“All right, y’all, let’s eat,” Esther declares as she and Paul bring the last of the bowls to the table. “Marnie, you can have some of this, I made sure to use what the doctor said you can have.”
“Thanks, Esther,” my woman says as Paul dishes some of the chicken chili into her bowl. “Even the cornbread?” she hopefully asks, causing all of us to laugh.
“Even the cornbread,” Esther replies.
Mina pops up and asks, “Can I say the blessing, Pappy?”
“Absolutely, pumpkin,” he tells her.
Once dinner is done, Marnie asks me to take her to her room. I can see that today has wiped her out, but she’s a trooper, which I tell her after we breach the doorway. She has her pajamas on, having changed in the bathroom, and I can smell the mint toothpaste she used on her breath. I excuse myself after snagging my duffel bag and head in so I can change into a pair of lounging pants and a clean T-shirt after taking a quick shower to get the few black streaks off my own arms.
Her eyes widen when I walk back into the bedroom and shut the door behind me. “What are you doing?” she queries.
“Taking care of my ol’ lady,” I reply as I slide into bed. “Don’t worry, Paul’s not gonna bust through the door with his shotgun. They know I’m here and I plan to stay overnight so that they can rest. They’re not getting any younger.”
I see flashes of guilt streak across her face and decide to shut that down. “Marnie, neither of them are complaining, but I’m able tobe here, so if it keeps them from getting up every few hours to check on you, it’s all good, okay?”
“I didn’t know they were doing that,” she replies. “I mean, I’ve woken up once or twice, but I guess I’ve been sleeping right through it. Still, they didn’t need to do that.”
“Marnie, not to beat a dead horse, but you almost died, for fuck’s sake. So, this family you’ve found yourself in is going to do whatever they have to do to ensure that you’re okay. If that’s getting up every three or four hours in the middle of the night to check on you, let them, okay? I’m just saying that I’m here now and am taking the night shift.”
Her sigh is long and loud. “Okay, I get it, I guess. I mean, y’all have to cut me some slack, too. I was sleeping through all the drama. One minute I was trying to get away and the next, I was waking up in the hospital.”
I can’t help the snort that leaves my lips as I say, “Babe, there was a gap of nearly three days there. The surgery was long and difficult, then for the first day, they kept you sedated because every time they tried to wake you up, the pain was too much for you to bear and you’d pass out.”
“But I remember waking up in the recovery room,” she insists.
“You did and they moved you to ICU, but when you became fully alert, the pain was just too much. The nurse told your doctor, and he made the call to put you on conscious sedation. Now, how about you kiss me good night so we can get some sleep.”
NINE
MARNIE
I fall into somewhat of a routine as the minutes turn into hours and the days turn into weeks. In the morning, I have either physical or occupational therapy, which in some ways is helping Esther. My occupational therapist, Denise, has me washing dishes and doing light chores and Monica has me practicing going up and down stairs. I’ve graduated to the walker and a cane, with the wheelchair as backup in the event I manage to exhaust myself.
Today, Ash is taking me over to the haunted house so Holly and I can help decorate it. We’re working on the garage which will be for kids twelve and under, while the guys are all working on the physical house, creating themed rooms. From the laughter I hear piercing the air, they’re setting it up so that there will be plenty of jump scares for those who pay to go inside.
“They sound like they’re having a wild time,” I muse as Holly and I put the small maze together. The guys brought in and arranged the hay bales for us, as it’s the last area where the kids will crawl through to exit, then somehow attached the plywood.
Right now, we’re stringing up what feels like thousands of rubbery spiders that’ll hang down on spun webbing and tickle the children when they crawl underneath it. Small fairy lights are woven around the bales providing just enough light for them to see and get a small thrill. Once they exit, they’ll receive a decent-sized bag of candy and trinkets that Esther and some of her friends are putting together.
Some of the things can’t be done until the day we open it because it involves cooked spaghetti to give the aesthetic of guts, jello for brains, and grapes for eyes, but we have those ‘stations’ created already and that won’t take long at all to put together.
Mine and Ash’s relationship is growing stronger by leaps and bounds. He rarely leaves my side unless there’s something he has to do for the club. What’s even more exciting, is Prophet was agreeable to the club opening up a tattoo shop, and he’s willing to allow me to apprentice for him. In fact, he said he has a few of his friends who’ll let me practice on them. Right now, I’m tattooing on pig skin which is kind of gross but necessary so I can perfect my lines and shading. Apparently, it’s the closest thing to a person’s skin flexibility. Prophet is a patient teacher, and each day, my confidence grows stronger.
It’s the nights that have me blushing right now. While we still haven’t had sex, the physical side of our relationship has gone beyond mere kissing. It’s more intimate. Last night, Ash showed me what all the fuss was about when it comes to oral sex, and just thinking about it has my body humming with a carnal need I didn’t know was fluttering inside of me.
“How are things going with Ash?” Holly asks. She’s biting her lip as she threads another spider through the mesh. Once we’re done, the guys are going to put a piece of astro grass on the top and secure it somehow, so it doesn’t shift. We’re gluing thestring ends to the top of the plywood and they’re a bit tricky to work with. We decided to use the bouncy string so that when kids crawled through, again on that astroturf stuff so they don’t get hurt, the spiders will swing and bounce around, which they wouldn’t do with regular twine.
“Really good,” I reply, my blush now even deeper.
She looks over at me and starts snickering. “I see,” she teases. “Sounds like we need to hit the mall.”
“Why?” I ask as I push at one of the strings to see how it looks.
“Lingerie, Marnie, lingerie!” she exclaims.
“Um, I’ve never had any of that,” I admit. I have cotton bras and panties, but nothing to really write home about. By the time I was at the age where I would learn about those things, my mom was sick, and my time was focused on school and her. Most of my makeup skills came from watching YouTube videos, then finding my own style.
