When Purity gets back she’s show hands and all smiles.
“Guess what you guys?! I got you free passes!”
Oh good. In addition to being here against my will, I’m not going to have to pay a hundred bucks to get in the front door.
“They’re not staff passes, so you have to go in the regular gate. You’ll have to drive around to get there, but I figure we can meet for lunch, and by then I’ll know if they need me for the afternoon, and I have to come and go only through the staff gate so I need you to pick me up here either after lunch or later in the day.”
Purity and I hug.
“Thanks, Purity.”
“Are you excited? I’m so excited!” she says.
“I’m excited,” I say.
Purity goes to her sister and forces her way in between her and the phone.
“What about you, Clarity? Are you excited?”
“I’m overjoyed,” she says deadpan.
“You two are gonna get to have all the fun. I’m gonna be costume fitting and look at me. Matthew. You see my flat belly? That was six months of hard work and no McDonald’s. Well, this morning!” Purity says, and laughs hysterically. “Here’s your pass and here’s your pass.”
Purity makes a sour face.
“The park doesn’t open for another forty minutes so you two are gonna have to find something to do.”
Of course I imagine fucking Clarity half against her will in the back of the Nissan SUV.
“I’d recommend getting in line,” Purity says with one half of her mouth drastically pulled to one side, “because the lines can get rather unruly if you know what I mean. Call me, ok? I gotta go. And if my phone is off..I’ll call you back.”
“Good luck, Purity.”
“Yeah, good luck, sis.”
Purity waves hugely, just like a Disney character, and says, “I’ll see you both later, ok?”
She’s a natural to play a cartoon character at an amusement park. I don’t know anyone else—even among people who love kids—who would simply get off on making kids happy by smiling and waving at them all day. Purity is an explosive ball of energy and happiness.
Clarity is an introverted, sullen wigger.
Purity turns and goes. I can see, just in the way she walks, that she’ll get the part. That part is in the bag. I just hope it can happen by noon and we can get the fuck out of here.
“So. You wanna wait by the front gate?” I ask.
Clarity takes her sweet time to answer. When she does, she looks up from her phone.
“I’m sorry, ok? I’m not trying to be rude. I’m just not used to being up this early in the goddamn morning. And Purity is just too..fucking..positive..for this time of the day. I haven’t seen her in a while and I forgot how fucking..upbeat that girl is. And I know I don’t know you, so I shouldn’t get all Mr. Rogers Sharing Time on you, but growing up next to that, it’s like, by comparison there was always something wrong with me. You know? Just ‘cause I’m not going to Texas to do mission projects with the youth group. I was never into that shit. I’m not a ‘good Christian.’ And I don’t know where you’re coming from with all that, but you know Purity—not me—and if you’re expecting me to be like Purity..”
“Clarity. I don’t know you from Adam—”
“It would probably be I don’t know you from Eve.”
I choke-laugh.
“I don’t know you from Eve, Clarity. I don’t have any expectations of you. I love Purity. She gets on my nerves sometimes, too. That doesn’t mean I don’t love her any less. She’s always been cool to me. If you’re her sister, you’re probably cool too—maybe in a different way. There’s no way I could ever play Superman at Six Flags or even do a single scene of improv comedy. I sit behind a computer eight hours a day and make websites for the Army. I’m not exactly living my perfect life, but I don’t expect you to be like your sister. Ok?”
“Ok.”
“Deal?”
“Deal.”
“You wanna go wait by the front gate so we beat the lines?” I say.
“I don’t really care about the lines,” Clarity says. “Do you mind if I burn a cig?”
“Do you mind if I bum one?”
Clarity gets two out of her purse. She lights her own and hands me the lighter. We lean against the SUV.
And we smoke.
For a while we didn’t say a thing while we smoked those Mistys. I got over myself and smoked a cigarette that wasn’t my first choice and maybe Clarity got over herself and stood beside a guy she’d never speak to in real life, never even be seen with.
“I wish we had some beer,” she says.
“Maybe they have some in the park.”
“No. I think these are like family-like places.”
“Oh.”
“But look here,” she says.
And she pulls out of her purse a badly crumpled map of Six Flags, and it’s upside down so she turns it rightways and uses her Misty to point to an area on the map.
“Look. Number 69. Liberty Pub. Beer and wine. Opens at noon. So if we can make it to noon, you want to get a drink?”
“I’d love to.”
“You have to drink it within the pub area. I was looking this up just now. You can’t carry your drink out but I figure if we carry a couple of soda cups in, we can carry some beer out.”
“I’m more of a wine guy.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m a wine girl. I just assumed you’d drink beer. I’m sorry.”
“No, no, Clarity. That’s fine.”
I take the map from her and scope out Liberty Pub.
“This definitely has potential.”
“You want another cigarette?”
“Yeah.”
And we smoke that one, and even though Clarity and I were friendly for a moment, not a single word is said through our second cigarette. I try to speak, but some black hole of silence holds me back. I wonder if she is experiencing a similar effect. A little window of friendliness had opened up quickly between us and it closed just as fast.