After Alice

Chapter 7: Finding Clues

Liv, 1996

After school, Jo pulled up to Liv in her silver Mercedes and rolled down the window.

"Need a ride?"

Liv didn't know why Jo found her interesting. In middle school, Jo stuck with her when no one else wanted to be her friend. Together, they looked like Mutt and Jeff. Jo was petite, dyed her hair outrageous colors, smoked pot, and listened to loud, abrasive music. Liv tried to be invisible, but with her gray-streaked hair, large, clumsy body, and propensity for panic attacks, she couldn't blend in if she tried. Jo was rich and had a perfect nuclear family, Liv was on the edge of poverty, and had a single parent and an older half-brother. More out of desperation than affinity, Liv accepted Jo's friendship, and followed her like a shadow, the reluctant sidekick to Jo's many adventures.

PJ Harvey's gravelly voice blared from the car speakers. Jo tossed her books onto the back seat and swept dozens of candy wrappers and chip bags onto the floor to make room for Liv on the passenger's seat. The fine gray leather upholstery had gotten cracked over time and was perpetually sticky from spilled sodas, bong water, and who knows what else. Jo's dyed black hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and her lip ring jutted out prominently from her mouth as she pulled around the school parking lot, going too fast. A pack of cheerleaders jumped out of her way and shook their blue and yellow pompoms at her.

"Kiss my ass!" Jo yelled out the window, lifting her middle finger at the pony-tailed girls. Then she raised the volume on the stereo even louder.

"I need to go to the library!" Liv yelled over PJ's wails.

"What?" Jo yelled back.

"Take me to the library downtown. I've got to do some research for my project with Mr. C." Liv rolled down her window and stuck her hand out to feel the damp spring breeze.

"Ooh la la," Jo said, banging the steering wheel to the beat. "What happened? The other week you stomped out of his class in a huff, and now you're buddies again?"

"Yeah, well, that family tree assignment pissed me off, but he's letting me do a special project with him."

"What's the project? Exploring the genealogy of the tattoo on your butt?"

"Shut up! It's on my back!"

"Oh yeah," Jo said, "What do they call that? A tramp stamp."

At Jo's last New Year's Eve party in her family's cabin in New Hampshire, Liv had hid out in the sauna the entire night and drank beer. At one point, one of Jo's older cousins, who was a tattoo artist from Boston, came in to check on her. Liv thought he was kind of hot, and she asked him about the tattoos covering most of his body. Eventually, she became very drunk and the next day, she woke up with a snarling tiger crawling up her tailbone. He did a sloppy job, and she regretted it instantly, but since she couldn't see it, she forgot it was there most of the time, except for Jo's teasing reminders.

"Whatever, no, I am going to find Mims' long-lost sister."

"What... your mom has a lost sister? That's so cool! The other day I saw twins separated at birth reunite on Sally Jesse Raphael. What a tearjerker."

Liv laughed at Jo's secret cheesy side. Even though she tried to hide it with her black clothes and ostentatious music, deep down Jo just wanted to watch dumb talk shows, smoke dope, and write sappy love poems.

"I found a trunk in the woods belonging to a woman named Mary Ellen Rigley. I thought it belonged to Mims, because her name is Mary Ellen, but it turns out Mary Ellen Rigley is her long-lost sister that their mother left behind from her first marriage!"