Page 46 of One Last Rainy Day
Stalking back to my Camaro when Mrs. George pokes her head out again, I leave Tyler to lay out our strategy of framing Spencer and his accomplices without drawing attention to the club. Retrieving my phone from the glove box, I power it on to see a waiting text from Sean.
Sean: Meet me at the lake, bring the usual.
Got shit to do.
The bubbles immediately start.
Sean: Yeah, you do, but you’re taking the day off.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“ENCORE, MAMAN!”AGAIN,Mama.
“Patience.” She tosses my pajamas onto the bed next to me. “Arms up.”
“Encore, Maman!”Again, Mama, I yell louder, lifting my arms.
“Such a demanding little lark,” she says, pulling my shirt down before pinching my nose. “Count with me.”
“Un, deux, trois,”One two three, we recite together before she begins to sing. “Alouette, gentille alouette.”Lark, gentile lark!“Alouette, je te plumerai.”Lark, I will pull your feathers! “You sing too, gentile lark.”
“Je te plumerai la tête.”I will pluck your feathers off your head,I sing as she begins to tickle me.
“Je te plumerai la tête.”I will pluck your feathers off your head, she sings back.
“Et la tête,”off your head, she sings high.
“Et la tête,”off your head, I drop my chin and sing low.
“Alouette,”Lark!she sings.
“Alouette,”Lark!I sing back.
She presses her nose to mine, our eyes getting bigger as we sing together. “O-o-o-oh!”
She pushes me back on the bed, hair tickling my belly as she kisses it, and I try to wiggle away.
“Encore, Maman,” I yell as she chases my foot with my pajama pants.
“Et le bec,”off your beak. She pinches my lips.
“Et la tête,”off your head. She plucks my hair.
“Alouette!”Lark!
She stops, yawning.
“Maman,” I yell. “You did not sing it all!”
“We can sing again tomorrow.”
***
But we didn’t. We didn’t sing.
We never got to sing again.
“Maman,” I whisper, speeding away from the lake, chest burning as trees blur in my peripheral. Irony strikes me that mere hours ago, I chastised my inked brother for taking stock in a nursery rhyme while I replay the one I’m most familiar with—a subconscious punishment.
