A Symphony of Cicadas (8 page)

“Muffin!  Mr. Tinkles!” Edna cooed down the hall
.
She clicked her tongue against the top of her mouth, creating a quick sound that echoed around the house
.
From
a
back room we could hear a drop to the ground and a low meow.

Edna had described to us two balls of playful fluff when telling us about her
cats
.
The way she talked about them, we were expecting adorable kittens that would chase string if we dangled it in front of them
.
What came out of the back room was the exact opposite of this image
.
Two emaciated cats emerged, hurrying over to Edna for food and affection
.
One
of them had part of its ear missing, one of its eyes closed up tight, and an obvious limp as it walked.
Its dark fur was brushed well, but missing in several patches as if it had
been
scratched bald
.
The other, appearing
a bit
younger than the first, had short black hair all over, except for an orange patch over its eye
.
Its tail stuck straight up, curved in a crooked hook at the end
.
While the first cat ignored us
altogether
, this second cat took turns swirling at our feet
.
I bent down to pet it and recoiled at the feel of its greasy hair.

“Look, Muffin likes you,” Edna
exclaimed, bringing her hands together in glee
.
Muffin rolled over on her back, arching up as she rubbed her fur on the carpet. I took this as an invitation to scratch her bel
ly
, reaching down to pet the exposed underside of the cat
.
Muffin didn’t want any part of that,
and she reached
up
in a sudden motion,
leaving me with a bright red scratch on my arm
.
“Oooh, Muffin
.
Did the wittle girl scare you?” Edna chirped, scooping the cat into her arms
.
“That’s a bad wittle kitty
.
Don’t scwatch Wachel, she’s our guest.” Meanwhile, I rubbed at my arm to help the swelling go down, afraid to let on how much it hurt as I bit back the tears
.
“Sorry
,
Rachel, she just gets excited when we have company
.
Would you like a cookie?”  I nodded, sure that a cookie would make the sting of the scratch less noticeable.

Edna dropped the cat to the floor and walked into the kitchen to get us each a cookie
.
Muffin sat where she landed, licking herself and eyeing me
with a wary look
as if
she were the wounded one, and not me
.
Mr. Tinkles, on the other hand, was
ly
ing
on his side in a patch of sun
.
He was either
sleeping or dead
.
I was tempted to walk over and nudge him with my shoe to see which one was true, but decided too much of my foot was exposed in my saltwater sandals to risk another swipe at my skin.

“Here you two go,” Edna said, placing a napkin with a single cookie on the countertop for each of us
.
She also poured us each a
small glass of milk
.
I followed Sara to the chairs that lined the countertop and she helped me to get up on a tall barstool before climbing onto her own
.
I picked up the cookie
with eager anticipation
, taking a mental note how many chocolate chips there were in it
.
And then I bit down
.
Rather than a moist, delicious dessert, the cookie
crumbled
like sawdust in my mouth.
It tasted just as bland as sawdust, as well.

“It’s my mother’s recipe,” Edna boasted with pride.

“Did your mother make them?” I asked the elder
ly
lady, receiving a sharp kick from Sara under the counter
.
But I
real
ly
was curious, wondering if they had been made a long time ago to be this horrible
.
I had never
tasted
a bad cookie before, always spoiled by my mother’s baking skills
.
In my mind, it just
wasn’t
possible for a cookie to taste anything but delicious
.
While Sara placed her cookie on the countertop and
took a delicate sip of
her milk, I kept nibbling at the edges of my cookie
, trying
to find the one spot that would taste delicious
.
It was no use;
I kept coming away with mouthfuls of sawdust.

“Oh dear, no
.
I made those months ago and just pulled them out of the freezer
.
That way they always taste fresh.”

“I think my mother wants us to come home,” Sara
blurted out
, taking my hand and pulling me to come off the barstool.

“So soon?  Well then, the kitties and I will be here the next time you come to visit,” Edna said, leading us through the pink entryway into the fresh air outs
ide
.
Both of us
took a deep breath in
once the door
had
closed
, replacing the stench of the house that filled our lungs with the smell of sunshine and fresh grass on the wind
.
Sara looked at me.

“Never again,” she said in her seven
-
year
-
old wisdom
.
I
nodded
in
solemn
agreement.

****

Edna
had just finished
telling John her version of our childhood when Sara spotted them on the couch.

“Oh Edna,” she gushed
.
“My mother has been eyeing your gladiolas and wondering how you got them to bloom so well
.
She says it’s how much you water them, but I bet you do something special to make them so pretty. Do you mind sharing your secret with her?”  Edna’s eyes widened as she got up with determination.

“Everyone knows it’s what you do with the fertilizer
.
Honest
ly
Sara, I could teach you a thing or two in your little flower business
.”
She made a beeline for my mother across the room
.
I watched with amusement as my mom, who had invited the old lady, looked like a deer caught in the headlights
.
Leave it to my mom to invite someone none of us care
d
for just to prove she was the perfect hostess
.
A few moments later, she shot Sara a dirty look across the room as Edna waved her arms
while giving a rapid lesson to our mother
.

“She’s either describing how to compost the soil, or how to swim across the Pacific while being chased by rabid sharks,” John said
.
Sara covered her mouth in silent laughter.

“That woman is
bat-shit
crazy
.
You know that she had her cats stuffed when they died?
” Sara giggled. “
They now stand at attention on her kitchen counter
.
Creepiest thing ever!”  She handed John a plate
that held the quiche my mother on
ly
made for company, along
with various appetizers
that threatened to cover it
.
“Sorry, I didn’t know what you wanted so I got you one of everything
.”
He nodded
,
putting a cracker with a small shrimp on it in his mouth
.
He
took a long time to chew his food
before swallowing,
and then moved
a few of the other pieces of food around on the plate before setting it on his lap.

“I don’t real
ly
have much of an appetite
these days
,” he
apologized
.
“But maybe I’ll want to eat this in a little bit.”

“It’s ok
ay
,” Sara said
.
“What about Sam?” she asked
.
They both looked at him on the couch where he had been pretending to sleep
.
Sara’s younger daughter, Li
ly
, was trying to wake Sam up without actual
ly
telling him to
.
As she placed a few of her toys on his chest, he inhaled
, raising his chest in deep exaggeration
to knock them off and not give up the ruse
.
A
gain, she picked
up
all the toys and
lined
them up on his chest
once more
.
Sara started to get up to lead her away, but John stopped her.

“He’s a big boy,” he whispered to her. “Besides, this is more interesting than anything else going on here, even more than Edna describing her cats
.”
In a final act of frustration,
Li
ly
grabbed
one of her tiny dolls
and slammed
it on Sam’s
chest
.
He sat up with a start at the action, glaring at John and Sara who were doing their very best to hide their laughter from the mourning room
.
Conceding defeat, he swung his feet over the side of the couch and listened as Li
ly
garbled the rules of play to him, handing him a doll so they could have a tea party
.
He glanced sideways at his father, his face a determined expression of bitterness before he gave in to an amused smirk
.
He then turned back to Li
ly
and followed her directions on how to drink tea from a plastic cup
with proper etiquette
.

“You know, he real
ly
is a good kid,” Sara said in all seriousness
.
John nodded in agreement.

“He has a good heart
.
Your mom tells me it’s just his age that makes him so hard to reach
late
ly
,” he said
.
“But sometimes I don’t think I know what I’m doing with him
.
He
can be so cold and distant at
times, and is almost more of a stranger than he is my son.”

“I know I was a rotten kid to my parents around
his age
.
That’s about when I became serious in my discovery of boys
.
About the same time, my parents turned into rambling idiots
.
They didn’t ful
ly
regain their intelligence until I moved away,” Sara laughed.

“I think that gives me about
four
more years until I can claim to know anything about raising a kid, right?” John joked
.

“
Something like that
,” Sara said
.
“Has he found a girlfriend yet?”

“Not sure
.
At least, he won’t tell me
.
I’ve heard him speaking to
someone who
I think is a girl when he’s on his
videogame headset
.
Normal
ly
he’s loud and crass when he’s on the system
.
But when he’s speaking to her, he talks much
kinder and has more patience
.
However, when I asked him about it he just shrugged me off.”

“He’ll come around,” Sara promised
.
“After all, he’s going to want to know what to do once things get serious.”

“Maybe,” John said, lacking conviction in his voice
.
“He acts like he has everything all figured out, and I’m just in his way
.
He’s been like this since his mom and I split up
.
In fact, he didn’t start breaking down the walls until I met Rachel
.
But now that she’s...” he broke off as tears entered his eyes once again.

“It’s ok
ay
,” Sara whispered.