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Ten
Bunny dragged her exhausted butt into her tiny kitchen to lay down her grocery bags.
“Honey, I’m home!” she called to her goldfish RuPaul, who, predictably, didn’t answer. Shady bitch.
She breathed a deep sigh of relief as she put away her food, hoping and praying her melted honeycomb ice cream would have solidified enough to eat a little while she watched some TV when she woke up. Who was she kidding? She didn’t really mind if it hadn’t. It would be the perfect getaway from everything, and if she threw in a phone call to her brother, she’d have herself the trifecta of her own version of self-care: junk food, trashy TV, and isolation.
She kicked off her shoes and trod her way out of her socks, standing on the toe of one and lifting her leg to release her foot before repeating the action with the other. Leather-look Skechers were all well and good until sweaty feet happened. Padding into the living area barefoot, Bunny leaned over the fish tank and was carefully sprinkling flakes onto the surface of the water for RuPaul when she spoke out loud to her phone.
“Call Ben.”
“Calling Ben,” her smartwatch confirmed, before the call tone purred in her ear. She was just starting to think that her brother might not pick up when he did, the hustle and bustle of the Go-Go Mart buzzing in the background of the call.
“No, Prissy, you need to stack them in a staggered way. If you try to put them all on top like that they’re gonna roll right off—yell-oh?”
Bunny smiled, watched Ru nibble the first flake, and then plopped herself on her couch so she could watch the world through her living room window during the conversation.
“It’s me,” she said in the direction of her watch. “Is this a bad time?”
“Oh,” her brother said loudly, like he was speaking for someone else’s benefit. “Family emergency? What? Hold on, sis!”
Bunny shook her head, her smile getting bigger by the second as she listened to Ben walk the three or so yards from the Go-Go’s service counter into the storage closet he had transformed into his office. The door clicked closed behind him.
“Your timing,” he breathed, “is impeccable.”
“Rough day?” she asked, her barely restrained snort of amusement evident in her tone.
“You have no idea,” he confessed, sounding weary. “And that’s just the afternoon!”
“She’s not workin’ out then?” She wanted to be sympathetic, but she’d been more stunned than a sinner in church on Sunday when Ben told her he’d hired on Princess Prissy Bishop to be his new cashier.
Ben sighed. “She’s no Rosie.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Bunny retorted. She had yet to meet the mysterious savior who had helped her brother loosen his grip on his beloved Go-Go Mart, but by all accounts she actually seemed like the only person in Mosswood besides Bunny’s kin that she might be able to get along with.
“I hate to call and add more to your load,” she started, visualizing the eyebrow her brother would be raising at her right about now.
“With?”
She sighed. “I just feel real uneasy about everything that happened with Mom,” she admitted. She began to pick a thread that was coming loose from the couch, wondering how best to give voice to her somewhat controversial request. In the end, she decided that the best way was forward. “I think we should try exhume her and have an autopsy carried out.”
“Jesus, Bun.” Ben breathed on the other end. There was a squeak of metal on metal as her brother threw himself into the ancient desk chair that was next to his equally as old desk. “You gotta warn a man before you go sayin’ stuff like that.”
“Sorry,” she said quickly, and she meant it. The last thing she wanted was to cause her brother or her father any more pain. But the gnawing feeling inside of her had been almost inescapable before she’d found out who their mom really was. Now she knew the incredible truth, the doubt constantly pricked her like a needle in her brain. “I just… I think we need to know, is all.”
“It’s not gonna bring her back,” her brother said, suddenly sounding tired.
“Do you think I don’t know that?” she asked, frowning.
The sun was getting high in the sky, signaling that she was long overdue some sleep. But she didn’t want to rest without telling her brother what was on her mind. Even though they hadn’t always agreed, they had always been close. She hoped that would be enough, in light of her request.
“Look. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to pay for it, or be present for it, or even know the outcome of it if you don’t want to,” she said, hoping that by setting out the terms, her brother would be more likely to come over to her way of thinking. “But I need this, Ben. I need the closure. I can’t settle. Just keep thinking that there’s more to this whole thing than meets the eye. Can you at least understand that?”
Her brother was silent for a long while. If it wasn’t for the fact that she could hear his gentle breathing on the other end of the line, Bunny might have thought he’d simply hung up on her. When he still didn’t speak, she bit her lip.
“Ben?”
“Yeah?” His voice was weakened, as though from crying. Her heart imploded, and she wished more than anything she could just wrap her baby brother into a huge bear hug. She hated the thought of him alone in his apartment, lost in his grief. She was glad he had the Go-Go Mart to keep him going. It was more than their dad had.
