Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington

Author:Laura Harrington
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-04-19T10:00:00+00:00

There’s a knock on her window and Alice nearly jumps out of her skin. There are four teenage boys and two older guys clustered around the Mustang. Wanting to touch it, to run their hands over the bright red curves, pushing each other and their bodies closer and closer. This one guy leans right in her window after she opens her eyes.

“Hey, beautiful.”

They jostle each other to get close to the window.

“Goin’ my way, honey?”

“Where’d you get this gorgeous car?”

“What’s your name, baby?”

Uncle Eddie appears with an ice cream cone in each hand.

“Back off, boys. She’s my niece. She’s fifteen.”

“Just admiring your car.”

“No harm meant.”

“She’s a beauty.”

The men and boys disperse as Uncle Eddie hands her the ice cream.

“Six,” he says, “I counted six.”

“It’s the car.”

“Of course it’s the car. It’s also, I’m telling you, every man’s fantasy: a beautiful girl in a beautiful car.”

They change places so Uncle Eddie can drive them out to the lake. Driving plus eating ice cream is a lesson for another day, apparently, or another car. He parks where they can watch the water and the birds.

“You want to talk?” he asks.

The cooling engine ticks away like a clock running down.

“I don’t know.”

“How’s your mom doing?”

“She’s kind of wrapped in cellophane or something.”

“What about Ellie?”

“I’m not sure she gets how serious it is.”

“Maybe that’s good.”

“Maybe it is. But she wet the bed last night. And she’s sucking her thumb again.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could press rewind and go backward a couple of years. What about you?”

“I might be suspended.”

“Really?”

“I shoved some dimwit girl and she fell over like a . . . she fell over and got a bloody nose.”

The ice cream is freezing inside her chest.

“Why’d you hit her?”

“She was talking some dumb shit about hating her father and wishing he were dead. Because he grounded her.”

“Wow.”

“And then the principal was trying to be decent and wanted to give me a chance, wanted to hear my side of the story, only I couldn’t talk, so he just sat there getting madder and madder, because it probably seemed like I was doing it on purpose, and then he got so mad he decided to call Mom and suspend me. Which is when I walked out.”

“You walked out?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Go, Alice!”

“Probably not an appropriate response for a grown-up, Uncle Eddie.”

“Who cares? That takes guts.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Besides, who says I’m a grown-up?”

Alice looks away.

“It’s just . . .” She can’t continue.

Eddie waits. He’s thinking that ice cream was probably a dumb idea, but what else can you do for a kid?

“The odds aren’t good, are they?” she asks.

He looks out at the lake, considers.

“Probably not for most people. But for your dad . . .”

She tries to hold her voice steady.

“Thanks for not lying to me.”

Alice shivers as a bank of clouds obscures the sun. Uncle Eddie reaches out and puts his hand on the back of her head. Leaves it there for a moment. And finds himself thinking about his father, so much like Matt in so many ways.

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