FLASHES - Chapter 4

FLASHES  - CHAPTER 4
“I wear red,” Trinity says, when I come out of the bathroom in my new bikini.

“So, that means you’re not excited we have on the same swim suit?” I think it’s funny, but I’m the only one laughing. Story of my life.

“Just in the future. I wear red.” She put on another coat of lip gloss and checks out her reflection one more time. I didn’t see anyone else in the house when I came in. Who cares what she looks like? We’re going swimming. People don’t look good soaking wet. They just look wet, with or without lip gloss. “You can have another color. Like maybe blue. There are lots of shades of blue. I’m sure you’ll be able to find one that looks good on you.” She’s still looking in the mirror while she talks.

“Um, okay?” This was a joke, right? She doesn’t expect me to go home and empty my closet of everything red, because she likes that color. That’s insane.

Trinity’s pool in unbelievable. It looks like something from a Hawaiian resort. A waterfall pours down off of a mini volcano with a slide. In the deep end, you can dive off of a stone bridge that arches across it.

Not that Trinity does. She only gets her feet wet before flopping into a lounge chair in the shade of a bunch of potted tropical plants.

“You want to jump in and cool off?” I ask.

“You can if you want. I guess.” She’s arranging her hair around her shoulders. “I don’t want to get my hair wet. It’s just too much work, you know?”

“Yeah.” Is what I say, but “no” would be the real answer. There is a volcano slide in front of us. Who cares about your hair when there’s a volcano slide?

I stretch out in the lounge chair next to her. She closes her eyes and smiles a little. We just sit there.

Since her eyes are closed, I use my big toe to pick some dirt off of my other foot. Probably got there when I fell off my bike.

Her eyes are still closed. It’s been like 10 minutes. I weave my hands and arms in between the fabric slats in my chair. Boring.

“So,” I say. Trinity opens one eye at me. “Do you ever bring your paints out here and pretend you’re Gauguin?”

She squints at me with her one eye.

“You know, since it’s tropical looking out here…” I say.

“Who?”

“Gauguin. He did all of those post-impressionist paintings of Tahiti.”

“Oh. I’m only into realistic style painting. I don’t really think it takes a lot of skill to slop paint on a canvas like the impressionists did.”

Okay. We won’t be talking about art.

“I’ve been wondering,” she says, and she actually opens both eyes to look at me when she talks. “How does the whole being psychic thing work? You see the future, right?”

“Yeah. Um, it’s not that exciting really. I only see dumb things, everyday things like Cameron, nothing important.”

“How far in the future?”

“Just a few seconds, or sometimes it won’t happen ’til the next day.”

Okay, I’m not really comfortable talking about my psychic stuff. Except with my grandma. That’s because she gets flashes too. And the flashes aren’t all that great. Who needs to see themselves doing the dishes ahead of time? No one, but I do anyhow.

“So, how does it happen? Do you think about something and see it’s future? Were you thinking about Cameron, when it happened?” Trinity’s nose scrunches up a little.

“What? No. I wasn’t thinking about Cameron. I can’t make it happen at all. I just see this lightning flash, and then I see something boring. That’s it.”

“Really?”

“Uh huh. I think my grandma was struck by lightning or something and that’s why it happens to us. No big deal.” Except I shouldn’t have mentioned my grandma doing it too, because she’s really private and wouldn’t be happy if she thought I was telling people. So I talk faster, ‘cause that’s what I do when I’m freaking out. Not that it matters, Trinity has closed her eyes again.

I only stay for about an hour more, before I tell Trinity I better head home. She barely opens her eyes to say goodbye. I really should’ve gone down the volcano slide at least once. Especially since I’m pretty sure this will be my only opportunity.