Letters from the Heart (8 page)

It looked like her four-legged friend had already overstayed his welcome.

B
LUE
D
AY

“Hey!” Maeve's father said, coming out onto the stoop to sit beside her.

It was late Sunday afternoon and Maeve was keeping Marty company, waiting for Charlotte and her dad to come by and pick him up. Maeve had called Charlotte, who was at the airport, and told her the whole story. They'd be by in half an hour to collect Marty, but for now Maeve wanted to keep him
outside. Sam had been through enough in the past twenty-four hours—he didn't need to be scared about having a dog around.

“You doing okay?” her dad asked her softly, leaning over to give Marty a quick pat.

Maeve nodded. “I guess,” she said.

There were so many things she wanted to ask her dad, but saying anything at all right now seemed all wrong. She couldn't beg him to change his mind. He'd made her promise to try to be “mature.” Maeve felt helpless—and confused.

“Listen,” he said slowly. “You were saying something yesterday about wanting to talk to me about what it was like when I was growing up. I never told you much about this, but when I was about your age, my dad lost his job. It was really hard on our family. He didn't find work again for almost three years. I was really embarrassed—I didn't want the other kids to know that he was unemployed.”

Maeve felt her eyes sting with tears. Had he read her mind somehow? How could her father know her so well?

“Finally, he got a job,” her father continued. “He got trained and started working as a plumber. Everyone else I knew…their dads were doctors and lawyers. But Dad used to let me and my friends play with all his pipes and tools, and he was really patient. He taught us how to fix everything. All my friends thought that was really great.” Maeve smiled. She could just imagine her father and grandfather laughing while they fixed the toilet!

Maeve fiddled with Marty's leash. “And then Grandpa started his own company, right?” she asked.

Her father grinned. “Owned his own company after about five years. Then he sold it and bought the home renovation business that he ran until he retired. I was proud of him, Maeve. He kept his head held high, even when he was out of
work. He always told me that the most important thing you have is your own sense of self-worth. That, and honesty. Those were the two things he cared about more than anything.”

Maeve wound Marty's leash around and around her finger. “I wish you and Mom could stay together,” she whispered.

“I know you do, Maeve. And you know what? I wish that too. But for now, you've got to believe me. It's the right thing for us right now. Kids can face big challenges and come out just fine.”

Maeve wasn't so sure. She couldn't imagine getting through a single day without her dad around. How was she going to manage once he'd moved out?

“Do you know what the word ‘resilience' means?” her father asked her.

Maeve shook her head. “You know me, Dad. I'm not so good with big words,” she said truthfully.

“Well—it means being strong, even in hard times. Being able to roll with the punches. Maeve, I know that you have this quality. So does Sam, but he doesn't know it yet.” Her father leaned over to give her a hug. “You're going to find out that you're more resilient than you knew. That doesn't mean that you won't get sad, or feel upset about this. But it does mean that you're going to be okay in the long run. Just trust yourself, and trust me because I love you…okay?”

Maeve nodded. Her throat ached with tears, and she had to concentrate furiously on Marty not to break down then and there.

M
aeve woke up early on Monday morning—even before her pink guinea pig alarm clock made its usual buzzing sound. For a moment, she couldn't remember what was different. Then it all came rushing back.

She was dressed and ready for school in record time. Not only that, but Maeve was the first one in the kitchen. No sign of her mom or dad. Unheard of. Breakfast wasn't ready yet—usually her mom set the table the night before, but not today. Maeve decided to pitch in. She put out her brother's Star Wars bowl and his goofy marshmallow cereal, and she tried not to be negative as she poured the cereal out for him—although how he could eat so much green in the morning was beyond her.

Maeve's mom came in, still in her bathrobe. Her hair was half wet and half dry, and she was wearing stockings and high heels under her robe. She seemed like she was in a panic. “Oh my gosh, Maeve, thanks so much!” she cried when she saw Maeve setting the table. “I'm just not used to getting myself ready in the morning! I couldn't even find a blow-dryer. I
borrowed yours.” She started dashing madly around the kitchen, talking as she went. “Today's my first day of work,” she added, pulling out the orange juice. “I think I'm a little nervous…I just hope I make an okay impression,” she went on, sounding almost shy.

There were a million things Maeve wanted to ask her, but nothing felt right. Instead, what came out sounded a little silly. “What are you going to wear?”

Her mother's face relaxed into a relieved smile. “I was kind of wondering that myself,” she admitted. “I guess I'd better not wear my carpool outfit.”

Maeve laughed. Her mother's carpool outfit was pretty awful. Running tights, a sweatshirt, and clogs. “You'd better not,” she agreed. “D'you want some help, Mom? I'm pretty good as a fashion consultant.”

In the few minutes before Sam came storming into the kitchen, Maeve helped her mother rummage through her closet. Wow, Maeve thought. Her mom hadn't bought herself anything new to wear in ages. Maeve felt a sudden twinge of guilt. Her mom always shopped for Maeve, come to think of it, whenever there was extra money. She sure hadn't spent much on herself.

“How about this?” Maeve said at last, taking out a gray skirt and a navy sweater. It was pretty simple, but it looked elegant. “You could put a jacket over this. It looks nice and office-y.”

Maeve's mother took the skirt and sweater, not even looking at them. She was looking at Maeve instead, her eyes misting over. “Thanks,” she said softly. She acted like Maeve had just done something huge to help her.

It felt strangely good to help her mother for a change, instead of being the flaky, disorganized daughter who
always needed to be rescheduled. “Good luck today, Mom,” Maeve said. And then on impulse, she gave her a hug. She had to make it a quick one, and then bolted out of the room. Otherwise, they'd both be bawling!

 

“Did she figure it out?” Isabel demanded. “Did your mom guess it was Marty who was giving her hives?”

The girls were at their lockers early Monday morning—all but Maeve, who wasn't at school yet. Avery, Katani, Isabel, and Charlotte were filling each other in on the weekend. Marty was safely back where he belonged, enjoying the Statue-of-Liberty-shaped dog biscuits Charlotte had brought him back…and all the extra attention, too.

Charlotte and Katani had heard all about Marty's getaway and Avery's near miss. Now they wanted to know if Avery's mother had figured out that she'd had an extra houseguest for the weekend.

“She knows,” Avery said glumly. “She started to grill me, but thank heavens, those friends of hers all showed up for tea, so she couldn't keep asking questions.

“It's so sad,” Avery continued, opening her locker with one quick spin of the combination. “Last night I dreamed that my mom stopped being allergic to dogs and she let me bring Marty home with me, and he got to sleep right on the end of my bed!” She shook her head, her dark hair falling across her face as she pushed it back impatiently. “Only when I woke up it turned out that what I thought was Marty was really only my skateboard.”

“You sleep with your skateboard?” Isabel asked, shaking her head. “That's dedication.” She frowned. “Or weirdness—I can't tell which.”

“I NEED a dog,” Avery moaned. “Why on earth did I get stuck with an allergic mother when I am totally, one-hundred percent a dog person? How fair is that?”

Isabel laughed, but Charlotte gave Avery a sympathetic smile. She knew that Avery was serious. She really adored dogs, and Charlotte had a feeling that this longing of hers wasn't going to go away.

“What's wrong with Walter?” Katani asked in her “I really don't like reptiles” voice. To Katani, Walter wasn't much better than a deadly germ. He'd slithered around Avery's room one night when Katani was sleeping over and she'd almost had a heart attack. “That thing better look out,” she'd cried, “or he's going to get turned into a pair of shoes before he knows what hit him!”

“Walter,” Avery said sorrowfully, “is wonderful—for a snake. But I feel like I need something…you know, a little cuddlier and a lot more interactive.” She shook her head again. “I just have to figure out some way to help my mother get unallergic so she can change her mind. But I don't know how!”

“You should really tell your mom how much you want a dog. She's so nice I bet she will listen to you,” Charlotte said. “If she knew how badly you want a dog, she might even get those new shots that are supposed to help your allergies. I've heard those can really work for some people.”

“Hey,” Katani said, pulling her notebook out of her locker. “Anyone seen Maeve? She was supposed to meet me at the corner this morning, but she wasn't there.”

Isabel and Charlotte both shook their heads. “I usually see her on my way to school,” Charlotte said, “but I didn't today.”

Avery shrugged. “She probably slept late. Come on, guys. Ms. Rodriguez wants us to fill her in on our Heritage Museum stuff this morning—we'd better not be late.”

 

One thing Maeve loved about Ms. Rodriguez was that she always started off slowly on Monday mornings, asking about their weekends. She wasn't one of those teachers who seemed to think kids only existed when they were at school.

“So,” she said with a smile. “How was the weekend?”

The mere mention of the word “weekend” produced excited whispering from Anna and Joline, but fortunately a couple of other kids raised their hands to fill Ms. Rodriguez in on what they'd done. Pete, Dillon, and Nick had gone to a Patriots game. Riley's band was practicing a new song, getting ready for a Battle of the Bands contest coming up later in the fall. Sammy Andropovitch had gone hiking with his family. Samantha Simmons, who loved dropping hints about how rich her family was, had been down to the Cape, “winterizing” their summer house—whatever that meant!

Maeve kept her eyes averted. Don't call on me.
Please, don't call on me.
She needn't have worried. Ms. Rodriguez almost never put kids on the spot.

Maeve sure wasn't going to volunteer anything about HER weekend. She could just imagine the looks on everyone's faces if she raised her hand and said casually, “Oh, my mom and dad are going to separate. And my dad's moving out this weekend…”

Her face turned red just thinking about it.

Yikes. It was going to take a real effort to make sure nobody found out.

Charlotte raised her hand. “I went to New York City with my dad. It was great—we took the ferry out to Ellis Island and to the Statue of Liberty. I'd never been there before,” she said.

Ms. Rodriguez beamed. “Ellis Island,” she repeated. She explained to the class that for those who didn't know, this was the place where immigrants to the United States had arrived by the tens of thousands in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. “Did you actually go into the building?”

Charlotte nodded. “It turns out you can find out about family members who came through there,” she said. “We found out some information about my father's grandfather, Jonathan Ramsey. He came over from England in the 1890s.”

Ms. Rodriguez looked delighted. “What a perfect transition, Charlotte. This leads right into what I wanted to talk with all of you about this morning. As you know, Ms. O'Reilly and I are teaming up so that you can work on your Heritage Museum projects in English for the next several weeks, as well as in social studies. I'll be helping each of you come up with interview questions to use when you talk to older relatives. Also, I'll be helping you to write your reports. I'm sure you learned some interesting things about your great-grandfather that will be useful for this project, Charlotte.” She looked expectantly around the room. “So this afternoon during English class, get ready to do some brainstorming. Think hard about what you want to learn and about the questions that will help you to find those answers.”

Maeve bit her lip.
Questions
, she thought.
What I want to know.

She fiddled with her keyboard.

Maeve knew that these weren't the questions she was supposed to be coming up with. But right now, they were the ones that were on her mind.

 

The Abigail Adams lunchroom was crowded, as usual. Kids were jostling each other in the lunch line, hurrying to grab seats at their favorite tables, or crowding around the drink machine at one end of the cafeteria. Maeve saw Katani and Isabel waving to her from across the room at their usual table. She didn't have much of an appetite, but she headed over to sit with them anyway.

“Maeve, come join us!” Katani said, gesturing at the chair next to her. “Isabel and Charlotte are still in the lunch line.” She wrinkled her nose. “It's the Abigail Adams attempt at mac and cheese today. Not exactly my favorite.”

“Carbs in a bowl. That's what I call it,” Avery muttered.

Maeve shook her head, hoping that she didn't look as bad as she felt. She kept thinking that it must be written all over her face: “PARENTS SEPARATING! Pity this girl!” At least she remembered how to spell “Separating.” Her mother had taught her years ago that you could always remember how to spell it because there was “a rat” in the middle of the word. How strange that she would think of that now.

She'd been feeling out of it all morning. She kept wondering how her mother's first day of work was going. And what about her dad? Was he packing boxes? What would it be like tonight at dinner? Would they all just eat together, like everything was still normal? Would they get to hear about his new place? So many changes…and all so fast.

It was so hard to believe this was all really going to happen.

But maybe, Maeve thought suddenly, it didn't have to. Maybe just TALKING about separating would be enough to shock her parents back into realizing how much they needed each other. If she and Sam were super-helpful and on their VERY best behavior, there wouldn't be so much tension in the house. Maybe her parents would see how much calmer and saner life could be.

Maeve thought she could start right away. She could offer to help make dinner tonight. She could get every bit of homework done without even being reminded. She could even straighten up her room.

After all, Maeve thought, her parents said that they still loved each other. And they seemed like they were looking out for each other's feelings now more than they had in ages. Hadn't her father wanted to clean up the kitchen for her mom on Saturday night? And her dad had told her last night
that her mom had helped him find his new apartment. In the movies, people changed their minds and decided to stay together. Why couldn't it happen like that in real life, too?

“Maeve? Are you okay?” Katani said, putting her hand on Maeve's arm and looking at her friend with concern. “We've been talking for the past few minutes and you didn't even hear us!”

“Oh—sorry,” Maeve said, sitting up and struggling to smile. “I just don't feel right,” she added suddenly. “I'm…I don't know, my stomach is kind of bugging me.”

Why don't I want my friends to know about my mom and dad?
she wondered. Maeve knew that sooner or later they were going to find out. Just not now, she thought. I'm just not ready yet.

Isabel and Charlotte were winding their way through the lunchroom, trying to balance their trays, and before long everyone was busy talking about the Heritage Museum. Nobody seemed to notice that Maeve was being really quiet.

“You know that loft up in our carriage house?” Avery said. “I bet there's some really cool old stuff up there that I could find. Mom says she hasn't gone through it in ages.”

Katani nodded. “Going through old stuff is really cool. I talked to my grandmother this weekend on our ride up to see Candice. She thinks she may even have something dating all the way back before the Civil War in the trunk her mother left her.”

“I haven't talked to my mom yet, but my Aunt Lourdes thinks we may have some things in her attic. We're going to start looking up there this week,” Isabel said, her eyes shining. “I was thinking of trying to make a collage out of some old photographs. Do you think Ms. O'Reilly would like that?”

Maeve heard everyone chattering around her, but she
couldn't bring herself to join in the conversation. She knew that if she tried to talk, her voice would sound funny. And then her friends would want to know why. She wouldn't be able to keep her news to herself once they started grilling her.