Elizabeth Massie - Wire Mesh Mothers

There’s Alice. Kate ran her hand over her cheeks, over her neck and down the length of one leg. Donald wouldn’t recognize me. I look like Alice.

She stared. She knew. She realized what she had done had been for herself at first. She had rescued Mistie to rescue herself. To get away from the tedium and the headaches and loneliness. To take Mistie and drop her off at a commune for other castoffs and be done with it.

But not now, she thought. The mouth in the mirror had no lipstick, no lip liner, and the small wrinkles at the corners were clearly visible. I am not going to take Mistie to Canada. Mexico is closer. I’ll care for her. I’ll mother her. Me.

I’ll be the Alice in me.

Yes.

Then something wet slid down the back of her leg to her shoe. There was blood on the floor. Damn, she thought. She rubbed the bottom of the shoe through the little drops on the floor, smudging them out of focus. She limped to the front door.

“Safe trip!” called the woman.

“God bless,” said Kate.

The truck was empty, though the engine was still humming. The car with the girl and the dog were gone; the patron had probably been next door at the dry cleaners. Kate glanced around, more blood drips trickling down to her shoe; the wound was hot and aching.

She saw Mistie and Tony at the outdoor phone by the sidewalk. Tony waved Kate over, the receiver in her hand, the knife in the other. Mistie was sitting cross-legged on the concrete slab under the phone box. The little yellow shift was bunched up, showing no panties. Kate stood between Mistie and the street, blocking her from the view of passers-by.

“Called my friend Leroy,” said Tony. Her voice was stony. Not a good sign. “One eight-hundred collect. It works, you know, even though those commercials are pussy.”

“That’s good, him getting caught,” said Kate. “Right?”

“Hot Heads made the news.”

“What are hot heads?”

“Whitey’s got arrested last night.”

“Whitey?”

Tony cleared her throat and spit on the ground. “One that killed the gasoline man with my gun. He’s on TV. They say he’s get charged as an adult. He hasn’t confessed but Leroy says it’s just time.”

Kate knelt beside Mistie and rubbed her head. She reached in her pocket for the box of Tylenol, ripped it open, and took out three pink tablets. “Mistie, can you chew these?” Mistie nodded and put the tablets in her mouth, held them there. “Chew, hon.” Mistie chewed.

“Is that what you wanted?” asked Kate, looking up at Tony. “You wanted him to get caught?”

Tony banged the receiver on the steel side of the phone box. Her toe of her right boot patted the gravel rapidly. “Yeah. No, not exactly. Asshole!”

“Why?”

“We was supposed to be talked about, wondered about. We was supposed to be worried about, all over the county. We was supposed to be the gang everybody was scared of but nobody knew our names. Like the big gangs in the big places, ones that shoot up stuff and people and write ‘don’t fuck with us’ on walls but nobody knows exactly who did the shoot-ups ‘cause they’re quick, man, they’re smart and they don’t get caught. But Whitey shot that bastard and now he’s arrested. He’s gonna talk you can bet. Bark like a dog. All the Hot Heads going down, except me, ‘cause I’m here in fucking Texas.”

Kate stood and put her hand on Tony’s arm. Tony jerked away. “Why you touching me?” she demanded. “Don’t fucking ever do that!”

“He’s arrested. Okay. He killed the gasoline man, he should be arrested. Don’t you think?”

Tony scratched at the back of her ear. “He’ll get the needle over in Jarratt if they try him as an adult, you know. It could have been me. I could have shot him, and got arrested. I could have been the first girl on death row in Virginia. Know that? People don’t think girls got it in them, but fuck, they do.”

Kate spoke slowly. “Is that what you want, Tony? I don’t get it. What is it you want out of all this?”

Tony slammed the receiver into the steel box and then down onto the cradle. She put her mouth on her arm and bit down. Kate could hear the air drawing through her teeth.

“Don’t, Tony.”

Tony let go and smiled, her incisors streaked in blood. Her arm bore the angry and jagged imprint of the teeth, outlined in bright red. Already the skin was rising in defense of itself, puffing up against the assault. Tony held the arm out to Kate. “Tastes good! Better than mouse shit I bet! Wanna try? Now if I go down fighting, they’ll be able to ID me from my dental records! Ha!”

“Tony, what do you want?”

“I want a dare from you.”

Kate shook her head. “Let’s get in the truck and go on. I’ve got a map. We can find Lamesa. It might not be much farther.”

“Got a dare for you,” said Tony.

“No more dares.”

“A dare. I know too much about your fucking life as it is for any more damned truths. So here’s the dare. Call your husband. And he better be at the office.”

Kate felt a click in the back of her throat. “Tony, let’s leave him out of this. You know we aren’t into pedophilia rings. You know that was way off base.”

The knife appeared, and waggered in the air like a steel mosquito ready for the bite. “Call him. Want me to get him on the line for you? I’ll say I’m you. ‘Collect call from Mrs. Kate McDolen, rich bitch moron who licks mouse shit!’”

“I will go with you to Lamesa. You don’t need to threaten me anymore. I’ll drive you to your dad’s ranch. But just let Mistie and me alone. Let us go on our way when it’s done. There is no reason to call Donald.”

“Ronald McDonald!” said Tony. “Call him, bitch, or Mistie’s gonna sport a new tattoo, a nice set of teeth marks like mine here, only deeper.” She yanked Mistie back by the arm, and held the girl beside her, knife running through the girl’s hair. “How deep ‘til you hit bone and come out the other side? My sister Darlene was digging to China. Think she’s there yet?”

Kate picked up the phone. Her head itched furiously. She probably had Tony’s head lice. One eight-hundred collect. She pressed the numbers, waited for instructions, spoke her name. On the back of her left leg, the tickling of blood in a warm pattern down through the stubble of hair.

Lisa answered the phone.

“Lisa, it’s Kate.”

“Collect again? Honey, you are having phone trouble!” A small and distant chuckle. Kate couldn’t tell if Lisa was really trying to be funny or if she sensed something was off-balance. “How are you?”

“Okay. Lisa, is Donald in?”

“Sure is, Kate. Just hang on one dilly-dally moment, okay?”

Kate couldn’t say okay. God, but her leg was throbbing now, and both were shaking. I don’t want to talk to Donald. Maybe he’s in the conference room, maybe he’s out in the hall. Please, let his voice mail pick up.

“Hello, Donald McDolen speaking.”

“Donald….”

“Kate! Where are you? I found your note. God knows I’ve respected your request to let you be awhile, but I thought you’d at least call, to at least touch base, for Christ’s sake. Are you all right?”

Kate looked at Tony, who whispered, “Tell him you kidnapped Mistie. Tell him you’re in Texas with one of the Hot Heads, running from the law.”

“Kate? Are you still there?”

“I’m here, Donald.” I’m not far from Mexico, no matter what I tell him, Tony doesn’t know I’m going to Mexico. “Here, in Texas.”

“Texas? You’re kidding, right? What in the world did you think you’d find in Texas?”

“Tell him the town,” said Tony.