living on a fault line

Interlude: Eli

The phone rings forever.

Her mama stands near the end of the couch, waiting for River or her dad to pick up. (Even though Eli told her she was old enough to call on her own. She had to bite back her words when her mom asked her to give her the number, then, and Eli couldn't remember anything apart from it having a seven somewhere in there.)

Eli sits on the couch while she waits, her knee jumping up and down.

Her mommy had called after the restaurant, and River was asleep, so Eli had to go to bed. And then she spent a busy day with her mommy and forgot all about it, and then she went to bed again. This time, she pressed her hands against her eyes tight, hoping all the things she wanted to tell River would stay there until morning when her mama would pick her up. She didn't want to forget. She wishes she had a cell phone like River, so she could have recorded a video of that night at the restaurant and she could watch it over and over again. So she could show River. So she wouldn't ever forget.

It felt like before.

Her mama and her mommy didn't fight not once, and they laughed together, and Eli almost didn't want to speak because it was like... Like when her aunt J bought her this gun that shot bubbles, and Eli had way too much fun bursting them with her finger. They were pretty, but easy to break. She couldn't touch them.

It was almost like that last night.

Except her mama and her mommy were real and solid, and she saw it, and she needs to tell River because she isn't making stuff up now.

"Hi, Jenn? Is River there? Eli wants to yeah" Her mama taps her foot, and sticks her tongue out at her when Eli gets up and hangs herself from her arm. Her mama can't lift her up with just one anymore. Maybe because she's taller, Eli thinks. "Hey, Eli, how about something better than the phone? Do you want to go to the park with River?"

Eli nods so fast everything goes blurry.

"Of course, O, you'd think she'd ever refuse?" Eli jumps onto the couch, only to climb back down when her mama points at her and then at the floor. She doesn't want to risk being bad and then not getting to go to the park. "Is Kai gonna come instead? Sure." Her mama sits down on the couch, and Eli rolls her eyes, because that means that they're not gonna leave for a while. "Go change," her mama mouths, and Eli runs to her bedroom.

She gets to see her best friend, and she gets to tell her all about the day before.

It's a good day.

(October 11th, 2023.)

"I think you weren't going to be a big sister at all," Rose says, putting her hands on her hips and Eli bristles, because she's not a liar.

"I was," she says, puffing out her chest. She got a gold star taken away for speaking in class, and her sandwich fell to the floor during recess before she could finish it, and now Rose is picking on her. It's not a good day for Eli.

"Was not!" Rose tells her, and Eli hates that she's taller. She raises up on the tips of her toes to make up for it.

"Was too!"

Her name being called from afar makes her head whip around, and she can see her mama at the door, her green clothes from the hospital making her stand out among the other moms.

"Mama!"

Eli runs the fastest she's ever run to reach her, and then she's flying when she's picked up.

"Mama, Rose was being mean to me, she said, she said-"

"Is it true Eli was going to be a big sister?"