Ashley, Chapter 3
“Ashley? Ashley!”
Ashley jolted awake, though she had a hard time opening her eyes. They were almost completely crusted over. She rubbed at them and looked up to find a woman standing over her bed. “Mom?”
Her mother sighed in relief and sat down on the bed beside her. “Lord, child, do not scare me like that!”
“I’m sorry, Momma,” she offered, though was clearly confused from more than sleepiness. “What are you doing over here?”
Loretta Godfrey rose, hands on her hips, as she frowned down at her daughter. “What am I doing here? Girl, I have been calling you since Sunday night! You didn’t answer. You didn’t return my calls.” She brushed her stringy fake-blonde hair out of her face so Ashley could see hurt stamped clear on her overly made-up face. “I was worried sick, baby girl. I didn’t know where you were or what happened to you. You might’ve been lying dead on the side of the road!”
“Momma, I’m sorry!” Ugh, she hated it when her mother got dramatic about stuff. “I got home from church and…” Ashley trailed off for a moment, her sleepy brain a little fuzzy on the details of the last day or so. She pieced it together as best she could. “Chester was gone. When he wasn’t home by suppertime, I went out looking for him but no luck.” She glanced at the wall clock and knew he hadn’t come home because he hadn’t slapped her to feed him. “And when I got home I felt real sick. I spend the night in the bathroom, barfing my guts out.”
“Oh honey!” Her mom was all sweet and forgiving now, her hand immediately going to Ashley’s forehead. “Baby, you should’ve called me! I would’ve come made you soup and sent your daddy out to look for Chester for you.”
With a fond smile, Ashley took her mom’s hand off her head and held it. “Thanks, Momma. I must’ve just slept through your calls and just felt bad enough that I didn’t remember to call you last night.” Loretta had insisted Ashley and her sister, Liz, call every night to talk, even if she’d seen her girls that day. “I’m sorry I worried you.”
Her stomach growled loudly, and they both laughed. “I guess you’re feeling a little better now.”
“I guess I am! I feel like I could eat a horse now that I got all that food from yesterday out of my system.”
“Let me make you something while I’m here, baby. You want some toast?”
With a frown, Ashley shook her head. “Momma, I’m starving. How about some waffles instead?”
Loretta lit up at the thought her making her youngest breakfast again. “You got it.”
While her mother hurried off to the kitchen, Ashley clambered out of bed. Her body felt weird today. Her muscles were achy, like she’d been working out, probably from all that puking. But at the same time, she felt fantastic, reenergized. She dug out a pair of running shorts and a t-shirt to wear and wandered into the bathroom with them.
After washing off her face and getting that weird crud out of her eyes, Ashley looked at her face in the mirror. “Huh,” she marveled as she found her face almost glowing. Her skin had never been bad, not like her sister’s, but it had never looked this good, either. The only blemish was the scar that cut across the end of her nose where she’d gotten hit by a wagon handle, of all things, as little kid. But her skin tone was even, making the smattering of freckles across her cheeks less noticeable. Even her eyebrows looked better, as if she’d waxed them just that perfect shape without them becoming pencil thin like her mom’s. If that’s what some bad eggs did for her, maybe she should get sick more often!
She was grateful that she hadn’t made a mess of the bathroom while she’d been sick. The last thing she wanted to do today was clean up vomit, which might make her barf again. She paused, something tickling at the back of her mind. She thought maybe she’d had a dream about cleaning up cat puke in the hallway, and then chuckled to herself. Being sick always gave her weird dreams. Guess I’d had so much coming out of me that I had to blame Chester for some of it, she mused as she flipped on the shower.
The hot water made her feel better and eased up some of those aches she had. Washing, though, was difficult. Her skin felt super sensitive today, as if she could feel every cell as the water ran across it. Running a washcloth over it left her gasping at the sensation. She couldn’t decide if it felt good or it hurt, but once she’d gotten started, it was hard to stop. Even washing between her legs, something she usually did in a hurry, had her lingering with intense curiosity. When she realized what part she was rubbing, a dark flush ran across her skin as she immediately stopped.
“What is wrong with me?” she whispered as she turned the water cold to snap herself out of it. The shock of the cold against her dashed any pleasure she’d had in the shower, her skin crying out against the sudden harshness against it. She quickly rinsed out her hair and cut the water. For a moment, she just stood there, wet and shivering and afraid. Then, out of nowhere, she caught a faint whiff of honeysuckle, even though it wasn’t blooming right now. Still, the familiar scent relaxed her and pulled her mind away from the fear. She dried off and dressed, never noticing any of the other changes that had occurred while she was sleeping.
After she combed through her mess of curls, Ashley padded down to the kitchen, her hair dampening her shirt. “Momma, that smells aMAZing!” Not only had her mother cooked up some waffles, she’d fried some bacon to go with it. “I swear, I could eat a horse right now.” She grabbed a couple of waffles, slathered them with butter and drowned them in syrup. Even food right now tasted better, and something about the way it felt in her mouth left her tingling again.
Loretta, for her part, sat opposite daughter with a pleased but confused smile on her face. It wasn’t like Ashley to be forgetful, sick or not. In fact, she was usually the one who called her even when she just had a sniffle. And now here she was, shoveling down waffles like she hadn’t eaten in a year. Her baby hadn’t eaten like this since she was maybe nine or ten, just before she started to hit a growth spurt. While it was nice to see the girl ignore the calorie count for once, it still had her slightly concerned. “So Ash, you going to stay home and take it easy today?”
Ashley dragged her last piece of bacon through the remains of the syrup on her otherwise empty plate. “No, I need to go back out and look for Chester. I’m gonna whip up a lost cat flyer, make some copies and go put them up around town.” She shifted uncomfortably when the word “cat” came out of her mouth, but she managed to give her mother a smile. “Stupid old thing probably just got lost on the way home. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Okay, well, be sure to take some water with you. You probably got a little overheated yesterday, and it’s supposed to be another hot one out there today.”
Ashley rose and kissed her mother on the top of the head before taking her dish to the sink to rinse. “I will, Momma. I promise.” She grabbed her sneakers from their spot by the back door and slid one on.
“Uh, Ashley, you’re not going out like that, are you?”
She looked up to find a disapproving frown on her mom’s face. “Why, what’s wrong with these shorts? I wear them out all the time!” Sure, they were a little short, but they were made for jogging, which she did regularly, so it’s not like they made her thighs look fat.
Loretta opened her mouth, closed it, then stood up and felt Ashley’s forehead again. “You sure you’re feeling okay?”
“Momma,” Ashley complained, swatting that concerned hand away. “What?”
“You might want to put a bra on before you go out, sweetie.”
She looked down at herself and gasped in surprise. Sure enough, the fitted t-shirt made it very clear that there was no other fabric between it and her breasts. Her nipples stuck out stiffly, as if she were cold. Her arms crossed over herself as she blushed, embarrassed that anyone might see her like that, especially her mother. “Sorry, I thought I’d grabbed one. Guess I was too busy worrying about the cat.”
“Cat” sent another strange ripple through her, and she realized she wasn’t wearing any panties, either. What is going on? she wondered as the red in her face got darker. “Excuse me,” she whispered as she ran back to her bedroom, only one shoe on, and slammed the door. Tears threatened as she realized how indecently she’d almost gone out to walk around town. Her hands trembled as she got out a pair of plain white panties, stripped off her shorts and hurried into the underwear before sliding the shorts back on. She heard her mother asking her on the other side of the door if she was okay while she rooted around her laundry for her favorite bra.
“Ash, baby?” Loretta, having grown worriedly impatient when her daughter didn’t answer, eased the door open and stuck her head inside. She found Ashley sitting on the floor, her lone sneaker still untied, with her face buried in her hands. “Oh, baby girl, it’s okay.” She sat down beside her and pulled the girl into a hug. Ashley threw her arms around her mother and cried into shoulder. Loretta ran her hand in a soothing circle on the girl’s back while she held her. “Shh now, child, it’s okay. Maybe you should just stay home today. Chester might show up on his own anyway.”
Sniffling and embarrassed, Ashley pulled away and shook her head. “No, no, I need to go look for him.” She didn’t know how to explain it, but it was more than just being worried about him. She felt a deep urgency to get out of the house and go look for him. Sitting around this place all day would drive her the rest of the way to crazy, since apparently she was halfway there already. “I guess him running away now, for the first time since Granny…”
“Oh honey.” Loretta knew that taking care of her mother-in-law had been tough on Ashley, but she hadn’t realized just how tough it had been since Mabel had passed. “Why don’t you come home and stay with me and Daddy for a while?”
“No, really, I’m fine.” Ashley brushed away the tears and shook her head. She’d always valued her independence, and the thought of going back to stay with her parents after all this time was mortifying. Besides, she needed to be alone right now. Another thing she couldn’t explain to herself, but she knew it was important to be here without anyone else coming by. “It just caught me off guard, you know?”
“I know, Ash. I know.” She kissed her daughter on the forehead. “Let me go clean up my mess in the kitchen.”
“It’s okay, Momma, just leave it. I’ll clean it up when I get home.”
“You sure?”
Ashley managed to pull out a sunny smile for her mother. “Positive. Thank you for coming by to check on me and feed me.”
Loretta returned the smile, hiding her concern for her baby. “You’re more than welcome. It’s what we mothers do, you know.” She kissed Ashley on the top of the head. “If you’re sure, then I’m going to head out, okay?”
“I’m sure. Thanks, Momma.” She waited until she heard her mom leave, and then she got up and went into the bathroom again to wash off her face. She figured she’d need to go clean the kitchen before she could go out, as her face would be all blotchy and red from crying, but after washing it off she was surprised to find it looking as fresh and rosy as it had when she’d emerged from her shower. Fascinated, she leaned in close to the mirror. Even her eyes were white and clear. She traced a finger over her features, amazed at this strange turn of events. But hey, that also meant she didn’t need to hide in the kitchen before leaving. With a hint of a smile, she hurried back to the kitchen to slide on her other shoe. Then she grabbed her keys, dropped them in her purse, and let herself out into the warm, late morning air.
She didn’t realize that she hadn’t quite gotten around to putting that bra on.