“Although I golf too,” Curt said as he and Dekker joined us in front of the easel. “This one is of—-”
“Wait,” Roxanne said, snatching at his hand. “I want to tell it this time.”
He squeezed her to his side. “Oh, all right.”
“When my twin Layla and I were but a twinkle in our father’s eye, our oldest sister Chloe and my folks stayed up late to see the supermoon. My parents are science nerds, you know—-”
“Told you,” Dekker said.
“So they stopped at this wheat field where there weren’t any trees,” Roxanne continued, “and they had a great view of the sky and they saw the supermoon rising. My big sister, in all her infinite three--year--old wisdom, decided the moon was close enough that she could—-”
“ ‘Hurry, Daddy,’ she says, ‘let’s jump on!’ ” Curt interrupted. “Ain’t that some shit?”
“Dad,” Roxanne said. “Language.”
“Sorry. Isn’t that some shit?”
Dekker laughed. Roxanne went on. “So she started running toward it, but when she reached the edge of the field, there was a barbed--wire fence she couldn’t get over, and when my parents caught up to her, she was crying. She was so mad because she thought it was their fault. If they’d gotten there in time to lift her over the fence, she would have made it on to the moon.”
I watched Uncle Curt out of the corner of my eye as Roxanne told this story, and his lips moved ever so slightly as she spoke, as if he were a ventriloquist. The look of pride on his face was unmistakable. When she neared the end of her story, he took her by the shoulders and shook her playfully, trying to knock her off balance just so he could stand her upright again, but it didn’t stop her from talking.
All their touching and tickling made me nervous, but I found this story amazing on several levels. A little girl walking outside at night with her parents. Her parents letting her believe they could actually jump onto the moon. A girl and her parents having fun together.
A girl with a mom.
Dekker and Curt led the way out the door, and I tried to drop behind Roxanne, but she was determined to walk by my side. We followed them out of the garage and across the breezeway to the house.
“It’s a good thing I didn’t go to Padre, huh?” Roxanne said. “Since Dad’s here all alone, and I got to meet you!”
I didn’t answer her. I didn’t know what to say. All this buddy--buddy stuff made me suspicious. What did this girl want from me? Dad had told me that -people always have ulterior motives. Of course, he mostly meant men being nice to get sex. So why was she being so friendly? I was too tired to think too hard on it though, so I just let myself pretend that Roxanne was my friend.
Curt slid open a glass door that led into the house. I was the last one inside.
“To bed, everyone,” Curt said, yawning. “We’ll figure out your plans first thing tomorrow.”
I was so sleepy I couldn’t even argue. We all trooped up the stairs, and Curt carried my suitcase to one of the bedrooms. “Petty gets Chloe’s room so she can have her own bathroom. Rox, you want to get Petty settled in?”
Before I knew what was happening, Roxanne took my hand and yanked me toward the end of the hall and into the last room. She went through an interior doorway and turned on a light. “Bathroom’s in here,” she said, opening a cabinet and pulling out two plush white towels. “You need a washcloth too?”
I shook my head, dazzled by the gleaming lime--green glass tile of the countertop, the matching walls and multicolored abstract painting across from the toilet. The light and color were so radiant, I could almost taste citrus.
“Is there a lock on the bedroom door?” I asked.
Curt appeared in the bathroom doorway. “Yes,” he said, “and the whole house is alarmed. Plus we’ve got the dogs. Holler if you need anything.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Good night, Petty,” Curt said, and walked out.
Roxanne pretended to leave the bedroom, then came back around the door with a huge grin and said, “Now we can go downstairs and stay up all night watching trashy movies and—-”
Her dad reappeared, lifted her over his shoulder and she screamed.
They were both laughing. Roxanne gasped out, “Good night, Petty. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
“See you in the morning light,” Curt said as he carried my new friend away. Did it always work this way? Was it really this easy to be friends with another girl? I wouldn’t have thought so after my interaction with Ashley, but it felt to me like I’d known Roxanne my whole life.
“We don’t really have bedbugs,” she called.