Sandria cornered Winifred first, unsure who started any of this. I tried not to look like the agitator but…hey, I still wasn’t trying to be.
“I don’t think anyone knew what was going on, we just wanted to make sure no one else got hurt,” Sandria said. “But you should apologize to your sister?”
“What? No I don’t. She’s making this about nothing and can talk to Walker about it. Good night.”
“It’s 8PM.”
“And my phone’s charged, I’ll live.”
“I didn’t mean for any of that to happen,” I said.
“You usually bring out the best in my kids,” she said. “I’m sure there’s a way out of this. We…you know, even the Shaws wanted him to get some therapy. He’s just kind of angry and reckless when Jacqueline’s not around, and we thought he did something horrible to another girl.”
“I get it and all. Sounds impossible until you try.”
“Not with you.”
“Really?”
“Look, I…I think you’re really nice. And I’ll give you another kiss if you can make this work out,” she said. Her big brown eyes sealed the deal for me, but then again, I’d probably commit a felony for them too until Mr. Veracruz came to my aid. He usually stopped me from stupid decisions but not from Sandria.
Winifred was not ready for a conversation that night. And I wasn’t either. I crashed at home with a beer and yeah, a pre-recorded hockey game. Though Shane got me into watching more baseball too.
With a few texts from Sandria, I learned that she spent her weekends selling lemons at the community garden. I couldn’t pretend to go shopping anymore, not like this with her mom, but I’d at least find her.
Sandria wouldn’t lie to me. There she was on a sunny day, trying to fill Mrs. Diwan’s basket with lemons and other goodies from the garden.
“Look, you know why I’m here. Finish up with Mrs. Diwan and we’ll smooth this all out,” I told her.
“Sorry Ms. Goldwasser, but I am very busy and also, this isn’t my damn problem.”
“When your mom thinks it’s important enough to kiss me again if I fix this, then it’s everyone’s problem. Because it’s big.”
“Get me some sushi and I’ll talk. I need to tend to Ol’ Ms. Patterson’s apples,” she said. And she even left Mrs. Diwan hanging around the produce cart.
“I am not bribing you with sushi!”
“Oh god, I’m gonna have to bribe you with sushi.”
She didn’t even get sushi! The bistro had a visiting Japanese chef and she got yakisoba instead. Now me, I wanted some sushi. Winifred planted the idea in my head and slaughtered my paycheck (of course I had to get a wagyu piece!).
But at least Winifred stuck to her promises.
Winifred Holiday’s placement with Sandria may have been an oversight. But the new program for American Indian children was a smoldering dumpster fire before it began. Letting a non-native child into Sandria’s home was the least of their oversights.
She was surrendered to the state at a young age for reasons undisclosed. A lot of her family lived outside of the country (like Canada), quite a few of them had to deal with their own problems first, and after a failed adoption: it was Sandria’s turn. And she kept having to wait for buses with her social worker. He seemed to be an intern and Sandria didn’t know him.
Sandria was surprised when Winifred hugged her right after going through the door. The failed adoption must have affected her more than she thought.
Winifred rushed through her childhood story. Nothing was traumatic, just not a good fit. Her favorite sibling was Noam, if she had to be pressed about it. “Beauty and brains but I dunno what we’re using it for.” It wasn’t like she disliked Jacqueline or Walker, but no one at DCS forbade her from choosing a favorite.
I mean…really? Noam? He wasn’t even my favorite student…now that was Walker.
What started as innocent favorites turned into snubbing. Winifred admitted to starting it at the summer carnival, if unintentionally. She was a great roller skater and let it get to her head. Walker was less steady on his feet. When hunger struck and hot dogs were bought, she arrogantly ignored him.
She was the only child so far to join Sandria in her interests! Her being their mom had to make it uncool, and I thought Winifred would be the most sensitive to that. But her former adoptive family was a family of painting prodigies, with a history of being…hard…on their children for it. So I was glad that failed. Sandria was a good painting teacher, honestly to the point of being condescending. Her element was probably in teaching children.
And Winifred pushed Sandria to plant the lemon garden, though she didn’t start selling its wares until their lemonade stand failed. Sandria ended up being her only customer and even paid for “therapy”.
“Oh, and she insisted nothing was wrong.” Winifred still sneered about it to that day.
She was actually the first kid to make a friend as a child, pillow fighting with Shasta Northrop wherever pillows were to be found. Shasta would come back as Walker’s prom date and one of my students, if I could ever stop him in his tracks.
And like kids tended to do, she grew up. Older sister Chrystal decided to return to celebrate.
At some point as a fresh teenager, Winifred had gotten close with Nikki Matlapin. It was at a party thrown while Sandria was away to get yelled at by a social worker for wanting more funds. Or something like that. Maybe she had a dying uncle or a Grand Canyon trip instead. No one got punished, no one suffered ill effects from the party, and the neighbors didn’t complain. There weren’t any to begin with!
Nikki, besides having big hair and failing algebra (Mr. Veracruz sends his regards), was not a girl of much interest. Her surroundings interested the teacher gossip circle a lot more. She lived in an abandoned motel. She had a niece and a nephew around her age. Her family spent a whole summer fireproofing the house because they believed a fortune about her eldest sister dying in a fire. Darleen was still kicking around and on the wrong side of 30.
But I couldn’t judge being in a weird family. Nikki behaved and even got along with Mr. Veracruz outside of failed classes, since he lead the school’s GSA.
We had a lot of gay students. Maybe that was why they hired me. So Winifred and Nikki kissing in the park and getting caught by Ms. Price was…not news.
Hey, just remember to do your homework instead of making out in movie theatres or whatever kids these days do.
They were much more comfortable hanging out at the Matlapin’s “house”. The quotes made sense if you drove there, pulling into what looked like a dingy motel. It was a dingy motel, invested in by the senior Matlapins until the grimy facade turned even worse. They couldn’t even afford to fill the pool, and eventually the whole extended clan settled there.
The motel’s former lobby was fashioned into a living area, complete with a kitchen and antique television. And to drive the point home: Dianne, the girl with the braids, was Nikki’s niece. She lived there too. They looked very similar. They even liked the same movies. But you know, I was shocked when I first heard it and it stuck with me.
Dianne tended to ignore the two girls as they inched closer and closer to each other on the sofa.
“You bored?” Winifred asked.
“Yeah,” said Nikki.
Dianne was not bored. I think she would have preferred that feeling. If it was me trying to judge her situation, I’d tell her to not leave food out in the sun. Put away your meat immediately after purchase. Smell leftovers first. The sort of things I had to do post-food poisoning.
“Alright, I’ll pause.”
And another day soon after that was one of the hottest of the year. There wasn’t a full pool to wade in, but Winifred and Nikki kicked around a bean bag in the shade of the empty pool.
The senior Matlapins, Nikki’s parents, kept an eye on them.
Dianne and Abner relaxed too. Did I mention they were dating? It’s why Jacqueline insisted she only wanted friendship. I think she believed in the two of them whole-heartedly. Winifred didn’t bother listening to most of their conversation, even when it got tense. There was a lot of noise pollution. Bikers, motel plumbing, Mr. and Mrs. Matlapin talking about the good ol’ days. That was usually more interesting.
“…are you serious right now?” said Abner.
“I mean, if you were gonna listen–”
“No!”
And time for a meaty slap across the face for Abner. Maybe he deserved it. Winifred tried to piece together the puzzle of Dianne. She decided to barrel right past food poisoning for Dianne’s illness ruining their movie marathon.
“What if she’s pregnant?” Winifred said it so off-hand. It wasn’t something she ever thought about for herself…being gay did that to people. But Nikki was about to joke about it.
“Oh my god, what if she is?”
While Winifred still wasn’t taking it that seriously, gossip spread fast around Lucky Palms. Sandria was usually shielded from it. She was a loner by design and just plain different from her fellow parents. They saw the adoptions…or fosters? And the town wasn’t heavily indigenous. Sandria figured she and most of her kids were the only ones, and she knew that everyone’s mind broke a little when they realized a real life Indian was among them. One that dealt with the same mundane modern issues they did.
So it was gallery night. The high school submitted student works to the better art gallery in town once a year, and Winifred made the cut for once.
“I wanted to celebrate the color of our deserts, our people, and just some of our favorite colors!” She neglected to include hers, a shade of clover green.
“Wow, I wanna be a painter one day too!” said Wilfred Abernathy.
“Not for long,” Indiana mumbled. Winifred was shocked to learn later that she was giving a painting lecture to her little nephew and her brother-in-law. BettyJo refused to touch family matters even with a gloved hand. Her older husband was easier to bribe.
I figured it was just a rite of passage in Lucky Palms to have unknown family members.
There was some distant chatter downstairs, probably in the cafe. With the showing winding down, Winifred wanted to grab a latte. Maybe pester Tyra Matlapin (Nikki’s sister) who she was unintentionally following. And where did Sandria go? She attended gallery night as a proud parent.
She gathered outside with Abner’s parents and Dianne’s mother (also Nikki’s sister). A pit was supposed to form in her stomach knowing what the issue was, but hey, Dianne and Jacqueline were too good for Abner. They could squabble over his brother, Jeramie. He was a fine kid after all.
“Yeah, so it was all rumors, as you might know. I didn’t spread any of them,” said Winifred. As it turned out, Dianne got reminded about her anxiety-induced nausea and had a medication adjusted. She and Abner were never intimate, at least not to any effect. They broke up with no fanfare besides what happened at the motel. And Winifred couldn’t be responsible for any of that.
“But what about the consequences?” I asked her.
According to Walker, the fighting didn’t stop immediately. It didn’t seem like Winifred tried to mend it at all, and he was afraid of stepping in. And it was usually in the morning.
But she wasn’t heartless…towards her plants. There were perils of growing produce in the desert.
At some point the workbenches got moved to the front during…renovations. They got in the way of an addition to the house in the back. But it didn’t bother Jacqueline. She got out her anger in any way possible.
Winifred, meanwhile, started to choke on words.
“Uhhhh…I didn’t know he was your only friend.” Silence, beyond the hiss of butane from Jacqueline’s blowtorch. “I have friends and if you wanna hang out with them, I’m cool with it.”
She approached with a scowl. “So why did you do it?”
“Blame the adults, it was just a game of telephone gone mad,” Winifred said.
“I would never blame the adults.”
“I dunno, blame Tyra and her boyfriend, she’s not coming with us anyways.”
“Is this a ruse?” Jacqueline asked.
“You won’t know until you get there? It’s not like you’re believing me right here. You’ll get more friends if you take risks, I bet studies have proved it.”
“Alright?”
Nikki was there, as well as Louise Diwan, who was a freshman and not my student. I wouldn’t say that any of them were like Jacqueline but I heard that she had a nice night at the pool club. She even tried out a water slide for the first time.
And in my heart, I felt like they were sisters again…the good kind. But don’t take it from me, I’m an only child.
Lost some screenshots at the empty pool (I kind of know how but it sounds really stupid), too late to fix it for SimNaNo. I’ll be taking some time off for more “serious” projects but don’t fret about it too much, I like my lil foster fambly.