Alice Bliss - Laura Harrington [7]
“Mom, do you want me to drive?”
“You don’t know how to drive.”
“I think you need to pull over.”
“Why?”
“You need your glasses.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re driving really fast and you’re scaring me.”
“And it’s freezing in here!” Ellie adds. “Close the window!”
Angie turns to look at Alice.
“We’re going to Don and Bob’s. We’re getting frozen custard. Then we’re going home.”
“Okay. Okay. Would you just keep your eyes on the road?”
“I sure could use a scarf back here where it’s as cold as the arctic tundra!” Ellie says.
Alice wishes she could laugh.
“Is anybody listening to me? I’m probably catching a terrible cold right this minute. Mom! Earth to Mom! Come in, Mom!”
Angie manages a smile.
“Your window!?”
Angie rolls up her window and turns the heat up high.
“Can I have hot chocolate with my ice cream?” Ellie wants to know.
“You can have whatever you want,” Angie answers.
“Onion rings?”
“At the same time?” Alice makes a face.
“No. Onion rings and a vanilla shake. Then hot chocolate. Then ice cream.”
“You’re gonna be sick.”
“Mom said whatever I want.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I don’t care. That’s what I want.”
They pull into Don and Bob’s, and Angie nearly clips the SUV at the entrance as their car slides a bit on the snow. She gives the fat guy in the front seat a jaunty wave, like we’re all in this crazy weather thing together, aren’t we?
Crossing the parking lot, Angie is tiptoeing through the snow trying not to ruin her new heels. She slips and grabs on to Alice to steady herself.
“Wrong shoes,” she shrugs.
“Yeah,” Alice concedes.
“I was trying to look pretty.”
“Yeah.”
“For Dad.”
“Yeah.”
“He likes heels. He likes a woman in heels.”
“That’s about all I want to know about that, Mom.”
Ellie has run ahead and grabbed a booth. She’s already chatting up the waitress as she shakes the snow from her shoulders and takes off her coat. Alice slides in beside her and picks up the menu.
“I’m ready!” Ellie announces to no one in particular.
“Give me a minute.”
“You know what you’re going to have. It’s what you always, always have.”
“I like to look. Just in case.”
“Just in case what? You turn into another person?”
“Just in case it’s a grilled Reuben kind of day.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stick to the tried and true.”
“That could be boring.”
“You’re already boring, Alice.”
“Thanks a lot!”
Alice looks up to see that Angie has her head resting against the back of the booth and her eyes closed. Her long, fine fingers are crossed over her stomach. She looks pale and tired in the fluorescent light. She’s sitting in the middle of the booth as if she can cover up Dad’s absence. Alice checks to see if Ellie has noticed any of this.
“Can we order, already?” Ellie asks.
“Yup.”
Ellie waves to the waitress, who comes right over. Her name tag says “Marge.” Her glasses are incredibly thick and her hair looks like it’s been teased and shellacked with hair spray. Who wears their hair like that anymore?
“Hi, Marge!” Ellie says. “Can I get started with onion rings and a vanilla shake?”
“You bet.”
“I’ll have the classic burger and a root beer, please. Mom? What do you want?”
Angie opens her eyes and sits up. Alice holds out a menu, Angie ignores it.
“Do you have soup?”
“Beef barley or chicken vegetable.”
“Chicken, please. A cup.”
Marge heads off to shout their order to the cooks behind the counter.
“We could play hangman,” Ellie says.
“Okay.”
“Mom, you got a pen?” Ellie asks.
Angie finds a pen in her purse, and Alice fishes her carefully folded geometry homework out of her back pocket. Ellie, Little Miss Genius, instantly takes the pen and thinks up a nine-letter word, drawing the short lines carefully
“Nine letters?”
“You’re never gonna get this one.”
“E.”
Ellie fills in two blanks.
“A.”
Two more blanks.
“Where did you get that?” Angie’s voice is maybe a little sharper than she intended. To Alice it’s coming at her with enough force to induce whiplash.
“My homework?”
“No. Daddy’s watch.”
“What? Do you think I took it?”
“I’m just asking.”
“No, Mom, you’re accusing.