Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself (18 page)

“Look, Ma … I enjoy Eileen’s company … she’s a very good friend to me down here … and other than that I’m busy with the children … they’re my life.”

“And mine too, you please shouldn’t forget,” Ma Fanny said.

On Sally’s third day home from school Andrea woke up with Virus X too and Mrs. Rubin was so concerned about Linda she sent her to stay at the Shelbourne Hotel with her grandmother. Sally thought Linda was very lucky because the Shelbourne Hotel was one of the prettiest on Collins Avenue.

Ma Fanny made chicken soup with rice for Sally’s lunch. It was the first time Sally had felt hungry since coming down with Virus X. While she was having her second bowl, the doorbell rang. It was
the man from the telephone company, ready to install their phone.

“At last!” Mom said. “I’d just about given up hope.”

“You and everybody else,” the telephone man said. He had a toothpick in his mouth and when he spoke he kept his teeth together so that he sounded like Humphrey Bogart, the movie star.

“Now we’ll be able to talk to Daddy without the whole world listening,” Mom told Sally.

“And I won’t have to stand on a chair to reach
this
phone,” Sally said.

“That’s right.” Mom smiled and ran her fingers through Sally’s hair.

When he’d finished, the telephone man said, “Okay … this is a four-party line so when you …”

Mom interrupted him. “But we requested a private line … we’ve always had a private line …”

“Listen, lady … you’re lucky to be getting any kind of line … we have a long list of people who’d be happy with this set-up.”

“It’s not that I’m unhappy,” Mom said, “it’s just that I thought …”

“It won’t be as bad as it sounds,” the telephone man said. “You’ll get used to it.” He took the toothpick out of his mouth and put it in the ashtray. “Okay …” he said, opening and closing his mouth
a few times, as if he were testing his jaw to make sure it worked. “Your signal is one long ring, followed by two short ones.”

“What do you mean?” Sally asked.

“It’ll sound like this,” he said, “brrriiinngg … brring, brring …”

Sally laughed. “What a funny telephone!”

“It may be funny, sister, but it works!”

“What will the other signals sound like?” Sally asked.

“The only one you need to worry about is your own,” he said. “I don’t have time for long demonstrations. I’ve got to hook up your neighbors too.”

“The Rubins?” Sally asked.

The telephone man checked his book. “No … the Daniels.”

“Oh, them …” Sally said. “That should make Bubbles very happy.”

“So … if you’ll sign right here,” he said to Mom, tapping his paper, “I’ll leave you a phone directory and be on my way.”

Mom signed and said, “Thank you very much.”

“Don’t mention it.” He looked over at Sally. “Goodbye, sister …”

“Goodbye,” Sally said, “and don’t forget your toothpick.”

“Sally!” Mom said.

“What?”

The telephone man shook his head and went out the door.

“Oh … never mind,” Mom said.

“Can I make the first call?” Sally asked. “Pretty please …”

“Who are you going to call?”

“Barbara … I want to find out what’s new in school.”

“She won’t be home yet … it’s just one-thirty.”

“Oh.”

“But you can call her later.”

“As long as I get to try it out before Douglas,” Sally said.

“Okay … you can be the first,” Mom said.

“Thanks!”

Sally looked up Barbara’s number in the directory. She wrote it down and waited until three-fifteen, then she dialed. Barbara answered.

“Hi, it’s me …” Sally said. “I’m trying out our new phone … how does it sound to you … oh, I had Virus X … but I’m better now … what’s new in school … really?… a new girl … what’s she like … oh … from Chicago … really a blood disease … oh … um, let’s see … it’s Central 4-6424 … okay … I’ll be right here, waiting …”

Sally hung up the phone. “She’s going to call me back,” she told Mom.

“I have to do some shopping,” Mom said. “I’ll only be gone an hour. Do you need anything, Ma?”

“Corn flakes,” Ma Fanny said. “And maybe another quart of milk …”

“Okay …” Mom said. “Rest up, Sally.”

“I will.”

The phone rang. One long followed by two short rings. “I’ll get it,” Sally said, “it’s probably Barbara.” She lifted the receiver off the hook. “Hello … oh, hi … I knew it would be you …”

“I’ve got information about Darlene,” Barbara said, “but I had to wait for Marla to go outside so she wouldn’t know I was telling you. Darlene’s in ninth grade, she belongs to the Model Airplane Club, she’s always on a diet, her father’s a movie producer, they have a butler and two maids, they have three cars, one is a convertible, and she’s not popular with the kids at school … listen, I’ve got to hang up now … see you tomorrow … bye …”

“Wait …” Sally started to say, but it was too late. She looked at Ma Fanny. “I forgot to ask if I missed a lot of work in school …”

“So, you’ll call her back,” Ma Fanny said. “I’ll be in the kitchen, making you another drink …”

Sally lifted the receiver again. But this time, instead of the dial tone, she heard Bubbles talking. She hadn’t realized she’d be able to hear the other
people on their line. How interesting! Bubbles was talking to a boy. Sally held the receiver to her ear. Bubbles said, “I don’t know how I’ll live until Saturday night.” The boy said, “I think of you every second … I can’t think of anything else.” Bubbles said, “Can you get the car?” The boy said, “I’ve got it all arranged.”

Ma Fanny came back into the livingroom, carrying an orangeade for Sally. Sally replaced the receiver. “I was trying to get Barbara,” she said, “but the line was busy.”

Ma Fanny nodded.

That night, after supper, Mom placed a call to Daddy. Douglas and Sally each got to say hello, then, when Mom took the phone, Douglas automatically went out the door. Mom told Sally, “Go out to play now …”

“I can’t,” Sally said. “I have Virus X … remember?”

“Then go to the bathroom.”

“I don’t have to.”

“Go anyway …”

“Oh …” Sally said, stomping across the livingroom, through the sleeping alcove and into the bathroom.

She heard Mom sigh. “She’s such a funny little girl … always afraid of missing out … and I miss you too, Arnold … Sally, will you
close
the bathroom door, please!”

The next day Sally went back to school. She met Jackie, the new girl, during recess. Jackie was small and frail, with very pale skin and long, straight dark hair. “My brother, Douglas, had nephritis,” Sally said.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jackie answered.

“He’s okay now.”

“That’s good.”

“So what did you have?”

“Mine’s very complicated … it doesn’t have a name … it’s got to do with my blood …”

“Oh.”

“I was in the hospital three months … I almost died.”

“That sounds serious.”

“Yes … that’s what everyone said … but I’m going to be all right now … my mother promised …”

While they were talking Peter ran up to Sally and pulled her braids. “Oh … he makes me so mad!”

“I think he’s cute.” Jackie said. “I wouldn’t mind if he pulled my hair.”

Andrea was sick for a week. One afternoon Sally asked Mom if she could go to the park with Shelby.

“Walking or riding?” Mom asked.

“Riding … but we’ll be very careful.”

“And be back by five on the dot?”

“Yes, five on the dot … I promise,” Sally said.

Sally and Shelby rode to the park and watched Georgia Blue Eyes and his friends play ball.

Shelby said, “I really want to kiss him … don’t you?”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Sally answered.

“We could chase him until he drops,” Shelby suggested, “and then both of us could jump on him and you could hold him still while I kiss him and then I’d hold him still for you … what do you think?”

“I don’t want to kiss him
that
much,” Sally said.

“Oh, well … too bad …”

They circled the field on their bicycles, then tried out a new bike path. “Watch this …” Shelby said, pedalling faster and faster. “No hands …”

“Be careful,” Sally called, trying to catch up with Shelby. But it was too late. Shelby fell and her bicycle toppled over her. “Oh, no …” Sally jumped off her bicycle and freed Shelby. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“No,” Shelby whimpered.

“What hurts?”

“Everything.” Shelby began to cry. “Everything hurts …”

Shelby’s knees and one elbow were badly scraped and bleeding. “Oh, boy …” Sally said, “are you going to have good scabs!”

That made Shelby cry harder.

“Can you ride?” Sally asked.

“No … how can I ride … I’m bleeding.”

“Well …” Sally thought fast. “You stay right here and don’t move an inch. I’ll go for help and be right back.”

Shelby nodded and squeezed her nostrils together to keep them from dripping.

Sally hopped on her bicycle and took off. As she rounded the corner of the path she spotted Mr. Zavodsky on a bench, reading his newspaper. Don’t look up, Sally said under her breath. Don’t notice me … just keep reading your paper. I don’t have time for you now, Adolf … I’ve got other things to worry about, like Shelby … She rode with her head down and her shirt collar pulled up. What good luck, she thought as she passed him, he didn’t see me. She checked her new Mickey Mouse watch. It was two minutes to five. Mom would be really angry if she was late. She pedalled as fast as she could, all the way home. When she got there she burst in the door, calling, “Mom … Mom!”

“What is it …” Mom asked, “and do you know you’re five minutes late?”

“Shelby fell off her bike and she’s bleeding.”

“Where?”

“Her knees and her elbow …”

“I mean, where is she?” Mom said.

“In the park … I told her to stay right there and I’d get help.”

“You left her in the park … bleeding?”

“Well, you told me to be home by five …”

“But Sally … how could you leave your friend that way … I’m surprised at you … how would you feel if you’d had an accident and Shelby left you alone?”

“I didn’t know what else to do,” Sally said.

“So now
I
have to go to the park … is that right?” Mom asked.

“Well, yes …” Sally didn’t understand her mother. She’d come home for help. What else should she have done?

Mom ran into the bathroom, muttering, and threw some supplies into a paper bag. “Okay … let’s go.”

“To the park?” Sally asked.

“Honestly, Sally …” Mom let the screen door slam and raced down the stairs.

Sally followed.

“How are we going to get there?” she asked, trying to keep up with her mother.

“On bicycles,” Mom said.

“Both of us on mine?”

“No … I’ll ride Douglas’s.”

“You know how to ride a boy’s bike?”

“Of course.”

“I never knew that.”

“There are many things you don’t know.”

They rode to the park, side by side. Mom gathered her skirt between her legs and after a wobbly start became more sure of herself and rode as fast as Sally.

Sally led her mother to the bicycle path where she had left Shelby, but both Shelby and her bicycle were gone.

“Well …” Mom said, “where is she?”

“I don’t know.” But Sally had an idea—an idea so horrible it was almost too scary to think about.
Mr. Zavodsky
. He had found Shelby. Yes, he had found her lying there, helpless and bleeding. And then, when he saw that she was wearing a Jewish star around her neck he couldn’t control himself anymore. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a rope. He tied it around Shelby’s neck, pulling it tighter and tighter, until Shelby’s face turned blue. She died with her eyes open, staring into space. And then, while her body was still warm, Mr. Zavodsky pulled out his knife, sharp and shiny, and he peeled off Shelby’s skin, slowly, so as not to rip any. And then he went home to make a new lampshade.

“Sally … what
is
wrong with you?” Mom asked.

“What … me … nothing …” Sally said.

“You look funny …”

“It’s Shelby … I …”

“Now you see why you shouldn’t have left her?”

“Oh, yes,” Sally said, unable to hold back her tears. “And I’m sorry … I really am …”

“I know you are,” Mom said. “You must never leave the scene of an accident. Do you understand that?”

“Yes …”

Mom put her arm around Sally. “It’s all right now … you’ve learned your lesson … stop crying and let’s go …”

“It’s not all right …”

“It will be … once we find Shelby.”

“But we can’t … she’ll be …”

“We can and we will … and when we do, we’ll tell her we’re sorry …”

“But you don’t understand …”

“We’ll go to her house first,” Mom said. “Her grandmother is probably worried sick.”

“But Mom …” Who should Sally tell first … Shelby’s mother or her father? And how would she ever find them? All she knew was they lived somewhere in New York. They’d be sorry now … sorry they’d spent so much time fighting over Shelby …

“Follow me, Sally … and no more buts …”

Sally could just imagine what would happen next. Shelby’s grandmother would answer the door and say,
Hello, Sally … come in … come in … have a cookie … have a piece of Challah, fresh from the oven …

Then Sally would say,
I really can’t stay, Mrs. Bierman … you see, I’ve come with had news … very, very bad …

Mrs. Bierman would clutch her chest and Sally would take a big breath and say,
I’m sorry to tell you that Shelby has been murdered by Adolf Hitler
. No need to tell Mrs. Bierman the gruesome details.

Adolf Hitler?
Mrs. Bierman would say, unbelievingly.

Yes
.

Not
the
Adolf Hitler?

The very same one
.

But how?

He came here to retire, you see
.

Oh, I didn’t know
.

Nobody does
.

Then Mrs. Bierman would begin to cry. She would sob and yell and scream and beat her fists against the wall.

It’s all my fault
, Sally would tell her.
I hope you’ll forgive me some day but if you won’t I’ll understand because I know you’re old and Shelby is all you had in the whole world and now there’s nothing left to live for … but I really didn’t do it on purpose … in fact, I was sure I was doing the right thing
 … going
home to get my mother and all … but now I realize that I must never ever leave the scene of an accident … and maybe I should have gone straight to the police about Mr. Zavodsky …