Page 67 of Sharkbait
Drums? The performers brought drums?
Calliope and Mabel rush over to us. Calliope squeals and squeezes Ralph. “It’s starting! Get ready for your mind to be blown, birthday boy.”
“Callie,” I say. “Do we know how that man ended up here?”
“Which man?”
“That one.”
I try to subtly point in Dad’s direction, but he catches me this time.
The drumbeats get louder.
He gives me a small wave. I turn away.
Calliope purses her lips. “I don’t know. I don’t know him.” She pauses. “But he looks familiar.”
Ralph leans close to Calliope and whispers something in her ear.
“Shit!” she says. “What the hell is he doing here?”
“You’re breathing kind of funny, Lou. Are you okay?” Mabel asks, kind and considerate as always.
“Yeah, are you guys okay?” Calliope’s eyes dart between Ralph and me, then back to our dad. “But also, can I say what we’re all thinking? Or at least what Mabel and I are thinking?”
“How do you know what I’m thinking?” Mabel marvels.
“Your dad is sexy as hell,” Calliope says.
I shake my head. “No. Ew. Stop that. Right now.”
“Sorry, Lou, but he is! How could he not be? He looks like Ralph. Or Ralph looks like him. Point is, I’m seeing my future,” she licks her lips. “And me likey.”
“Callie?” Ralph groans. “Can we not go down this road right now?”
“You’re seeing your future? In that man?” For a moment, I see red. “Calliope, a future with that man is heartache. It’s chaos. It’s thinking you’re loved one minute, then knowing you’re most definitely not the next. It’s always wondering why you weren’t good enough for him. Why he chose anything and everything else over you. It’s constantly searching for love you will never have and answers you will never get. So if that’s the kind of future you want for yourself, then, by all means, climb aboard and enjoy the fucked-up ride.”
Ralph puts a hand on my back.
“I’m sorry, Lou,” Calliope says. “It was a bad joke. I’m not going to jump your dad –
Obviously—as I fully intend to jump your brother and only your brother for the rest of our lives. All I meant was that I dig the whole rugged face, salt-n-pepper hair thing he’s got going on,and if Ralph ages like that you won’t hear me complaining.” She pauses. “I’m sorry, though. Really.”
I nod, then attempt to massage my own shoulders. They feel like rocks.
“Well,” Ralph starts, “all I know is we’d better get Mom out of here before she sees him, and all hell breaks loose.”
“Too late,” Calliope says softly and nods toward where our mother is standing stock-still, her eyes shooting daggers at her former husband.
The drumbeats reach a crescendo, and a blinding beam of light cuts through the crowd.
Everyone shields their eyes.
“Billions and billions of years ago…” a seductive female voice says over a crackly microphone.
A man in a G-string enters the spotlight. He is covered from head to toe in silver body paint.
The sensual voice continues, “The universe as we now know it started as a single point.”
