It wasn’t until later that night that I found the number in the dumbest of dumb places. I logged onto to my dashboard to check my final grade.
“Well, there you have it, mom. I did it. I am now a high school graduate. Where to now?”
That’s when my eyes went to the rolodex on the bottom bookshelf, right beside ‘How to win friends, and influence people.’ Are you kidding me? That was not there before. My fingers rolled over to the C’s and there it was. Mom. Grace Coast. I hoped the number was still good. I was sure Blake hadn’t used a rolodex in a very long time. Most of the little cards were still blank, but I had the one I wanted. I hoped.
“Hang on! I can’t hear you,” the voice answered. I frowned at my phone, hearing the chain saw like noise, “Sorry about that. I just started mowing.”
“Mowing? Is this Grace Coast?” I questioned. I could never picture Blake mowing a lawn.
“Yes. Who’s this?”
“Oh, my name is Mikki. I’m London’s nanny. We just spent the day making birthday invitations. I’m not sure where you live, and I know this is short notice, but Pea would like for you to come to her birthday party on Saturday.”
“Pea?”
“Oh, sorry. London. I sort of hate the name London,” I admitted for no reason.
She laughed, “Me too. I would love to come. I just have one question?”
“Yeah?”
“Does my son know about this?”
“Not exactly.”
“I love it. Count me in. Let’s just keep it a secret. I’ll surprise him”
“Is that a good idea Ms. Coast?”
“No, but telling him is a worse idea. Trust me on this one. Hey, what happened to the other nanny, the one that didn’t speak English?”
“She quit. Will you be staying with us?”
“You know what. I think I will. Thank you Mikki. You made my day.”
“You’re very welcome. Let’s just hope Blake doesn’t kill me for this. I just wanted her to have a birthday party.”
“Thank you. That makes me very happy.”
“Why?”
“We’ll talk in a couple days. I can’t wait.”
“Why am I getting the feeling I just stepped in something that stinks, like I opened an old can of worms.”
“Because you did, and I love you for it already. Now let me get this yard mowed so I can come and see my granddaughter. What does she need?”
“Books, she’s so into reading right now.”
“That’s awesome. Books it is. I’ll see you in a couple of days.”
“Okay. See ya.”
“Who was that?” Blake asked with his thumbs on his phone.
“Are you thumbs flat yet? You’re kind of nosey don’t you think?”
I hurried to close out my school page when Blake frowned at me with a dirty look, “You done here? I need to send out a few emails.”
“Yeah, have at it,” I said, waving a hand to the computer. I walked past him, wanting far away from him. I didn’t want to be interrogated or say something stupid like I was known to do. I would give myself away in two minutes, given the chance.
***
That was the last thing I thought about before my eyes stayed closed. I guess that’s when the exhaustion kicked in and I slept. I mean really slept. I was cuddled next to Pea’s warm little body, beneath a star filled sky, in the middle of nowhere, and I slept better than I could ever remember; maybe better than I ever had in my life.
I jerked my head to look for Pea when I opened my eyes to the bright sun. Oh my God. Where was she? Geesh, I said, placing my hand over my heart with the panic when I saw her five feet in front of me.
“Don’t do that. I couldn’t find you.”
“You snored,” Pea informed with a grunt. Her pants were around her ankles and her butt rested over a log. Her morning routine. I shook my head and started packing up. What a beautiful sunny morning. The air was uplifting and I felt rejuvenated, I’m not sure why, It wasn’t like I had a light at the end of the tunnel waiting to welcome us with open arms. I couldn’t even find the switch.
My intentions were to hike straight through, make it to the campground by sundown. I didn’t care about that anymore. I sort of liked being where we were. We had nothing to worry about, well other than the fact that we were going to run out of food. The various, clear springs kept our water bottles replenished, but we would soon run out of Twinkies and Cheetos. Not for another day though.
I was enjoying our time. Pea wasn’t complaining and we were having fun, living in a wonderland; a land of imagination. I even gave her the choice.
“Okay, Pea. We can either pick up our pace and get to our final destination by dark, or we can goof off all day and go slow, but we’ll have to sleep out here again if we do that.”
“Let’s go slow. Can we go swimming? I’m hot.”
“You can wear shorts. Here,” I offered, handing her a couple baby wipes. Good lord she smelled. That was going to scare the animals away. “I feel sorry for the man you marry. You better get separate bathrooms.”
“Too bad we don’t have eggs. I’m hungry.”
“That does sound good.”
“I miss real food. I’m going to eat pizza when we get somewhere.”
“Pea, we’ve been gone for one day. You make it sound like we’ve been out here for days.”
“I’m pretending like we have.”
“Good idea. Why didn’t we bring a fishing pole? We could have at least had a hot meal tonight.”
“We can,” Pea exclaimed, jumping over the log to reach her bag. I looked around making sure we had everything and the fire was out. I kicked dirt over it a little and frowned over at Pea.
“What is that?”
“Fishing line, bait, and hooks,” she said, holding up her items.
“Why?” I asked, happy that she didn’t feel her bag with socks and underwear.
“You told me to pack stuff we would need for a long adventure. I figured we might have to catch some food.”
“What else do you have in there?” I asked curious.
“I have all this,” Pea explained, taking items from her bag. We had rope for rock climbing, Band-Aids; good thinking, dental floss?
“Oh—chapstick. Let me see that.”
“It’s not for your lips,” Pea assured me with a look that I should know.
“What’s it for?”
“Mikki, you’re not the leader anymore, I am. Don’t you know anything? It’s for bug bites and bee stings. I saw it on Reggie.”
“Oh, well he’s pretty smart. But my lips hurt real bad,” I laughed, mocking the movie she had no idea about.
“Here. I brought this too.”
“Yes! Why didn’t I think of that?” I was counting on the sun and the map to keep us on track. Pea had a compass all along. Her Grandma Grace sent a whole camping set not long after she left that first weekend. I took it from her hand and patted myself on the back. My geographical instincts were spot on, almost. We were going a little NW rather than North, but it still would have gotten us there.
Pea had dryer sheets to keep the mosquitos off of us (They worked.) I kissed her when I saw the battery booster.
“Just in case the tablet dies,” she said. That wasn’t what I was thinking but whatever. I knew my mystery phone was almost dead. I had only turned it on once to see if I’d gotten another message. I knew I would never get a signal where we were and it made more sense to save the power for when I knew I would have service.
I hugged her when she pulled out two potatoes, one for her and one for me. We were going to have a delicious meal. Once again I was homeless, but unlike the first time, I was happy. Things may have been bad, really bad, but not that day. Not those three days. Nothing else mattered. Nothing but Pea.
Fourteen
“Did your mom go fishing with you?” Pea asked, sitting on a log with her homemade fishing pole. She even brought the canister of pasty bait. We were the perfect team. I brought the
warm clothes and socks, and she took care of our survival needs.
“No, but we would have. She would have loved this,” I said, looking down the isolated river. Breathtaking, beautiful.
“Howscome she died?”
“Howscome? You think because we’re in the jungle, you don’t have to use proper language?” I asked, hoping she didn’t want to have this conversation.
“Sorry, why did she die?”
“She was sick.”
“Why didn’t she go to the doctor and get better?”
“She tried. She fought really hard.”
“But then she stopped?”
“Stopped what, baby?”
“She didn’t want to fight anymore?”
“She was tired. She wanted to give up.”
“And you told her yes?”
I studied her curious profile while she sat there and waited for a bite, just like Quinn taught her to do.
“Something like that,” I said swallowing the pain away. Time did heal my heart. It still hurt when I let myself get wrapped up in the past, but it wasn’t every night anymore, and I was able to remember more of the happy memories now. The painful ones didn’t consume me as much as they once did.
“Mikki?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“I think she gave up so you could find me.”
That right there was why I did everything that I did. My heart filled with pride. Maybe she was right. Maybe Pea needed me more than I needed my mother. Maybe my mom knew that.
“I got one!” She yelled, coming to her feet. Thank God. We were having fun and I didn’t want to ruin it with sadness.
“Walk backwards!” I said, remembering we had no way to reel it in. Five or six feet later, Pea was stepping on a fish.
“Pea, I forgot about having to clean them.”
“I can do it. I brought a knife.”
I’d argue that one when I had to. We made a stringer out of dental floss and tied our fish to a rock. The fish were plentiful after that. We tossed more back than we needed. Keeping six, only because I had a good feeling we were going to waste most of it when we tried to clean them.
We messed around the stream for a good three hours. Pea found a deep hole where we could jump off an uprooted tree that worked wonders for her imagination. I jumped once. That was enough for me. She could pretend to be falling off the ledge. The climb back up wasn’t worth the satisfaction of falling two feet into three feet of water. I sat on the bank, soaking up the view and the sun. Why couldn’t we live here forever? Pea was so happy here and it was so peaceful.
I stayed in my bra and panties, saturating my skin in sun. I figured I might as well let them dry before I got dressed.
“What if we’re still here at my birthday?” Pea asked, climbing up the trunk again. I laughed when she hoisted herself up out of the clear blue water. The water worked against her wet panties and she mooned me on her way up. She laughed too, but waited until she was upright to worry about her flashing butt.
“It’s June. Your birthday is September. I think we’ll be out of here by then.”
Pea never forgot her birthday, not since the best party in the entire three year old universe. Sort of. I guess some of it wasn’t so great. That was a day neither of us would forget.
***
I stopped Blake at the door that morning.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“Um, to play golf with—Ryan,” he said, pointing to the intercom, interrupting his explanation.
“No you’re not. We had a deal. You’re not missing this birthday party.”
“Makayla, she’s three. She’s not going to remember this day. We’re golfing with Drew Kelly. He spends plenty of money in our hotels.”
I wasn’t about to let him out of this. I switched gears and did what I said I would never do, “Damn, and I was actually starting to look forward to tonight,” I took a step toward Blake and tugged on the end of his shirt. I looked down, hoping he’d think I was deep in thought about his magical wand. It was safer to look there and not his eyes.
“You were?” He asked, touching my elbow. That made me flinch and step away. Ryan saved me and I backed away without replying.
“You ready?”
Blake looked from me to Ryan, wondering what was more important.
“Why don’t you go ahead? I need to stick around here today.”
“What? No you don’t. We have a golf game with Drew Kelly. You can’t miss that. Zazen will have your ass.”
“Hey, I free this day,” Pea told Ryan, trying awkwardly to hold up three fingers. I didn’t even try to get her to understand that only her birthday party was today.
“Happy birthday. Let’s go,” Ryan said, barely giving Pea the time of day.
I lifted Pea to my hip and stared at Blake, waiting for his decision.
“If I go?”
I understood the question loud and clear, “Yes,” I clarified matter of fact like. That’s when we were interrupted by the intercom system again.
“Hey, it’s me. Let me in,” the voice said in a mumble.
Blake froze into a stiff board, his eyes grew wide and his eyebrows reached for the sky. Although I didn’t recognize the voice, I knew without a doubt his mother was there.
“Blakie? Is anyone home?” The box spoke again.
“Me is,” Pea called, raising her hand high in the air. I was the only one who laughed. She was too cute. I couldn’t help it.
“Why is my mom here?”
“Pea invited her to her birthday party.”
“You invited my mother?” Blake asked, typing in the penthouse number to let his mother exit on the fifty-eighth floor.
“No, Pea did. I can show you the invitation.”
“Funny. Are you serious? You called my mother?”
“Yes. Pea invited her.”
Blake looked confused, I was very amused, and Ryan was getting pissed.
“Blake, come on man. We’ve got to go.”
I shifted Pea on my hip and broke the news to Ryan—again, “Blake’s not going.”
“Who the fuck does this chick think she is?” Ryan asked, giving me a distasteful once over.
My first instinct was to say something about Blake not yelling at Ryan for his language in front of Pea. Nice. Pea was more of an adult than these people. He never said a word. If Grandma Grace was anything like Blake I was going call down to the front desk and rent a hotel room until she left. I couldn’t do rich. Who the hell did these people think they were?
“You did not call my mom,” Blake said, trying one more time.
I refrained from reminding him that Pea invited her again, “Yes, I did.”
Blake stared at me with total disbelief while he opened the door to meet his mother. Grace squealed and hugged him close while my neck stretched around to see what she looked like.
Grace was tall and skinny with mid-length hair, pulled into ponytail. She wore jeans and a tee-shirt with a pistol right between her breasts.
“Where’s my little angel?” The very merry lady said. I wasn’t expecting that at all.
Pea grabbed my shirt in two little fists, one in the front and one in the back. What did she expect? She wasn’t around her enough to know her. Grace didn’t give her much of a choice.
She was my mom, not his. Wow. Really? Her blonde ponytail swung to the front of her shoulder when she spun to give Pea the book.
“You read it?” Pea asked, taking the book and turning to me.
My eyes widened when I looked down at the book. I squatted to Pea and ran my fingers across the old book. ‘The Princess and the Pea’. It wasn’t a new replica of an old book, not like the three dollar book we got from Ms. Bartley’s, it was the old book. I flipped over the cover and read the nineteen thirties publication date. I had the same book. Well, I did at one time. I left it behind. My grandma bought it for me for my birthday too. I was five.
“It’s the Princess and the Pea,” I softly spoke, feeling the moment.
>
“Like me. You read it now?” Pea asked, spinning her little body and plopping her butt to my squatted knee.
“We’ll read it tonight at bedtime. I used have this book, Pea,” I quietly explained. I scooped her up when I stood. I looked to Ryan leaving and to the glare still on Blake’s face.
“Can I talk to you for a second?” Blake asked, closing the door behind him. Ryan shot me a dirty look again before the door was closed. Whatever. We had a deal.
“Here, I’ll take her. Do you want to help Gammy take her stuff upstairs?” She asked, taking her from my arms again.
“You’re staying here?” Blake asked.
Oh my God. Really? “Of course she’s staying here. You have an empty room upstairs and one down here. Why wouldn’t she stay?”
“Fine, you can have the one behind the steps. It’s going to get very loud upstairs tonight. Makayla?” He said like he was asking a question, waving his opened palm toward his office door. Noisy? Oh boy. His eyes told me that his threat was a promise.
“Good luck,” Grace smiled, enjoying Pea. Yes! Finally someone who saw her.
“Are you serious? You called my mother?”
“You’ve asked the same question five times. Yes, I called your mother. Pea wanted her here. What’s wrong with that?”
“I can’t stand my mother. I can’t stand the meddling. You don’t have the authority to get involved in my personal life. You can’t just call my mother.”
“Pea invited her.”
“If you say that one more time—,”
“Well, I don’t see what the big deal is. I don’t have the right to invite your mom to her granddaughter’s birthday, but you can make me go spread my legs for some doctor? Oh, and about that. I would like to see your results as well.”
“That’s not the same thing. I’m the one paying. You’re on my payroll. You shouldn’t have a say in anything. And you can see them. I’m fine, so are you.”
“Yeah, I’m a virgin, soooo,” I smartly replied, crossing my arms and letting him know that I was never worried about the test showing up anything. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Just because I am working for you doesn’t mean you can tell me what I can and can’t do.”