Chapter 14: Shacking Up

The Mom Brigade arrived at the same time we did. Sondra Davis brought Jas and Charmaine. Siobhan O’Rourke came with Kelly, and my mom and dad followed Ariel, Sarah Lynn, and me. It was a little sad to realize that my dad was the only father who was active. Charmaine’s abusive father was part of the reason she never wanted to go home again. Ariel’s mother showed up looking the part of a professional housecleaner. Her father was friendly with other adults but considered dealing with ‘children’ to be the women’s work. And Sarah Lynn’s father was probably the reason her mother was so hysterical about Sarah Lynn being devil-possessed and disowned. We’d be watching carefully if he showed up as it would mean trouble. Jasmine’s dad was killed in Afghanistan when she was little and Sondra’s new boyfriend, Ray, just hadn’t been around much yet. Then there was Kelly, of course. She’d never known a father at all.

“We need before and after photos,” Charmaine said. “And make sure your date and time settings are on.”

“What gives?” I asked.

“You put up over two thousand dollars for a damage deposit, Jett. We need to make sure that you get it back. I like our agent, but I still wouldn’t put it past her to claim as much of the deposit as possible because something was left dirty. I want evidence of what it looked like when we moved in compared to how we leave it.”

“Wow, Charmaine. You think of everything,” Ariel said.

“Just money things,” she laughed.

The women attacked. If there was one thing Jasmine’s and my mothers knew about, it was cleaning and sterilizing a house. The Dragon Lady seemed to be on the same page. Among them, they had buckets, mops, cleansers—all organic—and gloves for everyone. Siobhan carted in a huge vacuum cleaner and I grabbed it to follow her all the way upstairs to the attic. The room was empty but covered with dust and cobwebs.

Dad and I assessed the physical maintenance chores and headed to Home Depot to get a few gallons of off-white paint, brushes, rollers, and paint trays. At the last minute, he decided we were going to need a step ladder at the house anyway, so he bought two and a plank to put between them so we could paint ceilings more easily. We picked up a plaster kit and sandpaper as well. We’d seen pretty serious gouges in the walls of two of the rooms. When we got back, Granddad was carrying out a garbage bag filled with debris he’d picked up from around the house. He’d brought rakes and his lawn mower in the pickup.

Dad and I started filling nail holes and cracks, working from the upstairs bedrooms down. Kelly thumped down the attic stairs with the vacuum cleaner and attachments, grabbed a gallon of paint, and headed back upstairs. They were moving quickly up there but had a lot of surfaces to cover.

By the time Dad and I finished spackling the holes, Sarah Lynn and Charmaine were in the first bedroom sanding the rough edges and running the vacuum. Dad and I set up the step ladders and I started with the ceiling. I hadn’t noticed how dingy it was until I put a fresh coat of ceiling white on. I was just thankful that it was only lightly textured and not one of those popcorn ceilings they say are illegal now. Something about Styrofoam or asbestos or something.

I moved the stepladders and plank into the second bedroom and started on the ceiling while Dad was joined by Mom to paint the walls. Jas and Sondra were cleaning the oven and appliances in the kitchen downstairs while Ariel and the Dragon Lady scrubbed a year’s worth of gunk out of the upstairs bathroom. Someday I was going to have to find out her name. I suppose I could just call her Mrs. Chen.

I could hear the mower running outside when someone yelled that we should come downstairs for lunch. I’d only managed to get two ceilings painted.

We didn’t get finished that day. Or that weekend. By Sunday night, the six of us were exhausted. Fewer parents had shown up on Sunday. They had other things to do. It was nice of all the moms to take a break from their busy schedules to help clean, but they weren’t really into painting. Sondra and her boyfriend Ray had planned to go on a dairy tour in the next county. They called it a wine and cheese tasting. My parents had plans with Grandma and Grandpa Blackburn like they did most Sundays. Siobhan went to church in the morning but came back to help us in the afternoon. Now that Kelly’s room was clean and painted, they were working as hard on the rest of the house as anyone. The Dragon Lady brought us lunch, but she had things to do with her other two kids.

That left the six of us. And Granddad.

“I don’t mind helping you when you are all working so hard. You kept my house spic and span when you stayed with me,” he said.

“The work you did in the yard yesterday probably improved the value of this place by ten thousand dollars,” I said.

“At least a hundred beer cans. And some of them had been crushed into the ground long enough that I could tell they’d been there longer than a year. The one thing you can be thankful for is that no pets have been allowed. I’d be in a different mood if I was cleaning up dog shit,” he said. “Now, I’m going to work on the doors. The porch door is almost off its hinges and the downstairs bathroom door doesn’t close right.”

I was thankful that Granddad took on the fix-it jobs. I can sling paint but rehanging a door would take me about three times as long as it took him. I think I could do it, but it wouldn’t be fast or pretty.

By the end of the second weekend we were all getting a little surly and on each other’s nerves. None of us realized what a big project just cleaning this house and getting ready to move in would be. We all had jobs, too, and none of us was used to working full time. I know. World’s tiniest violin. My heart bleeds for you. Poor little privileged kids getting a taste of real life. Nobody said it would be easy. Yadda-yadda.

“I want to go to the festival next weekend,” Ariel whined. “I’m tired of all this work.”

“Aren’t you going to move in?”

“I don’t have that much to move. And we don’t have to do it all at once.”

“So, because you have a nice secure place where you could live all summer, you’re not going to help anymore?” Sarah Lynn demanded. “That’s pretty fucking selfish.”

“Knock it off! Nobody made you president, Sarah Lynn,” Kelly snapped. “Maybe you’re smarter than the rest of us, but you didn’t work any harder.”

“Says the girl who gets a private room away from everyone else,” Jas sniped at her.

“Nobody said anything about it until it was clean and nice,” Kelly said. “It’s not like you’d live in the attic. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter.”

“Which won’t stop you from getting naked and whoring your pussy to anybody who’ll pay,” Ariel said.

I could feel our whole little family crumbling around us and had no idea what to do. I felt the same way. I hadn’t painted a picture since we split up and left Granddad’s. And forget about sex. We were all too tired for that. Everyone wanted private time and this was supposed to be the great fun summer between high school and college. It sucked.

And to top it all, Charmaine was crying.

“Char, honey, it’s okay. What’s bothering you?”

“We sound like my father and brothers. I thought we’d be something better,” she sobbed.

“Fuck! You’re right. Sounds just like my family, too,” Sarah Lynn said. “I’m sorry. Of course you should go to the festival next weekend, Ariel. That was stupid of me. We should all take a break.”

“I’m sorry, Kelly,” Ariel said. “I think you have a very pretty pussy and I miss licking it.”

“Me, too,” Jas said. “I mean, I’m sorry, too. I mean, I miss licking your pussy, too. But, I mean...”

“I get it, Jasmine,” Kelly said. “Thank you. I didn’t mean to grab a private space and exclude you all. It should just be our fourth bedroom so we can have one more option.”

“Honey, you do need space to perform,” Sarah Lynn said. “I hope you’ll invite us up to be with you sometimes, though.”

“Or come down to be with the rest of us,” Charmaine said. “But we agreed before you signed the lease that you could have the attic. I just want to be with you all and not be fighting.”

“We’re so tired. And it’s shark week for me,” Ariel said. “I’m already cramping.”

“Oh, God! Are we all going to get on the same cycle? Now that you mention it, I smell blood in the water,” Jas said. “Who are you texting, Jett?” I tried to stay out of most of the conversation while the girls were ripping each other to shreds. I’d avoided being attacked so far but wasn’t willing to risk it.

“Um ... I was trying to think of something nice to do for my girlfriends because we’re all stressed out,” I said. “I texted Ford and I’m going to run over and pick up a lid. I’ll pick up food, too.”

“Yeah. I could stand a good high,” Sarah Lynn said. “I’d spread my legs for a joint.”

“You’d find me between them,” Ariel said. “I hope you weren’t counting on a cock.”

“Jett, you’re so sweet,” Jas said. “Can we have Chinese food?”

“Right here,” Ariel said, pointing at her crotch. “Ordinarily, I’d be highly offended at your suggestion, but if we’re going to get high, we need lots of noodles and rice.”

“Carbs!”

“Can you bring some chips, too?”

“And chocolate.”

“I’ll go with Jett,” Jas said. “We’re asking too much of the sweetest lover we could want.”