Train Track Princes by Barnhill Scarlett

Author:Barnhill, Scarlett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two II: Mom

“How do you stop being afraid?” I asked Ev in the truck.

Evergreen made a face. “Dude, I got bad news.”

“Am I dude or baby?” I asked.

“Both,” he answered. “Also, I’m afraid like, always.”

“But you do so much stuff.”

“I’m gonna need you to elaborate on that one.”

I hit the steering wheel with a little more verve than I meant to. “Ugh. I don’t know. You dye your hair and wear these weird but cool sweaters. You were out as pan as a child. You were fourteen. You do what you want to do. When we were kids it was you climbing to the top of the monkey bars or in the trees or whatever. You wanted to run on the train tracks and do bike tricks.”

Evergreen shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t imagine not doing those things.”

Wow. I didn’t know what to do with that, other than feel amazed that he wanted to be my boyfriend as much as I wanted to be his.

Ev’s house didn’t look a thing like mine. My house rose up in columns, among hundred year old trees that would never have grown in eastern Colorado on their own. Mom coordinated hiring lawn guys and gardening people and painters, an army of people poorer than we were making us look polished and accomplished.

The yellow paint on the vertical siding of Ev and Cindy’s rectangular manufactured home peeled from the panels, but wind chimes hung all along the front, a rainbow flag flapping from a pole mounted beside the front door. An unfair curl of envy tightened in my gut at the sight of it. Ev’s mom didn’t hesitate to fly that flag instants after Ev told her he was pan.

They cluttered their property with handmade lawn ornaments from farmer’s markets and craft fairs, or even things they made themselves. For a while, back before me and Evergreen had our falling out, Cindy got into glass blowing.

All at once, I realized I hadn’t been inside this house in five years.

The same truth didn’t seem to faze Evergreen. He collected his crutches and his backpack and propelled himself across the winter-brown lawn, which didn’t look well-kept anyway.

He rang the doorbell several times in a row, then knocked. “Ma. Mama. Mom.”

“Evergreen Martin,” Cindy Cutler scolded as she opened the door.

She lifted her brows at the sight of me. I shuffled in place and gave an awkward wave.

“So I’m dating Garrett,” Evergreen said. “He just came out to his parents and it went real fucking weird.”

“Oh, honey,” Cindy said.

She crossed the lawn and scooped me into a hug, shockingly strong for a woman who was 5’2 at best and the reason that Evergreen had a brutally efficient metabolism. I dropped into the embrace immediately, falling like a house of cards. She rubbed my back and let me cling for longer than I meant to.

“Come in,” she said, patting my arm. “We’ll make it better, at least for a little while.”

Cindy Cutler didn’t look like she was someone’s mom. She wore bell bottoms patterned with sunflowers and a yellow crop top even though it was January.

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