Goodbye Earl(28)

“As far as I know, she needs them for her back, Ada. She says she’s in pain all the time.”

“Yeah, but there’s physical therapy and she never does it; there are other things she can do. Seems like half the people in this town are addicted to pain pills and I…” Her voice got softer and softer until she stopped.

“Well, maybe she’ll listen if you talk to her. She won’t listen to me,” her dad said.

Ada stood and went upstairs to her parents’ bedroom.



Her mom was in a white ruffle sundress, softly snoring on top of the duvet. All three windows were open, breezing the dress fabric and curtains so prettily Ada stopped to watch.

Not even the rest of RACK knew what Ada’s mom had been like lately. Grayson knew, but she’d been keeping some of it even from him. She hadn’t told him about the time last month when she held her mother’s hair back at eight in the morning because she’d taken pills without breakfast. She hadn’t told him yet that she knew her parents didn’t sleep in the same bed anymore. Ada didn’t want to talk about how she resented how much her dad had checked out; her brothers had checked out too. Neither of them lived in Goldie anyway, and soon enough, Taylor—who had been so hyperfocused on her wedding for the past year she barely noticed anything—would be moving a couple hundred miles away too, leaving Ada alone with the burden of looking after her parents, on top of her own family, and the Plum empire.

Ada stared at the curtains and listened to the Goldie street sounds drift up—the church bells ringing, the crescendo of a motorcycle growl, a mockingbird cycling through its song. She planted herself on the corner of the bed and said, “Shit,” under her breath.





2004


8





Ada had proposed they have a big dinner under a white tent in her backyard instead of going to one of the fake-fancy chain restaurants on prom night. The caterers were busy in the kitchen, and RACK was upstairs in Ada’s capacious pink-and-white bathroom getting ready.

“Caro, Grayson swears Will knows what a corsage is. He asked him, like, five times and I told him to make sure it had some yellow in it to match your dress. Let’s see if he can follow directions,” Ada said. She leaned closer to the mirror with her mouth slightly open and put on her mascara. Caro was next to her, brushing powder across her face. The RACK mix CD they’d made together was on repeat in Ada’s boom box on the floor—Usher, Mariah Carey, Tim McGraw, Christina Aguilera, and and and.

The girls were in their robes. Kasey had just shown up with her dress in her hand, backpack slung over her shoulder. Her stepdad must have been going through one of his more chill phases, because she hadn’t been talking about him as much, and she’d been sleeping at home all week, not crashing with any of them. Never one for shyness, Kasey stripped completely naked, replacing her regular underwear with her special-for-prom matching underwear before putting on Ada’s other robe, since she’d forgotten her own.

“I think Leo saw him picking it up from the florist, but Leo’s such a hyper storyteller sometimes it’s hard to get information in any sort of linear order. I’m pretty sure he mentioned seeing Will inside or outside of the florist doing…something,” Rosemarie said. She was piling her hair on top of her head and then letting it fall, unable to commit.

“Half-up, half-down,” Kasey said to her. Ada met Rosemarie’s eyes in the mirror and nodded in agreement.

“I feel pathetic that you had to round up someone for me to go with. Why can’t I have a normal prom experience like the rest of y’all?” Caro asked, snapping her compact closed.

“They’re going with their boyfriends,” Rosemarie said with a bobby pin between her teeth. She tilted her head toward Ada and Kasey. “My whole situation is weird. But! We’re gonna have a good time anyway, damn it. You and I should’ve gone together, Caro. Screw it,” she concluded. She rattled around in the box on the counter for another bobby pin.

“Yeah, screw it. That’s totally what we should’ve done,” Caroline said, making her eyes big. One of them was mascaraed and lined; the other wasn’t.

“Ada, do my eyes,” Kasey said, holding up a tube of liquid eyeliner and handing it to her. “Look, y’all, this is our last big thing together before graduation and before Rosemarie and I leave Goldie, and it’s going to be awesome. Y’all look beautiful, and look at this.” Kasey went to the open window and pulled back the curtain. The spring wind was light and warm; the sun was hanging out over the hills. Some of the caterers were lighting the hurricane lamp candles; others smoothed out the white tablecloths. The air twinkled. “Best night, bitches. Period,” Kasey finished. Rosemarie and Caro said yes at the same time and jinx at the same time, which set them off laughing. Kasey moved to put her butt on the counter and Ada got in front of her.

“Close your eyes,” Ada said.

*



Ada’s mom had forgone the professional photographer after Ada assured her it wasn’t necessary, and now she was in the front yard behind the camera, snapping plenty of pictures of the girls and their dates. Ada, in cotton-candy pink. Kasey, wrapped in blue. Rosemarie dripped in purple next to Caroline’s canary yellow. Caroline’s wrist was encircled by the white-and-yellow roses that Will had shown up with, and the girls were happy and smiling, standing in front of their dates in traditional, cheesy prom poses, then some individual pictures and silly shots. Rosemarie’s and Kasey’s moms stopped by to take some pics of their own, and so did Grandma Mimi.