Keeping Secrets (12 page)

Jacob looked from Willow to Olivia, then drew Olivia aside. “Does she have a father?” he whispered.

“Yes. Why?”

“Oh. I just wondered. Maybe he's not home or something. Willow said her
mother
wouldn't let her go. But she didn't mention her father.”

“Um, Willow?” said Olivia. “What about your dad? Did he say you couldn't go, too?”

“Not in so many words.” Willow reached for a cookie. “He just usually goes along with what Mom says. But it's no big deal. Really.”

Olivia glanced at Flora and Nikki. She knew that they thought it was a very big deal, and so did she.

“Who's the band?” asked Willow.

“Snooze,” replied Jacob, snoring loudly, and everyone laughed.

“I'm going to check them out. I don't want to miss anything.” Willow looked at her watch. “Gosh. I still have to figure out how to sneak back in tonight. Sometimes that's harder. Once — hey, who are those girls?” Willow had shifted her attention to a small knot of girls nearby. “Two of them are staring at us,” she added, narrowing her eyes.

Nikki whispered, “Melody Becker and Tanya Rhodes. Our mortal enemies. Well, Olivia's mortal enemies.”

“Really?” said Willow, looking at Olivia with interest. “You have mortal enemies? What's their problem?”

“Well, at the moment,” said Nikki, “they're jealous that Jacob invited Olivia to the dance.”

Willow smiled. “Excellent.” She reached for another cookie. “Okay. I'll see you guys later.”

“Flora!” squeaked Olivia as soon as Willow was out of earshot. “She had to sneak out of the house!”

“That doesn't sound good,” said Jacob.

“I sense trouble,” added Nikki.

Four pairs of eyes followed Willow across the gym.

“Maybe Min can at least drive her home with us tonight,” said Flora.

“Maybe,” said Olivia dubiously.

 

Later, much later, Olivia and Jacob stood side by side at the edge of the dance floor.

“One more song and the dance is over,” said Jacob.

“It went so
fast
,” said Olivia. “All of a sudden, it went so fast.” She glanced around the gym. “I wonder where Willow is.”

Olivia and Jacob, soon joined by Flora and Nikki, searched the room but couldn't find her.

“I guess she left already,” said Flora uncomfortably. “And, Olivia, I hate to say this, but we have to go, too. Min's probably waiting outside. Um, I'll meet you in the parking lot. Come with me, Nikki.”

Olivia turned to Jacob. “You know what? This is the best dance I've ever been to — and I didn't dance once.”

Jacob grinned. “Same here. The best dance ever.”

When the phone rang on the day after Halloween, Flora didn't hear it. She had decided she needed a sewing day and had closed herself into her room. She sat contentedly on the floor in a muddle of patterns, fabrics, buttons, and magazines. The magazines were open to pages featuring outfits Flora liked and thought she could copy.

Flora didn't actually need new clothes. What she needed was the chance to clear her head, and a sewing day was perfect for that. She had realized that her brain was swimming with thoughts of Olivia, Jacob, dances, dates, Min, Mr. Pennington, more dates, Willow, and Aunt Allie's mystery.

When the door to her room burst open and Ruby thrust the phone inside, Flora jumped and knocked over a box of pins that lost themselves in her rug.

“Ruby! Don't you ever knock?” she cried.

“Well, I called, but you didn't answer, and I didn't want Willow to have to wait too long. Why didn't you answer?”

“Can't you guess? I didn't hear you.”

Ruby made a face. “Would you like me to put the phone back?”

“No! I just want you to knock before you come in my room.”

“Okay, okay. Jeez.”

Flora took the phone, and Ruby slammed her door.

“Hello? Willow?” said Flora.

“Yeah, hi. It's me.”

“How are you? We were looking for you at the dance last night. We would have given you a ride home.”

“Oh,” replied Willow. “That's okay.”

Flora was desperate to find out how Willow had gotten back in her house but instead asked, “Did you have fun?”

“Yeah, it was great. Everyone here is really nice. I talked to a lot of people and danced with a couple of guys. I don't know their names, but they were nice, too.” She laughed. “My mother would have a fit if she knew I had danced with boys and didn't even find out their names.”

“So, um,” said Flora, “I guess you got home okay last night?”

“Yup. No problem. But sneaking back in always kind of ruins whatever came before. I feel like Pollyanna when I do it. You know — climbing up the tree to sneak back through her window after the fair? It's a good way to take the magic out of an evening. Hey, Flora?”

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering, would you like to … well, I'd invite you over, but it isn't really a very good day around here. Do you want to go into town or something?”

“Today?” Flora looked at her room — at the fabrics, the patterns, the magazines. She knew she should say yes, or at the very least ask Willow to come over to her house, but … a sewing day. She didn't get to have them very often, not entire days.

“Well, yeah,” said Willow, and Flora could already hear the disappointment in her voice.

“Willow, I'm sorry, I can't.”

She was trying to figure out whether to tell Willow about sewing days when Willow said, “That's okay. Really. Some other time. I'll see you in school tomorrow.” And she hung up.

Flora sat on the floor, staring at the phone. At last she stood up, opened her door, and handed the phone to Ruby, who, as Flora had suspected, was slouched in the hallway, where she had been eavesdropping. “Here,” said Flora, and she retreated into her room.

The conversation had put a slight damper on the sewing day, but Flora simply added it to the list of things she would mull over as she worked.

She sorted through the magazines again and settled on a dress — a summer dress, but that was okay — that she liked quite a bit. It was sleeveless, with a scoop neck and a complicated back, but what Flora liked best was the combination of fabrics that had been used. The dress looked as though it had been slashed diagonally from the left shoulder to the lower right side, the top part a brilliant peacock blue, the bottom emerald green.

“I bet I could make that,” she said aloud. She found a pattern for a sundress that she had made before and pulled out the contents of the package. If she cut the bodice and the skirt pieces in two diagonally, allowing extra fabric for the additional seam … yes, that should work. Now — fabric?

Flora began to search through lengths of fabric, thinking of Willow as she did so. She imagined Willow sneaking through a window to get back into her Row House. Then she realized that Willow hadn't said that was how
she
had gotten back in her house; she had said that was how Pollyanna had tried to get back in
her
house. And what was wrong with Willow's mother, anyway? Clearly, something was wrong.

Adults were hard to figure out. Well,
people
were hard to figure out, but somehow Flora found adult shortcomings more troubling than kid shortcomings. She felt grown-ups should know better. Or at least be more predictable.

Flora's mind wobbled right around to the subject of change again. Which reminded her that Min and Mr. Pennington were going out to dinner that night. Another date. Although Flora personally thought that Sunday was not as romantic a night for a date as Friday or Saturday.

Flora's main concern with the relationship between her grandmother and Rudy Pennington was how things would change if they got married — something her aunt Allie had assured her was not about to happen anytime soon. Still, it
could
happen. And while Flora loved Mr. Pennington, she didn't want to move — into his house or anywhere else. Of course, it would make much more sense for Mr. Pennington to move into Min's house than for her and Ruby and Min all to move into his house, but either way it meant change. And really, thought Flora, did her grandmother and Mr. Pennington
want
such a big change at this time in their lives? Maybe they didn't. But if they didn't, why were they dating? What could come of it? This was a mystery.

Flora wondered what Aunt Allie would think about marriage for Min — a wedding of two rather elderly citizens. And then she wondered about the baby clothes in Aunt Allie's closet. Here was another mystery, and wouldn't you know, it involved another adult. Ruby had said that the closet looked exactly the way it did when she and Flora had discovered it in September. Not a thing was different, at least not so far as Ruby had noticed. And now there was the photo of Allie and the handsome man that Ruby had found in the desk drawer, and the letter with the return address from … what had Ruby said? Peru? Mexico? Flora was tempted to ask Ruby about it right that second, but she wasn't ready to abandon her sewing.

Flora sat at her desk and began a list of things she would need for her dress. She was very grateful for the discount Min gave her at Needle and Thread.

She sucked on the end of her pen. “One yard of green fabric,” she said aloud. “One and a half yards of blue fabric. Buttons?” She looked at the pattern. No, no buttons.

She set her pen down. She should really, she thought, offer to make some clothes for Olivia. It was awful that Olivia had to shop in the children's department, especially now that she and Jacob were … were what? Dating? Were they really dating? Flora felt a pang — an actual pang — in her stomach. You are being uncharitable, she said to herself.
Very
uncharitable. She could hear Min's voice. “And unbecoming,” it admonished her.

So why did the thought of Jacob and Olivia bother her? Was it because she wished someone had asked
her
to the dance? No. Well, it would have been nice, of course, but it wasn't something she had wished for, and anyway, she didn't know a single other girl besides Olivia who
had
received an invitation. Was she upset because Olivia had made a new friend? No. She and Olivia each had a number of friends.

Flora sighed. She suspected she knew what the problem was. When she looked ahead of her, down the hallway of years, past thirteen and fourteen, eighteen, twenty-one, she saw only change. Soon she and the rest of her friends would be invited to dances all the time, and boys would start to call, and Saturdays would be spent not giggling in Needle and Thread nor sitting on the lawn with the other Row House kids, but going to the movie theatre at the mall and to football games and parties. There would be driving lessons and final exams and college applications. And bras — there would be
bras
.

Flora stood and looked out her window at Aiken Avenue. If a genie were to appear from somewhere at that very moment, Flora would ask it (she didn't know if a genie was male or female) to stop time so that she could stay twelve years old having sewing days in her room at Min's house forever.

Or would she? Stopped time meant not being able to solve Aunt Allie's mystery and not getting to know Willow. It meant Nikki wouldn't be able to go to college, which was her dream, and Flora certainly didn't want to take away anyone's dream.

She sat down again, had a sudden inspiration regarding shoulder ties on the sundress, and returned her attention to her project. Before Flora knew it, the morning was over, she had completed the alteration on the pattern, and a feeling of calm had settled neatly into the center of her body.

This was the beauty of a sewing day.

“Oh, dear. Are you sure we have everything?” Mrs. Sherman surveyed the car, which was parked on the gravel drive, every one of its doors open.

“Positive,” replied Nikki. “Look. All of Mae's stuff is on the backseat. Coloring books, crayons, juice box, crackers, her pillow.”