American Outlaw - Jesse James [16]
“What?” Rhonda giggled. “Look, Jesse, if you fix my mom’s car, then you can say ‘shit’ all day and all night.”
“That’s not what I want,” I said.
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah,” I said. I looked at her. “If I fix your mom’s car, then I want you to go out to the movies with me.”
“Oh really? What movie?”
“I . . . really don’t care,” I said honestly. The whole school throbbed and moved around us in the halls. I ignored everyone. It was just me and her, locked in a gaze. And it felt like the best thing ever.
She stared at me for a really long time, then finally broke out into the most gorgeous smile I’d ever seen. “Yeah,” she said. “That sounds good.”
Please note: I fixed the living shit out of that car.
——
Soon Rhonda and I were an item. Her perfect teenaged scent pervaded every aspect of my being. It was all roses and hair spray and cheerleader pom-poms and white cotton panties twisted up in a ball on the floor of my car.
Not to be outdone, my father embarked upon a romance of his own. Nina was a cocktail waitress at a bar in Long Beach. She boasted stringy hair that hung down from her forehead, moplike.
“So pleased ta meet you,” she sneered, the first time she came over to the house. The way Nina talked, it was like there was an invisible cigarette hanging from her bottom lip. I could almost see the butt moving up and down.
My dad was never one to beat around the bush, so before long, they’d gotten hitched, and I had a new stepmom. One day, she arrived at my house smacking gum like it was her job, her skinny, weather-beaten hands on her hips, and a household of possessions thrown haphazardly into a dented Ryder truck behind her. Two kids stood by her side, staring at me hostilely.
“Jesse,” came my dad’s voice, “unload the truck for Nina.”
I knew this action would officially end my time alone with my dad, and the realization put me momentarily beyond words. Had anybody thought to ask me if three new people could move into my house? Would they really be allowed to invade the first taste of happiness that I’d been trying to cultivate for my whole life?
“Well?” Nina said. She jerked her chin. “You gonna do what your dad said?”
With no other choice, I put my head down and walked slowly toward the truck.
“Don’t break anything,” Nina snapped.
Nina was a better homemaker than Joanna: she could actually cook a little bit. But she was not what you would call a stellar conversationalist.
“Hey,” I said. “I think your kids stole some money out of my desk.”
No response.
“Excuse me,” I repeated. “Did you hear what I said? I had ten bucks in my desk. Now it’s gone, and I think one of your kids stole it.”
Nina looked at me, as if just discovering I was there. “My kids don’t steal,” she grunted, moving hair out of her face. She stirred the soup she was making for dinner, sucked on the oversized spoon. “Weren’t raised that way.”
“Yeah, well, look, I hate to tell you,” I said, my voice rising, “some money is gone, and I sure as hell didn’t spend it. My dad didn’t take it, and I guess that leaves you and your kids.” I folded my arms and stared her down. “So what are we gonna do about it?”
Nina stirred, her concentration intense. She peered into the oven, attending to her casserole. The contents of the Pyrex captivated her attention entirely.
“Hey!” I said. “Hello?”
Nina looked back up at me and squinted, as if meeting me for the first time. “I told you, my family don’t steal shit.” Her jaw worked up and down.
Defeated, I stomped out of the kitchen. The next day, I visited a hardware store and bought a dead bolt for my room. Without it, I was convinced my stepbrother and stepsister would take everything that wasn’t nailed down. I thought this, because that’s what I would have done. They didn’t want to live with me any more than I wanted to live with them. Yet now that they were here, they would do their best to exploit the situation.
We coexisted uneasily for several months. Nina and I grew no closer. However, I grew to tolerate my stepsister and stepbrother, and then to like them. The unshakable force of the dead bolt imposed