Rebecca didn’t know what to say. She wanted to, of course, but
she did not want to do all the work.
“You can come over after practice one day with Chloe,” he said.
“We can knock this project out in an hour.”
Rebecca finished reading The Odyssey in one sitting, in her living
room all alone.
“Be strong, saith my heart,” she said aloud. “I am a soldier; I have
seen worse sights than this.”
Her dad was out yet again with that vanilla-smelling woman. She
could tell by the voicemail he left.
“Gonna be late. I love you, pumpkin!”
The enthusiasm in his “gonna” and the overemphasis of “pumpkin” gave him away. He never called her pumpkin. Not ever.
She decided she hated Odysseus. Why was he allowed to have sex
with every female creature he encountered, while his wife, unknowing if
he was still alive, remained celibate. Rebecca pictured herself as Odysseus,
running around, kissing boys, kissing Tony, then having sex and moving on. She would steer her own boat into every detour possible on the
way home. Why not? She had no mother to tell her otherwise… but she
couldn’t use that excuse. She knew better.
She woke up in the morning to a short middle-aged woman
roaming around her kitchen. The strong vanilla scent reminded her of
sugar cookies. Her dad’s football jersey hung down around the woman’s
knees like a dress.
“Hey there,” she said. Rebecca did not respond. She felt like she
had been caught intruding on someone else’s life.
“Care for some breakfast?” Vanilla Woman poured a bowl of Life
cereal with two-percent milk. Rebecca wasn’t sure where the cereal came
from; no one in her house ever ate it. They were a toast and tea kind of
family. The woman’s thin hair was shorter than Rebecca’s, but she couldn’t
get over her height. Her mother had been tall, taller than her dad in heels.
“Your dad is still sleeping,” she said, which was not unusual. He often
slept through Rebecca catching the bus. However, it disturbed her, hearing the news out of another woman’s mouth.
Rebecca sat next to her at the kitchen table with her bowl of Life,
analyzing this strange woman. It amazed Rebecca that someone could
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