19 Casting call

19 Casting call

 

“Mom!!” I screamed, holding my arm, “Jenny, somebody??”

Mother came running out of the house, and Caleb came from next door. Jenny was incredibly upset that we had left her out, but father had made the decision that it would be a mistake to have too many people in on the acting.

“What happened dear?” Mother asked, as I sobbed, holding my arm. I had squirted the tears in in the tree house and I had, just this once, let them put a bit of makeup on so it could be seen to run down my face.

“I fell out of the tree-house! I tripped on the rug and fell out.”

It had been a scary fall, too, and embarrassing, with my skirt riding up over my head as I hit the ground. But the flesh colored braces Dad had gotten for me had helped me break my fall. I was nicely scratched on both palms tho, and it hurt!

“Let’s take you to the hospital, dear. Caleb, go get a blanket.”

Under the cover of the blanket I took the braces off, and then I curled up against Caleb, who was carrying me to the car… still crying loudly in case anyone was close. I was having fun.

“Not so fast, dear!” Mother said as Caleb rounded a corner sharply.

“But Mom, she might be badly hurt,” he said, and I said,

“You are going to give us away!”

He didn’t, tho. He carried me in in the blanket, past the flustered registration clerks, and into the exam room… room three this time. The X-ray tech rolled his machine in and, after a suitable amount of time, rolled it back out again, grinning at me the whole time. Minutes later the doctor came in. “Well, young lady,” he said with a wink, “I’m afraid that you have broken your arm, rather badly. Not quite badly enough to get referred to an orthopedist tho, if you come back and see me in seven weeks. This is obviously a very painful break, so I will give you narcotics, which you can take every time you need them.”

He held up the X-ray and I was very glad that that wasn’t actually my arm on the film. That looked like it hurt.

“What color cast do you want, Bobbi?” Dad said, one the doctor was gone, “We have blue, green…”

“Pink,” I said. “It will help remind me of who I am now. I still live in fear that I will use some wrong grammar or something.”

One thing we hadn’t counted on, but which really helped, was that every single nurse and tech in the hospital insisted on signing my cast, so by the time I left the hospital the cast was covered with signatures. And they had given me my meds (which they had worked up earlier) right there… extremely potent vitamins in a bottle marked ‘vicodin’… so I didn’t have to visit the pharmacy and replace the pills at home. (There was no way Dad was sending me off with narcotics that I didn’t’ need, even for this.)

“We just have time to get you home, and finishing packing for college,“ Mom said. And so I spent my last evening at home sitting on the bed directing the others as they packed for me.

“Why are you putting the dresses and regular bras in Mom?”

“Cover dear. You don’t have to wear them, but seeing the dresses hanging up in your closet will make things seem more normal. Do you have your presents?”

“Yes mother, they are already in the suitcase: your special natural granola for Riverwalk, and a new stuffed animal for Tess.” I looked at my sister, “I don’t need that, Jens,” I said.

She looked appalled, “But…” she looked at Caleb.

“I gave you… Roberta that,” Caleb said, taking the timeworn rabbit gently from Jenny, “and she always had it on her pillow, even at college, so I think you should probably bring it just for cover.”

“Oh, I had no idea.” I said, “Of course I will take it, now that I know you gave it to…” I stopped. There was no way to finish that sentence and not cry.

“Bobbi,” said Jenny, from over at my desk, “Can I have this, please?”

“What is it?” I asked, and she handed it to me reluctantly. It was a hand-drawn card, with a picture of two rabbits on it, holding paws.

I will always love you, wherever you go, it said, with Jennies signature at the bottom. I looked at her.

“I gave it to Roberta when she first went to college,” Jenny said, her eyes brimming with tears.

“Of course you can have it,” I said, handing it to her. “It is yours, not mine.”

This was apparently the wrong thing to say, as she cried and flopped down on the bed.

“Are you sure you want to go with me?” I said to Caleb, “I can go by myself. I am a big girl, you know.”

“My very, very big girl,” he said, kissing the top of my forehead, “Let’s get some clothes on you and let’s get down to the train station.”

But of course they had to help me dress. The weather was a little chilly so I decided on the denim dress and a sweatshirt… a fairly light sweatshirt from the college… with Scrabble letters spelling out the school name and, some Latin motto that I could never remember what it meant.

I has always enjoyed the train ride to school, but this ride was very mixed. I was sitting next to Caleb, and holding his hand, and even resting my hand, under his jacket, on his thigh; but I was going toward danger, extreme danger. And while I was gone, Caleb would be working very hard to send me back… back to a life I didn’t want anymore. And my hands hurt!

“Wake up, Bobbi,” Caleb said, a half-hour later. “Our stop is next. You must be really tired, a half hour train ride and you fall asleep.”

I rubbed my eyes in the bright lights from the station. Sure enough, it was the station before the college.

“Those pills must be making you sleepy,” he said, and it took me a second to get it, but then I leaned even more heavily against him, and had him practically carry me off the train.

Luckily my suitcase had wheels on it, or poor Caleb wouldn’t have made it up the hill to the college from the station. “Over there,” I said, having memorized the location from the college map. I had only been to Truscott a couple of times before, walking some girl home. It was a pretty dorm, and had a great view of the valley, “we go in the far door.”

But we didn’t make it as far as the door before girls, who had been lounging on the lawn outside came over, “Bobbi? What did you do?”

I pretended, and it wasn’t hard, to be groggy, and Caleb answered for me, telling them the story of my fall from grace.

“Bobbi?” A girl said, when I opened the door with my key, “Bobbi?!”

It was, obviously, Riverwalk, in her normal state of dress, and she came rushing over to help Caleb with my suitcase, which she opened and started immediately putting things away… an unanticipated blessing as Jenny had not known which dresser was mine. “Help me get undressed, Caleb,” I said, and he sat me down and, not unwillingly, helped me get my shirt and bra off. I noticed Riverwalk watching and, when he helped me with my bra, grinning hugely.

He had just done that when the door opened and another girl rushed in, followed by two or three others, “Bobbi?! Whatever happened?”

“Hey,” I said, laying back for Caleb to help me off with my skirt, “I fell out of my treehouse…” I giggled. This was fun.

“Hi,” Caleb said, tucking me in and standing up, “I’m Caleb.”

It was a good thing I wasn’t actually feeling as bad as I was pretending, or all of these girls would have driven me crazy with their chatter. Everyone met Caleb, and he met everyone. I couldn’t tell if he was overwhelmed or if he was enjoying himself.

“I have to pee,” I said, and two girls rushed over to my closet to get me a robe and help me.

The bathroom was a madhouse. Girls, and a few boys, all over the place. The design made it seem even more crowded. It had a wall of shower stalls, a wall of toilet stalls (and one lonely urinal), two lines of sinks in the middle of the room, and one huge long mirror on one wall, with a shelf at waist height with dozens of chairs. A couple girls were sitting at the chairs fussing with their makeup.

The girls walked me over to the stalls (perhaps I carried this ‘drugged’ thing too far) and one of them helped me in. “I’m OK,” I said, and she reluctantly left me to sit in peace… as much peace as one could have with this din, and four girls waiting just outside my stall saying, “Are you OK,” every several seconds. I wiped, looked down at my panties, and I realized I was in trouble.

“Jill,” I said, and she poked her head in, “I forgot my pads, could you go get me one?”

“Does anyone have a pad?” she said, instead, and in seconds was handing me one.

“Thanks,” I said, blushing furiously, attaching the pad, and pulling my panties back up. She heard me stand up and came into help me with the robe. “Thanks,” I said again, although I would much rather have done it myself.

We got back to the room without trouble, after I dully washed my hands…or, hand. There was some sanitizer there which they had me use on my left hand. Caleb helped me back into bed, with several girls watching him critically, and then said, “Well, maybe I should go now.”

“Don’t go,” I said. I didn’t want him to leave me alone with all of these girls.

“Yes, Caleb, don’t go,” River said. ”Take a train back in the morning.“

Caleb looked at me, “You want me to stay?” he asked.

I pulled back the covers and nodded my head. “OK,” he said to the room at large, “but she really needs to get some sleep.”

Suddenly the girls, the girls that didn’t live here, all got solicitous and piled out of the room. River and Tess, to spare Caleb (the last time they would do that, I was sure) went and changed in their closets (River even putting on a pair of pajamas that I was sure hadn’t seen use in months). Caleb stripped down to his briefs while they were changing and crawled in with me.

The bed was very small, and so we were forced to spoon together to avoid falling out. I ached for him, and could tell he wanted me. But, although our entire bodies were touching, his front to my back, he curled his arms up in front of him and held very still. So I got to spend the first night in bed with my husband pretending I had a broken arm, with a cast, pretending I was on drugs, with two other girls who I was sure were listening actively; all of us hoping he would do something improper. While he, the gallant moron, just cuddled up against me and went to sleep!