“You’re saying I should be selfish?” said Rob.
I could tell by looking at Rob that he was about to explode, but apparently his parents didn’t. But even I didn’t know the powder keg was fueled by.
“Yes, I am,” said Mr. Chiltern.
“Well, then, listen to this, Dad. I’m tired of being part of this family. I’m tired of being the perfect son. I’m tired of the burden of expectations. And I’m tired of pretending that I’m not tired.” He turned away from me and faced the cameras, blocking me from them. He moved his arms to catch their attention and the cameras weren’t shy about filming him.
“Son, this isn’t the time,” Mr. Chiltern said, his arms reaching for Rob.
“Oh, no. You won’t get out of it like that. You thought it was the perfect time to talk about it as long as you thought you were winning. Well, it’s my serve now, and you’re going to see what it’s like once I have control of the ball.”
“Rob, your mother and I were very upset. We thought something terrible had happened to you,” said Mr. Chiltern. “You have to understand that sometimes we say things in the heat of the moment that aren’t—that we wouldn’t normally say.”
He didn’t quite take back what he’d said, though. That was his mistake, and I knew it even if he didn’t.
“Rob, you know how much we love you!” said Mrs. Chiltern.
Rob jerked at that as if he’d been hit with an electric shock. “You don’t love me. You don’t even know who I am!” he shouted. “If you did, you would never think that Trudy had anything to do with hurting me. That’s the reason that I am with her. I can trust her. I’ve known that all along, even if I didn’t realize I knew it.” He looked at me for a moment, exposing me to the cameras. There was a shadow that crossed his face.
For the first time, I felt a flutter of uncertainty in my stomach. What was this? Why did Rob look like that, like he was guilty about something?
“Then I apologize,” said Mr. Chiltern quietly. He hesitated a moment, and then he turned to me. “To both of you.”
I was glad that my parents weren’t here at the moment, though. If my dad heard what Mr. Chiltern said about me, he would have ripped him to shreds. Or tried to, anyway, luck or no luck. My dad has no luck, which may mean he dies of a heart attack instead of someone like Mr. Chiltern, but one thing my dad would have on his side in a fight is sheer weight. Luck doesn’t have any effect on the laws of physics. That’s one thing I’ve learned in high school.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” said Rob really quietly.
His dad looked desperately at Rob. “What don’t I get, son? Tell me. I will do everything I can to see you more clearly. A scare like this has really made me reconsider my priorities. I know your mother feels the same. Maybe it’s time for us all to give up some of our commitments and have a family vacation together? What do you think, the three of us? No business, no social appointments, no school?”
“You mean, the four of us?” said Rob. “Because I won’t go anywhere without Trudy.”
Mr. Chiltern looked shocked. He turned to me, and I saw something cold in his eyes, but it was gone again a moment later. “Of course,” he said.
“Or maybe it should only be three,” said Rob.
I felt the hairs on my arms rise up as if I were shivering with cold.
“Whatever you prefer. With Trudy or without,” said Mr. Chiltern. “As long as we’re together.”
“That’s not what I meant,” said Rob. There was a long, dramatic pause. And then Rob spoke loudly enough that the mikes all around could catch what he said. In fact, loud enough that they couldn’t help but catch it. “I mean, you’d want to take Trudy and leave me behind. After all, she’s the one who fits into the family. She’s the one with the luck.” He stared right into the nearest camera and spoke every word precisely.
“I don’t have any luck, Dad. I never have. The luckless son born to the family of luck. All these years, you didn’t know it, did you? You never guessed? I worked so hard to hide it from you, but maybe I shouldn’t have bothered. Because you couldn’t see the truth if it was an elephant in the room, standing on your feet. I don’t have luck, Dad!”
He was breathing hard and his face was bright red.
He didn’t have luck, I thought. And he never had.
Rob Chiltern, luckless. That was the secret he’d been keeping from me. That was the part of him I had never known.
It all made sense to me. Him being luckless was actually part of the reason I had been attracted to him. It reminded me of home.
I wanted to laugh and cry all at once. All this time I’d worried about whether we loved each other because it was easy with all of our luck. I’d worried that he might stop loving me if I gave up my luck. But now it didn’t matter. Luck had nothing to do with our love.
I threw my arms around him and gave him a long, lingering kiss, which the cameras caught fully.
But his parents didn’t take the news as well as I did.
Chapter 16: Rob
I hadn’t expected Trudy to kiss me like that. When she pulled back from me, I looked into her eyes, wondering if she was pretending that this didn’t matter. I had been so worried about the truth coming out, mostly because of her reaction. I thought I would see disgust on her face, or at least shock. I thought it would take her a while to absorb it, and then she would be mad at me. I mean, I hoped that she would get over it eventually, but I didn’t expect to see that faint smile on her face, and the teasing glint in her eyes. Like it was a joke she and I had shared all along.
I was thinking how funny it was that Laura had been blackmailing me to keep this secret and here I was, telling everyone the truth myself. A part of me had thought the world would explode. Or that my head would. But I felt good. Yeah, maybe that had something to do with the fact that Trudy was looking at me that way.
“You knew,” I whispered to her. “You knew all along, didn’t you? And I was so afraid to tell you.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t know, Rob. I didn’t even guess. But it doesn’t matter, not between us.”
“Have I ever told you how wonderful you are?” I asked.
Trudy fluttered her eyelashes dramatically. “No, I don’t think you have.”
“Well, then, I have a lot of making up to do.”
“Hmm, I’ll look forward to that. Later.” She nodded to the crowd of reporters.
Dad was shoving away a reporter who was trying to put a mic in my face. There was chaos everywhere, voices shouting questions at me, at Dad, at Mom and Trudy. Dad’s good side was his right side, and somehow he was lucky enough to keep that side to all the cameras, despite everything else. He was going to look good in the photos, anyway.
“Rob, what are you talking about?” he said. “Of course you have luck! Has Trudy convinced you that you don’t?”
“Dad, I took a test, anonymously,” I said, still playing for the cameras, because if I was going to come out of the closet, I might as well come all the way out, with colors flying. “And the results that came back were pretty clear.” It hadn’t been absolutely zero, but pretty close.
“That’s impossible,” said Dad.
“I am perfectly capable of taking a test, Dad,” I said. He had never set one up for me, and I hadn’t dared to take it with my real name, for fear of what would happen. Especially considering what I suspected with my luck.
“But there’s no need for you to take one. You’re a Chiltern. We have luck back generations. There has never been a Chiltern born without luck,” Dad said.
“That you know of,” said Trudy.
That made Dad angry. “There has never been a Chiltern without luck!” he said, using perfection diction. As if saying it properly would make it true.
Mom was right at his side like in publicity shots of our family. More camera flashes taking photos of them that would look great.
Well, Trudy had enough luck to make us both look good. I waved my hands to the cameras. Then I pulled T
rudy closer to me. The perfect couple shot, her head tucked below my chin, and held her hand in front so that everyone could see. We got plenty of camera flashes then.
Dad was staring over at us, not at all happy.
Mom tugged on his sleeve and murmured something to him, but he shook his head.
“Rob, you know very well that you have luck. I don’t know what kind of a stunt you are trying to pull. Solidarity with the masses or something. Solidarity with your girlfriend.”
“Dad, Trudy has more magic that I do. Infinitely more, in fact, since I don’t have any.”
“Technically,” Art put in. But none of us paid any attention to him.
“I will not have you spout nonsense purely to tweak your mother and me,” said Dad. “And to get back at us for not accepting your girlfriend.”
“I could get the official report of the test,” I said. “Give it to the press. Have them verify it, if that’s what you want.” I was bluffing there. I didn’t actually have the official report anymore.
I’d had the results sent to a phony PO Box address that I’d only rented for a couple of months. Then as soon as it had come in the mail all those years ago, I had burned it. And then scooped the ashes into a bag and taken them out to the beach where I let the wind take them far away.
I should have thought about how much Mom and Dad would have wanted to keep the results secret, too. More than I did, really. I hadn’t cared about having luck for a long time, except for Trudy.
“How can you know if no one in the Chiltern family has been without luck?” asked Trudy. “The test was only used for the first time forty years ago.”
“There are ways other than tests,” said Dad, spluttering.
“Ways that people can fake. Like Rob,” Trudy pointed out.
“How dare you?” said Mom to Trudy. “And to think that I tried to take your side for even an instant.”
Mom, take Trudy’s side? I don’t think so. “Mom, I expect you to apologize to Trudy for being rude to her for so long. Right now,” I said.
“I will not!” Mom said.
“You will.” I spoke softly so that this was just between us. “Because if you don’t, I will walk away from you and Dad right now and you will never see me again.”
“You think we’re going to believe that threat? You’re a high school senior and you’re going to walk away from this house and all this money? From your family heritage? I don’t believe it,” said Dad.
“This family heritage is the first thing I will walk away from,” I said. “It’s only you and Mom I would stay for. But if you think I can’t survive without luck, think again. I’ve been surviving without it for a long time. I’ve learned a lot of things about living without luck that you two don’t know. I think those lessons will serve me well.”
A hurricane might sweep me up. I might fall into a manhole while walking down the street. I might get struck by lightning over and over again. But at least I would be me. The real me. Rob Chiltern.
“What about St. James?” asked Mom.
I shrugged. I would miss it, but I would survive.
“Fine,” said Dad. He glared at Trudy. “We apologize to Trudy”
It wasn’t a sincere apology, but it was a beginning. “Mom?” I said.
She sniffed. “I apologize, Trudy,” she said finally. “For being so rude to you just now.”
The cameras got all this, too. It was the last moment of good luck.
The police started coming out of my house then, carrying bits and pieces of the lab that Laura had recreated down in the basement. I thought they would just leave, or maybe ask Art for permission to examine it to make sure it was all right. But instead they came toward me with handcuffs and started to read me my rights.
You can be sure the cameras caught all this, too.
I put out my hands. “Dad, you might want to call a lawyer,” I said, but somehow I felt quite cheerful about it. Laura had destroyed my life. My reputation was in shreds. My chances for a future were in doubt. But Trudy loved me without luck. So who cared?
“Rob, I have something to tell you,” she started to say.
“No, not right now. I just want to enjoy the moment. I am so glad that you’re at my side. Through all of this—lucklessness.”
“But Art and I are kind of out of luck, too.”
Oh, yeah. I’d forgotten that. That was definitely not good news.
“This equipment has been stolen from St. James Academy. A hundred tiny thefts that were not reported initially, but now have been,” said one of the policemen to Trudy, when they put her in handcuffs. And then Art, too.
“Art?” I said. “How can this be happening?”
“Bad luck,” he said.
“Did you steal all that stuff for your lab?” I asked.
“I just borrowed it,” he said. “I’ll get it worked out. I’ll tell them it’s my fault, and then my parents can pay for it all. It will just take some time.”
Yes, but how much time?
Art and Trudy and I all got put in separate vehicles, but Trudy was taken away first. I had a few more minutes to talk to Art as she drove away. “You used the bacteria on Trudy?” I asked. “Why would you do that? Why would either of you be stupid enough to get rid of your luck?”
“Hey, you don’t know what it’s like, Rob. How you spend all your time wondering how much of your life is really yours and how much of it is luck.”
He thought I didn’t understand pretending?
“What about Laura?” I asked. “You think she got rid of her luck when she had your equipment, too?”
Art snorted. “No, I bet she increased her luck as much as humanly possible.”
“And set us all up for this somehow?” I said, nodding to the policemen opening the back door of the car for me.
“Yup,” said Art happily.
“And you still are interested in her?” I asked.
“Fascinated. Call me a masochist,” said Art. He was pulled away into the other police car.
“Masochist,” I whispered under my breath as I ducked my head to slide in mine. But not enough, because I banged it hard. I guess I’d never done this before and didn’t realize that I had to duck that far. I’m used to driving a bigger car around, with more head space. An SUV.
Maybe Mom and Dad were right, and I was going to start experiencing all the really bad parts of having no luck now that I wasn’t being shielded by their luck.
First, the radio stopped working and the cop swore at the radio, hitting it until it let out this long, buzzing noise that didn’t stop until he yanked it out of the hole entirely and threw it to the side.
Second, a tree fell onto the road and the police car almost rammed right into it. Instead, it swerved to the left and stopped in time to keep from flipping over. As far as I could tell, there had been no wind anywhere else in the whole county. Just in that one spot. Who would have predicted that kind of luck? It was a good thing the policeman knew how to swerve around it.
Third, Laura was standing just outside the police station, watching me and Trudy and Art get hauled in. She gave me this little half hand wave as I went past. “Just thought you’d want to know, Rob, that you failed your English test!” she called out.
“Well, you have something stuck in your teeth!’ I called out to Laura.
She put a hand to her mouth for just one second and under the circumstances, I’m counting that as a win.
Chapter 17: Trudy
Let me tell you, being in jail all night is not fun. It smells and it’s loud and there are other people there you would rather not spend time with. Not all of them are behind the bars. The police who came to gawk at me were not particularly kind. They didn’t speak to me, of course, but to each other, they described me in rather painful and obvious terms. “The grasping girlfriend,” “the power behind the throne,” and “the scheming minx.” (or not so nice a word as “minx”). I remember them all.
Mom and Dad came to bail me out Friday morning early, whi
ch meant I was only inside for about six hours. I felt terrible about it when I called them because I knew it was going to cost them a lot. They didn’t have much beyond some life savings they’d been putting away for retirement. But for all that I had treated them horribly for the last year, they seemed to love me just as much as ever. In fact, Mom stood there, hands on the bars of the jail, as if she would rip them apart to get at me, keeping her eyes on me as if she could protect me that way.
Dad was the one who spoke to the policeman, never once faltering. He acted as if he had done this a dozen times before, and he held his head high. If he was embarrassed about what I had done, you couldn’t tell by looking at him. He might as well have been at my graduation ceremony, watching me march across the stage and throw up my cap.
I looked at them and I realized that I’d made a mistake. I’d thought that I wanted to come to St. James because I would fit in here better, but look how it had turned out? Sure, I had met Mabel and Arlee, who were good friends. I had also met Rob, who had no luck and who was my soul mate. But I had also met Laura Chevely, who had lots of luck, but no soul. Maybe my parents had been right to ignore luck and try to live without it from the first.
I threw my arms around Mom as soon as I could get past the bars and the guard, blubbering something really sentimental at her. Wherever she was, I was home when I was with her and Dad.
“Hey, I want some of that,” said Dad.
So I turned and gave him some, too.
“I don’t want you guys to lose money over this,” I said. “I’ll pay you back, I promise.” Though I didn’t know how, now that my luck was at an all-time low. I was going to have scrape by for a while, and I probably wasn’t going to be at St. James much longer. I still didn’t know what would happen to me and Rob. If we both got kicked out of school, it wasn’t going to be easy to find a place to be together between Tennessee and Vermont. But we’d figure it out.
“Don’t worry about it. This is what parents are supposed to do for their daughters,” said Dad, tussling my hair. “We are pleased as punch we were here when we were needed. It seems that’s your good luck shining through again.”
An Ideal Boyfriend Page 14