Bobbing On the Ocean

Arlene looked out her kitchen window and saw her brother, Will, sitting on the frayed lawn chair out back, his hair sticking up everywhere and his jeans black with motor oil. He was slumped down and staring off at nothing. The chair looked like it might buckle under him.

“Oh,” she said, then went back to buttering the toast so it would be ready for Joe. She put the plate on the table with Joe’s coffee and poured his orange juice.

“Shit,” she said.

“I told you to watch your language,” Joe said as he walked into the kitchen. “I don’t want my kids to hear it.” Joe was in his service station uniform. The shirt buttons strained over his belly and his sleeves were pushed up; he wiped his wet hands on his trousers. His black hair was still wet from slicking it back with water. Arlene knew that was about the sum of his getting ready for work.

And they weren’t his kids. 

“They hear worse from you,” she said.  

“Don’t start with me,” Joe said and sat down with his back to her. “What are you cursing about, anyway?”

“You’ll know in a sec,” said Arlene.

Joe threw his spoon down. “Is he here again? I said no more and that means no more. You want me to tell him? He’ll stay away for good if I tell him.”

“I’ll tell him,” said Arlene. She looked out the window again. Will was still sitting, not moving. The leaves were starting to come down and some were blowing around at his feet.  

“I’ll tell him when you leave.” 

Joe shoved himself out from the table. “I’m leaving now,” he said, and grabbed his jacket from the hook. “The war’s over,” he said. “It’s 1975. Tell him to get over it.” He went out the front and the pickup sprayed gravel when he took off.

Arlene knocked on the kitchen window and Will turned around. She pointed to the back door, and Will got up and came in.

“Hi Sis,” he said, his big shoulders rounded. He sat in the chair Joe had just been in and stretched his legs out under the table. He drained the orange juice in three gulps and started on the toast.

His hands were filthy, and Arlene smelled motor oil and cigarettes as she picked up the juice glass. She stood and looked at him. She had on her terry robe over pajamas, bare feet, and rollers the size of soda cans in her hair.

She’d been doing the rollers to wear her hair in a flip since she was in high school, and since then Will had eaten many breakfasts with her in her rollers and robe and him in a kitchen chair. It was the same all the way back to when they were kids, Arlene making sure Will and the boys ate breakfast while their mother, Mabel, looked after the other two girls.

Still my little brother, she thought. “You want me to make you something?”

“No, don’t. I’m sorry, Leeny. I know I said I wouldn’t do this anymore.”

“You always say that.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve almost got it licked though. I’m never touching another drop. Going on the wagon. I’m quitting. That was it last night, I promise. I’m done,” he said.

Tina came into the kitchen in pink flannel pajamas and almost tripped on the bottoms that were too long. Kitty and Jimmy were right behind her. “Hi, Uncle Will,” Tina said, barely glancing in his direction. She went to the cupboard and stood on her toes to get out three bowls.

“I didn’t wake you up, did I Angel?” Will said. He smiled, and Tina stared at his yellow teeth as she put the bowls on the table.

“Never mind,” said Tina and poured Rice Krispies into the three bowls. “We don’t have time to talk to you Uncle Will,” she said with a look at Kitty and Jimmy. “Hurry up or we’ll miss the bus.”

They always did what Tina said even though she was the youngest. Tina was the one who could figure things out and get things out of their stepfather that they needed, like a door for their room, that closed so they wouldn’t have to hear him yelling.

The four of them sat silently eating at the table, Will finishing Joe’s toast. Arlene sat on the stool at the counter and lit a cigarette. She looked out the window over the sink at the other trailers in the park, wondering how everyone else handled their mornings. When the clinking of spoons and bowls slowed down, she said, “Go get dressed and ready.”

The three kids picked up their bowls and drank the rest of the milk.  

“Uncle Will you stink,” Jimmy said as he walked by, and they went back down the hall to their room.

“Let me throw your clothes in with the wash when they leave,” Arlene said. “Where’d you sleep? In the woods again?”

Will didn’t say anything.

“If you behaved yourself before you could still be staying here,” Arlene said.

“I know,” Will said.

“He doesn’t even want you to come around,” Arlene said.

Will stood up. “I’ll go.”

“No, sit down.” Arlene pushed him back down in the chair. “What am I gonna do with you?” she said and smoothed his hair down. He put his arms around her and hugged his face to her belly.  “You’re the only one who cares, Leeny.”

She gave him a rough push. “Don’t start with that ‘poor me’ stuff Will,” she said. “You’ve burned through everyone else.”

He lifted his eyes to the ceiling. “Go ahead, give it to me again.”

“I don’t have to tell you again. Two brothers and three other sisters. They all tried. You had it good at Stevie’s, that nice little house. And you come back there at night yelling your head off about how you took the beating when he did wrong. He doesn’t need to hear that. It was a long time ago, Will.”

“You don’t even remember,” Will said. “Dad never took the strap out with the girls.”

Arlene picked up the bowls and put them in the sink. “He was only home a couple of times a year,” she said. 

“And he let me have it to make up for time. Ma didn’t help. She’d tell him all the stuff we did when he was gone.”

“She was just trying to make him understand she couldn’t take care of us alone, that she needed him home,” Arlene said.

“Well, it didn’t work out that way,” Will said.

“It was a long time ago,” Arlene said and turned back to the sink.

“Leeny, has Joe got anything to drink here?” Will asked.

“Will for Christ’s sake,” Arlene said. “That was the last straw for him, you drank every drop in the house last time.”

“I’m sorry,” said Will.

Arlene turned the water on. She heard a little sound and turned to see Will’s shoulders shaking, his head in his hands. She shut off the water and sat down next to him. “Let me get you something to eat. I’ll wash your clothes and we’ll figure something out.”

“Like what?” Will asked, his face still covered by his hands.

“The V.A. can—” she started.

“I’m not going back to that place,” Will shouted and slammed the table with both hands. Arlene flinched, then slowly pushed her chair away from the table, watching him.

“I’m ok, Arlene, I won’t — but you don’t know what that place is like, it’s worse than jail. All those old guys doing the Thorazine shuffle down the hallways. They smell. The way those orderlies treat you. I’d rather sleep in the woods.”

“Winter’s coming,” said Arlene.

“If Joe won’t let me stay here, I’ll go back to the shelters,” Will said. “Or I’ll do some little crime and go back to jail.”

“That’s your plan,” Arlene said.

They sat for a minute. Will wiped his nose with the back of his hand and Arlene handed him a paper napkin from the holder.

“It’s not fair,” Will said.

“I know,” Arlene said.

“I picked those guys up from the ocean. I was the first one to spot the capsule and I got them onto the ship. Those three guys.” He looked out the window with a little smile. “They have a funny look on their faces when they get back from the moon. They put the Rover on the moon, Leeny, the moon! And I hauled them out.”

“I know, Will,” she said.

“I look up at the sky when I’m in the woods at night and there it is. The moon. And they were there. And I spotted the capsule first and I got them onto the ship.”

“I know Will,” she said.

“Nobody knows,” Will said.

“Will,” Arlene said and took his two hands. “You can’t stay here.”

“I know,” he said.

She faced him. “Will, when you’re out there tonight and you look at the moon, think of the rocket.  Think of Apollo 15. Put your anger on it. Send it up to the sky and up to the moon. Leave it there.”

He looked at her. “Give it a ride on the Rover?” 

“That’s it. Give it a ride on the Rover. Leave it there,” she said.

They sat for a minute. “Could you get me something to eat?” Will asked.

“Sure,” said Arlene. “I’ll fix you something.”

---

Need more great reads? We’ve got plenty of fantastic fiction, essays, and more at the MockingOwl Roost.

• At the Red Door – Will & May Story – Fiction
• Before They’re Gone – Will & May Story – Fiction
• For Thine is the Power – Will & May Story – Fiction
• Rising Tide – Poetry
• The Long Deep Freeze, Part 1 & Part 2 – Science Fiction
• World Building 101: Timelines, Your Story Sequence – Writer’s Resource
• Twilight – Poetry
• I’m For You, If You’re For Me – Music Fiction
• Writing Prompts in Images: Music Story Prompts
• Like Father, Like Son – Urban Fantasy Fiction
• Mondays – Flash Essay
• The Night You Wanted Money – Dark Flash Fiction