When It Rains: The Umbrella Collection (20 page)

We headed back into the kitchen where she got the plates and I grabbed two Moun
tain Dews from the refrigerator.  We hopped up on our normal kitchen counter positions after we each took a slice.  We talked about how I have been feeling and she asked if I have heard the voice lately.

“Every now and then, but it’s getting better,” I said.
  The meds have probably helped in ridding me of it.  The constant put downs and demands are finished. “You know how I don’t like to be all gushy, but let me just get this out before I change my mind.  Thank you for being a great friend to me.  After everything with Lauren and all the other mental crap it’s nice to know that I have someone in my corner no matter how crazy I can be,” I said slightly embarrassed. 

“Always.
  Just if I ever completely lose it, you better be there for me, too.”

“Always.”

As we sat there, we talked of Lauren and Adam and about how Skylar had heard through the grapevine that Lauren followed him when he said he was going out with his guy friends.  Instead of seeing him drinking beers and playing pool, she caught him making out with her friend Michelle.  World War three erupted Lauren and Michelle was is the emergency room getting stitches and was there, too, getting x-rays of her hand.   

“Hmm, Karma’s a bitch,” I muttered.

I informed Skylar all about the other Eleanora and how she and Pops met, along with her demise and how it has affected Pops since. 

“Aw, that’s so romantic in a sick way,” she said with a tilted head.
 

“Right?!
  Who knew?”

“Speaking of things people don’t know…,” she said this as she raised her left ring finger in the air and the sunlight that shon
e through the window behind her bounced off a sparkling diamond.

“No way!” I said as I jumped off the counter and leaped over to view the rock, “Oh my God! Congratulations, and tell Scott that, too.”

“He will be here later, so you can tell him.  I’m really excited.  I’m thinking a destination wedding, what do you think?”

“I’ll go anywhere you two decide, but I better be a bridesmaid.”
 

“Of course, you and Lauren…,” she said knowing that she would get a reaction and I handed it right to her.
  My eyes bulged out, face grew red, the whole thing.

Through clenched teeth I said, “Whatever, you choose.
  It’s your wedding.”

“Haha, I’m kidding!
  I’ll be scared she would try and steal Scott.  That would not end pretty.”

We talked about wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses, to hairstyles, flowers and food.
  She had answers for all the details already like she has been planning it for a long time.  She was excited and I was there right along with her. 

“Just so you know, if you become a bridezilla, I will slap you back to reality,” I said with a straight face as I jumper back up.

“Please do.  I don’t want that to happen. I want to enjoy it. Oh, and he has this friend, Marshall…,” she held a coy grin on her face while she said it.

“If
he is cute, I’ll think about it.  If not, there isn’t a chance,” I said and then wondered for a second, “In second thought, yes I will. It’s time to enjoy my life. Hook me up.”

At that point, I remembered that I didn’t tell her about the Molly situation.
  I filled her in about Diablo’s squeal, Pops and I sneaking around our own house prepared to beat anyone that was there with an umbrella, to the cop seeing her driving down the street, and Molly being arrested.

“So, how did she get in?”
 Skylar asked.

“She had a key!
  One day, she was here with Pops and they needed some ingredient for sauce and she offered to go get it, so she took Pops car to the store.  That’s the only time that Pops can think of that would give her an opportunity to copy the key.”

“What did she do when she got in here?”

“She told the cops that she would go up in Pops room to make sure he was home in bed, alone and sleeping.  Sometimes, she said she would sit in the chair in his room just watching him.”

“Wow, she is dedicated.”

“Fuck that, she’s psychotic!”

We sat there with our legs dangling beneath us.
  We talked. We laughed. We joked. We confessed. 

The doorbell rang; I hopped off and ran to the door.
  “Hey, what's up, Scoot?!”

17

Just in Case

    I stepped out of the shower and threw a towel around my body as it danced to the tune of the music that was blaring out of my speakers. My tune of choice this morning; ‘Good Day Sunshine’.  It always reminds me of my parents and lately my thoughts of them are no longer sinister.  They now spark a happy thought to run through my mind and a smile to be beamed across my face.   On my way to my closet, I stopped at the window to open my plantation shudders and stared out my window to the beauty of the earth as it was in front of me.  There were two birds agilely flying through the air, chasing each other with the wings flapping excitedly, across the strikingly blue sky that had the seldom white fluffy cloud pass by.  The sun shone brightly on the willow trees that sat sprinkled across our lawn.

I opened the doors to my closet and perused my selections.
  I eventually opted for a purple long sleeve tight dress and a pair of black stockings to wear with my knee high black boots.  After getting changed I went and threw my hair up in a ponytail and put on some mascara and eyeliner.  All the while dancing to some tunes.   

I headed downstairs to wait for everyone to come over.
  There was a football game on today that everyone was excited to watch. I was mostly excited because I bet Evan the Birds were going to win and if he lost, he had to take me shopping for a new outfit.  I walked into the kitchen and was immediately handed a mug full of Hazelnut coffee from the hands of Pops.

“Here it’s still hot.”

“Thanks Pops!” I cheerfully said as I sat at the center island and Pops leaned up against the refrigerator sipping his Orange Juice. 

The front door opened and the sound footsteps got louder as they got closer to the kitchen.
  It was John and Mike carrying grocery bags and cases of beer.  And, Mike handed me the morning newspaper that I asked him to get.  I began to open the paper as they busied themselves putting the groceries away. 

I was examining the print when the front door opened again.
  Alex and Evan arrived and right behind them everyone else.  I mumbled, “Hello,” to everyone as I couldn’t break my concentration.  I was an inch from the table with my finger trailing each sentence that was printed, searching for the one thing I was looking for.

“What is she doing?”
  Elijah asked everyone as he entered the kitchen carrying a football in one hand and a bottle of soda in the other.

“Who knows,”
 Brian said as he shrugged his shoulders.

“Hey, did you guys hear about Mr. Garrison?” Colin asked.
  My head lifted quickly from the paper and I said I haven’t heard anything.

“We were at Marty’s and he said that Jack got arrested last night for beating the shit out of Miranda.”

“Oh my God. Mom was right.” 

“What?”
 John asked.

“My mom always said that there was something about Mr. Garrison that she didn’t like and she hated how he treated Miranda.
  That bastard!  How is Miranda doing?”

“She is out of the hospital and she pressed charges against him.
  Sounds like this has been going on for a while.”

I was sullen as I went back to perusing the newspaper and everyone continued on with getting the food and things ready for the game.

“Aha!” I screamed and pointed to the page with a grin on my face due to my accomplishment.

“What?” most everyone said as their heads twisted towards my outburst and they stopped what they were doing.

“I found it!  Ahem, and I quote, “Molly J. Swanson of Market Avenue was arrested for trespassing at 5:30 the morning of the 15
th
.  Ms. Swanson was released on a $1,000 bond.” My face lit up as I finished reading and faced Pops who, at this point was shaking his head and giggling.  At the same time everyone burst with delightful chuckles.  Teasing is our way of living.

“Alright, alright.
  I’m going to stop seeing her now.  She is a bit too off her rocker for me.”

I ripped out the blurb in the paper and hung it up on the refrigerator with a magnet for all to see and to remind Pops to stay away.
  We didn’t need any more crazy around here.  We all have that taken care of. 

“Hey, Guys. Come here,”
 John yelled from the family room and like a herd of cows we all ran to the yelling voice.  He stood there holding the remote control in one hand and pointing at the television with the other.  As we all went into the room, one by one we all turned our attention to the screen where there was a newscaster with the headline beside her head that read, “
Dui Crash.  Driver Dead
.” As she kept talking my heart began to beat and a feeling of detachment was occurring.  But, I fought it and listened to her speak as they played a video of a crime scene with a crumpled up maroon colored SUV. 

“A crash on
Fairview Street last night took the life of one person, the driver of the SUV.  The driver ‘Darren Levington’ of Adler Avenue died at the scene.  We are told he was drinking at O’Reilly’s Bar until 2 a.m” I didn’t hear anything else she said the name and that he was drinking.  Anger flowed through my veins once again; it twisting and turning within my body as I thought how he didn’t learn his lesson the first time.  He took the lives of others and destroyed an entire family in the wake of his absentmindedness and now took his own life with the same amount of consideration.  Karma is the only thing that popped to mind.

“Poor Darren.
  You should have shot him while you had the chance,” the
voice
spoke.  I closed my eyes and silently sang to myself,
where troubles melt like lemon drops.  High above the chimney tops.  That’s where you’ll find me.  Somewhere over the rainbow
, and it disappeared.  Darren is gone and in my morbid mind he got want he deserved.  The
voice
doesn’t need to tell me that. 

An hour went by and memories of my parents, Darren and the past few months popped into my mind.
  There are obviously things I regret, but with each step forward I am making a change within myself.  I want to live and enjoy life; embrace the beauty and shield myself from the darkness. 

 
I was sitting next to Alex on the couch while we all sat in the living room watching the game.  He had placed his cell phone on his thigh so he could see when someone called.  Around the third quarter the phone lit up and vibrated, but he was entranced by a play on the TV that I took a peek.  It was a new text message from a “David”. 

“Who’s David?”
 I whispered to him knocking him out of his football trance and he grabbed his phone.”

“He is a friend of mine,” he said sheepishly.

“A friend or a
friend?”
the last word I emphasized and made my eyebrows dance up and down. 

He shooed me aside and replied that he was just a friend and as he was typing away on the phone writing a message I noticed
the beaming smile on his face.

“So, when’s the date?”
 I asked him a little too loud.

Everyone looked at him as he moved his head up away
from his phone to look at me.  At first he hesitated then he replied, “Its tonight,” and everyone in the room cheered. Mike who was sitting on the other side of him gave him a playful shove.

“It’s about time” Mike said.

As the cheering subsided I remembered, “Oh, it’s supposed to rain tonight.  Make sure you bring an umbrel...,” I started and then paused and finished, “Eh, nevermind.”

The rain still bothered me, but not as bad as before.
  Dr. Rosenberg has taught me that I don’t have to shield everyone from my fears.  They are mine and no one else’s and I have been working on that.  But, as I looked around at the most important people in my life and the thought of losing them like I did my parents ran through my mind, I retracted my statement.  I tapped Alex on the leg to grab his attention.

“I change my mind.
  Take an umbrella, just in case,” I said.

Hey, I’m still working on things.