She watched from the behind the wheel as Rainbow ran up the front steps and let herself in.
Maude stepped out onto the landing, gesturing that she wanted to talk.
Ronnie waved with two fingers as if she had someplace to go and was in a hurry, then when Maude approached, reluctantly rolled down the window. Under the steering wheel her left leg jiggled.
Maude frowned. “Why didn’t you walk her to the door?”
“I was watching her.”
“You always walk her to the door. That’s part of the deal.”
“She’s nine.”
“What’s wrong with you? Are you drunk?”
“Keep it down. No, of course not. Are you?”
Maude had been drinking rosé with her mother. Maude’s mother always brought a nice bottle to go with dinner. “What’s wrong with your arm? Did you hurt yourself?”
Ronnie glanced down at her injured arm and then at her other hand on the steering wheel.
“I bought that board for her, not you. It’s for a child. You’re an idiot.”
A curtain moved. Someone inside was watching. Maude’s mother.
Ronnie hadn’t done anything wrong. “Don’t berate me.”
“Wait here. I’ll get some ice.”
Maude returned with two bags of frozen corn. Ronnie leaned sideways, reaching for them through the truck window. Maude shook her head, opened the driver’s door.
Ronnie reluctantly stepped out of the truck. Standing, she towered over her ex. Maude laid one bag of frozen corn on the bonnet of the truck. “Put it there.”
She did. Maude laid the second bag of frozen corn on top of her injured wrist and pushed down. Ronnie yelped. The bags of corn had been defrosted and refrozen into solid blocks of ice.
She grabbed her ex’s hands, curling her fingertips under them and pulling, but Maude leaned forward again, positioning the weight of her upper body over Ronnie’s wrist again like a psychopathic paramedic doing evil CPR.
Ronnie’s vision blurred. She swore. Everything Maude did to her was payback for what Ronnie did ten years ago.
“Stop. You’re hurting me.” She tried to extricate her wrist from between the blocks of ice on the hood. Rainbow appeared framed by yellow curtains in the window next to Maude’s mother. Ronnie took a breath, trying to appear relaxed. “Not in front of Rainbow.”
Maude released her. The bag of frozen corn that remained on the bonnet bore a faint imprint of Ronnie’s hand. Ronnie shut the door, forcing herself not to look at Maude as she turned on the engine and twisted to make sure the drive behind her was clear. Her wrist made her eyes sting.
Ronnie’s ex flushed, pupils dilated.
A relay race of questions appeared, ready and muscular, but Ronnie kept her mouth shut.Are you being a bitch because your mother is here? Is this performative vengeance?It didn’t matter. Maybe it did, but anything she said now would only escalate the situation in front of her kid.
Ronnie put her truck in gear and carefully backed out of Maude’s drive. She watched her hands grip the wheel, one limp and useless, the other white-knuckled and shaking. Sixteen again, ears burning, winded, sucker-punched. She should have seen it coming, should have known better than to let her guard down.
Rainbow disappearing in the rear-view mirror.
At the main road Ronnie pulled off onto the verge to get a grip. She smoked until she stopped shaking.
When she started the engine again it was nighttime, and the heat of the day had broken.
She drove with the windows down, summer night air warm and wet. Familiar roads became dreamlike after dark—no depth, no warning of what was to come. Maude hadn’t seemed high. Her veins and skin had looked fine. Ronnie wondered, charitably, if Maude felt this way when Rainbow was with her.
Surely it must be more terrifying for Maude, co-parenting with someone who had tried to kill her.
