Mer Tales 01 - Everblue

her glass of red wine into the air, and everyone followed. “I’ll drink to that.”
    “ Salud!” we all said in unison.
    “ So, Ashlyn,” Mom said while cutting her noodles with a knife. “You came into the store and asked about Jack’s today? Did you find out why they weren’t opened?”
    “ No.” I set down my glass of milk and swallowed my bite. “No sign or anything. They were just closed.”
    “ Hmmm. That’s weird. They usually let me know if something’s up. I hope they’re open tomorrow. We’ve got customers interested in the Tessie tour.”
    I scoffed. “I’m not surprised. This was bound to happen. Jack is kinda unpredictable.”
    Mom stopped mid-bite and stared at me. “What do you mean by that?”
    I squinted back while visions of the past floated by—his booming voice, the crash of broken glass, Tatchi’s anguished cry. “You know. He’s an—” I glanced at my sister’s huge inquiring eyes and tried to think of a way to disguise what I wanted to say. “A-L-C-O-H-O-L-I-C.”
    Dad looked upward and mouthed the letters.
    “ All colic?” Lucy wrinkled up her nose. “Ewww.”
    “ You don’t mean—?” Mom stopped when I opened my eyes really huge to say “shut-up.” She squinted. “Ashlyn, that’s quite an accusation—”
    I dropped my fork. “Don’t you remember what happened? When he got upset—when I asked if Tatchi could spend the night? You told me he was one.”
    “ I did?” She looked to Dad, who finally caught onto the conversation. She shrugged. “When? Just recently?”
    “ No. It was a couple of summers ago. Her dad broke the glass hutch with his fist! You seriously don’t remember? I told you and you said that was probably what was wrong.”
    Mom looked at the table and pressed her lips in a line. “I must have been mistaken. Jack appears a little gruff, but we’ve been friends for years now. He’s an upstanding businessman and a gentleman. I highly doubt he’s got that kind of a problem.”
    “ Does colic mean he’s got a lot of gas or something?” Lucy asked.
    “ Garlic cleans you out. That’s what it does,” Gran said with a bang of her knife against the table, obviously not wearing her hearing aid again.
    Everyone chuckled but Mom.
    “ No one is colic and I couldn’t agree with you more about garlic, Mom. But I think we need to change the subject. We’ll talk about this later, Ashlyn.” She gave me a stern warning look to drop it. “Anything exciting happen at school today?”
    Lucy answered, assuming it was her turn, starting on her regular banter. I pursed my lips and pushed the meatball around my plate—slightly nauseated.
    The summer I’d met Tatchi, back when we were only ten, I’d invited her to spend the night. In excitement, we ran to her house to ask her parents’ permission. To be polite, per my mother’s instructions, I waited on the porch for the answer. But instead of the “yes” we’d expected, her father burst into a rage and punched his hand into a nearby cabinet, shattering the glass door and a shelf full of china. My feet hit the pavement as I burst into tears. When I told Mom what happened (after she calmed me down, of course), she simply responded, “Poor thing. Her father must have a drinking problem.” At the time, the statement made absolutely no sense.
    But after I got older I figured it all out. The fact that Mom claimed she didn’t remember the incident angered me. She could say now he was upstanding, but she wasn’t there. She didn’t see how mad he got.
    “ Can I be excused?” I blurted.
    Mom scanned my plate and then locked eyes with me. “You’ve barely eaten and your sister is sharing. Once we’re finished, you can be excused.”
    “ But she’s always talking. She never stops talking!” I stood up and suddenly wanted to throw something. I needed air. “I don’t feel very good.”
    With fast strides, I headed for the door.
    “ Ash—”
    I slammed it behind me before she could finish. She had a lot of nerve.
    Marching away from the house, I tugged at my flimsy cardigan sweater and squished across the slushy ground, wishing I had something more on my feet than my slip-on Keds. Outside of the swath of light from the porch, I stood and stared at the lake. The smell of snow lingered in the air as dark clouds salt-and-peppered the evening sky. The creek serenaded me in the distance, but all I wanted to do was scream. Behind me, the door opened and shut, and someone traipsed down the