Ashley Cooper's Arc

Chapter 17 of 37

The house stayed quiet for a week. Ashley wanted to talk about Mike, about the kiss, about her broken heart. But her mother was gone. Danny sat at the kitchen table with his spreadsheets and said little. Ashley needed someone at home who understood. She had no one. Then Danny changed. He shaved. He wore a shirt with buttons. One night he came home smiling. "I met someone," he said. "She's coming for dinner." The doorbell rang. Ashley opened the green front door and froze. On the porch stood the school librarian, thin and sharp in a white blouse and black pencil skirt. Mrs. Poo-Poo. The woman who had once dragged Ashley to her office and filed a report to strip her from student council. "Ashley," Mrs. Poo-Poo said, her glasses catching the porch light. "What a small town." Dinner was worse than any hallway confrontation. Mrs. Poo-Poo sat straight and corrected Ashley's grammar between bites. Then a sound cut the air. A long, wet rumble. The smell hit like a wall. Danny kept smiling. Mrs. Poo-Poo dabbed her lips and said nothing. Within two weeks she moved in. Her heels clicked through the house Ashley grew up in. And the smell never left. It seeped into the couch. It clung to the curtains. Ashley couldn't tell anyone. She had wanted a person at home to help her heal. Instead she got the strict librarian who had tried to end her. One morning Ashley reached into her closet for a long-sleeve top. Her hand touched something warm and wet. She pulled the shirt out. A brown stain smeared across the sleeve. She checked the next one. And the next. Half her rotation was ruined. Mrs. Poo-Poo appeared in the doorway. "Your closet door was open," she said flatly. "I have a condition. You should be more understanding." Ashley's arm shook. The bones of her skeleton hand rattled against the hangers. She thought of throwing the shirt. She thought of screaming. Then she stopped. Screaming had cost her Mike. Cruelty had cost her everything. Instead she walked downstairs to her father. "Dad," she said. "I can't live like this. She ruined my clothes. She turned our house into something I can't stand." Danny took off his glasses. For the first time in weeks he really looked at her. "You're my daughter," he said quietly. "Not her." He turned to Mrs. Poo-Poo. "This won't work. I'm sorry." Mrs. Poo-Poo packed her bags that night. Her heels clicked out the door for the last time. The smell began to fade. Ashley and Danny sat on the couch. "I miss talking to Mom," Ashley admitted. "About Mike. About all of it." Danny put his arm around her. "I'm not your mom," he said. "But I'm here. Tell me about him." So she did. For the first time since the family broke, Ashley had someone at home who listened. The silent house had a voice again.