“The Aeroplane Flies High”

I woke up before Christy and stared at the bare walls of her bedroom. Christy lived in the partially unfinished basement of her grandmother’s house where the walls sometimes felt wet and hanging posters was just about impossible. The grey, naked bricks had millions of holes and I thought that if I could lose my mind counting those holes then I wouldn’t have to deal with my current situation:
That my family life sucked.
That my love life sucked.
That life in general sucked.

I closed my eyes, hoping that I could flip a mental switch in my brain that would just turn everything off. Not exactly death, but more of an eternal pause.
Or, maybe another meteor could crash into the Earth
Another eruption of Mt Saint Helens or Yellowstone could finally erupt like everyone says “it should do any day now”
Wasn’t going to happen as the door squeaked open and then abruptly closed.

The lights flashed on as Becky ran toward the bed and slammed her hands on the end.
I moved away and sat up while Christy remained where she was worth her head firmly on her pillow.
“Time to get going, Christy! Wake up.”
“Screw you, bitch,” Christy mumbled.
“How bout you, Cherry?”
“You got our ride?”
“Yep, my brother’s going to take us to town and then we’ll take a bus there.”
“Okay,” I replied as Becky moved to Christy’s side and nudged her.
“Wake up, Chrissy.”
“Call me that. One. More. Time.”

Thirty minutes later we walked to Becky’s house on the other side of the railroad tracks. She lived in trailer with her Mom and brother, Tom. Alex didn’t like Tom and Tom didn’t like him, so there was no loss of love on either side. Tom had once stolen a stash of weed from Alex’s car; claimed it was his and sold it at a cheaper price. Alex couldn’t just go to the police so instead he brooded over the matter until he could get back at him. Needless to say, if any of my family knew that Tom as driving me to Spokane, let alone down a few blocks to school, I wouldn’t hear the end of it.

“I found this place, they don’t ask questions, they don’t pressure you, but they’ll make everything go away.” Becky said and then took a drag of a cigarette. “They’re near the downtown. So, we just have Tom drop us off at Riverfront Park and we take a bus to where we need to go.”
“Sounds like what you, Cherr,” Christy replied as she grabbed the cigarette.
“Yeah, and they either give you some pills or schedule surgery and then, snip the problem away.”
“Swell. Whatever, I just don’t want this to get back to anyone. I’ll be so dead.” Which was true, for the Tom driving us, me going it to town without Mom knowing and the pregnancy thing to begin with. Oh, and then I’d feel the wrath of Leah and John who would scream holy hell to high heaven a bout the loss of an innocent child: Josh, as I must have somehow corrupted him.

Tom drove out of Reardan as if the town had no police force whatsoever and continued at seventy-five miles an hour past the Air Force base until he reached the interstate and then, for some unknown reason, he slowed down. Becky continously berated him for speeding and Christy held onto the “oh shit” handle as I calmly sat behind Tom’s seat. His driving wasn’t erratic like Alex’s. He didn’t try to balance a cup of coffee while he drove and even if he did it would have been okay as the car was an automatic. If I had some incense and the room I’d had sat freaking lotus style and embraced the tranquility.

We stepped out of the car in front of Riverfront Park Square and Tom drove off without another word. No, he had two for his sister: “Fuck your self”.
“He’s not going to come pick us up, is he?” Christy asked.
Becky shook her head as we took a few steps toward the park and watched Tom drive out of sight.
“No problem. We’ll just take the bus back to Airway Heights and call for a ride there, right?”
“Where’s the bus station?” I asked.
“It’s about a mile up the road.”
“A mile?” I asked. “Why not have Tom drop us off. Like near it?”
“And then have him ask questions? Duh.”
“Not going to argue. Let’s get there.”
“You don’t know how much Hell I had to go through to get him to drive us here. I has to promise that I’d give him any money I found…or took.”
I looked to Christy who shrugged. One day, Becky was going to get us thrown into juvie or a gang turf war.
We started walking.

A hour later—it was further up and to the east than Becky insisted, causing us to shave to walk in circles, before we arrived at the Spokane Transit Authority complex, found the bus route and the bus to take us to the clinic. We sat in the back of the bus. I would have preferred a side seat so I could just stare out the window and glare at the people we passed by—the ones who didn’t have my issues, my family, and my negative attitude about everything.
“Okay, Cherry, what are you going to tell them.”
“That I’m pregnant..”
“No. You will say you think you’re pregnant and its by some thirty year old guy who works at Shopko.”
“Why would she say that, Becky? They’ll call the police and want her to name the guy and nail his ass to the wall.”
“But they’ll help her more. These doctors want to help girls in crisis, who have a story to tell.”
“Can I say his name’s Johnny Depp?”
“Try a little less Hollywood.”

“I’m not going to say anything like that,” I replied as IO felt the urge to push the “stop” button and jump off of the bus. Not because I didn’t want to go through the procedure, it was because I didn’t want to lie anymore…especially if I couldn’t say it was Johnny Depp.

Forty minutes later we arrived on the corner of where the clinic was located. I walked past the bus driver with the haunting feeling that he knew why I was getting off at that particular spot. He had seen it before: the adolescent girl walk of shame. The pathetic display of a teenager with just her friends and not her boyfriend—emphasis on the boy and a hell to the no on the friend part. I wanted to turn and flip him off but instead walked off the bus and avoided looking back.

“It’s over there. I think.”
“Oh,I swear to God, Becky, if you get us lost out here.”
“Chill, it’s across the street. See?” Becky pointed to a sign that wasn’t hidden, just proudly displayed as “Life Center”. I walked ahead of them as

I didn’t want them to see me either cry tears of sorrow or joy. This place would end the problem but would it haunt me later?
Would I care, and not let it effect me at all, like Josh would if he ever found out. He wouldn’t find out. Ever! If anything, it would be a vicious rumor that he or Chastille or someone else who heard about our private moments and had to assume more things about me. Hell, they said the same things about Alexis and Wednesday at some time or another and I could deal with it. I’d kick their collective asses for lying about me being some knocked-up bitch.

I really wanted to punch something.

We walked to the front door and that was when I noticed the sign on the door. A sign that read closed.
“Well, shit, the phone book didn’t say it was closed on Saturday.” Becky threw her hands up. “I’m just as surprised as the two of you.”
“You have no idea,” Christy replied as she tried to pull the floor open. ”Maybe they’re closed for lunch.”
“I doubt it.” I replied. “They’re closed for the day. Did you see any more, Becky?”
“Uhh, no, but we can find a phone booth and look up the number.”

I was pissed but I didn’t let it show. I had let ‘resting bitch face’ become my natural expression but at that time my face was in a gaze of wonder. Like a wonder on how’d long we would have to search for a phone book and get back in time for another bus to arrive. We walked down the road to a local Zips, a hamburger restaurant. Wednesday thought about working at the one in Airway Heights but Paul talked her out it, stating that she didn’t have to work as long as he was around. Alex once told her to take the job anyway but she retorted that he would have to drive her to and from work so he dropped it.
The cashier let me borrow a phone book and I took it to a table on the far side of the dining room. I flipped through the pages as Christy and Becky sat on the other side. I glanced through the start of the yellow pages, past pages about adoption, as there were times I thought I was adopted or maybe stolen from my real family who gave up looking for me and instead returned to England or Ireland because I had to be from somewhere else, maybe, European. My eyes caught not he words “Child Protection” and I recalled all of the times that my parents freaked out of child protection services coming to out house for some student thing Alex and said or done. Dad once said he would blow their heads off one ever tried to step a pinky toe in house. I then thew the pages back to the A section as I had obviously forgotten the word abortion. There was one listing: Planned Parenthood of Spokane.
“Who has a quarter?” I asked.
Christy reached into her pocket, placed a quarter on the table and slid it over.
“Don’t suppose you have enough for some fries?” Becky asked.
“Nope. Got enough for bus fare, that’s about it.”
“Shit.”
I took the quarter and then phone book over to the pay phone to make the call.
“You have reached Planned Parenthood of Spokane. We are closed on Saturday and Sunday but will re-open on Monday at nine.” I hung up the phone, closed the phone book, placed it back ton the counter and walked back to the table.
“They’re closed.”
“Damn”
“Yep,” I replied with a bit of disdain.
“We’ll think of a way to get here during the week.”
“What about Paul?”
“Oh, hell no.” I responded with a sneer. “Let’s go.”
“Just a thought.”
“Alex?” Christy asked with sincerity.
“He would hang it over my head for forever.”
“Or he may kick Josh’s ass,” Beckey replied.
“It may be worth it just for that,” Christy said as they got up from the table.

We walked out of Zips to witness an STA bus drive past the bus stop in front of us, forcing us to sit and wait for another thirty minutes. It was past two o’clock by then and we still had, maybe an hour or more before we could get to Airway Heights. We had to hope that we knew someone who could take us back to Reardan without letting out parents know.

We stepped off the bus at the stop in front of Yoke’s Pac-n-Save and I immediately knew I was screwed as Wesley stood in the parking lot, looking at us. He would tell Alexis and she would scream, freak out and throw a fit; then tell mom who would also scream, frickin freak out and throw a bigger fit.
He walked over to us and my fists clenched. I was ready to tell him off.
“Where’d you go?”
“Why?”
“Alexis said you’ve been missing since yesterday.”
“I was at Christy’s,” I answered as I pointed to her.
Christy smiled and waved.

Wesley reached into his pocket, pulled out his billfold and took out a bill. “Okay, listen, here, take this ten and go to Taco Time.’
I tried to deny it but his expression told me to take it.
“Just stay over there, I’ll make a call.”
“Are you going to tell Alexis?”
“Just go. Get out of the cold.”

We walked over to Taco Time. Christy and Becky ordered food as I sat in one of the booths and wondered who Wesley was calling. My face flushed with embarrassment, guilt and overall fear. If it was my mom, I’d never hear the end of it and every one of my siblings had it in for me just enough to use this as blackmail. I had been given my proverbial last meal by someone who was taking pity on me. They brought back a tray of tacos and cups of water. Fine, I would eat and drink for in a few hours I would die a literal death by nagging.