Picturesque

Chapter 12: Western Electric

I waited again, and every moment of silence that filled the space, my heart sunk deeper and my chest swelled more painfully.

"It's beautiful here. I haven't really had the chance to explore yet, but there's something different in the air here. Everyone speaks differently. Marty still has a twang when he talks sometimes, but his wife and the kids all have a Western accent. Oh, Marty is from New Orleans, if you didn't know. I don't... think I told you that."

It was getting hard to breathe. I waited again, and finally I realized that she was not going to speak. This understanding dropped a few silent tears down my cheek, and I quickly wiped them away, still hunched over my desk with my face laying on the phone between my arm.

"Well, I just wanted to... check in. Hope everything's okay there... Alright. I love you, Mama."

She had to say it back. She always said it back. Surely, even though she was still mad, and even though she didn't have anything to say to me, she would still say it back.

The call disconnected.

More tears fled down my cheeks, but I didn't really feel like I was crying. There was a quiet stillness inside me, a numbness in my face as my cheeks wettened with the tears. With a shaky hand, I put the handle back on the phone.

Taking a deep breath, I furiously wiped my face and rose from the desk so I could get undressed and get into bed with a book. As I turned, I saw through my halfway opened door a sudden flash of blonde hair that disappeared and the sound of footsteps.

Confused, I quickly went to the door and stuck my head out of the hallway to see which blonde Donnelley it was that had been listening to my phone call. As soon as I peered down the hallway, I saw a lanky body with long blonde hair jump into a room and slam the door shut. It definitely wasn't Holly by the height, and it couldn't have been Katie because their room is on another stretch of the house. It must have been Jo.

The next morning, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do for the day. At breakfast, the cooks served us a large plate of eggs, toast, bacon, and fruit, along with a tall cup of orange juice. I felt like I was going to gain weight that summer, eating all the food being served. I noticed that the family never finished their plates, especially Katie who only picked at the fruits and vegetables. I felt guilty leaving any crumb behind.

To my surprise, halfway through breakfast, Jo walked into the room.

"Jo!" Holly exclaimed, nearly jumping out of her seat as her older sister pranced to the table and hopped down in the seat beside Holly.

"Holly girl!" Jo greeted her, squeezing her sister against her side and kissing her white hair. As Holly giggled and let go, Jo turned to Judd and scruffed her fingers through his gelled hair.

"Stop!" Judd exclaimed, but he was actually giggling as he tried to slap Jo's hands away from his head.

"Oh dear, I nearly forgot I had a third child," Marty said from the head of the table as he read the morning paper and held his coffee mug on his crossed knees. "What's your name again? Josephine? Jolie? Joanne?"

"It's Joanna!" Holly cheered.

"It's Jo," Jo corrected as a cook brought a plate of breakfast in from the kitchen and placed it in front of the young woman.

"It's almost like seeing a ghost with your own eyes," Katie said in her sophisticated manner as she sipped her orange juice meticulously. I noticed the way Jo dead-eyed her before digging into her plate.

"Say, Jo," Marty began, folding up his newspaper. "Becca here's been cooped up in the house all week and hasn't even seen a glance of California yet. Why don't you take her out today, show her around?"

Jo stopped, her fork in her mouth. "I'm hanging with my friends today, Dad."

My face started to burn. Although the family had been generously accepting of my presence as of yet, the idea of Marty forcing Jo to take me out like some bored, needy child made me feel like a burden. Katie side-eyeing me from across the table also didn't help.

"Well..." Marty said slowly, his eyes widening to signal to Jo that it wasn't really a question but more of a command. "You can introduce Becca to your friends."

There was a long pause of silence as Jo and Marty stared each other down, and I felt like I was running out of air. I wanted to say that it was okay, although I did truly want to get out and explore a little. But I was unsure of Jo, and also a little offput by her since I had caught her listening to my phone call the night before.

"Go on," Marty said, turning back to his plate and cutting his piece of toast. "You can take her to Redondo or Hermosa. Take your car. Go out to eat somewhere nice. I highly doubt any Californian cuisine could measure up to New Orleans, but you can try your best." Marty looked up at me with his wide-jawed smile and a wink.

When I looked back to Jo, she was eyeing me like I had just stolen her inheritance. She stabbed her bacon with her fork and brough it to her mouth, chewing sloppily with her muscular jaw like Marty.

"Don't be so crude, Joanna," Katie reprimanded her. "Becca has never been to California before. I doubt she's been anywhere before. The least you can do is take her to the beach."

My chest burned at Katie's condescending words. I wasn't quite sure if she was meaning to be offensive or if that was just in her nature, but the way she looked at me like I was a charity case made me want to shrivel up into a raisin.

Jo apparently was also disapproving of her mother, with the way she was shooting daggers at her from across the table. I assumed it was because she used her full name, which Jo had told me very quickly was something to never do.

"Fine," Jo finally said. "Come on." She stood up from the table abruptly, using one of the white cloth napkins to wipe her face before throwing it down on her plate that was still full of food. Nearly choking on my toast, I took a sip of my orange juice to wash it down and wiped my face before getting up to follow Jo.

Jo walked just as fast as Marty and had just as long legs, so I had so essentially run after her as she stomped upstairs. As we got into the hallway, she turned suddenly and looked at me. I bumped into her, gasping in shock and stepping away as I peered up at her. Her green eyes felt like swords staring down at me. Jo had the kind of beauty and charm that could make you feel like gum on the bottom of her shoe but could also make you feel like the only person on earth.

"I hope you don't get it twisted that we are friends," Jo whispered lowly, stepping closer to me. "You're just another person my parents hired to help mold their children into perfect little godlings. I'll take you out today just so that my mother doesn't catch herself on fire, but don't expect anything else. I already have plenty of friends, and I don't have time for another one."

I felt even worse than gum on the bottom of her shoe. In only one piercing look and couple of sentences, she had me dwindled down into a pathetic child. Anger flared in me between the feelings of inferiority. I hadn't asked her to take me out, and I hadn't bothered her one moment since I had arrived. She had been friendly to me at the pool the other day, and now she was being cruel for no reason.

She stormed away to her room to get ready, I assumed, so I just huffed and turned into my room, slamming the door shut.