Police Officer: Why was Sunny so on-edge?
Me: Huh?
Police Officer: What did she see at the park? Was it the bears?
Me: Partly.
***
Lyssa was putting forks and knives in the drawers of the Scandinavian-style kitchen with white walls and wood floors. She had been doing the tedious job of unpacking, keeping Sunny in all week to help her open boxes and organize.
"Sunny?" She called up upstairs. "Hurry up, don't clog up the toilet."
"Just wait!" Sunny called back.
In the bathroom, it took Sunny a hot minute to realize that last night wasn't painless slaughter but just the fact that she had gotten her first ever period. She crouched on the toilet, placed her face in her palms. PMS? More like Potential Murder Suspect.
Now what?
She stayed in there.
Ten minutes.
Twenty. Still, she was nowhere near figuring it out. She needed help. She thought about jolting her pants back up and going to get Lyssa, but then she sneezed and felt like a tube of ketchup. Menstrual cycles were not funny. Period.
"Sunny, you've been in there for far too long!" The door swung open and Sunny headed down the stairs.
"Okay. okay. I'm done."
"Is everything okay?" Sunny knew that the family was shy when it came to puberty, so she replied safely, "Yeah, just a bit tired."
"Do you need anything?" The TV had been playing throughout the day and that was enough to keep Lyssa entertained. But for Sunny, it was fun at first but got old real fast. Sunny wanted to go out and explore. The woods, with their swaying branches and beautiful autumn leaves, looked more than inviting. She wanted to play with the nature that surrounded her like neighbors. The family was gathered in the living room just as the sun was setting, and Sunny couldn't resist any longer.
"Could I go out for a bit? I need some fresh air." Lyssa frowned, looked around the living room.
"Two more boxes." Sunny's face lit up. "And be back by dinner, new episode of Dancing with the Stars at six." Sunny smiled. Then suddenly, the TV paused. Hiram turned around.
"Where are you going?" His voice was heavy as a stone.
"I don't know, just for a walk or something. I, er... saw a park on the way here."
"Just the park?"
"Just the park." He scanned her up and down, then sighed.
"I don't know how I feel about this."
"Come on Hiram, it's just the park," Lyssa added.
"No, it's not just the park. Have you read the news?"
"What?"
"Bears."
"Bears?"
"Yeah. There's a bear problem here. The Alberta Fish and Wildfire Officers ware called 24 times in just the past few years."
"What do you mean?"
"Look just listen to this." Hiram spun around and un-paused the TV.
A local brunette reporter said in a sturdy voice, "Good evening, and thanks for joining us. What happened to an eighteen-year-old high school student in the oil sands town of Fort McMurray is still a shock five years later. She was killed by a black bear in late August on one of her walks. It's a cruel twist of irony in the heart of Alberta's Oil Sands, an industry often described as an assault on nature, nature has bitten back with deadly forces. Bear sightings are a routine, but attacks are rare. During this bear season, please be cautious." Hiram clicked the remote.
"Did you hear that?" he said. It's dangerous." Sunny nodded.
"I'll be careful."
"Sunny, what the woman didn't say was that the girl was on her period. Her odor attracted the bears." Sunny gulped and a neurotic feeling overtook her. It was as if he had known her deepest darkest secret before she had even opened up about it. A feeling of being robbed. Suddenly, she felt highly strung and doubtful.
"Don't worry Hiram, Sunny is still a young one," said Lyssa confidently from behind. Sunny's face moped down and for a second she appeared as if she had lost all hope.
"You're right. Okay... fine. I guess the park is fine. But take this." He reached into his back pocket and handed Sunny a tube that resembled OFF bugs-spray.
"Bear deterrent. It'll help." Sunny had no idea what bear deterrent was or how to use it, but these were the little moments she enjoyed because it proved that Hiram really did care. She smiled and started out the door. Finally.
"Wait," said Lyssa. Sunny made a face but made sure they couldn't see.
"Yeah?"
"I need your location turned on."
"What why?"
"What else... to track your location obviously."
"What, are you stalking me now?" It felt like Sunny was a little kid, allowed to play on the driveway but not allowed on the streets. She was chained like a prisoner.
"Do you want to go or not." Sunny sighed and turned to her father.
"Dad, when will I be old enough so I don't have to ask mom for her permission to go out?"
"Sunny, even I haven't grown old enough to go out without her permission." Lyssa punched him in the arm and Hiram laughed. Sunny flipped the switch on her iPhone, snatched the bear spray, and stuffed the two boxes in two empty drawers at lightning speed. Then, she grabbed a tiny black garbage bag back from the bathroom, tied it into a knot, and flew out the door. She didn't want Lyssa to find any bloody disasters or anything.
* * *
I followed along with her, partly because I was curious and partly because I really had no choice. She was practically obsessed with me. Side by side we walked and walked, and as the sun dipped over the treetops to create pointy shadows on the cement, she settled on a large rock that could pass for a bench.
We were near a park with no houses near, which made me feel as if I were at the edge of the world. There wasn't sunset, but the sky wasn't blue either. It was covered in a smokey haze that didn't seem to go away. The clouds were outlined by a thick grey that swooped over the pointy tops of the pines. The long stretch of smoke reaching for the azure sky was coming from a tube-like chimney that reached out of a plantation out in the distance.
Sunny told me that she recalled seeing this on her way here, the edge of town from her passenger seat. But today it was more obvious. The factory chimneys released a color like lead into the sky, treating the airspace as a dump. She suddenly became a slight bit irritated at the guiltless refineries for their faulty action.
She watched the greyness of the smoke take over the innocent sapphire blue. I tried to focus on the shining emerald trees before our eyes. We clicked our feet on the side of the rock, like best friends.
* * *
The rock was nice, but it was just rock after all. Sunny got up and started to explore and within minutes, she found a skatepark a few streets down. And a girl.
She was dressed in red plaid sitting on a swing. Rocking back and forth, back and forth. The bags under her eyes were purple and her blonde hair was pulled up flat on her head. It had been left unwashed for weeks. She needed some volume.
Sunny walked across the sand on the playground, swung on the monkey bars, and slid down the yellow slide. Occasionally she would look over at the girl, who was still there. And when she did, it became apparent that she was smoking... not a cigarette but something electronic. Sunny knew partly because the air smelt like flavourful strawberries but also because there was a huge grey cloud floating around her, like a heavy cloak that she was tired of carrying.
The battery-powered smoking device had cartridges filled with a liquid that was heated into a vapor and then inhaled by the girl. Sunny looked oddly uncomfortable. Gosh, she had never seen something so illegal.
The girl began to text someone, tapping her phone with her long black nails. I sensed a palpable fear rising from her; she was edgy and desperate and perhaps distressed. Her body screamed of soreness and I could imagine her heart taking refuge under her chest while her body rocked. Back and forth. Back and forth.
Sunny kept staring at her blow enormous grey clouds, and I could tell there was a hint of panic within her as she tried to hide her fear of this girl. Still, she was glad because she knew that if a bear were to come, at least she had someone to die with.
It was as if Sunny recognized a part of her. The damaged part of her. It seemed to fascinate her at the same time it frightened her, like the thought of being scandalous and breaking the rules. There was a difference between heartbroken and damage, and she was definitely damaged. Her mobile phone beeped with a text message. The girl's eyes turned pitch black. She blew out one last cloud, and it smelt like pain.