Chapter Twenty-Six
Erin stared out of the car window next to her. If there was one word to describe the scenes flying past her, it was “dreary.” It was not currently raining, but the oily puddles on the asphalt and muddy grass beyond indicated that it previously had been, and the ominous clouds in the sky notified anyone who cared to look at them that the rain would soon begin again.
The eleven-year-old girl was not particularly interested in the weather, however. Although her companion would assume she was looking outside, Erin’s eyes were actually focused much closer on the barely visible ghost residing in the glass, a ghost that had the nerve to steal her appearance.
The ghost yawned as Erin watched; she realized that she was yawning as well. She’d always heard that yawns were contagious; her reflection yawning at the same time as her probably didn’t count towards proving that theory, but she’d take what she could get. She didn’t turn her head to see if her yawn had influenced any of her flesh-and-blood car companions.
Her expression of tiredness was not entirely unexpected, though. She’d remained awake in bed for several hours after Hailey had helped her clean up the night before. Of course, she’d pretended to be asleep until she was certain Hailey was; she didn’t want Hailey staying up worrying about her, not after all the help she’d already given Erin. But Erin’s mind was simply too engaged to let sleep set in. She’d tried to avoid thinking about her dream, knowing that doing so would only keep her awake longer, but she hadn’t been entirely successful.
Now that she’d managed to put a few hours of sleep between her and the nightmare (and, judging by the pace of the car, a few miles of distance as well), Erin could think a lot more clearly about it.
She was certainly no stranger to her nightmares; although they weren’t happening quite as often as they had been a couple months ago, they still weren’t rare. Nearly all of them involved Mary, and most of them just involved her having some generic fear of the woman and trying to get away from her. A few of them, though, had been very clear memories of a specific incident. These were the kind of nightmares that hurt, and last night’s had been one such dream.
But even for a specific memory, this one had been unusual. She hadn’t completely recognized it at the time, but now that she had the benefit of hindsight, it marked the turning point where she knew for certain her stepmother had begun to become mildly insane.
Mary still basically functioned normally at that point, but she’d begun to give in to bouts of irrational behavior. The accusations against Erin that she had no way of proving were an aspect of that; while they certainly weren’t the only example of Mary’s irrationality, they were the ones that Erin remembered most clearly, as they had the most direct effect on her.
Even that, though, was preferable to what Mary would eventually become. At least then, Erin only had to deal with a few extra punishments she hadn’t earned, which, while not desirable, were tolerable. But as the months went by, Mary became more and more delusional. Even Erin’s father was becoming nervous around her.
Interestingly enough, as Mary got worse, her obsession with cleanliness became even more pronounced. Both Erin and her father were frequently roped into doing meticulous cleaning exercises; Erin received the brunt of this, as her father began to head out from the house as often as he could get away with it. Erin tried to stay outside as much as she could as well, but she lacked the transportation that her father had, and he didn’t often take her with him.
Being around Mary became more dangerous by the day. And yet, her father had done nothing about it.
She was very thankful to finally be rid of her stepmother. Her new family was more than she could have ever asked for, and certainly better than the combination of her stepmother’s malice and father’s apathy. She still wished that she could have come across her new family under much more favorable circumstances, though. Mary’s irrationality had eventually increased to the breaking point, and the loss of her father and stepmother to a murder and suicide respectively was something she should never have had to endure.
Even worse, she’d actually been home at the time it happened. She’d often felt herself wishing that she’d been out of the house at the time, as if not actually seeing her father die would have made the loss hurt any less.
In a way, she was lucky. If Mary had killed her father, who she’d seemed to be on friendly terms with for all but the last few months of their relationship, she probably would have had no qualms with attacking Erin if she’d realized Erin was home.
Erin involuntarily shuddered.
This movement did not escape Hailey, who broke herself away from her conversation and turned to Erin. “Are you okay?”
Be strong, Erin. Don’t let your emotions shut you down, she thought to herself. “I’m okay,” she tentatively proposed to Hailey. “I was just thinking about my dream last night.”
The occupants of the front seats already knew that Erin had woken up to a nightmare, so they registered no more surprise at this statement than their daughter, even though none of them knew specifically what the dream was about.
“Well, I can’t say it’s not a big deal; I know from your reaction that whatever you dreamed about meant a lot to you. All I can tell you is to try not to worry about it; you’re awake now.”
Erin nodded in agreement. Thinking about it is still painful, though.
She still couldn’t believe that she’d been selfish enough to let Hailey help her without argument, however. She should have put up at least a bit more resistance. And yet…
At the time it had just felt like the right thing to do, to give in to her desires just for that one moment in time, and let Hailey make everything better for her. Looking back at it now, as much as she tried to find fault with herself, she couldn’t. Hailey had obviously wanted to help her, and she desperately wanted the help. Why was she trying to make herself feel guilty?
It just felt odd for Erin that something that would benefit her didn’t burden somebody else. Apparently family interaction didn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Is this what it’s supposed to be like? It’s just so different from what I was used to.
The bowling alley that was their destination suddenly appeared in her window, saving her the responsibility of breaking the silence that had fallen upon the car with the mention of her bad dream. The car came to a stop, and she climbed out along with the rest of her adopted family.
“M,” Hailey mumbled under her breath as she searched for the letter on the scoring computer’s keypad. The device was laid out alphabetically, which theoretically should have made the letters easier to find, but Hailey was used to the layout of a computer keyboard. Eventually, she found the key, and discovered that it took quite a bit of effort to push. She continued to type.
“A… R… T… I… N. Enter.”
She looked up at the scoring computer, and proceeded to type in ERIN for her cousin and SUE for her mother.
Martin had just finished putting on his shoes as Hailey finished entering her own name into the computer. “Why don’t you girls go find yourselves some bowling balls?”
Hailey stood up from the seat. “Come on, Erin.” Erin followed her more confident cousin; she hadn’t been bowling in years, and while it was pretty obvious where the balls were kept, it would probably be a good idea to let Hailey help her pick one out.
The pair skipped the closest few ball racks, which seemed to be filled with mostly black balls. “Those ones are probably too heavy,” Hailey explained. “The balls I like are over this way.”
Erin’s gaze followed Hailey’s hand gesture. A few lanes further down, there were a pair of racks with a much more varied assortment of bowling balls. They walked towards the racks, passing the shoe rental counter again, where the man who’d given them their shoes only a few minutes prior recognized them and flashed a friendly smile. Hailey smiled back and Erin gave a subtle nod.
They reached their destination, and Erin cringed as the first ball she touched felt extremely greasy. Hailey grinned.
“Yeah, some of the balls are kind of dirty,” mentioned Hailey. “It looks like whoever was holding that ball last had a lot of French fry grease on their hand.”
“I guess they couldn’t wait until after they were done bowling to get those last few fries in,” proposed Erin. “French fry addiction is a powerful force.”
“There’s no greater power in the universe greater than the attraction to a French fry uneaten. If we could harness this power, we could take over the world!”
“Heh, that would be great,” Erin said, smiling widely. “Hailey and Erin, Empresses of the Guild of the Fried Potato.”
Both girls laughed audibly, drawing the attention of a younger child in a nearby bowling lane. They quickly cut the laughing short, and the child lost interest in them a few seconds later.
Erin was the first to speak, this time in a much quieter voice. “I guess we should pick out some balls, then.”
“Yeah. It’s kind of hard to go bowling if we don’t do that.” She stroked her chin, glancing over the balls, then reached out and tentatively stuck her fingers in one. Seeing that they fit well, she turned to Erin. “Try this one.”
Erin picked up the ball, tentatively lifting it up and down. “I really don’t know. I haven’t been bowling in a long time; I don’t know how heavy it’s supposed to be.”
“When was the last time you were bowling?” asked Hailey.
“I was probably five or six years old at the time,” admitted Erin. “I was too young to bowl properly, I just remember that I used one of the lightest balls and bowled by holding it with both hands, swinging it back between my legs and then forward.”
“So you’ve never properly bowled, then?”
“No.”
“Well, it’s not that hard… although I’m not very good at it,” said Hailey, smiling. “I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it quickly. Here, hand me that ball.”
Erin gave the ball to Hailey, who swung it back and forth in her arm slightly. “This feels fine to me, and you’re pretty similar in size to me, so I’d imagine it’s probably good for you as well.”
Taking the ball back from Hailey, Erin gave a brief smile of thanks. “Which one are you going to pick?”
“Well,” said Hailey, “it would probably be easiest if we both just shared that ball, since it’ll work for both of us. It’s not like we’re going to be bowling at the exact same time.”
Erin nodded in agreement, holding the ball in front of her with both hands. “That makes sense. Are you ready to go back to the lane, then?”
“Sure,” said Hailey, and they began walking back.
Hailey paid more attention to her stride than usual as they returned to their lane. The soles of bowling shoes had always felt unnecessarily thin to her. She was closer to the ground than with normal shoes, but further from the ground than if she was barefoot. It felt like she’d simply strapped a piece of cardboard to the bottom of her sock.
She briefly wondered why the bowling shoes weren’t sturdier and steel-toed. If she had to wear special shoes for the sport anyway, shouldn’t they provide some protection if she somehow managed to drop a bowling ball on her foot?
Well, bowling ball accidents couldn’t really be all that common. She had to admit she’d never seen anyone drop a bowling ball on themselves.
They rejoined Hailey’s parents at their lane, and Erin looked up at the score computer and grinned. “Hailey, did you do that on purpose?”
The score computer currently displayed everybody’s first initial down the left side of the screen; with the order that Hailey had put in the names, it spelled out the word “MESH.”
“Yep,” admitted Hailey. “I wanted to spell a word, and that was the only one I could think of with our names.”
“Ever the scholar, even on summer break,” noted Erin. She glanced down the lane and noticed that the bumpers had been extended, for which she was thankful. She didn’t expect to be good at bowling, but there was no need for her score to be any lower than it had to be.
She paid close attention to her uncle as he bowled his first frame, trying to quickly learn the proper technique for throwing a bowling ball. Apparently he wasn’t that good either; after he’d thrown the ball twice, four pins still remained standing. Still, he was better than she.
Martin smiled at Erin; apparently, he hadn’t failed to notice her attention. “You’re up.”
Erin was still standing and holding the ball with both hands; she carefully placed her fingers in it in the same manner she’d seen Hailey do and looked over at her cousin, waiting for affirmation that she was correct. Upon receiving a nod and a smile, she stepped up to the lane.
Her uncle had approached the lane and swung the ball in one fluid motion, but Erin didn’t feel she was quite ready to try that yet; she’d probably just end up falling over. It’s better to practice one thing at a time, she thought, and stood at the line. She tried to pull the ball back exactly as far as she remembered Uncle Martin had, and swung it forward in what she thought was a similar manner. She frowned as the ball immediately began to travel straight for the left bumper.
The ball ricocheted between the two bumpers a few times, and still ended up taking out a few pins, which at least gave her some consolation. I’m pretty sure hitting the bumpers is bad, but at least I got some pins down.
She turned around, expecting at the best apathy on her family’s faces for her poor performance. Instead, Hailey was smiling widely at her.
“That was pretty good for your first time in so long!” exclaimed Hailey. “You got about half the pins down, and you’ve still got a chance to get the other half.”
“First time in so long?” parroted Sue, before Erin got a chance to reply. “How long has it been?”
Erin gave the response she’d given Hailey earlier. “I think I was six years old, or maybe five. It’s been a long time.”
“I see,” said Sue, and she gave her husband a look that Erin couldn’t quite read. “Well, anyway, take your second turn. Let’s see if you can get the rest down!”
Erin carefully corrected her aim for her next attempt, and her change was rewarded by a roll that was much more parallel to the lane than her previous one. It still hit a bumper, but it only hit it once, much further down the lane, before managing to take out just one more pin. She felt a little better about herself; she still wasn’t good, but at least she was improving, and she supposed that was all she could ask for in this situation.
She sat down next to Hailey as her aunt prepared to take her turn.
“You learn quickly,” said Hailey. “I’m sure you’ll be doing really well by the end of the day today.”
Erin smiled, thankful for the compliment. “Well, I don’t know that I’ll be that good, but I’ll try my best.”
By the end of their first game, Erin’s improvement had been remarkable; her style still wasn’t perfect, but she was avoiding the bumpers more often than not, and had managed to close the gap between her cousin’s score and her own to only a few points. The score still wasn’t remarkable, but it was much better than Erin had expected she’d be able to do, and the exhilaration she felt from her success was intoxicating.
A familiar bass line brought the girls’ attention to a back corner of the bowling alley; a couple was standing in front of a television screen, each holding a microphone, as the opening notes to Summer Nights played over the loudspeakers.
