Page 59 - TheBridge_Vol16
P. 59
“How many times will he waste his money on The Estate kids had mothers who wore
these things before he realizes they just end Louis Vuitton and packed their lunches with
up in the garbage? What can a fucking flower homemade muffins and orzo salads. My
do to fix a marriage?” mother wore Walmart t-shirts. The Estate
kids had in- ground pools and big green
I stood blinking at her uncomfortably. yards. We had the YMCA. So to say that I’d
never been inside one of the Estates was
Silent. She blinked back at me. implied, but to say that I’d never wanted to
was plain wrong.
“No…really. Tell me, what do flowers fix?” She
looked at me, as if she was waiting for a reply, Standing in Mrs. Anderson’s driveway, her
but instead I took her question rhetorically eyes drilling holes through mine, I got a little
and swallowed against my dry tongue. I excited thinking about her invitation. How
quickly turned to leave, now embarrassed I could steal the bathroom’s chamomile
for both Christopher and myself, and quite soap that was probably unnecessarily in the
honestly a little scared. shape of swans or doves, and eat the pastel
colored after-dinner mints from the crystal
I was almost at the putrid green van when I bowl in the hallway and pocket some for
heard her shout, “Stop!” from the mahogany later. It wasn’t really that weird to go inside,
front doors. “Wait, please stop!” probably. It was just water and I was hot and
I’d always wanted to peek inside the lives of
Because I couldn’t help myself, I turned the first class flyers and Tesla drivers and
around to see her pressing her palms against now was my chance.
the doorframe, the flowers already shoved out
of sight, high heels pressed firmly to the foyer But then I glanced again at Mrs. Anderson’s
floor. She smiled at me now, her personality chemically whitened smile and I started
switched in a matter of seconds. to decline. Because on the other hand, she
could kill me. She seemed unstable, clearly,
“I’m so sorry,” she said, pressing a palm to but that drew me in with a curiosity that
her powdered forehead. “Please. Why don’t yearned to be satisfied. It could be curiosity
you get out of the heat for a minute, come that killed the Caroline, and if that was how
in for some water?” she asked. Her tone was I was going to die, so be it.
now soft and inviting, apologetic. Although
it was probably ridiculous to even consider So I stopped myself from declining, and I
her invitation, I gently swished the idea walked back up the extravagant staircase.
around in my head like mouthwash. There was a flutter in my stomach as I noted
the way Mrs. Anderson seemed to draw me
On one hand, this was probably my only in with her strange grin and giant diamond
chance to snoop inside a Sunnydale Estate. ring. That was that. I was going inside a
An opportunity, really. I’d always wanted to stranger’s house, and if she killed me it
see what it was like inside an actual mansion, would be my own fault.
and growing up downtown I never had that
chance before. –
Vol. XVI | 47
