Page 73 of Shake the Spirit

OANA, AKA AIN’T NO LITTLE GIRL

Ike decides to go tothe auto shop with his grandfather. I think he hopes for us to find a normal routine like the rest of the homestead couples. Or he hopes me spending time around the homestead women will flush the Trinity Church crazy from my brain.

Hearing I’ll be alone, Tuesday invites me to Felix’s house. I follow her over and find Roxie sitting on the couch. Interrupting the teenager’s reading, I inch back toward the door.

“I don’t want to impose.”

“No, no,” Tuesday coos and drags me to the living room. “I have the day off from the shop. I would like entertainment.”

“Who is working there?” Roxie asks.

“I don’t care,” Tuesday replies. “I’m entertaining the homestead’s newest love slave. Let someone else help people get stoned.”

“Could I work there?” I ask as I settle in a chair. “I want to make money to help for the house Ike is planning to build for us.”

“Yes, you can work there. However, I think you should spend most of your time learning how to be normal.”

Seeing my frown, Tuesday changes topics, “On a scale of one to ten, how horny was Ike when he saw you all decked out with your feathered hair and makeup?”

Roxie rolls her eyes and mutters, “You don’t have to answer that, Oana.”

“We have no secrets on the homestead,” Tuesday replies.

“We should, though.”

“No, Roxie. It’s unfair for you to force your secretive ways on the rest of us. We’re naturally drama whores. Don’t try to change us.”

Roxie rolls her eyes, only to get outdone by Tuesday. Soon, they break into a short-lived eye-rolling contest.

“I don’t even know why I try,” Roxie eventually says and gives up.

Tuesday smiles at me. “You look so great. I bet you feel great. Do you?”

“I’m nervous when Ike isn’t around.”

“Why?”

“He’s the person anchoring me to this new life.”

“You’re always you. Even when he isn’t around, you’re the woman he fell for.”

“No. I had to hide the real me for so long that I started worrying that the person in my head was a fantasy. Only Ike really saw her. I even hid a lot with my sister.”

“Do you miss her?”

“Yes,” I say immediately.

“Do you think she wants to run away like you did?”

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