Page 87 of Valley Girls
“Your daddy broke his leg. I’m wrapping it with packing tape.”
Rilla made a face at the bushes. “What?”
“He’s got it all propped up in a brace Mr. Banner gave him, but I’m trying to secure it so he can use the shower.”Shhhhh ...
Rilla pulled the phone away.
“Why don’t you go to the doctor?” She asked, putting it back to her ear.
“We had Granny Hutchins out, and you know, he’s doing okay right now. Got some pain meds. She was able to set it. Good lord, that woman’s strong. She told him to pack it with some stinging nettle and that’s been working. If it get’s real bad or something, we’ll go. But we’re still paying off my incident last year.”
“Oh yeah,” Rilla said. Mom had needed her stomach pumped when she accidentally mixed the wrong medications. She’d even been embarassed about that. “How’d he hurt his leg?”
“Flipped his four-wheeler.”Shhhhhh ...“Move it this way, Tom.”
Rilla chewed her fingernail. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” Mom said.
“Why didn’t you tell me it was Thea’s idea for me to come out here?”
Shhhhh... “Rilla Anne,” her mom said in an exasperated tone. “I was the one who decided to send you. Thea just offered.”
Rilla took her fingers out of her mouth and stared at them. “Oh.” She sighed. “You know everything with me and Curtis was mutual, right?”
“Mutual is for divorces, not for brawls.”
“But I hit him too.”
Mom sighed.
Rilla swallowed, her throat tight. She closed her eyes and suddenly she could see it all the way everyone else had been telling her. The way it had started. The way Curtis had backed her into a corner, yelling at her about sleeping with other guys. She’d slapped him—yes. But she’d been terrified about what he could do with his body that close and she’d struck out to put distance.
“I don’t know why you’re complaining,” Mom said. “You got the chance to live with Thea. You’ll come home in August having seen more of the world than most people around here have.”Shhhhh ...“That should do it.”
A dull ache tore at Rilla’s chest. “Yeah, August.” She didn’t want to go back now. Now that she had climbing, and all her friends and everything that maybe could be with Walker. She had finally made a home for herself. But she didn’t say anything. Mom wouldn’t ever hold her to it, if she decided not to return, and that was one of the nice things about Mom. “Sorry. I love you, Mom.”
“Love you, Rilla. Tell Thea I said to call me.”
She hung up and stared out at the shifting afternoon light and the cloudless blue sky. It wasn’t like that, she found herself repeating in her head about Curtis. But she laid her head on her arms and closed her eyes.Yes it was. It was exactly like that.And it had been wrong. She didn’t completely believe it yet, but she was starting to.
And she cried, hurting all over again.
•
“I want to maybe do an overnight climb,” Rilla said, twiddling her pencil as she sat on the bear boxes, notebook on her knee, supposedly scribbling an outline for an English paper. The fire flickered under the cedar boughs and the hum of Camp 4 reverberated around them. It was the end of a long, hot climbing day, and they waited for stragglers at Olivia’s campsite in Camp 4. Rilla should have gone home, but couldn’t bring herself to leave when everyone was still there. She’d hoped, by announcing that, someone would invite her along on a trip they’d already planned—but no one jumped at the bait.
“All right,” was all Petra said, lazily from the chair where she looked half-asleep. She looked up as Walker stepped into the circle. “Look at the man whore himself.”
“Love you too, honey.” He made a kissy face to her. “What’s up?” He said it to the group, but his gaze flickered to Rilla.
She straightened, grip tightening on her pencil.
Petra kicked at his leg. “I heard a rumor Celine Moreau is coming.”
He shrugged. “That’s the rumor,” he said.
“I need updates. You can send it via carrier Rilla.”
