The next morning the phone rang early. I answered to hear Uncle Billy’s voice — it was the reminder call about my cousin, Victoria’s, surprise birthday party which we were expected to attend. I hadn’t seen her in a long time — over a year, and although I missed her and wanted to see her … honestly I worried that it would be quite awkward. For a moment I wished I hadn’t eavesdropped and heard about her stay in rehab, twice!
I decided the best way to deal with it, was to act like I didn’t know anything about it. I’d say nothing about it and hopefully nobody else would say anything about it either. I put my favorite jeans on — the pair riddled with holes and faded from years of abuse, and a form fitting ribbed cotton top with bold patterns. It looked like an outfit a college student would wear.
In a way, I wanted to impress Victoria, at least a little bit. I reminisced about our childhood sleepovers and how I’d always tried so hard to keep up with her. I sat at my makeup mirror for the first time in a long time and actually put on a little blush, and lip color instead of just gloss. I dug out my curling iron, which hadn’t been plugged in — in ages — a little bit of hair spray, a little bit of mascara and voila!
I walked down stairs and rounded the corner into the living room where my parents were waiting on me.
“Whoa …” my dad gawped at me as if he was about to give me the, where do you think you’re going looking like that speech, but then he stopped himself when he remembered I was going with them.
“Well, you look ravishing!” Mom interjected. “Are you trying to impress someone?”
“I just don’t want Victoria to think that she’s the only one in the family who’s all grown up.”
“I guess not.” She paused a moment. “It’s a good thing you don’t wear makeup all the time, we’d have to beat the boys away with a stick. Not that you aren’t beautiful without it, because you are, but my goodness,” she stuttered.
“Oh, stop — Mom, you’re embarrassing me. It’s just a little lip stick and blush.”
“And don’t forget the hair,” Dad added. They were both acting like my getting dressed up was a crime — a felonious crime.
“Can we just go already?” I insisted. “It’ll take us an hour to get there, we’ll be there most of the day, and then an hour to get back, and I’d like to get together with Matthew, Tyler, and Stefanie later.”
“Yeah, but you’re not wearing that makeup around those boys.” Dad was adamant.
“Huh,” I made a huffy noise. “Fine!” I said shortly.
On the ride to Victoria’s house, I put in my earphones and turned up my music to tune out my parents. Why did he have to insist on me taking off my makeup before I could be around the boys? He knows that we have been friends forever. Does he know that I have a crush on Tyler? I had no idea how he always seemed to know what was going on in my life, but I found it more than slightly annoying.
The hour long drive to Uncle Billy, Aunt Janet, and Victoria’s house, flashed by in an instant. They live in Richland, Georgia now. Billy was active duty military; most recently stationed in Fort Valley until his retirement a few years ago. He’s one of the lucky ones who joined the military young enough to get a full retirement pension, and he’s still young enough to retire from a second career if he wanted to.
They bought this new house in Richland two years ago. It’s a very nice Spanish style home, but in my opinion, the newer homes simply pale in comparison to the older homes.
Dad turned into their driveway and we all piled out, eager to stretch our legs. Mom rang the doorbell and Victoria opened the door, surprised to see us. Billy was behind her holding a finger up to his mouth to signal ‘shush,’ apparently she still hadn’t caught on to the fact that we were there for a surprise birthday party. I wondered if she even knew it was her birthday.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that she’d been in rehab. We hadn’t been there even one minute and I was already sure my plan, to pretend like I knew nothing, wasn’t going to work for me. She appeared a little strung out to me. Her hands were shaky as she reached out to give Mom a hug.
“Hi, Aunt Caroline, what are you guys doing here?” Victoria asked, happily.
“Oh, we just thought we’d pop in for a visit since we didn’t have anything else going on today,” Mom fibbed.
Billy shuffled us into the living room and flipped on the light switch, which was obviously ‘the signal,’ because several unknown people jumped out from behind the couch and various furniture pieces to yell, “Surprise!”
These must have been some of Victoria’s high school and college friends. I didn’t know anybody, and honestly I didn’t want to know them. Most of them appeared to be shady characters — the kind of people whom I was sure my dad would not approve of. I could almost hear him saying to me, ‘you are who you hang out with.’ I think it was that kind of advice which led me to Stefanie, Matthew, and Tyler. I don’t have many other true friends. I have many acquaintances, but few real friends.
This bunch of kids actually looked like drug addicts. I can only imagine what Dad is going to say on the ride home. He won’t shut up about it. I’ll be the one getting scolded for her poor choice of friends.
The guy to her right, that she talked to the most — was probably her boyfriend, and I couldn’t help but notice every time she started talking to someone else, he started looking at me. He gave me the creeps. What a nice guy — not!
I shied away from her a bit, because I knew what would come later. I joined in when everybody sang, Happy Birthday, and I watched her closely. Maybe it was another quirk that I inherited from Dad, but I evaluated her secretly, trying to determine for myself if she was clean and reformed. I wasn’t convinced. She acted strangely enough … it gave me the impression that her stint in rehab may not have worked.
As I scrutinized her I became filled with worry, fearing that she’d probably done something illegal not too long before we arrived. Her pupils appeared to be dilated. Not only was she shaky, but she seemed to be nervous and she kept looking around the room like she was lost … or she’d lost something.
“Dad, what did you do with my backpack?” Victoria whispered the question to Billy. I don’t know if anyone else heard her ask from all of the side conversations going on.
“I put it in the office on the desk, sweetheart,” Billy answered politely.
I tried to glance away and interest myself in a different conversation, because once again, I was eavesdropping. I still had one eye on Victoria. She fidgeted and kept rubbing her face and scratching her arms. Her hair seemed oily, like she hadn’t showered in a while. The last time I’d seen her, she looked very pretty and she’d been taking good care of herself, so I could understand why Billy made the comment to Dad that he should be, ‘glad I just talk back a little,’ he does have major problems with her. At this point I was nearly one hundred percent certain Victoria was still under the influence of something.
She stood up without saying anything and went into the office and got her backpack. I saw her walk back through carrying it and then she disappeared into the hall, toward her bedroom. That’s strange, unless she has drugs in her backpack!
“Uncle Billy,” I whispered to get his attention.
“Yeah, Baylie, what is it?” he whispered back.
“I’m sorry to be so nosey, but when you guys came to our house I heard you telling Dad that Victoria had been to rehab … and well … I just have this horrible gut feeling, there might be something in her backpack. I just saw her go into to the office to get it. She was acting very nervous looking for it, before you told her where it was. I don’t mean to be a tattle-tale, but I can’t just sit here and not say anything if she’s putting her life at risk.”
“I’ll go check it out.” Billy nodded, lowering his head in pain.
He peered back up at me with somber eyes. Victoria had just reentered the room, so I went over by Mom and Janet and pretended to listen to what they were saying.
Victoria’s friends gathered around her, sitting on the extra-large couch and they were talking and laughing. Someone had their music cranked up so loud I could hear it coming from their earphones. I glanced back over where Billy had been — and he and Dad were both gone. I knew they were searching for her backpack — undoubtedly. I hoped for Victoria’s sake they’d find it.
We said our goodbye’s shortly after eating a slice of rich chocolate cake. We no sooner backed out of the driveway, and I had to ask. “Did you find it?”
“Find what?” Mom’s face contorted into a baffled expression.
“Dad, did you find her backpack?” I asked again.
“Yes, we found it,” he replied.
“Well?” I gestured impatiently.
“What are you two talking about?” her aggravation that she was the only one who didn’t have a clue about what happened was blatantly obvious.
“Baylie is very observant,” he explained.
“Okay, that still doesn’t tell me anything, could someone please tell me what’s going on.” She had already lost patience.
“Mom, didn’t you notice Victoria looked nervous — like there was something she couldn’t find?”
“I don’t guess I noticed,” she said.
“Well, she was frantically searching around for something. I heard her ask Billy where her backpack was … he told her it was in the office, and then a few minutes later she went and got it, and took it to her room.” I filled her in.
“So, what did you find?” Caroline asked, eyeballing Steve.
“Marijuana; unfortunately, it’s not going to be a happy evening at their house, that’s for sure. But it could have been worse I suppose. As soon as Billy gets her friends out of the house, he’s taking her straight back to rehab. He needs to run those friends off all together.” He began with the talk; the one which I had predicted.
And as we turned into our driveway, he was still harping on it, as I knew he would be.
I needed a moment to unwind in my favorite place in the world. As Mom and Dad were walking into the house, I detoured to the left, over to my tree. When I behold this tree, I imagine it’s a very wise being. It must be several hundred years old, with its expansive gnarled branches going in every direction. I was sure it had laughed in the face of the hundreds of hurricanes, which had inevitably come its way. It’s such a comforting place for me. I reached my hand through the curtain of Spanish moss hanging enchantingly and moved it over gently to enter the canopy of serenity.
As I climbed up onto my normal branch, I noticed the bark was damp from the rain we’d been getting in the evenings — damp enough to wet the back of my jeans, but I didn’t care about that.
I genuinely hoped Billy and Janet’s efforts to straighten out Victoria would be better received this time. It must be hard for them to see their only daughter poisoning herself. What caused her to make such a devastating and life changing decision? Where is the turning point in a person’s life when the wrong decisions become the ones they make on a daily basis? Was it something someone said that hurt her? Had it been peer pressure? I didn’t know, and my tree wasn’t answering — just listening.
I thought about Grandma too and I wondered why life had to be so cruel. Why do we struggle with diseases and illness? Why was she robbed of her memories? Why is it she can remember things from long ago, but her short term memory is gone?
I left my tree not any wiser, but at least I had time to reflect on the thoughts that were running through my head. I went inside to wash off my makeup as I had promised Dad, because Tyler, Matthew, and Stefanie would be coming over shortly.
I went upstairs and splashed some water on my face, gently scrubbing with a soft wash rag, surprised at how the blush stained the cotton. Yuck, no wonder I never wear this stuff … it’s unnatural. Feeling refreshed, I went back downstairs and began prospecting for a snack when Stefanie called.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Hey, have you had dinner yet?” she asked.
“No, not really … I had a piece of cake a couple hours ago and I was getting ready to have a snack, why?”
“Okay, well — don’t eat, I’m gonna bring some pizza over,” Stefanie said with authority.
“Yes Ma’am! That sounds good,” I admitted.
It looked like a used car lot when they all arrived in separate vehicles, except for Stefanie’s vehicle, which is brand new. But they lined the driveway — Stefanie’s SUV was parked right behind my car, then Tyler’s truck, and Matthew’s Jeep.
Stefanie pulled two large pizzas out of the passenger side, and we stood around eating with the sun still beating down hard. I had huge beads of sweat pouring off of me, and so did everybody else. We normally liked to do things when it got dark, after it cooled down, but we’d jumped the gun a little bit this time.
We went inside to cool ourselves and get something to drink. The four of us gathered around the kitchen table and sipped our tea — ice cubes rattling in our glasses until the sun disappeared into the horizon.
After dark, we went back outside and quickly decided our evening’s fun would be a flashlight tag duel … girls against boys. The rules were — the hiders had sixty seconds to hide and the seekers had a ten minute time limit to find the hiders. But — if the hiders made it back to base they would be safe.
We determined base was the lamp pole out front, which we had loosened the light bulb in, to allow more darkness.
Stefanie and I volunteered to be “it” first, so we started counting to sixty to give the boys a chance to hide.
“Fifty-nine … sixty … ready or not, here we come!” I shouted.
“This is gonna be fun!” Stefanie laughed.
Armed with just flashlights as a guide, we began searching for them. It was pitch black out, with very little moonlight to see by. I relied only on a dimly lit flashlight, because the batteries were failing. Stefanie’s was much brighter than mine — she brought her own, brand new one.
“Hey, I think I just saw movement over to the west side of the house,” Stefanie said, pointing her flashlight in the direction of the movement, and her beam of light hit Matthew right between the eyes.
He covered his eyes and staggered with a “deer in the headlights” look on his face.
“Matthew’s out! One down, one to go,” she announced.
Tyler must have been very well hidden. Stef and I went all the way around the house and didn’t see or hear any sign of him. Thinking he may have been hiding behind the bushes, I tiptoed closer, with my arms stretched out to feel with my free hand. He wasn’t back there.
“I’ll check around front, he’s probably stealthy enough to have made it all the way back to base before we heard him move,” I said, while heading around front.
He wasn’t at the lamp post, so I started moving toward our vehicles to explore all around them.
“I can’t find him,” Stefanie yelled.
Just as I leaned onto Matthew’s Jeep, ready to call out, “we give up,” Tyler jumped out of the Jeep and grabbed my arm.
“Holy crap, Tyler, my heart just about jumped out of my chest,” I whined.
“Sorry about that, I couldn’t resist. It’s your turn to hide — give me the flashlight … please.” His instructions were direct and authoritative, so I quickly obliged.
“Okay, I’m going. Count slowly,” I ordered as I walked away.
“One Mississippi … two Mississippi … three Mississippi — is that slow enough?” I heard Tyler call, but I didn’t want to answer, because the sound of my voice would give away the direction of my hiding place.
I decided to wander a little farther away from the house while the boys were counting, hoping they wouldn’t bother to search this far. If they didn’t find me within ten minutes, then I’d win. With my arms stretched out searching in front of me in blind darkness, I found my way over to my favorite tree. Even in total darkness, I could feel its character and grace. I leaned in tightly so the lowest branches were hugging me. There’s no way they’ll find me here.
I heard Stefanie scream after I’d been sitting in my tree for a few minutes, so I knew she’d been caught. After about six or seven minutes had passed, I thought they’d be giving up, but I heard a twig snap nearby, followed by hard breathing, then a beam from a flashlight coming toward me. I wasn’t officially caught yet, so I climbed down from the branch and attempted to make a move in absolute silence, but my clumsy feet got in the way and I went down — hard.
I hit my head on a rock — weakness overtook me as I struggled to get up, but couldn’t. My head throbbed and pounded. I could feel that my head was wet and warm. I saw Tyler shine the light on me and then he yelled for help. He rushed over to my side, holding me. I heard the ambulance siren. His beam of light shrank until it was a tiny, pin sized beam, then it went completely black, but I could still hear his voice — then just mumbling — then nothing.