A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Chapter XXIV: She's a Maniac

I dropped the grocery bags on the kitchen table, almost knocking over the boxes of puzzles. Angus was outside paying for the cab. I was thankful to be so far away from Wanda Popplewell who no doubt would notice Angus paying for everything. I opened the fridge to put the romaine lettuce away when I saw a huge green bottle of champagne.

Won't do me any good.

I put away the rest of the food and grabbed the tea bags I packed. The house didn't have any tea but they did have a kettle so I put it on. Angus came back inside and grabbed the box of cornflakes. "We can see more of the city later if ya' want," he said. "Or tomorrow."

"Maybe tomorrow," I said remembering the cab. "Maybe we should stick with one cab lift a day."

"Why?" he asked pouring the milk.

"Isn't it expensive?" I asked. "We're not made of money."

"No, but we can afford to take a little trip," he said sitting at the table. He picked up one of the boxes and examined it. "I really don't mind, love."

I minded...

Leaving it at that I poured myself a cup of tea and skipped breakfast. Angus had poured the puzzle pieces all over the table and sorted through them. "I'm assumin' all the pieces are in here..."

I sat across from him and rifled through the pile for edge pieces. Every once in a while I'd find one and set it aside. The box claimed there were one thousand pieces. It would end up being a picture of a swan on a pond. One thousand pieces would surely take up the whole surface of the table. Without warning I was taken back to my childhood, staying at my maternal grandmother's house back when my grandfather was still alive. Old hymns playing on the radio, sunlight casting rainbows on the wall from the prism hanging in the window...and a giant puzzle on the kitchen table that my grandfather had started. He loved puzzles.

And I loved him.

Things had really changed since then.

I choked back the lump in my throat, hoping Angus didn't notice. Together we managed to complete half of the frame of the puzzle and by then it was already one in the afternoon. "Jesus," Angus said looking at the clock. "Already time for lunch."

I settled on a small banana for lunch while Angus made himself a sandwich. We sat outside on the deck to eat since it was such a nice spring day out, albeit chilly. I snuggled into Ang's jumper that I stole and pulled the collar over my nose. I looked at Angus, waiting for him to notice me.

He snorted, bits of lettuce flying out of his mouth. "Don't do that to me, love," he said with his mouth full. I started laughing and pulled the collar down. After cleaning himself off a bit he chuckled and continued eating. "Tryin' to kill me or somethin'?"

"It's cold out here," I said shivering. The sunshine helped but when a cloud covered it up or when a light breeze brushed past it got super cold.

"Well," Angus said picking up a tomato that had dropped on his lap. "We can always go for a swim." He nodded towards the hot tub.

**********

I stared at myself in the cracked mirror wondering when the fuck I got so ugly. Too skinny, obviously. Curves that didn't count and rather bony shoulders. I never realised how much hair was on my arms. Did my mother have this much hair? Or my sister? Some on the tops of my feet too. I shaved my legs the other day but it grows at sonic speed. Was I destined to be the human gorilla? Some kind of carnival freak show? Everybody grew hair on their bodies but was this much normal? Why didn't the women on the telly have hair like this? Or the magazines? Or even on the streets? I covered myself as best I could with my shawl and arms. Just watch. I'd go out there and Angus would call the whole thing off just at the sight of me.