CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 2

Kate could hear the commotion of angry voices through the closed door. Carefully she inched toward the door, and after hearing her niece storm up the stairs, entered the kitchen. “Hey, sis, can I give you a hand with something?” Setting her plate on the counter by the sink, she saw tears in her sister’s eyes. Kate put her hand on Joan’s shoulder. “Anything I can do?”

Joan wiped her eyes on the kitchen towel and turned to her sister. “I just don’t understand Mat anymore. She’s never had a problem with being called Mat until this summer. Now she insists on Mattie or Matilde.” Opening the fridge, she took out another pitcher of iced tea.

“What’s her reason?”

“She says it’s a boy’s name. From what I can get out of her, far too many people on campus thought that she was a boy. She even got email from the boys swim coach and the captain of the boys wrestling team.”

“She’s growing up. But … ah … Sis, it was more than that.”

“True,” Joan said sitting down at the kitchen table with the glass of iced tea she had just poured herself. “This summer Mat’s, … Mattie’s been ‘dissin,’ that’s what Erika calls it, on Erika. Erika’s going over to Cindy’s house to help her little sister with geometry, but Mattie says Erika’s going to Club Aquarius with some friends instead – that Erika is lying to me. It’s been like this all summer. I love my girls, but I will sure be glad when they go back to college.”

Kate smiled. “So soon you forget.”

“What on earth do you mean?”

“Back when we were both in college and home for the summer, you took to ‘dissin’ on me. I’d tell Mom I was going to Hollywood Diner for coffee or milkshakes with friends, but after hearing me on the phone make plans, you’d tell Mom we were headed to the bowling alley, a forbidden place for girls to go alone in Mom’s eyes, or I would be headed to Club Aquarius.”

“Oh, my God. I guess I had forgotten that summer. We fought like cat and dog. I let loose with every rule you had ever broken, and you would give me your stone cold death glare.” Joan laughed at the memory. “That seems so long ago. Mom must have been glad when we went back to college that fall.”

“And by that Christmas, we had patched things over and you got your legs of independence. It sounds like your girls are going through the same thing. Maybe you should take the same approach Mom did.”

“You mean take Mattie and go to Club Aquarius to prove her wrong?”

“It would be good for both of you. You’ve got all of the food set out and I know where everything in the kitchen is. So, go.”

Joan knocked on Mattie’s door while on the deck, Kate refreshed people’s iced tea.

“Mattie?”

“What?”

“Put on your shoes. If you’re so positive about your sister, let’s go have a look at Club Aquarius.”

The ride was strained and silent. Mattie was not happy that she had been dragged along. It meant even less time with Sam.

Club Aquarius had been a college hangout for the last 20 plus years, getting its name from the Broadway musical, Hair. Even in the 60s, the run-down building had sported a coat of gray and red chipped paint, while numerous bricks had their faces missing. The alleyway entrance was covered with graffiti making it look like a biker dive, and the parking lot stood between the building and the river. On warm nights, it was a local tradition for bar patrons to take their drinks across the parking lot and sit on the river bank.

Joan and Mattie searched the river bank first. “Mattie, she’s not here.”

“She’s probably in the club. Dead Chickens is one of her favorite local punk bands.”

“Dead Chickens? That’s the name of a band? Boy, I missed something somewhere.”

Mattie smiled as they crossed to the bar. As they approached the door the music, if you could call it that, blasted through the door, and as she turned the handle on the door, she could feel the vibrations of the bass.

“ID,” the huge bouncer in the entryway bellowed.

Joan chuckled. “ID?”

“Yeah, lady. No one gets into the bar without showing an ID.”

She hadn’t been carded in a long time; wait, she hadn’t been in a bar in a long time. Joan fumbled through her wallet for her ID.

“Ok, ok,” the bouncer bellowed as he looked at their IDs and let them pass.

Punk music blared from the makeshift stage, and the mosh pit undulated with dancing bodies. Mom strained to see the people in the dark, smokey bar, but Mattie spied her sister on the dance floor.

Mattie pulled her mother toward her and pointed at the body gliding across the top of the mosh pit. “Mom, there’s Erika, and she’s wearing my red shirt.”

Mom stared as the red shirt came to rest on the floor in front of her with the body close behind.

“Erika,” Mattie screamed as she picked up the discarded garment, “I told you not to wear my shirt.” Erika reached out to grab the shirt and froze when she realized that the person next to her sister was her mother.

Joan grabbed the shirt from Mattie and taking Erika’s arm, walked to the exit of the bar. “Erika, everybody is watching you!”

Exhausted from dancing and more than slightly buzzed from the five shots of Jose she had downed when she arrived, Erika mumbled, “Who is everybody?”

Embarrassed by Erika’s behavior, Joan convinced Mattie to stay by her side while Joan went to get the car. Mattie knew that Erika was in for one of Mom’s epic lectures when they got home. “I repeat,” began Erika, “who is everybody?”

“Oh, just some people walking down the street,” Mattie said to her. When Mom pulled up, Mattie helped Erika into the back seat and then got into the front seat herself. The ride home was just as strained and silent as the ride there.

WORD COUNT –
CHAPTER 1 = 891
CHAPTER 2 = 1,037
TOTAL = 1,928