Melting [Vance Hopper]

2

The rest of the week is like routine. Vance and I don't speak to each other again. Mom says she doesn't have enough money for me to buy groceries because she has so many bills to pay and she just bought Elise new winter boots after her old ones got lost.

Mom suggested I get a job and now I'm sitting across the manager of Al's Pancake House for an interview.

I answer her questions blandly and easily. Just basic stuff like: what hours I'm looking for, do I work well under pressure, do I have any experience in this work area? To which I answer: any time after 4 on weekdays (I let her know I will work as many hours as I can on the weekend), I absolutely do, and I do not.

She also asks me why I'm interested in this job. Instead of telling her it's because I need the money, quite desperately, I lie and tell her it's because I'm an excellent cook and am great at socializing. I tell her that I'd be an excellent fit for the job and they'd be lucky to have me.

To that she replies with, "You can start next week on Monday."

~

On Sunday, I sleep in until 10. Mom's at work and Bonnie's at daycare. I'm asleep until Elise wakes me up and tells me she wet the bed again. I groan and throw the blanket over my head.

I take the sheets and her blanket off the top bunk and shove them in the washer, holding my breath the entire time, and tell her to wait for me in the bathroom so I can take her  a bath.

When Cecily and Dusty wake up at 11:30, I put breakfast on the coffee table in the living room. Eggs and bacon with toast. I open the curtains despite the gray weather outside and turn the TV on so that they can watch cartoons while they eat.

I'm in the middle of doing the laundry when Dusty comes to complain to me that Elise keeps touching him with her foot.

At 1 in the afternoon, when I have the laundry done, the dishes washed and put away, and all the beds made, I sit on the couch behind everyone and tell Elise to sit on the floor in front of me so I can do her hair. I split her hair into two parts and start braiding. On the TV, a green cartoon cat knocks some milk off the table and its cartoon owner scolds it.

Mona taught me how to braid when we first started middle school. We practiced on Elena Ramos, who had the longest and thickest hair in our grade at the time.

When her hair's done I tell her to get dressed and when she leaves I tell Dusty to change, too.

Elise sits in front of me without saying anything and I start braiding her hair, as well.

"I'm so tired of braids," she groans. "You always do that. Don't you know anything else to do?"

"Last time I tried to do pigtails on you, you threw a fit and said pigtails were for babies."

"That's because they are!"

"Well then what do you suggest I do with your hair, then? You have a humble hair-dresser at your service," I smile.

I came out with pin straight, caramel-colored hair like my mom and like Dusty. Cecily and Elise came out with tight, jet-black curls, like Dad. Mom and I have no idea how to handle them.

"I want half up and half down."

"Ah," I say. By this she means she wants the top of her hair in a pony, and the bottom to be left alone. "Yes ma'am."

When all the kids are ready I tell them to get their shoes on and sit on the couch to wait for me. I rush through getting ready, I comb my fingers through my hair in front of the mirror and pull on my jeans, shoes and a white turtleneck under my coat.