Occult Suspense for Mothers Boxset: The Nostalgia Effect by EJ Valson and Mother's by Michelle Read (2 ebooks for one price) (4 page)

Some odd, un-placeable surge flowed through my red-hot veins and I rocked back on my heel to turn around and leave.  When I did, I heard the squawky peel of the P.A. system and the tiny woman called Danna came bustling out of her classroom.

She had the look of a kid that was being sent to the principal’s office on her face as she stared at the floor.  Muttering incoherently under her breath, she didn’t seem to notice me.

A cursing scoff escaped her tightly pursed lips as she flipped her hair back and rolled her eyes.  As she lifted her head, she jolted to a halt, catching a glimpse of me out of the corner of her eye.  She jerked to a stop as if I had jumped in front of her and said “
Boo
!”  Her cheeks flushed a rich shade of embarrassment and she hurried down the short hallway . . . disappearing into Charlotte’s office.

Huh!

I sucked in a gasp of air to express the disgust I was feeling, but I was expressing it to no one – I was alone again.  I flipped my business-like hair over my shoulder, stomped out the front door, and headed home.

FOUR

I was greeted, as expected, by Violet’s musical voice bouncing from room to room when I got home.  It was as if she were a tiny little angel.  I could hear her sing-song peal on my left, and then it sounded like she was on my right.  I had no idea where she and Kate were
playing in the house when I entered.

I piled my purse, keys, sunglasses, and bad attitude on the counter by the kitchen door and set off to find them.  I had decided that I was being ridiculous – worrying about things that had nothing to do with me – and that my being nosy was going to stop right now.  This week had not started easily, and I was determined to simply
ignore
everyone that irked me.  Easy to do with Violet around.

“Whe-e-e-e-e--r-r-r-e is Violet?” I sang as I prowled the house for inhabitants.  Vy loved to hide from
any
one that came over, always jumping out and yelling
Here I am!
after they had searched long enough for her.

I heard my favorite giggle melody wafting from the living room, followed by “Mommy’s here—I have to HIDE!”  She gets so excited when people play along.

“Kate!” I yelled.  “Have you seen Violet?”

My sister-in-law shuffled around the corner, looking like she had been sitting in one place for too long.  She stretched her long legs attached to her perfect toenails and replied loudly, “No!  I haven’t seen her
anywhere
!  Wasn’t she with you?”

“I’ll go look for her!”  I was practically shouting.  I heard another snicker coming from behind the couch, then from under the coffee table.  She always had trouble figuring out where to hide,
and
staying quiet.  I wandered off in the opposite direction of the living room, searching loudly.  “Well she’s
not
in the dishwasher!”  Clank.  “Or the trashcan!”  Clunk.  “I’ll go look in the living room!”

Uncontrollable guffaws were now rolling out from under the coffee table, which had a glass top.  She had both hands clapped over her mouth, and kept bumping her head on the bottom of the table.  I watched her out of the corner of my eye and hunted behind the television, then rummaged through some magazines. 

“Where IS she?”

“
Mommy
!  I’m right here!”  She exclaimed, nearly knocking herself out with the coffee table trying to make her way from underneath it.

I spun around and dropped my magazines, “Oh!”  She jumped on me and we both toppled over, laughing.  Just what I needed.

Kate came into the living room just then, massaging her legs lightly.  “I guess she was here all along,” she smiled.  “We’ve been playing fairies in the forest for forty five minutes.  I was the wise Grandmother Fairy in the Sacred Tree, and she was Lady Fair Fairy . . .”

“
I
was on a mission to find the rare Secret Orchid,” Violet interrupted.  “I had to fly
all
over the forest for forty years, then my wings got tired and I had to go to the store to buy new ones.”

Kate stretched, “All I had to do was sit ‘criss-cross-applesauce’ in the living room floor while she yelled to me from every room of the house, letting me know that she still hadn’t found her orchid.  My legs are numb.  Where does she learn words like ‘Ancient’ and ‘Orchid’ from anyway?”

“Television,” I mused.

“Right.  Well, we had a marvelous time together, and I’m pooped, so I’ll head off if you don’t need anything else.”  She looked like she
hoped
I didn’t need anything else.

“No, no.  You go ahead.  And thank you infinitely for watching her.  Hey, did you and Nick want to come over for dinner tonight?”

“I was just thinking along the same lines.  How about we go out somewhere?  You guys haven’t really been out of the house much since you moved here, you should treat yourselves before school starts.”  The look on her face also said
If you say no, I’ll pester you until you change your mind.

“Uh— well . . .” I hated being put on the spot, but couldn’t really think of one good reason
not
to go.

She raised an eyebrow.

“Alright.  Your choice, somewhere semi-fancy that can handle Violet’s enthusiasm.”  I didn’t have the energy to argue with her, and since Vy had heard the invitation, she was now jumping up and down at my feet squeaking
Please Mommy?  Puhleeze Mommy???

“Somewhere with crayons . . .” I laughed.  “You go home and get some rest for now, and call me when you figure out where you want to go.”  She was glowing with anticipation already.

“Perfect!  See you.”  And with that, she was out the door.

Kate loved going out to eat.  Going out to eat is
fancy
, and a good excuse to get dressed up.  For me, it seemed like an opportunity to get half-dressed up, run out the door at the last minute, and then spend the whole evening trying to convince Violet to sit in her chair.

I needed this, though.  Kate was right, we really hadn’t been anywhere since we moved here, and at least it would just be the five of us and not the whole clan. 
The tiniest grin escaped when I realized I was actually looking forward to the evening.

I glanced over at the clock on the mantel, it was nearing eleven.  I peeled Vy off my leg and hoisted her up to my hip.  I immediately regretted it, she’s quite heavy.

“How about lunch, love?”

“Oh I’m
starving
Mom!  You know, I’ve been flying for forty years and . . .”

“Yes I know, what would you like?”  I asked more specifically.

“Shrimp.”

“Something we have in the house, Vy.”

“Ham and cheese,” she countered.

“Deal.”

I set her down on the counter and made us both grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  We sat down at the dining room table, which was actually cleared off for once since I’d had a fit of energy the other day, and took part in my favorite activity— talking to each other.

“Did you have fun with Auntie Kate?”  I asked, nearly burning my mouth
with the cheese.  Mine was the second sandwich to come off the stove and I was famished enough to eat it even though it was scalding my mouth.

“Duh,” she answered.

I rolled my eyes.  Sometimes her sass irritated me, and sometimes I thought it was cute.  It was tolerable for the moment, because I was enjoying the sound of her voice.

“We played fairy for a long time, but before that Auntie made me play
makeover
.”

Even though Vy loves everything princessy, she absolutely loathes having her hair brushed, toenails painted, or makeup applied.  Coincidentally, that’s Kate’s idea of a fun game.

I looked at her hands for the first time, wrapped around the sandwich half, and sure enough— her nails were coated in sparkles.  She was swinging her legs under the table and picking at her bread while she chewed.

“How was your morning, mom?”

She was often so grown up it made me want to cry.  It was not uncommon for her to ask me about my day, and to be sincerely interested in my reply.

“It was, mmmm, weird.”  That was the truth.

“Ooh, weird—cool!  Why was it weird?”

“Oh, Mommy just met some very interesting people this morning,” I answered.

“Okay.”  Apparently that was enough for her, and she went back to swinging her feet.

“Where would you like to go for dinner tonight with Auntie and Uncle?”  I
knew
the response to this question.

“Pizza Palace!” she squeaked, already planning out how to spend her game tokens. 

Pizza Palace was her absolute favorite restaurant in town.  John and I usually took her there when we came in to see family, and it was always the highlight of the trip for her.  It was the standard kid’s pizza place with games, rides, and mediocre food.  Reasonably priced and ridiculously over-stimulating.

“That would be fun, but I think Auntie wants to go someplace a little fancier,” I said.  “Someplace we can get dressed up for, and maybe show off those pretty nails.”

“Ugh, okay,” was her unenthused reply.

Through the window of the kitchen door, I saw Elizabeth’s SUV pull into her driveway.  Three scrawny kids jumped out, all boys, and ran into the house.  I guessed they were her boys, I’d never seen them before.  They must have been getting back from summer camp.  Elizabeth walked out to check the mail then parked the car in the garage
.  I set my attention back to Vy, and we finished our lunch.

The rest of the day went on as normal, mostly tidying up around the house so we could go out to dinner without coming home to a mess.  Violet had busied herself with finger-painting at the kitchen table while I cleaned the counters and washed our lunch dishes.  We had the most relaxing afternoon waiting for Daddy to get home, which he did, around six.  We were going through Violet’s baby scrapbooks together
in the living room, as well as some of my childhood photo albums, when John walked through the door.

“Get ready for dinner with your sister,” I hollered when I heard his keys drop onto the counter.
  The door shut, and in a few seconds he was stooping down to kiss me on the head.

“Hi to you, too.”

I grinned in his direction as Violet and I turned another tattered page.  “And this is me on
my
first day of kindergarten.  Cool clothes, huh?”

“I like them,” Violet said honestly.

“Grandma made them,” I told her, realizing I had never mentioned to her that my mom knew how to sew.

“She
made
them?” Violet exclaimed, clearly impressed.  “I want her to make all my school clothes too!”  That would make my mom happy, though I doubted she would want to sew clothes now.  She would probably rather just take Vy shopping.

“We’ll ask her if she can dig out her old sewing machine sometime, okay?”  I assured her as I closed the scrapbook we were going through.  “Go to the bath
room before we leave, please.  I’ll pick these up.”

“I don’t have to— ˝

“
Go
.”  I delivered
the look
and extended my arm and first finger to make a long, deliberate arrow toward the bathroom.  She stomped off toward the bathroom with her arms crossed high on her chest in defeat. 

I gathered up our childhood memories and stacked them neatly on the fireplace.  There was no need to put them away yet, I would soon have more pictures to pour into them.

The phone rang shrilly as I snuck one last peek into Vy’s baby book.  The front page was covered in pictures of rattles and hearts with a cheesy border.  In the middle, I had carefully taped a picture of the first time John had gotten to hold her in the hospital.  She looked so tiny and breakable in his strong arms – but my favorite part of this picture was actually John.  His translucent, sapphire eyes were misty from pride, love, and thoughts of the unknown.

My throat tightened involuntarily and I felt the threatening pressure behind my eyes.  I closed the book quickly and smiled, rather than let the tears flow.  I would let them come in a few days, when I snapped that picture next to the flag pole.

Just then, I felt a pair of hands on my waist, rubbing gently up and down in a comforting way.

“We’re ready if you are,” John’s warm baritone voice informed me.  I blinked a couple of times to make sure the tears were subdued and walked into the kitchen.

“Kate just called,” he said.  I looked up to meet his eyes.  His expression was quite easy to read; it was saying
Please don’t ask
.

“Where,” I demanded, my shoulders dropping.

“Première.”

If my organs and hair follicles could have moaned in unison, they would have.  Première was the nicest (and yes, I mean fanciest) French restaurant in town.  It was already almost six fifteen; we
would have to wait for hours just to get in...

“She made reservations right after she left our house this afternoon,” he said, the corners of his mouth pulling up as he stifled a grin.  “So you couldn’t say no.”  John was actually delighted, now, in my disgust.

So much for enjoying the evening
, I thought.  I’d be redoing the grocery budget for a month to make up for this.

“And dinner’s on Nick,” he added, as if he was reading my mind.

Although that made me feel a little better, I was still too pouty to consider enjoying the evening just yet.  I wanted to detest the fru-fru-iness that was about to ensue.

“Go put Vy in the car, honey, I’ll be right there,” I directed.

John kissed my forehead and scooped up Violet, who had just appeared in the room.  “It’ll be fun,” he assured me with a devilish grin.

I did a quick motherly sweep of the kitchen to prepare for our outing.  I poured some dry cereal into a baggie to avoid a hunger meltdown, and grabbed a notepad and pens to avoid a boredom meltdown.  I imagined the wait between courses would be unbearably long for a five-year-old
, so I crammed the “save the day items” into my giant purse and joined my family in the car.