Page 18 of I Hear You

“Hey Madison! Do you work tomorrow?” Taylor calls to me from the other end of the counter, breaking me out of my day dreaming.

I shove my phone back into my uniform pocket and walk down to her and Jesse.

“Nope. I get the whole day off. I don’t even have any classes because my professor canceled the one class I have for tomorrow.”

I plan on sleeping in, being lazy and maybe getting some homework done. I feel like I haven’t had any down time since I got here. I’ve felt the pressure to not waste a minute of my time.

“Want to go with Jesse and me to the carnival they have over in Westpoint? It’s the next town over, only about a forty-five-minute drive. My sister is letting me borrow her car. It will be funnnn.” She sings.

Sister? How did I not know Taylor had a sister? I guess we’ve both been so busy we haven’t gotten to know each other as well as I thought. Taylor is practically impossible to say no to, and as much as I wanted to be lazy, it would be nice to spend more time with her.

“Yeah,” Jesse says, “I’m gonna see how many times I can go on the Gravitron before I puke.”

Taylor gives Jesse a playful slap on his chest and I laugh.

“Okay fine. But only if you promise they’ll have funnel cake!”

Taylor excitedly claps her hands and turns her attention back to her burger. Jesse is shoveling his spaghetti into his mouth sloppily, slurping the ends of the noodles into his mouth. I shake my head, giggle, and walk away to help the girl who just walked in. For such a big and manly guy, Jesse is essentially a toddler. I think I’m going to adore him.

“Hi,” I say, greeting the new customer.

“I called in an order for Aubrey,” she says.

I notice her faded overalls and pale pink long sleeve shirt first, but her gorgeous fiery red-orange hair is what catches my attention.

“Oh, yeah. The onion rings. Let me grab those for you.”

What is with the people in this town and their addiction to these damn onion rings?

The carnival turns out to be a dozen rides and a few food stalls. Not exactly impressive, but in small towns, I guess people are easily impressed. We ride all the rides twice before taking a break to grab something to eat. To my complete disappointment, no funnel cake. I settled for a corn dog and deep-fried Oreos.

I remember once Mom and Dad took me to a carnival when I was about eight, but it was a lot bigger. We spent all afternoon riding the rides, playing carnival games, and eating a ton of junk food. When it got dark and all the lights on the rides came on, Dad and I went on the Ferris wheel. Just the two of us.

The ride stopped when we were at the top. You could almost see our house, we were so high up. Dad pulled me in close and whispered a story in my ear about him and Mom.

When your mom and I were young, we rode a Ferris wheel just like this. When it stopped at the top, I kissed her for the very first time!

When his story was over, he tickled me and kissed me on the top of my head and the Ferris wheel started to move again. I miss Dad so much.

My parent’s relationship wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot. As I got older, they argued a lot and there was constant tension. I think they both felt they got together and stayed together because of their circumstances. When Dad died, Mom was completely devastated. The drinking started because she was depressed. Lately, I’ve wondered if she was depressed because she missed my dad or because she was a single mother overnight.

Before Dad died, Mom was the picture-perfect, uber-involved, class room-mom type. She lived for school carnivals, taking me to ballet class, screaming from the sidelines at my soccer games. After he died, all of it stopped within a year. I stopped all the extra activities and sports, too. Some, just because I was tired of trying to get rides from other kids on the team. Others, I realized I only ever did because they made Mom happy. When they no longer gave her any joy, there was no use making myself miserable in pointe shoes.

We’re sitting at a picnic table eating our food when someone starts talking from behind me.

“Hey, Taylor. Jesse.”

I turn to see who it is, only to find the guy from the library. The one who hit on me the day I arrived in Easton.

“Hi, Adam!” Taylor responds.

Jesse gives him a curt nod, but says nothing and shoves more of his pizza into his mouth. I could totally be imagining things, but I don’t think Jesse likes Adam very much. Taylor, oblivious to Jesse’s change in mood, introduces us.

“This is Madison, my roommate. Madison, this is Adam. We work together in the library.”

“We’ve met, actually,” I say, even though I doubt he remembers me.

“Oh yeah. Totally, I remember.”

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