[stylist] Workshopping: Lucy and Lithe Chapter Five

[Miss Thea]

Chapter 5

The Bedspread



“Let me put these pics in your purse for you.”

Too late, her father had grabbed her purse, opened it, and stopped. “What the hell is this?”

He pulled out the bag with the Happy Endings label on it.

He looked at Lucy as if she’d done something unforgivable. Lucy got off the bed, and looked for a place to hide, preferably to disappear.

“Answer me. Where did you get this?”

“Um …” Lucy’s voice failed her.

Dad pulled out the bottle. Lucy bit her lip.

“See, you said you couldn’t take Kim and that was final.” She took another big breath. “You said … you could only take one kid. I thought …”

“You thought what?” 

Lucy looked at the floor. No hole appeared. Her mother blocked the door. She came in and looked at the bag. “Oh my God,” she whispered.

Lucy started to cry, tears filing silently down her cheek. “I thought if I wasn’t around, then Kim could go with you and—“

“Is that what you thought?” Her mother’s eyes were bright with tears and dark with anger. “Did you think we could just leave your … leave you on the bed, say oh well, come with us, Kimmy, and leave the planet? Is that what you thought?” Her mother shrilled.

“You said that’s final, and I can’t stand to leave her here.”

“And what did you think your best friend would have done? Wake up, find you dead, and cheerfully go with us? I’ve never heard anything so goddamn stupid and selfish!” Her father exploded, picked her up, and gave her a spanking.

“Jim!”

“Daddy! Ow. Stop that!”

He put her back on her feet, hard. Her mom was crying. Her father looked angry and hurt. She dared not say what was on her mind. So they were angry, were they? Well, so was she. Their decision was final, and she had no say.

“Young lady,” her father said, “you’re grounded.”

Lucy didn’t respond. No tears, no trying to negotiate, not even a question.

“The way I’m feeling now, you might be grounded till we reach Andorpha.” He left the room.

Mom took the bottle, poured it out in the toilet, flushed, and came back into her daughter’s room. Lucy stood there, not crying, her arms folded over her chest, her eyes hard.

“I’m sorry, Lucy. I’m sorry that was necessary,” her mother said. “I know you’re angry. Spankings aren’t any fun. But sometimes …”

Lucy didn’t move. She didn’t put a hand over her ears. She just stood there, arms folded, eyes hard and shuttered, betraying nothing.

“Okay, you need space, you’ve got it. I just want you to think about what you were about to do. We couldn’t have left here without you, and Kimmy would never have forgiven herself, if she knew you’d killed yourself so she could come with us. It would have hurt her bad, Lucy. Not just for a while. For her whole life. She really would have been hurt, and I don’t think that’s what you wanted. In fact, I know that’s not what you wanted.”

Lucy nodded, but said nothing else, moved nothing else.



“Your move,” Jim said, and looked at his wife across the chess board.

Donna pushed a pawn forward, barely touching the piece, not looking at the board or at her husband.

“Come on, Donna honey, she had it coming.”

“You don’t need to be triumphant about it.”

“Is that what you think? That I got a kick out of it?”

“You call her princess, but you don’t understand her. All through this stupid game, I’ve been trying to imagine what it must be like for her. We expect her to bring home good grades, watch her mouth, and behave like Shirley Temple.”

“That’s stupid. We do not.” Jim swept the pieces into the bag, and put the chess board into its box. He went into the kitchen, got a can of beer out of the fridge, and looked at his wife.

“Want one or not?”

“Sure, why not? Just how do you think you’d feel if it was you?”

“Lucy’s too emotional. It’s time she realized we can’t save everybody.”

“She’s not asking for everybody, Jim.”

“You want to fight about this, too? How many times have I spanked Lucy? Give me a ballpark figure. What is it, one thousand, two thousand, you think?”

“Now, who’s being unreasonable?” Donna tried hard not to shout, to give vent to her own rising anger.

“It’s not about the spanking. We don’t do it often, but that’s not what I’m upset about, and you know it.”

Jim sighed. “Okay, fine. What do you suggest I do?”

“You might talk with her.”

“What am I supposed to say, Donna? What the hell am I supposed to say to the kid? 

“I don’t know.”

She went by Lucy’s room, opened the door, and saw her daughter lying on her back, wide awake, looking at the ceiling. Mom ordered the sleeping compound, and waited till she could hear Lucy’s soft snoring.

She woke at three AM when the sirens went off. They suited up.

“Bet you’ll be glad when you don’t have to do this any more,” Lucy’s dad said.

Lucy nodded.

“Not speaking to us won’t help anything, Lucy,” her father said.

“I haven’t anything to say,” Lucy said, without emotion. She showed no anger, no insolence, nothing they could call disobedient. 

“You could tell me what you learned in school today.”

“I learned nothing.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m still on the assignment we got last week. Kids just go to school because it gives them something to do. We get sirens there too. It interrupts classes.” Lucy’s lips snapped shut, almost audibly.

Jim sighed. “What are you studying?”

“Euthanasia. This year alone, we’ve lost three families to it.”

“How about mathematics?”

Lucy didn’t respond. Jim gave up.

When the all clear sounded, Lucy got back into her pajamas, and closed the door quietly. They couldn’t get her on a slamming door. They couldn’t get her on anything.

She helped with the dishes when asked, made her bed, did her homework. She reserved her smiles for Kimmy, who came to school with an ice-pack on her eye and a story no one believed.

At school, she spoke when called upon, answered questions about the planet she was going to, said “I’m sorry, I don’t know” when she didn’t know the answer. 

At the beauty salon she and her mom went to, she acted correctly. Nothing more.

“Holy Moses, you two look great,” her father said, grinning. “A perfect queen, and princess. I’ll be beating those Andorphian boys off with a stick before you’ve been there a week.”

Lucy thanked him without a smile.

“Of course, in order to get those Andorphian boys, you’ll have to smile sometimes. Lucy, I know what’s eating you. But you can’t stay angry with us forever. I’m sorry I had to spank you, but at least try to see our side of it. Anyway, aren’t you glad you aren’t going to do away with yourself like you planned? You must have been scared to death, all alone with your thoughts. Come on, how about a hug? Friends again. What do you say?”

“I have some reading to do. I should get at it, if you don’t mind.”

“Fine.” 

Lucy walked into her room, head erect, shoulders back, unsmiling.

She closed the door quietly.

Jim looked at his wife. “Now what?”

Donna smiled. “Wait and see.”

“Wait and see? Look, I feel like—“

Lucy flung the door open. “Who took my princess bedspread?”

“Oh, well, honey,” her mother said, “that bedspread was getting old. You’ve had it since you were five, remember? It was starting to fray at the edges. I bought you a new, prettier bedspread.”

“Mom, I liked that bedspread. I didn’t care if it was old. I wanted to show Lithe.”

Jim was about to speak. Donna shook her head vigorously. Lucy’s eyes were on the new, frilly pink bedspread, not on her parents. 

“Mom, can I please have my bedspread back?”

“Oh dear. I’m sorry, Lucy. I threw it out.”

“Threw it out!” Lucy shrilled.

Donna had just enough time to silently shush Jim before Lucy came out of her room. “When did you throw it out? Did you take out the garbage?”

Lucy made a beeline for the garbage.

“Well, no not yet. Lucy, what are you doing?”

“Getting my bedspread back. I’ll wash it myself.”

“But honey, you don’t want to show Lithe that old thing, do you? She’s an earl’s daughter, probably used to the best of everything. I’m sure she’ll love the new one.”

“Then she can have it. I can’t find the bedspread. Where is it? Do I have to turn this garbage can upside down?”

“Are you sure, Lucy? Are you sure you won’t have that new, pretty bedspread? It is lovely.”

“It’s gorgeous, Mom, but, look, I really loved that old bedspread. Remember the day you scolded me for coloring Snow White’s head purple? I think I was six. I was pretending to be Snow White’s lady’s maid. I was dyeing her hair. Remember?”

Donna winked at Jim. “You can take your face out of the garbage, Lucy. Here it is.”

Lucy’s eyes lit up at the sight of her bedspread. “Thanks, Mom.” She hugged her mom tight and kissed her cheek. “Like, it’s not like the new spread isn’t nice. I’ll keep it as a spare, or maybe give it to the Dearhearts as a present, for taking us in, if that’s okay with you guys.”

She looked from one to the other. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Do you understand now, Lucy?” her mother asked. “You love that old bedspread. It doesn’t matter to you that it’s old and got a few crayon marks on it. It’s yours, and you love it, that’s all. That’s how we feel about you.”

“Sure,” her dad said. “We know you cuss and we get after you for it. Maybe we don’t always understand how the war affects you, just like it does us.”

“So you don’t understand I was willing to die for Kimmy. I was willing to go to Heaven so she could have good parents like you guys, so she could go to Andorpha. Mrs. Talbott says it’s the sweetest place in the universe. I didn’t know she knew so much about other worlds. But she does. So I thought, if I were dead, I knew you’d take care of Kimmy and she could have good parents and you guys would live with those furry people on the sweetest planet in the galaxy. And Mr. Carson could go—“

“Easy, Lucy,” her father said, and pulled her, unresisting onto his lap. She buried her face in his neck and wept.

Mom came up behind and hugged them both. They all cried.

“So, I’m your favorite old bedspread.” Lucy said, wiping the last of her tears and trying for a smile. 

“You got it, sweet cakes.”

“No more talking, singing, zip,” Lucy said, quoting from “The Little Mermaid.”

“Speaking of which,” her father said, “let’s watch that.”

“Aren’t I still grounded?” Lucy asked.

“No,” her father said, “and that’s final.”

They all laughed.

   

Thea Ramsay
Wellness Coach
Herbalife Distributor
www.GoHerbalife.com/thea-ramsay/en-CA
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