The rest of the day wore on awkwardly as Soosie and Myron went out of their way to pretend the other wasn’t in the room. Adam wasn’t sure if he should laugh or be irritated with the pair of them. But despite the side-stepping and other avoidance strategies, they still managed to get the main room cleaned. Adam had just dragged the last garbage bag to the back door when Paul hollered for him. It was beginning to be a fairly substantial pile they would have to haul to the dumpster early in the morning. David had prohibited them from unjamming any of the doors since various ones had been rattled throughout the weekend.
As Adam headed to the kitchen, he took a quick peek into the laundry room. Myron and Soosie had their backs to each other. Whatever hung in the air between them was thick enough to cut. Shaking his head, Adam backtracked to the kitchen.
After finishing the evening duties, the three teens had just returned to the laundry room when Olivia appeared in the doorway with a stack of towels and washcloths in her arms.
“I know y’all have been making do with spit baths in the bathroom since you got here, but I thought maybe a real, honest-to-gosh shower would feel good tonight.”
Welcome moans met her suggestion.
“Thought so. Who wants to be first?”
“Myron, you’re pretty much done. Why don’t you go first,” Adam said.
Myron pulled the blue duffel off the chair and dug out fresh clothes and his kit before following Olivia out of the room.
Soosie finished loading the dryer before digging out her plastic bag. She pulled the elastic out of her ponytail and ran her hand through her hair to fluff it.
Myron returned carrying his scrubs, wet towel, and kit. “Next.”
Soosie looked at Adam. He motioned at her stuff. “Go for it.” Adam and Myron finished folding a pile of sheets they had pulled from the dryer. Myron offered to put them away so Adam could be ready for his shower.
Adam grabbed his stuff. “I’ll wait up front,” he said.
Myron returned to the laundry room. He put his wet towels in the washing machine and left the door open to load everyone else’s. He dragged out the pile of dirty scrubs they had been kicking under the chair and loaded the small machine as well.
Soosie came in the room with her head wrapped in a towel. She tossed her bag, wet towel, and dirty scrubs on the folding table. Silently, Myron picked them up and placed them in the machines.
Bending over, she vigorously damp-dried her hair. Straightening up, she flipped it back from her face. Soosie balled the towel up and pitched it across the table into the open machine before digging in her bag and pulling out her comb. She began trying to get the comb through her wet hair. It caught in the snarls and, as Myron watched, she began to rip viciously at the tangles.
“Stop. Stop,” he said as he came around the table and caught her hand, forcing her to relinquish the comb. “You’re just making it worse. Let me do it.”
Soosie skewered him with her eyes. “Riiiight. You know about untangling hair.”
He pulled the chair out and lightly pushed on her shoulders from behind, forcing her to sit. “Actually, I do. Mom had no patience, and Lucy was a wigglebutt, so I usually combed her hair out…” His voice became so soft she almost couldn’t hear him. “Until there was none to comb.”
As he carefully lifted sections and teased each snarl down the length until the hair fell smooth, Soosie closed her eyes and just concentrated on the feel of his hands in her hair and on her back when they occasionally brushed it.
Finally he was done. She opened her eyes and saw he was holding her comb in front of her face. She reached out to take it. “You really loved your sister, didn’t you?” she asked, as she turned in the chair to look up at him.
“Yes.” That single word came from someplace so deep in him Soosie felt rather than heard it.
Soosie thought about her sister. Did she love Stevie? She disliked her selfishness and immaturity. She hated her for what she had done to Sammy. She resented her for always being able to manipulate their mother into letting her have or do whatever she wanted. She realized maybe she didn’t love her sister, at least not the way she supposed people should. Was that her failing or Stevie’s?
When Adam came in, Myron held out his hand for the towels. “Scrubs are in the other machine.” He added them to the load and started the washer while Adam finished loading and starting the other washer. Soosie put the chair back.
Without speaking, the three left the laundry room and headed up front. Myron stopped to turn the table lamp to low. Adam settled into the recliner while Soosie curled up on the loveseat. Myron pushed back in the other recliner.
Unlike the previous nights when they had fallen asleep almost before they had fully stretched out, slumber proved more elusive tonight as each of them wondered where they would be when tomorrow ended. Yet, despite the dread circling their thoughts, the physical activity of the day eventually swept them into sleep. Soosie awoke with a start. In the low light of the lamp, she could see Adam asleep when she looked over the end of the loveseat. She craned her neck back to see Myron. It gave her a weird perspective of his sleeping form.
Even though she knew it was irrational, she had been afraid to think about the kiss she had shared with him while the two young men were awake; like they would be able to see into her brain or something. Now she closed her eyes and relived it.
She had had her share of kisses: awkward, sloppy, aggressive, perfunctory. Myron’s was different. It felt like the kind of kiss a man, not a boy, would give. It made her feel both wanted and yet safe. How bizarre; the only times she actually felt safe were when she was around Myron. That was just wrong on so many levels, and yet there it was.
She opened her eyes and watched the reflected headlights of a passing car roll across the room’s ceiling. When they disappeared, she felt chilled. Tomorrow was the big unknown and she was scared. How she hated to admit it even to herself. She curled tighter into herself, as though if she made herself small enough, tomorrow would pass over her without noticing her existence.
Tears gathered behind her eyelids. All she wanted was to feel like everything would be okay; that she would come out on the other side safe and whole. She needed…she needed arms.
She got up and moved to the space between the end of the loveseat and the recliner Myron was sleeping in. She watched him for a moment. Then, sitting on the arm, she swung her legs around and slid her body down beside his.
When he roused, she put her fingers over his mouth. “Shhh,” she whispered. Slipping her hand down to rest on his chest, she wriggled until she could nestle her head on his shoulder.
He answered by placing one hand over hers and wrapping his other arm around her.
She sighed deeply and slept.