Staying Together (15 page)

“Well, I'll tell Flora that my dad can drive both of us. I'm pretty sure he'll be able to.”

“Great. And I'll ask Ruby if Min can bring her over. My mom won't be able to pick her up. She has to work today.”

“Oh, you know what? We're going to have to tell Min what we're doing. She'll have to be in on the plan. That's okay, though. I have a feeling she'll like it.”

“Now we just have to hope that Flora doesn't mention the sleepover to Ruby, and Ruby doesn't mention it to Flora.”

“That won't happen. That's the only good thing about their fight.”

By lunchtime, all the plans were in place. Nikki had phoned her mother at Three Oaks and gotten permission to host her very first sleepover, and a campout at that. Nervous and excited, she had called Olivia back with the news. “Mom said yes! Oh, this is going to be so much fun. You guys have never slept over before.”

“I've never slept outside before,” Olivia had said.

“Mom's going to stop by the store on the way home and get hot dogs and stuff. We can cook out, too. Should I call Ruby now?”

“Definitely.”

So Nikki had invited Ruby to the sleepover, and fifteen minutes later, Olivia had invited Flora. Driving arrangements were made, and by five-thirty that afternoon, Olivia and Flora were on their way to the Shermans'. Twice Flora glanced at Olivia and said, “Are you all right? You look kind of funny.”

“Just excited, I guess. I've never been to an outdoor sleepover.”

Olivia then consulted her watch four times before her father pulled into the Shermans' driveway. If all went according to plan, Ruby and Min would arrive in half an hour.

Mr. Walter had barely applied the brakes when Olivia flung her door open and shot out of the car. Nikki flew across her yard. “You're here!” she cried breathlessly.

Flora watched her friends and frowned. “You guys, we just saw each other yesterday.”

“I know, but this is going to be so much fun!” shrieked Olivia.

“Mom bought stuff for s'mores!” added Nikki at top volume. Then, catching the look on Flora's face, she added graciously, “Come on inside. Put your sleeping bags and things downstairs. We'll set everything up outside later.”

The next half hour was spent trying to calm down both Mae and Paw-Paw, who seemed as excited as Nikki and Olivia.

“Can I sleep outside, too?” Mae wanted to know.

Mrs. Sherman was in the middle of explaining why she could not, when Paw-Paw let out one loud bark, and Mae left her mother, ran to the front door, and cried, “Someone else is here!”

Olivia reached for Nikki's hand and gripped it. She tightened her grasp when Mae said, “Hey, it's Ruby! I didn't know she was coming, too.”

“Neither did I,” said Flora, narrowing her eyes at Nikki and Olivia.

“You stay here,” Nikki commanded Flora, and ran outside. A minute later, she returned with Ruby. Min's car was disappearing down the lane.

The sisters stood in the Shermans' kitchen and glared at each other.

“Now, before you say anything,” said Olivia, “just listen to Nikki and me, okay?” No one said a word, so Olivia continued. “You …” (she gave her full attention to Flora and Ruby) “
have
to make up. Nikki and I have been talking about this, and we hate seeing you so mad at each other. We all used to be friends, and now it feels like we're coming apart. I miss what we used to be. Nikki does, too. So would you
please
make up?”

“Okay,” said Flora instantly.

“What?” said Olivia and Nikki.

“Okay. I'm sorry. Ruby, I don't want to keep fighting. Do you?”

Ruby shook her head.

“Is the fight over, then?” asked Olivia.

“Yeah,” said Ruby.

“Wow,” said Nikki. “That was easy.”

“Would you guys please stop crying?” begged Nikki.

“Only Flora and Ruby are crying,” pointed out Mae, who was sitting at the kitchen table, openly staring at the older girls. “Is this what you do at sleepovers?”

“Not usually,” Nikki replied. She ran to the bathroom, found a box of tissues, returned to the kitchen, and set it on the table. “Um, Mae, could you go help Mom for a few minutes?”

“Help her with what?”

“I don't know. Whatever she needs help with.”

“But this is more interesting.”

“Mae!”

“O
kay
,
okay
.”

Mae stomped upstairs, keeping her eyes on the kitchen until the last possible moment.

“I'm sorry I was mad for so long!” Flora said, pulling three tissues from the box and wadding them up in her fist.

“I'm sorry about snooping,” replied Ruby, wiping her eyes. “And for calling you a judgmental hag.”

“You called her that?” said Olivia.

“In my head I did.”

“Now that everything is over,” said Nikki, “could you tell us what happened?”

“It
is
over, isn't it?” asked Olivia in a small voice.

“It's over.” Flora glanced at her sister. “Is it okay to tell them?”

Ruby nodded. “I guess so. You can tell them everything except …” She thought for a moment and then leaned over and whispered in Flora's ear.

“All right,” agreed Flora. And she told Olivia and Nikki all that had happened up until the moment Min had handed the replacement owl back to Ruby and told her she didn't want to keep it. Everything from that point on was private, not to be shared even with their best friends.

“Boy,” said Nikki when Flora finally finished speaking. “I don't know what to say.”

“Then let's not talk about it anymore,” replied Flora. “We're here to have fun.”

“All four of us,” said Olivia.

“All four of us,” agreed Flora. “Together.”

“Girls?” called Mrs. Sherman from upstairs. “Is it okay if we come down now?”

“Yes!” chorused Flora, Ruby, Nikki, and Olivia.

“Good, because if we're going to have hot dogs and s'mores, then I should start the grill.” Mrs. Sherman headed down the stairs, followed by Mae, who was dragging a sleeping bag behind her.

“Mom!” wailed Nikki, and Mrs. Sherman turned around, saw the sleeping bag, and shook her head.

“Toads!” Mae exclaimed, and threw the sleeping bag back upstairs. “Fudgesicles!”

“But you can eat supper with us, Mae,” said Nikki generously. “You, too, Mom.”

The sun hadn't set yet, but it was edging toward the horizon by the time the outdoor feast was ready.

“Spread this on the ground, honey,” Mrs. Sherman said to Mae, handing her an ancient tablecloth.

“Oh, a real picnic!” said Mae joyfully. “Eating right on the ground, just like in a movie.”

Flora and Ruby and their friends carried dish after dish outside — corn on the cob, potato salad, pickles, cornbread, slices of watermelon. Mrs. Sherman disappeared into the house and returned with a pitcher of iced tea and another of lemonade.

“This is the perfect picnic,” said Flora. “Thank you so much.”

“I'm happy we can do this,” said Nikki shyly.

And Flora knew exactly what her friend meant, since two years earlier nothing like this could have taken place at the Shermans' house.

“Ah,” said Ruby as she sank onto a corner of the tablecloth and surveyed the food.

The air was growing cooler. Flora heard first one peeper and then another. A mourning dove twittered as it whooshed into the air.

“We saw an owl last night,” remarked Mae as her mother handed around plates, and Ruby dipped her head.

Flora helped herself to a hot dog and a slice of watermelon. “I can't believe summer is here.”

“Technically it isn't here until school is out,” said Ruby.

“Well,
technically
it isn't here until June twenty-second,” commented Olivia. “But who cares?”

Flora ate and laughed and talked and filled her plate again and eventually declared, “I'm stuffed!”

“Save room for s'mores,” said Mrs. Sherman.

They waited until darkness had fallen and then stood around the grill, toasting marshmallows in the glowing coals.

“This is the messiest sandwich I ever ate,” commented Mae, wiping chocolate from her face with fingers that were coated with marshmallow and crumbs. “Oh, well. It's a good thing I'm going to be sleeping outside tonight. It won't matter if I'm messy.”

“Mom!” cried Nikki.

“Mae,” said her mother.

“Toads!”

The night was blacker than Flora had imagined it would be. By the time Mrs. Sherman had doused the flames in the grill and taken Mae inside to bed, and Flora and her friends had arranged their sleeping bags in a tight circle in the grass beneath an oak tree, it was after ten o'clock. And very, very dark.

“Isn't there supposed to be moonlight or something?” asked Ruby.

“What would the ‘or something' be?” Olivia wanted to know.

“Big, giant streetlights?” ventured Ruby.

“Out
here
?” said Nikki.

Flora wriggled farther down in her sleeping bag. “If an animal came along,” she said, “would we be able to see it?”

Next to her, Ruby shot out of her own sleeping bag and rose to her feet. “What kind of animal?”

“Does it matter?” asked Nikki, giggling.

“I don't think this is funny,” said Ruby, but she sat down.

“It's a little funny,” said Olivia.

“What kind of wild animals do you have out here, Nikki?” asked Ruby.

“Oh, you know. Bears and pumas. Rattlesnakes. Things like that.”

Ruby was on her feet again in an instant. “What, are you kidding me?”

“Yes,” said Nikki. “Well, actually, I have seen bears a couple of times, but I really don't think we have to worry.”

Ruby moaned. “I hope we make it through the night,” she muttered.

“Well, I'm having a good time,” said Nikki.

“Me, too,” agreed Olivia. “But, um, Nikki? I have to use the bathroom.”

“Okay. I'll go in with you.”

Flora was tempted to say, “And leave Ruby and me out here all defenseless?” But she simply slid her sleeping bag nearer to her sister's and listened as her friends' footsteps trailed off in the darkness. “Ruby?” she whispered.

“Yeah.”

“I'm right here if you need me.”

“I know.”

“I really am sorry about our fight.”

“I know that, too. And I really am sorry about all the things I did.”

“You know what Margaret Malone told me the other day?”

“No.”

“She said that she and Lydia used to be close — as close as you and me — but that they've grown apart. And they just keep growing further and further apart.”

“That's sad.”

“Yeah. And I don't want it to happen to us.”

“It won't. Why would you think that?”

“Why would I
think
that?! Because of our fight. And because, I don't know, you and I aren't the same people who moved here two years ago. Remember when we first came to Camden Falls, how we spent all our time together? Well, most of it, anyway. And I felt like you needed me to take care of you.”

Ruby sat up. “I did need you to take care of me.”

“Don't you need me now?”

“Of course! You're my sister. But we're older, and lots of things have changed. We go to different schools, and I'm friends with Lacey and Hilary, and I have my classes and the Children's Chorus, and you have … you have, um …”

“Sewing and baby-sitting and volunteering at Three Oaks.”

“Right.”

“Actually,” said Flora slowly, “I guess we wouldn't want things to be exactly the way they were when we first moved here. We were so sad then. And we hardly knew anyone.”

“We kind of clung to each other,” said Ruby.

“Now we're part of the Row Houses and part of Main Street.”

“But we do still have each other. We always will, you know.”

“Even if our lives go off in different directions,” said Flora. “I just really, really don't want to end up like Margaret and Lydia.”

“We won't.” Ruby paused. “Uh-oh. Now
I
have to go to the bathroom. And I am not walking through the dark alone.”

Flora reached for her sister's hand. “You don't have to. I'll come with you.”

Twenty minutes later Flora, Ruby, Nikki, and Olivia were settled in their sleeping bags again. They tried very hard to fall asleep. After fifteen minutes they gave up. They talked, they sang, and finally they told ghost stories, which turned out to be a bad idea.

“So then,” said Flora, coming to the end of an eerie story that Annika had once told her, “the old woman said to the traveling stranger, ‘But you couldn't have spoken with my daughter out there on that lonesome, deserted highway. My daughter died ten years ago.'”