It Starts With a Lie

by Mary Clare Lockman

  At four o’clock, Jake stopped at the register. He had a pack of cigarettes in his hand. He put two quarters on the counter. He wasn’t eighteen and I wasn’t supposed to check out cigarettes. I looked around for my mom or dad.

  “Something wrong, Sport?”

  “Well, I’m not supposed to...”

  “To what?”

  “My dad said I can’t...”

  Jake stood there with his arms crossed and his eyebrows raised. I was getting so flustered at this point; I didn’t know what to say. My mom was busy and so was my dad. “Never mind,” I said. “Are you buying this?”

  “That’s what it looks like.” He flashed his grin and I thought, what’s the harm?

  “Okay. That’s forty cents.”

  “Keep the change, Sport.” He winked.

  I rang them up under miscellaneous. All of a sudden I remembered Musolf’s store. I wondered if he had a pack in his pocket. No, he wouldn’t do that. I put both quarters in the till and closed it. I stood there for a minute. I reopened the till, reached into my pocket where I kept my tips, and put another thirty cents in the till.

  My mom came over. “It was a good day today. I’m so glad you talked to your dad about Jake.”

  “Sure, Mom.” I didn’t recognize it at the time but I felt funny. Not ha, ha funny but kind of unsettled. Yeah, that was it; unsettled. I couldn’t wait to get home.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Babysitting is Great

  Aunt Florence wanted me to babysit on Saturday. I was still boycotting her because of how much she paid me but she begged me. And I mean BEGGED me. She and Mike needed a date and she had been working so much and Rosie loved me so much and... Really, it was a full frontal assault. I finally said yes. Actually, I said, “I suppose I could.”

  “Great,” Aunt Florence said. “I’ll tell Mike.” She hugged me. “Thank you, Colette.”

  I was so tired after working at the store that I wished I had held out and said no. Uncle Mike and Aunt Florence had reservations at the St. James Hotel for six o’clock. I barely had time to get home, say hi to Gramps, have dinner, and get to Aunt Florence’s by ten to six.

  Rosie jumped up and down when she saw me. Well, it wasn’t exactly jumping because she would have fallen down. It was more like she shifted her position from foot to foot really fast. I couldn’t resist little Rosie any more than Gramps could so in no time I was holding her. Aunt Florence and Uncle Mike left saying they wouldn’t be late. Rosie could go to bed about seven thirty or eight o’clock.

  I thought it would be a good idea to walk up to the park. It was only two blocks away. “C’mon, Rosie. Want to go to the park?” I pushed her stroller on the sidewalk. It was seventy five degrees and sunny without a cloud in the sky. A perfect May day in Minnesota. I guess it wasn’t so bad babysitting after all.

  “Hi, Sport.” Jake was coming out of his house. “Wow, I just said goodbye to you a little while ago. Are you sure you aren’t following me?” He smiled and winked like he had when I rang up his cigarettes.

  “No. I’m not following you.” I felt my face get hot. “I’m babysitting my cousin.”

  “I can see that. I’m just kidding.”

  “My aunt lives on the next block. I didn’t even know you lived here.”

  “Relax, Sport, I was kidding.”

  I didn’t like him calling me Sport. It sounded like I was in grade school.

  “Gotta go,” he said.

  I didn’t even say goodbye. He thought I was following him. I was so embarrassed. Rosie sat on the swing while I pushed her. My spirits lifted a little because every time she went up in the air, she said, “Whee” in her high-pitched voice.

  I took a different route going back to Aunt Florence’s so I wouldn’t have to walk by Jake’s. Rosie and I looked at books after she got her pajamas on. She pointed to all the animals in the books and I had to make the sounds. “Roar.” “Moo.” “Baa.” I put her in bed at eight o’clock.

  I didn’t feel so tired anymore. I got a bowl of potato chips and went into the living room to turn on the TV. The house had a large front window. It was a good vantage point to watch neighbors so Aunt Florence seemed to know everything that was going on across the street and in the neighborhood in general. I looked out and saw Jake’s blue Fairlane racing up and down the street. He wasn’t alone; in fact, his car was full of kids. They whooped out the window.

  I couldn’t tell who was with him but I didn’t want him to see me. I ducked down. I heard shouting and I had to look out. Neighbors had opened their doors and were yelling, “Slow down.” Jake blasted his horn and he was on his way.

  Aunt Florence and Uncle Mike were home by nine o’clock. I told them all about Rosie swinging at the park. They wanted to know everything we did together, if she said anything besides “Hi,” if she went to bed okay, and what books we read. All the while they looked at each other and beamed. Aunt Florence had these really cool blue-gray eyes with golden flecks in the middle. When she was happy or excited about something, the flecks took on a life of their own and danced around. As I talked about little Rosie, the golden flecks flew around her eyes and sparkled.

  “Anything else happen?” Aunt Florence asked.

  “No, nothing else.” I didn’t tell her about Jake speeding up and down the street because really nothing had happened.

  “Good,” she said. Aunt Florence started to reach into her purse.

  Here comes the dollar, I thought.

  Uncle Mike stopped her. “Remember what we talked about, Florence?”

  “I remember.”

  He turned toward me. “We decided that you should get a raise for your babysitting. We couldn’t find another babysitter who loves Rosie like you do. What do you think about seventy five cents an hour?”

  “I think that’s great,” I said. I made a dollar twenty five cents an hour at the store plus tips but this was different. Seventy five cents was generous for babysitting.

  “So, we were gone for a little over three hours. Is two dollars fifty cents fair?”

  I was expecting a dollar from Aunt Florence so it was more than fair. “It’s fair. Thank you.” Half my salary from the store went into savings. Now adding the two fifty to the money I made at the store that day made me very happy. I’d have to look at my stash of money at home and maybe I had enough to buy a new pair of bellbottom jeans.

  Uncle Mike drove me home. Gramps and my mom and dad were watching the Carol Burnett show, which we all liked. I sat down with them. At the commercial, my mom asked how the babysitting went.

  “Great,” I said.

  “Oh really. I thought you didn’t like babysitting.” “Uncle Mike said they’d be paying me seventy five cents an hour now. I got two fifty. So it was great.”

  “Isn’t that interesting?” My mom said.

  I looked at her and wondered if she had something to do with my raise. She would never tell me she had talked to Aunt Florence about paying me a dollar but I bet she did.

  “Oh, Carol Burnett’s back on now. Shh,” she said.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Prom

  The juniors and seniors had been getting ready for the prom for weeks. In fact, that’s all they talked about. The school was literally abuzz with prom talk. The dance was held in the gym so it would be closed for classes from Wednesday on. There was a committee set up to decorate the whole gym and the stage where the live band would play. It was coming up this weekend, the second weekend in May.

  Freshmen couldn’t go to the prom and sophomores had to be asked by a junior or senior so I was out of luck. Not that I wanted to go myself but it would be fun to see the girls in their gowns and the boys in their tuxes. I asked Suzy if she was interested and she said, “It would be fun to see everyone dressed up.”

  We put our names in as people who would like to help but the teachers in charge told us they had enough helpers. Suzy didn’t seem to care as much as I did. I really wanted to see Jake in a tuxedo. He told me his old girlfriend as
ked him and he couldn’t say no.

  In homeroom, Sally and Sam had their heads together, smiling and laughing. I had just heard that Suzy and I couldn’t help so I wondered what was so funny. I didn’t have to wonder for long because they started talking so loud; I swear they could have been heard in another building.

  “Isn’t that great?” Sally said. She slapped Sam on the shoulder.

  “It’s great. I guess I’m surprised though,” Sam said.

  “Why? We put our names in a long time ago.”

  “So did other people and they were turned down.” “Maybe they thought since our brothers are going to theprom, we would be the best helpers.” She crossed her arms across her chest and sighed.

  The whole class stared as they bragged and bragged. I had to look away.

  “Girls, quiet down,” Mrs. Crenshaw said. “Take your seats. Hurry up. I have a few announcements.”

  Everybody sat down.

  Mrs. Crenshaw continued. “The gym is closed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. All of you will miss either one or two gym classes. We have several choices of things you can do during your gym time. I’ll put the signup sheet on the board. Please look at it today and decide what you want to do.”

  I wanted to make sure I wasn’t stuck with a teacher I didn’t like or with Sally and Sam. Suzy was in my gym class on Wednesday and Friday. I thought I should check the options before I changed class. “Suzy, what do you want to do?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Let’s look.”

  The names of all the freshmen teachers were on top of the sheets. There were also several lines on each sheet for the student’s names. Most of the teachers wanted help with correcting papers. Mrs. Crenshaw wanted people going through books and erasing any pencil marks in them. Suzy and I signed up for one day of that and one day in the library filing books.

  I always sat next to Suzy at lunch now. I couldn’t believe how obnoxious Sam and Sally were as they carried on about their treasured positions checking coats at the prom. Maybe no one would be wearing coats if the weather was warm enough. So Sally and Sam would be standing all by themselves with nothing to do. It was a pleasant thought.

  I wasn’t working on the day of the prom so I needed something to do. “Suzy, what are you doing on Saturday?”

  “I don’t have any plans.”

  “Do you want to get together?”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “I don’t know. But I don’t want to be home all day and all night.”

  “Me either. Maybe you can come over. I’ll check with my mom.”

  On Saturday, my mom dropped me off at Suzy’s house at seven o’clock. Suzy introduced me to her mom and dad, and her two younger brothers, Matt and Jim. “Suzy said you’ve really helped her with softball,” Mrs. Malone said.

  “She’s gotten a lot better because she works hard at it,” I said.

  “And you helped me,” Suzy said. “Want to go to my room?”

  We walked down to the end of the hall. “I’m glad I’m the only girl because I get a room to myself,” she said. Suzy’s brothers were nine and eleven and they shared a room.

  She had a double bed, a dresser, a bedside stand with a lamp, a small chair, and shelves filled with books on one wall. “Have you read all of these?” I asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Could I borrow some now that summer’s almost here?”

  “Sure. Why don’t you sit in the chair? I’ll sit on the bed.”

  We talked about the prom and what people would be wearing. Suzy said, “Maybe we’ll go next year.”

  I told her about getting all dressed up for Aunt Florence’s wedding. And having my hair put on top of my head. “I had so much hairspray in my hair,” I said. “It was impossible to brush it out the next day. It took me two hours.”

  “Wow. I suppose all the girls going to prom had their hair done.”

  “Good luck tomorrow is all I have to say.”

  “Colette, I’m going to ask you something.”

  “Okay.”

  “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

  “Okay.”

  “What happened between you and Sally? I mean, the two of you were always together.”

  “It’s a long story.” I thought, what have I got to lose. “If I tell you this, you have to promise not to tell anyone. And I mean anyone.”

  “I promise.”

  I told her about Sally thinking she had a date with Jake, Jake sitting with me because the theater was full, and then Sally blaming me for the whole fiasco.

  “Wow. Why won’t she talk to you about it?”

  “She’s a proud person. I didn’t think it was a date from the beginning and I told her that. Anyway, that’s what happened.”

  “I wonder what Sally and Sam are doing right now.”

  We were back to talking about the prom. Mrs. Malone took me home at ten o’clock. “See you Monday,” I said before I left the car.

  Even though we had heard about the prom for weeks before the event, the whole week after that’s all anyone talked about at school. I got to the point where I just didn’t want to hear another word about dresses, hair styles, shoes, the dance, the band, or the after parties. Anyone who had a brother or sister who went to the prom talked about it non-stop. Of course, Sally and Sam acted like they had been invited by the royal family and they were the princesses.

  The good thing was a whole year had to pass before the school buzzed with prom talk again.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Our Little Secret

  Our softball team was doing really well. Sam was truly a fantastic pitcher and Suzy had settled into the catching spot like it was made for her. Coach Richter started each practice with “I’m a happy man. Happy to coach such a hard- working group of girls.”

  We had two games left in the regular season. If we won both of them, we went to the championship game in Lake City. Lake City was a town south of Red Wing and on the Mississippi. This part of the Mississippi River was called Lake Pepin because the river was so wide that it actually looked like a lake. Water skiing started on Lake Pepin; at least that was the claim. I think it was right because people sure loved to water ski on Lake Pepin. On windy days, hundreds of sailboats dotted the lake.

  My favorite thing of all was eagles circling as they soared over the water. If I was really lucky, I might see one of them swoop toward the water. I had never seen an eagle grasp a fish in its talons but I always hoped I would. Gramps said it was one of his favorite things in the world.

  The next weekend I worked, I wasn’t quite so anxious to see Jake. I didn’t want to be checking out his cigarettes at the end of the day while he winked at me.

  He seemed to be busy enough walking back and forth to stock the shelves. He told my dad that he could deliver prescriptions too. Sometimes a person couldn’t get to the store and then my dad had to close the pharmacy or deliver the prescription after the store closed.

  “Thanks, Jake. I may have you do that,” my dad said. “That’s right. You have your own car.”

  “Yes, sir,” he said.

  The soda fountain was busy since it was warm outside and everyone was thinking about ice cream.

  Jake came over a couple of times to see how I was doing. I said, “I’m busy.” I couldn’t believe I just wanted him to leave me alone.

  In the afternoon, Jake’s friends came into the store. Sally’s brother, John, Mike, and some other guy who I didn’t know were all talking to Jake. I couldn’t take my eyes off them. If they started walking down the aisles, I’d be walking right next to them, believe me.

  “Colette, are you okay?” My mother stood by the counter of the soda fountain.

  “Sure, Mom. Why do you ask?”

  “Because you have customers.”

  There were two people sitting at the counter I hadn’t even noticed. “Sorry,” I said. “Mom, can we switch now? My hands are really cold.” I rubbed my hands together.

  “Okay.
You take the register then.”

  I took off my apron and walked over to the register. No one was waiting. Good. I walked to the aisle where Jake and his friends were. I stood there with my arms crossed.

  They stopped talking. I didn’t move. “Sport, is something wrong?” Jake asked.

  “No, there’s nothing wrong. I’m keeping an eye on all of you. I want you to know that.” My heart pounded in my chest.

  “Why?” Jake asked. His eyes were narrowed and I couldn’t tell what his half-smile meant other than he was mad.

  “You know why. If I have to ask you to empty your pockets, I will.” I looked around at all of them.

  “We better go,” John said.

  I started to walk away and thought of something else. I turned around and looked Jake right in the eye. “Stop calling me Sport. I don’t like it.”

  From the register, I could see that Jake’s friends were all leaving. I took in a deep breath. Maybe I should tell my parents about Musolf’s store and what happened there. Of course, now they both loved Jake. I would have to explain that the reason I wanted him working at our store was to get back at Sally. And I’d have to explain that I actually ate the candy bar that was in my pocket, knowing that it was stolen. I should have told Tommy Musolf. Anyway, stealing was not going to happen in our store. Not if I could help it.

  Jake didn’t come to the register with cigarettes for me to ring up. Maybe he had gotten the message.

  Aunt Florence had asked me to babysit early in the week. I said yes right away. I was really close to having enough money for the jeans I wanted.

  Aunt Florence and Uncle Mike said they’d be gone about three hours again. I couldn’t decide if I should take Rosie to the park because I didn’t want to walk past Jake’s house. I could take a different route. It would take longer but Rosie liked riding in the stroller so that’s what I decided to do.