Keeping Up With the Wind: A 'Burban Tale by Suleyma Moon

13.

The next time I woke up, it was around 9:30. Whisper was still sleeping, but I shook her awake to let her know that I was going home. I'm not sure whether she understood me or not, because she just rolled over and waved me away.

When I walked out into the already humid morning, I stopped, having forgotten what the neighborhood looked like from Whisper's front porch. Everything seemed different from where I stood.

            I saw my house. My dad came out to get the paper and I waved to him. He also waved, then went back inside. I looked over at Li'l Jay's house, then down the street to where Blaze and Faith used to live. It had been so long since they'd moved that I couldn't even remember why they'd left. The house that they now lived in was only a couple of streets over, anyway, so none of us had been too affected by the move.

Everything looked so peaceful from up there on Whisper's porch. I loved that street. I had grown up on that street. Out of habit, I walked around to the side of my house and climbed in through my bedroom window. Then I walked out through the bedroom door.

            "Morning," my father grumbled, apparently forgetting that he had just seen me outside. I figured that he must not have had enough time to sleep off his hangover.

            I was eating cereal and watching cartoons from the kitchen a few minutes later when he walked out the front door, and then came right back in.

            "Have you seen my keys?" he asked, patting his pockets.

            "Mm-mm," I mumbled, mouth full of Cookie Crisps, then looked around him, trying to see the TV.

            He went back down the hall to his bedroom, came out, walked straight past the kitchen, and once again disappeared through the front door. I heard the car door open, slam, then open and slam again. He came back in and stopped at the kitchen doorway. I looked up, hoping that I hadn't done anything wrong.

            "What happened to your face?"

I wondered if it had taken him that long to notice or if this had just been the first time that we'd seen each other since my run-in with Johnny.

            "I fell down the stairs," I lied.

            "Oh," and he left once again. This time, the car started and drove away.

            He must have forgotten that we don't have any stairs, I thought to myself. That is, unless you counted the stairs that led down to the basement. I never went down there, though. Not after Li'l Jay and I found a snake at the foot of the steps when I was ten.

            After taking a long, hot bath and getting dressed, I made my bed. Li'l Jay must have been the one to mess it up, since I hadn't slept there in days. It seemed funny to me how such odd things could become routine as I climbed out of my bedroom window and jumped down onto the grass. Then I ran across the street and knocked on Li'l Jay's window. He opened it, looking a little too happy to see me.

            "Want to go see Shadow?" I asked. "Spider found out where he's staying and he'll be down at the bridge in a little while."

            "Can't. I'm still grounded."

            "Hey, I'm really sorry about that. It totally slipped my mind that I even talked to your dad."

            "It wasn't your fault. I knew I was supposed to be at home."

            "You did?"

            He smiled. "Uh-huh."

            "And you let me go on thinking..." my mock anger rose.