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Authors: E. van Lowe

Heaven Sent (6 page)

BOOK: Heaven Sent
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I was again seated at the dining room table, Amanda concealed in my lap when they came back in.

“An excellent meal, Megan,” said Tony as he poured himself a third glass of chardonnay.

“Thank you.”

Suze entered right behind him. “Yes, that was a nice surprise. I can’t remember when you last made chicken cacciatore.” She sat back down, picked up her wine glass, and took a sip.

“Speaking of surprises, I want to show you guys something.” Amanda squirmed in my lap as if she knew her big moment was at hand.

“Uh-oh. I think I hear the sound of the other shoe dropping,” Tony said with the hint of a grin.

“I believe you may be right,” said Suze with an airy laugh. She sipped her wine again. “But I know it isn’t anything bad. Chicken cacciatore is a good-news meal. Besides, she’s smiling. If it was something bad, she’d be sitting there with a gloomy look on her face right now.”

Suze mimicked me looking gloomy and they shared a laugh at my expense.

Am I that transparent
?
Maybe plying her with food and alcohol actually is my style. Who knew?
I tucked the thought away for future examination.

“You’re right,” I said, not giving in to the butterflies that were beginning to flutter in my stomach. “This is a good thing, and I’m smiling because I have
fabulous
news.”

My hands slid beneath Amanda. I was about to remove her from the blanket in my lap when Tony sneezed.

“Achoo!”

“Oh, Tony, are you coming down with something?” There was a hint concern in Suze’s voice.

“No, I don’t think so. I feel fine,” Tony replied. And then he sneezed again. “Achoo!” and again. “Achoo!”

“Perhaps you’re allergic to something.” Suze began scanning the room in search of something that might be causing the sneezing attack.

“No, I don’t think so. The only thing I’m allergic to is cats.”

The spasm in my gut returned. My hands froze. “Cats?”

“Yeah. It’s been like that since I was a kid. It’s the darndest thing. I’m not allergic to anything: birds, dogs, flowers, trees, milk, shellfish, peanuts—just cats.” He shrugged.

“Well then, it can’t be an allergy, because we don’t have a cat,” said Suze. She handed Tony a handful of Kleenex.

“Umm, actually, we do,” I said. My voice had turned high and whiny. “Have a cat, that is.”

While things hadn’t gone as planned, it was still time to introduce Amanda. I pulled her into view and held her before me in both my hands. Out in the open, Amanda’s eyes grew wide as she looked from me to my mother seated across the table. She mewed softly.

“Ta daa! Meet our newest family member, Mom. Amanda.”

Tony sneezed again. His eyes were open wide as well. In them, I saw what looked like fear.

 

Chapter Six

 

“Oh, my,” said Suze, a mix of alarm and delight playing on her face. “Where’d
she
come from?”

I launched into the tale of how Harrison had surprised me with Amanda. I knew my mother had fond memories of Harrison. He had defended me at the expulsion hearing when all seemed lost, keeping me from getting kicked out of school. Suze also knew he was a friend of Guy’s. And she knew I’d been in a funk because Guy was no longer in the picture. I was hoping the mention of his name might carry a certain amount of weight in her decision to keep Amanda.

Throughout my long and drawn-out response to my mother’s question, Tony continued to sneeze. His sneezing certainly wasn’t helping any. Neither were his watery eyes, gazing at Amanda as if she were his special form of Kryptonite.

The question my mother asked was only four words long—
where’d she come from
—yet I dragged out my response fearing that once I stopped talking Amanda would be history. “…and did you know that cat urine glows if you put it under a black light?” I said as I finally ran out of breath along with useless things to say.

“Why would I put cat urine under a black light?”

“I’m just sayin’, cats are amazing.”

By now Tony had removed himself from the table and was standing in the living room peering in at us through the doorway. The sneezing had subsided.

Suze stared from me to Amanda and back.

“Take her,” I said, thrusting Amanda across the table. Amanda mewed in protest.

“Aw, don’t be afraid,” my mother cooed softly. She eased Amanda from my hands and began stroking her across the head with her index finger. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Amanda’s eyes shut contentedly.

“She likes you,” I said. “She doesn’t do that for everybody.”

Suze raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Uh-huh.” Her eyes moved to Tony, who now had red splotches on his face.

“Please don’t say no. I know Tony’s allergic and I’m really sorry about that, but I need her, Mom. I need Amanda.”

Her eyes moved to me and a curious expression crossed her face. I know it was because there was a sense of desperation in my voice. It wasn’t a ploy. I was surprised at how desperate I sounded, but it was true. My life needed the kind of jump-start that having a friend like Amanda could provide.

She continued to stare, trying to figure me out.

“It’s all right. There are shots I can get.” Tony had spoken from the next room. Suze looked at him. “I got them when I was a kid. They worked just fine.” He sniffled.

“Really?” Suze didn’t seem convinced.

“Well… Maybe if when I’m around, Amanda… isn’t. At least until I’ve had enough shots to build up some antibodies.”

“Hey, no problem,” I ventured quickly. “Whenever you’re in the house, I’ll keep Amanda locked up tight in my room.” My beseeching eyes moved back to my mother.

“I don’t know—”

“She was up there when Tony arrived. He didn’t start sneezing until I brought her down when you guys were stealing kisses in the kitchen.”

Guilty smiles brightened both their faces.

“I’m good with it,” said Tony. There was still caution in his eyes, but he’d managed to hang onto the smile. In that moment, I liked him even more.

“Me, too,” I said, in case we were putting it to a vote.

Suze looked down at the kitten in her hands. “Hi there, cutie.” She put a finger in front of Amada’s lips and as if on cue, Amanda licked it. After a few moments of what I was certain was bonding, she looked up at me. “You know anything about taking care of a cat?”

“Are you kidding? You know how I am with research. Since I’ve been home this afternoon, I know everything about taking care of a cat. How do you think I found out that tidbit about cat urine?”

“We won’t be trying that, right?”

“No, no of course not. Consider that a piece of useless trivia never to be uttered again.” I held my breath.

“Okay.” She said it so easily, I wasn’t sure where we were headed until she nodded and smiled down at Amanda in her lap. “Welcome to the family, cutie.”

After a few more minutes of bonding, I retrieved Amanda, wrapped her back in the blanket and started up to my room. She mewed softly, and I looked down at her as we mounted the stairs. I’m not certain she knew what had just happened, but I could almost swear she was smiling at me.

*

On the last day of school the campus was nearly deserted. The seniors had already graduated, so they weren’t around, and other students who understood the last day was just a day for social gathering decided to get a jump on their summer vacations—that list included most of the Poplarati.

AP students weren’t afforded that luxury. We went to school from the first day to the last, no questions asked. We were made that way. Because of our abnormal desire to excel at our studies, even when there were no studies around for us to excel at, the math lab held its end-of-year party on the last day of school. All the other clubs had wrapped up their activities weeks ago, but not us.

On Friday afternoon at three p.m., when the remaining few students were fleeing campus like mice from a sinking ship, I marched down to the math lab one last time.

Mrs. Brewster had gotten us the cutest cake. It was a slab cake, the kind you get from Albertson’s, with a calculator decorated onto the top surface. Scrawled above the calculator in lime green frosting were the words:
G.U. Mathletes 2012
. The calculator keys were colorful Reese’s Pieces. When I arrived at the lab, Alan and Geoffrey were picking off the calculator keys.

Tran was at the rear of the room in animated discussion with a girl I didn’t recognize. “Hey Barnett, get over here,” he called when he saw me. I knew Tran was showing off for his friend, but since it was the last day of school, I cut him some slack.

As I approached, I couldn’t help but wonder:
Does Tran have a girlfriend?
I knew I shouldn’t have applied the geeks-can’t-get-a-girlfriend-if-their-lives-depended-on-it stereotype to the members of the math lab. But I was one of them and can say quite honestly, most of the stereotypes fit.

“This is Jenny,” Tran said as I walked up. “She’s smart, like you. She’ll be transferring here next year.”

The
smart-like-you
comment was a bit of an insult, for he was implying that girls aren’t usually smart but that Jenny and I were. She didn’t seem to mind the insult and offered a cautious smile. If she didn’t mind, then I didn’t either. Anyone who’d visit a school they didn’t go to at three o’clock on the last day of school was either crazy or entitled to some respect.

“I go to Salesian. Our AP students are so lame. I can’t wait to get out of there.”

I glanced back at Alan and Geoffrey, who were now putting the Reese’s Pieces into their mouths, loading them up with spit, and flinging them at each other.

“Welcome,” I said. I couldn’t help but marvel that our AP class would be considered cool and hip to someone who looked as normal as Jenny.

She was of slight build, with jet black hair that hung below her shoulders. She had brown eyes and was wearing a cute top and skinny jeans. No tell-tale signs of geek anywhere.

“We had another girl at the beginning of the year, but she transferred out.” Tran was smiling, but there was caution beneath the surface of his eyes. He knew how long Erin had been my best friend.

“Yeah, she couldn’t take the heat,” I said, bringing smiles to both their faces. “You’ll be a welcome addition.”

“Thank you, Barnett.” Jenny had a disarming smile, nothing smug or self-important about her.

“Call me Megan,” I said. And just like that, we’d bonded.

“I wish you were going to math camp with me this summer,” said Tran. Tran had asked me several times to attend math camp. He figured it would keep us sharp and maybe next year we could win state. Winning the state-wide mathlete challenge was Tran’s goal in life.

“I told you before, we can’t afford it.”

“I know. But we could really get a jump on things for next year if you came. Jenny’s going.”

There was something about the way he said it, and the way her face lit up when he said her name.
She is his girlfriend.
I didn’t know if that was reason for celebration or depression. I mean, even Tran had a girlfriend.

“That’s great. Maybe when you guys get back we can all study together.”

“Hey, that’s a great idea,” bellowed Tran. “I told you she was cool.”

Did I just promise to spend part of my summer vacation studying math with Tran and his girlfriend?
From the smiles on both their faces, I think I did.

“Next year we win state,” declared Tran, hoisting his plastic cup of Vitamin Water into the air as if he were a pirate hoisting grog in a Tortugan bar. “State!” he cried, standing atop a chair. “State! State! State!”

The other mathletes quickly picked up the battle cry. Even Jenny joined in.

State! State! State!

Anywhere else, Tran and the others would have been a laughing stock, but here in the safety of the math lab, they were free to exhibit all the geeky behavior their hearts desired.

State! State! State!

It’s the last day of school
, I thought.
What the heck
. I raised my fist into the air and joined them.

“State!”

*

I left the party early because I wanted to get home to Amanda. She had turned out to be everything I’d wanted and more.

She liked sleeping on my chest. The night of her arrival, I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, thinking a demon had found his way out of my dreams and was pressing down on me. I sat up quickly. Amanda squealed and leaped off the bed, scooting into a corner. She was so frightened it took me half the night to convince her that sleeping on my chest was all right.

Since then I had come straight home from school every day. Amanda didn’t require a lot of attention like some pets I know. She liked playing with her toy mouse and the teddy bear Tony had given her (what a sweet guy). But every so often, she’d stop her playing and come to check up on me. I’d be at my desk, or in the kitchen, on in the living room watching TV, and I would look up to find her staring at me—watching over me.

The first time this happened, I was in the kitchen preparing a snack—apple slices and peanut butter. I looked up from slicing the apple, and Amanda was standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room.

“Hi, Sweetie. C’mere.” I stooped down and wiggled my fingers for her to come, but she ignored me.
Typical cat.
Satisfied that I was okay, she left the room and went back to whatever she was doing.

It was easy to understand how Maudrina could see her pets as part of the family. Amanda had definitely become part of our family. Speaking of Maudrina, she hadn’t come to school the rest of the week. I told myself it was because she’d already taken all her finals and there was really no reason for her to be there. Yet I knew better. She wasn’t coming to school for the same reason she hadn’t called or answered any of my texts. She didn’t want me judging her.

I promised myself I would call that evening, and if she didn’t pick up, I would stop by. Tomorrow, Saturday, was our
sleepover
day. Whether I approved of what she was about to do or not, she needed to know I was there for her, just as she had been there for me.

I was walking down the empty corridor of the main building lost in thought, not too far from the south exit, when I heard someone coming up the corridor behind me. Rubber-soled shoes squeaking gently against the tiles reminded me how much I liked being in school when the building was deserted. It had a totally different feel, a relaxed feel. Some people might have found it creepy, but I found it refreshing.

BOOK: Heaven Sent
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