Catching Rainbows

14

I made the mistake of taking Hailie to the birthday party that weekend, because I have no sense.

I didn't tell Hailie about it until we got to the park, because she would have gotten so anxious she would have had a meltdown beforehand. Nathaniel came too, and had helped me pick out the Lego set which I'd wrapped and hidden in the back of the minivan. 

There were a fair amount of people at the park grounds, but it was a sprawling expanse and the party was set up between the bathrooms and the playground. It was a different one than we usually went to, and Hailie was talking a mile a minute as we approached the many strangers, me carrying Maryanne, who was a Real Person. 

"Is this the park that when you were little you called the Crawdad Park even though crawdads are really called crayfish or crawfish and are a crustacean and they aren't ocean creatures? And they had them in the creek here? Can I see the creek? Are there any left? Did you bring a net? I don't have a bucket to keep it in. Probably we could find a container of some kind. But it will have to be clean and washed out so if it had potato salad or something in it we couldn't just put the crayfish in with it. Do you think they'll have blue ones? Sometimes there are blue ones. Or bluish ones. The real blue ones are mostly in Florida. But you can order them and they mail them, I hope they aren't scared in the mail. That doesn't seem very safe. What if their aquarium broke. Probably it's made from plastic."

This child never stopped talking. I tossed in an answer here and there, exchanging a half-amused look with Nathaniel.

Of course right then I noticed Keith was manning the grill, flipping burgers and trading insults with her oldest brother. I didn't even bother trying to keep the distaste off my face as I set the gift on the table next to him and looked around half-desperately for Chloe. 

"Luna? Can I go in one of the jumpy houses? Can Nathaniel come with me? Did you bring my paper with my name?" Hailie tugged at me. "Do we take our shoes off now?"

"Hold on," I said to her, and felt in my purse for it. Chloe's older brother was called away by one of the expensively-dressed mothers at the next table.

"Oh, hey, look who's here," Douchebag said with a leer, appraising me openly in my shorts and tank top, chest to toes and back again. "Kind of a waste, if you ask me," was his verdict, just loud enough for me to hear. 

I knew my mask of disdain was wasted on him. "No one did," I said blithely. My fingers located Hailie's name paper and I pulled it out, handing it to her. "Chloe around?"

He snorted. "Of course she's around." He paused to watch Hailie jump up and down while she flapped her hands. "Oh look; another 'special' one." He rolled his eyes, trying to get a reaction out of me.

Luckily Hailie was over by a cluster of balloons now with her brother, and hadn't heard him.

"Wow, you're a dick," I said quietly, my tone flat. I couldn't wait to help her get away from this guy. I wanted to push his face into the grill and hold it there. 

He smirked. "Not that you'd know anything about that, right?" 

"Luna, hey!" I heard, and turned away, my heart pounding. I focused on her figure jogging toward us. She gave me a brief hug when she reached us, ignoring him. 

"Hey," I said.

"Luna," Hailie called nervously. "I really want to have one of these balloons like the pink one or if not pink then red or orange because those colors are closest to pink! I hope everyone gets to have a balloon and I hope I get to pick pink because that's the one I really, really want and there are only two pinks!" Hailie was sounding worried and a little strained. "Do you think that's one I could have? Do you think you can ask?"

I started to answer but Chloe beat me to it. "You can have whichever one you want, Hailie. But do you want to leave it there and jump first in one of the bouncy houses?"

My little cousin ran to whisper into my ear loudly, "Yes yes yes yes yes! I'll take off my shoes! Tell her I'll take off my shoes! Tell her this is Nathaniel, and he's my brother, and he doesn't have autism but he's still important."

I walked my cousins a few steps toward the inflated rooms to get away from Keith before he said something else terrible. "Go ahead, have fun," I told them, and they ran. 

The mothers turned their attention on us and Chloe noticed. "Everyone, this is my friend Luna," she announced, plying me with a bunch of names I immediately forgot. 

They welcomed me and one over-dressed woman came over to put her manicured, jeweled hand out. "Luna. I'm Chloe's stepmom, Trinity. It's a pleasure to meet you, thank you so much for coming." Everything about her screamed money. "Have you met Chloe's future husband, Keith the Great?" She put her hand on his arm and smiled hugely at him.

Oh, c'mon. "I have," I said with false enthusiasm.

She looked at him like he hung the moon. "He's our hero, you know. Of course Chloe's told you the whole story."

I looked at her questioningly.

But Future Husband (vomit) was taking up the thread as he tossed some hot dogs down to sizzle, wagging one of them suggestively at me with a wink. "Gosh, Mrs. H, anyone would have done it," he said in a sudden switch to Golden Boy. 

"Our hero," the stepmother said, kissing his cheek.

He puffed out his chest. "Chloe left the door open when Joey was little and he fell in the pool. Luckily, I got there right after and I pulled him out and saved his life," he announced.

Saving her brother couldn't possibly have been the reason she stayed with him.

The stepmom went on gushing about him. "Keith jumped in fully clothed to save our baby! He kept his head in an emergency situation, and if he hadn't been there . . . " her voice trailed off meaningfully as she gazed at him worshipfully. "Well, we owe him everything."

Did she think someone would really take the time to undress if a kid was drowning? "Wow," I said blithely, glancing at the rows of food. Was that caviar? Jesus. One table had several signs reading "gluten free". "I'm glad Joey was okay."

"We're so lucky," she beamed. 

I had to get away from this. "It was nice to meet you; excuse me while I check on my cousin," I said to the stepmom. "Come with me?" I asked my friend.

She accepted gratefully and we walked away. "I'm sorry if he said something awful to you."

"Don't apologize." My voice was too emphatic because she looked at me, a little surprised. "It's not your fault he's an asshole."

"I know," she said quietly, twisting her infinity ring.

Time for a subject change. "Oh my God, was that caviar on one of the tables?"

She flashed a smile, and she was so damn pretty. "Only the best fish eggs for the kids," she said mockingly as we got to the biggest bouncy house, where Joey and Hailie played. "C'mon, it's for big kids too," she said, taking my hand and pulling me toward the blow-up ramp.

I went along more than willingly, all the while wondering what it would take to get her free of this loser.