My mother’s door was closed, and no light showed under it. From downstairs I could hear the low voices from the den. They were still at it.
I had memorized Heath’s home telephone number, and before I could talk myself out of it I punched the numbers quickly, praying that Heath would answer the phone.
Roger answered the phone, his voice foggy with sleep.
“This is Gabrielle Dexter,” I said in a low, shaky tone. “I’m sorry to call so late, but I wonder if I could talk to Heath.”
There was a long pause, during which I pictured Roger yawning and staring at the receiver, and then he said smoothly, “Please hold, Miss Dexter. I will tell Mr. Lindsay.”
An eternity later Heath came on the line, his voice concerned. “Gaby? Are you okay? Is anything wrong?”
I closed my eyes in relief. “No. Everything’s fine. I just needed to talk to you.”
He sounded amused, as he realized that I was all right. “You just were talking to me. Did something happen?”
“In a way.”
“What?”
“My mother said something that got me worried, that’s all.”
His breathy chuckle came over the line. “Gabrielle, you’re not making much sense.”
“I know,” I said unhappily.
His tone changed when he heard mine. “Hey. Don’t worry about it. You don’t need an excuse to call me. Are you feeling better now?”
“Much.”
“I’m glad.” He hesitated, and then said, “So what’s new?”
I started to laugh, and he joined in on the other end. “You must think I’m out of my mind,” I said.
“Not at all.”
“Well, Roger does. I don’t think he’s used to demented phone calls from teenage girls in the middle of the night.”
“You’re not demented, and it’s not the middle of the night. Believe me, with my family Roger’s experienced it all. He’ll get over it, I promise you.”
“I’ll let you go so you can get some sleep,” I said.
“Okay. Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine. I’m sorry I bothered you.”
“You couldn’t possibly bother me. Now get off the phone and go to bed before your father catches you.”
That galvanized me into action. “Good night.”
“Good night, Gaby.” He paused. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
He’d said what I most wanted to hear. I hung up happily, and was asleep as soon as I hit the bed.
Chapter 6
Barbara and I had our first basketball game that Wednesday. It was away, and we spent the bus trip there and back dissecting my relationship with Heath and her relationship with Mike.
It added a new dimension to our friendship to be able to discuss boys, not in the abstract, as was always the case with me before Heath, but in reality, since I was now dating someone too. Barbara wanted Heath and me to go on a double date with her and Mike, but I wasn’t sure that was such a great idea, for several reasons. The most important was that I wanted to keep Heath to myself and not have to share him with anybody. The second was that Mike was a friend of Jeff’s, and I didn’t want to cause friction again. And the last was that I had my doubts about Mike’s ability to understand Heath and accept him for what he was. Mike seemed to be a nice enough guy, but he was definitely a macho man, not overly bright, and winning the big game was the driving force in his life. I could just picture his reaction if Heath started talking about stories with people imagining snow in the living room. I didn’t mind Heath’s whimsies, to me they were part of his charm, but they would certainly be over Mike’s head.
The more I thought about it, though, I realized that I wasn’t giving Heath enough credit. I began to observe him closely when he was around the other guys, and I saw that he said almost nothing. In short, he knew when to keep his mouth shut. I had thought that after a while he would begin to relax, as he had with me, and talk more freely, but it didn’t happen. He continued to be a stranger in a strange land.
This state of affairs continued until the boys’ first varsity game, which was held at home on a Saturday afternoon. I could tell that Heath was nervous about it. I saw him the night before the game and he was exceedingly quiet, a sure indication of his preoccupation.
My parents had gone to a dinner and had given permission for Heath to visit since I was staying with Craig, and they trusted his abilities as a chaperone. He took this job very seriously, sitting in the room with us and peering into our faces, asking for an explanation of every comment either one of us made. After about ten minutes I was ready to tie him to a tree.
“Craig, why don’t you go downstairs and work on your models?” I suggested.
“Nah, I need a new kit and the glue is all dried up for the one I have.”
“Well, don’t you have some homework?” I asked, trying again.
“It’s Friday night, Gaby,” Craig said disgustedly. “I have the whole weekend.”
No, he didn’t, because I was going to kill him tonight as soon as Heath left.
Craig turned to Heath and said, puzzled, “Your name is Heath?”
“That’s right.”
“What kind of a name is Heath? Sounds sorta dumb to me.”
Oh, ho, bang, zoom. Right to the moon. “Craig,” I said in a dangerously sweet voice, “you’re being rude. I don’t think you’ll want me to give Dad a bad report when he gets home.”
Craig ignored me and said to Heath, “Are you Gaby’s boyfriend?”
Dead. The kid was dead. “Craig . . .“I began, but Heath interrupted me.
“You’ll have to ask Gaby about that,” he said, effectively ending that turn of the conversation. Craig knew better than to ask me anything at the moment. He could probably see the steam escaping from my ears.
“How come your hair is so short?” Craig asked next.
“I used to go to military school,” Heath explained. “It’s the regulation there, but I’m letting it grow now. I pull on it every night to stretch it, too.”
Craig surveyed him suspiciously. “You’re kidding me.”
I’ve always said it, my little brother was nobody’s fool. “Yes, Craig, he’s kidding you.” I had a sudden inspiration. “Why don’t you call Jerry Stillman and see if he can come over here? You can tell his mother that Daddy will drive him home later.”
Craig eyed me warily. Jerry Stillman was his best friend, and Jerry was right up there with Hitler and Attila the Hun among my list of favorites. The fact that I was willing to even have him in the house was a measure of my strong need for Craig’s absence from my visit with Heath.
“I’ll make fudge,” I said desperately. Anything, anything.
“Okay,” Craig said, heading for the phone. “I don’t know if he’ll be home, though. His brother’s getting married and he was supposed to go to the rehearsal. He’s the ring bearer.”
“The ring bearer,” I said to Heath. “The kid can hardly walk, and they’ve got him in the wedding procession. Jerry’s brother must be running short of relatives.”
“I take it the fudge was a bribe,” Heath said.
“You got it. Maybe I’ll add a new ingredient. I think my mother has some rat poison under the sink.”
Heath smiled. “Oh, come on, he’s not that bad. He’s just curious, that’s all. It’s a condition of nature for little boys.”
Craig returned to announce that Jerry’s mother had decided that Jerry could skip the rehearsal tonight. She would be dropping him off in a few minutes. I said a silent prayer for Mrs. Stillman, and Heath followed me into the kitchen.
I got together the chocolate bits and condensed milk and other items, while Heath watched me in silence. “You’re worried about the game, aren’t you?” I finally asked.
“I guess so.”
“Why?”
“Lafferty will give me trouble, if he can.”
I turned to look at him. “But you’re on the same team.”
“He’s on nob
ody’s team but his own.”
“I don’t understand. I thought you said he’d been staying out of your way.”
“In practices, sure. But this will be a game, and we’ll be on display in front of the whole school. You know he always wants to run the show. Dalton and I have been working pretty well together and Lafferty knows it. He isn’t too happy about it.”
“I’m sorry you ever had to come up against him. He’s got a memory like an elephant, he never forgets.”
Heath glanced at me and smiled reassuringly. “I’ll handle it. There’s at least one Lafferty in every school, sometimes several. He’s nothing new.”
I was putting the tray of fudge in the refrigerator as Jerry arrived. I installed the boys in the living room with Monopoly, Scrabble, and my father’s chess set. It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of quarreling and knew that a game was underway.
Heath was waiting for me in the den. I nestled next to him on the couch to watch TV. We’d both had practice that afternoon and we were tired. Heath put his arm along the back of the seat, and I let my head fall against it. I couldn’t concentrate on the program. I was too warm and comfortable. The show became a blur of colors and voices, and Heath’s breathing slowed and deepened as the sound of the television faded altogether.
The next thing I knew my mother was standing in the doorway, calling me. I opened my eyes. Heath and I had fallen asleep. I was lying in his arms with my head on his chest.
I sat bolt upright and Heath leaped to his feet.
“Where’s Daddy?” I asked anxiously, trying to wake up as fast as possible.
“He went with Craig to take Jerry home,” my mother said. “We were surprised to find Jerry here.” She surveyed the two of us with a grim expression.
“I’m sorry, ma’m,” Heath said quickly. “It’s my fault we fell asleep. I should have…”
My mother interrupted him. “I don’t think we have to go into that now,” she said. “It’s late. Perhaps you’d better be going.”
Heath didn’t press her any further. He left the room and went to the closet for his coat.
I brushed past my mother and trailed after him, noticing the empty fudge tin among the grimy game pieces on the living room floor.
Heath shrugged into his coat, watching me with concern.
“Don’t you think I’d better talk to her?” he said. “She looks pretty mad.”
I shook my head. “It’s better just to let her calm down. I’ll explain it later. After all, what really happened? We fell asleep and the kids pigged out and made a mess. It’s not the end of the world. We didn’t set the house on fire or stage a wild party for the neighbors.”
“I don’t know,” he said, unconvinced. “I think she’s going to let you have it once I leave.”
“She’ll get over it, and so will I.”
“Will you call me if you need me to help, come back or anything?”
I pressed his hand. I was used to dealing with my mother. As long as I kept my father out of it everything would be all right.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at the game,” Heath said. “You’ll still come, won’t you?”
“Of course.”
He kissed my forehead and vanished through the door.
My mother was waiting for me inside. I stopped short and looked at her.
“Well?” she said, raising her brows.
“Well,” I repeated, stalling.
“Perhaps you can tell me why I returned to find you and Heath curled up like puppies, fast asleep, while your brother and Jerry Stillman conducted a fudge festival in the next room.”
“Mom ...”
“Don’t ‘Mom’ me. You know I left you in charge of your brother. You deliberately evaded that responsibility by importing Jerry to keep him occupied, then threw yourself into the waiting arms of that Lindsay boy.”
“That’s not the way it happened,” I said, shocked. It hadn’t been that deliberate, that planned.
My mother went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “I have to tell you, Gaby, I’m concerned about this relationship. If you could have seen the two of you, the picture you made. ...” She paused and bit her lip. “It’s moving too fast, Gaby.”
I didn’t know what to say. How fast was too fast? Could you regulate your feelings for someone with a speedometer? I put these thoughts aside and concentrated on getting her calmed down before my father came back.
“We’ll take it easy, Mom.”
She stared at me for a moment, and then laughed shortly. “The voice of experience,” she said dryly. “That’s easier said than done, Gaby.”
“I’ll be careful,” I insisted.
“I hope more careful than you were tonight.” She took her gloves and scarf from the kitchen table and headed upstairs. “I don’t think it will be necessary to take this up with your father. But I want you to know that I’m disappointed in your lack of maturity. Craig and Jerry could have gotten into all sorts of things while you were asleep.”
I was getting really sick of listening to the lecture. “For heaven’s sake, Mom. Craig is eleven, not two. He’s not my kid, and it’s not fair to make me his keeper while you’re gone. He was really being a pain and I was just trying to get him off my back. If you want a guard to watch him every minute, get a babysitter and pay somebody to put up with him.”
I waited for the bomb to explode, but my mother’s eyes merely widened and she said nothing for a few moments. Then she leaned against the banister at the foot of the stairwell, regarding me thoughtfully.
“You find your brother a terrible trial, don’t you?”
“That’s right.”
She nodded slowly. “Gaby, I have only one thing to say to you on that subject. If, God forbid, you died tomorrow, the friends whose company you prefer to his would be sad, I’m sure. Your brother would be up in his room, crying. It’s too bad you can’t see past his antics to his heart, Gaby, or remember what you were like at his age. It may surprise you to know that he’s been saving his allowance for the past few months to buy you a birthday present. What do you think of that?”
I stared at the floor, on the verge of tears. My mother really knew how to make me feel small.
“He was embarrassing me in front of Heath,” I protested weakly, sniffling. “Asking dumb questions, acting like a jerk.”
“If Heath really likes you I don’t think anything Craig could do will change his mind.”
“I suppose so,” I admitted.
“I think we’ve talked enough about it, Gaby,” my mother said, going up the stairs. “Good night. Do those dishes before you come up to bed.”
I went into the kitchen obediently and was washing them in the sink when my father returned with Craig. I waited tensely for Dad to start in on me too, but I heard his steps go through the hall and up the stairs. I guess he figured that my mother would take care of it. I looked up to see Craig standing in the doorway.
“Did you catch it?” he asked, looking worried.
“Not really,” I lied.
“I’m sorry we made the mess on the floor. I’ll clean up the chess set. Dad didn’t even see it.”
He lingered, hitching his shoulders the way my father did when he was nervous.
I smiled at him. “Scram. It’s all right. Forget it.”
He grinned, looking more like my father than ever, and dashed to the living room, where I heard the sound of the chess pieces piling into the wooden box. He reappeared a minute later.
“I’d better wash them off,” he said sheepishly. “They’re all over chocolate.”
I swatted him with the dishtowel. ‘‘Come on. I’ll help you.”
We washed the pieces and put them away. As Craig was leaving the den he said, “That Heath is a pretty nice guy.”
I looked up, surprised. “Yes, he is.”
“He’s on the basketball team, isn’t he?”
“Yup.”
“Do you think he could teach me some things, you know, the moves they use on the varsity
?”
Ah-ha. So there was a method to this madness. “I’ll ask him. I don’t see why not.”
“Gee, thanks, Gaby. The other guys will really be jealous. Tim Fancher’s brother is on the varsity bowling team but basketball is better.”
I hadn’t realized there was a ratings system for the various teams. These kids were a riot.
“Good night, Craig.”
“Good night, Gaby.” He went out, whistling. I had made his day, with such a simple thing. I felt a rush of affection for him and was ashamed of myself for my treatment of him earlier.
I was too restless to sleep and switched on the television. I was crouched on the floor in front of it, trying to decide what to watch, when I heard a scratching sound at the window behind my head.
I held my breath, my heart in my mouth. Was it just a branch, tapping in the wind? No, this was rhythmic, deliberate. I began to get scared and was about to go up and get my father when I heard a voice calling my name.
Anybody who knew my name was not here to kill me. I peered out the window and spotted Heath in the semidarkness, his muffler wound up to his ears, hip deep in the bare forsythia bush next to the patio.
My first thought was that if my parents found out he’d come back they would lynch us both. I motioned for him to be quiet, then pointed to the kitchen door. He nodded and scrambled out of the briers in the direction of the rear entrance.
I pulled open the door and he entered, frozen, his nose red and his eyes watering from the cold.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed.
“I had to come back,” he said, his teeth chattering. “I couldn’t just leave you holding the bag like that.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
“I was afraid that if the news was bad they wouldn’t let you talk to me, or that I might make things worse. I figured if I just took a look around I might be able to spot you alone. I know your parents go to bed early. I saw you in here with your brother, but I had to wait until he left.” He blew on his hands. “My feet are blocks of ice.”
We were conversing in stage whispers, mindful of my family upstairs. “I’ll put the oven on,” I said. “It will warm the room up fast.”
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