The Ace of Spades

Chapter 20

The day comes to meet Doug #1 and Mea has the fucking Dora the Explorer theme song stuck in her head.

It happened as a mistake, Mea swears.

First she called herself an explorer, winking at herself in the bathroom mirror after her shower, applauding her courageousness to travel and meet new people (or reconnect with old friends, depending on the outcome). Then she called herself Mea the Explorer, then one thing lead to another and Mea found herself counting to ten in Spanish and singing the fucking Dora the Explorer theme song.

Vaminos!

Let's get to it, I know that we can do it!

It's hardly 9:30 when Mea comes to the realisation that it actually could get worse, and that she hasn't quite hit rock bottom. Once they've kissed Toto's forehead, bidding him a farewell, and promising Viv's they're just visiting a friend of Victor's for the day, Mea begins to sing: where are we going? Big red bus! Where are we going? Big red bus!

Mea's not even positive Dora ever sang about going to a big red bus and she, personally, is not headed to any sort of big red fucking bus. Nevertheless, she sings the tune to herself so much that she wishes Dora and her little monkey friend, motherfucking Boots, would show up at Viv's house ready to fight.

"Your kid is not watching Dora ever," Mea says to Jojo as they head down Viv's driveway to walk to Victor's house.

Jojo whips her head to face Mea, redirecting her attention from her cell phone to Mea immediately.

"What?"

"You heard me. Dora's stuck in my head and I'm sick of her already."

Jojo cackles, "nice."

No, Mea thinks. Not nice.

The two sisters walk the road to Victor's house, a well-travelled path by now. The sun is creeping up to the vast openness of the sky, heat bugs are already squealing, and the dew on the grass has mostly evapourated.

Mea's still singing where are we going? Big red bus! to herself when the sight of Victor drinking from a water bottle, leaning against his dad's black truck greets Mea's eyes. A million things hit Mea at once, but predominantly the thought of actually actually actually fucking doing this.

Either she'll be reunited with her father after five years or she'll meet the man from The Melancholy Indie Movie. Or they could get killed in some sort of an elaborate set-up - but Mea figures that's highly unlikely.

Nevertheless, it's nerve-wracking.

"Ace!" Victor hollers, "Hey, Jojo," he says less enthusiastically, but still cheerfully.

Mea approaches and begins to open her arms for a hug. Victor takes a step forward, catching her eye and - oops.

Mea's heart rate picks up and she takes a step back. She drops her eyes from Victor's and turns, instead, to Jojo. It's impossible to tell whether or not Jojo was aware of what just happened. Or what almost happened.

"Ready or what?" Jojo asks, glancing to the truck then back to Mea and Victor.

"Ready!" Victor exclaims.

"Yep!" Mea says, and stares down at her hands.

Victor circles the truck to the driver's side. Mea whispers, afraid that Victor's supersonic hearing will hear her ask Jojo if she wants shotgun. Jojo shakes her head no. Mea nods and swallows and climbs in the truck and braces herself and stares at her hands again.