our older sister, her
husband and his kids. We all live at the Castle. I worked for Jake
this summer at the construction company.”

“
Good guy,” the basketball
coach said. “Why are they here?”

“
My sister, Sissy, is a
ballerina,” Charlie said. “Her coach wants her to learn to run.
Jake thought he could get the key to the field so we could
practice. They’re waiting for me.”

The basketball coach looked
at Charlie. Terrified he might not get on the team, Charlie gave
the coach his most confident smile. The coach nodded to him and
pointed to the varsity captain.

“
So you have a practice
schedule?” the varsity captain asked.

Charlie nodded.

“
We have to check with the
office or whatever to see if you can play varsity,” the varsity
captain said. “You’re old enough, but since you’re just a freshman
in school . . . It’s complicated but we’ll work it
out.”

“
Why did you ask about
Sissy?” Charlie asked.

“
My girl and her friends
went to see Mr. It, you know Jeraine, on Saturday,” he said. “A few
of the guys went to, you
know . . . ”

“
Get with the girls,”
Charlie said. “I was there.”

“
I saw your sister
dancing.” The boy straightened up until he was a couple inches
taller than Charlie. “You got a problem with that?”

Charlie shook his
head.

“
You think she’s
prejudiced?” the boy asked.

“
She likes Jeraine,”
Charlie said. “I think he’s a jerk, but Sissy likes
him.”

“
He’s famous,
rich.”

“
He’s our friend Tanesha’s
boyfriend,” Charlie said. “Don’t you have a girl?”

The basketball captain
shrugged his shoulders.

“
Don’t fuck around with my
sister,” Charlie said.

“
Yeah, whatever,” the
varsity captain said. “See you at practice.”

Charlie watched the boy
walk off. He nodded to Sissy and left the gym.

“
How did it go?” Sissy ran
down the steps to him.

“
I’m in,” Charlie
beamed.

“
Yea!” the kids
cheered.

“
Let’s celebrate with a
run,” Jake said.

They followed him out of
the gym.

Chapter One Hundred and
Eighty-Nine
Let it go

Monday evening — 6:57 p.m.
MDT

Ava came out of her and
Seth’s bedroom to find Dale laying drop cloths on the wood
stairwell. Needing to get to work, Ava scooted down the stairs to
the first floor.

“
Thanks,” Dale said and
began laying out a drop cloth.

She trotted up the steps to
help him lay out the fabric on the wood stairwell.

“
If you get paint on my
stairs, I will be very upset,” Maresol called up the
stairwell.

“
Yes ma’am,” Dale said. “I
will do my best.”

“
You do that,” Maresol
smiled. “I’m very excited to give this place some
color.”

Dale smiled at her. Ava
helped him place the last drop cloth.

“
See you tomorrow,”
Maresol said and moved out the door.

“
Are you sure you can do
this?” Ava asked. “It seems pretty slick with the
cloths.”

“
I’ll be careful,” Dale
said. “I’m hoping to get most of the hallway done while you’re at
work this week.”

“
Seth’s going to be home
again this weekend,” Ava said. “I hope he likes the colors we
picked.”

“
Maresol picked the
colors,” Dale said.

“
Hey! I’m the lady of the
house,” Ava smiled. “I approved them.”

Dale laughed.

“
I just have time for
dinner then I’m off to work,” Ava said.

“
Don’t let me stop you,”
Dale said.

Ava jogged into the kitchen
where Maresol had set out her dinner. She was just sitting down at
the kitchen bar when the doorbell rang.

“
Can you get that?” Dale
yelled.

“
Got it,” Ava
said.

She ran to the front door
and peeked through the peep hole. She shook her head at what she
saw and looked again.

“
Who is it?” Dale asked.
Seeing the look on her face, he walked toward the door.

“
My Dad,” Ava
whispered.

Dale’s face
soured.

“
You don’t have to answer
it,” Dale’s words were punctuated by another ring of the
bell.

“
Let’s do it together,”
Ava said.

She whipped open the
antique wooden door and pressed open the glass security storm
door.

“
What can I do for you?”
Ava asked.

“
Amelie?” her father,
Colorado State Attorney Aaron Alvin, stepped back from the door.
“What are you doing here?”

“
This is my home,” Ava
said. “What can I do for you?”

Her father spied Dale and
his face expressed the disdain he felt for her best friend Beth’s
boyfriend.

“
You live here with that
free loader?” her father asked.

Ava closed the security
storm door. She was closing the inner door when he spoke
up.

“
Wait,” her father said.
“Just wait. I need to speak with O’Malley.”

“
He’s not here,” Ava said.
“He’s in LA.”

Her father opened the outer
door.

“
Why are you here?” her
father asked.

“
I live here,” Ava said.
“Why are you here?”

“
I need to speak with
O’Malley,” her father repeated.

“
Now that we’ve
established why we are both here, I’m going back to my dinner,” Ava
moved to close the door. Her father’s hand held the door
open.

“
Amelie really,” her
father said. “Does it have to be like this?”

“
There’s too much that’s
happened,” Ava said. “You’ve done too many . . .
awful things. Too much. And since you’re convinced that you’re
right and won’t listen to reason, yes, it has to be like this. Now,
O’Malley is not here. May I close the front door?”

He lifted his
hand.

“
Thank you,” Ava
said.

She had almost closed the
door when he said: “Your mother misses you.”

Ava rolled her eyes and
scrunched up her face behind the door.

“
You need to get on with
your life,” he said.

Ava whipped open the
door.

“
I
just created the first successful protocol for the First
Responder’s Toxin. Something no one, including the UN, the CDC, or
even the Israelis, was able to do,” Ava said. “
I’m
moving into a new lab in the new
DPD building.
My
life and
my
career are moving at rapid pace. Is yours?”

“
What are you talking
about?” her father scowled. “Your
little
police career is over now
that O’Malley quit.”

“
Come on,” Dale shifted
Ava away from the door. “Thank you for coming by, Mr. Alvin. Seth
is in Los Angeles. Do you need his number?”

“
Get out of the way,”
Ava’s father said. “I was speaking with my daughter.”

“
I’ll take that as a no,”
Dale said and shut the door.

“
That
man . . . ” Ava was so angry she was shaking.
“That man . . . ”

Ava went from clenched fist
furious to sobbing on Dale’s chest in an instant.

“
B-B-B-Beth . . . ” Ava said.