All Dolled Up!

Charlie

"No problem," she said. She then paused. "I just want you to be happy, you know. Josephine made you happy, didn't she?"

I sighed. This conversation again. "Yes, but I think she made it clear she didn't want anything to do with me anymore romantically..."

"Women change their minds all the time, believe me I know - don't you think it's worth it to try and reach out to her once?"

"I... don't want to do that to her," I said.

"Well, do whatever you want," she said. "The days are long gone when I could lead you by the hand."

My father came in at that point, and I swiftly hid the necklace from view as he began talking about how great the morning air was. "You should've come- I mean, your mother didn't want me to wake you up, so I let you lie but let me tell you, it feels great when you start."

"Yeah, we can go together tomorrow," I told him.

"That's the spirit," he said, lightly punching me on the shoulder before grabbing a glass of water. "Hey- do you want to join me on a fishing trip today?"

Before my mom could say something, I agreed. "Sure."

Five minutes later, while I was enjoying my waffles, my father came back, his good mood now completely gone and looking quite stressed. My mother recognized that look. "What happened with Suzy?"

"I went to go wake her up, but I found these next to her bed," he said, placing a bottle of pills on the kitchen counter.

My mother was startled at the sight. "What- what are they for?"

"It's called Olanzapine," my father said. "It's mainly used for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."

"You- you don't think that she-" my mother began.

"Why else would she be using something like this?" he asked. "There are only a few pills in the bottle- what I don't get is why she would hide something like this from us."

"Jared," my mother said, placing a hand over my father's hand. "Do not confront her about this - she'll just draw away further if we do something like that. Let her speak about it on her own."

"She hasn't said anything yet," my father said. "Why?"

"Likely because you weren't making her feel comfortable with all your badgering yesterday," my mother told him.

"But she's clearly having issues - isn't she? Drinking too much, she's on something, why didn't she reach out for help?"

"Well, she still might - but if you show her that you grabbed a bottle of her pills without her knowing - do you think she'll trust you more after that?"

"What else can we do-"

While the two of them were having this conversation, I nearly choked on my waffles, though the two were too busy arguing to notice.

Because that was my pill bottle- from the time I had been in the ER. I had locked them away in my car's glove compartment - and I had been intending on throwing them out multiple times but never got around to it, usually finding some excuse along the lines of 'it's better to have them anyway' to keep them.

Why had my sister taken it? I didn't know, but if I didn't pipe up, this misunderstanding could take a nasty turn. And though it would open up a new can of worms for me, if I didn't speak up I would be the worst kind of brother.

"Um, those aren't hers, those are mine," I interjected.

My parents both froze, turned to me, and moved their mouths several times without forming any words. I think that statement had short-circuited their brains in some way.

My father recovered first. "Yours?"

"Yes," I said, thinking of an explanation on the fly. "I had told this doctor I was a bit anxious and stressed out y'know, from the move and all, and he gave me some of them." I counted the pills and all of them seemed to be there. "He gave me a few though I never took any - it was just anxiety from the move is all, I never really needed to use them. I forgot to throw them out though."

"Why did Suzy have them at her bedside then?"

"I think she might've thought it was Tylenol or something?" I offered as an explanation, though I was unsure myself.

"Sweetie," my mother said, placing a hand on my arm. "You know you can tell us anything- right?"

Yeah, I was fifteen years past believing that, but I just said, "I'm not- I'm not hiding anything, I feel fine, they just gave it to me 'in case I wanted it' but I didn't need it."

"Yeah," my father said. "Docs these days will give you a pill for everything instead of trying to treat the root cause. I mean, giving you something for cholesterol instead of telling you to diet and exercise, you know. Then again people are lazy too and want some instant solution to their problems." He snorted at the end.

My sister did eventually come for breakfast, and when I asked her why she had taken the bottle, she said, "I had a headache and I thought it was for that." She had apparently had a few drinks incubating in her stomach when I had told her it was time to leave and had been very drunk when she had come home, to the point she hadn't read the label correctly. She then suddenly looked very alarmed. "Wait- I took a pill by mistake! It's not dangerous is it?" After reassuring her that it wouldn't do her any significant harm and that she should just not take anymore, she relaxed somewhat.

Well, misunderstanding averted for now, I guess.

My father and I went fishing while my sister nursed her hangover with an actual Tylenol.

When I was younger I couldn't understand fishing at all. It was just people sitting near the water, waiting for things to happen.

Now though, I realized what the appeal was.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

My father and I barely said anything to each other, but it felt like we had bonded more than we had yesterday. There was no more arguing, and though some people thought that silence meant that you had to say something to break it, it was surprisingly relaxing sitting there with barely a word said after multiple hours. None of the fish were biting, but that didn't bother us at all.

Of course, it's not like I'm always like that. I usually do feel the need to say something, anything, to break up a silence if it goes on too uncomfortably long - but that was the thing, it didn't feel uncomfortable at all. Sitting here, gazing out at the water, listening to the birdsong - it felt like it was the most natural thing in the world. It kind of reminded me of the times that Charlotte and I would spend pouring over books looking for a line that might help us. We rarely said more than a few sentences each hour - but just knowing the other was there made the experience all the sweeter.

"Well, it's getting late," my father finally said as the sky turned a shade of deep crimson. He didn't say anything else, but he didn't have to- I knew he appreciated me tagging along. And somehow, the distance that seemed to be between us just yesterday had nearly vanished.

I got up as well, we both nodded, and then headed back home.

Man, that was a great afternoon!

The next day, I woke up and took my father up on his offer to jog around the block.

The sky was still light at this point, though when I messaged Charlotte, she didn't respond and it looked like she had gone out of commission for the day.

Today, we switched up the routine. I went out with my mother, while I guess my sister and father tried to spend some quality time together.

It hadn't even been the plan, I just came back home to see my mother getting ready and asking me when we should head out.

"Head out... where?"

"To get that necklace of yours cleaned up," she said. "Don't you want to get it done? It's the weekend- the shop will close after lunch."

"Ah.... alright..."I said. I had actually been hoping to use the time to visit a local occult shop we had in town, but I guess that could’ve easily been done later. This was a lot more important to Charlotte than chasing something that might be a lead and would more likely be a dead end.

We left before either my dad or Suzy could get the great idea to come with us, and my mom directed me towards a store that I had never been to before- but certainly looked fancy enough.

We must've seemed like a very strange pair behind a mother and her grownup son, not even a child, but none of the people there so much as batted an eye. They offered up various pieces, asking if my mother would like to try them, but she remained focused on the goal. "Is Lizzie here?" she asked, to be told that she was on vacation this week - so it turns out that we didn't have an inside man after all.