Chapter XXX

Sunny slid through the front doors quietly, like a snake. She was set on making her return quiet and unnoticeable.

Yeah, no.

Hiram flicked on the lights, making the bawling Lyssa visible. The mood of the room was terrifying.

"Oh my god. You're okay," sobbed Lyssa, reaching her hands forwards.

"Big high school student now, think you can just… just DISAPPEAR?" Said Hiram, in a voice that was newly thick. "Huh? I mean Jesus are you out of your mind?"

Lyssa cried louder. "Stop it, Hiram, you're scaring her."

"She should be scared! I mean look at YOU, you're a mess on OUR day. And it's all because of her!" Hiram pointed at Sunny fiercely. Lyssa chugged down two shots of whiskey.

Sales sucked. Nobody showed up. They had planned everything to the brink but hadn't known that the fair was in town that week. The shiny rides and colorful straws stole everything. Lyssa didn't get anywhere near the goal she set. She closed her eyes and her skin flattened into a crusty grey color like underwear washed so many times it was minutes before falling apart.

"Where were you?" Lyssa finally asked. "We were worried out of our minds. We thought something must've happened." Hiram began shouting, and then within seconds, everybody at the Wong household was shouting; it was the only way to be heard.

Sunny couldn't say that she was at the fair. That would break them into pieces.

So she began to cry. Immediately, Lyssa wrapped her arms around her and hold her like a doll while Hiram stood in the corner in time-out. Sunny liked hugging. Hugging was a way of demonstrating affection that also involved hiding her face. It had been hard for Sunny to look at Lyssa's face ever since they got busy. There was something wrong with it. It had its natural sands and wrinkles. With a little bit of women's vanity, she had the face that needs to seek enhancement from the knife.

Lyssa pushed away.

"It's all my fault," she said. Her body had no smell. Sunny missed when Lyssa used to lather on a perfume that didn't enforce a layer of artificial scent on top of human scent but somehow, through a patented combination of botanicals, neutralized the scent of the body entirely.

"I've put work before family and it's horrible. Look at the pain I've caused." Sunny began to cry again, trotting a very fine line between being pitiful and obnoxious.

"I just felt alone," said Sunny. "I didn't know what to do."

"I know, honey. I know," said Lyssa.

Hiram saw right through Sunny's act and scoffed under his breath.

"I want to be here for you," said Lyssa. "And- and maybe I was too harsh on her. Maybe I was wrong about Selena. Maybe she deserves a second chance."

"Really?" Asked Sunny. "You're willing to do that for me?"

Suddenly, Lyssa wanted to show her daughter her gratitude by loving her with every power she possessed.

"Invite her over tomorrow. I want to make things right," said Lyssa. There will be no more phone calls. I want to be present, honey."

Hiram turned around. The Father aspect of the man that came alive. He walked over, and both parents tucked her in. The night concluded in the sweet togetherness of family, and Sunny got away with murder.

***

Sunny had never invited anyone over before. The thought of it was reputation suicide. They would see Hiram and Lyssa, which meant an exposure of her most unaccepted side. But she wanted to be independent of the opinions of others, and wanted to give Lyssa a chance.

Selena arrived minutes later. Tate came too. Sunny thought about turning off all the lights and pretending that no one was at home. But Lyssa, after finding out that Sunny's friends were here, swung open the door before they even reached the front lawn.

She handed them slippers, politely.

"Um, we don't wear slippers," said Selena. She had the directness of the fanatic and the ferocity of the apostle.

"Really? Well, I must say, it's quite bad for your health. The feet are the pathway for cold to travel inside your body. It's easy to get sick."

Selena and Tate looked at each other, possessed by annoyance. They couldn't understand the pride that made Lyssa stand before them as equal, as someone who could advise her.

Sunny lead them upstairs where she knew it was safer. She shut the door, and let a great big breath out. Tate began to inspect the room, searching the corners for peculiar things to point out. Selena laid on the bed, turned on the speaker which vibrated between her bra, and asked Sunny to play some "Chinese emperor" music. They were greatly disappointed when Taylor Swift began singing.

Selena snapped a photo of the Buddha that stood on Sunny shelf, and that's when Sunny realized something was wrong with her face. It had too much life, like a living organism that sucks the life out of your face to sustain itself so insatiable was its need for face energy, which it took in through the greedy straws of Selena's probing.

Selena was like a god, a condition fixed and capricious that Sunny had to endure and perform mysterious rites to placate. She could always rebel, of course. She could burn the bridge, treat Selena as the ridiculous self-important footnote that Lyssa had always believed she was— but that was easy for Lyssa to say; she hadn't seen how many followers she had on Instagram. Selena's Instagram was the reason Sunny had become a Kitty. Rebellion against Selena would be rebellion against Sunny's entire life.

***

A few moments go by and the girls and Lyssa are sitting down by the table for dinner. Hiram joined too. A swirl smell of oyster sauce, garlic, green onion, soy sauce, maybe a little bit of ginger swooshed around in the room. Hiram always liked when her mother used very diverse seasonings.

Sunny sat in a chair that was a little lower than Tate's chair which was lower than Selena's chair. Neither of the Kitties touched anything on their plate because to eat Sunny's food was to respect Sunny's people.

Selena leaned into Tate's left ear and whispered, "What the hell did Lyssa cook. Some animal shit or what?" Sunny wasn't supposed to hear, or perhaps they didn't care if she did, but judging from the panicked expression on her face, she was willing to do anything to keep another negative adjective away from her name. Selena always could make Sunny feel like a puppy who had crapped on the carpet. She wagged a finger around her nose as if all this was caused by Sunny's mischievous behavior, but Sunny was only ever trying to satisfy their needs.

Sunny's desire for the approval of her fellows was so strong, her dread of their censure so violent, that she had brought her enemy within the gates; and it kept watch over herm vigilant always in the interests of its master to crush any fold-formed desire to break away from the herd. It forced her to place the pleasure of the Kitties before her own, to make herself a slave to their jokes

"Oh come on, is my cooking that bad? Try some Tofu," said Lyssa. Lyssa went on to explain that Tofu was really good for the body, that it was an excellent source of iron, calcium, and protein, and that when Sunny was a little kid she loved it dearly. The kitties looked uncomfortable. They disliked Lyssa, not because she was trying so hard, but because she wore dignity like an inherited garment, which deepened their glances of disapproval.

"We don't eat that stuff," they said. Sunny became quite pale now, and her fine brow was dark and lowering.

"Yeah, same," said Sunny, pushing the plate away.

To be truthful, Sunny had never really understood Selena or Tate, their culture or the way they acted, but she appreciated being treated as if she did. It made her feel special, even as she knew that feeling special was the most perverse form the exploitation could take. When I saw Sunny so powerless, I drew back in horror knowing I was so so close to a monster of hardly human shape.

***

Table talk switched to a conversation about pets. Hiram had been thinking about getting a dog, his main motivation was because Lyssa desperately disagreed— his little naughty way of exercising power.

"You know, dogs teach children responsibility. Are you really denying a helping hand?" Hiram had a compelling argument which Sunny tended to agree with. But Lyssa wasn't buying it.

"No, It's unnecessary responsibility we don't have time for." She stuffed a piece of ToFu into her mouth. Swallowed.

"What do you think girls?" Lyssa was the type of person to always get everyone involved. They looked at each other, down at their plate, and back at Sunny's parents.

At some point, Selena said, "I think you shouldn't. A lack of restraint, and you might end up serving your pet for dinner." Tate laughed, choked on some food. Lyssa's eyes tripled as she looked at Hiram, who sat languidly, clearly not understanding the joke.

It was just then, at the height of Selena's torture, that the phone rang. Lyssa pushed back her chair to stand up, but Sunny grabbed her wrist with force. Her violence sprung, and it was her way of saying: you fucking promised me you would make things right. Lyssa got the basic message and plummeted into the chair.

"Can you handle it, Hiram?"

"We're in the middle of dinner," he said, carelessly.

Lyssa shot him a look that was filled with skepticism and laced with duplicity.

"Hiram."

"Who is it," said Hiram, in a serious tone, beyond frustrated. Lyssa looked down on her apple watched.

"It's just Camryn," she said. "Now can you go?"

"Camryn?" Said Hiram, face lighting up. "I got this one." He fluffed his shirt, becoming nervous, and pushed his chair back, willingly.

There was a pause as Sunny and the rest of the girls reflected over the slight shift of mood that had overtaken the room. Lyssa glanced over at him with good-humored contempt and pondered deeply for some time as he stood up to leave. Lyssa's housewifely instincts got the better of her dismay and it was quite clear she could not make head or tail of Hiram's announcement.

No one ran so hurriedly to cover as did the unconventional man before them who had exposed himself to the slings and arrows of outraged infidelity.

Dinner ended with Lyssa's trembling voice, and Hiram's queer phone call breaking silence in the background.