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“Hey, who called who for help here?”
I imagine her smiling, even though I’m not. I’ve got nothing to smile about.
I hear the shower curtain rings sliding over the rod. Then her breathing is louder.
“You in there now, Franks?”
“Yeah. ”
She’ll have one arm wrapped around her knees, just like Caroline up on the roof. I see her in her nightgown, her dark hair hanging over her arms, down her back. Her skinny legs, mosquito-bitten, covered in scratches and sores. Bare toes dirty.
Summer Frankie. But it’s November, and when I talked to Mom on Thanksgiving she said there was snow on the ground. I haven’t seen my sister in three months.
“Should I call the police?” she asks.
I think of Bo’s crop, the plants up to his chin. I know it’s not like that now. He’s harvested for the season. Last time I talked to him he told me he was letting the Indica buds mature, but pretty soon he’s going to be heading down to California to sell.
He doesn’t usually keep any of it in the house. He knows the law. He taught me it’s essential to know what you can go down for, if you’re gonna go down. Never carry enough to get charged with felony possession.
Still. What if he’s not following his own rules? I don’t want to be responsible for calling the cops out to Bo’s house and getting him in deep shit. If he loses his job, goes to jail, then Mom probably loses hers, too, and we’re all screwed.
Frankie’s just a little girl, defenseless, huddled in the tub.
“What happened?” I ask.
“I was watching TV. Mom said to go to bed by nine, but there was this movie on and I knew she wasn’t going to be back, so I watched it, and then I heard him knocking. It was so loud, West. ”
“Did you open the door for him?”
“No. Mom said not to. ”
“Mom knows he’s back?”
“We ran into him in town. He’s living at the trailer. ”
“He’s not. Franks—tell me you’re joking. ”
“Yeah, he is! He says it’s his, and we got no right to keep him out of it. ”
“That fucker. What happened to Hailey?”
“She moved in with her boyfriend. ”
I put my cousin Hailey in that trailer on purpose. I paid up the lot rent for the whole school year. I wanted Mom and Frankie to have a place to go if things went to shit with Bo, but I never thought of this. I never thought I’d be paying for that lowlife son of a bitch to have a home base to terrorize my little sister from.
I shove my heels into the blanket, pressing against the springs. I’ve got my head down, elbows between my knees, and I wish I was with Frankie. I wish I was there for her.
I wish I was where I belong.
&nbs
p; “What’s he saying?”
“What do you mean—now?”
“No, I mean, what did he say when he got there? What’s he want?”
“He says, ‘Come out, baby girl. Your daddy wants to see you. ’ And he called Mom a bitch, but then he said he didn’t mean it, that she broke his heart and that crap. ”
