Backsies

Welcome to the Spot Writers. This month’s prompt is to write something involving a globe. Today’s tale comes to us from Val Muller, author of the kidlit mystery series Corgi Capers and the newly-released illustrated kids book Billy the Earthworm Finds His Courage.

Backsies

by Val Muller

Jillian stood at the front door, already able to hear the little devil without even trying. Glancing through the window, she could see that he was riding a tricycle through the house, screaming and flailing a pool noodle. She rang the doorbell and waited. At her feet, a twisted metal contraption. It looked like it might have once been a metal music stand, but now it was destined for the trash.

It reaffirmed her mission. Save the globe. Grandma would agree. She was sure of it.

She peeked in the front window again. Blink was there, staring at her. Why not let her in? Could he read her intent?

Finally, Audrey came to the front door, wiping her hands on a dish towel.

“Jilly?” she said, opening the door and greeting her sister with a hug. “What are you doing here?”

“Sorry for the unannounced visit. I was here for a work thing. It was supposed to run late and I didn’t think there’d be time, but the last presenter ended early, and I thought, why not stop by?” She made the briefest eye contact. Just enough to see if Audrey would buy the story. Just in case, Jillian had a fake agenda she’d made up, a list of sessions and topics. Audrey was not in the pharmaceutical industry, so hopefully little elaboration would be needed. The was best with lies. Keep them simple.

“Well come in. The house is a little messy.”

Jillian stepped in, and immediately, a pool noodle hit her on the back of the head. Blink stood there, next to the potted plant at the front door, holding the weapon.

“Blink, say hi to Aunt Jilly,” Audrey said.

Blink responded with another pool noodle whack to the head. But Jillian didn’t have time to worry about meting out justice. Not today. Her eyes already started scanning. The globe was here somewhere.

Last time she’s seen it, Blink had been using it as a golf ball. The apple-sized globe had looked dented, and when Jillian brought it up, Audrey had been quite dismissive. “Grandma would want it to be used, not sit on a shelf somewhere.” That’s what she’d said.

But the globe was old, a thin metal casing—a coin bank. It was meant to be used, but not as a ball.

Jillian did not have kids of her own, but she would someday. Well, someday less than nine months from now. She hadn’t told Audrey yet, but she was prepared to play that card if needed.

“Blink, if you want to hit me with a pool noodle, you’d better give me a weapon to fight back,” Jillian said. Both Audrey and Blink looked at her, puzzled. “What? Can’t Aunt Jilly do something fun?”

“What weapon?” Blink asked.

Jillian shrugged. “Let me choose one. Can you show me your toys? I’ll find the perfect one.”

Blink nodded and took her to the closet in the den. He pulled open the double barn doors. The closet was filled with dozens of drawers and shelves that, if used correctly, seemed like a parents’ pipe dream. But Blink seemed to shove everything everywhere haphazardly. Stuffed animals hung out of drawers, mixed with building blocks and water guns and even what appeared to be dirty socks.

The globe could be anywhere.

“Where are your toy weapons?” Jillian asked.

Blink shrugged. “Around.” He gestured to the closet, then bopped her on the head once more. “I’m gonna play video games til you’re ready.”

He skipped off, leaving the pool noodle at his feet. Jillian quickly shifted through several drawers, knowing Audrey would soon appear. The search was quick and expedient. The drawers were relatively shallow. The uniquely-shaped object would be easy to feel.

“Find a weapon yet?” Audrey said.

Jillian startled.

“Why not use that pool noodle? Blink’s done with it. He’s in video game land. He could play for hours.” Audrey shrugged. “Anyway, how about I make a pizza?”

“Sure, thanks,” Jillian said. “Can I help?”

She wrote off the toy closet as they walked to the kitchen. Of course, it could have fallen somewhere. Behind a couch, under something. It could also be in his room.

In the kitchen, she took off her jacket and draped it over the chair that held her bag. She’d chosen her messenger bag today. It went well with the story about the symposium she’d attended, but it was also large enough to contain the globe without suspicion.

If she found it.

The kitchen was relatively tidy, though Jillian searched the counters and the top of the refrigerator for the item. She almost brought it up, but that would raise suspicion. If she didn’t mention it and it disappeared, it might never be brought up again. As Jillian helped roll out the pizza dough, she thought of her own daughter—she could feel it in her bones that this was a girl—years in the future, sitting in her room, gently placing pennies into the globe coin bank. She would sing songs her great-grandmother used to sing, songs Jillian would teach her, and the globe would be a treasured object, a memory from past generations. Jillian wasn’t usually sentimental, and maybe it was the hormones, but she just couldn’t stand the idea of such a family heirloom being subjected to the carelessness of Rigley “Blink” Malloy.

But dinner prep was expedient, and the conversation focused on Audrey’s troubles at work. Jillian felt bad for interrupting. Blink was hardly a discussion companion, and Audrey’s husband was usually at work. She needed to vent, and that’s what sisters were for, right?

When the pizza was nearly ready, Jillian announced she was running to the bathroom.

“No, me first!” Blink shouted, out of nowhere. His video game stowed, he had somehow resecured possession of the pool noodle and used it as a prod to push Jillian away from the door.

Audrey offered a sorry smile. “Why don’t you go use the hallway bathroom upstairs?”

Jillian nodded.

The hallway bathroom was clearly Blink’s. Scattered towels and clothing littered the floor. Jillian sat to use the toilet and scanned the mess. Shoes, clothes, toys. No globe. She was about to give up when she searched the bath basket. There at the bottom, under a bar of soap and some rubber ducks, was the globe.

She stuck the globe in the beltline of her pants and covered it with her shirt. Her clothes were baggy, but you could definitely see a bulge. Would Audrey?

She hurried down the stairs, hands covering her stomach. She had to make it to her bag, but now Audrey and Blink were both seated at the table, watching her.

“You okay, Jilly?” her sister asked.

“Yes, I, um—” She didn’t know what to say.

“Your stomach hurt or something?”

“Um, not exactly.”

She turned her back to her sister and fumbled with her jacket on the chair.

“Are you cold? It’s so hot from the oven,” Audrey said.

“No, I just—”

Audrey stood to open a window, and Jillian took full advantage, untucking the globe from her belt and shoving it in her bag. She turned around just in time to meet Audrey’s gaze.

“What are you hiding?” Audrey asked, glancing at Jillian’s stomach.

Well, it was her trump card, after all. The globe was secure, and the truth would excuse the odd behavior. Jillian smiled and shaped her hands into the image of a heart, placed right there on her abdomen, right where the globe had just been hiding. “Audrey,” she said, “I have a secret to share.”

And she told her sister her news, knowing grandma would approve of the entire evening.

*** 

The Spot Writers:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/
Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com
Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com
Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.ca/