Trouble is a Friend of Mine

‘Whenever you tell me to chill, my butt clenches tighter,’ I said. ‘What do we do now?’


‘By now the police have checked out the birth control prescription and realized what we realized. They’ll probably internally downgrade the case to a missing persons and take their foot off the gas.’

‘So you don’t think the same thing happened to Marina and Sally …’

‘Not unless my four-year-old sister ran away in the middle of the night to be a party girl.’

‘But you still want to find Marina … why?’

‘Princeton, I’m ready for Sally to not be the first thing people think of when they see me. Worse than the people who think I killed her are the people who pity me …’ When I pretended not to understand, he said, ‘Oh, yeah, even you do. You wouldn’t let me get away with half the stuff I say and do to you if you didn’t feel sorry for me.’

‘Maybe I’m just bored,’ I said. ‘Maybe I just don’t want to see you starve.’

Just then, the front door burst open.

‘Oh, hey, kids … come in. Stay for dinner, Philip. I haven’t seen you in forever,’ Mom said. ‘I made spaghetti surprise.’ Mom was being weird. Not only because she was being nice to Digby, but also because she was talking super-fast and hardly breathing.

‘Um … Mom? You okay?’

‘I’d love to,’ Digby said. ‘I’m starving.’

‘After that entire pizza? The tacos?’ I said.

‘That was hours ago. Besides, on principle, I never turn down food,’ Digby said.

Zillah the Amazon appeared at the doorway and loomed over Mom.

‘God! Zillah!’ Digby smirked at the annoyance his joke caused Zillah.

‘Kids, Zillah has bad news. Zillah and her … family?’ Mom said.

‘We are all one in God’s family, but we prefer to refer to ourselves as a household,’ Zillah said.

‘… are moving out. Such a shame to lose you from the neighborhood,’ Mom said.

‘It is a shame. After four years here, I find the tone of life in River Heights changed. Unsavory elements have insinuated themselves. You only have to watch the evening news to see that.’ Zillah looked at me when she said that. ‘Now I should return to packing. So much to do before the movers come on Thanksgiving.’

‘Thanksgiving? How d’you get a moving company to work Thanksgiving?’ Digby said.

‘It isn’t Thanksgiving in Canada, where my movers are from,’ Zillah said.

‘They’re moving to a farm just over the border,’ Mom said.

‘Canada? Guess you’re serious about getting away from the neighborhood,’ Digby said.

Zillah turned her back on Digby. ‘Good-bye, Liza. Let me know if you find out anything more about that other matter?’

‘Of course, Zillah,’ Mom said. ‘So sorry to see you leave.’

Mom pretty much slammed the door on Zillah’s frowning face and leaned on the door like kids do to keep out monsters.

‘There was one moment when I thought she was going to strangle me. She looks like a strangler. It’s the hands. Like Molly in Great Expectations,’ Mom whispered. ‘Kid … your bad reputation came in handy.’

‘Anytime, Liza,’ Digby said.

‘But don’t push it,’ Mom said.

‘So, what was the other matter you guys were talking about?’ Digby said.

‘Neighborhood thefts. She asked if I’ve seen anyone sneaking around at night,’ Mom said.

‘Other than your boyfriend?’ I don’t know why I chose to say that right then. Maybe it was because Digby was around and I wanted it out there without creating a mother-daughter Hallmark moment.

Mom blushed. ‘You know?’

‘It’s not like you made it hard. He stomps around and there are weird seeds everywhere after he eats breakfast,’ I said.

Digby shivered. ‘Bird food.’

‘Sorry, Zoe … I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, but now I just look like I was trying to slip one past you,’ Mom said. ‘Maybe we could talk later.’

‘Can’t wait,’ I said.

‘So, Digby, would you like to eat dinner at the table, or would you rather wait until I leave and eat in Zoe’s room?’ Mom said.

‘Ah,’ Digby said.

My turn to go red.

‘Yeah … I’m not the only one sneaking around,’ Mom said.

‘That’s pretty detailed with you knowing the timing and the eating in her room,’ Digby said.

‘You two leave the blinds up and Helen next door likes to talk on recycling night,’ Mom said.

‘You’re not freaking out?’ I said.

‘Tell you what: If the blinds ever went down, then we’d be having a different conversation,’ Mom said.





TWENTY-THREE


Right around Halloween, I started to feel like I was finally cracking the River Heights social scene.

‘Join us,’ Bill said. She and Darla ran lunchtime surveys and posted the most interestingly worded responses on Bill’s Facebook.