The district suspended Seal for two weeks. If not for her mother interceding, it could have resulted in expulsion. The school required Seal to write an apology. They also suspended Jenn and Ellie. They were forced to write apologies and a 1000-word essay on fire safety. Javin volunteered to bring Seal’s homework to her.
Seal felt okay with him coming over after she learned he spiked Hadley’s juice with pepper sauce during lunch. He got away with it, like he got away with everything. “Revenge is best served cold, and extra spicy,” he told her.
“Couldn’t you have used one of your firecrackers on her too,” Seal said.
“We don’t want to kill her,” Javin replied, feeling a little frightened by Seal’s idea. It was about fun for him.
After Javin left, Seal waited for her dad to return home with a rare takeout dinner in memory of Beth. They would eat from her favorite restaurant, Taco John’s. He came back, clothes smelling like grease, carrying two bags, loaded with Tex-Mex stacked to the top.
Every decent sized town in South Dakota had a Taco John’s, but it was still a trek from their farm. Seal loved their quesadilla taco, but in honor of Beth she chose potato bites and crunchy chicken. Seal watched as her dad emptied the bag.
“That’s enough to feed seven people,” Seal said, as she watched it pile out high in front of her.
“You and the babysitter can have leftovers tomorrow instead of making a frozen pizza or mac and cheese,” her mom replied. Seal’s parents were attending the one-year memorial of the hayride accident.
Seal had declined when her parents asked if she wanted to go. Her mom gently prodded, but Seal did not want the reminder. She did not want to cry surrounded by strangers.
Her parents would stay the night in nearby Pierre. This would be their first time alone in years. They wanted time to decompress, and it would be better if Seal did not see them mourning again. All of them had cried plenty together over the past year.
Her father looked tired. He needed help at harvest time, but help was hard to find. Funding was slim. Mrs. Kipp would say his job was an act of passion and that’s why they stayed. But they knew others struggled far worse than they did.
“Let’s pray for Beth,” he said, and they each closed their eyes in silence. Beth’s chair still sat empty at the table. Seal used to sit Paintchip there, but her parents thought that was disrespectful. The buckskin doll sat on Seal’s lap instead. The vacant chair made Seal feel uneasy. But none of them liked the thought of the chair leaving the table, either.
“I heard it’s going to be another wet winter this year. Lots of snow.” Mrs. Kipp said. She placed two tacos and some of the potato bites on her plate.
“What else is new?” her dad said. “I have to get the snow blower working again.”
“Ritchie can help, I’m sure.” Ritchie owned the land next to them and he would come over and help for beer or the occasional pie as payment. Seal’s parents never drank, but they had an old mini fridge full of beer they kept locked up in the old barn. ‘Understand a person’s favorite currency,’ her dad reminded them all from time to time. Seal thought her mom’s favorite currency was her dad’s kisses.
“Dad, will you teach me how to snowshoe this year?” She dabbed her potato bites in a mixture of taco hot sauce and ketchup.
“Of course! It’s easy, Seal. I just have to remember where they’re stored.”
“In the attic,” Mrs. Kipp said as she grabbed a paper towel from the sink.
“You sure? It’s been years since we’ve used them.” Her grandad and dad used to snowshoe together before Grandad passed away five years ago. He was only fifty-eight. Grandad wore the traditional pom pom snowshoes. They looked like oblong tennis rackets. Her dad used a more modern style, purchased used from a local thrift store. Though older, her grandad could still out-walk her dad in deep snow.
“Can I look for them tonight?” Seal asked.
“Seal, you have at least a month or longer before it even snows,” her mom said.
“But Mom,” Seal whined. She wanted the distraction.
“We should spend as much time together as we can tonight,” her mom offered.
“You can look for them tomorrow,” her dad said.
She nodded in resignation.
After dinner, Seal helped wash the dishes, leaving them to dry on a dish towel next to the sink. The family watched Friday night TV, crammed on the couch. Seal and her dad voted for Wrestling. Mrs. Kipp allowed it for an hour before they switched to a big city cop show. Seal snuggled in against her dad’s belly. It became obviously larger, and softer, with age.
***
The following morning, Seal felt ill. “It’s just my stomach,” she said. Her muscles cramped up, like they fought with one another.
“We can cancel tonight,” her mom said.
“You don’t have to. I’m sure I’ll be okay.” Still another spasm hit her, but she hid it. She did not want the guilt of keeping her parents from saying goodbye to Beth. Deep in her heart, she knew she would never say bye to her sister.
In the late afternoon, Javin’s arrived with his mom. Javin jumped out of the rear door before she shut the engine off. His mom would attend the memorial with Seal’s parents. They agreed to let Javin stay the night. After Javin helped her at school, Seal felt more comfortable spending time with him. Although she still didn’t consider him a friend and she wasn’t exactly happy he would spend the night.
Javin’s mom inspected his overnight bag before they left. It did no good. He still managed to smuggle a load of contraband, including pepper sauce, a few oversized fireworks with bright yellow warning labels, a can of sardines, and normal items like towels, bottled water, and a couple of balls to practice juggling. Carrying these items made him feel whole. He hid them under the car seat and slipped them into his backpack during the drive.
Not long after Javin arrived, Seal’s sitter, Cora, followed in her own beat-up car. She was Ritchie’s grandniece, of high school age. You could tell from her clothing she wasn’t trying to attract boys. Her shirt had a giant Pokémon on it and less than five minutes from her arrival she talked about online games and raiding with far off friends. Seal didn’t understand all of it, but it sounded like Cora had a lot of fun.
Seal used her family’s computer only for study. Her dad owned a war tactics game, but she found it boring. She preferred watching him play and listening to him explain his strategy. She laughed when his armies were overrun, and he’d curse under his breath. “Don’t tell mom I said that,” he’d say. She’d nod.
Before Cora settled in, Javin started on her. “Do you want me to be your boyfriend?” Javin asked.
“Stop that, Javin,” his mom said. His mom called him over and instructed him how to be a polite guest.
As Javin passed by Cora, he winked and whispered, “We can discuss later.”
Once their parents departed, Cora heated the leftover dinner. The tacos came out soggy, but they made do.
After dinner, they played Monopoly. The TV droned in the background, but nobody paid attention.
“Ok, Cora, if I get all the railroads, you must become my girlfriend. If I get hotels on Park Place and Broadway, you must marry me. If I own a hotel, that means I am worthy of marriage.”
Cora adjusted her glasses. “If I have to marry you, then I get everything. Your railroads, your hotels. All your wealth. Then I will divorce you and keep all of it.”
“That’s not how it works,” Javin objected. “Do your parents have any useful livestock? Do you know how to milk a cow or shear a sheep?” He rolled his dice and landed on Chance; he pulled the card which sent him directly to jail. “No fair,” he said. He looked at Cora, “As my future wife, will you bail me out of jail?”
“You won’t be the first girl he asks that of,” Seal said.
“I won’t be the last girl that says no, either,” Cora joked.
Javin did not laugh and he rolled his eyes at them.
Cora rolled and landed on the railroad. “There goes your plan. Now I’ve got the railroad, and I didn’t have to kiss you.”
“Who said anything about kissing? I just need someone to pay for my own apartment.”
Javin captured Boardwalk and Park Place, but he had no money to buy houses. Every time someone rounded the board and came close, they hopped right over, frustrating him. He pondered how to distract them so he could steal money. The smelly sardines, maybe. But his bag wasn’t nearby.
“Let’s play checkers,” he said. “Winner gets to sleep on the couch and watch TV all night.” Cora rejected the terms, but she agreed to play to get out of Monopoly. Seal excused herself to go upstairs.
Her father had lowered the attic ladder for her. She tentatively climbed each rung, flashlight tucked under her arm. As she sifted through the junk, she found an old, dark green photo album. The photos were black and white and must have been of older family members. One was a class photo taken in front of a school.
Seal could barely make out the lettering on the placard held by two sepia-colored children. It said Indian Boarding school, but time and too many creases had scratched away the location. The teacher, a nun, hovered over the children. The nun’s name, according to the board, was Sister Hannah.
Under Sister Hannah’s name, a motto read ‘–ll the Indian to –ve the ma-‘. Seal wasn’t sure what that meant. She wondered if most of these photos were taken close to the reservation in the Badlands. She had never visited there and only knew some stories. As she flipped pages in the album, Javin ruined her concentration, running heavily up the stairs.
He yelled up, “I won the first game! Also, Cora wants to know if you’re okay up here?” He didn’t wait for a reply before running back down.
Seal continued to leaf through the album when she noticed a red streak on the ankle tucked under her leg. She rubbed it and the stain smeared unevenly across her palm. She felt a spreading wetness on her clothing. Fear pinched her stomach, and she felt faint.
She called down from the crawl space. “Cora, Cora, I need help, I’m bleeding.” She descended the ladder, leaving patches of red on each rung. She felt woozy and nearly collapsed at the bottom. Cora’s touch steadied her. Javin stared at Seal, eyes wide. A checker fell from his hand and dropped to the floor.
“Javin, go downstairs now,” Cora yelled behind her. Her voice was firm.
“But,” he said. She interrupted before he said more.
“Just go. Watch TV,” Cora said.
“Does this mean I can sleep on the couch?”
“No! Now go!” Her tone made him refrain from asking for anything else.
She walked Seal to the bathroom. Cora sat her down on the toilet and looked through the mostly empty cabinet. She did not find what she needed. “You’re having your period,” she said. “Is this your first time?”
Seal nodded.
“It will be okay. You will be fine. I’ll be right back.” Cora headed downstairs to the parent’s bedroom and came back with a white flat object. As she helped, Seal thanked her and gave her a long hug. Cora hugged her back. Seal still felt scared, but she knew all about menstruation cycles and that eased the panic.
Cora let Seal go to bed early and went downstairs to make sure Javin did not bother Seal. He was already asleep on the couch. Knowing it would be too much trouble to move him to the den, she let him sleep and took it for herself. She was close enough to hear if he started trouble. She just had to keep things in control until tomorrow. It had been quite a night, but at least she did not end it as an indentured servant to Javin. That boy was a handful.