Sweet Children Come Out And Play

Delphine awoke suddenly. For a second, she felt wide awake and had no idea why. But then, she was gripped with what appeared to be the familiar and sudden need to throw up. “Fuck,” she whispered in the dark, threw back the covers on the couch over Billie, ran to the bathroom in the dark, feeling her hand along the walls and doorknobs. She was holding her head back, and trying very hard to suppress the gag until she was leaned over the toilet. Then, she just let it go, and there was the terrible disgusting feeling of her insides spilling out, and all she could think of was how much she absolutely hated throwing up. This really was one of the worst things in the world. She could never stand throw up in general and when it was her doing the throwing up – well, it just sucked. It sucked. When she had gagged up about three times, stopped and was shaking uncontrollably over the toilet and breathing hard to catch her breath, there came a knock at the door.

Delphine spit in the toilet; the taste was horrible and the acid burning in her mouth and up her nose made her want to cry. But she blew her nose, spit again disgusted and took a breath. “Yeah?” she said weakly. This just sucked.

“It’s Billie. Are you ok honey?” He sounded a little worried.

“Ah, yeah, I’ll be ok.” She flushed the toilet. “I’m sorry I woke you up.”

“It’s ok, I just had to make sure you’re ok. Can I do anything?”

“No, I don’t think so. Thank you though.” She blew her nose again, took toilet paper to clean up. It occurred to her then that this was that lovely baby flu. The clock said it was five AM. Fuck.

“Can I come in?” Billie yawned.

“Um, ok,” Delphine slowly opened the door after smoothing her jamies out and her hair back.

“Aww…” he hugged her around the back as she pulled out a toothbrush and was putting the paste on it to brush her mouth out. She took the toothbrush out to say “Thanks sweetie. You should go back to sleep. You have stuff to do tomorrow.” By tomorrow, she meant this morning.

“That’s not till twelve. It’s ok. Poor baby. I’m sorry. You think it’s…like…the-”

“Yeah, I think so. No one is sick. I guess I figured it would really start at some time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do it.”

“Well, I sorta did half of it,” he smiled.

“Ok, yeah, in that light, it’s half your fault.” He made her smile though. Delphine washed out her mouth again with water, walked out into the bedroom to fresher air and jumped into bed again. Now, she was exhausted, but at least she had stopped shaking. Billie crawled into bed and snuggled up beside her. Delphine wrapped her arms around him. “Thanks,” she whispered.
~
Finally, all the stuff was out of the van and inside the house. There was unpacking to do and laundry galore, but that was for later. All six celebrated back at the old apartment by crashing on the couch and watching whatever crap was on. Delphine and Brites decided they were hungry, especially Delphine, so they went to make blueberry muffins. It was the middle of the day, but who cares. The boys will eat anything and breakfast food is much better when it’s not breakfast. Delphine had always hated breakfast. Food is different.

“So, Brites, it’s almost September. What are you thinking of doing this year?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I was wondering if you were…I guess if you were planning to stay here or go to school again.”

“Oh, that. Well, I’ve been thinking about it. I think I will stay here.”

“Really!” Delphine was much relieved.

“Yeah. I just really don’t want to leave yet. And Mike. I just…” she blushed a little, “Well I can’t think of not living with him. I might go back to school next year, but I’m not sure. I can write on my own for awhile.” Brites had always wanted to be a writer. She was really quite good too. From her freshman to senior year of high school she wrote this fantasy series of three books called Shalark. Delphine and Richelle had been the first to help her come up with the whole fantasy world, characters and the basis. Delphine, Richelle and Brites became Megan, Joanna and Mary. The whole thing was really just for fun. Then she started writing like crazy and giving out parts of the story to them as she wrote. It was really good too. She wrote other stories too, but that was the one she remembered best. Delphine really liked writing too, but she never liked to show others her work. Brites never minded.

“So will you start writing again?”

“Yeah, I think I will. I haven’t done much in the last few months, but it would be nice to get back to it. Maybe I can earn some money on the side. I feel sort of guilty about living off the guys. I guess I have some money saved up still. I could pitch in that.”

“They offered for us to come on tour.”

“Well, yes, but you’re married to one.” Brites dumped in the stained can of blueberries into the mixed muffin batter.

Delphine laughed, “So, why aren’t you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think Mike is ready to do that yet. Not to say I wouldn’t be.”

Delphine’s heart beat a little faster. “Really?” she stopped mixing the batter for a second to look up.

“Yeah. I think so.”

Not to sound suspicious, Delphine changed the subject, “What do you think Richelle is going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

Richelle had always sort of had the plan to go into marine biology. You see, Delphine never exactly had a plan. In fact, this was her plan. 1. Fall in love and marry a guy with a job – that was Billie, and he had the best job in the world. Richelle she was not so sure about. Delphine pushed the full muffin pans into the hot oven. She reached for a wet rag and started cleaning up.
~
The next day, the boys were sitting in the living room having a jam session, which really seemed to be all the time now, while Richelle, Brites and Delphine sat in the kitchen listening. They always sounded good. Apparently other people thought so too. They were going to combine the EP’s they had made into a full album. Their first under Lookout! Records. They added up all the names from the EP’s and made it 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours.

Delphine had just heard the news and was watching them proudly while eating another muffin from the day before. She already had three today. She couldn’t help it.

After the guys finished, they came in to raid the kitchen for food. “You guys ate all the food! That’s why there’s none left!” Richelle said exasperated.

“I’ll walk down to Safeway,” Delphine said getting up, “I need to go walk around or just do something.”

“I’ll come with you!” Billie jumped up. “You shouldn’t go walking that far alone anyway.”

“Oh Billie, this place is plenty safe.”

“Whatever.”

They walked out and slowly made their way to the grocery store. It was fun, shopping for food, when her mother was not there unlike when they were little. Now, they could get whatever they wanted. Including all the HoHos and Poptarts they can eat. Delphine and Billie got about half way there when Delphine spotted a man in a loose grey sweatshirt walking toward them. He looked familiar. She did not pay much attention until the man looked up at them and started running toward them. Delphine gripped Billie’s hand tighter as she realized the guy was running at them. ‘Did he want something?’ She did not have any other time to think as he dived into Billie before he could move out of the way.

“Dude what the fuck!” Billie yelled pushing him off and standing up.

The man looked up at Delphine. He was young. Then she knew who he was; Alex. She was about to say something when he turned on Billie. Delphine let out a short scream as he punched Billie Joe straight across the face. Billie lost control for a second and tumbled to the ground. Alex kicked him in the stomach. Delphine ran forward to pull him off and was thrown backwards into the street. Billie fought to get up and Alex ran back and kicked him as hard as he could again. “Stop it! Alex!” Delphine cried out as she jumped to her feet and ran at him, but he caught her by the arms and pushed her back, but not as hard. “Alex! What the fuck!” she screamed his name, trying to make him recognize her or something. Anything.

A change came over him. Alex looked up at her with a stupidly confused face. “What the fuck do you mean stop?!”