Chapter 1-4
1578 Words
“Maybe he wants to apologize, Ani.”
“Oh my god, he just looked over here,” Ani blundered, sounding quite panicked. Putting her basket down, she retreated into the house quickly.
“Ani!” her mother called, but Ani had disappeared inside.
Francine shaded the sun from her eyes and watched Cam as he occasionally glanced over to the house. He had roamed a bit closer but didn’t seem to have the courage to finish the trip. She followed her daughter into the house and found her at the kitchen window hiding behind the curtain and peeking out at the field.
“What do you think he wants?” Ani asked, staring through the glass at him.
“I’m sure I don’t know, honey, but I do know that he isn’t coming anywhere near here with me outside. Why don’t you go on back out there? He probably just wants to be friends.”
“Cam Keller? No he doesn’t!” she hissed. “He’s horrid!”
“Ani, go on out there,” Francine urged.
“No! He’s just gonna grab at my bra and say horrible things to me. He’s gonna call me Ani-boob again.”
“I bet you he won’t.”
“I bet you he will.”
“OK, what do you want to bet? How about some chocolate chip cookies? If you win, I’ll bake some. And if I win, you do the dinner dishes: wash, dry and put them away.”
Ani pondered the offer while taking one more peek outside at Cam. “Chocolate chip?” she asked.
“Yeah. Big gooey ones!” Francine confirmed, widening her eyes.
“OK,” Ani accepted, heading for the back door. “You better preheat the oven, Mom.”
Ani confidently returned outside, peeking up at Cam out in the field as she walked back to the garden and resumed her weeding. Cam started making his way toward the yard, although slowly and appearing as though he were trying to get there completely by accident.
After a near eternity he reached the well-groomed grass of Ani’s back yard and strolled over to where she was working. “Hey Ani, whatcha doin’?” he asked, spooking her from behind.
“Weeding. What are you doing here?”
“Nothing. Just messin’ around,” he replied, taking a few steps closer to her to watch her work. “How do ya know which one’s are weeds? They all look the same.”
“No they don’t. And I just know,” Ani snipped.
“How do you know?”
“My mother taught me.”
“Well, how does she know?” Cam asked, poking at the ground with the stick he was still carrying.
Ani thought about Cam’s question for a moment and became frustrated that she wasn’t able to come up with a good answer. “What do you want, Cameron?” she sneered, without looking up.
“Nothin’.”
“Well, go pick on someone else.”
“What? I’m not here to pick on you.”
“Yes you are. You’re nasty and I don’t like you and I want you to go away.”
Cam stood silent for a few seconds looking down at her as she tugged violently on a dandelion. “I bet it’d come out a lot easier if you wet the ground,” he suggested.
Ani glared up at him angrily. “Go away!”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to.”
“You’re just mad ’cos I’m right.”
“No I’m not,” she argued as she tugged and tugged. The dandelion finally snapped at its base but left its roots firmly embedded in the dirt.
“Told ya,” he smiled.
Ani stood up courageously and eyed him. “OK. If you’re so smart, you get it out,” she dared.
“Go get me some water.”
Ani stormed up to the house and filled a watering can from the hose. Returning to the garden, she handed the can to him. He dropped the stick and approached the stubborn weed. He poured a generous amount of water on it and let it seep into the soil. Then, taking a sturdy grasp on what was left of it, he yanked it out effortlessly. “See,” he said, a quiver of pride radiating from him.
“Why did you do that to me yesterday?” Ani asked, suddenly.
“What?”
“Why did you do that to me yesterday?”
“Do what?”
“Don’t play dumb. You know what.”
“What? Bug you about your bra? I was just teasin’, Ani,” he explained.
“Well, it wasn’t very nice,” she scolded.
“C’mon Ani, I was just messin’ around with you.”
“No! It was horrible and I’m really mad at you!”
Cam stared at her for an instant and then he looked down at the ground. “Hey, ya wanna see something cool?”
“No.”
“C’mon. It’s pretty cool.”
“What? What’s so cool?” she asked, keeping her tone unbearably cold.
“C’meer, I’ll show ya.”
Ani came up beside him as he crouched down. “See this web?” he asked, motioning at a spider’s tunnel work next to a rock in the garden.
“Yeah, it’s a spider web, so what?”
“You ever seen the spiders that make these?”
“I dunno, I guess not. Why? Are they big?”
“This one will be. C’meer, I’ll show ya.”
Ani crouched down next to him looking at the hole in the web. “I don’t see anything.”
“Watch, I’m gonna drop a little stone on the web and he’ll come out thinking it’s a bug,” Cam said. He picked a tiny pebble from the ground and dropped it on the web. A moment later, a penny sized spider zipped out of his tunnel and checked out the pebble. Ani screeched and jumped back a bit, the spider responding by scooting back into its hole. Cam laughed. “He won’t hurt you,” he assured. “You don’t have to be scared of him.”
Ani smiled and moved back up next to Cam. “Can you do it again?”
“Maybe,” he replied, picking up another pebble and repeating his trick, but the spider didn’t come out. “Nah, he’s wise to us now. He was a big one, huh?”
“I’d say,” Ani agreed.
He peered over at her to see her smiling, but his own smile faded. “You hurt yourself,” he said, noticing the cut on her cheek.
“What?” she frowned, not knowing what he was talking about.
“You cut your face,” he said, looking at her.
Ani’s eyes looked into his and then she looked away quickly. “It’s just a scratch. It’s nothing.”
Francine had been watching the two kids through the kitchen window as she made lunch. They appeared to be getting along, so she made an extra sandwich for Cameron and pulled an extra glass out of the cupboard for him. She hung her head out the back door and yelled to them across the yard: “Hey, you guys want some sandwiches? Lunch is ready.”
Cam looked up and then stood. “Yeah,” he breathed.
“You two sit at the patio table. I’ll bring them out.”
Francine placed a plate full of sandwiches, a pitcher of Kool-Aid, and glasses on the table. Sitting down herself, she glanced at both the kids, and saw that Ani was giving her a very disapproving look, bordering on furious. She smiled at her anyway while pouring the drinks.
“Do you like chicken salad, Cameron?” she asked.
“Yes ma’am. I like everything ma’am. Thank you.”
“Good. There’s plenty,” Francine told him.
Ani grabbed a sandwich off the plate and sat back hard in her chair, still sneaking angry peeks over at her mother, but Francine ignored them and made small talk with Cam.
After they had finished their lunch, Ani got up from her chair and disappeared back into the garden to continue her weeding. Cam quickly finished his drink and then wandered over to continue watching her. “Do you have to do that everyday?” he asked.
“No, not every day,” Ani answered, feeling his eyes on her back. A moment passed when she could no longer tolerate his stare on her. She turned around quickly to bark at him again, allowing her still ailing feelings from the day before to get the better of her, but he spoke before she had the chance.
“Well, I guess I better take off,” he said, picking up the stick he had left by the garden.
“Where are you going?” Ani asked, finding an odd sensation of sadness stick into her. It struck her as curious because she knew that she hated him for what he had done, but somehow she wanted him to stay.
“I dunno. Wherever,” Cam responded, heading back toward the field.
Ani turned her attention back to her work, refusing to let go of her anger, and she heard him shout his thanks for lunch over to her mother.
“Are you leaving so soon, Cameron?” Francine yelled back.
“Yes ma’am.”
“OK, bye Cameron.”
A few minutes later, Ani stood up and peeked out across the field to see Cam on the other side, riding off on his bike. She walked up behind her mother and put her hands on her waist. “Why did you give him lunch?” she spouted.
“Because it was lunch time, Ani. Besides, it looked like you two were making friends. I was just trying to help.”
“Well, we weren’t making friends. He just came here to pick on me.”
“And did he?”
Ani was quiet for several seconds before blurting out a truth she didn’t want to admit. “No.”
“Was he nice to you?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Ani answered, her gaze drifting away from her mother and down to her own feet.
“That’s why I gave him lunch,” Francine said. “He just wants to be friends with you, sweetie.”
“Well, I don’t wanna be friends with him.”
Francine teased her daughter with a smile. “He really is kind of cute though, don’t you think?” she asked. “He has real pretty eyes. They’re the nicest green; very unusual.”
Ani stared at her mother with unwavering seriousness for a moment, not allowing her own smile to slip through, but then failing. “Yeah.” she agreed, quietly, as if keeping a secret.
She rises early from bed
Runs to the mirror
The bruises inflicted in moments of fury
He kneels beside her once more
Whispers a promise
‘Next time I’ll break every bone in your body’...
David Sylvian
- Writer
