“I’m done,” I announce, pocketing the Post-it and picking the keys back up. “You ready?”
Alyssa nods, refilling Stan’s glass of water and giving him a little wave before joining me at the door.
Stan and I don’t bother saying goodbye to each other. We never do.
Back in my Mustang—purchased off Craigslist last summer for $1,500, which was probably too much considering its mismatched paint job, rattly transmission, and slightly sour smell—I steer toward the Dollar Tree, where I can probably get most of the stuff on my list with my employee discount. We’re nearly there when Alyssa gasps, staring at her phone. “Oh my god.”
“What happened?”
“They found a body in the river.”
“Who found a body in what river?”
“Some guy walking his dog out near Wilson Bridge, and the Stone.” I glance over and see her switching between various social media apps, where kids from school are already filming videos and snapping selfies from the bridge. From the animated way they’re talking to their cameras, I assume there are already a few dozen dead-body theories being crafted into hashtags.
Alyssa’s got her phone muted, and I can’t make out the auto-generated captions while driving, so I wait for her to fill in the details. “Oh, people are saying it’s not actually a body; it’s just human remains,” she says, clicking to a new video.
“What’s the difference?” I find a space near the front of the lot and steer in.
“A body is whole. Remains are, like . . . pieces, I think,” Alyssa says.
“Gross.”
“But it’s not like someone got hacked up,” she continues. “It seems like these remains are super old. Maybe even decades old.”
“Ah, so no one we know, then.” Pity. Could’ve been Dave. You’ve got to cross over Wilson Bridge to get to his house.
“Still pretty cool, though,” Alyssa says. She looks up at me, mischief in her eyes. “Want to go check it out?”
I point to the store. “I need to get groceries.”
“We can come back here after.”
“They’ve probably got the whole area blocked off anyway. We won’t even be able to see anything.”
“Let’s go find out.”
Chapter Six
LISA
“You want to go roller-skating?” Lisa asked, stretching out across her bed to turn down the radio, currently blasting Madonna. She glanced at Charlene, whose nose was adorably wrinkled as she focused on blowing a giant pink bubble with her strawberry Bubble Yum.
The bubble popped, and Charlene shook her head. “I’m kinda tired.”
Truthfully, so was Lisa. After Charlene had arrived with more supplies, they’d spent the rest of the afternoon slathering squares of poster board with blue and gold paint and piles of glitter, making signs for the bonfire. She glanced in the mirror over her dresser and lightly brushed her hand over the edges of her neat Afro, dislodging a few stray sparkles that fluttered onto her bedroom carpet.
Still, as tired as she was, it was Friday night, and she longed to go out into the world and do something fun. Something where she could hold Charlene’s hand and no one would think it was strange. Tomorrow was about her family and Shawn and keeping up all the appearances she needed to maintain, but tonight, it was just her and Charlene.
“A movie then?” Lisa suggested. “We haven’t seen the one about those kids who go underground yet. I’ve heard it’s good.” Plus, a darkened theater sounded really appealing at the moment.
Charlene shrugged, her eyes flitting over to the calendar tacked to Lisa’s bulletin board. “Sure, whatever.”
Lisa sat up, tilting her head. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Charlene stretched out her gum, twirling it around a finger before popping it back in her mouth. She wouldn’t meet Lisa’s eyes.
Lisa peered at the calendar to see what was so distracting to Charlene. “The brunch?” she guessed quietly.
Charlene sighed, pulling a Kleenex from the box on Lisa’s nightstand and wrapping her gum in it. She pitched it into the trash can in the corner as she flopped onto her back on the bed. Lisa dropped down beside her, their shoulders bumping against one another.
“It’s really not a big deal,” Lisa said, trying to convince herself as much as Charlene. Her family was going to brunch in the morning at Emerson’s Tearoom as part of a campaign photo op. Shawn was meeting them there. As Lisa’s boyfriend, he was already scheduled to be part of it, but the citizenship-award win that afternoon would definitely be a plus. The picture was set to accompany a profile of Lisa’s mom in the Stone Lake Gazette next week leading up to the debate.
“Lisa,” Charlene said softly.
“It’s just a stupid brunch,” Lisa insisted. Her stomach twisted, belying what she’d just said, but she kept her smile glued on.
“Is it?”
Lisa was quiet. She knew it was more than that. It wasn’t just eating pancakes and drinking orange juice while a local photographer snapped photos. It was the public picture they were painting of who their family was: two loving parents, one cherubic baby, two supportive teenage daughters, one award-winning boyfriend.
The perfect family.
“Everyone knows these things don’t really mean anything,” Lisa said, picking at the purple polish on her nails.
“If it doesn’t mean anything, then don’t go.”
“I have to go.”
“Then tell Shawn not to go.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” Charlene propped herself up with her elbow, a challenge in her eyes. “Give me one good reason why not.”
“You know why not.”
“Do you?” Charlene’s lower lip trembled, pink rising in her cheeks. Her emerald eyes shimmered.
Lisa reached up to trace a finger along Charlene’s jawline. “You know I’d bring you if I could,” she said softly.
“Would you?” Charlene’s hand closed over hers, and she dropped her head onto Lisa’s shoulder, their fingers weaving together. “I just feel so . . . invisible sometimes,” she said, her voice small.
“You’re not,” Lisa insisted. “I see you.”
“You just don’t want anyone else to see me.”
Lisa frowned, twirling a tendril of Charlene’s golden hair around her finger. “Do you want anyone else to see you? With me, I mean?”
Charlene sighed. “No. My parents would flip out.”
“Yeah.” Lisa still didn’t know how her own mother and stepfather would react. Better than Charlene’s parents, she thought. Or at least, she hoped. But there was only one way to find out, and she wasn’t ready for that yet.
“But you have this whole other life that you want people to see, and I’m not in it,” Charlene continued. “I just have to sit around waiting for whenever you can squeeze me in. And it’s never the important stuff. I only get the parts that don’t matter.”
“Are you kidding?” Lisa squeezed Charlene’s hand. “You get the parts that matter the most.”
“You know what I mean. In the paper next week, it’s not going to be me sitting next to you. It’s going to be him.”