The Silent Waters

“She is something. Don’t you see? This is why I want to try the therapist Wendy—”

“She’s happy, Katie!”

“She’s sick!”

“She’s getting better right in front of us, and it’s like you secretly don’t want her to. Don’t you want her to leave? To live?”

Mama hesitated before saying, “But Loren—”

“Enough!” he hollered, swinging his hands in annoyance and accidentally knocking the wine from Mama’s hand, sending her glass to the carpet where it shattered.

The room went quiet.

Daddy took off his glasses and rubbed the palms of his hands against his eyes before placing his hands on his waist. The two stared at the red stain on the carpet, the same type of accidental spill that used to happen before, when they were happier together, before I began to break their love apart.

Without any more words, they went their separate ways.

“What just happened?” Cheryl whispered, her body shaking slightly.

I took her shaky hand into mine to try to calm her nerves.

In that moment, I was happy I didn’t speak, because otherwise I would’ve had to tell Cheryl the truth. I knew what was happening to our parents: they were falling out of love right in front of my sister and me.

Falling out of love meant you couldn’t laugh at mistakes.

Falling out of love meant you screamed your irritations.

Falling out of love meant going your separate ways.

“A box of goodies for Maggie May,” Brooks said later that night, standing in my doorway.

I smiled his way, uncertain of what he had in mind. He walked into my room and sat on the floor, placing the box in front of him. He patted the floor, inviting me to join him.

What did he have planned?

“It’s a taste test,” he explained as I sat down. “Since you can’t speak, I want to at least know everything else about you—the way you react to certain things, your expressions—so we are doing a blind food taste test. In this box are random foods—some sweet, some mushy, some sour as hell—and you are going to taste them. Then, we are going to switch.”

I smiled, not sure how I could love this boy any more than I already did. He held up a blindfold and leaned forward, tying it around my eyes. “Okay. Can you see me?” he asked. I shook my head. “Okay, good. Now part your lips.”

I opened wide, and he dropped a piece of food into my mouth. My lips relaxed around it. Mmm…chocolate.

I loved chocolate as much as any wise person.

“A look of pleasure, perfect. Up next…”

My face wrinkled up with the next food—Sour Patch Kids.

He couldn’t stop laughing. “Oh my God, I wish you could see your scrunched up nose right now.”

The next items included grapes, spaghetti sauce, lemon slices, and cheese—which I was certain was old.

When I took my blindfold off, I couldn’t have been more excited, because it was my turn to torture him. I tied it around his eyes, and he smirked, biting his bottom lip. “Kinky.”

I rolled my eyes. First, I placed cold mashed potatoes into his mouth, and he liked it more than he should’ve. Next came spaghetti sauce with hot sauce—he didn’t love that one—bananas, and more. Lastly I took a piece of chocolate, rolled it in ketchup, and squeezed some lemon juice on top of it. He instantly tried to spit it out, but I covered his mouth with my hand, snickering as he wiggled his body around, trying to swallow it.

“That’s just evil, Maggie. Evil.” He laughed, wiping his hands against his mouth. I leaned in and kissed him, and he took my bottom lip between his teeth and gently bit it.

Mmm…I like that.

Before we could kiss again, Calvin, Rudolph, and Oliver came bursting through the bedroom door.

“Holy shit!” Calvin screamed.

I cocked an eyebrow, and Brooks appeared as confused as me.

“Oh my God, oh my God!” Rudolph said, walking in circles, his hands shaking nonstop. He was hyperventilating, but that wasn’t uncommon for Rudolph. It didn’t take much for him to get worked up in a frenzy.

What freaked me out the most was watching Oliver jump up and down. Oliver wasn’t one to jump up and down: he was much more into sitting down than anything else. I’d never seen him so excited.

“What? What is it?” Brooks exclaimed, bewildered.

Calvin paused. “Are you…wearing a blindfold?”

The twins whistled in unison. “Kinky.”

Brooks tossed off the blindfold. “Never mind that. What’s going on?”

The three boys stayed quiet for a moment before returning to their previous levels of excitement.

Calvin ran over to Brooks, placed his hands on his shoulders, and started shaking his body. “Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy…!” Calvin shoved his cell phone into Brooks’ hand.

Brooks’ eyes narrowed as he read the words. I raced behind him so I could read along. Each word hit me harder in my gut. “SHIT!” Brooks hollered, his hands shaking.

I took the phone from him to reread it.

“How is that even possible?”

“They saw our cover of their song on YouTube, then checked out our originals, then tweeted about us!”

“It was retweeted over forty thousand times in the past two hours,” Rudolph shouted, his nose redder than normal from his excitement.

“More than fifty thousand times, you noob,” Oliver corrected.

I tapped Brooks on the shoulder and handed the phone back to him, pointing. Oh. My. God.

“One hundred and sixty thousand retweets!” Brooks said.

All at once the boys screamed, their throats probably burning. “AH!”

“I didn’t even know you put us on YouTube, Cal!” Brooks shouted; shouting was the only thing any of them could do. The guys were so anti-mainstream because they always said they were indie and cool, until mainstream knocked on their door and they lost their minds.

“I didn’t!”

“Was it you, Rudolph? Oli?” Brooks asked.

“No,” the twins said in unison.

“Then who…” He slowly turned my way, and I gave him a small smile. The guys all turned at the same time and stared at me with knowing eyes. “You did it? The videos you recorded of us?”

I nodded slowly and within seconds, everyone’s arms were wrapped tightly around me, jumping up and down.