Constantine and the Summer of Lies

By Lisa Rusczyk

Celina throws the egg right at the old, crazy cat lady Silly Sally by accident because her eyes were closed, but the other kids don’t know that and think Celina is the greatest for doing it. After the kids run away so they don’t get caught, Silly Sally makes Celina promise to get her new Siamese cat, Constantine, off her refrigerator or else Celina’s father would find out about her egg prank. Celina’s worst fear is disappointing her father again.

On Celina’s first try with Constantine, he scratches her up and the sight of the blood reminds her of her mother’s murder she witnessed a year before and has all but blocked out. As the summer unravels and Celina’s lies to people pile up in effort to hide from her father her terrible act, she must decide how to make emotional decisions and bold confrontations, all to other people, a peculiar cat, and herself, to make everything okay again. A novella.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lisa Rusczyk
• Release date: Apr 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301968787

Lisa Rusczyk

I'm a writer and editor living in North Alabama with my beloved husband and stepsons. Seven little lovers of fur and whiskers are my greatest non-human companions.

Book preview

Constantine and the Summer of Lies

By Lisa Rusczyk

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Lisa Rusczyk

Special love and thanks to Mikie Hazard for the cover design.

Everything in this book is fictional, created by the author.

Copyright 2012

Dedicated to Cat Lovers and my own sweet kitties.

CHAPTER ONE

We called her all kinds of names, but the one I stuck with was Silly Sally. The other kids’ names were much nastier, but I didn’t like using those words when I was twelve. Plus, young ladies weren’t supposed to say…those. That’s what Dad said, and I always trusted Dad. He’d be upset if he heard me say things like that.

Silly Sally’s house was white with square columns on the porch. The grass was overgrown and her pink Crepe Myrtles needed trimming every summer. But the biggest thing about Silly Sally was her thousand and one cats. That’s what we’d say, she had a thousand and one. They prowled all over her yard, through the neighborhood, and there was even one who sat on her roof every day. He was midnight black and would stare down into the yard at the other thousand cats.

I have to admit, I was scared of Silly Sally.

I’d lived in the neighborhood all my life, didn’t know much different, and us kids ran in a pack. I was in the middle of the age group that particular summer.

There was Tommy Haley, and he was ten. He had red hair, but no freckles. Short kid. Then there was April Janice Fortenberry, age fourteen. I thought she was beautiful with her shiny, blonde hair falling down her back in princess waves. She had big boobs when few of us girls did yet. She knew she was something, too, so even though I wanted to look like her, I hated her secretly. And it wasn’t jealousy, it was her green eyes. Always had a lie in them.

Mary Semore was the closest thing I had to a best friend. We were in the same grade, 6th, and had three classes together. She didn’t talk much, and neither did I, so we just kind of sat around together watching the boys play basketball.

I honestly can’t remember many of the boys’ names now, except for Javier Puller. I was in love with him. His black eyes and olive skin, shaggy and shimmery black hair. Dad said his parents were illegals with a name change, but didn’t say much else about him. To me, he was a fantasy I indulged in nights, but I’d never dare talk to him because I couldn’t think of anything to say when gazing into his warm, dark eyes. He was a year older than me and taller than any boy in my grade.

Silly Sally was our joke. She was crazy. Oh, you know, the crazy cat lady. The one in the plaid jammies who’d check her mail three times a day. Hardly ever did I see her even get an envelope out of her plain, gray mailbox with the numbers 1401 rubbing off. Her hair was pure white and she wore it in two long braids on either side of her head. I wondered why she kept it down to her waist at that age. She must’ve been a hundred years old.

April Janice made me do it. Even with her snotty ways, I wanted to impress her. Who didn’t? If she liked you, everybody liked you, and she dared me to throw the eggs at Silly Sally’s door one day in late June.

It was so hot that summer. We knew the eggs would rot and stink in a matter of hours. I didn’t want to do it, and Mary didn’t want me to, either. I guess Mary was more sensitive, and I knew she thought it would hurt Silly Sally’s feelings and the old lady would have to clean up that awful mess.

Javier was there, and I couldn’t tell what he’d think of me if I threw the eggs at the cat lady’s house. He was so hard to read. I think that’s what I liked most about him. But still, I rationalized if April Janice thought it’d be cool and I did it, then Javier would probably think I was cool like April Janice.

Tommy Haley got almost half a carton of eggs out of his mom’s fridge and the kids kept daring me, especially April Janice with her pouty lips all puckered up and looking at me like she knew I’d never do it.

I guess I didn’t have the kind of conscience Mary did.

Tommy gave me the eggs and I sneaked up to the white porch. Three orange tabbies watched me warily and a white and gray kitten took one look at me and dashed up a Crepe Myrtle. I was shaking. I was scared. I didn’t want to do it because…what if I got caught? I guess I had a little bit of common sense this was a wrong thing to do because I kept thinking of how disappointed Dad would be if he knew I was about to do this.

The other kids watched from a neighbor’s yard behind a rickety wooden fence and I heard them laughing and whispering. April Janice’s whispers were as loud as cicada songs and she was saying, No way Celina will do it. She’s such a chicken ass.

April Janice wasn’t worried about using words like a lady.

I stood trembling on the porch, torn. I could get in serious trouble if I got caught. They were all watching me, though, and I had to prove I wasn’t a chicken.

I opened the egg carton with a shaking hand and gently clenched the small, brown egg in my palm. I bit my lip, closed my eyes and threw it. Splat, I heard.

I looked and the egg slid down the white front door. A thrill shot through me. I did it! I took out another egg, listening to the kids behind the fence laughing. I threw another, yet again closing my eyes when I did. Opened eyes and looked after I’d thrown two more. Silly Sally’s door was coated in yellow yolk and brown shells and I felt myself grinning. I knew the kids would think I was tough.

There was one egg left and I closed my eyes with a toothy smile and tossed. But the laughter behind me was so loud I didn’t hear the door open. Then I was gaping at her, Silly Sally, covered from chin to waist in chicken egg.

The kids went wild after a hush, then I heard them running away, all the while April Janice screaming, Way too cool! Way too cool!

I never knew her eyes were blue. Never been that close to her physically. I was horrified, terrified, almost in a state between pure paralysis and hysterical, non-ending laughter.

Silly Sally squinted at me, gazed down at herself and wiped her chin. Looking back to my