AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She couldn’t have been more opposite from me.
“So the studio?” Sadie asked.
“Right.” I followed her through the sand, back toward the source of the music and party noise. We passed right by the spot where Diego was sitting by the fire, surrounded by three girls and a couple guys. They were laughing, having fun. And he refused to meet my eyes. I felt pathetic for digging for info from Sadie. I clearly wasn’t as interesting to him as he was to me.
April and I got back into her car, and she drove about fifteen minutes away to a well-lit street of shop buildings. Most of the storefronts were closed, but the upper levels were full of light.
Noticing me looking, Sadie said, “Most of the second stories are apartments, but Mom rents one for her art.”
“Is she an artist?” I asked. “Like full time?”
She nodded. “Mom and Dad mostly sell her pottery online and at craft shows, but they’ve done bigger projects too, like installations in new buildings.”
“That’s cool. My mom’s an artist too. Well, kind of. She makes digital prints to sell online. People buy them on T-shirts, coffee mugs, that sort of thing.”
“Nice. The art gene completely skipped a generation with me.”
“Same here. But I haven’t really tried pottery yet. Aside from that one bowl I made in second grade. Shoddy craftsmanship. Zero out of ten.”
Sadie’s laugh made me smile. It was the kind of laugh that started in her belly and scratched up the back of her throat. Completely unique, just like the rest of her.
We walked up a stairwell on the back of the building, and when we reached the door, I could hear music coming from inside. Something that sounded old and happy. Sadie pushed the door open, revealing one spindly woman with pink hair deliberately painting a dark red piece of clay, and a rotund man, spinning clay at a table, brown hair falling over his face and his hands covered in muddy water.
“Sadester,” her dad said, looking up. “You’re back early.”
Her mom cleared her throat. “Arlo, she brought a friend.”
The wheel slowed and he swiveled his head. If he’d been a DJ, the music would have screeched to a halt. Instead, “Love Shack” by The B-52’s scored the moment.
“This is April. She’s new at school, and the party was lame, so I thought I’d show her the studio.” Sadie turned and gave me half a smile. “Maybe help her make a replacement for that clay bowl from second grade.”
This place, these people, seemed to make Sadie come alive. I wondered if I’d only seen a part of her at school, but this was the real April.
“Welcome,” her dad said, wiping his hands on an apron at his waist. “I’m Arlo. This is my partner, Harini.”
The woman smiled, coming to shake my hand. “So nice to meet you, April. You know the origin of your name means ‘opening buds of flowers’?”
“I-uh—”
“Mom’s into the meaning of names,” Sadie explained. “She looked it up as soon as I told her about you.” She blushed as if she’d said too much.
“I’m also interested in belly dancing, personal finance, the lifecycles of hummingbirds, dog behavior, yoga... one can never have too many interests,” Harini said. “Now, do you really want to make a bowl or is there something else that interests you?”
I glanced around the studio, seeing racks of pottery, from simple coffee cups to intricate vases and jewelry. A memory of the clattering plate echoed through my mind. “Maybe I can make a coffee cup as a gift...”
Arlo stood up from his chair. “Great place to start. Let me get a new brick of clay.”
“And an apron,” Harini said.
Soon, I was outfitted with a paint-stained apron and sitting on a chair in front of the pottery wheel. As the clay shaped beneath my fingers, I couldn’t help but think of Harini’s introduction.
“So you said you’re interested in dogs...”
She gave me an instruction on moving the clay and said, “Absolutely. Our Bichon’s over there sleeping.”
I followed the tilt of her head and saw a small, fluffy white dog resting on a colorful dog bed.
“Why do you ask?” she said.
