Lila Blue (16 page)

That was easy. I filled two pages
before the timer went off, and I could have gone on for hours with what I
didn't
want to say. The others seemed just as easy with this prompt, and none of us
stopped when the timer dinged. We went on for several minutes until we finally
wound down.

Lila had us do the same thing, read
it to ourselves, underline anything we wanted to read out loud, and read. Lila
was the only one who read anything this round. She read, "I don't want to
say, I wish David were here."

We sat there looking at her, her
happy sad face and her braided crown of hair.

I wished she hadn't said it, but
there it was. I wadded up my papers and tossed them, making a basket. I cheered
for myself. Mark and Jamie threw at the same time and both missed.

I picked up the timer and set it
for ten minutes. I said, "Write about parents and children."

Lila smiled at me and we all
started writing. This time everyone shared.

I went first with, "I expect
too much of my mother."

Jamie read, "Children miss
their moms at night."

Mark read, "My parents pretend
they trust me."

Lila read, "When a baby is
born, a mother is born."

After that Lila opened her binder
and said, "I like to review the house rules at family meetings. Who wants
to go first?"

Jamie said, "
Impeccable
honesty.
That means telling the truth even when you are afraid you might
get in trouble."

Mark said, "
Choose
happiness here now
means talk yourself out of a bad mood because only now
is real."

I said, "
Support one
another
means giving each other space and time to get to know each
other." I glanced at Mark, but he was looking at Lila. In fact we hadn't
made eye contact with one another or spoken one word to each other since Jamie
made us say hello the first day.

Lila said, "
Clear complete
communication
means letting everyone know where you are and when you'll be
home, so we don't have to spend any energy wondering and worrying."

Jamie said, "
Clean, safe,
and sober
means make up your bed and stay off the drift logs."

We all smiled at him, and he had
the sweetest little proud look on his face, basking in adoration.

Lila said, "
Responsible
roommates
means each person is responsible for getting the food, water,
exercise, and sleep that they need to stay healthy."

Mark said, "
Solve problems
wisely
means we use respectful language even if we're mad."

"Good," Lila said,
nodding and smiling at us. "You remembered. I'm so proud of you."

"It might take some adjustment
for all of us to be sharing this time and space together," she said.
"We've gotten off to a wonderful start, and I'm confident we will all grow
together. Anyone want to say anything else before we end our meeting?"

We shook our heads no. Then one of
the cats walked across the table to Jamie and touched her nose to his. She
rubbed her shoulder on his chest and said, "Meow," only she stretched
it out to be four syllables long.

"Zoe likes to have the last
word," Lila said.

That ended our first official
family meeting. I was relieved no one put me under a microscope, and I was glad
Lila made it clear in a nice way that we could talk about anything as long as we
followed the house rules.

I decided the best way to deal with
Mark was to avoid him, and he seemed to have made the same decision about me,
so things went smoothly the first week. When Lila was home, she and Jamie made
it easy to be involved with one or both of them. Even when all four of us were
in the same room, things never got too awkward.

When Lila was at work, Jamie went
with her so he could visit everyone in the village, and Mark usually went off
on his own hiking down the beach or up one of the small nearby creeks. He
wasn't the kind of kid who had a gang of friends or one best friend he went
places with. He liked being with Jamie, but if he wasn't with family, he wanted
to be on his own. A lone wolf.

Lila's house wasn't the same now
that the boys were living there, so I didn't want to be there by myself when
Lila was at work. Instead I went to The Salty Dog, Kitty Lynn's, The Bakery
Boys, and Sunshine Books.

Visiting Sunshine Books was more
like hanging out in someone's home than being in a store. I knew Shelly would
love the Mills family who lived there, so I wrote about them in a long letter
to her.

Dear Shelly, I spent all
afternoon yesterday at Sunshine Books, a big store two doors down from Lila's
barbershop. When you stand on the sidewalk looking in, first you see a long
couch whose back is up against the window. There's a recliner chair on your
right and a padded rocking chair on your left, both facing the street at an
angle. In front of the couch is a wooden coffee table with magazines and coffee
cups, like in someone's house.

In the rocking chair is a pile
of black fur called GrumpaLump, which is Grumpy, the dog, and Lump the cat.
They sleep there twenty hours a day.

Kicked back in the recliner with
his feet up is Curtis. I wish I had a picture to send you. Curtis is 25? 30?
You'd rate him 99% gorgeous. Long blonde hair in a ponytail, blue eyes, and
beautiful dimples (cheeks and chin). He reads nonstop. He reads everything.
He'd be world famous if someone made him the National Reading Poster Boy.
Curtis wears thick glasses, which strangely enough make him even more
beautiful. You must see him with your own eyes. Come to Oregon!

Curtis is married to Marge,
who's the boss of the family and the store. She orders all the books, sells
them, supervises everyone, worries, and knows everything about everything. I
think she gets tired of her high energy, and she needs low energy types around
her, thus GrumpaLump and Curtis and now me.

So the kids. Molly is a very
mature ten. She's half my size and has dark wavy hair about an inch long. She
loves Lila to cut her hair, so she's over every two weeks for a trim. It sounds
weird, so you'd have to see it, but that little cap of curls looks really cute
on her. If she went to Sacramento, I guarantee she'd start a new fad.

While I'm on the subject, no, I
have not allowed Herbert to touch my hair, and Lila has never said a word about
it, so I am still wild and wooly. However, I'm so tired of salt and rain and
fog in my hair all the time I am considering other hair options, something
easier to live with.

Molly wants me to be her best
friend, and I don't have the heart to tell her I already have a best friend,
YOU. She's smart and sweet and loves to read the same stuff I do, mostly
fantasy and female-sleuth mysteries. We read our favorite parts out loud to
each other.

So, Molly and I hang out on the
couch being part of the window display along with GrumpaLump and Curtis, who is
Molly's stepdad, but more like one of Marge's kids.

I've saved the best of the Mills
family for last. Bradley. Molly's five-year-old brother Bradley is the weirdest
little kid I've ever seen. You know that school psychologist who came to observe
at our school? She'd haul Bradley off to a laboratory to observe him night and
day.

And what she'd see is Legos.
Bradley builds the most amazing sculptures with Legos. One whole wall of shelves
in the bookstore is reserved for his creations. It's almost full and he's
barely five! He's even sold some.

He's refused to go to
kindergarten next year because it would interfere with his work. They have him
set up with industrial sized bins of Legos and custom Bradley sized worktables
in a room behind the cash register area. It's called Bradley Land, and there
are visiting hours from 1-3 every day like in a museum, because people love to
watch him work.

Jamie comes to visit him almost
every day. Lila says they are kindred spirits. Jamie doesn't stay long though,
because he visits all the shop animals. GrumpaLump even come alive when Jamie
kneels to pet them.

Marge and Curtis don't mind
Bradley being weird. They love him and are proud of his "gift" and
are happy he's happy. Marge has to remind him to drink water and eat food and
use the bathroom, because he would never think of those things on his own. He's
too busy to bother with his bodily needs. The kid's definitely obsessed. But
the amazing thing is he's happy. I mean
really
happy. He sings and hums
and talks to himself and to his Legos, and it's all joyful.

Oh, he's not retarded or
anything. I think he's plenty smart. He can tell you all about his Lego work,
but he's not interested in discussing anything else, so our conversations have
been very short and one sided. Still, he has a fine vocabulary for his age. I
think lots of normal worried frightened angry unhappy kids would trade places
with him in a second.

That's all I have to report on
today's installment of Rainbow Village Voice. Stay tuned –or better yet, CATCH
A PLANE!

So, have your bodyguard cousins
killed each other vying for your attention yet? Maybe you should consider an
all girl school. I worry about you being able to get a good education if you
have to use all your energy fighting off boys.

I wish I could magically be
there or better yet you could magically be here, because I want to share my new
life in Oregon with you. Mark and I are avoiding each other. Everybody loves
Jamie. Lila is happy to have all her chickies under her wings.

Write and tell me all the wild
things you are doing with your family. I miss you. Love you. Cassandra aka
Sandy

A few days later, Shelly called.
"I love your letter," she said. "Do you really want me to
come?"

"Absolutely," I said.
"But wait until Mark leaves. He's not your type and he's having enough
trouble being civil to me."

"When then?" she asked.
"I told my folks there's a Reading Poster Boy I have to meet in Oregon.
They think I'm doing it for a school project, like interview a celebrity over
the summer or something."

"Shelly!" I laughed.
"I knew Curtis would get you here."

"My mom has to be in Portland
for a meeting the first week in August. She said I could come with her and we
can come for a few days around August ninth. She needs a break. Dad's in Peru
and won't be back until the middle of August. Mom's never seen Oregon, and she
loves the beach."

"I'm so excited," I said.
"I'll ask Lila and call you right back."

Lila said it would work out fine,
whenever they could come. She was happy for me.

The next morning, Monday, I woke up
knowing something unusual was afoot. The boys had to go by my bedroom door on
their way from upstairs to anywhere, and Jamie got up early. I heard him knock
lightly on Lila's bedroom door and go in. After a while I heard them both leave
by the front door. I got up to find out what was so important people had to
leave the house before the sun woke up.

I looked down on the beach from the
living room window, and Lila and Jamie were kneeling in the predawn gray
several feet away from what looked like a smooth rock that hadn't been there
the day before. I grabbed my jacket and hurried down the beach stairs to join
them.

The rock turned out to be a baby
seal, very new, maybe only a day or two old. It was crying and pulling itself along
in the sand to get to us.

Jamie seemed distressed, but he
kept his voice calm and quiet. "Grandma, she's hungry. Where's her
mom?"

The pup was light gray with darker
gray spots, perfectly camouflaged for being mistaken for a rock on the beach. I
don't know why Jamie thought it was a female, but we didn't question his
authority on the matter.

"The mom is out eating fish so
her milk will be good for the baby," Lila said. "She'll come back
tonight and feed her."

"But that's all day
alone!" Jamie said, and I thought the same thing but didn't speak. I
looked at the seal's big dark eyes and felt so sad. It was crying like a baby
puppy who was lost and lonely. I wanted to comfort it, but I knew you shouldn't
touch wild babies or they wouldn't smell right to their moms. Still, my heart
was breaking to see such a poor helpless little thing on a huge beach where
anything could happen. Dogs could come and hurt it before their owners could
stop them.

"This is nature's way,"
Lila said. "We can try to stand watch, but we can't rescue it. Most likely
the mamma will be back every night and when the baby is strong enough, it will
go out to sea with her. We don't need to worry. People know it’s against the
law to bother them. Most people are good and wise and kind. They won't hurt it."

She didn't sound very sure of
herself to me, and I certainly didn't trust everyone who walked by to leave it
alone. Some people would probably think they were at Disneyland and try to make
it smile for family pictures.

"I have to protect her,"
Jamie said. "That's why I woke up. I'm her guard."

He bowed Namaste to the pup and she
tried to follow him. He put out his hand and said, "Stay!" but she
kept mewling and trying to get to him.

"Come upstairs," Lila
told us. "It will be a few hours before there is any danger. She'll wear
herself out following us if we stay down here. Come."

Jamie could see she was right, but
it tore him up to leave the baby all alone. It tore at my heart, too, but I
knew Lila was right to get us off the beach. We'd attract attention down here
so early.

Why did nature have to be so cruel?
Why couldn't the mother be smart enough to choose a safe place for her baby,
not a busy tourist beach? How could anyone survive like this?

Upstairs in front of the living
room window Jamie kept lookout. He could see the beach for nearly a block in
each direction, so he could run down and stop people if they were approaching
his baby seal. He was alert, quiet, and intense.