Free Larque on the Wing by Nancy Springer Page A

Please.”
    â€œWhat?” the little girl asked politely.
    â€œTake off your damn crinolines.”
    â€œI can’t. Mommy wants me to wear them.”
    â€œMommy’s not here. Aren’t you uncomfortable?”
    Sky was looking at her in a peculiar, intent way, listening like a person who has just heard a snatch of a song once danced to with a first love, later forgotten.
    Larque pleaded, “Don’t they bother you?”
    â€œYes, I hate them. They itch.” Tears started down the little girl’s smooth face.
    â€œOkay! Way to go.” Larque felt a rush of relief and joy, so much so that she felt like cheering.
    â€œYaaaay for our team,” Doris supplied softly from her place on the sidelines.
    Larque urged Sky, “Why are you wearing them, then? Take them off.”
    â€œBut—but they make me pretty. And Daddy likes it when I’m pretty.” Sky lifted her head and turned her tears into a Cinderella smile for Daddy. What a princess.
    â€œWhat a crock of shit,” Larque moaned, more to whatever gods might be awake than to Sky, and she sank back on her butt so that she was sitting on the floor, defeated.
    â€œStinks,” Doris agreed.
    Larque looked up at her. They exchanged despairing comments with their eyes. “Somebody got a twelve-step program for doppelgangers?” Larque asked after a while.
    â€œIf they did, I’d have had you in it a long time ago.”
    â€œNot me. Her. She needs help. Pretty was never the most important thing to me when I was a kid.”
    â€œUh-huh. Sure. If your mother told you your father wanted …” Doris looked sharply at Larque. “Do you ever see your father?”
    â€œNO.” Larque heard the edge in her own taken-by-surprise voice and tried to soften it. “No. I haven’t seen him for years. He didn’t come to the wedding, so I—you know, we lost touch. I don’t even know where he is.”
    â€œHe’s not dead? ” This was Sky, and suddenly the crinolined princess disappeared under tears, real tears this time, the kind that turn a face red and rubbery. “But—he’s not with Mommy! So he’s dead!”
    â€œOh, God, I forgot.” On her knees again, Larque tried to put her arms around the weeping girl. It didn’t work. “Oh, shit,” she appealed to Doris. “She doesn’t know. The divorce and everything happened when I was a little older.”
    â€œHe didn’t leave Mommy!” Sky screamed. “He wouldn’t leave Mommy!”
    â€œYou got mad at him,” Doris said to Larque.
    â€œI guess. I don’t remember.” With Doris talking in one ear and Sky bawling in the other, Larque couldn’t think.
    Doris said, “Bullshit, Larque. You’re holding a grudge, or you’d be curious about where he is and how he is and what he’s doing.”
    Sky wailed, “I want my daddy!”
    Larque stood up and screamed hard enough to make her eyes close, “WILL YOU GIVE ME A BREAK, BOTH OF YOU!”
    Everything got a lot quieter right away. Not only did Sky and Doris shut up, but Doris’s refrigerator clunked silent, and the light over her sink went out.
    â€œHuh,” Doris said. “Must have blown a circuit breaker.”
    Larque opened her eyes, but regrettably, all her problems were still there. She did not have her mother’s talent.
    â€œLook,” she said to Sky, “I’ll call Mom and find out where Dad is, and we’ll go visit him.” To Doris she said, “Sorry I yelled.”
    â€œNo, you’re not.” Doris got up and headed toward the basement to flick her circuit breaker. She wore a nearly unbearable smirk. “Hey, anytime.”
    Larque told her gently, “Go get yourself a carrot and you know what you can do with it.” She tried to grab Sky by the hand and came up with a fistful of air. Sighed at herself. “C’mon,”