Chapter Four – Part 4
Allison dove, stuffing her manuscript back into the shoebox. She slipped on a throw-rug and had to catch herself on the dresser opposite the foot of her bed. An avalanche of stuffed animals buried the News Hour as she bent and stuffed the box under the debris cluttering the bottom of her closet.
The closet was shut before she heard the door open downstairs. Allison slumped, her back holding the closet door closed, as if her manuscript might escape. She was still flushed and a little warm.
Realizing that, and how silly she must've looked, made her flush that much hotter.
A grinning Tasmanian Devil sat on top of the mound of animals Allison dislodged, winner of king-of-the-mountain. "Stop laughing at me," Allison told it.
Allison started to replace the dislodged multitudes as, below her, she heard her mom say, "Allie?"
"In my room, Mom."
She heard her mother start up the steps and willed herself calm. She was certain that her lascivious thoughts were visible on the surface of her skin.
Her mom peeked in the door, and upon seeing Allison, pushed the door the rest of the way open. "What happened?" she asked, waving a hand at the scattered animals.
Allison gaped for a moment, frozen at the question. Then she managed to regain her bearings. Pasting on a smile she waved the stuffed devil toward the dresser, "A revolt. Taz went over the wall and suddenly I had a mass escape on my hands."
Mom smiled. The contrast made Allison realize just how tired Mom looked. She took Taz from Allison and gave it a mock-serious look. "A troublemaker, eh? Perhaps she should be put in solitary." The humor sounded forced.
"You ok, Mom?"
"Oh?" She looked a little surprised at the question. "No, I'm fine, just a tough day at work, that's all. What're you doing home so early on a Friday? Not feeling under the weather again, are you?"
Allison hated the phrase "under the weather." As far as she was concerned, anyone who wasn't in a plane flying above cloud-cover was "under the weather."
"No, Mom." Allison tried to keep the sigh out of her voice. "I just wanted to get some homework out of the way before the weekend." She waved absently at the bed where her history essay was laid out like a reenactment of the battle of Gettysburg.
Mom stepped over to the bed, as if Allison's wave was an invitation.
Mom tried to involve herself with Allison's schoolwork. However, lately, Allison had come to the cynical realization that her mother really didn't pay all that much attention. The details seemed to slip her attention. Otherwise, Mom would've realized just how many days Allison had cut to sit in the bathroom and down Midol and Advil like M&M's.
Allison watched her mother leaf through pages of her history report, when she was struck by a horrid realization. The page Mom was currently reading was not part of her homework. It was a page from Restless Nights. It must have fallen out of the shoebox in her dive for the closet.
Mom arched an eyebrow and asked, "What's this? Not your homework?"
Oh God, oh God, oh God. Allison just couldn't get her mouth to work. What could she say? Some bandit broke in and planted blatant pornography in her bedroom?
Mom was smiling at her and Allison felt her face turn beet-red.
"Come on, tell me."
"Its— ah— something I wrote."
"That's obvious."
"A n-n-novel I worked on over the summer. The page— it— ah— got mixed in by accident."
"A whole novel?" Mom was looking at the page again. Allison wished she could see what her mother was reading. Oh please don't let it be Melissa's trembling breasts or Randolph's manhood, anything but that.
"Ab-b-bout a hundred pages."
Mom set the page down and looked at Allison. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I was embarrassed."
"Well, don't be." Mom seemed to finally recognize Allison's discomfort. She bent down and kissed Allison's forehead.
"Wha?"
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be reading unfinished work, should I?"
"I— uh— well—"
"I won't stifle you. I don't want to see any more of it. Not until you finish it, of course."
Allison just nodded, lamely.
"Good. I'm going down to fix myself some dinner. Want anything?"
"No."
When her mother nodded and left, Allison rushed to the bed and grabbed the page.
It was page number seven.
Allison's sigh of relief was choked short by a small jab of pain lancing through her temples. Just then, the animals she'd replaced on the bureau collapsed on to the floor again, Taz in the lead.
The pain vanished as quickly as it had come.
