The Manager by Caroline Stellings Page B

charged at us and grabbed at our clothes and started hollering a bunch of stuff like, “Do you wanna see where my sister found mushrooms and threw up?” and “Our cat had eleven kittens and they’re orange.”
    Dot and Ellwood introduced themselves and all the kids, but the only names I could remember were Darlene and Charlene because they were twins and the same age as me. They had long brown hair, glistening teeth, thick white skin and half-closed eyes. Charlene blinked every time she spoke and had a nasty habit of bending her thumb all the way back to her wrist. She screamed, then giggled, when she noticed Tina was a dwarf.
    The eldest of the Valentine children was eighteen-year-old Walter. He was busy working underneath a beat-up old truck, so they pointed at his feet. I think he said something like “Howdy” but can’t be sure. He waved at us with an adjustable wrench.
    Darlene and Charlene, once they’d taken a good long look at Jesse, ran into the house. Dot kept insisting we sit down; she pushed Ellwood off the end of the car seat with one foot. Then she patted it to encourage Jesse to sit beside her.
    â€œGet these folks a beer,” she told her husband, so he opened up a blue metal cooler that was inches away from his ankle and started handing them out.
    â€œNo thanks,” said Tina.
    â€œYou’re guests here,” said Dot, gesturing to Ellwood to open the bottles and placing the open bag of potato chips on Jesse’s knee. He handed them to me, got up and stood next to Tina.
    â€œWhat we really need is a bit of coolant for our rad,” said Tina, “if you can spare some.”
    At that point, the screen door flapped open and out flew Darlene and Charlene, this time in halter tops that were so low cut, I fully expected something to spill out at any moment. I think Jesse did too because his eyes kept swooshing across their chests like a search light over the water. There was enough makeup plastered on their faces to service a small theatre company, and they’d even found the time to rub on some fake tan but not evenly, so the fronts of their arms and legs were a pumpkin colour, while the backs of their limbs remained as white as crocuses in the snow.
    Darlene shoved Tina aside, then grabbed Jesse’s arm and started caressing his muscles.
    â€œWhere’d you get these?” she said.
    â€œThe supermarket,” quipped Tina. “Look, I’m sorry, but we’ve got to get to Portland and all we need is some rad coolant, which we’d be happy to pay for….”
    By that time Charlene had Jesse’s other arm.
    â€œWalter will fix your car,” she said. “Tomorrow.” She blinked at Jesse. “You can stay with me tonight.”
    â€œYou leave him alone, now,” scolded Dot, like her daughter was mauling one of the new kittens. I noticed Jesse didn’t make an attempt to break free of the girls, and Tina saw it too; she rolled her eyes at Jesse so many times I thought they’d drop out of her head.
    â€œLook,” Tina asked Dot, “can you help us or not?” She turned to Jesse. “You haven’t said a word.”
    â€œYou’re doing enough talking for all of us.”
    Ellwood was still opening beers, and when Darlene reached for one, Dot slapped her hand.
    â€œYou’re not old enough. I don’t want folks sayin’ I’ve brung you up wrong,” she said, but I had a feeling it was one of those “locking the barn door after the horse was out” kind of things.
    Realizing it was Walter that she needed, Tina bent down next to the driver’s side of the truck and tried to talk to him, but he just kept banging away at something with a mallet. So she reached inside the cab and honked the horn in order to get his attention, but that only served to get the kids screaming more than they were already. Finally, she grabbed both of Walter’s legs and pulled, but he