Just Visiting (11 page)

Her heart skipped a beat when she imagined his voice and his funny laugh. “Hello?” she whispered into the receiver.

“Maddie?” the voice on the other end whispered back. “Honey bear?”

It wasn’t Mark. It was Mom!

“Mom!” Madison was glad to hear her mom’s voice. “What’s going on?”

Mom explained that she was still in San Francisco, but she’d been in so many meetings for the last day that she could barely get away. Tonight, however, she said, was reserved for a conversation with her favorite person on the planet.

Madison.

“How’s Gramma Helen’s?” Mom inquired. “She told me that you made a new friend.”

“Oh, that,” Madison said. “Yeah, I met this kid who lives nearby.”

“Sounds like fun,” Mom said. Madison could almost hear her smiling over the telephone wires.

“What’s new in San Francisco?” Madison asked.

“It’s hilly!” Mom said, chuckling. “But it’s such a beautiful place. We’ll have to come here together sometime. You’d love the streetcars and parks and the Golden Gate Bridge.”

Madison thought about how Bigwheels said she’d be on that bridge this week, too. She wished she were there to see her mom and her keypal at the same time.

“I miss you, Mom,” Madison admitted. “I mean, I’m having a great time with Gramma. But it’s raining today and I miss you.”

“I heard about that rain!” Mom said. “The bad weather should pass by the time the Fourth of July hits. You’ll have your fireworks display, Maddie!”

Madison told Mom about what they had planned in Winnetka Village for the Independence Day celebration. Mom said it all sounded wonderful.

“And what else have you been up to?” Mom asked. “Is Gramma pulling everything out of her bag of tricks?”

Madison told Mom about playing cards every day, about her morning trip to the beach, and about the surprise discovery in the shed that afternoon.

“The shed? You mean Grandpa’s shed?” Mom asked.

“Yeah,” Madison said. “I found something interesting on the wall in there. Something
you
carved into the wood like a million years ago.”

Mom gasped. “What is it?”

“You wrote all over the wall in there, Mom,” Madison said. “Fran loves Ethan. That kind of stuff.”

Mom started to giggle—hard.

“What are you laughing at?” Madison asked. She wished she could see the look on Mom’s face.

“Myself … you … that place,” Mom said. “See? I told you Gramma’s was full of surprises.”

“Well, that wall sure surprised me,” Madison said.

“I love you so much, honey bear,” Mom said softly.

The phone clicked for a second like Mom had been disconnected, but she was still there, still laughing.

Madison realized she wasn’t really drowning at all, like she’d written in her files. For one thing, she had Gramma close by.

And near or far, Mom would always be there to keep her safer than safe.

M
ADISON RUBBED THE SLEEP
out of her eyes as she and Phin strolled around Gramma’s backyard the next morning. Phin was restless, probably because he’d been cooped up with all the rain the day before. It was earlier than early, too, and Madison didn’t think anyone else was awake. She wore her nightshirt, pj bottoms, and flip-flops (even though they were still a little bit muddy from yesterday’s downpours).

Mist spread out like a blanket over the entire ground. The whole yard was like one damp prism; Madison saw little rainbows everywhere the dew collided with morning light. It was like Mom said. There was magic hidden all over the place at Gramma’s cottage.

“Madison!” a voice called out to her from across the yard.

She knew the voice and turned around. Mark was standing there.

“Mark?” she called back, crossing her arms so he wouldn’t see what she was wearing. She didn’t even want to think about what her hair looked like. She took a deep breath and wished he would walk away.

But he came closer!

“Hey!” Mark said. “I am so sorry that I couldn’t hang out yesterday. My grandmother had to wait around for her doctor … and then we had to go to this pharmacy … and then we went out to eat.”

Madison nodded at everything he said without saying much herself. She had an instant urge to RUN, RUN, RUN. After all, she was wearing pajamas! But she stood right there, a stick in the mud.

“Hey!” Mark pointed to her shirt and came a little closer. “Do you like
The Simpsons
? That’s my favorite show.”

“Yeah, I like
The Simpsons,”
she said.

He shifted around awkwardly. Was he nervous—or was he just
embarrassed
about Madison’s hideous outfit?

“Maybe can we hang out today,” Mark said. “My grandmother says we can play tennis at the club down the road. She has guest passes for both of us. And they have extra rackets if you need one.”

“Urn … okay … sure … but … I have to go inside now…” Madison said, her voice drifting off a little. She tried desperately to edge away from Mark so he wouldn’t get too close. They agreed to meet an hour later for tennis.

Madison wanted to evaporate. She couldn’t believe that Mark had seen her like that! Since he didn’t seem to care, she convinced herself that she wouldn’t care, either—at least not this once—but it didn’t make the encounter any less embarrassing.

Afterward Madison knew she
had
to fix her hair up nice and put on some real clothes. She found some white shorts and pulled on a blue T-shirt. It wasn’t the same one she’d worn to the beach, but she liked the way it looked. After trying unsuccessfully to fix her hair in pigtails, she finally shoved it all up into the tortoiseshell clip. It was
definitely
a better outfit than her pj’s.

Phinnie whined a little bit when he realized that Madison would be leaving him behind and he’d miss an afternoon outdoors. He saw her pulling on sneakers, something Madison usually only did when the two of them went on long walks together.

“Fwroooooorf,” Phin snorted, and crouched down on the rug.

She patted his head and tried to put his pug mind at ease.

“I’m just going to play tennis for an hour or so,” Madison said. “And when I come back, we can hang out together with Gramma Helen.”

As soon as the doorbell rang, she kissed Gramma good-bye on the forehead and dashed out the door to meet Mark. He was standing there on the stoop of Gramma’s cottage in a white tennis outfit, as though he was a professional player or something, swinging his graphite racket.

“Hey, there!” Madison said, bouncing out the front door. “I’m all set to beat you!” she teased.

Mark lightly hit her shoulder, teasing back. “Don’t even try it,” he joked.

Madison, of course, hit him right back. “No, I’m going to BEAT you,” she said, giggling.

They were both blushing. Madison could tell. Her own cheeks felt hot, and Mark’s looked pink. Or was that sunburn?

It took them only twenty minutes to walk to the courts. When they arrived, no one else was playing, which was a big bonus. They could choose any court they wanted. Madison borrowed a racket from the clubhouse and grabbed a couple of tennis balls before heading out to court six.

They played in silence for most of the beginning games. Mark was trying to hit all the shots. He sent a couple of balls whizzing past Madison’s head. She dunked a few lobs into his backcourt. Soon they were in the middle of a “real” set, keeping score and everything.

“What’s the score again?” Madison asked, ready to toss the tennis ball into the air for a serve.

“Love-thirty,” Mark said.

Madison fixated on the way he said the word
love.
She loved it.

Then she hit a serve that bounced out-of-bounds.

“Love-forty,” Mark said.

Madison rolled a tennis ball between her two fingers before launching it into the air.

Thwack!

No sooner had the ball landed in the opposite court than Mark swatted at it and hit back a perfect return.

“Game to me!” he yelled when Madison missed hitting back the ball by a mile. “Now we have to switch sides.”

The total score was four games to none, his advantage.

Madison was glad to feel so cheerful that morning; otherwise, she would have felt utterly defeated.

As they swapped net sides, they passed each other and Mark tapped Madison on the shoulder as if to say, “Hey!” They went on playing at the club for another hour and a half—almost twice as much time as Madison had anticipated. By the time they decided to call it quits, she was sweating from the sun right through her blue T-shirt, so Madison made extra sure that she didn’t turn around in front of Mark. She’d endured enough humiliating outfits for one day.

On the walk home, Mark stopped his teasing, though, and got serious all of a sudden.

“I wanted to ask you something,” Mark started to say. “I’ve been thinking …”

Madison was listening, although she was a little more focused on keeping her stride behind Mark’s. She didn’t want him to catch sight of her sweaty shirt—and the way he was talking was making her a little nervous.

“Well …” Mark said, slowing down his pace so Madison could catch up. “Since we’ve been hanging out together this week anyway …”

Madison smiled. “Yes?” she said, following him like she was doing some kind of dance.

“I’ve been wanting to ask you this since the day at the beach,” Mark said, stopping short.

“What?” Madison asked. She stopped walking, too.

“Do you want to go to the Fourth of July fireworks?” he asked.

Madison’s insides thumped. “You mean
together
?” she asked, bolder once again than she’d ever been with Hart Jones.

Mark shrugged. “Well, yeah,” he said.

“I’m not sure,” Madison said. “I don’t really know if …”

“It doesn’t have to be a big deal. I mean, I didn’t mean to make a big d-d-deal out of it…” Now Mark was stuttering. He was definitely
nervous.

“I’d really
like
to go,” Madison started to say. “But…”

“But?”
Mark asked.

Madison could hear herself thinking and then speaking in stereo. It was as if she’d been propelled outside her own body to watch herself walking down the street. She wanted to scream, “YES, OF COURSE I WILL GO WITH YOU!”

But that wasn’t what she replied.

“Well, I would love to go with you, but I really think I should spend the Fourth of July with my gramma Helen. I came here to visit her, after all. It seems funny to go to the fireworks without her. Don’t you agree?”

“I guess,” Mark said. “Yeah.”

Madison surprised herself. She’d taken his invitation—the first offer she’d ever gotten like that
ever
—and said no?

Mark looked like he couldn’t believe it, either.

By now, they’d reached their grandmothers’ houses.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” Mark said to Madison.

“Okay,” Madison replied. “See you.”

She watched him walk back over to his grandmother’s yard without saying another word. He didn’t even wave before heading inside.

Madison walked into the front hall to find Gramma leaned over Phinnie, brushing his coat. He was panting happily.

“How was tennis?” Gramma asked.

Madison told her what had happened at the courts. She said that on the way home Mark had “sort of” asked her to go to the Fourth of July celebration.

“Sort of?” Gramma asked.

“Yeah,” Madison said. “I mean—it’s not like a date or anything.”

“Of course it isn’t!” Gramma said. “So when are you two meeting?”

“Well, we’re not meeting. Because I said no,” Madison explained. “I told him I was already going with someone. You.”

Gramma leaned over and stroked Madison’s head. “Oh, Maddie!” she said. “Maddie, Maddie, Maddie!”

Madison snickered. “Cut it out, Gramma. That tickles.”

“I want you to go over to Mabel’s house right this second and tell that young man that you’ve changed your mind …” Gramma said in an animated voice.

“Huh? I can’t do that,” Madison said.

“Why not?”

“Because … I already said no. And it’s too embarrassing,” Madison said. “To go all the way over to his house …”

“Well, then, fine. Tell him at dinner,” Gramma said.

“Dinner?” Madison asked.

“Mabel and Mark are coming here for supper. I invited them both while you two were off playing tennis.”

“Gramma!” Madison wailed. “You didn’t!”

“You know, you should really trust your grandmother when it comes to this sort of thing,” Gramma replied. “Now, it’s four-thirty. Dinner is in an hour.”

“An hour? Here?”

Madison glanced up at the clock on the wall and groaned. She made an exasperated face at Gramma and ran up the center stairs toward her room. Phin followed closely behind, pug tail curling all the way.

She wasn’t sure if she would change her mind about Mark’s invitation, but Madison
did
know that she needed to take a shower. Mark had already seen her in pj’s and this sweaty blue T-shirt today. The least Madison could do was to look nicer than nice for the surprise dinner.

The dinner guests arrived at five-thirty sharp.

Mabel was gabbing like crazy when she entered, but Mark didn’t say much at all. And he said even less at dinner, except to ask for salt and pepper twice.

Something had really changed between him and Madison since that afternoon. Although she hadn’t meant to, she’d hurt Mark’s feelings by saying no to his Fourth of July request.

Madison considered Gramma’s advice. Should she tell him she
would
go to see the fireworks now? Wouldn’t changing her mind to say yes right now in the middle of dinner leave Mark twice as confused about what was going on?

Madison didn’t know
what
to say.

She was swallowed up by a bad case of nerves—more nerves than she’d ever had with a boy in her entire life—more than Hart, Drew, and Egg put together.

Was it better to let the grandmothers do all the talking?

Mabel didn’t help matters much. She hadn’t hushed up since she came into the house, chattering on and on. Madison figured she just loved to hear the sound of her own voice. While Mark sat there silently picking at his meat loaf and peas, Mabel shared embarrassing stories of his childhood.