Party Line

Chapter 6, Zee

"Psst, Sylvie!"

My eyelids unstuck. Hazel was fully dressed by the door. She pulled her snowsuit zip up with a squeal.

"What," I mumbled.

"Gotta go to school. See ya later."

"Oh. Wanna come over after?"

"Nah--I gotta go home right away and help my mom clean the house. Her fancy rich boyfriend is coming over so like. You know. Everything has to be perfect." Her makeup smudged eyes already looked defeated. My heart hurt for her, and I pulled myself from the warm covers.

"Can I come over? I'll help you clean up. I'm great at cleaning."

Hazel made a point of looking around the room. "Sure, girl. You have like 5 things and they're everywhere."

"I'm great at it if I have a reason to be!"

She rolled her eyes. "Nah, my mom's like--" she mimed her head exploding. "Freakin' stressed. It's really important he has a good time, and I'm on my best behaviour, and I'm not wearing makeup and don't have any friends over and, ya know. Perfect little doll daughter."

"Oh."

"Because, ya know. If he likes it, and they get married, then she won't have to move to Hinterland and sell the farm and ..."

"Lose your family legacy of living in Crazy Creek?"

Hazel pointed at me sternly. "Listen. I know I said it's totally boring here and I want to leave immediately. But, like, if my mom sells her farm--I mean, who will she even be? A rich lady living in Hinterland?"

I tried to work this out. "Um... Yes?"

"Yes, but--ugh, I just--I gotta go." She withdrew into the dark hall. "I'll talk to you later."

"Hazel--"

Her heavy footsteps rattled the staircase and the door slammed. The house was still.

Grandma wasn't in the kitchen, or the den or the sunroom or even in the yard outside. Eventually I found a note on the kitchen table, after I dragged a box of old people cereal out of the cabinet in starving desperation.

Dear Sylvie,

You and Hazel snuggled up like two bugs in a rug. I am going to Hinterlands to see the doctor. Will be back around the evening if the weather is right. I am going to get some things for you at the store. I hope you have a good day. Lock the doors.

Lots of love,

Grandma

I hadn't realized she would go to the doctor in Hinterlands. The bran nuggets crunched slowly under my teeth, tasting like nutritious dust. If I was still 12, I would probably throw myself down on the sun-warmed couch, squeeze out a few tears, and complain about how unfair it was, how everyone abandons me, how I'm always alone. Then I'd lose myself in online games for a few hours until my heart healed.

Can't do that now. First off, I'm 13. Also, no internet. Also also, Willow was curled in a perfect circle on the sunroom couch. Couldn't mess with that. Instead, I stomped up the stairs, gathered every scrap of my wet, grimy, sweaty clothing off the floor, marched it right back down, and dumped it in the laundry machine.

That made me feel responsible. Maybe I could cook something, too. And take care of the chickens, of course, and feed Daisy. Grandma'd surely come back hungry. I could make a warm dinner to fill the house up with hot oven air and good smells to draw her home.

The lid of the washing machine guided me through laundry doing as I speculated on what elaborate dinner I could make with grandma's humble ingredients. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, actually, it was like making a giant soup. You put in soap, water, and clothes, and mix it all up. If I saw my dad again, I was going to give him heck over how much he complained about doing laundry. Maybe I would get bored of making laundry one day, once the novelty wore off, but it certainly wasn't hard.