Into the Woods (16 page)

"I'm not mad. I'm just surprised,"
I
said.
"I wanted to do that the first time
I
saw you. Is that boy who stutters your new boyfriend?"
"No," I said. "He's just a very nice boy."
"Do you have a lot of experience with boys?"
"No, not really."
He looked happy with that answer, "I'd better get home," he said suddenly. "Thanks for the dinner."
"Thanks for helping me with this math."
"Thanks for letting me kiss you,"' he countered.
I laughed. "I didn't really let you."
"Oh. Well then." he said, leaning forward to bring his lips to mine, only very slowly, waiting for me to pull back. I didn't, and he kissed me again.
I looked into his eves. They seemed to be blazing from the thoughts behind them.
"You're the first girl I've kissed like that." he admitted.
"How does it make you feel?" I asked, almost as curious about his reaction as
I
was about my awn.
He thought a long moment. "Like not wanting to disappear." he said.
I smiled, and then he started out of my room. I followed him to the patio door.
"Let me know how your grandmother is doing." I told him. "Come by tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay," he said.
I watched him walk away. He paused, looked back at me, and continued through the deeper shadows until he was gone.
I fell asleep before Mommy came home, but when she entered
I
heard her and woke. I called to her. She seemed to take forever to come to my room.
"Why are you still awake?" she asked, silhouetted in the hall light.
"I fell asleep. but I heard you come in. What happened at the restaurant?"
I heard her release a deep sigh. and I leaned over to put on my lamp that was on the nightstand.
"They finally found the money," she said. "During the course of the evening Warren bundles what they've taken in up to that point and gets it ready for depositing the following day. He had left this sack of bills on his desk, and it wasn't there, so there was panic."
"Where was it found?"
Mommy looked up at the ceiling, tilting her head back as if she wanted to keep her tears from ernerzinz.
"In the room where the waiters and waitresses keep our coats and purses and things. It was under mine," she said.
"Phoebe did that."
I
said immediately.
"Phoebe?" She thought a moment. "You were saving something about her on the phone before. Why would she do that?"
I summarized everything as quickly as I could. Mommy came into the room during my explanation and sat on my bed, listening.
"You're probably right then," she said. nodding.
"They don't think you tried to steal it, do they. Mommy?"
"No. Dallas was as upset about it as I was. and Warren was just so happy about finding it. They do suspect other employees, however, and that doesn't make for a pleasant working atmosphere. I'm going to tell Dallas everything you told me." she decided. "In the meantime. if I were you. honey, I would just..."
"Ignore her?"
"Yes."
"Someone else gave me that advice." I said, and told her about Augustus and his grandmother.
That poor boy. He must be very frightened. I'll find out about her tomorrow," she said. "and see what we can do to help them. Nov go to sleep, and don't worry."
She leaned over to kiss me and stood.
"Oh," she said. smiling. "With all the commotion and all. I forgot to tell you I met a very nice gentleman tonight. He came in and ate alone. He was very sweet. He lost his wife recently," she said. 'We had a nice talk. It's funny, but when terrible things happen to you, you think they've happened to you and no one else, and you're surprised when you meet someone who understands because he's experienced something similar."
"It couldn't have been that similar," I insisted.
She widened her smile. "Well, it was close enough.
I
have a feeling he's going to be coming around again."
I said nothing. Finally she realized she was just standing there thinking about the man.
"Good night." she said. and left me in more of a state of confusion than I had been in before she came home.
Never in my wildest thoughts had
I
imagined Mommy with another man. It was still as if Daddy was just on sea duty.
How could she ever fall in love again?
How could she ever want to?
No one could ever take my daddy's place.
I would hate anyone who thought he could even try.
Life was so much less complicated when we were a naval family. I thought. and wondered how I could ever have longed for us not to be.
Try to sleep, I told myself. Sleep?
It was like chasing a rainbow.

9
Mommy and Mrs. Greenstein
.
The advice Augustus and Mommy gave me

proved impossible to follow. If it was only me Phoebe was out to damage I might not have had such a difficult time of it I went to school the next morning fully intending to do what Augustus and Mommy had suggested. I would even keep from looking in Phoebe's direction, I told myself. Actually I thought I was doing very well. Throughout the morning. passing from class to class. I avoided her. Randy was at my side constantly, and, as Augustus predicted, his friends also tried to be a buffer and were quickly becoming my little faction, mumbling about Phoebe and her friends, circling me as if I had become their queen bee in a separate hive. Phoebe's hive was well in place.

Just before lunch Ashley stopped me in the hallway. I felt my body tighten.
Whatever she says, ignore
_;
I told myself. There was no doubt in my mind she was Phoebe's little messenger, her human guided missile aimed at my heart.

"Why shouldn't
I
be?" I countered, full of suspicion. "I'm fine, Thanks." I smiled at her and started away,

"Because of your mother being arrested and all." she blurted after me.
It was as if someone had dropped an icicle down my back. For a moment I couldn't move, not even to turn on her. The other students walking nearby slowed dawn to listen. Randy, who was hurrying up the hallway from the bathroom, saw the look an my face and paused as if a small explosion had gone off in the corridor. He shot forward again, practically running in my direction.
"Who told you such a stupid thing" I demanded, walking toward Ashley. She stood her ground, her smile set in her round face like a rock in whipped cream, cold and hard.
"Phoebe told everyone the story this morning. She said her father was so upset. Is your mother in jail? She said her father was seriously considering pressing charges because the stolen money was found in her coat."
"It's a filthy lie!" I screamed at her. "It wasn't in her coat. It was under it, and we all know Phoebe put the money there herself, hoping to blame my mother."
Ashley kept her smile. but I saw the way her eyes shifted to the right and looked back. Phoebe and her friends were watching from a classroom door,
"Phoebe says you need money badly because of your father's death, and her father might take pity on her and not insist she go to prison."
"Shut up!" I shouted,
Mr. Warner, our science teacher, had just stepped out of his classroom. He turned to look our way, but
I
didn't care.
Randy came up behind me and tried to get me to walk away, but
I
shrugged off his hand.
It will probably be in the newspapers anyway, so you can't pretend it didn't happen."
"I said shut up. You say anything more about that lie, and I'll rip out your tongue," I told Ashley.
"Your mother's a thief and a terrible one at that, stealing from the very people who tried to help her," she spat back at me, and all went so bright red I can't remember what happened next, especially how I had my hands entangled in Ashley's hair, pulling her down and dragging her along the corridor floor. Her screams brought more students. In seconds Mr. Warner had his hands around my waist and was trying to lift me away, but
I
wouldn't let go of Ashley's hair. Suddenly Mrs. Cohen. our math teacher, was there prying my fingers back and screaming at me to let go,
When I did. Mr. Warner literally lifted me off the floor and swung me around so forcefully I thought he had broken my ribs.
"To the office, young lady!" he ordered. pointing. "Now! Go on. march!"
Ashley was crying and folded up like a baby on the floor. The school nurse had been called and was hurrying down the hallway. I didn't look back. Mr. Warner had his hand on my back, pressing between my shoulder blades to be sure I kept walking,
"Move!" he kept shouting. By now everyone coming out of every classroom was watching.
"Sit." he commanded when we entered the principal's office. "And don't move a muscle, young lady."
He went to the secretary and told her what had happened in the hallway. She looked at me as he spoke, her face full of disbelief, her head wagging and her eyes widening. She buzzed the principal, Mrs. Greenstein. and Mr. Warner went into her office first. A few moments later he came to the door and told me to get myself in there immediately.
The red stain that had formed across my eyes diminished and was gone. For a moment I didn't know what I was doing in the principal's office. My rage had been that great. Then I sucked in my breath and entered the inner office. Mr. Warner closed the door behind me. and
I
looked at the principal. I had seen her only in the hallway and when she had spoken to the student body during the first-day assembly. She had set down the rules she considered "holy wards," and
I
remember thinking she was as stern and hard looking as some of the naval officers I had met.
She wasn't much taller than I was, but she had shoulders that looked as if they were packed with football player's pads. She had a small bosom, '.vide hips, and hands that looked puffed up. Whenever I had seen her in the hallway her dark eyes were always in a scowl, and she pressed her lips together so hard tiny pockets of white formed at the corners.
"Is this true? Mr. Warner had to pull you off another student forcefully? And Mrs. Cohen had to assist?"
I nodded.
"That will be all. Mr. Warner. Thank you, and I'm sorry your lunch period was disturbed," she told him.
He glared at me and walked out.
"Sit," she said, pointing her sharp nose at the chair in front of her desk. Her mouth was small, but when she grimaced her lips stretched like rubber bands from one end of her jawbone to the other.
"I am going to see how Ashley is, and then I will return. If she is seriously hurt. I will do what
I
said I would do at our assembly. I will involve the police. Any assault on any of my students is as serious as it would be if it happened in the street," she said.
When she left the office she kept the door wide open so anyone walking past could look in and see me sitting there. I heard Phoebe's laugh and turned in time to see her go by with two of her friends.
How would I explain this to Mommy? I felt I had let her down and at precisely the wrong time.
I
lowered my head like a flag of defeat and waited, my body trembling in anticipation of what was to come.
First Mrs, Greenstein's secretary returned and placed a folder on her desk. Coming and going, she barely looked at me. Ten minutes later I heard Mrs. Greenstein's high-heeled shoes clicking down the hallway, her steps like tiny drumbeats to accompany my impending execution,
"Well,"
I
heard a few moments later, and turned as she entered her office. "You are fortunate that she is not badly hurt."
"It wasn't all my fault," I whined,
She sat behind her desk and touched the tips of her fingers together in prayer fashion. Her eyes narrowed. She looked down at the folder her secretary had put on her desk, read, and looked up at me.
"So you are the girl who was brought up on Navy bases?"
"No, not always." I said. "When I was little we didn't live on a base.
It
wasn't until my father became
an
officer."
"An officer's daughter, and you behave like this? I thought the services ran a tight ship, especially the Navy. Protocol, proper behavior, respect for authority are all essential, aren't they? Did you think that just because you were no longer living on a base you could behave like a wild animal in my school? Would your officer father be proud of you? How is he going to feel when
I
call him?"
I couldn't keep the tears from coming even if there was a way to plug up my eyes. They streaked down my cheeks,
"You can't call him." I said.
"Oh? And why can't I?"
"He's dead. He was killed in a helicopter accident, otherwise we would still be in Norfolk,"
I
said, directing my anger against cruel fate,
"I see." she said, barely skipping a beat, "That is unfortunate,. However, it is also more reason for you to behave yourself and not put another burden on your mother."
"You don't understand," I said, shaking my head.
"Oh. I don't understand? It's
I
who is at fault, is that it?"
"No. ma'am. I don't mean that."
She slapped the folder closed and sat back, "Well, what do you mean? Go on, explain your beastly behavior," she challenged.
I thought about how I would start. Everything seemed so silly and foolish. I was sure
I
would sound that way, but what choice did I have?
"We moved here because my mother's friend was giving her a job at her husband's and her restaurant. the Tremont Inn. Her friend's stepdaughter. Phoebe Tremont, doesn't like me and tried to make it look as if my mother stale money last night. Ashley screamed that my mother was a thief and was in jail.
I
told her to stop, but she wouldn't, and I lost my temper." I finished, gasping for a breath,
Mrs. Greenstein stared at me a long moment and then shook her head. "Did you invent this all yourself, or did you see it on some soap opera?"
"I
wish it was all fiction,"
I
muttered.
"What's that?"
"I
said I wish it was invented, but unfortunately it's not." I told her firmly, too firmly because she snapped her back like a whip and brought those heavy shoulders up.
"I won't have violence in my school. We have a no tolerance policy for that. for knives or guns and especially any sort of drugs. The first violation is the last. You are suspended pending a frill inquiry and possible expulsion from this institution. Get your things and leave the building immediately," she ordered. "I will call your mother and inform her you are on your way, so don't go somewhere else and try to lie to her about what's going on, as some of my students have tried."
"It's not fair!" I wailed,
You knew the rules. You heard them along with the rest of the student body." She leaned forward. "I am someone who means what she says. You, who have lived in a military world, should appreciate that."
"But..."
"I think you should write a letter of apology to both Mr. Warner and Mrs. Cohen as well," she added. "That is all." She stood up to emphasize it.
I rose slowly. What have I done? What will happen to us?
The bell had already rung for the next class. The halls were empty.
The principal's secretary handed me my books. "Randy Walker brought them here," she explained. "They were scattered all over the corridor."
I took them, thanked her, and left the office, moving like someone under hypnosis. I just turned and walked out of the building through the nearest exit. I didn't remember the trip home. I was on a bus and then off, and I walked, and suddenly my eves snapped with brightness and I was at my front door. My heart was pounding when I entered,
Mommy, who usually slept later because of her work schedule, was up and in her robe. She was standing at the counter in the kitchen, her hands cupping a mug of steaming black coffee. I knew she heard me came in, but she remained with her back to me until I said. "Mommy."
Then she turned slowly. Her face was pale, her eyes red, her hair as disheveled as it would be had she been scrubbing her scalp to stop the pain.
"How could you do such a thing. Grace? I don't understand." she said.
Through my sobs. I told her everything, "I couldn't help it. I just got so angry at her. Afterward I was frightened by my own actions. It was like I was two different people!"
"How horrible for you," Mommy said, slowly shaking her head. "What have I done? I should have stayed in Virginia and left you where you were going to the same school. You were making new friends, nice friends. I was just thinking of myself, how painful it was for me."
"No, Mommy. This is in no way your fault. It's that Phoebe Tremont. She's just so mean and hates me so much she would do anything to hurt me."
"How could anyone hate you and so quickly?" she asked. She took a deep breath, "All right, well deal with it," she said. "If there was one thing your father taught me it was to stay calm in the midst of a crisis, take a breath, and not lose control of your thoughts and reason. Most of the time people defeat themselves. You shouldn't have resorted to violence, of course, but you were deliberately baited. We have a meeting with the principal tomorrow at eight." "But you have to work and get up so early" "It's nothing,"
She sighed deeply, so deeply I sensed there was something else wrong.
"Are you sick. Mommy?"
"What? No. Well, maybe emotionally. I just saw Mr. Landers, the supervisor of the complex. He was giving the gardeners instructions. He told me about Mrs. Dorahush,"
"What?"
I
asked, holding my breath.
"She passed away late last night."
"Oh, no, Where's Augustus?" I asked
immediately.
"I
don't know, honey."
"I'd
better go see him. He has no one."
I
said.
Before she could say anything else. I charged through the condo to the patio door and ran across the lawn and the street to his unit. The windows were dark. I knocked on the patio door and waited. He didn't come.
I
peered in. but I didn't see him. I knocked again and called to him. When he didn't come I went around to the windows I knew to be the windows in his room and peered in.
"What are you doing?" I heard, and turned to see Mr. Landers. He was a short, stout man with thin gray hair.
I
had seen him from time to time. He barely acknowledged me with a nod, almost seeming distracted or perhaps not interested in knowing any of the young people who lived there.
"I'm looking for Augustus," I said. "I heard about his grandmother."
"He's not there." He scratched his head. "They brought him in a government car, and he went in to get some papers and then left."
"Left? To go where?"
He shook his head. "All
I
know is someone will be coming to organize what's in the house and move it out."
"But... where will Augustus live?"
He shrugged. 'I don't know, miss. That's all
I
know. He was a weird kid anyway," he said. "He made some of the other residents nervous."
"That's because they don't understand him. He's a genius!"
I
cried.
He grinned. "Right. A genius," he said, and walked off to shout at one of the gardeners.
I walked home and told Mommy what he had said.
"How sad," she said. "Just when you think your life is miserable, you meet someone worse off. Like my grandmother used to say. 'A man complained all the time because he had no shoes. Until he met a man who had no feet.'"
"Can't we find out what happened to him. Mommy?"
"Maybe. I'll try, honey," she promised.
I went to my room. All that had happened had exhausted me. I closed my eyes as soon as I lay down, and in seconds I was asleep. The ringing of the phone woke me. It was Randy.
"I...
I he... heard what ha... happened to you." he said.
"We have a meeting with the principal tomorrow morning."
"I...
tr... tried to stop you."
"I
know. It was my own fault. I let them bait me. I'm sure Phoebe is a very happy person." His silence assured me she was. "My mother says. 'What goes around comes around. Don't worry. She'll get hers someday.'"
"Good," he said.
"Don't you get into any trouble on my account," I warned. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay," he said, his voice so tiny and thin.
Mommy left for work, and despite her brave face