Just Get Home by Bridget Foley

Author:Bridget Foley [Foley, Bridget]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2021-01-22T16:34:01+00:00

20

The white lady looked like a social worker.

Or a Barbie. Somewhere in between.

Dessa. That’s what she said her name was. Weird name for someone who looked like her.

When she was in her sparkly dress that’s probably what made Beegie think of the Barbie dolls. In her sweatshirt Dessa now looked less like a Barbie. But the way she talked. Nice to meet you, Beegie. Like on the television. She talked like she had money. Or used to. People with money don’t live in Van Nuys.

She had a voice like the new caseworkers, the ones who were trying to make “the world a better place” but who had no idea what they were getting into.

But Dessa had surprised her.

Beegie couldn’t imagine one of her old new social workers going under a fallen down bridge like Dessa had. The way her face had looked so angry, but not. Determined was the word. She looked determined while she made her way through. Then she’d laughed like crazy when the whole thing didn’t fall on them, but Beegie knew she wasn’t really crazy. Beegie knew what real crazy looked like.

So maybe Dessa was different. Even though she sounded like social workers and looked like a doll.

She also didn’t talk to Beegie just to make noise the way they did.

As they walked into Silver Lake, that’s what she expected. The usual questions she got whenever she was around someone who sounded like Dessa. “So how are you doing?” and if they were new, “You used to be a very good student. I’m concerned about your grades.”

Chitchat.

But Dessa was quiet.

Beegie could tell the woman was looking at her sometimes. Eyes over, sneaking a peek. But she didn’t force Beegie into conversation.

The houses here looked drunk. Canted and wobbly in the front, but otherwise intact. There was a row whose porch supports had slipped, making the roofs hang like jaunty hats over the face of the houses. Like children putting on a show.

Beegie wondered where the people who belonged to them were. The neighborhood was so quiet, like it was abandoned, but of course it couldn’t be. There must be people here, inside these jaunty houses, waiting for the sun to come up and show them the damage that had been done.

It’s what she would do. Hide.

A heavy perfume smell found them, wrapping itself around Beegie and Dessa, folding them into its sweetness. White star-shaped flowers speckled across dark bushes. A whole long line of them, spanning the fronts of the houses.

“Does your sister bloom at night too?” The woman spoke, but Beegie didn’t understand her. She thought maybe she’d misheard. It happened sometimes when she was thinking hard. Someone would say something and it wouldn’t make sense at first...then she’d hear it again a few times in her brain and the words would sort themselves out, slotting themselves the way they were supposed to be.

But what the lady said didn’t do that. Each time she heard it in her head, what Dessa had said sounded more and more like what she’d heard the first time and the less sense it made.

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