I forgot that Cuper Cove is Mrs. Griffin’s hometown too. “Did you go to school with my mother?” I ask.
Mrs. Griffin shakes her head. “She’s a little older than me. We moved in different circles back then. Until you and Natalie were in school together, Missy and I never talked. I never knew your dad. He passed away before you were in preschool, plus he didn’t grow up around here.” Mrs. Griffin is nervous and sort of babbling, which is probably not unusual after you’re nearly killed by a piece of squid. “I remember your mom used to date a boy named Shad. I always thought that was a wonderful name. And now I’m allergic to fish. Isn’t that funny?”
“Shad?” I say. “Shad Beamon?”
Before Mrs. Griffin can reply, Mira races out of the restaurant with a small box in her hands. “Natalie!” she cries. “Your cake! Take a piece of cake!”
Natalie closes her eyes, gathers herself with a deep breath, then offers Mira a big smile. “Can I make a different suggestion?” she asks.
“What is it?” says Mira.
“You keep the cake for now. If you don’t mind, I’ll come back tomorrow so that we can share some together.”
“Just you and me?” says Mira.
Natalie nods. “Just you and me.”
Mira smiles and then, without warning, she gives Natalie a quick hug. “See you tomorrow!”
Mira races back to the restaurant while Natalie heads to the car that her mom’s already started.
“I thought you were coming to Ajay’s tomorrow,” I remind her.
“I want to do that,” Natalie says as she climbs into the passenger seat. “I hope I can do that. But doing everything that I want to do is rarely an option for me anymore.”
“I know what you mean,” I say.
“Danny,” she says. “I don’t think you do.”
Chapter 15
i used to be a kid with a dog
Sunday starts gray and overcast, but a breeze from the ocean, which is only a few miles away, blows in and sweeps the sky clean. By mid-afternoon, everything glows blue and bright. It’s good that the wind is low and the sun shining, because we’ve got a team assembling Cooper the Trojan Unicorn in front of Ajay’s house right now. Billy and Maddie are working with Asha to organize pieces of Cooper’s cardboard body in the driveway. Zoey holds a long tape measure for Darius, who is calculating the proper length for a unicorn neck. Ajay and I find a couple big eye bolts to screw onto the front of our rolling platform. “When will Natalie be here?” asks Billy.
“Is that the only reason you’re helping?” I ask.
“Yes,” says Billy.
“No,” says Darius.
“Maybe,” says Maddie.
After last night, I don’t expect that Natalie will be joining us today.
“Don’t hold your breath,” I tell my friends.
I turn back to the eye bolts. Once they’re secure, we’ll attach a long length of rope to tow our Trojan unicorn in the pep rally and parade.
“You really think Natalie isn’t coming?” Asha asks me.
I shake my head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Of course, Asha doesn’t need me to talk about it because the whole town already knows everything about everything. Since last night, Mom added a special announcement to the official Halloween festival website as well as to her own Missy for Mayor pages. According to the news release, Missy Constantino recruited Natalie Flores Griffin to serve as this year’s surprise celebrity Halloween queen. There’s even a photograph of Mom with Natalie, Mira, and Benny’s amazing pumpkin cake, which I have to admit is the most remarkable baked good I’ve ever seen.
“I think Natalie will be here,” says Ajay, who is kneeling on the ground beside me.
“How do you know?” I ask.
“She’s at the end of the driveway right now.”
I look up, and sure enough Natalie’s hopping off an old fat-tired bike. She leans the bicycle against a tree and then pulls a small white box from a wire basket attached to the handlebars.
Ajay stands to greet her. “What did you bring us?” he asks.
“Do you like cake?” Natalie asks him.
“Did you single-handedly save the prince of the universe and defeat an entire space fleet of mutant zombie soul pirates with nothing but courage, spunk, and charm?”
Natalie comes closer. “You realize that was a cartoon, right?”
Ajay nods. “You realize I don’t care, right?”
Natalie walks up to me and pushes the cake box into my hands. “Hold this,” she says. “I have to text my mom.” She pulls her phone from a fanny pack and then punches out a quick message. “Letting me take a bike and ride around town by myself is not something either one of us is used to.”
“Is that your aunt’s bike?” I ask.
Natalie nods. “Pretty cool, huh?”
Honestly, the bike looks like something you might find washed up on the beach at low tide. “How far did you ride?”
“My aunt’s house is just a couple miles away, but first I went back to the restaurant.”
“Did you eat cake with Mira?” I ask.
“I definitely ate cake with Mira,” says Natalie. “It was delicious. That’s why I’m going to eat more cake with you.” She puts her phone away and then points behind me. “Is that Darius Bryan, Billy Bennet, and Madeline MacSweeney?”
I turn and find Billy, Maddie, and Darius staring at Natalie with big dumb grins. “I didn’t think you’d remember us,” says Billy.
Natalie gives him a smile. “I remember pinning you in under twenty seconds at the Cuper Cove Pee Wee Pirate Wrestling tournament.”
“I lasted thirty-five,” says Darius.
“What about you?” I ask Madeline.
Billy puts an arm around Maddie’s shoulder. “Maddie was Cuper Cove Pee Wee Pirate Wrestling champ!”
“Only because Natalie got disqualified,” Maddie tells us.
“For crushing people?” I guess.
Natalie shrugs. “Apparently that’s not a legal move.”
Zoey steps up, takes the cake box out of my hands, and then turns to Natalie. “Danny was just saying that he wanted to take you for a walk today.”
I turn to Zoey. “Wha—”
“Where are we going?” Natalie asks me.
“I—”
Zoey interrupts me. “Anywhere is fine. You can walk around the block and see everybody’s Halloween decorations while you talk.”
“That sounds nice,” says Natalie.
“But you can leave the cake,” says Billy.
Zoey holds up the box. “I’ve got it.”
Natalie turns to me. “Lead the way.”
Zoey actually gives us a little shove so that a moment later, Natalie and I are turning around the corner and heading into my neighborhood. A few houses have pumpkins and simple sidewalk scarecrows, but there’s nothing fancy. It’s not that kind of neighborhood.
“How’s your mom?” I ask.
“She’s okay,” says Natalie. “The medicine took care of it.”
We walk a few more steps without speaking. “Do you want to crush me?” I finally ask.
Before she can reply, I stub my toe and trip over a piece of sidewalk slab that’s been heaved out of place by frost. “Maybe I should hold your hand instead,” Natalie suggests.
“No,” I say. “That’s okay.”
“Oh.” She sounds disappointed, and I realize that I just screwed something up, so—by accident on purpose—I trip again. This time, I reach out and grab Natalie’s hand. She wraps her fingers in mine and helps me regain my balance.
I can’t remember the last time I held anybody’s hand. It feels surprisingly good. Plus, it’s nice to know that Natalie doesn’t want me to fall on my face.
“You have big hands,” I say.
Suddenly I suspect I might have said another stupid thing, but apparently not, because Natalie laughs. “I can almost palm a basketball,” she tells me.
“Do you play basketball?”
“Just with my dad. He has a hoop in his driveway.”
“I’m kind of terrible at anything that involves a ball,” I admit.
“Me too,” says Natalie. “I just like hanging out with my dad.”
I never actually spoke with Natalie’s father when we were younger. “He used to carry you on his back,” I remember. “And he had a beard.”
“I don’t get piggyback rides anymore,” Natalie says, “but he still has a beard. You would like him. He’s a painter.”
“Like a house painter or like a Mona Lisa painter?”
“Both. That’s why we left Cuper Cove. My father is an artist. He thought there would be more opportunities for his work in California. And there are. But he still paints a lot of houses too.”
A quick breeze sweeps autumn leaves across our feet, and the October chill makes us both shiver. I wonder what it’s like in California right now. “I thought you moved because you got discovered in Hollywood.”
Natalie shakes her head. “That’s just a publicity story my mother made up. I got discovered because I went on a thousand different auditions.”
“Plus you’re really talented,” I say. “And you’re movie star pretty too.”
“Almost everybody in the movie business is talented,” Natalie tells me. “And makeup artists turn supermodels into monsters and monsters into supermodels every day.”
“Are you wearing makeup right now?” I ask.
Natalie gives me a funny look. “No. Why?”
“You don’t look like a monster.”
She gives me a smile. “Thanks.”
I point at a FOR SALE sign in front of a small pink house across the street. “If you lived in Cuper Cove, we could be neighbors.”
“I would love to live in Cuper Cove.”
“Really?” I ask.
We continue walking while Natalie talks. “The main job of kid actors is to be on time, don’t fidget, and cry on cue. I think I’m ready to do more. Or maybe less. I’m not sure.”
“Why don’t you quit?”
“My mom works really hard so I can be—”
“NATALIE FLORES GRIFFIN?” I say in a fake movie announcer voice.
Natalie grins. “Don’t get me wrong. I like being NATALIE FLORES GRIFFIN. But I think just Natalie would be okay too.”
“My mother wants me to be a U.S. Marine like my dad,” I share as we continue around the block.
“But that’s not what you want?” Natalie asks.
“Honestly,” I say, “I don’t know what I want.”
“I bet you want other people to stop telling you what you want so that you can figure it out for yourself.”
As a matter of fact, that is exactly what I want.
“How did you know?” I ask.
“Danny,” says Natalie, “I think we both want the same thing. I also think you could be a great marine one day if that’s what you really want to be.”
“That’s not what I want to be.”
“I didn’t think so,” says Natalie. “But you never know.”
“Thanks,” I say. “I think.”
We’ve made our way down the street and around the corner, so we’re standing at the end of my own driveway now. I point at the side door leading into my kitchen. “Do you want to come in for something to drink?”
“Is anybody home?” Natalie asks.
I don’t see my mother’s car. “I don’t think so.”
Natalie shakes her head. “My mom and dad are both pretty strict. They wouldn’t want me to visit without adults around.”
I feel my cheeks glow red. “I wouldn’t—”
“I know,” she says. “Those are just their rules.”
Somehow, our hands find each other again. We don’t have much more to say, but that’s all right. We make the final turn that will bring us back to Ajay’s house.
“I’m sorry about last night,” I say.
“Me too,” says Natalie.
“What are you sorry for?”
“I should have said no. I should have told them I wouldn’t be the Halloween queen.”
“That was a setup,” I tell her. “That was my mom.”
Natalie shakes her head. “I should have been ready for it. The Halloween festival committee sends me an invitation every year.”
“They do?”
“We always lie and say I can’t make it,” Natalie tells me. “That’s not why I want to come to Cuper Cove. I never pass up the chance to be normal for a little while. That’s why I went to the parade in disguise last year.“
I think again about the Sidewalk Scarecrows movie. Again, I decide that it’s not important right now. If Natalie has to disguise herself in order to be normal for a little while, then she deserves at least a little privacy.
“That’s why my mother didn’t want me to go to the dance with you,” Natalie continues. “She thought your invitation was just another way to get me to Cuper Cove, but—”
“It wasn’t!” I say. “It’s not!”
“I didn’t think so. I know we’ll always be friends.” Natalie gives my hand a squeeze. “We are still friends, right?”
I squeeze back. “Right.”
“Good,” says Natalie. “Because here’s the thing, Danny. I don’t think I can go to the dance with you.”
I stop. “What? Why not?”
“Look.” Natalie points toward Ajay’s house where a large group of strangers has gathered at the end of the driveway.
“Who are they?” I ask.
“They’re probably fans who tracked me down on the Internet. Once your mom posted her queen of Halloween announcements, it was sort of inevitable.”
At the moment, the crowd is oohing and aaahhing over the ten-foot-tall unicorn standing in front of the Kallis’ garage. While we watch, a white van labeled ACTION NEWS TV29 pulls up to the curb.
“You don’t think they’re here for the unicorn?” I ask.
Natalie considers this for a moment. “The unicorn is amazing, but—”
She’s interrupted by a yell from the crowd. “There she is!”
Suddenly, the tiny mob turns and starts racing toward us. Behind them, the TV news guy hops out of the van, lifts a camera, and starts to film the action.
“My mother is worried that somebody might get hurt,” Natalie tells me.
I watch the people approach. “Do you think they’d believe that Taylor Swift is giving free pumpkin carving lessons in front of City Hall right now?”
“I’m worried too,” says Natalie.
“This is a little intimidating,” I admit as the crowd gets closer.
“Yup,” Natalie agrees.
“Should we run?”
She shakes her head. “That will make it worse. Just don’t let go of my hand.”
I’m not sure if this is for her safety or my own. “Okay,” I promise.
The group moves down the sidewalk, some faster and some slower, until they surround Natalie like water breaking around a boulder. If I weren’t holding her hand, I don’t think these people would even notice me. Most snap pictures with their phones. A couple have actual cameras. A few scramble for pens and paper. “Can we have your autograph?” they call to Natalie. “Can we get a picture with you?”
Natalie ignores the questions. Instead, she scans the crowd until she finds a small girl who is carrying a stuffed dog. Natalie kneels down so that she can look the girl in the eye. “Hi,” she says. “I like your dog.”
“Thank you,” the girl says matter-of-factly.
“Why do you have a stuffed dog and not a stuffed cat or a bear or someth
ing else?” Natalie asks.
The girl nods as if this conversation started several hours ago, and it’s about time somebody’s finally asking an intelligent question. “I have a stuffed dog because I want to be an animal scientist like Jane Goodall when I grow up, and dogs were Jane Goodall’s favorite animals. Also, my parents say I can’t have a real dog until I turn eight, and that’s two years from now.”
“I thought Jane Goodall’s favorite animals were gorillas and chimpanzees,” says Natalie.
The girl shakes her head. “You’re wrong.”
Natalie nods. “Thank you for setting me straight.”
Somehow, the simple exchange spins this moment into something new. A second ago, the crowd was aggressive and even a little scary. Now there’s a sense of fun and even joy thanks to Natalie’s gentle kindness.
The low rumble of a big muscle car engine comes from behind the crowd, which has spilled into the street. I know that sound. “I think your ride is here,” I tell Natalie.
“My ride?” she asks.
“My grandmother’s coming to the rescue,” I whisper.
Natalie turns to the crowd. “Thank you for coming out to say hello.” She offers them all a quick wave. “Have a nice afternoon, everybody.”
Still holding my hand, she steps into the group that’s standing between us and the street. Fortunately, everyone makes way as we move forward. We reach the center of the road, where, just as I expected, Gram waits behind the wheel of the green Camaro. Natalie slides into the passenger seat, closes the door, and rolls down her window.
“How did you do that?” I ask through the window. “How did you get the whole crowd on your side?”
“When in doubt,” she tells me, “find a kid with a dog.”
“I used to be a kid with a dog.”
Natalie smiles. “That doesn’t surprise me, Danny.”
I offer a little wave as Gram drops the Camaro into gear and drives away.
Chapter 16
this is not a dark night of the soul
Ajay finds me at the bus stop in the morning. “Where did you go yesterday?” he asks. “We put everything together without you, and then we had to put it all away too. We could have used some help.”
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