Page 36 of Sublimate
We followed her through the house and at first, I’d thought that the rooms seemed dark because the sun was so bright outside—it was contrast. Then I’d realized that no, it was actually dark in here because they hadn’t flipped on any lights and there were heavy curtains over all the windows. They did have furniture and none of it was taped or broken, but it was totally crammed in so that there wasn’t much room to walk. It wasn’t only gloomy, it was also claustrophobic.
When we’d made it to the back yard, things hadn’t improved. I wasn’t quite sure what I had done to make Mrs. Norris have such strong feelings against me—it was almost as bad as when I had walked into the room and the girl had immediately thrown up. That had turned out to be food poisoning but I couldn’t pass this off as illness…although, Cadence had told me all about her mom’s health problems.
“She has so many difficulties,” she had explained. The list had begun with toenail issues (ingrown) and gone through pollen allergies, sensitivity to mosquito bites, weak ankles, and more. She had spoken for several minutes and included the fact that her mom’s hair used to have beautiful curls but had gone straight, like mine was (except mine was dark red and Mrs. Norris’s was now stone grey). Maybe she had tugged and twirledthose curls in the same way that her daughter was doing right now, and her hair just gave up and quit trying to bounce back.
Anyway, after explaining all her mother’s health problems, Cadence had invited me over for this afternoon and I had come with a bouquet of flowers. That was what I’d seen in my clients’ houses after they had people over, sometimes flowers and sometimes bottles of wine, and once a few empty baggies with just a slight dusting of white powder inside.
They’d probably had more fun than I was right now, but I was glad that I hadn’t brought drugs as my guest-ly offering. I’d personally never used them and it would have made Mrs. Norris hate me more (if that was even possible). We had been sitting out on the wood deck in their backyard, and it was so pretty and peaceful. The birds were singing, there was a cool breeze, and the sky over us was clear blue. Cadence had kept us supplied with iced tea and snacks. She’d shown me her garden, which looked wilted and mostly dead although she swore that she’d been watering it all the time.
“Maybe that’s the problem? Too much attention?” she had wondered, but I’d had no idea. I wasn’t a gardener although I had been watching more videos about that topic.
When we’d returned to her mom on the deck, she’d looked completely furious. I’d tried compliments, which had sometimes worked on my sister when she got in a mood. “I love your house,” I told them both. From the outside, it was pretty much the cutest cottage in the world, and it could have been nice inside, too, if they’d turned on lights.
Mrs. Norris didn’t remained silent. “Thank you,” Cadence had answered. “My paternal great-grandparents built it. They’re my great-great-grandparents but that turns into a tongue twister.”
“Then don’t say it,” her mom advised her. Then that woman had started asking me questions and she was less than impressed with my responses. No, I hadn’t gone to college (and luckily she hadn’t asked me about high school, where I also hadn’t gone). No, I wasn’t close with my own mother. I wasn’t sure where she was right now, but I lied and said Nevada. I had a sister and I didn’t know where she was either, but I kept that back and also my belief that most likely, her location was prison. My mom could have been locked up, too…in fact, I should have shared that with Nolan so he could have told his own mom, the lawyer looking into my paperwork problem. He hadn’t heard anything from her lately and that nugget of info might have helped.
Mrs. Norris asked why I had dragged her daughter over to the hospital in the middle of the night after my accident. “Yourcaraccident,” Cadence added anxiously, and I nodded.
“Right, my car accident. I’m sorry about disturbing you, Mrs. Norris.”
She had a lot more questions and every response I gave made her sniff and shake her head. Then she suddenly announced, “I’m going inside.” She did look flushed, but it wasn’t too hot out here. I figured it was anger.
Cadence left to help her mom and when she got back, she was also very red. Hers was embarrassment. “I’m so sorry, Vivi,” she told me. “I think she must be feeling really poorly becauseotherwise, she wouldn’t have acted so…standoffish. I know that she didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable or hurt your feelings.”
Personally, I was pretty sure that her mom had meant to do exactly those things. “I don’t care,” I said, and realized that I sounded just like Nolan. It was still what he was saying to me when I talked about moving out of his house, that he didn’t care. He also added that I might as well wait until his mother came back with some answers about my paperwork. It would be easier to have me present because he would have to relay that information, unless I also wanted to start conversing with her in French.
She was from Detroit so I was pretty sure she could also tell me things in English, but I didn’t argue. Instead, I had requested that he teach me the French names of things around the house so I could pick up some of the language myself. That was an easy thing for him to do since he was spending a lot more time at home. His friend Beau, the one I’d called his sidekick, was still heavily involved in the dad stuff and wasn’t going anywhere—I’d asked if Nolan would want to travel alone or ask someone else, but he hadn’t seemed very interested.
“I don’t have any plans,” he’d answered, and I thought that might be a problem…
“Um, I don’t know how to say this,” Cadence said, interrupting my thoughts. “I’m not sure how to word it.”
“Just go ahead and tell me,” I encouraged. “You won’t hurt my feelings. I can’t remember the last time that happened.”
“Um, ok.” She swallowed, twirled another curl, and finally did. “My mom is asking that you please leave.”
I was pretty sure that her mom hadn’t used those words. “She wants me out? That’s ok,” I said. “I’ll go. Thanks for inviting me over.” We had met for coffee a few times and once for lunch, but this was the first time I’d ever been to her house and she had never come to where I lived, either—not inside, but Cadence had picked me up today. I had assumed it was because she had wanted to see Nolan’s place again but maybe she had wanted to see the guy himself, and he was there. “We can hang out more after you drive me back,” I mentioned casually. “I mean, you could come over to where I live.”
“Oh!” She looked so startled and I hadn’t thought it was possible, but she got even redder. “Ok, I could do that.” She looked down at the dress she wore. “Is this appropriate?”
“I mean, you put that on for work, don’t you?” She did for sure because I’d seen her wearing it at the library. It draped to the middle of her calves and down to her wrists, and it was as baggy as the T-shirt I had on myself. “It doesn’t say anything rude. Or, are you worried that you’re too covered-up?”
“What?” She looked at her dress again. “Am I?”
“No, not in my opinion. But it’s summer and if you wanted to show a little more skin, why not?”
“I’m not very comfortable with that,” she said and I nodded.
“You look very nice just as you are.” I never liked to wear tight stuff either, although I’d been encouraged to show more by all of my boyfriends and especially by my mom.
Cadence’s car was legal for the road, since she had real license plates, and there were no parts taped on (my glue-jobs were steadily failing). She drove slowly and I felt that she was also afraid of the police, but not because they could catch her doing something like operating a vehicle without a license. Now that I knew her better, I had realized that she was just afraid of doing anything bad, even sort-of bad things or stuff with only a little risk.
“Did you ever take a vacation by yourself?” I asked when we were on our way. “Like how you see college students on spring break?”
“My mom and I have been to Florida a few times, but she doesn’t like airplanes and she gets uncomfortable on long road trips.”
“Nolan went to Florida to college,” I mentioned. “Did you go away somewhere, too?”
