18: Comdog
Easton
+ Foints
We leave the funhouse, laughing. Cole is begging to go to the ponies and petting zoo now. “Ok. Let’s tell Luci I spot her standing near one of the little concession stands. She’s completely zoned out. “Luci!” I call, thinking she’ll hear me. I see the door open to the stand and the guy stepping out with a huge steaming pot of grease. It’s a funnel cake stand. He has it up high and can’t see anything. I call her again but nothing. I lift Cole up fast, telling him to hold on as I shout her name again. My long legs eat up the distance, but I might be too
late.
“LUCI!
I manage to yank her out of his way. Just in time too. She snaps out of whatever deep trance she was in and faces me wide–eyed. Cole touches her face. “Luci, you weren’t listening.”
I grip her arm, staring into her wide eyes. “Where did you go? Do you have any idea what was about to happen?” I ask her angrily.
“Just lost in thought. I think…..no, I didn’t see.” She is nervous though and scared. Like a trapped rabbit…
“No, it’s more than that. You’ve struggled like that a few times. I called your name four times, Luci. You could have been seriously hurt. That guy was going to hit you with that fryer pot and possibly drip hot grease on you.” Her mouth drops open.
“Thank you, I’m sorry. I know. I’m sorry.” She won’t face me, stares down at my shirt.
“Cole, you want to go down the slide? The line is almost empty.” I point right behind us and he nods. I tug her along with us to hand over the tickets and watch him start up the steps.
“Luci, we need to talk. Cole wants to ride the ponies and you are going to explain.” She doesn’t say anything. My heart is still pounding from that.
Cole is giggling as I watch him come down the slide. I hold out my hand for him and he takes it ready to head for his next choice.
I gently grip her bicep. “Let’s go. I see a table right next to it too.”
I hand over enough tickets for four rides and let Cole choose his horse before placing him in the saddle. Luci is attempting to take his picture, but her hands are shaking. I remove the phone from her hands and snap a few. “Hold on tight buddy.” I warn him before steering Luci to a table right next to the enclosure.
“Talk. You look terrified anytime you get that lost. Before you argue, I want to know because you drive my son home from school every day. And nothing is as important to me as that little boy.” I don’t tell her I read up on possibilities and it talked about blood curdling things like absence seizures. Which sent lots of terrifying images through my head of her and Cole in an accident on the way home.
She scrapes her fingers together but only on her left hand. She nods staring at the table.
“I guess you have a right to know because of Cole. But please keep an open mind.” She meets my eyes with that and I nod. “I have ADHD. Mild inattentive ADHD. I don’t focus well and I get lost in daydreams, but they are a little more intense than yours. Like the white rabbit from Wonderland. Honestly, my whole brain is like Wonderland some days. You never know which illusion you’ll wander into. I miss things sometimes.
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+8 Points
18: Corndog
Especially when people first start a conversation. It won’t affect me with Cole as much. I seem to pay more attention to kids and I don’t wander. Driving keeps me focused for certain reasons that are burned into my brain. I have tricks to help me focus and retain things. The hockey game that I screwed up, I didn’t commit your note to full memory and I didn’t add it to my phone calendar. The chunking thing is part of my rambling issue. I can’t always focus to complete a whole task like an essay. So I have to break it down to make sure I can complete those kind of things.”
“The fingernail scraping….” I stare at her curious.
“Coping mechanism when I get overwhelmed by new information or a new task. Or anxiety. It helps me refocus somehow. I went to a therapist when I was eleven. She showed me ways to stay in the present. It
doesn’t always work, but I have survived so far.”
A light bulb goes off. “Is that why you don’t always fight back? Because you are worried you missed part of the conversation and will get it wrong by standing up for yourself?”
She nods, biting her lip. “Are you….that’s my issue. Syd and her family are the only people that know about it around here. Other people tend to make fun of me.” Her eyes plead with mine. She thinks I will tell her bullies or laugh at her.
“Hard to share something like that. Not everything is for others to know.” I take a deep breath and watch her
as I start talking.
“Kingston and Becker are twins and only three months younger than us. My dad’s half–brother, Jace, was their father. They died when King and Beck were a year old. It was a tragedy. Jace was the family screw up though he was set up to fail. My grandfather indulged him too much and didn’t rein him in until much too late. Bought him a McLaren V1 when he was 16.” She looks blank. “It’s a really fast car that no 16–year–old should have. And I say that as a boy who would love to drive one. He wrecked it within six months showing out for friends. Grandpa bought him another one. He was basically making up for the loss of Jace’s mother. She was Grandpa’s mistress who got pregnant right before they ended things. He took Jace in forcing his wife to help raise her. Uncle Jace apparently took advantage of my grandfather’s guilt over the coldness of his adopted “mother.” Jace acted out every chance he got for attention. Honestly, when Dad described it, you could tell it was such a desperate call for attention and help. Grandpa thought he’d grow out of it. Jace didn’t. He went to college and started a relationship with a married college professor, Susan. Her husband was a very influential businessman in Kenton. She got pregnant and planned to have the kids and pass them off as her husbands because she said he’d never give her a divorce. Jace pleaded with her, even went to Grandpa and my dad for help. Naturally, Grandpa told him to let them have the kids. He wasn’t fit to raise them at his age. Jace wanted them and defied his father and Susan. He sent Susan’s husband pictures and text messages between them showing that the twins were his. Her husband waited until they were born before he had a paternity test done. When the results confirmed Jace’s words, he called Jace to pick them up and kicked Susan to the curb. She spent the next year trying to get her husband to take her back. That’s when he revealed what Jace had done. She showed up and lost it on him. He’d cleaned up his act and was a good father from what I heard. She shot him and then herself. Luke managed to call 911, but he died before they got there. Grandpa covered up the scandal because of business. Susan’s husband agreed to never speak of it. Dad stepped up and adopted them. Supposedly, my mother was on board too. They raised them as their own. Besides our family, no one knows the whole story. Baker counts as family.”
She stares at me horrified with tears in her eyes. Her hands are trembling, and it takes her a minute to respond. “That’s so horrible. At least their family stepped up and took them in.”
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18: Corndog
“Yes. A secret for a secret, Luci.” I fidget, wadding up straw papers into tiny squares,
“Can I ask you something about Cole?” She sounds hesitant.
“I might refuse to answer.” I warn her honestly.
+8 Points
“Is keeping his identity or parentage quiet your decision or your mother’s?” Not at all what I thought she’d say.
“Both but for very different reasons.” I pause and visually check on Cole. He’s in heaven riding the ponies for the third round. “My mother is doing it for control. Image control. She plans to parade him out when I’m being considered in the draft or if a new team starts up. Would make this great tug at your heartstrings story for the selfless single father bullshit she’d portray. I’m doing it to protect him from that very plan. Think about how often our family is in the news. They’d be all over him and trying to bring up his mother and other things to get at me. They latch onto anything unknown and sensationalize it. I don’t want that for him.”
I thought she’d ask about his mother.
“I’m going to buy a lemonade. Want anything?” She offers.
“I’m good. I’ll go wait by the gate for Cole.” I shove my hands in my pockets and watch her walk toward the
concession booth.
I’m not the only one watching her. I see a guy pointing her out to his friends. He looks harmless and she can handle him, I think. Will keep an eye out though in case she zones out.
Subtly, I look her over as he approaches her. She’s a pretty girl with beautiful eyes and a shapely ass in those leggings, which is exactly what he was staring at. I know she has an impressive figure from her Halloween costume. Thoughts I should never encourage or entertain try to form images as I shove them firmly away. I will not look at Luci Forrester that way. Ever. For so many reasons. Talk about trouble.
Dad was worried she was a puck bunny in disguise, which is honestly laughable considering her reaction to all of us. He has reason to question it. Seemed like that was the only type Mother could hire to watch Cole. Madison was definitely one, but hid it the longest. There was Yvette before that who snuck into Kingston’s bed one afternoon. She was gone immediately. Annabelle before that, who made it no secret to Baker she was there to attract one of us. And last but certainly not least was Tia. She had been in my shower when I got home. Cole wasn’t even asleep yet. Luckily, he was only two at the time and remembers nothing. Dad had been home for that one. I was seething with rage and almost physically threw her out of the house naked. I can reassure Dad with the fact that Mother only hired Luci because Cole begged for her. Had the nerve to lie to me about who she hired too. Said it was a girl named Lily that Cole met after the accident and she found out she was a nanny. I asked to meet her and she’d said she would arrange it for that weekend. Instead, I walked in and saw the football team’s favorite insult target. Watching her with Cole though, I am glad she was the one. He’s a better judge of character than Mother.
We finally leave with a tired boy a few hours later.
“What’s bunny’s name Luci?” Cole asks as he plays with both on the ride home.
“Corndog.” She says with a straight face.
Cole giggles. “Corndog?”
“It’s a nice memory.” She stares ahead of us.
I laugh involuntarily, surprising myself. “Not bad, sweetness. Not bad at all.”
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