Getting It Right by Karen E. Osborne

Author:Karen E. Osborne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2017-05-11T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

A couple from Bangladesh owned the small East Indian restaurant next to Tuesday's apartment in Morningside Heights. In fact, the owners had explained, Bengalis owned most Indian restaurants in New York. It was a perception issue, they said. People wouldn't come to a Bengali restaurant, but an Indian establishment felt familiar. The three friends—Tuesday, Flyer, and Kara—often met there on Sundays to catch up.

Today, the aroma of curry and meat filled the air. It was after the church crowd and before dinner so the place was almost empty. Jammed in with ten or twelve other tables, theirs was covered with a white tablecloth and stood close to the kitchen. One of the owners took their order.

Tuesday sipped her water. "What happened to your face?"

"I fell."

"On your face?"

Kara didn't want to talk about Zach or the FBI. "I'm fine." She had other things on her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about Barry White, wondering what his short life had been like. As troubled as theirs? Plus, the nightmares and daytime flashbacks were wearing her down.

Their food soon arrived. Each dish in a separate bowl for easy sharing. For the next few minutes, the trio focused on filling their plates and sampling different dishes.

"What's with all the urgency?" Tuesday tucked into her spinach, lamb, and potato casserole. "Why aren't we meeting for dinner like we usually do?"

Kara needed a point of entry so she decided to take an oblique approach. "I was thinking about the first year we all moved to the group home—how scared we were."

Tuesday asked, "Why were you thinking about that?"

Flyer reached for a slice of warm naan. "Good thing we had each other. Some of the older kids were crazy mean."

"What brought this up?" Tuesday put her fork down. "You've been acting all weird lately, jumpy."

Kara wasn't sure where to go next. She was waking up exhausted every morning with little strength to deal with Zach or the FBI. Did Tuesday have nightmares as well? She never hinted at it, but then again neither had Kara. How did Tuesday deal with them? Did they start recently like Kara's, or did Tuesday always have them? Kara also wondered about Flyer. He seemed unwell, and his life was haphazard. Her therapist, Marci, told Kara that sexual abuse in families sometimes happened to children of both sexes: it was about power—not sex, control, and violence, like rape. They weren't exactly a family, but still. Maybe if they all admitted it to each other, they could get better together.

"I remember being frightened all the time," she repeated.

Flyer's head bobbed up and down. "We must have had a fight a day on the school bus, not to mention in the dining room."

Tuesday jumped in: "They picked on us because we were the newbies."

"We were a great team," Flyer chuckled. "Tuesday worked the shins with her lunch pail and I had the intimidating shove down to a science."

Tuesday's scowl deepened. "We still got beat up."

"True," said Flyer.

"But why are we talking about ancient history? Who wants to remember those crappy days?" Tuesday peered at Kara.

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