LILY, Chapter 10

it was him

Chapter 10/ The Swimming Party

One afternoon, soon after meeting Joe, she asked about the scar on his neck. “When you’re watching ball games, you have a tendency to reach up and touch it.”

The story Joe told her hypnotized Lily while she listened to it. Afterward, that story seemed so real to her it was as if she had been riding in his car beside him when it happened, as if she had been only inches away from him going a hundred miles per hour down the highway when he came up even with the stolen car and saw him, the robber, as if she’d looked to her right out her window and seen the robber’s black ski mask with her own eyes, seen the pistol in his hand, seen the kidnapped store clerk sitting beside him. It was as if the bullet that struck Joe in the neck had first whizzed past her nose, as if she was sitting beside him screaming when he steered his car to the shoulder of the highway, as if she too had witnessed the river of highway patrol cars, Joe’s friends, his buddies, roaring past them, chasing the stolen car, as if she had watched Joe clamp his hand over the wound on the side of his neck, blood, blood everywhere, and steer himself one-handed to where the other troopers had stopped, as if she too had seen Joe’s buddies clustered around the stolen car with its driver’s door wide open, as if she had been right there beside him when he peered into the car and saw her, the young woman, the convenience store clerk, only 18 years old, Debbie Thorp, that was her name, her head, the side of her head where the bullet hit, blood, as if she’d witnessed all that with her own eyes.

Just before Joe got shot, he saw something on the left shoulder of the robber, the tattoo of a black butterfly with its wings spread. Lily thought that was what she had seen on the shoulder of Uncle Val.

Maybe she had not seen it. She had been upstairs in June Mae’s bedroom and Uncle Val had been in the backyard helping his brother, June Mae’s dad, install an above ground swimming pool. It’s easy to see something from a distance and think you know what it is. The object you see is too far away to see clearly, but your imagination fills in the details. Lily had a wild imagination, everyone said so. One time, earlier this summer, she had been walking down a sidewalk, minding her own business, had looked up and seen something up ahead of her on the other side of the street, a little girl her age wearing a red dress. She had seen that girl vividly and wondered if she knew her. But then, when she got closer, it wasn’t a girl in a red dress. It was a fire hydrant. Probably this tattoo was like that. Just her imagination.

It was the 4^th of July. It was hot. They were in the middle of a heatwave, and Janet, Gramma Grace, and Lily were going to a pool party at June Mae’s. Lily was not in a good mood. Before they left their house to go over there, she got into a fight with her grandmother when she refused to wear the ugly bathing cap that Gramma Grace had bought special just for this stupid party to protect Lily’s hair, which according to Gramma was her glory.

First, she’d had to go through the ordeal of having her hair braided. Gramma always pulled too hard. “Ouch, ouch!” Gramma twisted her hair into two braids so they could be piled up on top of her head and covered with the bathing cap. Otherwise, Gramma said, the mass of her red hair would turn into a huge soppy glob and tangle. Knots would appear. Horrible knots they would have to cut out with scissors.

“You don’t want that, do you?”

Lily pulled the huge cap over her braided hair, took one look at herself in the mirror, and declared she was not going to wear the cap. It made her look stupid and ugly. She would rather die than be seen by her friends wearing the stupid cap.

She informed her grandmother she didn’t even want to go to the swimming party. Why couldn’t she stay home by herself and read a book? She hated swimming, she hated sunshine. If she had to go to the stupid party, she would just sit in the shade with the grownups.

Finally, her mother had gotten involved and decreed Lily would have to wear the cap because Gramma Grace had ordered it special just to accommodate all of Lily’s hair. Gramma had spent twelve whole dollars on it, plus postage.

“You only have to wear it when you’re in the pool. It will be fun. Why do you have to make everything so difficult?”

Before they left the house, her mother had smeared suncream all over her arms and shoulders, as if that would do any good this late in the summer, as if she was not already completely covered in freckles.

Lily had to wear a one piece swimming suit which she hated. It had ruffles. It was the same suit she’d had to wear last year because she had not grown a single inch and was going to remain a tiny insignificant girl for the rest of her life.

When they got to the party, June Mae was wearing a brand-new two piece and Raven looked fantastic as always in a one piece.

Raven and June Mae were already in the pool, splashing one another, shrieking, so stupid.

The adults, June Mae’s parents and Uncle Val and Steve the professor, Raven’s dad, were sitting in lawn chairs in the shade, already drinking beers. Lily did not like it when adults drank beer. They just got more stupid.

June Mae’s dad was standing beside the grill. Uncle Val was assisting him. They were wearing Bermuda shorts and tee shirts that barely covered their big bellies. Gramma and Mom were also wearing shorts. Aunt Pauline had arrived and was sitting beside Gramma. Even they were wearing shorts. Two ice chests were sitting in the shade. One was marked Adults Only and contained beer. The other contained cans of soda pop and was marked Children.

Lily did not like being called a child.

Before she was allowed to join her friends in the pool, her mom made Lily put on water wings which were humiliating. As if she was still a little girl. June Mae didn’t have to wear water wings. All she had to do was cling to a noodle. Raven was so tall she could touch the bottom, and her mouth was above the surface of the water.

June Mae was floating on her back and spitting mouthfuls of pool water up into the air, pretending to be a whale. Lily believed getting pool water in your mouth and then spitting it back out could not possibly be sanitary.

She fearfully climbed the ladder and jumped into the pool wearing the horrible cap and her water wings. The water was cold as ice.

Then, oh my god, June Mae’s dad yanked off his shirt, revealing his fat stomach, shouted he too was going to take a dip, and jumped into the pool with the girls. They squealed and avoided any contact with him. He dogpaddled and then stood up, splashed them, and finally climbed out of the pool. It was like watching a sea elephant emerging from the ocean.

Lily and her friends played in the pool for another half hour while the food was being prepared. Finally, Lily decided she’d had enough fun, more than enough. She climbed out of the pool, wrapped up in a towel, and sat beside her gramma who was sitting beside Aunt Pauline. Gramma was drinking beer. Pauline did not drink beer, so she was drinking lemonade. She’d brought her own cans of the stuff. She offered one to Lily.

Lily removed the ugly cap and unwound her braids.

Gramma was interrogating Aunt Pauline. Was she going to continue living in Joe’s house? Aunt Pauline said she hadn’t yet decided.

Lily’s mom Janet was sitting in the shade beside Raven’s dad Steve. He was talking and Janet was laughing, which according to June Mae meant that Janet was in love with Steve. Both of them were drinking beer.

Uncle Val was sitting beside June Mae’s mom, and Charlene was laughing.

Lily wished she could go home and read a book. It was hot. Why did they have to sit out here in the backyard? Why couldn’t they go inside where there was air conditioning?

Raven and June Mae were still soaking in the pool, probably talking about something stupid like their softball team. Or boys. Lily had no interest in either topic. From where she was sitting, she could see the back of Joe Molto’s house and the back of Raven’s house. Her mind drifted. She thought about the neighbor who had owned the house where Raven lived now. He had fallen off his roof and died.

Lily used to think of her neighborhood as a place where nothing interesting ever happened, but now it was a neighborhood that contained two dead guys, one of whom had been murdered in his bed. It gave her the creeps to think about how someone had snuck into Joe’s house and shot him. And now, even though not much time had passed, no one else had gotten shot, so all the grown ups were acting as if everything was back to normal.

Lily thought about the man who fell off the roof and about Joe Molto. Maybe they were ghosts now. According to June Mae, if a person died outside, then their ghost could not enter their house anymore, not without an invitation. It just floated around the yard where it used to live and peered in the windows. But since Joe was inside his house when he got killed, his ghost was probably inside his house. Possibly, every now and then, he tried to talk to Aunt Pauline, but Pauline couldn’t hear him because he was just a ghost.

Otway was sleeping soundly in the shade at her feet. She remembered hearing once that dogs can see ghosts.

The girls, still in their swimming suits, ate burgers, and the grownups ate steaks. Then everyone ate ice cream.

Lily wondered if the ghost of Joe Molto might be inside his house, peering out a back window at them. Maybe he was watching Uncle Val. She had just about convinced herself that she had not seen a butterfly tattoo on Uncle Val’s shoulder. That was just her wild imagination.

Uncle Val was sitting beside Gramma Grace, making her laugh by telling her jokes. The sight of that was sickening. What if Uncle Val started dating her gramma? What a horrible thought. According to her mom, Gramma Grace was too young to give up on men.

After they ate, Raven and June Mae wanted to go back in the pool, but Charlene said no, it was too soon after eating. They would have to wait an hour so their food could digest. Otherwise, they would get a cramp.

Raven started dancing barefoot in the grass, and the adults said she was very graceful, like a ballet dancer. June Mae started dancing too, whirling and falling over. No one said June Mae was graceful. Lily thought both of them were likely to get chigger bites.

She heard Charlene say that June Mae was more like a boy than a girl.

Steve and June Mae’s dad started arguing about the war in Iraq. Steve said it was a stupid unnecessary war, and June Mae’s dad said if it was up to him, we should blow them Iraqis up with nukes and let God sort out the pieces.

Gramma Grace said men should not be allowed to talk about politics, not when they were drinking beer. Aunt Pauline said she agreed.

Uncle Val told a story about fishflies. Hardly anything is uglier than a fishfly. Every summer, great clouds of them hatched out in the river. One time, at the mall where he worked, a huge cloud of fishflies caused the motion-sensitive doors to open. The doors slid wide open, and a million fishflies got into the mall. “Them flies don’t live long, you know. They don’t even have mouths. It took the maintenance guys hours to sweep out the mess.”

The sun slowly set, and the sky grew darker. Lily listened to the adults talking. Adults never talked about anything interesting. She closed her eyes and thought about ghosts.

Lily fell asleep in her chair. When she woke up, it was dark, and the sky was full of fireworks. Uncle Val and June Mae’s dad were shooting off cherry bombs. Raven and Lily were running around the yard, waving sparklers, and shrieking whenever a huge skyrocket rose above the nearby houses and exploded and a cascade of glittering fire hung in the air for a few seconds.

He did it, Lily thought to herself. I know it! She glanced at Uncle Val and looked away before he could notice she was staring at him. He shot Joe. It was him. And then he came back here and finished the job.

Link to Chapter 11