Page 11 - SOUTHERN VOICES_2020

A Midnight Adventure
Felicity Browning
“Liam, wake up!” I heard a voice like honey, and my eyes fluttered open to reveal a dark silhouette resting on my knees. I jolted up, causing the figure to fall off the couch with a thud.
“Ow!” Florence-Eloise grumbled, rubbing her head. “You’re gonna wake your granny up. I didn’t mean to scare you or nothing.”
“How did you even get in here, Florence?” I whispered. I swung my legs off the edge of the couch and stood up. She stayed on her knees, looking up at me with her nose scrunched up.
“It’s Florence-Eloise, boy” she repeated for the thousandth time that summer, “Mama named me it for a reason. It’s not your job to shorten it.”
“It’s just a mouthful, that’s all,” I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck. She huffed and pulled at my hand.
“C’mon, Liam! Daddy just bought a new boat.” Florence-Eloise’s white, crooked smile illuminated her otherwise shadowed face in the dark living room. Only small specks of moonlight shone in from the cracks of the windows that the curtains didn’t quite cover.
Florence-Eloise was the type of girl that my mother would stare at, horrified. Mother said I needed to find
a girl like the ones at Saint Mary’s Catholic School,
but I figured it would be kind of difficult doing that considering I had been kicked out. Father said I just “wasn’t invited back for the upcoming year,” but I knew that was code for getting sacked. I probably deserved it. I’m not even quite sure what it was that made Sister Marjorie snap. Maybe it was because
I brought my friend Alan’s pet snake to school and
let it loose in the girls’ locker room. I also set off the fire alarm during final exams. If I’m being honest, I probably should’ve been sacked a while ago. I guess Father told them that despite all of my “accidents,” I was a pretty good kid. That’s what Mother and Father like to call my misbehaviors: “accidents.”
“Don’t you think your dad will be mad if he finds out?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. Once they adjusted, I could see Florence-Eloise’s dark almond eyes pleading with me.
“Liam, who cares? That’s a problem for the morning.” She looked down at her lap before murmuring, “He’ll just find something else to yell about, anyways.”
Florence-Eloise’s daddy was a hollow man with a candy-cane temper: calm and bleak one second, fiery and hateful the next. When my parents first dropped me off at Maw and Paw’s house, Mr. Palmer was outside screeching like a banshee at Mrs. Palmer. Since staying next door, I learned that he tends to do more than just yell. I tried to ask Paw why he never intervened, but Paw told me it was best that I minded my business.
“Alright, fine,” I groaned, earning a delighted shriek from Florence-Eloise. I hushed her before pulling the cover off my legs.
“Liam!” she exclaimed, turning her body away from me. “You could’ve told me you were in your boxers! Ew!”
I snickered as I pulled back on my jeans. “Sorry, girl. That’s just how I sleep.”
“Are you done yet?” she asked, standing and extending her hand behind her. I took it, and she tiptoed through the quiet house to Maw and Paw’s doggy door.
“That’s how you got in?” I stared in disbelief. She nodded and cracked a smile.
“Now you go first,” she insisted. “I don’t want you looking up my nightgown.”
I rolled my eyes, getting on my hands and knees to sneak through. Halfway through the door, Beau the Golden Retriever rushed towards me, licking my face.
“Beau,” I groaned, pushing him off as I got the rest of my body out of the cramped entrance. Beau wagged his tail, burying his face into my neck, and Florence- Eloise forced herself through the doggy door.
“Hey, sweet boy!” she cooed, planting a kiss on Beau’s head. He panted, his tail beating the side of the house so hard I feared that Maw and Paw would wake.
“Okay, boy, you can come with us,” she said, patting to her side after standing up. We began to walk down the gravel driveway. I cringed each time the sharp rocks edged my bare feet, but Florence-Eloise barely
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