Run Clarissa Run Read online

"Okay then," Phillip said, "let's call it a day."

  #####

  “Hey!” The voice caught Clark as he started to pull on his jacket. A brightly dressed boy came rushing up to Clark. He swished as he ran, one arm up, wrist limp. He wore black sneakers that he had painted with swirls of neon fabric paint, jeans, a polo T-shirt and long scarf against the cold. He was pulling on a long woolly brown coat as he rushed up.

  It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we both just got out of the gay youth group, Clark thought wryly; Mr. Effeminate, and Mr. feminine. Still Marcus had seemed nice enough in the last two group sessions.

  “Wicked group today,” Marcus said, “in large part thanks to you.”

  “Glad to be of help,” Clark replied dryly. He had opened up today and told his story, about his first therapist and about Randy.

  “That was f-ed up,” Marcus went on, “and set up by your therapist.”

  “Yeah,” Clark said, “it was pretty screwed up.”

  “You from around here?” Marcus was pulling a cell phone from the pocket of his thick brown woolly coat and started typing.

  “Grundy Center, up north,” Clark replied.

  “Wicked awesome!” Marcus chirped and extended his hand out, “Eldora. We are practically neighbors.”

  Clark smiled too.

  “This is awesome. Now I am not the only gay in rural Iowa. We should totally exchange numbers,” Marcus went on.

  Clark agreed happily even though he didn't think of himself as gay and even though he didn't have a cell phone. It was nice to know there was someone within a thirty minute drive of home that didn't care he was a freak. He heard a honk and knew that Mom was waiting with Jeremy in tow.

  He could only guess at Jeremy's reaction but he didn't care. He quickly rattled off their home number while Marcus typed it in to his phone. On the second honk he waved good-bye and ran for the car.

  “Who was that?” His mother asked as he got in.

  “Another kid from the group,” he said. “Lives up our way. Marcus.”

  “What are they running a group for fairies?” His brother laughed. Clark winced. He hadn't told his brother that he was in a group for gay kids. He got teased enough without that information out.

  “Jeremy!” his mom scolded. “I'm sure he's a good kid.” She asked Clark. “McDonald's okay?” Clark nodded. This wasn't the day for arguing. A cheap meal now meant more cash in mom's wallet later, when they were out.

  #####

  “You guys ready?” Mom said as she approached them in the mall later. They both nodded. They had spent the last half hour or so pointedly ignoring each other but now they came together next to her. Mom had dropped them at the mall two hours ago, to each go their own way while she did the same.

  Mom had two small bags, one from Payless shoes and the other from JC Penny's. Clark had a small bag marked B. Dalton's, the book store. It was an early Gibson novel he hadn't read. It had been on clearance, which left enough out of the twenty that mom gave him for the second bag, the one from Claire's that was tucked deep in his pocket.

  Jeremy had no bags, only his new Acer Aspire One netbook. They had bought it at Best Buy before coming to the mall. It had not been his choice. He had his eye on a Mac book. He had played with the Mac book while Clark toyed with the Ipads. Their mother had inspected every laptop and netbook in the place. Money was tight, she told them. With that dire (and common) predictor Jeremy had after quite a bit of quiet pleading been forced to settle for the small netbook.

  He had spent most of his twenty at the food court. He had spent most of the time there too, using the mall's Wi-fi to test out his new computer. “Not too shabby for a little machine,” he had told Clark confidentially. To mom his only comment was, “it's already almost dead, crappy battery life.”

  Clark and Jeremy had spoken briefly when they arrived at the rendezvous site. Then they had sat several feet apart and waited. Jeremy wanted enough distance to deny that Clark was his brother and Clark increasingly felt the same way. Clark had tried to read but it was hard to concentrate. His mind kept slipping back to his pocket, to the bracelet, clip on ear rings and nail polish. He wanted to pull them out and look at them again, but he knew he couldn't. Not until he got home and was alone in his room.

  “Should we grab something from the food court for on the way home?” Mom asked.

  “Aww Mom” Jeremy whined, “can't we go somewhere nice. Like Olive Garden?”

  Now that he had his computer, Jeremy saw no reason to continue to go along so readily with frugality.

  “I don't think we can really afford it.” His mom said hesitantly.

  “I don't mind Subway.” Clark said.

  Mom's phone went off and while she fished in her purse to look for it Jeremy mouthed the words 'suck up' towards Clark. Clark made a face and stuck his tongue out.

  “This is Kelly Holden,” Mom said. “Can I help you?”

  Their mom moved away to talk and the boys stood awkwardly together.

  “Buy any make up?” Jeremy sneered under his breath.

  Not wanting him to guess that he was correct Clark shot back, “look up any porn?”

  The brewing fight was broken by their mother's return. “Yeah, maybe. I'll talk to him about it over supper and have him contact you if he's interested.” She hung up and turned to the boys. “That was strange,” she said.

  “What did they want me to do?” Jeremy asked assuming the call was about him.

  “It was Shelley Pirella,” Mom replied, turning to Clark, “the woman from the grocery store.”

  “Who?” Clark asked.

  “Some one I knew years ago, we ran into her in the grocery store. The woman with the twin girls. They wanted to know... you talked to them, while I talked to her...”

  Jeremy looked incredulous to find he was not the center of attention. “What did she want?” He repeated, just to be part of the conversation.

  “She said you were really good with the girls and they need a new babysitter. Thought maybe you'd be interested. She works evening shift at one of the hospitals in town here and her husband works late. The girls are in day care until four pm. It would be just three hours until he gets off and home, maybe three days a week. I told her I would tell you and you could think about it.”

  It was a strange call. He had baby sat for cousins and what not, but never as a business. He had sort of assumed that most of the locals wouldn't want him around their children. Maybe he'd been wrong.

  But did he want to baby sit. He shifted his weight and felt, or at least thought he'd felt, the small bag in his right hand pocket. He glanced at the small black netbook in Jeremy's hand, just over three hundred dollars. Oh yeah, if they paid well it wasn't going to take much thinking at all.

  #####

  Clark spent most of Sunday afternoon holed up in his room, trying to fix Jeremy's computer. The window said, "cookies". Clark looked down and snorted. Bigboobs.com; it appears his guess yesterday had been as dead on as Jeremy's. There are things that brothers, like it or not, just know about each other. He clicked on the close X and pulled out the novel he had bought the day before. There was no point in watching the computer. Between whatever virus was eating it's guts and the fact he was in safe mode it wasn't going to react any time soon. Windows for Dummies lay open beside him on the bed.

  There was a knock at his door. With one quick motion he yanked the clip on earrings off and pushed them under his butt. “It's open.”

  His brother opened the door and stuck his head in. “Mom said supper's ready in ten minutes.”

  “Okay I'll be there.”

  “Any luck?”

  Clark nodded no. “Looks like you were right. It's fried beyond repair.”

  “Damn, I was hoping you'd fix it.” Just as Clark raised his head to say thanks, his brother threw in, “Cause then I could demand it back and make you use that crappy netbook.”

  He disappeared. I'd take the netbook any day, Clark thought ruefully. It beats no computer. If only he had the recovery disk, but Jeremy had lost it ages ago. Probably on purpose to force mom to get him something new. Serves him right to hit her on a low cash month and get stuck with a netbook.

  He sighed and shut the laptop. He'd just have to wait until mom came up with the money for him to have a laptop (unlikely), he had an achievement he could use to guilt her into it (even less likely) or he could come with the money himself. I've got to call Mrs. Pirella after supper, he thought.

  Chapter Three

  “Well here it is.” Jeremy said as they pulled up in front of the split-level ranch house the next Tuesday afternoon. “You got everything? Your baby sitting license? Your babysitters' club books?"

  Clark just sighed. It had been like this for two days now, ever since he had accepted Shelley's offer. It was worth the teasing, he told himself over and over. She was willing to pay well. Seven dollars an hour, for three hours work, three times a week. That was over sixty bucks a week. At that rate he'd have some two hundred a month. Two weeks until thanksgiving, he ticked it off in his head, four from then until Christmas. Maybe he could get himself a computer for Christmas. If not certainly sometime in January. Or maybe a lot of make up.

  “What are you waiting for?” Jeremy demanded, interrupting his reverie.

  He shook his head and got out of the car.

  “Now you'll have something to talk to the other girls about.” His brother laughed and he was gone.

  Clark approached the door cautiously, not knowing what to expect.

  #####

  Shelley Pirella opened the door before Clark could push the door bell. She was dressed in a one piece golden dress that hung just below her knees. Tawny pantyhose ran the remaining length of her legs, which ended in heels. She was wearing dangling hoop ear rings and her make up was half done. She had foundation and blush on but there was still eye liner to be put on, and her lips were still their natural dull color. Clark noticed these sorts of things, he thought, gay guys didn't.

  “I am so glad you could come on such short notice,” Shelley said. Then she went on needlessly, they had already discussed this on the phone. “We are going out for dinner, we will only be gone a couple of hours. But it will be a good chance for you to get to know the twins.” And for you to test me, Clark thought. “If everything goes well we can work out a more permanent schedule," Shelley finished.

  “Let me show you around a little bit,” she said as she stood aside to let him enter. "This is the coat closet.” Clark pulled off his tan coat with the fringe and hung it beside her light purple coat, a thick black leather one and two small pink ones. There were several others, mostly in feminine styles, tucked towards the back. Shelley had a collection of coats.

  “This is the living room.” She said, gesturing around. There was a large picture window along the outside wall. The far end of the room contained a large flat screen TV, the kind of home theater equipment that Jeremy was always moaning that he wanted and mom was always saying was too expensive. In the corner next to it was a desk and a desk top computer. Clark looked at the computer. The monitor was bigger than their computer screen at home and a flat screen. The Pirella's were not hurting financially, that was sure.

  “My computer,” Shelley told him, “but you can use it. Tony hooked up a simple switch so you can change from the small monitor to the flat screen if you want to stream videos. I have a netflix account and the girls like to watch movies that way. They have all their favorites on the list already.”

  “Hey it's the boy/girl,” a small voice remarked from somewhere behind him. It was Britney. He knew this because she had BP emblazoned on her jumper pockets, while Holly, who was right behind her, had HP on hers.

  “This is Clark.” Shelley told them, “he will be babysitting you tonight.”

  “A boy babysitter?” Holly asked incredulous. “Will he watch Barbie Princesses with us?”

  Clark just shrugged and knelt down to Holly's level. “If it will make you happy, why not?”

  “But it's a Barbie movie.” Britney insisted.

  “Yeah, but Ken's in it isn't he?” Clark asked. That seemed to mollify them somewhat.

  Shelley led Clark through the dining room and kitchen. All three rooms formed the central single story part of the house. The other side of the house was split leveled, they first went up the stairs. There was a single straight hallway with two doors on the left and one on the right. The communal bathroom was the first door on the left, followed by the girl's room. Opposite it on the right, was the master bedroom.

  The communal bath was a pretty standard bathroom. The girls' room contained two low single beds with pink covers and two small white dressers. It was, Clark assumed, a pretty typical bedroom for a matching set of four year old girls.

  The master bedroom was a huge affair with it's own private bath. The center of the room was taking up with a king sized poster bed with a rich pale yellow comforter over it. Behind it on the far left wall was the largest vanity Clark had even seen. The top was a chaotic mix, mostly Shelley's perfumes, make up, no less than three jewelry boxes and scattered throughout, male accessories as well, a crumpled tie, a man's wrist watch, a couple of cuff links.

  The near wall, to his right as they entered were two doors. Shelley led him inside pointing to the first door, “private bath, just in case they both need to go at the same time, which believes me happens.” The private bath was sparkling white. The wall on the right contained a sleek white toilet on a raised dais. It was separated from the bath by a low partial wall of white ceramic tile. The bath was one of those whirlpool jacuzzi style tubs. There was a narrow stand up shower stall at the back of the room. The left wall was one long counter with two sinks and an abundance of space. Lotions and scented soaps littered the counter tops.

  As they left the bath Clark craned his neck to see inside the second door.

  “Oh just my closet.” Shelley remarked leading him back out of the room.

  Just my closet? Clark had never seen a full walk in closet before and my god what how many clothes did she have anyway? It looked like Walmart in there. No, not Walmart, these were classy clothes, maybe a JC Penny's or some trendy mall store.

  They went back down the stairs and this time took the second staircase down into the den.

  “The den is more Tony's domain,” Shelley remarked on the way down. Clark nodded. The rest of the house was bright, airy and painted in pastels. It had an unmistakable “women's touch” about it. The den was dark, painted in a drab sort of orange that must have been popular sometime in the seventies. It had the feel of an animal's den.

  And in the middle was a man who could only be Tony Pirella. He was tall, taller than Clark at any rate. He had short wavy dark hair and deep brown eyes. His shoulder's were massively broad and his forearms bulged; what Jeremy and his friends called 'big guns'. Even through his white T-shirt Clark could see well developed chest and abdominal muscles. Tony had a wide stance and stood with his arms crossed. Clark found men like Tony very intimidating.

  “Tony, this is our new babysitter, Clark”

  “Clark?” A glance passed between Tony and his wife. A glance that told Clark he would be the dinner conversation that night.

  “Yes, Clark.” She repeated.

  Tony shrugged, apparently he was used to letting his wife have her way with the kids. He held out his hand and said, “Well, welcome aboard Clark.”

  Clark took his hands relieved that Tony hadn't called him 'buddy'. It was then that he noticed the far wall of the den.

  “Wow! Is that stuff yours?”

  “Whose else would it be?” Tony laughed. “You like?”

  “And how.” Clark looked at the shelves that lined the one wall and the small desk that sat to one side. There were several computers here, three towers and two laptops on the shelf and one squat ugly looking thing with a monitor and keyboard next to it on the desk. There were parts too, hard drives, motherboards and lots more that Clark couldn't identify. Clark pointed to one of the towers, “4 gigs of ram?”

  “Yup.”

  “Must run wicked fast.”

  “Not like Ugly Betty here.” Tony pointed at the squat blank box.

  Clark looked at the box. It had no markings of any kind which could only mean, “you built it yourself?” Clark asked.

  “Sure, from some spare parts I happened to have laying around.” Tony said. He winked conspiratorially. “It's amazing what you can have laying around when you are network manager for the right corporation.”

  “Whoa!" Clark said. He had never met anyone who had built their own computer. He touched the box almost reverently, "you built it yourself."

  “Daddy,” Holly had followed them down into the den and now ran into Tony's arms. Tony hoisted her up to eye level. “Daddy, He's going to watch Barbie Princess with us! As long as Ken's in it anyway, and you know he is.”

  Tony gave him a side long look. Clark just shrugged again, “If it will keep them happy.”

  “That's right, got to keep my princesses happy.” Tony cooed and rubbed noses with his daughter. Clark found the sight of this man showing such affection for his daughter touching. Few of the men in his life were like that. He wondered momentarily if he was gay.

  “Down here,” Tony said sternly, “the only computer the girls need to touch is Eddy over there.” He pointed to the far corner. Clark hadn't noticed the toddler sized table with a computer set at it.

  “Eddy!” Britney squealed as she too came down the stairs. She dashed across to the computer and giggled the mouse. The screen came alive with over-sized icons.

  “It's all educational software that Tony compiled just for them.” Shelley told him. He saw a softness in her eyes as she looked at her husband, who was now squatting down next to his daughter. Those eyes mirrored his own mood.

  “Well it's almost time, we got to hurry.” Shelley said, turning business like again. “The girls can have mac and cheese, if you are up to that?”

  “Oh sure.” Clark said, thinking I can make a lot more than that. Hadn't she heard him in the grocery store talking about cornish game hens?