The Right and the Real (24 page)

Over second bowls of soup, I updated LaVon about Josh and our plan for the dance.

“Be careful,” he said when I got up to leave.

“I will.”

“Keep me informed, ’kay?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll check in tomorrow if I’m not going to be back this weekend.”

LaVon took my empty dishes from me. “Stay with your friends. You’re safer there.”

“LaVon, I really am sorry.”

“We’re cool,” he said, coming out of the bathroom with the dishes he’d washed. His face was back to that unreadable masked look he usually had. “No big deal.”

“Thanks for the soup. Thanks for everyth—”

“I gotta get to work.”

“Yeah, okay. See you.”

LaVon was a caretaker by nature, but he never was big on the thanks that goes with it. I hoped he knew how much I appreciated him, though. I rode my bike double-time all the way to Krista’s, where we were meeting to help Megan and Liz get ready for the dance. When I got there, Krista was in her room alone with her cell phone in her lap.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Shhh,” she said. “We’re testing the phones.”

Liz’s voice came through the cell. “Are you there?”

“Yeah,” Krista said. “Where are you?”

“We walked around the block,” she said. “I’m putting the phone in my pocket now. See if you can hear us talking.”

“Okay.”

Krista held her cell up between us.

“Hi, Megan,” Liz said.

“Nice dress,” Megan replied.

“Bite me,” Liz told her.

“That’s hardly church language, young lady,” Megan reprimanded in a fake-snooty voice.

There was a bit of static as Liz pulled the phone out of her pocket. “Could you hear us?”

“Yeah, pretty good,” I said.

“Okay. We’re on our way back to your house. We should leave soon so we’re not late.”

Liz’s mom had to work and her aunt had plans, so she couldn’t get a car. Krista could’ve given them a ride, but Josh said he wanted an adult to drop them off, in case anyone from the R&R was watching. Luckily, we were able to bribe Krista’s stepfather, George, with pizza and Ding Dongs. When Megan and Liz got back from their walk, we all stood around the dining room, waiting for him to finish eating.

“Why aren’t you and Jamie going too?” he asked us.

“Nothing to wear,” Krista joked.

“Shut up,” Liz said. She tugged at the collar.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” George said. “Krista’s got a whole closet full of clothes.”

“Pizza for the road?” I asked, holding the box out to him.

“Sure.” He grabbed the last slice, and the three of them took off.

Upstairs, in Krista’s room, the two of us sat on the purple beanbag chairs, her laptop positioned between us, already signed into her e-mail. I held her cell in my sweaty palm, waiting. When it finally rang, I put it on speaker.

“We’re at the church now,” Liz said. “I’m putting the phone in my pocket. Thanks for the ride, George.”

“There’s Josh,” we heard Megan say. “Hey, Josh. Over here!”

“Thanks for coming,” he said, formally.

The sound of him being so polite reminded me of how nice he was when we first dated. I actually surprised myself by feeling a tiny bit jealous when Megan said something I didn’t quite catch, and it sounded flirtatious. I made myself think of Trent’s crooked-tooth smile, which wasn’t hard to do.

Any minute, Liz and Megan would see my dad. It’d been five weeks since the wedding. How would he look? Part of me could hardly wait to find out, and the other part was really scared he’d look like one of the disciples.

“Let’s go,” Josh said.

As they went inside, their chatter was replaced with orchestral music, which drowned out almost everything. It was funny, but as stuffy and old-fashioned as the mixers were, Josh and I had kind of enjoyed them. One time, I’d taught Josh to waltz. He spun me around the floor, weaving in and out of the other couples. “One, two, three, one, two, three,” I’d coached him. “You’re pretty good.”

“Football,” he said. “We do lots of footwork drills.”

“Oh, right.”

The music coming through the phone swelled, and the babble of voices mixed together.

“I can’t hear anything,” I said.

Krista squeezed my shoulder. “Don’t worry. The plan will work anyway.”

“What plan?” I asked. “They’re just supposed to see my dad and find out if he needs my help.”

“Yeah, I know,” Krista said. “That’s what I meant.” But she started braiding a gold ribbon into her long hair and wouldn’t look at me.

“I promised Josh,” I reminded her. “Remember?”

“We know…we know. Don’t worry.”

“They’re not going to do anything stupid, right?”

“Relax and enjoy the music,” she said.

I laughed in spite of myself. An old song I recognized called “As Time Goes By” poured through the tinny speaker. “Over the phone, it sounds like that crap you hear in an elevator,” I told Krista. “But it’s a live band, and it’s actually really great.”

“Whatever,” she said. “How long do we have to suffer through it?”

I didn’t answer because she knew. We’d arranged for George to pick up Megan and Liz at ten o’clock. We sat through twenty more minutes of music and could hear murmurings, but no real conversations. Then a door opened and closed and the music faded.

Megan announced clearly, “Josh said the bathroom was out here somewhere in the lobby.”

“Did you see anyone you knew in there?” Liz asked loudly, so we could hear her.

“
Just Mr. Cross.
” Megan overenunciated. “
You know, Jamie Lexington-Cross’s dad?
”

My heart jumped, and I squeezed Krista’s hand. We both stared at her cell as if my father would magically climb right out of it. My hands trembled so badly Krista took the phone from me and laid it on the floor in front of us.

“Oh, right.
Mr. Cross,
” Liz said. “I haven’t seen him in ages. He looks
okay,
though, doesn’t he?”

“Definitely. He looked
fine,
” Megan said.

I knew they were trying to reassure me, and I would hug them for it later.

Hollow giggles filtered through the phone as Megan and Liz entered the bathroom. We heard them greet some other girls, and one asked if they were there with Josh.

“I am,” Megan said. “We go to school together.”

“He’s sooooo cute,” said a high-pitched, whiny voice. “You’re sooooo lucky.”

“Yeah,” Megan agreed.

A door banged and then silence.

“Anyone else in here?” Megan asked.

“Nope,” Liz said. “I checked under the stalls.”

We’d decided they shouldn’t take any chances and talk to us anywhere inside the church, so even though the bathroom was empty, Liz didn’t take out her phone. We didn’t know what kind of surveillance they might have.

“It’s really loud in the dance, so it’s hard to hear,” Megan said, “but I think tonight will be a
big
success.”

“Yep,” Liz said. “Oh, yeah, Josh told me the Teacher said it’s okay if I take a picture of the two of you for Mom and Dad, so I’ll do that when we go back out there. Maybe we can get a
chaperone
in it too.”

“She’s going to get a picture of my dad,” I said to Krista.

“But first I have to pee,” Liz told Megan.

“Oh, God, no,” Krista said.

“Please don’t,” I pleaded. “I so don’t want to hear it.”

But no matter how we begged, Liz couldn’t hear us, and pretty soon there was a light tinkling sound. Krista and I grimaced at each other. Then it got stronger and louder until it sounded like rushing water.

Over the noise, we could hear Megan and Liz practically cackling with glee.

“That’s the faucet,” Krista said, cracking up, and I laughed too.

“Gotcha,” Liz said. “Just a little comic relief.”

“Don’t admit we were so gullible,” I told Krista.

“Never,” she agreed.

For a long time we couldn’t hear much more than the music. I sat there, my posture as good as Liz’s always was. I must’ve checked the battery on the cell a dozen times, but Krista’s phone was new, and it was still going strong. Liz said hers usually lasted about four hours, and they had Megan’s for backup, so we would make it through the dance.

Krista unwrapped the foil on a Ding Dong and offered me half, but after all of LaVon’s chocolate lectures, I turned it down. Finally the music stopped.

“Time for a band break,” I said.

“Thank God for small favors.”

Voices bubbled through the phone’s speaker, and we caught bits and pieces of the conversation.

“Take a picture of me and Josh. Over here.…”

“Stand by that mural of the baby Jesus.…”

“Here?”

Laughter. Mumbled voices.

“Not there…next to those chaperones.…Smile!”

“. . . something to drink…”

“. . . wait here…”

“I can’t find my lip gloss,” Megan said very clearly.

“Use mine,” Liz offered, loudly.

“No way. It’ll make my lips blue.”

“My lip gloss is not blue,” Liz said. “That’s just the flavor.
Blue Raspberry.
”

“Oh,
Blue Raspberry
like the
Popsicle
?” Megan asked.

They’d planned to mention blue raspberry so my dad would know why they were there and to give him a chance to say something, but if he answered, I didn’t hear it because Krista shouted, “Look!” She pointed at the computer.

An e-mail had popped into the inbox. She clicked on it. In the picture, Megan held on to Josh’s arm like they were at prom together. He stared directly into the camera, not bothering to smile. Megan was as poised and ready as any actress could be, her smile demure, eyes sparkling. Standing next to her was a thin, pale man. It took me a full beat to realize it was my dad.

“Krista! He looks awful.”

“Be quiet, I want to hear what they’re saying,” she said, waving the cell at me.

“Look how skinny he is! And he’s got a beard like the Teacher!”

“Shhh.…”

“. . . blue raspberry?” whispered a voice, a man’s voice. My dad’s voice.

“Thanks, Mr. Cross,” Liz said cheerfully and loudly. And then, even though she whispered it, I clearly heard her say, “Look in your jacket pocket.”

Before anyone could say anything else, the music started up again.

“What happened?” I asked Krista. “I didn’t hear. Why did she say that about his pocket?”

“Mission accomplished,” said Liz’s voice directly into the phone.

“What is she talking about?” I asked Krista again.

“Relax, Jamie. It’ll be fine.”

“But what’s going on?”

“Well, we know
you
promised Josh tonight was only a chance for Megan and Liz to check in with your dad about the message, but…” She paused for dramatic effect.

“What? You guys did something, didn’t you?”

“But
we
never promised Josh,” she said. “Liz dropped her lip gloss at your dad’s feet and when he bent over to pick it up for her, she slipped him a note.”

“What did it say?” I asked.

“It said…” Krista paused again, not realizing how close I was to grabbing her and shaking her until all her little sparkly hair clips flew across the room. “It said
You’ll have to leave everything behind. At the end of the dance, walk me to my car and get in.
”

“Krista! You didn’t.”

“Yeah! We did! We’re gonna bust him out.”

“But what’s George going to say when my dad gets in the car?”

“Nothing. George isn’t picking them up,” she said. “We are.”

KRISTA HAD BORROWED A WHOLE GETUP FROM THE
costume shop. Blond wig, big glasses (with no glass in them), and a moth-eaten fur coat. “I’ll be Liz and Megan’s mom, and you will hide in the backseat of the minivan,” she told me as she applied bright red lipstick.

It seemed a little excessive to me, and I thought Krista was just exercising her flair for the dramatic. “This is never going to work,” I said. “Mira will be there. She’ll stop him.”

“That’s why you’re lying low.” She smacked her lips together and blotted them on a tissue. “But if he hesitates, all he has to do is look inside the van. He’ll see you and remember why he wants to get away.”

“
If
he wants to leave,” I reminded her. “We still don’t know. That’s what they were supposed to find out.”

“Well, I’d say if he walks them to the van, he wants out of there, wouldn’t you?”

She had a point. But the Teacher had beaten me before, and I wouldn’t put it past him to use Mira to get what he wanted. Plus, all the church disciples would be there too. All she’d have to do is call out
to them, and they’d come running to remind Dad I was a sinner and they could save him. And who knew what punishment they’d give him for having doubts.

Krista handed me a black hoodie. “Here, put this on.”

Dance music still blared from the cell phone as we drove to the Right & the Real, but when we were about a quarter mile away, it stopped and people clapped. There were a few minutes of mumbling, and then everything got louder. It sounded like Liz had walked in on an argument. The longer it went on, the shriller and angrier the voices got too.

“What’s going on?” I asked Krista from the backseat. She had the phone in the hands-free holder up on the dash.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “It sounds like some kind of fight.”

We were in the parking lot now, and I couldn’t risk being seen, so I crouched in the back, trying to decipher what everyone was saying. Krista pulled up under the covered driveway by the big front doors, and light filled the van. Instinctively, I shrank farther into the corner, although no one could possibly see me through the tinted windows. Seeing the church again made my stomach tighten up. I got a flash of a mind-video of the Teacher with those girls touching his naked body, and I had to swallow hard to keep down that sour taste you get right before you throw up.

The noise coming through the phone sounded like all-out shouting now. Two men’s voices drowned out a woman’s high-pitched yell. Then the noise faded, replaced by running footsteps. Through the phone’s speaker we heard Megan say, “God, I hope they’re out there waiting for us. Please be there, Krista!”

“We’re here,” Krista shouted as loud as she could, thinking maybe they’d hear her from inside the pocket.