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She has just caught up to the girl when Rae tugs on my hand and asks to be picked up.
I oblige her and ask, “Hey, who’s this girl Annie is talking to?”
“That’s Mandi. She’s really, really,reallyquiet.”
“Hmm, well, I think her daddy made her sad, so Annie is giving her a compliment. Want to give her one, too?”
“Okay! I don’t want her to be sad!”
“Neither do I!”
We get to them just as her dad reappears, looking annoyed.
He interrupts whatever Liv is saying with a growled, “Mandi,let’s go.”
I pin him with a flat look even as I extend a polite hand to him.
“Landon,” I say when his eyes switch to me. “We’re just telling Mandi she was a great reindeer.”
“She’s clumsy,” he counters without pause, without shaking my hand, and without his own introduction.
“No one’s perfect,” Liv interjects with an edge to her tone. I look at her and see she’s not even gracing the man with her gaze. She’s regarding Mandi as kindly as before. “Well, it was nice to meet you, and we hope you’ll come to Rae’s birthday party next weekend. It’ll be a lot of fun!” She holds up a palm. “Good job again on your song and dance.”
Mandi sniffles, but she smiles a tiny bit, too. She high-fives Liv as meekly as she replies, “Thank you.”
Her dad warns, “If I have to tell you one more time….”
Her smile goes away and she finally continues walking. Liv, Rae, and I tell her goodbye and that she was lovely tonight, and Rae picks up on Liv’s words about her coming to the birthday party.
When they’re gone, Liv turns to me and whispers, “I hope I didn’t get her in more trouble.”
I use my free hand to take hold of hers. “Yeah, but I’m glad you said some nice things to her. I’m sure she liked that.”
She smiles halfheartedly. “Hope so.”
I tell her about seeing them at the dance. It makes her feel better about talking to Mandi to know Rae and I reached out to her that time.
Rae starts saying she’s hungry, and we decide we’re ready to go. We find the teacher so she’ll know her student left with the right people, and then we head to the car.
At home, I bring my TV to their apartment and hook it up while Liv fixes little pizzas out of English muffins. We eat, get pajamas on, and then get set up on the couch to watch Netflix.
I’m pretty damn comfy with Liv snuggled up on my left and Rae snuggled up on my right, but they’re the ones who are asleep at the end ofInside Out.
Purely because they look so peaceful, I don’t want to disturb them, but we can’t all stay on this couch. Our backs would hate us in the morning. So I rouse Liv with quiet murmurs and rubs of my hand along her arm, and she drowsily agrees that I should move Rae to her room.
It takes me a minute to get it done because I try to be careful, but I succeed.
I’m pulling Rae’s door halfway shut, having just settled her under the covers, when I hear her make a soft, whiny little sound.
I pause and listen, and the sound comes again.
A moment later, I hear her whimper hoarsely, fearfully, what sounds like, “Mommy,no. Don’t spank me.”
The words trigger a memory: Liv telling me long ago about what kind of parent her sister was. Among being cold in such ways as never complimenting Rae, getting on to her for the most trivial things, and making her be quiet when she got the least bit excited about something, Kelle also spanked her daughter a lot.
‘She was always threatening to whip her ass, and she delivered most of the time,’I remember Liv saying.‘And you know Rae—she never deserved that.’
I recall now that Kelle also let her boyfriends yell at and spank Rae. Not long-term boyfriends, either, Liv said. Just whatever guy was around, even if they weren’t around long enough for Liv to remember their names.
