v i i
ASHLEY FOSTER HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT her trust fund, and now the knowledge that she as not poor, or at least not as poor as she had thought she was, made her feel a little better.
She did not go out that Saturday night, but instead went to bed early. She had been feeling desperate lately, feeling that something had to change, that shit could not go on the way it had been going, and now she realized that this was true. Something did have to change. Everything had to change. Things were changing regardless if she liked it or not. That was just the way of the world. She’d change with it.
She did not go to church on Sunday because she did not want to. It seemed sort of hypocritical after all anyway. So she slept all day, and that night lay in bed tossing and turning and plotting.
Plotting change.
Ashley swallowed her pride and went to school with Tina, and Claudia, and Madeleine that morning. She had wanted to call Bone up and get a ride, but then this meant Bone would expect something, and she really wasn’t in the mood to give him anything.
Ashley lagged behind the rest of them, wanting to loiter in that parking lot, waiting for that one particular car to appear. To her great embarrassment it was Rodder’s that came as soon as Tina parked the LTD, and it was Rodder who hopped out of the car, and threw his arms around Madeleine when she came to him.
“It’s really almost enough to make you hurl, isn’t it?” Tina said to Claudia, who nodded in agreement.
“Hello, ladies,” Rodder greeted them. His peat green eyes fell on Ashley, always a little uncomfortable with her. He tried to sound decent, “Hello, Ashley.”
“Rodder.”
Ashley decided to go inside the school awhile, wait on the other side of the lobby’s glass doors. And then she saw the car come up, and Derrick Todd hop out and wave, she presumed, at her sister and her sister’s friends.
Ashley made like she was coming out of the glass doors as he was coming in.
“Ashley, excuse me!”
“Oh, my gosh,” Ashley said, “I nearly knocked your book bag right off of you.”
“No matter,” he shrugged.
“That’s good,” she said. “I was hoping I’d see you anyway,” She saw Madeleine and Rodder, Tina and Claudia coming toward the steps and thought, Shit, let’s hurry this up!
“I wanted to know what you were doing Friday?”
“Nothing,” Derrick said. “Not that I know of.”
Ashley laughed and said, “You wanna do nothing with me?”
Derrick’s eyes widened. His smile was real. This guy was real. He said, “Yeah. Yeah. I’d like that.”
They were coming up the steps. Ashley didn’t want to be rude, but she didn’t want to be seen by them.
“Great,” she made a phone sign with her thumb and baby finger sticking out. “I’ll call you.”
“Yeah,” Derrick said. “Great.” But even as he was nodding, she was fleeing.
The glass doors came open, Rodder patted Derrick on the back and said, “Hey, what’s up man?”
“You’ll never believe this,” Derrick told him....
“I DON’T BELIEVE IT,” DICE Mc. Cafferty said, shaking his head, and biting into what passed for a burger in the school cafeteria.
“But isn’t Derrick a virgin?” Rick said, sounding more concerned than he had ever sounded about anyone’s chastity.
Rodder nodded.
“Well, not for long,” Bone said, chuckling.
Dice looked earnestly across the table at his friend.
“Dice, I know they’re your cousins, but really... to go from Lindsay to Ashley?”
“To know Ashley is to fuck her,” Rick quoted.
“You know what?” Rodder said, “If it wasn’t my business, and it wasn’t completely out of line, I’d warn him.”
“Shit, Rod, warn him about what? Oooh, Derrick, you’re gonna get laid! He knows. You knew when you were with her, Rod.”
“Could we switch subject?” Dice said.
“Thank you,” Rodder agreed.
“Still,” Dice said, before taking his own advice. “He’s a good guy. I mean... I sort of think that someone like Derrick probably isn’t going to want his first time to be with...”
“Everyone else’s first time?” said Rick, chuckling.
“Yeah, Rick,” Dice hopped across the table, and pounded him in the shoulder, “Everyone else’s first time.”
“Shit,” Rick said, rubbing his shoulder. “You didn’t have to be like that about it.”
Tina was brunette with hennaed hair today. The play was a few days away. She had been brunette for the funeral, but touched it up Saturday night with the help of Ida, and Race Cane of all people. She was in the hallway talking with Mackenzie, Ian, Roy and Vaughan on her way to chemistry when she saw Ashley, and called out to her.
“Yes, Tina?”
“I want you to know,” Tina said, “I heard about your little stunt.”
“What are you talking about? “ Ashley was instantly afraid because there was actually any number of little stunts Tina might have heard about.
“You leave that boy alone,” Tina warned. Rodder and his friend were now approaching, drawn to the spectacle of the two opposite sisters, their gay brother, his love, and half the town gossip gathered in one place.
“What are you talking about?” Ashley was shrill.
“I’m talking about Derrick Todd,” Tina said. “He is young, he is innocent, and he is whole lot better than your trashy ass.”
“You are such a bitch!” Ashley declared while everyone else tried to stifle laughter.
“And what’s more,” Tina continued, “if you fuck that boy, I will rip your clitoris out from between your legs, and make sure you keep your pussy poison from anybody else. Are we clear?”
“Fuck you!” Ashley said.
“I don’t care who you fuck as long as you stay away from that boy. Now are we clear?”
Ashley humphed, and walked away, muttering, “Bitch.”
“Takes one to no one,” Tina muttered.
“Well,” Dice murmured, crossing his arms over his chest, “I guess we don’t have to worry about warning Derrick anymore, do we?”
“Maybe I should warn him myself,” Tina said.
“Oh, you wouldn’t--” Dice began. Then, “You would!”
“And I will,” Tina resolved.
The bell for next period rang off over their heads.
“We’re all late for class now,” Mackenzie said. Then he turned to Roy with an arch look and said, “Welcome to the family.”
WHEN THE BOYS CAME HOME after school, it was Vaughan who saw it first, and picked up on what it was. Cedric was in the yard, picking up bits and pieces so Vaughan knew his father had just seen it himself.
“What the--?” Ian started, and Mackenzie placed a hand on his shoulder.
The gate to the Fitzgerald house was open, and on the green grass was a CD player, a portable television, blankets, piles of clothes on hangers, pillows, and a few completely useless things like toy trucks and, as Ian saw coming into the yard, clothes too small to wear.
“What’s going on?” Roy murmured to Mackenzie, his new brother.
Ian readjusted his backpack, and began picking up things, not saying a word. They were all his. He came up the stairs with the CD player and the portable TV stacked on top of it. Behind him he felt the steps of Mackenzie, Vaughan and his cousin. He dropped off his things in the spare room as Mackenzie was entering with a pile of clothes, and then he went out into the hall, and down to the kitchen.
“Your father came,“ Cedric said, pulling a cigarette out from the pack of Pall Malls on the kitchen table, and taking one for himself, then passing one to Ian. He always knew the right thing to do.
“He dropped all of this off?” Ian said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. Cedric passed him the lighter. He knew that Ian needed to be tough at this moment.
“I gotta go over there,” Ian said, lighting the cigarette as his friends came into the kitchen.
“We got the rest of the stuff,” Roy told his cousin.
“Please don’t go over there,” Cedric said.
Ian exhaled, and shouted, “He threw me out!”
“That’s right,” Cedric said, never losing his calm. “A not so subtle message. But you can be subtler. Don’t go over there starting something, alright?”
“Ian, can I talk to you?” Mackenzie said, and took the other boy back into their room.
“What, Kenzie?” Ian’s words were quick and clipped, which meant he wanted to cry, and Mackenzie wanted to hold him, but he suspected Ian wanted to cry alone. They were too alike here. One day they’d have to be alright with crying in front of each other.
“Cedric’s right,” Mackenzie said. “You don’t need to go over there starting something. You weren’t living there anyway.”
“It’s my house!” his voice broke now.
“This is your house!” Mackenzie said, jabbing the mattress he sat on. “This is your house. Where you’re safe, where you’ve been living. Don’t be stupid, E.”
“You think my old man might kill me,” Ian said. “But I’m the one who’s got the gun.”
“I think someone might kill someone,” Mackenzie said. “And I wouldn’t put it past you to pull the trigger. I really wouldn’t. So I’m begging you to stay right here. Don’t go over ther without one of us. Don’t go over there at all.”
“Kenzie-- ”
“If you love me,” Mackenzie said.
Ian’s chest rose up. Then it fell. He cracked a smile. “You’re playing dirty now.”
“I don’t care. You owe this to me. You owe it to Cedric. Chill out, alright?”
When Ian didn’t say anything, Mackenzie repeated, “Alright?”
“Ian sighed, “Fuck!” he said, “Alright, already.”
Race’s feet were in pain from the bulk of an eight hour shift across the street at Hasty Tasty when she walked into Windmill Cereal Plant.
Aileen was coming close to quitting time, and dreading going to class tonight.
“Race?” she said, a little surprised.
“Roy just came by,” Race told Aileen. And then she told Aileen everything that Roy had told her.
“I don’t believe it,” Aileen muttered.
“Well, I do,” said Race.
When Race Cane got home she called up her brother, and told him that he was the most worthlessmotherfuckingsonofabitch who ever walked the face of the earth... and then some.
When Aileen got home she called up the Fitzgeralds and told Mackenzie that Ian and Roy were coming to dinner that night.
“Mom, you’ve got class,” Mackenzie told her.
“Thanks, I always thought I could pass for Ginger Rogers.”
“I meant--”
“I know what you meant, Mackenize. I’ll take an absense. I don’t feel like going.”
“I don’t think you should skip,” Mackenzie told his mother, earnestly.
“I don’t think it’s your decision,” said Aileen. “Come on over as soon as possible.”
“Can Vaughan come over?”
“Don’t be stupid. Of course he can.”
Aileen hung up.
But as it turned out, Vaughan did not come. At least not immediately. He was trying to finish The Iliad because, as he explained, he had started it, and even though he didn’t like it that well, he’d better end it. Tina was not home at all that night. Ashley was, and in a strangely fine mood. Ross hung around like a mean dog, and when he came into Ryan’s room, where the boys were talking, getting ready to go downstairs, Mackenzie felt sure something was about to happen. He looked at Roy and Ian. You just couldn’t judge what the Canes were going to do. When something happened to one it happened to the other, and they were both hotheaded and upset. It didn’t matter that Roy was, Mackenzie remembered, his brother. He was still a Cane, and there was trouble all over the room. Even Ryan’s ears, so like Kevin’s pricked up when Ross entered.
“Mom wanted me to tell you to come down,” Ross said. “She’s almost finished cooking. She’s so pleased about everything. She’s feeling all this sympathy. Her fag son is home tonight. And her husband’s bastard on some towelhead came to visit too.”
“Ross, cool it,” Ryan said.
“The retard speaks,” Ross noted.
The boys got up to go to the kitchen, choosing to ignore Ross.
“Ross just says things like that to make himself feel better, “Mackenzie told them as if his younger brother weren’t there.
“Thanks, Doctor Fag,” Ross saluted his brother.
They all left the room quietly, and as Ian left he slammed Ross’s head into the lentil of the door quickly.
“I hate you,” he told him.
“Ian, stop,” Mackenzie said.
“Yeah, Ian, stop,” Ross mimicked, which was very unwise because Ian knocked him into the lentil again.
“I fucking hate you. I wish you would die,” Ian told him. His hand moved down to Ross’s throat.
“Hey stop!” Ross suddenly realized thst Ian was about business as the other boy shoved him into the lentil.
“Hey, why don’t you call me a towelhead and a fag. Go ahead. You want to. Call me a fucking Lebanese Faggot. Just do it. Make a few Syrian jokes. Go ahead, say something about Pink Terrorists. Say something...” he slammed Ross’s head into the door. “...witty,” Ian finished with another thud that made a sickening sound.
“Hey, knock it off!” Ross cried.
“What’s going on up there!” Aileen shouted up the stairs.
Ian let Ross go.
“Nothing, Mom,” Mackenzie shouted down, weakly.
“Well then get down here and make drinks,” Aileen called. “And Ryan, set the table.”
Ian sighed, released Ross and sank off of the balls of his feet. To Mackenzie he sounded the way he did after coming. Except for Ryan the boys headed down the stairs, looking back at Ian everyonce in a while to make sure he didn’t go back to pound on Ross some more. Ian had scared them all, and was embarrassed at his behavior. But he’d wanted to hurt someone. And Ross had been conveniently present.
Ross was rubbing his throat and trying to swallow, attempting to disengage embarrassment from terror when Ashley’s door opened, and she said, “Ross?”
Ross turned around.
“I think,” she suggested, “it might be wise if you didn’t fuck with them anymore,”
Then Ashley smiled, and closed the door.
When the bill came Rodder picked it up and read it off, then told everyone gathered round the table, his girlfriend, her cousin Claudia, Tina and Luke, “I think we should give her at least a two dollar tip.”
“Oh, don’t be so cheap, Rod!” Claudia said, “She put up with us, didn’t she?” Claudia reached into her purse pulling out a wallet. She was digging around in it while talking. “I can afford to be generous. Hakim decided to show me I was his girl by giving me his wallet tonight.”
Madeleine turned to Rodder.
“There are so many other ways,” he said, clearing his throat, “of telling a girl you love her.”
“Say it with diamonds,” Tina murmured.
“Five, six,” Claudia murmured, “and let me get some change and-- What the hell is this?” Her voice changed as she stared into the wallet.
Luke looking clinically over Claudia’s shoulder said, “I believe it’s a condom.”
“Oh, shit,” Tina and Madeleine murmured together.
“Maybe it’s for you,” Rodder suggested feebly.
“Maybe I better talk to Hakim as soon as possible,” Claudia said.
That night over the phone Drew Marsh told Mackenzie, “Ian’s got me scared.”
“Whaddo you mean?”
“I never would have told him, but now I’m wondering. What happens when my parents find out?”
“I thought you said you were moving in with Simon.”
“I am,” Drew said. “but I don’t mean where will I live. I mean... what if they found out? If they knew what I was. Right now they love me. But what about when they find out?” Drew was whispering over the phone.
“Ian’s parents are different,” Mackenzie said.
“You’ve never met my parents,” Drew said.
“It’ll be alright,” Mackenize told him, not believing himself because, of course, he didn’t know Drew’s parents. He knew his, and with them it certainly had not been alright.”
Which Drew Marsh saw fit to point out.
“You left home, Kenzie. Everything fell apart.”
“And now everything’s coming back together. Look Drew, it’ll be alright.”
There was silence over the phone, and then Drew Marsh said, “Mackenzie, I’ve never been scared about this. Not in two years. Not until now.”
“Don’t be scared,” Mackenzie said quickly. “We’re your friends. A little far away.. but we’re here. Always. I promise.”
“Ask Vaughan to pray for me,” Drew plead.
“Hello,” Claudia said later than night in her bedroom in the house of Cedric’s sister on Price Street. “Is Hakim there? Yes. Thank you.” A few seconds passed. Claudia took in a few deep breaths to calm her self, and then tried to hum a Yolanda Adams song. To no avail.
Hakim greeted her, “What’s up, baby?”
Hakim,” Claudia said, “You need to start talking. Right now!”
THAT FRIDAY MORNING THEY WERE all rehearsing the details of who was going where, and Madeleine was thinking of ways to get out of her coffee house gig so she could see Tina and Mackenzie’s play. Tina smelled something in the air. She had been just about to say, “Don’t you dare cancel your gig. The show runs for three nights--” when she stopped, and they turned around and saw Claudia.
“Where’s your sister?” Claudia said to Tina.
“Which one?”
“The bitch.”
“Which one?” Tina repeated.
“The ho.”
“Oh, I think I saw her near Bone Mc.Arthur’s locker. Why?”
“I’m gon beat her ass,” Claudia said frankly. “Is that gon be a problem?” She was taking off her rings.
“I don’t think so,” Tina said.
Claudia dropped her rings off in Madeleine’s hands, and said, “I’ll be back.” She put her book bag down and started walking down the hall where she almost bumped into Roy and Rachel.
“What’s up?” Rachel said.
Claudia told Roy, “I’m gon beat your sister’s ass.”
While Roy was remembering he had three sisters now, Claudia took her hoop earrings off and gave them to Rachel, and then continued down the hall.
Ashley was talking to Cassidy Jackson, and Angela Watts. Lindsay was nearby in the crowded hall, flirting with Bobby Wyatt, when all of a sudden they all heard the word “BITCH.”
And Ashley turned around.
Ashley opened up her mouth to say, “What’s going on--” and got a fist in her face, and then Claudia was on her. A space in the hallway cleared as students made way for the battle.
“What’s going on,” Claudia said while beating Ashley’s ass, and pulling her hair, keeping her down every time the girl tried to get up, “is that you fucked my man. You trailor-trash-cheap-ass cracker-jack-honkey-ho-stringy haired-syphilis-ridden- drunkass-flea-infested-Payless-Shoe-Source-shopping-K-Mart-wearing-bad skinned-caucas- oid-eaten out--dicksucking--trick-turning-sperm- wearing-come-containing-HIV ridden-health- hazard-having-flat assed-cow-tittied-fake nail wearing-dog smelling-three days panty-wearing-wanna-fuck-the-whole- world-BITCH!”
She would have gone on, but this was when Mr. Halverson pulled her off of Ashley, who made a valiant attempt at defendng herself, but was pulled back by Mick Rafferty. George Stearne was standing among the aureole of spectators, and he admitted he’d been a little hesitant to break up the fight. Ashley could stand to have her ass kicked. And apparently, she’d finally messed with a man who had someone who had something to say about it.
The circle was breaking up. Kevin Foster coming through, too late, saw his daughter the worse for wear. Mr. Halvorson told Claudia, “You’ll have to come to the principal’s office. You too, Ashley.”
The two of them sat on opposite ends of the principal’s office. Roy and Rachel came in to deposit Claudia’s earrings. And then a little while later, Madeleine came in with the rings. Then Mr. Jankowski, the principal came in, and said, “I hope you girls can find something to say to each other. Ashley. How ‘bout you first?”
Ashley, who certainly looked like shit, sighed in her chair, and kept the bag of ice over her eye, “I guess what I have to say is... sorry for... what I did.”
Claudia continued to look disgusted.
“Claudia, you say something, now,” Mr. Jankowski told her.
Claudia sighed and then said, “I guess what I have to say is...
“I’m sorry… That you’re such a BITCH!”
And then she hopped across the room onto Ashley, and set to beating the crap out of her again.
THE HALLS OF JAMNIA HIGH school were quiet that early afternoon as Mick Rafferty came down the hall. Luke and Tina rounded the corner from the lobby, and Mick could tell they’d been smoking.
“I know you guys have a study hall,” he told them.
They looked at each other and grinned, giddily. Tina had turned Luke giddy in the last year, and then headed down the hall, each in turn murmuring, “Yes, Mr. Rafferty.”
“And Tina?”
She turned around, tossing her red-brown hair.
“Break a leg tonight.”
“Oh, I hope not sir,” she said. And both she and Luke laughed, heading down the empty hall.
Mick, on his way to the gymnasium, realized that Stearne still hadn’t told Luke the truth yet. And then the principal’s office door came open, and Ashley stepped out. A bruise was forming around her left eye, and she looked up at him, squinting through it.
“I bet this makes you laugh,” she told him.
And it had up until she said that. Then he shook his head, and said, “No, Ashley. I’m sorry... About everything.”
“You are sorry,” she told him. “About everything.” And then she headed down the hall in the opposite direction. She turned around, and said, “Next time why don’t you try helping a student that you can’t--” she mouthed the word fuck. And then turned around, and went down the hall.
Mick sighed before going up the stairway to the second floor where his classroom was.
Jamnia High school was built on a slight incline so that the first floor was actually a mezzanine, and the second floor came out onto Michael street as well. Ashley was heading out of this quieter section when she bumped into Derrick Todd coming in, and he picked up the jacket Ashley had dropped, pushing his curly hair out his face.
“I’m sorry,” she said sullenly.
“You’re a real speed demon today, aren’t you! Where are you going?”
“Home, “Ashley said.
“Aw, Ash, everyone gets into scrapes,” he said.
“I don’t want to be here,” she told him. Then, “I suppose we’re off for tonight.”
Derrick looked genuinely confused by this, and said, “Why?”
“Because,” Ashley pointed to her black eye. Her slightly busted lip.
“Does it hurt that bad?”
“No, Derrick,” she said loosing patience. “Because I look this bad.”
“No you don’t,” he told her. “You look great. You could have two black eyes, and look better than Lindsay any day.”
Ashley stifled a grin.
“And I was with her for months,” Derrick went on. “If you’re really concerned, then maybe you should go home. Put some ice on that shiner. I’ll be there around eight, alright?”
Ashley grinned and nodded her head, “Alright, Derrick.”
That night Aileen had her hands full getting Ross, Ryan, and herself to look decent without worrying about Ashley and Ashley’s worries about her black eye.
“You look fine,” Aileen told her daughter who was sitting at her vanity.
“But, mama, my eye.”
“No one can tell. Not even in this light. You didn’t get messed up that badly.”
Aileen stopped, held a finger up, and crossed her bedroom, checking herself out in the mirror, and knowing she needed to change into her dress. She came back with a pair of shades.
“How is that?” Aileen said, trying them on first. “Am I chic?”
Ashley chuckled, and said, “Yes, Mama. Very.”
“Well then you be chic too and let me get dressed.”
Aileen gave her daughter the glasses. “I honestly don’t know what the big deal is,” she said. “it’s just Derrick Todd.”
“He is a big deal, Mama,” Ashley said. “He’s a really nice boy.”
“Exactly,” Aileen said.
“It’s a big deal for me to be with a nice boy for once.”
And then Aileen understood.
Mick ran a hand through his hair. He was sitting on his couch in grey joggers, and a tee shirt. He was unshaven, and the television was too loud. He knew he wouldn’t make it to the show tonight. He’d been on the phone for two hours.
“Yes. What’s that?” he said straightening up, and turning the television down with his remote. “You do? Oh, God. I’ve been looking all evening. This kid dropped out you say? Great! Well, not for him. But for me. Can we... work out the details, Monday? Yeah? Yeah. Excellent. Thank you. Um hum. You too, buhbye,”
After Mick hung up the phone, he closed his eyes, grinned fiercely, and then began pumping the air with his fists, and jumping about the room shouting until there was a knock at the door. He answered it.
“Mrs. Robinette.”
“Is someone dying in here?”
“No ma’am,” he said to Mrs. Robinette.
“Has the Messiah returned?”
“I don’t think so, ma’am?”
“Have you learned you’re a woman in a man’s body?”
“No.”
“Then is this noise really necessary?”
Much chastened by the little old woman, Mick said,” No, Mrs. Robinette.”
I feel like I just got detention.
But he didn’t dwell on that. George wasn’t home, but he didn’t care about that either. He called over to his friend’s apartment. The answering machine was terse, and unfriendly, the way his friend sometimes pretended to be, and Mick told him, “When you get home, call me up. I have the greatest news, man. Luke Madeary will be going to Europe!”
IT TOOK A WHILE FOR Derrick to realize what was happening. They were parked on the side of Country Club Road. The Red Barn was black in the distance, and it was when Ashley put his hand in her blouse, and began unbuttoning it for him that he knew what was supposed to happen.
His body knew first, and it felt like a very long time before his body, and his mind, and something in between could hold conference with each other while Ashley was kissing him. Slowly, he pulled away.
“What’s wrong?” she murmured, sounding tired.
“We can’t do this,” Derrick said, feeling a little frightened of how close they had come to doing it.
“I brought protection,” she said.
“No. No, Ashley,” he was loud, because really he was talking to himself. “You, you don’t have to that,” Derrick said. “I don’t charge for dates. I’m not that kind of guy.”
“You’re a virgin, aren’t you?” Ashley said flatly.
“Yes,” Derrick said, a little defensively. “I am. And,” he sounded flustered, “I don’t want it to be this way. I want it to happen.... But not like this.”
Ashley sat up beside him. Derrick was more cute than he was handsome. When his face held this serious expression he actually looked sort of funny. But he wasn’t laughing, and she was a little embarrassed.
“Take me home, alright?” Ashley said.
“I pissed you off,” Derrick told her, putting his keys in the ignition.
“No,” Ashley said. “I thought I pissed you off. That you probably wouldn’t want to see me now.”
“No,” he said, still talking to his steering wheel. Suddenly he turned to her with the eager expression she was accustomed to seeing on his face. “No, it’s just that... I think you’re better than that,” he told her. “I really do.”
He looked as if he were thinking really hard, and then he said, “You ever been to Columbus?”
“Where?”
“The capital of Ohio.”
“I know what it is?”
“Well, have you ever been?”
Ashley started to say, “Of course,” then realized, “No. We were supposed to go in eighth grade. I missed the trip. Measles.”
“Wanna go?”
“When?”
“Right now,” Derrick said.
“Ah...” and then she shrugged, and said, “Alright.”
“Great,” Derrick grinned at her. “We’re off.”
Tina was just getting into the house herself when the kitchen door opened, and Ashley came in laughing. A car honked its horn, and Ashley waved fondly before closing the door.
Mildly amused, Tina looked at her sister.
“How is Derrick?” Tina said.
Ashley walked up and threw her arms around Tina.
“Derrick is wonderful,” she exalted.
Tina looked at her sister sideways.
“You want to know what happened tonight?” Ashley said, eagerly. Tina could not remember the last time her sister had said anything eager to her.
“Sure,” said Tina.
“Nothing,” Ashley said. “Nothing at all.”
“You mean Derrick Todd is still a virgin?”
“Very much so,” Ashley reported. “Nothing at all happened except that we went to Columbus.”
“The capital?”
“Yup.”
“What’s in Columbus?” Tina demanded.
“Nothing,” Ashley told her sister. “Because we just left.”
Vaughan Fitzgerald realized that he was realizing something. It happens when something strange is happening and yet it seems completely natural to you, and then you remember it isn’t, that it’s never happened before.
For Vaughan it was sitting in his room after his father went to mass, remembering that Ian had remarked that Drew was afraid, and had asked him to pray. At times like this he said nothing when he prayed. He only felt a love that reached out beyond any sort of name or any words. It buoyed him up.
Literally.
Vaughan realized that he was approximately a foot off the bed. He was levitating.
“Um,” he murmured.
There was a knock at the door, Mackenzie called him.
“Enough of that, now,” Vaughan murmured, and came down to the mattress.
“Come in,” he told Mackenzie.
He decided that he would keep this to himself.
On the last Friday in April, when they were driving to the coffee house, Marilyn asked Rodder, “Did you get the letter from MIT?” and this was when he remembered what he’d done, and what he hadn’t.
“What, baby?” she said.
Rodder drove on.
“I’m not going to MIT,” he told her. The red light turned to green.
Madeleine sat hunched in the car. In the back seat Luke and Tina said nothing.
“It didn’t seem like you liked it that much,” she told him. “Well, I support you, whatever you do. I’m sure you’ll find a school that will be glad for you.”
“I already did.”
Even as Rodder said this Michael Street ended splitting north, and south into Glendale Road, the gate of Belmont College right before them.
“Oh, honey, not Belmont,” said Madeleine.
“What’s wrong with Belmont?” Luke said as they turned north leaving the night darkened gate behind. Tina could see past the trees the lights of the little dormitories.
Rodder said, “Nothing’s wrong with Belmont, but that’s not where I’m going. I can’t study psychotherapy there.”
“I didn’t even know you wanted to study psychotherapy,” Tina said dully.
“So you did find a place,” Madeleine said, happy for her baby.
“Um hum. University of Chicago.”
Madeleine gave this some consideration as they narrowly missed a red light and came down the Strip.
“I guess it’s closer then MIT, but what a major decision.”
“Oh, the music institute is there,” Rodder said.
“Since when did you care about music?” Madeleine demanded. “I mean the music institute?’
They were approaching the club.
“Oh,” Rodder shrugged, and waited for another car to turn in, “Eversince my girlfriend got accepted to it.”
“What?” Madeleine said, puzzled.
“Oh, yeah,” Rodder went on. “She even got a scholarship. They say her portfolio and her practice tapes are excellent.”
As they came into the parking lot and parked, Madeleine said, “Alright, now Roderigo Luis Gonzales, what the hell are you talking about?”
He started laughing, and then turned to her, and kissed her on the head.
“You’re going to school, baby,” he said, effecting a Mexican accent, and kissing her again.
“I don’t--” she started.
And so Rodder told her, and then she said, “but the tapes.”
“Remember I asked you to sing into a cassette for my Aunt Louisa?”
“But, I thought...” Madeleine was still at a loss.
“Baby, I hate my Aunt Louisa!” Rodder told her. “I would never ask you to make a tape for her.”
“I do believe,” Luke remarked, looking at the flabbergasted Madeleine Fitzgerald, “that you could knock her over with a feather.”
Derrick and Ashley swung by the coffee shop, which was the weirdest thing in the world to Tina. Ashley laughing, and carefree, and-- for once-- not swinging from a boy’s arm while tossing her hair over her shoulder. All of this time Tina realized that her sister had been acting. And maybe she was still acting with Derrick Todd, but she was acting differently this time around, and this time around the act looked a little more genuine. If, since her eighteenth birthday, Tina had not taken to writing herself an excuse note and skipping school every Friday, she might have known what her sister and Derrick behaved like in school.
As they were leaving, Derrick came up to congratulate Madeleine on school, and Rodder too. Luke on Europe.
“And congratulations to you too,” he told Tina.
“Yeah, Tina,” Ashley said, sounding only a little wry. “Who knew?”
Tina looked at her sister, puzzled. Everyone had known she and Luke were going to Europe.
The Strip was crowded with high school kids, their tops down if they had convertibles, their windows open if they didn’t. The air was good and warm. Once Tina was surprised by seeing Ian zoom down the Strip in his battered black Continental shouting, along with her brother, “Congratulations, Martina!”
But it was when they came to a red light, and Bone Mc.Arthur’s red Mustgang with Dice and Rick Shaker and his girlfriend in it stopped beside them that she was finally confused out of her mind.
“So, Tina,” Dice said offhandedly, “Who knew? Congrats cousin!”
“Yeah,” said Debbie Horris, beside Rick, “Congratulations Tina. You too, Madeleine. But we all suspected with you.”
And with that the light was green, and Bone’s Mustang gunned itself into the darkness.
When they came into Soovies with their fake IDs, and Mr. Rafferty, and Mr. Stearne looked up from their game of pool to both tell Tina, “Congratulations!” she said, slamming down her beer:
“Alright. That tears it! What the hell is going on?”
Stearne, holding his cue like Moses’s rod, legs spread apart, cocked his head and looked mildly amused.
“What?” Tina demanded.
“Oh, that’s right,” George Stearne said. “Well, I suppose this is what happens when you contract senioritis. You don’t know what’s going on in school.”
“She doesn’t know?” Mick Rafferty said, surprised.
“Know what?” Tina demanded.
Madeleine started chuckling. They all did.
“Ms. Foster,” Stearne said, looking more pitiless than ever, “you’ve been elected to prom court.”
v i i i
“I DON’T BELIEVE THIS SHIT!” Tina reported, sounding more disgusted than ever.
“This,” Stearne told her, passing her another beer, “is some shit you can definitely believe.”
When they all stared at the little man, he said “I forgot. Teachers don’t curse.”
“Is is possible,” Luke wondered to his friends and teachers, “to make resolutions in the middle of the year?”
“I think it’s allowed,” Stearne said.
“I would like to resolve to stop making assumptions,” he said stolidly.
The next morning, while Tina was munching on a bagel at the breakfast table, her mother came down and said, “Congratulations, sleepy head.”
“Does everyone know?” Tina demanded.
“I think so,” her mother nodded.
“What are you so pleased about?” Tina had never seen Aileen Foster so giddy in her life. It could be said that the older woman was even taking milk and eggs out of the refrigerator in a giddy fashion.
“My daughter’s going to be the prom queen,” Aileen said.
“I’m just a prom princess right now,” Tina said, taking out her cigarettes. “Or a duchess or something.”
“But you will be queen,” her mother said, taking out bread. She must be about to make French toast.
“Mom, it’s me,” Tina pointed to herself. “Me. Not Ashley.”
Aileen looked straight at her daughter and said, “But, Martina, you’re her twin.”
This manner of foolishness went on all Saturday, and when Aileen was out and Tina brought it up, Kevin said, “It means a lot to your mom. Just let her have her fun.”
“She’s gonna dress me up and make me look like... like.”
“Someone pretty?” said Kevin.
“Dad, that’s not even fair.”
“Tina,” Kevin said, putting down his paper. “I know you’re dedicated to being the anti-Ashley. And anti... everything sometimes. But just this once it would mean so much to your mom if you were just pretty. She didn’t get to have all that fun in high school, and be a prom queen. And Aily could have been one. She could have been.”
Tina sighed, and played with the cross at the end of the rosary hanging around her neck.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” she said, hanging from the lentil of the little section under the stairs that Aileen used for an office.
“Thank you, Martina,” her father said, slipping his spectacles on and looking ridiculously respectable.
“And, “ he added, “I’ll take Luke out and get him something nice.”
“What?” said Tina, ceasing her swinging.
“Luke,” said Kevin. “Luke Madeary. You are taking him to the prom? Or he’s taking you. Right?”
Tina was overcome with an urge to say something like, “I’m taking Stearne,” or “Actually, me and Madeleine are lesbians, and we’re going together.” But she only said, “I hadn’t really thought about it, Dad.’
“Well you’d better,” Kevin smiled at her brightly. “The prom queen can’t go stag.”
“I don’t get it,” Tina said to Madeleine when they were sitting in the BBC-arium. “It’s just prom. What’s the big deal? I don’t know what’s worse: being in the Midwest, or just being a teenager.”
Madeleine could not answer this. Vaughan said, “I think it’s because this is the closest thing Jamnia has to royalty.”
“Oh, you are going with me, right?” Tina said to Luke.
“Huh? Oh, yeah,” he said.
Madeleine murmured: “Who says romance is dead?”
Madeleine herself was not especially concerned about prom. She had been elected junior year to junior court. She hadn’t gotten the princess crown. This year she’d been passed over. It was quite all right. What Madeleine was much more fixated on was that in a matter of months she and her boyfriend would be off to Chicago living more or less together with newer, more exciting lives. She tried to tell herself there was no plotting out what would happen, that she should live in the present, but the more she tried this the more she failed. The more she could not resist making up scenarios of what would be going on in Chicago. Would she meet new and fabulous friends? She could not imagine meeting friends better than the ones she had now. Would she be discovered while playing at a coffee shop, quit school, produce her first CD by twenty, and be on MTV? She hated MTV, but if it was her personal publicity, well then that was different, wasn’t it? Madeleine Fitzgerald on the Grammys with her first Grammy. Only Fitzgerald didn’t sound like a musical name. She might be Gonzales by them. And maybe she’d just stay small and folksy for a while, then break out about the same time that Rod was out of school and just coming to prominance. He’d be famous in scientific circles, and she would be famous in musical ones. In each one’s world, they’d just be the Mr. or the Mrs. At the Grammys she would come out in a long, slinky, black gown. It would be all covered in sequins, and she would blow everyone away. When she went up to get her little gramophone, Rod would come up with her and everyone would wonder about the beautiful couple, the Black songstress and her enigmatic, beautiful, Latin husband. Rumors of how he was a famous doctor would circulate.
But for now, there was the reality of passing the last classes of the year, or planning which days she would skip. And there was Claudia who could not get past prom, whose plans were bigger and bigger. For afterprom and after afterprom and a limo and how she and Tina and Rod and Luke and Hakim would all take a limo together.
And then there was Vaughan.
Vaughan had gotten quiet as he always did this time of year.
Vaughan was not the kind of kid who shouted about his birthday. He would appreciate it if you remembered. And in a way Madeleine knew that Vaughan had always felt ungracious about calling attention to the day of his birth, which was the day of his mother’s death. He would be sixteen the same week as prom, and Madeleine did not know what to get him.
ASHLEY FOSTER WAS GOING THROUGH her own little metamorphoses as well. Love, or perhaps the simple negative fact of not being lusted for, had made her happier and quieter. She actually looked at people now. Lindsay noticed this. It disconcerted her how her sister would look right at her when speaking, turning the full blue of her eyes on the other set of blue eyes. It was like having two Tina’s in the house. And the more Aileen took to laying out pretty clothes for Tina to wear, and coaching her on walking and demeanor, the more difficult it became for Lindsay to distinguish one sister from the other.
Roy was over at the house a lot. He practically lived there, and he and Tina, and Kevin had discussed giving him the attic room or Ashley’s room after graduation though it seemed uncertain if Ashley would leave home after high school. Belmont seemed like more of a certainty. The only time Ashley was ever mildly rude lately was when Ross would say something nasty to Roy, and then Ashley would slap him sharply on the back of the head, and go on about her business. So this was how Roy began to like Tina’s twin and think of her as a sister too.
A week before prom, Derrick looked up from the locker he was busy jamming books in, and saw Tina and Rodder, an odd pair.
“Hey guys, what’s up?”
Tina looked up at Rodder.
“Are you taking Ashley to the prom?” he blurted.
“What?” Derrick said.
“Derrick, she’s waiting for you to ask,” Tina said. “I’m actually starting to like her lately, and I’d hate to see her suffer any longer.”
“Whaddo you all mean?” Derrick said.
“Oh, Derrick she likes you!” Tina said, at last. “I don’t know how much, but enough to go with you to prom. She’d really like you to go but... She can’t ask you, can she?”
“You asked Luke, didn’t you?”
“It’s completely different,” Tina said.
“Look,” Rodder said, “if it’s not you it’s gonna be Bone. And I don’t think it’s gonna be Bone. I think he’s through with her. Tina’s got a point. She’s waiting patiently, and I think you’re the only guy that she’d be happy to go with.”
“Rod,” Derrick said, “I don’t know how to be delicate about this. But... weren’t you...? “ He looked at Tina quickly. “Weren’t you with her?”
“Yes, and that may have not been the wisest thing I could have done for myself. But I didn’t think about how it might not have been the best thing for her either.”
Rod put his hands together for a second, then said, “As long as I’ve known Ashley, she’s always thrown herself under some guy, and every guy takes the bait. You’re the first person who gave her what she thought she didn’t want. Respect. I wish I’d done the same. You’re a good guy, and when I see her, Derrick, I remember that I wasn’t a good guy to her. And I think that maybe what I can do now-- for both of you-- is tell you to....”
“Get you head out of your ass, and ask her to prom!” Tina concluded.
“Exactly,” said Rod, giving Tina a strange look.
That afternoon Derrick gave Ashley got a ride home from school. Tina, who was sitting in the kitchen with Madeleine and waiting for Luke to get off of work, looked up at her sister.
“You’ll never guess what happened to me?” Ashley said.
“Not if you don’t tell me,” Tina agreed.
“Derrick Todd asked me to prom!”
Much to Tina and Madeleine’s credit, the former said, “I don’t believe it!” And the latter opened her mouth in shock.
Ashley smiled, beside herself.
Mackenzie and Ian stopped talking when Vaughan walked into the kitchen. He pretended not to notice. Ian put an affably stupid look on his face and said, “Hey, what’s up Vaughan?”
“I don’t know,” Vaughan said, sitting down and looking at the two of them cautiously. “What is up?”
“I was just saying, ‘What’s up?’”
“I know, Ian, you just said it.”
“I was just... making conversation.”
“Um hum,” Vaughan nodded. He looked at Mackenzie. Mackenzie only shook his head.
“His birthday is on Monday!” Ian said that night as he was sitting in the window smoking a cigarette, and Mackenzie was turned over on his face, trying to sleep.
“I know this,” Mackenzie pointed out. “I have known Vaughan Fitzgerald for nearly sixteen years, and for sixteen years May twenty-seventh has always been his birthday.”
Ian turned his head to the window, and the night air, and exhaled.
“Well,” he said, “I haven’t known Vaughan for sixteen years, and you don’t have to be facetious. I just thought we should do something nice for our friend on his birthday.”
Mackenzie sat up in bed, and clicked on the floor lamp.
“The thing with Vaughan is you never know what to get him,” Mackenzie said. “The most frustrating thing about him is he’s the kind of best friend that no matter how well you know him you still... don’t know him.”
“We can ask Cedric,” Ian decided. “I bet Cedric’ll know. He always knows what to do.”
Cedric cocked his head at the boys and said, “Well, now that wouldn’t really be you getting a present would that? That would be me getting my son a present. And I already got him a present.”
Madeleine only said, “Vaughan’s not that complicated. Out of the little brothers I could have had I think I lucked out. The thing about him is he’s really pretty simple. And he’s not into video games or nice clothes or impressing people. He’s not really materialistic.”
“And this,” Tina said, “is why he is so difficult to shop for. And it’s the thing about him that pisses you off more than anything at Christmas and birthdays.”
“Amen,” Madeleine agreed.
It was Rachel who finally said, “Well has anyone bothered to ask him what he wants?”
Tina looked at Madeleine. Ian looked at Mackenzie. They all just looked dumbfounded. Roy began to laugh.
“You might want to ask him,” Rachel Du Fresne suggested.
“I GET TO PICK WHAT I WANT!” Vaughan cried, clapping his hands. Which was when Mackenzie and Ian both realized for the first time, that they were older than Vaughan.
“Vaughan, chill,” Ian said.
“I never get to choose,” Vaughan said.
“It’s cause you never say anything,” Mackenzie said.
“It’s cause no one ever asks except Dad. Every year I just close my eyes, unwrap presents, grin and bear it.”
“Whaddo you mean grin and bear it?” Mackenzie said. “I always get you nice stuff.”
“Yeah,” said Vaughan. “But it’s nice stuff for you. You always end up wearing it.”
“Oh,” Mackenzie, said Ian began chuckling while Mackenzie went scarlet.
“I don’t mean to shop for myself,” he said. “It’s just. I try to get you nice things, and... I do end up wearing the stuff I buy you, don’t I?”
Vaughan nodded.
“Gee, I’m sorry about that. Well, what do you want?”
“And it can’t be a million dollars,” Ian warned. “Because that’s a little out of my range since my dad cut off my allowance.”
“I want to go see Drew and Simon,” Vaughan said simply. “After school’s out we should go up there. That’s what I want for my birthday. But you are absolved from getting me anything on the day of.”
“Well,” Mackenzie said, “even if my presents suck-- ”
“I didn’t say they sucked.”
“Even if they’re not to your liking,” Mackenzie amended, “I like to get you a little something the day of. So if you don’t mind, I think I’ll do that.”
“Oh, I don’t mind at all,” said Vaughan.
TO THE ANNOYANCE, BUT NEVER the surprise of Mackenzie, Vaughan did not go to school on his birthday. Tina, who was in school because it was a Monday and not a Friday, was quick to note that since Mackenzie was never at home, he could have skipped too.
“It’s the principle,” he kept on saying.
Tina figured that this meant it was the principle that Cedric would let his children stay home on their birthdays, and Kevin and Aileen would not, but she wasn’t sure, so she just shrugged whenever her brother said this.
Whatever guiding principle led the Fosters, May the twenty-seventh was the day that Madeleine counted up all her carefully hoarded absences, and began using them. Rodder said he would not. Actually he said he could not.
“That’s what makes you a stick in the mud,” she told her boyfriend.
“That’s what makes me an all star athlete with a 4.0 GPA,” he retorted.
She only got in her car, and drove Vaughan up to Woodson for lunch. She took him around to the bookstore, and then the lakeside strip of old brick buildings that made the downtown.
“You know I brought a ton of money with me?” she said.
“You did?” Vaughan looked surprised.
“Well, for me, for us, it’s ton of money. What do you want? When you see something you like, point to it. That’s your birthday.” Madeleine never said birthday present. She said, “that’s your birthday. Or, that’s your Christmas. In a few weeks Vaughan would have to start looking for “her graduation.”
Vaughan pointed to a guitar.
“What are you gon do with a guitar?” his sister demanded.
“Play it,” Vaughan said.
Madeleine could not argue that, so she shrugged, and bought it.
They were home by four o’clock, and Mackenzie and Ian were back from school. Cedric was on a chair hanging streamers from the ceiling, and Roy was working the helium tank, filling balloons.
“Happy Birthday!” he said.
“What, no surprise party?” said Vaughan.
“Well, actually this party is for me and Mackenzie,” Ian said. “We ran off to Hawaii and got married while you were skipping school.”
Mackenzie blew on a cheap party favor, and shouted, “Surprise!”
Louise came over for a brief while with Claudia. She gave Vaughan an envelope which he later learned had a hundred dollars in it. This almost made him like the aunt his father could scarcely abide. Claudia gave him a silk shirt with African patterns, lines of blood red outlining geometric patterns of dull red the color of dried blood. Ian touched it and muttered, “Cool!” Long after Louise had left on some pretext of business, Claudia remained.
Rachel and her mother came over. Cousin Jane had also done the the money in the card, card in the envelope thing. In fact, when Vaughan counted the money out with Ian and Mackenzie later on, they wondered if the DuFresne’s couldn’t get him through college with that one gift on that one day. Most of his cousins didn’t stay, but when they came they came with envelopes.
Rachel got Vaughan a new edition of The Lord of the Rings. This was original thinking on her part, with a little help form Roy, and going around making sure no one had done it first.
Ian and Mackenzie pitched in and gave him a silver chain with a silver ring suspended from it., and Cedric said it was appropriate, because he gave Vaughan his first ring with a ruby set in it.
“I know emeralds are for May,” Cedric told his son, “but the ruby went to your mother’s birthstone ring, and I thought you might want it.”
Vaughan slipped the gold ring on the middle finger of his right hand, a solemn reminder that this was the day his mother had died, and he said, “I do, Dad.”
Tina and Luke showed up right before dinner, and right before Rodder.
Tina gave Vaughan a carton of Lucky Strikes.
“Fun and practical,” she said,
And Luke gave him his free subscription to OT Direct.
“That way you never pay a tax on cigarettes again,” he explained, and then told Cedric, “You know they’re raising the prices again?”
Cedric nodded.
When Rodder told Vaughan that he’d won him a shopping spree at the Barnes and Nobles on Willow Park Road, Vaughan looked amazed.
“What?” said Rodder.
“I didn’t think you’d get me a present or anything,” Vaughan said. “I mean... You didn’t have to.”
Rodder looked a little non-plussed, and then he said, “Well, I guess not. But I did,” and he went on to tell how he was wondering what a good present was, and then he passed Barnes and Nobles one day, with Dice, and they saw a sign up that said if someone could guess how many marbles were in a bowl he’d get a free shopping spree in the Barnes and Nobles. And Rodder figured he could do that.
“You are a man of many surprises,” Cedric noted, and Rodder looked duely pleased.
Ida said, “When in doubt give money! “ And Ralph came over and told Vaughan, “This is a gift from me, and everyone at Holy Spirit,” His godfather gave him an old leather bound, gold leafed edition of the Liturgy of the Hours, and an illustrated Bible along with an icon of Saint Clare.
It was nearly eleven o’clock when the house was finally emptied, and Ian and Mackenzie were explaining to Vaughan, “This is a friendship ring. See, and you can slip it on and off the chain.”
Ian added, “I got the chain, Mackenzie got the ring.”
“Ian didn’t want to make it sound girly or like I was proposing to your or something, so he said we should get the chain.”
That night, Ian and Mackenzie stayed with him, one on either side. Long after they’d fallen asleep Vaughan was awake and aquiver with the events of the day that had just passed. The moon in his window rose high and full until it shown on a shadow sitting in the window. The moonlight was just enough to see a woman sitting thoughtfully with her chin on her fist.
“Was it a good day?” she asked her son.
“Oh, yes, Mother,” Vaughan did not want to wake his friends, so he just thought his response. “It was very good.”
“It was good for me too,” Marilyn, who could afford to talk, said. “Even the first one was good for me. No one ever thinks it was. But it was.”
This was a shock to Vaughan as well.
Marilyn explained, “I did what I had to do. There’s a great satisfaction in that,” she said simply. “Now go to sleep.”
MY POCKET BOOK SAYS WE can go to LePetite,” Aileen told her daughter that Tuesday night as they walked through Willow Park Mall.
“Maybe so. But my hips say just the opposite,” Tina told her.
“Tina, you sell yourself too short,” her mother replied.
“No, Mother. I just have a fat ass. Otherwise I’m sexy as hell.”
“You do not have a fat ass. And you do not have to use a string of profanity.”
“Pardon my Spanish,” Tina said.
Aileen looked at her.
“Everyone always says, ‘Pardon my French.’ I thought it would be nice to say, ‘Pardon my Spanish,’ is all,” Tina explained.
Aileen shook her head, then said, “Look, there’s Lerners. Are your hips too big for Lerners?”
“I hope not,” said Tina.
She reminded herself to keep a civil tongue, and try to be a little less sarcastic. After all Mom had gone to work, gone to classes, and gotten dressed to go to the mall and shop for her daughter’s prom dress. Everyone else would see a punky girl with a rosary around her neck, and hennaed hair traveling with a harried mother who looked to be about forty-five. No one knew how hard a day Aileen had put in, and that it made a woman who was approaching thirty-five look a decade older. And no one knew that Tina was trying to be on her best behavior.
The Fitzgeralds were babysitting Old Coconut. Never in a million years did Lucas Patrick Madeary ever expect to be standing in S&K’s men store with some old man’s hand between his legs-- testing the inseam-- and Kevin Foster, his old gym teacher, beaming and pleased as punch.
“You look great,” the old man growled, pulling at Luke’s lapels. “You look dapper as hell,” he growled lowly. It frightened Luke.
Kevin just went on nodding and smiling, looking a little stupid.
“Rent or buy?” the old man said.
“Buy,” Kevin said before Luke could open his mouth.
“Mr. Foster, I’m never gonna wear this again.”
“Every man needs a tuxedo,” Kevin insisted, more demonstrative than ever. Kevin himself was wearing a black sweatsuit, and pulled his wallet and his credit card out of his back pocket.
“You don’t have to do this,” Luke sounded a little desperate.
Kevin made a noise like, “P ‘ Shaw,” and waved it off with his hand, smiling brightly.
What, Luke wondered, was the BFD about prom?
“BFD?” Aileen said to Tina.
Marcy Ryan, who was their salesclerk and went to Jamnia High School, looked at Tina, and then at Aileen before translating, “Big fucking deal.”
“Tina!” Aileen cried.
“I didn’t swear, Mother. I abbreviated. Marcy swore.”
Marcy, in black rimmed spectacles with chopsticks coming out of every which end of her hair, looked like she didn’t care she’d sworn, like she and Tina should be out smoking cigarettes together.
“Well it is a BFD, “Aileen told her daughter. “It’s a very BFD,” she said as she walked a circle around her, running a finger over the material of the gown. “This is beautiful,” she said
It was a satiny blue strapless, and Marcy pointed out, “It really doesn’t go with her hair.”
“Which is what I was about to comment on,” Aileen said.
“What?” Tina raised an eyebrow and sounded extremely wary.
“I was thinking,” Aileen said, stopping and cocking her head to look at her daughter up on the pedestal. “What about you having your natural hair color for prom.”
“But I’m blonde,” Tina said through clenched teeth.
“It’s not a crime,” Aileen told her daughter.
“You know, “ Kevin pointed out as they were leaving the men’s warehouse, and crossing the night darkened parking lot to the car, “that man did have a point.”
“The salesman?” Luke said dully.
“Yeah,” Kevin nodded. “You would look nicer with a haircut. You think about that?”
The look Luke sent Kevin Foster said that not only had he not thought about it, but Kevin Foster should put the thought out of his own mind as well.
Rachel found the group of seniors in the hall on Prom night. She was only a freshman. and couldn’t even anticipate junior court for another two years.
“Are you guys excited?” she asked.
“Hell, no!” Madeleine said, and Rodder chuckled behind her. “Your cousin, Claudia--”
“My cousin--” Rachel started.
“keeps on going on about this damn limo, and this damn hotel room that Aunt Louise rented out, and this Jacuzzi and we’re all going to spend the night being bored as hell with her Hakim, Sharim, Fezakim or whatever his name is. She said,” Madeleine imitated, Claudia, “ ‘Girl, it’s better than spending the night with Rodder’s friends.’ But who the hell says I wanted to spend the night with anybody? I wanted to go to prom, go out, have a few drinks, and leave. And now here we are, snagged. Luke and Tina too,” she nodded at them.
Rachel was looking hard at Tina who nodded and said, “Yeah, I’m blond. It won’t last.”
“Tina’s parents are trying to take over our bodies,” Luke reported. “Mr. Foster actually tried to get me to cut my hair off.”
“So to answer your question,” Madeleine said, “No. No one is excited.”
Which is when Ashley walked down the hall singing under her breath, “I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it! I’m about to lose control, and I think I like it!”
Madeleine muttered, “Bitch.”
Derrick showed up at the house around seven o’clock. He was giddy because he was going to be the only junior in the whole group. Ashley was giddy because Derrick was there. She came down the stairs first in her pink gown. Derrick pinned on the corsage he’d bought her. Luke came. Cedric had remind him to get a corsage earlier. Tina descended the stairs. Everything was photographed. Ashley felt like royalty. Tina felt like Marie Antoinette. Lindsay and Ross made it a point to be bitter, but no one paid them any attention. Even the cars were photographed as they drove away.
After this Tina and Ashley split up. Tina and Luke went to the Fitzgeralds while Ashley and Derrick went to Derrick’s house to party with his “set” before arriving at the dance. Rodder was already at the house. Dice and his girlfriend arrived right along with Claudia and Hakim. The ceremony and pomp, the picture taking commenced again, this time at the treacherous hands of Cedric, Vaughan, Ian and Mackenzie, Roy and Rachel. Father Ralph, bless him, just stood there.
Then they went to Red Lobster, because this was supposed to be fancy, and next came Windham Street.
Madeleine was the first to enter, and the three sisters sighed at her appearing. Kirk, coming in from the backyard where all the noise was going on said, “You look hot as fuck!”
Money Carroll murmured in her raspy voice, “Very tasteful.”
Madeleine’s hair was straightened, and she was in a plain black strapless. Ida stood up and put her hands on the tall girl’s shoulders.
“You look just like your mama,” she said.
Then she turned to her granddaughter, and said, “You...”
“Look like Ashley,” Meg said.
“You look beautiful,” Ida said. But she sounded as if she wanted to say something else.
“You look beautiful for someone else,” is how Alice phrased it.
Meg Berghen said, clinically, looking from Luke in his black tuxedo to the cleaned up Tina with her golden hair and baby blue dress, “Neither one of you looks like you.”
“We can fix this,” Alice said, getting up and going up the stairs followed by Money.
Kirk approached Luke, sized him up, held him by the shoulders, and said, “I can fix you too.”
Tina Foster left her grandmother’s house wearing a skin tight black trash bag, her hair black as night with kohl around her eyes, and Alice placed a sunflower blossom in her hair after hanging an old malachite bead rosary about her neck. She left on Luke’s arm. He was wearing a snug brown corduroy suit, brown Hush Puppies, and a bowler with cane.
“Much better,” Meghan said, approvingly.
“I’ll never get the crown now,” Tina told her grandmother and aunts.
“You wouldn’t have anyway,” Meghan dismissed that issue. “People like you never do.”
THEIR ROOM IN THE MOTEL SIX was thick with smoke from the blunts being passed around, and Claudia was shrieking at Hakim and his friends, “Knock it off you thug ass niggahs! We got to go to the Jacuzzi.” Rodder and Luke had both thought of partaking in the herbal festivity, but Tina and Madeleine sent them looks that said, “Not tonight.”
“You can have all the weed you want on Windham Street,” Madeleine murmured.
“We’ll get there eventually.”
The phone rang at about one in the morning, and Tairique said, “Tina, it’s fuh you. It’s yo mama.”
“Hello,” Tina said. Madeleine watched her face lose color.
“Oh, no,” Tina murmured, “Oh. Oh,” Luke leaned in to touch her shoulder.
“Yes,” Tina’s voice was subdued. “Thank you.”
She put the receiver down on the black phone and said:
“Guys, we gotta go. Dad’s in the hospital.”
Outside of the Motel Six, in the good cold air, Tina said, “I wonder how quickly that limo can get us to Windham Street.”
“Shouldn’t we be going to the hospital?” Rodder was confused.
“Rod, don’t be thick,” Tina said. “My God, you’ve got the brain of Einstein, and you can’t spot a dupe like that!”
Luke started laughing.
“I snuck downstairs a while ago,” Tina said, “and called Mackenzie up and told him to impersonate Mom.”
Rodder looked scandalized.
“Oh, Rod, “ Tina said, “we needed to get the hell out of there.”
“You,” his mouth was moving in disbelief. “You looked so.... mortified.”
Tina smiled cheerily, and patted him on the arm:
“I’m an actress hon.”
They laughed and they drank and then they laughed some more until around three in the morning. Roy was asleep somewhere upstairs, and Ian and Mackenzie were heading to bed. In the garage, Vaughan was reading Tarot spreads.
Tina acknowledged that she liked the way she’d turned out, the trashbag that did not look like a trash bag, and strategically showed off her breasts and butt and hips. She liked the kohled eyes, and the dangling sunflower. But this was not what her mother had intended. And she liked how Luke had turned out, hair in his face, the worn and snug brown corduroy suit. When Kirk had given it to Luke he’d told him, “The secret is, you can’t wear underwear with it.” Thinking of Luke and herself she knew they were both utterly sexy, and completely inappropriate.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ida said. “You parents got their prom night when they saw you dolled up, leaving the house. They got theirs. Now you get yours.”
“What do we tell them?” Tina wondered. “About the crowns?” Because there was no way she could have ever been prom queen looking like this.
Alice, had been busy playing with flowers and now, smiling, she lifted two daisy chain crowns and put one, lopsided, on Luke’s dark hair, and the other on Tina’s.
She said, “Tell them you won.”
