Surrogate Child

by Andrew Neiderman

  Her hope that Sally Kantzler would be of some help faded the night the two of them went to the Sterns’ house to study with Jonathan. All week she had sensed that Sally was losing her objectivity. The reason for that was understandable. Jonathan was paying her more and more attention, and Jonathan was a good-looking boy with a strong personality.

  During the short time he had been at their school, he had firmly entrenched himself with Solomon’s old friends and won more than their respect. He had their adoration. They literally battled with one another to get closer to him, to have more private talks, to win his approval. Audra was beginning to find their behavior disgusting. Had they no self-pride? All Jonathan had to do was suggest one of them get him another milk or loan him a pen, and they all rushed to do it.

  And even when they weren’t with him, she saw that he still held their attention. Their conversation was filled with “Jonathan said this” and “Jonathan said that.” Nothing seemed more precious to any of them than an original Jonathan statement. She felt that some of them were fabricating just to outdo the others. How would it end?

  Solomon had been confident, maybe even somewhat arrogant, she thought; but he was nothing like this. He didn’t have to dominate their every word and thought, and he didn’t turn them into his personal slaves. Another thing that she concluded: Solomon wasn’t as conniving. He hadn’t been as clever about manipulating them and working them against one another to his own advantage. In fact, she recalled many times Solomon had been embarrassed by too much attention and ridiculed it.

  But Jonathan’s appetite for it was insatiable. He couldn’t tolerate anyone around him being indifferent to him. She saw that. If he spotted such a person, he would turn his full energies on that individual until he was satisfied the individual was sufficiently within his shadow and reach.

  Furthermore, she had been hearing some bad stories about him concerning the junior varsity basketball team. Although he was good enough to make the team, he was apparently not that good. Consequently, it was a given that he would not be one of the starting five players. In this area, at least, he wasn’t up to Solomon’s achievements.

  But apparently instead of working harder and contributing as a team member, he was creating dissension among the other second and third string members. During lunch one day, she overheard a conversation between Steve Jacobs and Tommy Williams, two of the starting five. Steve said that he had listened in on a conversation Jonathan was having in the locker room with two other second-stringers, Billy Sennet and James Grady.

  “He told them the coach was just using them to spell Kratch and Cumbie,” Steve said. “He said the coach wasn’t giving them a fair chance because his mind was made up a long time ago. ‘No sense in breaking your ass out there during practice,’ he told them. I heard it all,” Steve said.

  “What did you do?” Tommy asked. Audra leaned toward them to hear the answer.

  “Nothing. If those assholes want to listen to him, let ’em.”

  Afterward she asked Jonathan about the team just to see if he would say anything similar to what Steve Jacobs had overheard. His response was just the opposite.

  “I love it,” he told her. “Coach Martin’s a sharp guy, and a fair guy, too. It’s easy to play for him. He makes you want to give it your all,” he said, and she wondered if Steve Jacobs had been talking about the same Jonathan.

  If she was so confused about him, why should she be surprised or disappointed about Sally’s reaction? she thought. But that night when she and Sally were at the Sterns’ almost ended with her having nothing more to do with him.

  When Sally and she first arrived, Jonathan was sweeter than ever to Sally. At first, she thought it was very nice of him to be so considerate of Sally. He could sense she was obviously very nervous about coming to the Sterns’ house. Jonathan didn’t cut her out of their conversation or ignore her in any way. In fact, before long it was she, not Sally, who began to feel slighted.

  She saw how Sally was becoming more and more excited by his attention. Her face was flushed; she couldn’t turn away from him long, and she welcomed every opportunity to touch him or brush up against him.

  They all ended up lying on the bed, their notebooks opened, eating from a big bowl of hot buttered popcorn Martha Stern had made at Jonathan’s request. After a while, they all got a little bored with the homework, and when Jonathan suggested they spice it up a little, both she and Sally were receptive. It was what he suggested that startled them.

  “I know what we can do,” he said, sitting up and slapping his hands together. “Let’s play trivia striptease using the material for the English test.”

  “What?” Audra asked. “Did you say striptease?”

  “Uh huh. Me against the two of you. That’s fair.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Why not? What’s the big deal? It’ll certainly put some excitement into this junk,” he said. “Right, Sal?”

  He had been calling her Sal all night, and she loved it. It was something Solomon used to do. She looked at Audra and bit gently on her lower lip.

  “I don’t know.”

  “What’s the problem? You two are the brains of the class, and it’s the two of you against me.”

  Sally laughed nervously, but Audra noticed she wasn’t looking for a way to retreat. Jonathan was a seducer, all right, she thought.

  “You’re crazy,” Audra said, but she had to admit to herself that she was a little intrigued and titillated. What would Sally do?

  “Sal?”

  “If Audra does it.”

  “Okay, then, Audra?”

  “I don’t believe this.”

  “Here are the rules: I can ask only one question, and the two of you can answer after conferring. You two can confer on the question you ask me. The only thing is we all have to keep to the notes and the textbook material. No out-of-the-way information. Each missed answer costs one article of clothing. You two can alternate. Okay?”

  Sally nodded and sat up on the bed. Audra thought she looked hypnotized, her gaze now locked on every move Jonathan made.

  “Sally, you really want to do this?”

  Sally turned to her and then looked quickly at Jonathan.

  “I don’t want to force anyone,” he said, smiling.

  “No, it’s all right. Really. I want to,” she said, turning back to Audra, a look of annoyance forming.

  Jonathan got up and went to the bedroom door. He turned the lock and smiled.

  “Martha’s liable to get curious. Okay, you two can be first.”

  “What will we ask him?” Sally said immediately. Audra, still a bit stunned, shook her head. “Start with authors,” she finally said.

  “Okay. Jonathan, who wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?”

  “That’s easy. My namesake, Jonathan Edwards,” he said, and the game began.

  Audra was suspicious throughout the questioning. She felt Jonathan was always in control, and even when he missed answers, he did so because he wanted to. Ten minutes into the game, they had missed only two, but he had missed four and taken off his shoes and socks. He caught them on a question concerning a character in The Crucible and then he missed what Audra thought should have been a relatively easy question about Nathaniel Hawthorne. Of course, they expected him to take off his shirt, but instead, he took off his pants.

  Sally’s face reddened, and Jonathan’s next set of questions were all good examples of legitimate trivia, the kinds of questions Mr. Stanley would ask on one of his unit tests. By the time they were finished with the round, however, they had been caught on enough questions to force Sally to take off her blouse. Audra knew what that would mean to her.

  “That’s it,” she said. “We had fun. Let’s stop.”

  “Unfair,” Jonathan said, looking at Sally.

  Sally hesitated.

  “It’s all right,” she said, her voice so soft they could barely hear her. “Jonathan’s right. It wouldn’t be fair.”

 
“Sally.”

  “No. What’s fair is fair,” she said, and unbuttoned her blouse. Jonathan sat back triumphantly as she stripped it off. Audra felt the blood rush into her own face in sympathy with Sally.

  “All right,” Audra said, her temper riled. “Who’s considered the father of the American short story?”

  Jonathan looked at her, a wry smile on his face.

  “That’s easy,” he said. “Poe.”

  “Wrong. Washington Irving. Check your notes.”

  “Oh, I believe you.” He shrugged and stood up. Then, looking directly at Sally, he began to lower his briefs. She screamed and buried her face in her hands.

  “Jonathan!” Audra said. “Stop it.”

  “What’s fair is fair. You got me.”

  There was no question in Audra’s mind that he was about to take off his underpants and would have if Martha Stern hadn’t yelled up to announce Sally’s father had just pulled into the driveway.

  “Saved by the horn,” he said, and Sally rushed to get her blouse back on.

  Jonathan put on his pants and began to put on his shoes and socks as Sally hurried to do the same. Before she left, she smiled at both of them.

  “It was fun,” she said, and left. Jonathan was hysterical.

  “I don’t think you were very funny,” Audra told him. “You know how she is.”

  “I know what she needs,” he said.

  “No, you don’t. You’re not God, Jonathan. You don’t know everything about everyone. You haven’t known her that long, anyway,” she said.

  “No, but Solomon knew her well.”

  “What do you mean? How do you know what Solomon knew about her?”

  “You want me to show you?”

  “What? Show me what?”

  “What he thought of her,” he said. She stared at him a moment.

  “You found something he wrote?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Where?”

  “There,” he said, pointing at the computer.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You will. Come over here.”

  He sat her down in front of the monitor and turned on the computer. Then he tapped out the passwords for the software and got to the menu, which was a list of various things Solomon apparently wrote and committed to the computer’s memory bank. The name of one file was simply “Sal.” He called it up, and Audra began reading. She stopped after the second page had been scrolled.

  “I don’t believe this,” she said.

  “I found it and read it,” he said.

  “Solomon never said any of these things.”

  “Maybe not to you, but he said it to the computer. Listen, this is like a personal diary.”

  “I don’t want to read any more,” she said, and got up from the desk.

  “Okay.” He shut the computer down. “I just wanted to show you that my thoughts about Sally weren’t just mine.”

  “All right,” she said. They heard the car horn and knew it was her father. “I’ve got to go.”

  “Listen, Audra. This was just some innocent fun,” he said. “If I knew it would really bother you or Sally, I wouldn’t have done it.”

  She looked at him. He seemed so sincere.

  “I hope you’re telling the truth.”

  “I am. Really. Let’s forget about it. In fact, let’s keep some distance between Sally and us for a while, okay? Just to keep her from getting the wrong ideas.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  It wasn’t until she was in her father’s car and on her way home that she wondered if Jonathan had done all that he had done just to make her one faithful friend and otherwise intelligent and perceptive witness ineffectual.

  But then she thought, he couldn’t be that much of a conniver, could he?

  She was sure it was partly the indecision about that answer that made her cringe as he came out of the house to get into the car the night of the party. But then, when she saw him, all dressed up in Solomon’s sports jacket and his hair styled close to the way Solomon’s was, she couldn’t help but soften. That part of her that was infatuated with him took control. The memories of their lovemaking were vivid again. And when he got into the car and sat beside her, he put his arms around her and greeted her with a passionate kiss. He was truly Solomon the way she wanted him to be. How could she turn away from that now?

  You have nothing upon which to base such a rejection, anyway, her alter ego told her. Why can’t you enjoy something without analyzing it to death? That’s been your problem all along.

  Embracing her firmly, Jonathan held her against him.

  “You look fantastic,” he said. “You’re the most beautiful girl in this school,” he whispered. He kissed her on the neck, and all the dark thoughts and worries she had had seemed to disappear like smoke thinning into air.

  Audra was surprised to see Sally come to the dance. She rarely came to one before. Audra and Jonathan were there a good hour before Sally arrived. Just as he went across the gym to get her some punch, Sally entered.

  Audra had never seen Sally dressed this way. She imagined Sally had just recently bought the jeans, tank top, and off-shoulder sweatshirt. She had put in her contacts, something she said she hated to do, and put on some makeup as well. She was wearing a glossy pink lipstick, some eye shadow, and even a little Indian Earth to darken her otherwise pale cheeks. At first, Audra did a double take, almost not recognizing her. The girls around Audra parted and stepped back as Sally approached her, everyone buzzing about her. The normally self-conscious seventeen-year-old appeared oblivious of the turned heads and smiling faces.

  “Hi, Audra. The committee did a great decorating job, didn’t they?”

  “I can’t believe it’s you. You look . . . good,” Audra said.

  “Thanks. I’m so nervous.”

  “You don’t look it. Why didn’t you mention you were coming to the party when we talked about it?”

  “I wasn’t. Until this afternoon.”

  “What changed your mind?”

  “Jonathan.”

  “Jonathan? When did you see him?” she asked her. She was somewhat skeptical. Jonathan had promised to avoid Sally during the remainder of the week in school. Whenever she and Audra were together, he deliberately spent time with other students, and his greetings and acknowledgments of her were perfunctory.

  Yet Sally didn’t seem to notice any difference. Audra kept expecting her to complain about him, but she said nothing derogatory, and when she did turn to Jonathan to return a nod or a wave and then turned back, Audra had the underlying feeling that Sally thought there was something special going on between herself and Jonathan. It was as though she knew why he was behaving this way.

  “I saw him, but he didn’t say anything in school. He has a wonderful sense of time and place, don’t you think?”

  “Oh? So when did he talk to you about the party? What was the proper time and place?” she added, growing annoyed with Sally’s new air of superiority. What had he done to imbue her with such arrogance? Audra wondered.

  “He called me to ask me about Palmer’s homework, and we talked awhile. He mentioned the party, but I didn’t want to come. You know how I feel about these . . . these parties, but he was so insistent. I think he feels bad about the game we played in his room,” she added. “I told him I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do.” She paused and looked across the gym at Jonathan. She neglected to tell Audra that she had told Jonathan what Audra had wanted her to do. She told him it was why she had been staring at him all the time, even though that wasn’t the real reason. She didn’t think he was mad about Audra’s request for her to spy on him because he just laughed. “He’s so sweet.”

  “Yes,” Audra said. She looked across the gymnasium, too, only her eyes were filled with fire. “Jonathan is so sweet.”

  Jonathan was by the punch bowl, talking to some of whom Audra still thought of as “Solomon’s crowd.” They had gathered around him, and they stared at him with rapt
attention as though he were their guru.

  Usually the Student Government Association provided only soda, pretzels, and potato chips at these dances, but this evening they had put out three bowls of punch. The seniors and some of their friends had spiked one bowl with vodka. Jonathan and she knew about the special bowl, and he had gone over to get some of the “good stuff.”

  When he turned around, he saw Sally and waved. Then he poured another cup of spiked punch and came across the floor. Audra felt the heat building in her face.

  “Hi, Sal. Thought you’d like a punch,” he said, and winked.

  He handed Audra her cup of punch. She took it without saying anything, but her eyes were ablaze. Jonathan smiled and looked surprised at her reaction. Sally swallowed almost the whole cup in one gulp.

  “Hey, take it easy,” he warned. “That stuff’s potent.”

  She laughed.

  “He means they put vodka in it,” Audra said. Sally was surprised. “Don’t you taste it?”

  “No. I guess I’m just too excited about being here. But it’s good,” she added, as though she were used to spiked drinks. She started moving seemingly in rhythm to the music, only there wasn’t any being played at the moment. Audra looked at her with a half-amused expression on her face. Was this her withdrawn, somewhat introverted friend Sally Kantzler? “Where’s the music?” Sally asked. “Or are we supposed to make our own?” she asked Jonathan. His smile widened.

  Audra’s amazement at her friend continued to be fueled. Sally sounded and looked a great deal more sophisticated than Audra knew her to be. What could have brought about so quick a metamorphosis? Had it been going on all week without her realizing it?

  “The DJ took five. He’s outside smoking a joint,” Jonathan said.

  “Doesn’t Sally look good tonight?” Audra asked, punching her words out emphatically. If Jonathan sensed her anger, he didn’t show it.

  “She sure does. Thought you’d look good in jeans, Sal.”

  “Thanks. Oh, there’s Dede. Excuse me a moment, will you. I want to tell her something,” Sally said, and went off to her right. Jonathan watched her and shook his head.