Sisters in the Wind(79)
“A few weeks ago,” I told her. I shook my head. “She OD’d.”
“No way,” Lexi said with incredulity. “No. Fucking. Way.”
I started to cry. Lexi hugged me and started crying too.
“Joy!” Lexi shouted over my shoulder. She kept calling out until Joy appeared. She had already taken her bedtime shower and changed into the oversized Sex Pistols T-shirt that served as her nightgown.
Lexi repeated everything I had told her. Joy flung herself at us. We held each other and cried. I wasn’t sure how long we stood in the middle of the bedroom like that. Eventually, Missus entered the room, trailed by Jasmine, who must have alerted our foster parents.
“Girls,” she said, taking hesitant steps toward us. “You heard about Tonya.”
Lexi broke from our group hug to be held by Missus.
“I know. I know,” Missus cooed.
After a few minutes, she spoke to all of us.
“Mr. Hoppy and I just learned about it as well. I’m so sorry, girls. We were trying to figure out how to tell everyone. How did you find out?”
Lexi answered. “Lucy found her obituary.”
“I am so sorry you found out that way, Lucy. Please forgive me for not telling you right away.”
Missus held out a hand, which I gripped as a way of accepting her apology.
“I am forever grateful to Tonya for my grandson. We all wanted her to have a good life.”
After everyone left and it was just Lexi and me, she wanted to talk about Tonya. We got ready for bed. I listened for a long time. Lexi had so many stories about Tonya. Most were silly—Tonya teasing Boyd; Tonya doing a spot-on impression of Mister; Tonya singing karaoke with a foster named Maisie.
“Lex, you’ve been here the longest,” I said. “How many girls is that?”
Lexi talked with her hands. She pointed toward the other double bedroom, naming different combinations of girls. When so-and-so was here, this one and that one were in there.
At the mention of Christina I took a chance.
“Tonya mentioned Christina. Were they roommates?” I intentionally substituted Tonya for Boyd as the source of Christina’s name.
“Yeah, they roomed together until Christina took the single bedroom.”
“Pregnant?” I ventured.
“Yeah, right away. She and Boyd arrived around the same time. Talk about hot and heavy right from the start.”
“What was she like?” I’d felt a zing of excitement when Lexi mentioned Boyd of her own accord. Just as I had hoped she would.
“Basic,” she said before laughing. “Nah, Christina was all right. Big glasses like an owl. Pretty blue eyes. Kind of nerdy.”
“Nerdy like me?” I offered.
“Different nerdy. You’re book nerdy. Christina was gamer nerdy.”
“Gamer like Yahtzee?”
“No, nerd.” Lexi laughed again. “Like Game Boy nerd. Mario. Yu-Gi-Oh! Pokémon. Kingdom Hearts.”
“Ahh. I get it now.” I laughed along with her.
“Do you now … nerd?”
Christina got pregnant by Boyd. She was into Pokémon. It confirmed that Boyd’s trinket box was, indeed, filled with mementos of his sexual conquests. Well, except for Diego …
Unless you considered Boyd’s murder of Diego to be a conquest that wasn’t sexual. Except that it kind of was. Not sexual as in having sex with Diego; rather, Boyd’s conquest was the elimination of a sexual competitor.
* * *
Devery worked at a gas station in Alpena. Bruce would go to her place one or two nights during the week. She came by on the weekends, always in time for dinner. On Sundays, she’d stay all day and not leave until dark. She and Bruce played video games in his room. Sometimes I’d stop by, but not too often. I didn’t want to be a nuisance during their time together.
Their relationship seemed to be going well. Bruce definitely had his quirks, but she seemed to take things in stride. There was a new video game coming out the third week of October, so Bruce told her he wouldn’t be over at all that week. He planned to work as little as possible and play Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Burning Earth day and night. He’d be back to normal by the weekend, so they would resume their usual dates.
I took advantage of the opportunity to ask Bruce and his mom for permission to borrow his car and go to Gaylord for the day. My feet felt tight in my shoes. Jennifer said her feet grew one full size during pregnancy. So, a shopping trip for new sneakers, work boots, and snow boots was in order. I hardly ever spent money, but it seemed a necessity in the situation. There was a new movie out about Queen Elizabeth I, starring Cate Blanchett. Lastly, I wanted to get a new phone because, as Devery said, my old phone “sucked ass.” I invited her along, but she wanted to work overtime while Bruce was “trapped in the Avatar-verse.”
As I was leaving, Missus recommended her favorite restaurant in Gaylord.
“If you go there, would you please bring back two orders of chips and green salsa?” she added, handing me fifty dollars and telling me to keep the change.
“For sure, Missus.”
It ended up being an odd day. While trying on new work boots, I walked over to the full-length mirror at the end of the aisle and waited for the elderly lady inspecting her appearance in pale-pink walking shoes. Suddenly overheated, I removed my flannel shirt. Pregnancy turned me into a potbellied wood stove—always blazing hot. I would’ve taken off my T-shirt and sports bra if I could. The silver-haired walker gasped.