“I like girls!” Jeremy says, and his brothers tackle him. Thomas jumps in too.
Jorie comes out with a pink flashlight. Her mom has pulled two chairs to the end of their driveway. She sits on one and pats the seat of the other. Jorie sits next to her. I notice that her mom has lit the aromatherapy candle I put in their mailbox weeks ago. It gives a soft glow to both of their faces. Her mom turns the chair and says something. Jorie is listening.
Eli comes up next to me.
“I need to ask you something,” he says.
My heart jumps.
“What’s this ring you’ve been wearing? Did Grady Brunson give it to you?”
“What?”
“Are you going to homecoming with him?”
“Grady?”
“Jorie kind of hinted that you were.”
“Me and Grady? No.”
“You’re not going to homecoming with him.”
“No!”
“Really?”
“I swear. I’ve barely ever talked to the guy. He thinks my name is Gina.”
Eli smiles and picks up my hand. “So who gave you the ring?”
“It was my grandma’s wedding band.”
He nods.
An ambulance, fire truck, and police car pull up. Sirens blaring. A Com Ed truck is right behind them. Two paramedics leap out of the ambulance and run into the Cantalonis’.
“Nina. I do remember that night we ruined Mr. D.’s flowers. But what I remember most is hiding in back of Mrs. Chung’s. With you.”
“I remember it too.”
“So.”
“So.”
“Don’t go anywhere.” He runs into his house and comes back with a pen.
“Are you going to take notes?” I say.
“Shut up.” He smiles and takes my hand again, the one with Grandma’s ring. And he writes: HC?
The other girl?
It was me.
It was always me.
Eli and I sit on the curb at the circle of grass in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Thomas skips in front of us, laughing. “Eli and Nina, sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”
“Well,” Eli says, grinning, “if Thomas says so.”
He kisses me, and I kiss him back.
Eli nods. “You’ve convinced me.”
“About?”
“That there are more good people in the world than bad.”
I take his hand. “I knew you had it in you.”
Sixty-two. Almost there.
Jorie shines the flashlight in our direction. Her mom gently lowers Jorie’s hand.
I look down. “All this time, I thought you were going to homecoming with Jorie.”
He looks uncomfortable. “I liked her in the beginning of the summer, but then it wasn’t working. It wasn’t right. I didn’t know what to do. She’s so …”
“Hard to say no to.”
He laughs. “Yeah.”
Mom comes out of the Cantalonis’. She walks toward Matt and Dad, standing by our garage. Their voices are low, so I can’t hear exactly what they’re saying, but from the looks on Mom’s and Dad’s faces, Matt is telling them what happened at the Dixon house.
Dad doesn’t seem to be freaking out, and Mom isn’t lecturing. They’re just talking and listening.
This is a such good thing. Sixty-three. I’m not even doing them anymore; other people are. They’re just happening.
That little flame inside my heart has jumped out and is making its way around the sidewalk, lighting the circle of houses.
Jorie leaps from her chair and walks over. Eli jumps up, goes over to Thomas, and starts tossing a ball with him and the Cantaloni boys just as their dad drives up and rushes into the house.
Did she tell Eli that I was going with Grady so Eli would go with her? If so, then she did something bad too. But I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.
I bite my lip. “Hi.”
“This is crazy.” She waves her hand.
“I know.”
She scratches her cheek. “My mom said I should come and talk to you.”
“You’re here because your mom said?”
“Yeah.” She sinks down next to me. “No. This is all such a mess, I don’t even know where to start. I liked him so much, and you really hurt me … but I think I always knew … he liked you.”
I nod. “Thanks for saying that.”
“Anyway.” She shakes her hair. “Guess what?”
“What?”
“Grades asked me!” She holds up her phone, shows me a text: Hey, wanna go?
I laugh. Grady would ask in a text. “I thought he liked you,” I say.
“I know! I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. So really, I need your advice. Which dress? Mom said I can’t have both.”
“Jorie. You are one of a kind.”
“So are you, Neen.”
“Red!” I shout.
She hugs her knees. “Okay!”
I call to Eli. “Help me with something?”
“Another flood?” he shouts.
“No. C’mon.” I get up. “Jorie, you too.”
She hesitates but then follows me and Eli to my patio. I put the cushion on the love seat, and the three of us carry it to the end of my driveway. Then we go back for the chairs.
Jorie is doing that corner-of-her-lip smile. “You’re so weird, Nina.”
“I know. This guy from my art class, Chase, told me to ‘Stay weird.’ ”
Jorie and I lift a chair. Our eyes meet as we set it down beside the love seat. She breaks the connection first, pushes her hair off her forehead, steps back.
A police officer is sitting in his car. I think he’s the one who came that day Mrs. Millman called, suspicious over the Hershey’s Kiss and penny in her mailbox.
“Looks like you’re having a party,” he says.
Mrs. Chung is bringing over a chair. “Why not?”
Jorie’s mom drags her chairs to our driveway. Then Mrs. Millman carries one over too. She has Beanie on a leash. Mom, Dad, and Matt are there. Mom sits on the love seat, looks my way, and pats the cushion next to her. A place for me.
Jorie curls on the ground by her parents. Eli pulls Thomas onto his lap.
The candle is flickering by Jorie’s house. A dozen flashlights. A million stars. It’s amazing.
“This is something,” Mom says.
Mrs. Bennett and Mr. Millman are still inside with Mr. and Mrs. C. and the paramedics. Flashlights shine from their windows. The Cantaloni boys are running bases on their lawn.
I’ve almost forgotten about the IPIT guys until they come out and start loading equipment into their truck. One walks over. “Well,” he says. “It’s gone.”
Mrs. Millman’s mouth is hanging open. “What was it? What did you see? An orb? A poltergeist?”
“We’re not exactly sure, but I can assure you the spirit has left that house.”
Everyone looks stunned.
Except Mrs. Millman. She’s ecstatic. She picks up Beanie and cuddles her. “You’re safe again, darling.”
“You saw a ghost?” Dad says.
“Yep. See ’em all the time,” the guy says.
“All the time?” Jorie’s dad repeats.
The guy nods. “Oh, they’re out there. You have to believe.”
Matt grins at me. “Some things you just have to accept.”
I grin back. “Right.”
“Anyway, we’ll send you a bill,” the guy says to Mrs. Millman. “Sorry about the power outage. Where’s your husband, by the way?”
She waves toward the Cantalonis’. “He’s in labor and delivery.”
“What a crazy neighborhood,” the guy says.
“It must be the heat,” Mom says, and smiles at me.
“I knew it!” Mrs. Millman says as the IPIT truck pulls away. “I have a sixth sense. People have always told me that.”
Beanie barks, as if she agrees.
Jorie’s dad is shaking his head. He looks like he’s going to say so
mething, but Mrs. Chung starts singing in Korean. Beautiful words in a high, clear voice. Everyone’s quiet. Even Beanie.
Then she sings two lines in English: “Just as there are many stars in the clear sky … there are also many dreams in our heart.”
She stops. “I used to sing this to my children. And my father sang it to me.”
“That was lovely,” Jorie’s mom says.
“I can sing too!” Thomas says.
Everyone laughs, and Mrs. Millman sighs happily. “The neighborhood is back to normal at last.”
Mr. Millman dashes outside. “It’s a girl!” he shouts.
“Oh my God.” Mrs. Millman jumps from her chair. “Heaven help her, with three older brothers!”
“What’s her name?” Jorie’s mom asks.
Mr. Millman is beaming. “Julia. Julia Rose Cantaloni. They think she’s eight pounds, maybe more!”
“Big baby!” Mrs. Chung says.
“You were eight pounds, two ounces,” Mom says to me.
“I was?”
“Uh-huh.”
Then Julia Rose and I have something in common. I like her already.
“You have a baby sister,” Jorie’s mom calls to the Cantaloni boys, who have continued to play this whole time. “How do you like that?”
“She better learn how to play baseball,” Jack says.
“She could pitch,” Jeremy suggests.
“I’m the pitcher,” Jordan says, and stamps his foot.
“Let her learn to walk first,” Mrs. Millman says.
“And baby and Mom are both doing fine,” Mr. Millman reports. He turns to the house. “They’re taking them to the hospital. Come quick!”
Mrs. C. is being wheeled out on a stretcher, Mr. C. walking by her side. Mrs. Bennett is carrying the baby in a blanket. Everyone else walks over. Julia has a head full of dark hair, like her brothers, and her eyes are squeezed shut. She’s the smallest person I’ve ever seen. The boys fall over each other, running to see their new sister.
Mrs. Bennett hands the baby to one of the paramedics.
“Guys,” Mrs. Cantaloni says to her boys. “You’re staying the night at Thomas’s house. Dad will see you in the morning, okay? I hear Thomas has a few extra swords.”
They jump and scream, “Hooray!”
Mrs. Chung is standing next to me. “Nothing in the world like a new baby,” she whispers. “Makes everything possible again.”
The neighbors drift back to their chairs as the ambulance, fire truck, police car, and Mr. Cantaloni pull away. The Com Ed truck is still here, working on getting the power restored. I kind of like it this way, though. Quiet, dark, the cul-de-sac lit only by the glow from flashlights.
Mom’s eyes are red. “I remember when you and Matt were born like it was yesterday.” She sniffles. “Oh, what’s the matter with me?”
Dad hands her a tissue. “I told my brother we’re taking him up on his offer to use their cabin. A vacation! No arguments.”
Mom nods. “Okay.”
She and I sit back down on the love seat.
She pulls something from her pocket. “I found it.”
“What?”
“The recipe.”
“The carrot ring? Really? Where was it?”
“Scribbled on the back of another recipe.” She hands it to me, and I look it over.
“I’ll never be able to make it like she did.”
Mom puts her arm around me and gives me a little squeeze. I don’t know if that qualifies as an actual hug, but I’ll take it.
“Maybe not,” she says, “but you’ll make it your way.”
If that’s not a Simple Truth, I don’t know what is.
Mom can be hard to love. But that doesn’t mean I don’t.
I’m sure that’s how Grandma felt too.
“I love you,” I say.
She sniffles and smiles and sighs and says, “I love you too, Nina.”
Sixty-four.
I am wearing shoes. Beautiful strappy, silvery shoes with the highest heel I’ve ever worn. So high, I’m not sure I can walk that well.
And the blue dress, which was miraculously still in the store when Mom took me to the mall. So it was meant for me.
Sariah was there buying a dress too. A really pretty dark green. She said, “Frog green.” We cracked up, but the salesgirl didn’t think it was funny. Sariah’s going with a group of girls and we’ll be at the same after-party. I can’t wait to see how she looks.
Jorie took my advice. She looks amazing in the red dress. Like she’s about twenty. Hair piled up in curls, French manicure and pedicure, spray tan.
Mom has told me a hundred times that I look beautiful, but I kind of knew that.
Almost everyone is outside. Same eight houses. Brown, white, tan. But nothing is the same.
Mrs. Chung has turned on her Christmas lights so her trees sparkle in the September sunset. Tonight, the neighborhood looks like something out of a fairy tale. If it wasn’t already.
The air is cool, and summer is almost gone. Mrs. Cantaloni holds Julia in a blanket, and I’m glad to see that Mrs. C.’s stomach is returning to normal. The Millmans are there, with a healthy-looking Beanie by their side. Mr. D. sent me a note that he was sorry to miss everything, but he put a couple of the delicate, sky-blue forget-me-nots in a pot and left it on our doorstep. So a part of Grandma is right outside my door.
And Eli. In a suit and light blue tie. Wow.
He grins and says, “Nice shoes, Neen.”
I laugh and take his hand.
“Nice everything,” he says.
Mrs. Chung brings each of us a marigold. “It’s a flower of love,” she says.
Mrs. Bennett and Mom make us pose for a hundred pictures; Mom is texting some to Matt. He left a few weeks ago, promising me he won’t break into anything at college. And he said he’d miss me and I’d better visit. He said we’ll play poker but he won’t let me win so fast.
Grady and Jorie are taking pictures in her driveway. He’s wearing red Converse shoes with his suit. They look cute together. They fit.
I suddenly think, Sixty-five! I forgot to do the sixty-fifth good thing.
But then I look around, and realize sixty-five is right in front of me. It’s everything.
I hold out my arms and spin around, our circle of houses blurring, my dress floating. Grandma’s wedding band is snug and secure on my finger. There isn’t a vanishing point in a circle. At least that I can see.
Mr. Millman points to the Dixons’. “Someone bought the house!” A sticker on the For Sale sign says SOLD!
“Oh, boy,” Mrs. Millman says. “We’ll keep an eye on that place, won’t we, Beanie?”
Beanie barks. Mrs. Chung nods and says, “Me too. I’ll bring lunch.”
Everyone laughs.
Without a doubt, this is number sixty-five.
Thomas is at my side. He got a buzz cut for kindergarten and he looks so much older that I catch my breath. But I’m happy to see the sword tucked into his shorts.
“Mystery Girl!” he shouts. “You look so pretty!”
I lean down. “Shhh! You’re not supposed to tell anyone.”
“Aw. Everyone knows.”
Eli and I get into the back of his mom’s car, and I put the marigolds on the seat between us.
Because that’s how everything started.
“Ready?” he asks.
I am.
Appendix
The Sixty-Five Good Things
by Nina Ross
1. Freaked out Mrs. Chung by planting her marigolds.
2. Cleaned up and organized about a hundred toys in the Cantalonis’ yard.
3. Put a Hershey’s Kiss in the Millmans’ mailbox.
4. Left a rose on Mr. Dembrowski’s doorstep.
5. Placed a good luck penny in every neighbor’s mailbox. Or a magic coin, depending on your perspective.
6. Watered Mrs. Chung’s marigolds.
7. Brought mail to her door.
8. Unta
ngled plastic bag from her tree.
9. Hung up her wind chimes.
10. Baked brownies for Mr. Dembrowski.
11. Gave foot pads to Mrs. Bennett.
12. Left aromatherapy candle for Jorie’s hyper dad.
13. Gave Mr. Millman cigars, despite risk of tongue cancer.
14. Picked up Jorie’s lip gloss on the bus.
15. Delivered treats to Mr. D.
16. Delivered more treats to Mr. D.
17. Made chocolate chip cookies for Matt.
18. Found Cantaloni boys’ baseball in the weeds.
19. Cleaned out Matt’s car.
20. Brought Matt’s old baseballs to the Cantalonis.
21. Stuck smiley face “Have a nice day!” balloon into the Millmans’ flowerpot.
22. Made Eli laugh (hit his arm with a crab apple).
23. Gave the color wheel to Amber.
24. Complimented Jorie.
25. Watched Thomas.
26. Took Thomas to the park.
27. Comforted Thomas when his cape tore.
28. Discovered that a pillowcase can be used as a substitute cape in emergencies.
29. Sewed Thomas’s cape.
30. Told Sariah her drawings were amazing.
31. Drafted Thomas into the Cantaloni baseball league.
32. Bought a bone for stressed-out Beanie.
33. Wrapped up two slices of Mrs. Bennett’s banana bread for Mr. Dembrowski.
34. Gave a bottle of lotion to Jack Cantaloni for his mom. Exploded on his shoes. Fail.
(Hid from Sariah in store. Go back ten spaces.… )
35. Complimented Jorie’s mom.
36. Played left field during Camp Nina.
37. Left a pot of marigolds on Mrs. Bennett’s front step.
38. Put a You’re welcome note in Mr. D.’s mailbox.
39. Put Matt’s smelly shirt in the laundry.
40. Planted forget-me-nots in Mr. D.’s yard.
41. Watered forget-me-nots.
42. Watered all the marigolds. Neighborhood in bloom. Consider career in floral industry.
43. Brought golf balls over for Mr. Millman.
44. Fixed Thomas’s cape again.
45. Cleaned up garbage in back of the Dixon house.
46. Told Jorie’s mom I’d watch out for Jorie.
47. Mrs. Millman held a neighborhood meeting because of what I’ve been doing. More poeple outside at one time than I ever remember.
The Summer I Saved the World ... in 65 Days Page 14