“AH!” I made a high-pitched strangled noise when a hard stream of water struck me in the back. Compared to the temperature of my body and the air, it was frigid.
All the bugs seemed to frolic with wings—can bugs frolic with wings?—in its spray, while I had to hold my hands over my face to keep from inhaling water up my nose.
Guido was frantic, attempting to get the hose from her, while also trying to dodge getting soaked. In all honesty, he didn’t seem like he wanted to stop her, but was putting on a show.
Oh yeah, I thought, and bent down to where the ground had become a sloppy mess and dug up a hand of mud. I hurled it at the both of them.
“Whatisthis?” Guido grunted, looking down at his attire.
Teach him to wear a suit during a muggy heat wave.
“Mud,” I yelled. “FangoinItaliano!”
Guido’s inane question had caused me to turn my attention, and Violet went in for the kill.
What kind of hose did my father buy, anyway? The spray was so hard that I was sure it had pressure washed any plaque off my teeth. Perhaps even some enamel. It almost seemed illegal.
“You’re going to listen to me, Scarlett Rose Fausti! Or I’m going to pin you down and spray you with this hose until you do! Up your snotty nose with a rubber hose!”
“Go ahead and try it!”
She shrugged, not even bothering to dodge my mudslinging anymore. “Easy enough. All I have to do is sit on you. You weigh nothing! Because you don’t eat!”
“I eat!”
She gave Guido a glance.
“You donot,” he said, flinging mud from his clothes. “Bugiardo.”
I gasped. He had called me aliar! I slung more mud at him, and he groaned.
“You don’t eat. You don’t spend quality time with your kids. Did you know your daughter wants to give up her dream to dance?”
This slowed me down.
“Didn’t think so,” she said, hitting me square in the chest with the water. “She’s afraid it will upset you if she continues. She’s taking your loss just as hard as you are! I’m not even going to get into what happened with your husband. I have no clue. But for him to leave?”
Her eyes started at the top of my head and stopped on my toes. Then they ran up, meeting my eyes.
“Somethinghappened. You have no idea how he looks, do you? When these…terrible thingshappen to you? Well, I do, SANDY! I DO! It guts him to his core. You want to see a man purposely put one foot on the other side just to be close to his heart? Stick around and watch his face as he finds out something terrible has happened to his wife!”
“I can’t—”
She hit me in the mouth with the spray, making me splutter before I snapped it shut. “I’mnotfinished! When—” She choked for a moment, and I realized it wasn’t water droplets on her face, but tears. “When I lost Mick, you refused to give up on me. You irritated the shit out of me some days.It’s time to get out of bed. Your children need you—they’re not just decorative items, Violet, they’re your responsibility. Your life feeds theirs. They need their mother! I need you!
“Do you even remember those words? Or do they only apply when it’s not you? Say what you mean and mean what you say. You’re like your husband in that way, you know. That’s why I trust you. That’s why—” She sobbed, but then composed herself. “That’s why I refuse to allow you to fade away from the life you’ve made. Fromme, dammit! You are my sister.”
She sniffed, hard, and the hose trembled.
“Yeah, life dealt you a really crappy hand this time. You can’t dance. But youhavedanced. You’ve danced other people’s dreams all your life, Scarlett. That’s gone. Butyou’renot GONE! Do you hear me? You’re not your feet or your legs. You are so much more. Always have been.”
“Violet.” I shivered, either from her powerful words or the frigid water. Perhaps from a bit of both. “You don’t understand.”
“Oh, I don’t?” She hit me again with the spray, a strong blast before she eased up. “Do you even remember your own dreams? I do. Marry Brando Fausti, have his children, live with him in this town forever, go to school to become a teacher, teach ballet instead of doing it, go to the diner for dinner...What was it? Every Saturday?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but she held the hose up as a threat and I shut up.
“As far as I'm concerned, all of your dreams have come true! And you’ve done so much more!Okay.” She held up a hand. “All right! The truth. You lost something. You don't have the same ability. But dammit, Scarlett,” she almost pleaded, “you still have a gift. You have your life. Your husband to grow old with. Your beautiful children to watch grow into adults. You have more than most. And just because you lost the ability doesn’t mean you lost everything. The gift still remains. You’ll just have to figure out another way to share it!”
