by Bob Bannon
Dandy’s was kind of like Red’s Diner, where Jonah went for hot chocolate, except this place tried way too hard to be war-era retro. There were World War Two pictures on the wall among various 1940’s advertising posters and three American flags on three different walls. There were no booths and tables. The only indoor option was the lunch counter, which was, of course, striped in red, white and blue.
There were only two other people at Dandy’s and they appeared to be mall employees on a break. Both of them seemed to be eating fast.
They took seats at the end of the counter and a boy who looked to be eighteen or nineteen came over to take their order. He was wearing a red and white striped shirt with a blue sailor cap. He said the fries would take about five minutes and then left to put the order in.
Jonah told Eric about the two songs he liked that Eric had recommended and told him that he had listened to them at least three or four times. This led Eric into a five minute tangent on what musical artists he liked and those he didn’t, which led into the topic of which hip-hop artists were the best and who Eric thought was just ‘faking it’, as he called it.
The fries arrived with two plates. When the guy asked if they wanted anything else, Eric noticed they hadn’t ordered drinks.
“I’ll just have a soda,” he said, and looked at Jonah to see what he wanted.
“Do you guys have hot chocolate?” Jonah asked.
“Sure,” The waiter said.
“Oh my God that sounds good!” Eric said loudly. “Good call dude.”
They ordered two cups of hot chocolate. When the waiter dropped them off, he didn’t offer marshmallows.
“So you said your family eats kind of late,” Eric said as a question. “Does your mom work?”
“It’s just me and my dad, really.” Jonah answered, staring into his cup.
“Oh,” Eric said. “Sorry.” There was too much apology in the statement, as if Jonah might have lost his mother. That caught Jonah’s attention and he looked up again.
“Oh. No.” Jonah said. “Nothing like that. I’ve never had a mom. Well, at least as far as I know.”
“Oh.” Eric said. “Really?”
“What about your dad?” Jonah asked. “Does he work?”
Eric took another sip of hot chocolate and said, “I don’t really know him. Mom said he was never really a ‘family man’, although he gave it a good shot. I guess he left when I was around two. He lives in Arizona. We don’t really hang out.”
“Sorry.” Jonah said.
“Not really an issue,” Eric replied as he held up his phone and shook it. “He makes up for it with good gadgets.”
They both laughed awkwardly. It was kind of a sad subject.
“Weird though,” Eric said.
“What’s that?” Jonah asked.
Eric had shoved three fries in his mouth at once and tried to answer around them. “You don’t have a mom and I don’t have a dad.”
“Yeah,” Jonah said. “That is weird.”
They were quiet for a moment, shoveling in fries and drinking their hot chocolate.
“Hey, Eric?” Jonah asked.
“Yeah.” Eric said, downing the last of his cup.
“How would I get to Clapton, do you think?” Jonah said as he turned and stared out the window.
“Wow. Clapton? That’s a hike.” Eric replied. “You can’t really ride your bike all the way there.”
Jonah ignored the fact that he didn’t have a bike. “I know, right? So how would I get there?”
“Bus, I guess,” Eric said. “Why do you want to go there?”
“Just…” Jonah had to think. “Something I have to do over there. Just stuff.” And then added, “So you think I could get there on the bus?”
“We could check it out. Fire up your tablet.” Eric said.
He handed the tablet to Eric, who looked up the city’s webpage, and from there transferred to the city’s bus-line page. He input the zip code they were in and, since they didn’t have a specific destination, just put in Clapton. A bus route loaded on the next page.
Jonah would have to get on the number three buss on Main Street that went all the way down to Masonville. From there, he’d have to wait twenty minutes for the number fifteen bus that took him around the pike and down into Clapton. That’s where the route stopped, somewhere on Jefferson Street.
It would take at least four hours to get there, but the good news is it would only cost about ten bucks, transferring between the busses to get there.
“That’s not a bad deal for that much travel,” Eric said.
Jonah tried to calculate how long it might take him to get that much change, but his hauls were irregular, so he couldn’t be sure.
“Yeah,” he said, not really meaning it. “That’s not bad.”
Eric paid the check with the twenty dollar bill and they both zipped up their coats and left.
As they reached the interior entrance to the mall, Eric looked up. “Cool. It’s snowing again.”
The snow flurry had kicked up again the same as last night, although inside the Promenade you couldn’t be sure if it was going to be worse. It simply reminded Jonah of how cold it was going to get. He opened the door and went in without replying.
Once inside they walked toward the central fountain, taking their time. Eric kept pointing out things in stores that he wanted. Most of the time, Jonah agreed.
Emma Wong was coming down the escalator wrapped in her tan fur-lined coat and matching boots. She was furiously punching buttons on her phone when she looked down and saw them.
“Eric M.!” She shouted. “Wait!” And she began walking briskly down the escalator stairs pushing past people as she went.
When they saw her, Jonah stopped first. Eric was just as content to keep moving, but Jonah grabbed his arm.
She made her way over at a quick pace. “Hi,” she said to Eric.
“Hi,” Eric said, with little interest.
“Hi,” She said to Jonah. “Sorry. I don’t know your name.”
“It’s Jonah,” he said, and smiled a little too brightly.
“I’m Emma,” she said, and then got right down to business looking at the both of them. “Listen, I have to buy shoes for the Winter Ball, but I can’t decide. I’ve taken pictures and texted them to Courtney and Heather, but neither one of them is getting back to me. Can you help?”
“What?” Eric said.
“Sure,” Jonah said with a shrug. Eric looked at him.
“Will you come with me? They’re just over at Lincoln’s.”
Jonah knew where that was from his laps around the mall. It was a ladies shoe store he hadn’t paid much attention to.
“Sure, no problem,” Jonah agreed. Eric looked at him like he was crazy. Jonah started to follow Emma and looked back at Eric. “What? We’re not doing anything else.”
So Eric followed.
“Thanks,” Emma said to Jonah as they walked.
Her hair was down today, but not like Jonah had imagined. Her front bangs framed her face and it fell down past her shoulders. All of it seemed to be up front because of the hood of her coat.
“You don’t go to our school, do you?” She asked.
“No. Home schooled.” Jonah managed.
“Oh, that must suck,” she said. Was it possible she was cuter when she wrinkled her nose, or was that his imagination? “Being home with your parents all day? I can’t imagine. And you don’t get to hang out with anyone? Wow.”
“How does that work anyway?” Eric said from behind them. “Does your dad teach you or do you have a tutor or what?”
“Tutor,” Jonah said a little too fast. “Two of them, actually.” And then added “Yeah, it’s not my dad.”
“Is that a religious thing, or, I don’t know...” She asked.
“No,” Jonah said. “Just something my dad decided.” They had finally reached Lioncoln’s Shoes and went in.
“Hi,” Emma said to the employee behind the counter. “Do you
still have my shoes?”
“Of course,” replied the chubby woman behind the counter. She smiled and brought two shoe boxes out from behind.
Emma walked over in front of a mirror and the boys followed, plunking down on two chairs in front of her.
Emma pulled off one of her boots and the chubby woman took one shoe from the first box and slipped it on. It was a black shoe with a small red bow on the toe. There was nothing very special about it. “So what do you think?” Emma asked.
“I don’t know,” Jonah said.
“Don’t care,” Eric said to the ceiling, and blew his bangs out of his eyes.
Emma rolled her eyes. “Can I try the other one, please?
The woman took the shoe off and returned it to its box, then opened the second box and put that shoe on Emma’s foot. Emma turned and looked at it in the mirror. This shoe was black patent leather. It was shiny and had a low heel and the toe was open at the end.
“I can’t decide,” she said, looking over at the boys, but when she said it, her head was down to the side and all her hair cascaded to the other side. Jonah was transfixed.
“Um,” he said, but had a crazy smile on his face.
“They look the same to me,” Eric blurted out.
She was going to have to dumb it down for them. “Okay,” she said, picking up the first shoe. “What if I said this was a skater shoe that was comfortable,” then pointed to the shoe on her foot, “and this is a high-top with red shoe laces and you can see through the bottom?”
“I’d say that one was awesome then,” Eric said with a grin, pointing to the second shoe.
“Boys,” Emma said to the woman.
“I like the second one,” Jonah chimed in. “It matches your hair.”
Emma smiled and blushed deeply. She absently tucked her hair behind her ear.
The woman on her knees in front of Emma took in the group: Emma was blushing, Jonah was looking at her with a stupid grin, and Eric was looking at Jonah like he’d lost his mind. She gave it a moment and then said “So I guess we have a winner?”
That snapped Emma back. “Yes,” she said to the employee. “I’ll take these ones.”
The woman took the shoe from Emma’s foot and put it back in the box. She handed Emma her boot back, then grabbed both boxes and stood up, with an assist from the shelf next to her. She went back to the counter.
Emma leaned against the wall to pull her boot back on. “Thanks guys, I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
“You know that dance isn’t for, like, another ten days or something,” Eric said. The way he said it seemed like the dance was something that was never going to include him.
“Exactly,” Emma said. “Why do think I was so stressed about the shoes?”
Just as they were turning out of the doorway to head for Vineyard, Logan and two of his friends spotted them from the other side of the mall.
“Hey, Eric M.” Logan called. “Buy any new high heels?”
“Fantastic,” Eric mumbled. He didn’t even want to be in the stupid shoe store, and now he was busted by Logan.
“Cram it, you idiot!” Jonah yelled back. “We’re just walking around with her,” he said, jamming a thumb in Emma’s direction.
A loud cackle erupted from the two boys Logan was with. There would be no way Logan would put up with that.
And he didn’t. Logan crossed the mall in a flash, grabbing Jonah by the front of his coat and slamming him hard against the wall.
“What’d you just say to me, you little freak?” He spat.
“I said cram it, you freaking idiot,” Jonah said it again through gritted teeth.
Logan slammed him against the wall harder this time. Jonah’s head knocked against it. It took a second, but he shook it off.
“Logan, stop it!” Emma said. She had moved right up next to the two.
“Stay out of this, Emma,” Logan said angrily. “This kid’s a tool.” Then he turned back to Jonah. “You don’t get to talk to me like that,” he said, as if he even had to explain the fact. “I could break you.”
Just then, the pain welled in Jonah’s left eye, the needle of it just piercing his eyeball. He cried out in pain. The adrenaline rushing through his system allowed his arms to break Logan’s hold and push him away. He doubled over and his fists went to his eyes.
“Jeez, man, what’d you do?” One of Logan’s friends asked.
“I didn’t do anything!” Logan said, and then added “You saw me! You all saw me!” He looked at everyone in the group with his hands raised.
Emma was standing right by Jonah, who was leaning on the wall cradling his head. Eric moved to them.
“Shut up and go away, Logan.” Emma said.
He was moving away, with his friends in tow. “You guys saw it. I never laid a hand on him. He’s such a little freak!” And then they were gone.
“Sit down, Jonah,” she said. He didn’t have the strength to respond, or fight the command, so he slid down the wall. Eric and Emma squatted down next to him. “What’s going on?” She asked.
“Nothing,” Jonah gowled, then “Ow!” It was tunneling. “I just get headaches sometimes.”
“Is it a migraine?” Eric asked. “My mom gets those sometimes. Is it in your eye?”
“I don’t know,” he answered the first question. “Yes,” he hissed in answer to the second.
He hadn’t considered a migraine, although he wasn’t sure what that meant, other than the fact he had heard the word in commercials. It sounded better than a tumor.
Emma put a hand on his face and made him turn up to her. “Jonah, look at me.”
He tried, he opened his right eye. He couldn’t manage his left.
“Do you want me to go get someone?” She asked.
Her hand was soft. Amazingly soft. She looked really scared, and he didn’t want that.
“They go away,” he assured her.
Something strange happened. He was looking at her through his right eye and it was if his brain started arguing with the pain. The pain was saying “Just let me go. C’mon….” and his brain was stopping it, telling the pain to recede. It was like a vacuum was pulling it back out of his eye.
Finally he blinked. The pain was gone. “I’m,” he started. “I’m okay now. I think it’s gone.” He turned to Eric, who looked just as scared as Emma. “It’s cool,” he said to him. “All good.”
They helped him stand up.
“I’ll snag you some of my mom’s migraine aspirin just in case,” Eric said. “You’re sure you’re good?”
“Yeah,” Jonah said, still blinking. “I told you, they come and go.” Although he knew this was markedly different.
“At least you got rid of Logan.” Eric said with a grin.
“Yeah,” Jonah said, “I hope I scared him too.”
Emma looked at her watch. “Listen, I have to go. My dad’s going to be waiting.” Then she asked “Are you going to be okay? Can you get home alright?”
“Yep, I’m totally cool now. Totally.” He felt really bad that she was so freaked out. Of all the times to have the pain come, maybe he was just really unlucky.
“Okay,” she said, unsure. “Bye, guys. See you Monday, Eric M.” And she picked up her shopping bag and started to walk away, although she spun and walked a couple of those feet backwards.
“Bye, Emma,” Jonah said and gave her a smile.
“Bye,” she said and smiled back. Then she turned around and kept walking.
“Bye, Emma.” Eric said in a high-pitched whine to Jonah. When Jonah looked at him, he added, “Seriously?”
“What?” Jonah giggled.
“Crushing on Emma Wong much or just a little?”
“Neither,” Jonah demanded. “So am not.”
“So are too!” Eric retorted.
“Shut up, dude,” Jonah said, trying to laugh it off, but felt a blush coming on.
They got back to Vineyard and Mrs. MacIntyre was out front standing with her arms crossed and her
briefcase at her feet. “Where have you two been?” She asked, with just a subtle hint of anger looking at her watch.
“We ran into Jonah’s girlfriend,” Eric said.
“We did not,” Jonah said glaring at him, then to Mrs. MacIntyre he said “I mean, I just met her.”
“Oh,” she said quietly. She thought she understood the situation and didn’t want to embarrass him but that answer certainly diffused anger. She turned to Eric. “Well, Maria is going to close up, so we’re free for the weekend.” She zipped his coat and put an arm around him.
“Do you want to come?” Eric asked Jonah. “Jonah can come over, right?” he asked his mother.
“Jonah might have to go home for his own dinner,” she said.
“Um, okay,” Jonah said. He didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t anticipated this. It came out wrong.
“You don’t have to if you’d rather go home.” Eric said. “But we are having tacos tonight. They’re good.”
Mrs. MacIntyre brushed his hair out of his face for the compliment. “We’ll have more than enough if you’d like to come, Jonah.” She said. Eric brushed his hair back down.
“Here,” Eric said, pulling out his phone. “Call your dad and ask.”
Jonah took the phone and didn’t know what to do. He stared at it in his hand for a second. “Oh, it’s after six,” he said. “He just went into a meeting.”
“Alright,” Eric said. “Then call him from my house. I mean, if you want to go”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Cool.”
They started walking to the door when Mrs. MacIntyre spoke up. “Shouldn’t you call your mom?”
“No,” he said “I don’t have a mom.”
“Oh, honey,” Mrs. MacIntyre said, and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“Oh, no,” he said. “It’s not like that. I never knew my mom.”
“Sweetie, that’s still so....” she let the thought trail off and just rubbed his arm up and down quickly. She took both of them arm in arm and they walked to the car.
