“Ben, I know you’re trying very hard and we appreciate that, but we think you might need some extra help,” Malcolm said as they all ate dinner.
That was no surprise to anyone. Although Gennie managed to squeak by with C minuses and D’s, Ben had straight F’s right down the board.
Ben didn’t say anything in response, except for sighing.
“So, at the meeting today, your English teacher recommended that we get you a tutor. She said there was someone in her accelerated classes that might work for you. Do you know a girl named Charlene?”
Ben shook his head.
“We don’t have any classes with the fast track,” Gennie said.
“Well, your English teacher said Charlene could start right away. She’ll be over at around six thirty.”
“Is she going to be helping me too?” Gennie said.
“Well, at the meeting we discussed you also and they said you could probably do the work but you need time to get adjusted. They would just wait and see, since you’re not failing.”
“Good,” Gennie said. “Because I was planning on going over to Page’s house tonight and doing my homework there. Is that all right with you?”
“Of course,” Colleen replied, “just be home by nine thirty.”
“I will, promise,” Gennie said.
“Ugh,” Ben said. Gennie gave him a dirty look. For some unknown reason, he hated Page. Gennie realized she wasn’t the most attractive or popular girl at the school but neither was she. Besides, Gennie didn’t have any other friends except for Page. No one else would talk to her.
After dinner, Gennie gathered up her books and was about to leave for Page’s house when the doorbell rang. When Gennie answered it, there was a girl at the door about her age, but she was dressed to the nines. She wore a pink high waist sheath dress with matching dress shoes. She was easily five inches taller than Gennie. Her light blonde hair was teased and curled to perfection. Gennie saw her in the halls at school all the time, hanging out with the other members of the cheerleading team or with one of the football player’s arms casually around her. She was the girl everybody wanted to be like. Page absolutely hated her.
The girl gave her a rather forced and fake smile.
“Hello,” she said, like she was reading lines from a script, “I’m Charlene Conrad. Mrs. Quirke said someone who lived here needed a tutor.”
“That would be my brother,” Gennie said. “Do you want me to go get him?”
“Oh…okay,” she said, giggling nervously.
If this is way things are going to be, Gennie thought, I’m going to be spending a lot of time at Page’s house. This girl is a ditz.
“You can put your purse on the hook right there,” Gennie said, pointing to the line of coat hangers mounted in the foyer.
She climbed up the stairs. Colleen and Malcolm were watching the news.
“Ben’s tutor is here,” Gennie said.
“Oh, all right,” Colleen replied. “You can tell her to wait in the living room. I’ll go get Ben.”
Gennie groaned quietly. She just wanted to be out the door already. Now she would have to make small talk with Charlene.
She went back down the stairs and led Charlene to the living room. Luckily, Ben was walking down the hall when he saw Charlene conversing with Malcolm. He stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes as big as saucers. Gennie had no idea why he was acting so odd.
“Don’t be shy, Ben,” Colleen said, giving him a nudge. “Your new tutor wants to meet you.”
Ben walked stiffly into the living room. “Hello,” he said quietly.
“Hi,” Charlene replied, giggling. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“So, you don’t know each other?” Malcolm asked.
“Uh, I think I’ve seen in her in the halls and at the pep rallies. She’s one of the cheerleaders,” Ben said to him.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you in school,” Charlene said coyly. “Do you play any sports at all?”
Ben shook his head, not even looking at her.
Gennie huffed. This was so awkward. She wanted to leave but didn’t want to seem rude. Colleen hinted many times that she needed to work on her manners.
“Ben, why don’t you and Charlene go into the kitchen,” Malcolm said. “We’ll keep the TV turned down so you two can concentrate.”
“Thank you, Mr. Rea,” Charlene said. “We really appreciate that.”
This was her cue. “Well, I have to get going,” Gennie said, probably too quickly to be polite. “It was nice meeting you, Charlene.”
“You too, um…”
“My name’s Gennie,” she replied, running down the stairs.
Gennie let out a sigh when she closed the front door. She hated situations like that where she had to be all stiff and formal, especially when the person was flawless in every way. It made her feel like dirt. That’s why she liked going to Page’s house. No need to be Miss Congeniality there. Page and her family were probably one step above farm animals, especially her younger brother. She was practically skipping down the street, she was so happy to be out of there. She felt sorry for Ben. He looked like he was being dragged to an electric chair. Oh well, Gennie thought, not my problem. If he made an effort, he wouldn’t be in this situation right now.
It took about fifteen minutes to walk from her home in the Lakeside neighborhood to Page’s house in Inner Parkside. The homes there were even more crowded together than in Gennie’s neighborhood. Most of them were attached to each other. The houses were all Spanish style with two small strips of neatly trimmed grass or flowers in front. Most of them were painted pastel colors and had small metal balconies. Not Page’s house, though. It stood out like a sore thumb. It was a large Victorian with stained glass windows. At one time, it was painted light gray with forest green trim but the majority of the paint had long since peeled away. Their two strips of land were waist high with weeds and two very imposing arborvitaes hid the entranceway from view. Gennie’s old home in Willow wasn’t that great looking from the outside but compared to this one it would have made the cover of House Beautiful magazine.
Gennie walked up the worn stone steps leading to the house’s porch. One of Page’s many cats was resting in an antique black rocking chair.
“Hey, Midge, how are you doing?” Gennie said to the cat.
Midge opened her grayish-green eyes, gave her a cursory glance and closed them again.
Gennie knocked on the worn dark green door. Dmitri, a Russian Blue, peeked out anxiously from one of the stained glass panels on either side of the door.
“I’m coming!” she heard Page say. She clopped from the kitchen to the hallway and opened the door.
“Couldn’t take it anymore?” Page asked. She adjusted her round black glasses. They were always crooked and too large for her thin face.
Gennie sighed and stepped inside. Dmitri, alarmed by her presence, dashed out. Page closed the door on him.
“He better not start mewing,” Page said. “Stupid cat doesn’t know what he wants. All day he’s been at the door wanting to go out. But as soon as I close the door, he wants to come in again.”
“Well, I want out,” Gennie said. “Things have gone from bad to worse at my house.”
“I just poured myself a glass of wine in the kitchen,” Page said. “Want some?”
“Sure,” Gennie replied. That meant Page’s parents were gone and wouldn’t be home for a while. Page liked to raid their liquor cabinet while they were away.
They walked down the hallway and into the kitchen. It was painted a dingy beige with no doors on any of the cabinets. Page rinsed out two glasses in the porcelain sink and grabbed a green glass wine bottle from their unlocked cabinet. She poured the glasses nearly all the way to the top and set them down on the dark red kitchen table.
“This will take the edge off,” she said.
Gennie took a sip of the light pink fizzy liquid. It was sweet and fruity
, sort of like ginger ale with cherry syrup in it. Page gulped hers down in one shot.
“What seems to be the trouble, Genny-O?” Page said.
Gennie hated being called that, it made her sound like a turkey, but she ignored it.
“Uh, well, Malcolm and Colleen arranged to have a tutor for Ben because he’s flunking out of school. I was just about to leave for your house when she came to the door, and it was no other than Miss Perfect.”
“The Miss Perfect?” Page said.
“Yes, her.”
“Oh god! You must have died on the spot!”
“I wanted to, but I had to be nice to her otherwise Colleen would be mad and ban me from ever going outside again.”
“How did she act? Was she looking down her nose at you like the snotty little bitch she is?”
“No, she was all giggles. It irritated the hell out of me.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. Every other word someone says makes her laugh. So how did Ben take it?”
“He was acting really weird. When he saw her, he got stiff as a board and his eyes were really wide. Then, when she looked at him, he put his head down. He wouldn’t even talk to her except to say hi. When Malcolm told them to study in the kitchen, I shot out of there like a bolt of lightning.”
“That’s not good,” Page said, shaking her head. “That means she’s come under his spell.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, he’s got the hots for her, just like all the guys at school do.”
Gennie groaned and folded her arms. “I can’t believe it. Ben’s not like that.”
“He sure is,” Page said. “If he’s got a wiener, he thinks with it.”
Gennie rolled her eyes. “Bad enough she’s going to come over every single day at six thirty…now I’m going to have to look at Ben drooling at her!”
“Now you know what my life is like,” Page said. “Danny drools over anything that is female. Last night I caught him trying to bring Midge into his bedroom. Luckily, I grabbed her in time. Who knows what unspeakable acts he would do to her if he had the chance?”
Gennie laughed so hard tears rolled down her cheeks. The alcohol was getting to her.
“At least Midge has claws,” Gennie said, “and she knows where to use them.”
“Oh yes,” Page replied, her dark brown eyes beaming with pride, “she learned from the best.”
“We probably should get going on our homework,” Gennie said, putting her books on the table.
“The old ball and chain to keep us tied to school,” Page said. “Wanna smoke first? I concentrate better after I’ve had a few puffs.”
“Oh, okay,” Gennie said reluctantly. She didn’t like smoking but she was afraid Page would think she was a square if she said no.
Page pulled out a pack of Camels from her knapsack, lit one up and used that one to light a second cigarette up. She handed the second cigarette to Gennie.
“So,” Page said, forming a perfect circle of smoke when she exhaled, “what does Miss Perfect look like close up? Does she have any zits, boils…herpes blisters?”
Gennie snickered. “Oh my god, you’re so funny sometimes. No, she is just as perfect close up as from far away. I didn’t see any zits, though she does wear a lot of makeup. She had the foundation, eyeliner, even the fake lashes. Colleen doesn’t even take it that far.”
“Goddamn it, now my dreams are dashed,” Page said dramatically.
“Sorry about that,” Gennie said.
“So, she actually talked to a peon like you? Who would’ve thunketh such a thing? What did she say?”
“Not much. Something like ‘Hi, I’m Charlene, I’m a tutor. Heeheehee’.”
“Yes, I see,” Page said in mock seriousness. “And that golden mane of hair…is it real?”
“Who the hell knows?” Gennie replied. “It looked real to me; though it was mostly one color so maybe she had a little help from Clairol. It didn’t look like a wig.”
“And is it coifed into oblivion?”
“Oh yes. There was so much Elnett on there, it looked shellacked. I don’t think she could smoke if she wanted to, she’d probably blow up instantly.”
“It’s too bad we’ll never experience the joy of fifteen layers of hairspray.”
“Okay, Page…we have to do our homework. I promised Colleen I’d be home by nine-thirty. I don’t want to be late again.”
“Your foster parents are a real drag,” Page said. “Usually wards of the state are allowed to do whatever they want as long as the cops aren’t involved and they stay out of the way.”
“Not us,” Gennie said. “We have to be on the straight and narrow. We’ve been on own for so long it’s hard to go back to following someone else’s rules.”
Page didn’t know the whole story but she did know that both of Gennie’s parents were dead.
“I couldn’t live like that,” Page said. “I’m so lucky that my parents give me a lot of leeway. As long as it doesn’t affect how I’m doing at Lane, they’re fine with it.”
Gennie grabbed her math textbook and put it on the table.
“What pages do we have to do?” Gennie asked. “I forgot to write it down.”
“Twelve and thirteen.” Page never wrote anything down but she had a fantastic memory so it was never an issue.
“Oh my god, there’s thirty word problems on each page! I’ll never be able to get this done!”
“No worries, Gennie-O,” Page said. “We’ll get it done.”
It took about an hour for Gennie to finish all the word problems and she still had English and Spanish homework to do.
“Do you think you can do the English homework?” Page asked. “We had to read chapter ten of Great Expectations and answer a bunch of questions.”
“I read the whole book already last year,” Gennie said.
“Oh, they read in Alaska?”
“Don’t be a smartass,” Gennie replied, chuckling.
“Smartass is my middle name,” Page replied.
“I thought Elizabeth was your middle name.”
“Oh that’s right. Smartass is my first name.”
“So, your whole name is Smartass Elizabeth Goodman?”
“Stupid name, huh?” Page said.
“Stupid is as stupid does,” Gennie replied.
“Wow, that’s a zinger. I see you’re catching on.”
Gennie remembered the book pretty well, so she was able to answer all the questions in about fifteen minutes.
“Oh god, not Spanish,” Gennie said. “I don’t understand it at all.”
“No hay problema. Yo te ayudo con él. Será fácil.”
“I have no idea what you just said.”
“Well, at least you’re not taking Latin like Miss Perfect is. Then you would be learning something you couldn’t understand and would be useless even if you did.”
“Well, obviously I’m not fast track material,” Gennie said.
It took about a half hour to finish the Spanish homework. Afterwards they went upstairs to Page’s bedroom and listened to Miles Davis and other musicians Gennie never heard of and no one in school listened to except for Page. They also chatted. Gennie lost track of time. When she looked at her watch, it was twenty after nine.
“Oh geez, I have to get going! I promised Colleen I would be back by nine-thirty.”
“Well, you have ten minutes.”
“Yeah, but it takes fifteen minutes to walk home.”
“You can borrow my bike if you want,” Page suggested. “It’s an old rust bucket, but it still works.”
“Thanks,” Gennie said, “I’ll bring it back tomorrow.”
“Don’t,” Page replied. “I’m trying to get the folks to spring for a new one. I’m going to tell them someone stole it.”
“Oh, okay,” Gennie replied. “Well, anyway, thanks for helping me with my homework and giving me your bike.”
“No problem,” Page
said. “Now get out of here before Colleen grounds you for life.”
Gennie ran down the stairs, almost tripping on Eunice, an Aegean cat. She meowed in irritation.
“Sorry,” Gennie said, running out the door.
She grabbed Page’s bike out of the driveway and pedaled down the street. She could see why Page wanted a new one. It squeaked very loudly. The plastic handgrips were missing, so it was very cold and uncomfortable to steer. She pedaled as fast as she could past Pine Lake Park and then Ocean Avenue. She took a sharp right when she reached Acacia Court.
When she entered the house, she looked at her watch. It said nine-thirty exactly. The TV was still on. Malcolm watched Espionage on Wednesday nights and it sounded like it just started.
“It’s nine-thirty two,” Colleen said from the top of the stairwell.
“Huh?” Gennie said.
“You said you would be home at nine-thirty exactly,” she said.
Gennie sighed. “I’m sorry; my homework took forever to do. Luckily Page helped me or I would have never finished it.”
“Maybe you can save yourself some hassle and have Charlene help you. She’s a lovely girl.”
Gennie walked up the stairs. “No thank you. I think she has her hands full with Ben.”
“Oh, I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem. Do you want me to ask her?”
“No! Oh sorry, no. You don’t need to ask.”
“Well, you need to get ready for bed.”
“Is Ben out of the bathroom yet?”
“He should be.”
“Oh okay. I’ll get ready. Sorry for being for two minutes late.”
“Adjust your watch before you go to bed,” Colleen said. “Then you won’t be late again.”
Gennie groaned as she walked down the hall. Sometimes Colleen could be so anal. Gennie didn’t visit friends when she lived in Alaska often since everyone lived much farther apart from each other, but her dad would have never raised a fuss if she came home a few minutes late. Colleen was a nice lady but the rigid rules got to Gennie sometimes.
As Gennie brushed her teeth, she thought about Charlene. Now Colleen’s gushing over her, great, she thought; add another one to Miss Perfect’s fan club. She was so lucky she had Page. Maybe tomorrow she could call and have supper over at Page’s house. Her mother was a terrible cook but it was worth eating freezer burned food if it meant she didn’t have to talk to Charlene.
Chapter 14: February 3, 1964
What They Left Behind Page 13