In My Shoes (26 page)

“And you probably will be, but he just found
out, and we still have some information to get. I’m sure once he
knows everything, he’ll tell you.”

“You mean you’re not gonna tell me anything
else?”

“No, Mike. It’s not my place to tell you.
It’s nothing personal, but I think he would rather you hear it from
him.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll meet you
guys after school. Then he can tell me.”

“He doesn’t have all of the information yet.
Why don’t you let him just call you later tonight?”

“Fine. You know, this whole situation sucks.
I barely see him…well,” he said, looking my way, “talk to him
anymore. I wish this whole thing would just end already.”

“You and me both. Look, assuming things
aren’t back to normal before then, maybe tomorrow we can both come
over to your house and you guys can do your guy thing.”

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I’ll probably study. Don’t
worry, I’ll stay out of your way.”

“Then why are you coming?”

“Because, it would look funny if you and
‘Nicole’ were hanging out at your house. At least if I’m there, it
won’t seem so odd.”

“Alright.”

We were almost to my class by the time we
finished our conversation. “You’ve got to get to class. I’ll see
you later.”

“Later.”

I was more at ease now that Jake and I had
talked, but my mind was still racing with all of the events of
today. I was able to pay attention in class, for the most part, but
time still seemed to fly. Before I knew it, school was over for the
day.

Jake met me at my locker. We gathered our
things and headed to my car. I miss driving my car.

“So, what was Mike talking to you about after
lunch?”

“He wanted to know what we were really
doing.”

“He always assumes there’s some juicy story,”
Jake said, bemused.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I told him that
your mom told me about your dad.”

“That’s fine. What did you tell him?”

“I wouldn’t give him details. He wants you to
call him later tonight. He’s feeling a little best friend
neglected.”

“Yeah, it’s weird. I don’t know about you,
but I feel all out of sorts. It’s difficult trying to pick up a
completely different routine than you’ve had for seventeen years.
He can be obnoxious, but he’s still my best friend.”

“I know. I feel the same way. I’m used to
having long conversations with the girls. Sometimes about nothing
at all, but it’s still nice to be able to do it.”

“I know,” he confirmed.

“I told him we would get together after
school tomorrow so you two could hang out a bit.”

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

I laughed, mainly because Mike asked the same
question. “I’ll probably just study.”

We listened to the radio on the way to Jake’s
house.

“So,” I started after a few minutes, “I
realized last night that there is still a lot we don’t know about
each other.”

“I know. I had been feeling pretty good until
last night. Jessica made me realize that there’s still a lot to
cover. I didn’t even think to talk about favorite music and
movies.”

“Me neither. But we made it through. I tried
to read your expressions.”

We spent the most of the trip discussing
movies and music, and anything else we could think of that would
help each other down the road.

“I’m nervous about Friday night,” I said, as
we neared his house. “Jessica asks a lot of questions. When she
likes someone, she wants to know everything about them.”

“I think that’s normal,” Jake said. “You
know, we could try to tell her.”

“No way. She won’t believe it, and she’d
probably think we made it up to get her not to like…well, you. She
seems a little suspicious that we like each other. Today didn’t
help at all.”

“Yeah, I saw that too,” he said. “Okay, so we
won’t tell her. Look, if she asks you a question that you don’t
know, make something up. Just…try to make it sound like something
I’d say, and tell me later so I can back it up.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“I don’t really know another way around it,”
he replied.

“Okay. I can do that. Plus, you’ll be there
for most of it, so that will help.”

“Right.”

We arrived at Jake’s house and went inside.
We quickly got our books out to start studying.

“So,” I asked, “are we going to go ahead with
the plan we talked about earlier?”

“I guess so. It’s tough, because I may think
of questions that will occur to me during the conversation. I’ll
write down what I can think of for now. Hopefully this won’t be a
one shot deal, and I can ask her more down the road…once we change
back.”

“Yeah, whenever that may be,” I said
dismissively.

“Do you think we should be spending some time
trying to figure out how to change ourselves back?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t even know where to begin. It’s
not like you can search the internet and find others who are
sharing their experiences, and how to fix it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Did you just ask me that?” I asked, amused.
He wasn’t serious, was he?

“I didn’t really mean it, but I just don’t
know what to do. Should we look at astrological charts, or full
moons? I mean, what?”

I let out a sigh of frustration. “Be
practical. It’s not like I know, but I don’t think it has to do
with moons or astrology.”

“So then, what?” he asked.

“I don’t know, Jake. Maybe we are supposed to
learn a lesson. Maybe we are supposed to see what it’s like to be
the other sex.”

“Well,” he said, “I’ve seen. I’m good. If
that’s the case, wouldn’t we be turned back by now?”

“I don’t know. I guess so,” I said with a
hint of irritation. “I don’t have the answers, Jake. I’ve thought
about it, a lot, and I don’t really think we are going to find the
answers. I’m hoping we just need to wait it out, and hopefully soon
we’ll be back to normal.”

“I know,” he conceded. “It’s just making me a
little crazy. I’m not used to having things not have a logical
answer.”

I realized I had been getting worked up, so I
took a deep breath before responding. “It’s making me crazy, too.
But, just because we don’t know the answer, doesn’t mean a logical
answer doesn’t exist.”

“I guess,” he conceded. We were silent for a
minute before he spoke again. “So, what next?”

“We should study, and you should get me your
list of questions,” I said.

We got to studying, and before we knew it,
five o’clock had arrived. Jake handed me his list of questions. It
wasn’t a very long list.

“This is all of them?” I asked.

“It’s all I can think of right now. It didn’t
sound like she knew a lot about him after he left, and with him
being dead, that takes a lot of questions off the table.”

“Okay, I can memorize these. Your mom is
going to be home in a little less than an hour, right?”

“She should.”

“So, I’ll cook some dinner, and you can hang
out in your room until she arrives.”

“Do you want some help?” he asked.

“No. If she gets home early and sees you,
we’ll blow our opportunity.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

He headed back to the bedroom while I looked
in the cupboard for some dinner ideas. I settled on Hamburger
Helper. It took me about fifteen minutes, and I had everything
simmering, so that it should be ready shortly after Jake’s mom
arrived.

Once I had the food going, I headed back to
Jake’s room and picked back up with my studying. Jake was sitting
in the closet. When I came in he closed the closet door. Jake’s
closet is not a walk-in closet, so he didn’t exactly look
comfortable sitting there on the floor. Hopefully he wouldn’t have
to be in there very long.

About ten minutes later, Jake’s mom arrived
home. She peeked her head in and said hi.

“Hi, Mom. I’ve got dinner going. It should be
ready in a bit.”

“Thank you, Hon. Did you have a good
day?”

“Yes, but I spent a lot of time thinking
about our conversation earlier today, and I have a few
questions.”

She walked in and sat down on the bed. “Okay.
What would you like to know?”

“What…did he…look like?”

“He actually looked a lot like you. He was
about six foot tall and slender. A good looking man, I must say. I
bet if I looked real hard, I could find an old picture for you.
Maybe this weekend?”

“That would be great!”

“What else would you like to know?”

“Umm…did he have any hobbies?”

“He liked to bowl. He was an okay bowler. He
wasn’t on any teams. He would just bowl for fun. He’d take you
sometimes. He liked to paint too, although he seemed to do that
less as time went on. He was pretty good. He could paint sceneries
as well as people.”

“Do we have any paintings he did?” I asked.
That wasn’t on Jake’s list, but I figured he would want to
know.

“No. I’m sorry. He took most of them with him
when he left, and I was so angry when he left that I got rid of
most of the things that reminded me of him. I guess I didn’t really
think about the fact that you might want them someday.”

“Did you try and find out any information
from the lawyer about how he died?”

“I did, but I didn’t push too hard. I did
call and I asked about how he died, among other questions, but he
said that he was only provided a certificate of death, and that he
did not have any details in the file. Something like that. The
lawyer didn’t seem to want to disclose much. Your father’s side of
the family didn’t have any known health issues, and he wasn’t very
old, so I wouldn’t imagine it was health related.”

I was dreading asking the last question, but
I felt I owed it to Jake. At least, I know I would want to
know.

“So, I’ve had all of this money since I was
about five, right?”

“Yes.”

“So, why have we been living so poor all of
this time?”

She was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t
really know how to answer that. I’ve always tried to make sure that
you had the things you really needed, and I’ve always thought it
important that you value the things you have. That way, when you
got older, you would appreciate what you had more. Is that what you
are asking?”

“Well sort of. But, I think I want to know
why you don’t use the money to help
you
. I mean, it seems
like we could have made it a little easier on you all of this time.
And, if I would have known that I had a little money, I wouldn’t
have been as reserved about asking for some things.”

“That money wasn’t intended for me. It’s your
money, and it is to help you make a better life for yourself
someday. Yes, we could have had more over the years, but I have
been just fine with what we have. I’m proud of the fact that I earn
enough money to keep our house, and put food on the table. If we
had started spending that money a little here and a little there
over the years, you would have less to start you off once you
started college.”

She paused for a moment before continuing, “I
can’t really say that I am sorry about that. I’ve done the best I
could by you, and someday I think you will appreciate it.”

“I do appreciate it. Everything you’ve done.
I just wish you would have done more for yourself.” I think that is
pretty much Jake’s sentiment.

“Don’t worry about me. I am happy with my
life. I have a roof over my head, and a wonderful son. I don’t need
much more than that.”

I smiled at her.

“Do you have any more questions for me?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Then maybe we should get to dinner,” she
said. “Oh, and if you do need money, like I’ve always said, just
let me know. It’s not like I’m going to let you spend at will, but
I want you to be able to have fun.”

“I could use some money for Friday
night.”

“What’s happening Friday night?”

“I sort of…have a date.”

“With Nicole?” she asked with a smile.

“No. Actually, it’s with one of her
friends.”

“How does Nicole feel about that?”

“I think she’s fine with it,” I said
honestly. Although, I’d be much better with it we switched back by
then.

“Okay. Oh, is that Nicole’s car out in front
of our house?”

Uh-oh. “Uhh…yeah, probably. She was here
earlier, but she and a friend went to the store together. She’s
going to come by in a bit to pick it up.”

“Okay. So, let’s eat!”

“I’ll go check on the food. You probably have
a few minutes till dinner.”

“I’ll go change into some pajamas then.”

She walked out of the room, and I heard her
close her bedroom door. After a minute, I quietly opened the closet
door, and we both quickly walked out toward the front of the
house.

“Well done,” Jake whispered softly.

“Thanks,” I whispered back.

I knocked on the front door from the inside.
Jake smiled, opened the door, shut it and we walked into the
kitchen and started talking about school.

Jake’s mom came out a few minutes later. She
was dressed in pajamas, but they were appropriate for being around
others.

“Oh, hello Nicole. You’ll have to excuse my
appearance. I didn’t realize you were here.”

“Hi Angela,” Jake said. “Don’t mind me. You
look fine.”

“Thank you. I don’t usually dress in pajamas
if I’m expecting company.”

“Please, don’t worry.”

She smiled. “Are you joining us for dinner?”
she asked sincerely. I have to say, Jake’s mom is always so warm
and welcoming. And it’s sincere. She never seems to talk bad about
people when they’re not there. I really like her.

“Thank you, but I should probably go.”

“There’s plenty of food,” I offered. I hope
I’m not missing a dynamic to their relationship here. I don’t
really know how Jake’s mom feels about unannounced company. If Jake
still declines, I’ll let it go.