A chuckle escapes my tight chest. Oh, what the hell! What’s the worst that could happen? A spark ignites at the thought of Amelia. Last I heard, she married some guy she had dated for only a few months—at least that’s what Doc told me the last time we spoke. But what if she lives here now? What if Sunshine, or someone who knows of their whereabouts, answers the door? I have nothing to lose, so why not knock?
I stand in front of the massive door for a few seconds longer, my heart shooting adrenaline to my tingling hands. Grabbing the lion-head knocker, I give it three loud raps. And wait. And wait. The house and grounds could not be more still. Well, at least I had the courage to try. Then, for the heck of it, I give it one more knock, a timid one, like on the night Penny and I snuck down to watch the lunar landing on color television.
With Penny beside me, I rapped on Doc’s front door, afraid that if I knocked too loud the sound would carry up to our cottage and wake Mom. I didn’t have to knock a second time before Doc answered. Amelia stood behind him.
“Well, come on in!” Doc took my hand.
As I returned his grip, my eyes briefly met Amelia’s.
“Hello, Benjamin,” she said, with her usual half smile.
My heart jumped. “Hi, Amelia.”
She quickly turned her attention to Penny. “Let’s go up to my room.”
“Okay.” Penny followed her to the stairs as my gaze followed them up around to the balcony and into one of the front-facing doors. Doc turned, leading me toward an exit beside the piano room, when headlights from the driveway shone through the windows.
“Well, that’s curious.” He released my shoulder and made his way to the front door. I stood off to the side. At the moment he reached out for the latch, the knocker sounded, and the door flung wide open.
“Hello, hello!” the female voice sang out.
“Karen, sweetheart! You’ve arrived early!” Doc grinned widely, grabbing hold of the woman. She could have been Sunshine’s double but about ten years older and hair about ten inches shorter, pulled back in a brightly colored headband like Mom wore.
“Surprise, surprise, Daddy!”
“Well, this is just wonderful.” He seemed genuinely pleased. “What a perfect surprise!”
Behind her, she held a man’s hand. As he stepped forward, his blond, Brylcreemed hair glistened under the overhead light.
Doc’s smile stretched with tension as he greeted him, “Good to see you, Dick.”
“Always a pleasure to see you, sir.”
In the wide-open doorway, a tall kid, in a forest green polo shirt, scuffed his loafers on the doormat. It took me only a second to recognize him as the Elmore kid, whose coffee I had spilled—the one who had flicked his cigarette at me. He raked his fingers through a blond tuft of hair, oblivious to my presence. As he stepped in, he looked up and all around the spacious foyer.
Dick spoke up, “Sir, this is my son, Ricky.”
Ricky extended his hand, greeting Doc with rows of perfect and gleaming teeth. “Sir. It’s a real pleasure to meet you.”
Doc maintained his grip for a second longer. “I hear you just graduated Elmore Academy.”
“That’s right, sir.”
Dick chimed in, “With high honors. He’ll be attending Yale this fall.”
“Impressive,” Doc said, but I had heard enough of Doc’s motivational discourses to detect a lack of ‘impressed’ in his tone.
“Where’s my baby?” Doc’s daughter said as Ricky’s eyes fell on me without recognition.
Amelia appeared on the balcony and offered a neutral, “Hello, Mother.”
“Come on down here and give me a proper greeting,” her mother chided.
Even as Amelia trotted downstairs, her stride lacked enthusiasm. When her mother embraced her, Amelia hugged back, but her grip appeared limp.
Amelia’s mother turned her to face the groom-to-be. “Say hello to Dick.”
Amelia gave a less-than-half wave—way less than she normally offered me. “Hello, sir.”
“Nonsense,” he said. “There’s no need for formality. Why I’m practically your dad. Call me—”
“Dick,” she said. For the first time, I wondered about Amelia’s real dad.
“And this is your stepbrother, Ricky—that is, he will be after next weekend.”
Amelia’s brow rose as Ricky stepped toward her.
“Well, hello,” he said, extending his hand.
She accepted it and smiled politely—a bigger smile than I usually received. His eyes were all over her—way worse than I ever gawked.
Amelia said nothing. Her mom’s voice cut through the awkward silence as she gestured toward me on the sidelines. “And who is this young man?”
Doc grabbed my shoulder, bringing me into the group. “This is Ben Hughes, the cleverest boy on the lake—come to watch the lunar landing with us.”
“Well, Ben Hughes, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” She followed through with the same pseudo formality this family seemed so fond of. I accepted her limp handshake.
“Nice to meet you Miss, I mean Mrs.—I mean—”
She tossed her head back. “Nonsense! There’ll be none of that! You call me Karen.”
“Okay—”
Her plucked brow spiked, prompting my follow-through.
“—Karen.”
She smiled with satisfaction. “That’s better.”
“I’m going back to my room,” Amelia announced. “Call me down when they’re actually going to step on the moon.”
Without waiting for a response, she ran upstairs. This time, Ricky’s gaze followed her all the way up and around until she shut the door behind her. Penny was the smart one, staying out of sight in Amelia’s room and avoiding all the introductions.
Dick said, “Let’s go get those bags, shall we, Ricky?”
“Sure thing, Dad,” he responded as his sights landed on me. He squinted, as if it finally dawned on him that we had already ‘met.’
Karen slipped her arm around Doc’s waist. Arm in arm, he ushered her through a doorway and motioned for me to follow. “Come along, Ben.”
I stepped into the large room—the great room I had seen from the kitchen when eating pancakes with Lenny. Only the television and a floor lamp lit the area. Both Lenny and Christopher hunched over a chess table, deep in thought. Sunshine bent behind Lenny, leaning over his shoulder as he studied his next move. At the sight of us, she sprung up.
“Karen,” she squealed. “You’re here early!”
Christopher’s hand hovered over the queen. “Hi, Ben,” he said without breaking his focus.
Lenny, fingering his beard, glanced up and flipped me a peace sign. “Fixer-man.”
I returned their greetings as Sunshine and Karen embraced.
“Have a seat, Ben.” Doc directed me to the overstuffed sofa and chairs forming a semicircle in front of the television, where Percy and Candace sat side by side. Candace, with a large bowl of popcorn in her lap, patted the cushion beside her.
Percy looked up and smiled. “Peace, man. Sit.”
I obeyed.
“Popcorn?” she said.
I dug into the bowl as Walter Cronkite’s mouth moved; the volume had been muted. Nobody seemed to be paying much attention to the television. At the moment, I wasn’t as interested in a history-making broadcast as I was in history-making interactions going on around me. Sunshine and Karen stepped into my peripheral vision. They stood face to face, their profiles like a mirror image.
“Have you talked to your dad—is he coming?” Karen said in a hushed tone.
Sunshine shook her head and shrugged. “Yeah, he said maybe, but that’s as good as no.” I sure knew what that was like.
“Well, never mind—his loss,” Karen sighed, and then added, “I’m going with your suggestion—bird seed instead of rice.”
“Cool.”
“And you’re going to love your maid-of-honor dress—it’s so you.”
Sunshine drew her hair
behind her ear. She wore the earrings I had fixed. “I can’t wait to see your gown.”
“Can you believe? It’s a minidress with yards and yards of white chiffon.”
I had never heard of a bride wearing a minidress, and I was no fashion expert, but I liked the sound of it. Maybe Amelia would also be in the wedding party—in a mini minidress.
“White?” Sunshine smirked, “Didn’t you kind of miss the virgin boat?”
“Hey, this is my first wedding. That’s practically virginal these days.”
Candace broke into my eavesdropping with a nudge, “Whaddaya say, Fixer-man?”
“Huh?”
“You wanna come with?”
I grabbed another handful of popcorn. “Where to?”
Now slumped into Percy, Candace winked. “To a Love-In, over in New York, like we had in Cisco a couple summers ago.”
Percy rolled his eyes. “He’s too young, Candace. Leave him be.”
She jiggled his knee. “You’re making the scene, aren’t you, Perce?”
His closed eyes fluttered. “If Lenny’s got room in the Rambler.”
“What’s a Love-In?” I asked with my mouth full.
Ricky’s voice came from behind, “It’s where a bunch of smelly, un-bathed, longhaired, half-naked hippies gather for free love and subversive music.”
“Whoa! Whoa man!” Percy craned his neck to look behind. “If I weren’t so laid back and opposed to violence, I’d clean your freakin’ clock.”
Candace giggled, “You mean if you weren’t so buzzed that you can’t get your butt off the sofa.”
Across the room, Lenny came to his feet. “Yeah? Well, I ain’t opposed to violence as a means to an end, punk!” He drew in a quick breath. “But I won’t disrespect Doc’s house.”
“Who’s the downer?” Candace whispered to me.
“That’s Ricky—Amelia’s new stepbrother.”
She rolled her eyes as Doc spoke up behind us. “Come on now, kids. I’m sure Ricky didn’t mean anything by it, did you?” I imagined Doc’s heavy hand on Ricky’s shoulder, giving him the squeeze.
“Nah, man, I was just kidding around. It was a stupid joke.”
“Stupid, alright,” Candace snickered between the two of us. “What kind of lame-o-reject is he?”
I shrugged, although I had a pretty good idea of what kind of lame-o he was. I refocused on the television. “So, when do they land on the moon?”
“Oh, that happened hours ago. It was nothing to see, just some tape loop of flames shooting out of a module—then pictures of a staged setup. Pretty boring. The walk is supposed to start sometime soon, though.”
I checked my watch. It was 10:30. Across the bottom of the screen, I read, CBS News Simulation, as an astronaut messed around with some stuff.
Doc’s voice came from behind again, but this time back over where we had come in. I crooked my neck forward as he opened the door. “Amelia! Five minutes! C’mon down!”
“Let’s finish the game later,” Christopher said. I flipped my attention to the other side of the room as he wheeled away from the game table.
“What!” Lenny remained sitting. “You’d rather watch some government conspiracy on the tube, rather than finish the game?”
“It’s history in the making.”
“Just another ploy so the man can keep his eye on you.”
“He’s so radical,” Candace said to me. “What a turn-on.”
Christopher wheeled up beside my end of the sofa. Sunshine sat in the adjacent armchair. Lenny came to his feet and stood behind her, his arms folded like Mr. Clean, giving Ricky—who stood at Percy’s end of the sofa—the evil eye. Watching them was way better than color TV.
Light from the opening door caught my eye as Amelia and Penny entered the room. Penny’s gaze immediately fell on Percy. Ricky gave Amelia another good long look but she ignored him, moving with Doc to the sofa behind me. I would have given anything for eyes on top of my head.
“Hi, Percy,” Penny said, scooting between Christopher’s chair and me. Two thin braids framed her face—soon she would probably be wearing gauze and a headband.
Percy leaned forward and winked. “Hey, kiddo.”
Penny’s wilted expression changed to a smile, as if Candace were no longer snuggling up to him. Penny gave me a shove over to make room. I inched closer to Candace. Christopher cleared his throat.
“Hey, Penny,” I said, “this is my friend, Christopher.”
She politely offered her hand. “Hi.”
His face lit up as he took her hand and shook it. Even though she proceeded to ignore him as she wedged herself between the arm of the sofa and me, I knew he was ecstatic.
Doc raised the TV volume with a handheld device. An astronaut climbed out of the module and started down the ladder, but the bottom of the screen still said it was a simulation. Then all at once, it changed to splotches of black, white, and gray. The words, Live from the surface of the moon, showed up on the bottom of the screen. It gave me a shiver.
There were some beeps and commentary. Not too impressive. Then they said, “We can see you coming down the ladder now,” and I finally figured out what I was looking at. I had a hard time making out any more of what they said. Armstrong on the moon appeared on the screen. A few seconds later, Armstrong’s garbled voice said something.
Candace asked, “What did he say?”
I shrugged.
Live voice of Astronaut Armstrong from the surface of the moon popped up, but the spoken words were just as unintelligible. A few minutes later, the live part ended.
“Well, I’ll be …,” Doc said.
I wished the broadcast had been more like I had imagined—like from the movies. Just the same, I had witnessed something profound. I wondered about the people behind the scenes, the ones who had figured out how to send a man to the moon. What were those people like when they were thirteen? I didn’t stay in my musing for long. I figured that if I was going to have any interaction with Amelia, now was my chance.
I stood and stretched. When I turned to face Amelia, her eyes were already on me. She didn’t look away until everyone started milling around and her attention shifted. Christopher backed up his chair. I pulled Penny up out of the cushions as she glanced at Percy, passed out on the sofa, and then directed her attention to Christopher.
“It was nice to meet you,” she said. “Thanks for taking Ben out fishing—he needs a friend besides his big sister.”
“Sheesh, Penny.” I cuffed her shoulder.
Christopher laughed. “At your service. I’m also a great chauffeur.”
Penny giggled, “They should call you Hot Wheels.”
Christopher’s face beamed. He was about to come back with something clever—I knew that much—but Penny cut him off.
“I mean, like those toy cars.” Bright red, she turned away, nudging me. “We should probably get going.”
“Yeah, I guess, but first I want to find Doc,” I said.
Amelia chimed in, “I’ll walk you out, Penny.”
I was going to miss my chance with Amelia, but I needed to thank Doc. I scanned the room and spotted him stepping into the kitchen. When I pushed the door open, I walked in on him and Karen. Neither looked happy, but both their expressions changed the instant they saw me.
“Sorry,” I blurted. “I just wanted to say thanks for inviting us.”
“Well, son, I’m glad you came. You know you are always welcome here.”
“Thank you, sir.” I glanced at Karen whose smile was strained but polite. “And it was nice to meet you. So, anyway, I gotta go.”
As I made my way through the great room, Christopher poked me with a grin. “Hot Wheels!”
I laughed, bolstered by his optimism. He knew why I was in a hurry, so I didn’t say more than, “Catch you later.”
In the foyer, Ricky stood at the stairway landing with Dick. I slipped out the front door without either of them acknowledging me. When I stepped out, Amelia was sitting on
the stoop.
As she rose from the middle step, I said, “Did Penny leave without me?”
“Yeah.” Her gaze locked on mine.
“Oh.” I stepped down to her level—nose to nose. She sighed. I tried to catch my breath. It appeared as though she had waited for me. Was I actually standing outside, alone with Amelia Burns, staring into her eyes?
Her gaze shifted. “Benjamin ….”
I liked how she called me Benjamin, instead of Ben—maybe because I called her Amelia instead of Amy.
When her eyes came back to me, I looked away.
“You know …” she sighed again, “I’m a lot older than you.”
“I know you’re fifteen.” I made myself meet her stare.
“I’m just saying, is all.” She bit her lower lip. I didn’t know what a girl was supposed to look like if she wanted a guy to kiss her—for real, not just some girl in third grade who said she would give me a fat lip if I didn’t. When I caught a glimpse of her tongue moistening her lip, it made me dizzy. I could have sworn she moved a fraction of an inch closer.
I was scraping together the courage to ask, ‘So, what exactly are you saying?’ when the front door opened.
Ricky stepped outside, this time looking me up and down. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”
Amelia backed off. “You’re not interrupting anything.” Quick as that, she rushed back into the house.
Ricky hovered over me. “So. You’re the cleverest boy on the lake, are you?”
“Yeah, that’s me.” The courage that had shrunk with Amelia, now came up from my core. I stared him down, waiting for some other smart-aleck remark.
“We’ll see about that.” He winked, breaking eye contact first and turning toward the house.
That was it? That was all he had? And why did an eighteen-year-old feel the need to grandstand in front of an almost fourteen-year-old? I didn’t move until he stepped inside. I wasn’t sure what I was feeling, but it was powerful and strange. The same feeling that made me want to kiss Amelia—that made me think I might have gotten away with it—also made me want to knock his teeth out. That feeling—my own potential—overwhelmed me.
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