Babyface
Page 3
CHAPTER
FIVE
Kelly Lutz sat down at the lunch table next to Toni and opened a carton of chocolate milk. “Just the color my hair used to be,” she remarked. Kelly had dyed her hair again. It looked as if she had a purple veil spread over it. “Aren’t you eating your lunch?” she said to Julie.
“I don’t happen to be hungry.”
“Looks like a good lunch. Did your mother make it?”
“Yes.”
“Are you on a diet?”
Julie pushed aside her sandwich. “What are you, Lutz, the lunchroom spy? For your information, I never diet.”
“Good. You should hear my mother on the subject. No! Nada! I can’t even drink a diet soda in front of her. If I don’t clean up my plate, she has a fit. She says I have a gorgeous figure just the way I am.” Kelly rolled her eyes. “Can I help it if my mother thinks I hung the moon?”
“Fascinating.” Julie clipped off the word. Her cheeks were burning. She got up and left the cafeteria.
“What’s her problem?” Kelly said.
Just what Toni had been wondering. She picked up Julie’s purse. She’d forgotten it in her rush to get away. “See you,” she said to Kelly.
Toni didn’t see Julie anywhere in the halls. She went outside. Julie was across the street, sitting on the stoop of the corner store. Toni crossed and sat down next to her. “Are you all right?” She handed Julie her purse. Julie took out a cigarette and tapped it on the back of her hand.
“Jul, what is it?” Toni put her hand on her friend’s arm. “Is it your parents?”
“Of course it’s my parents. Is it ever anything else?” She jerked the cigarette in and out of her mouth. “I’m not going to be here this summer, Toni. I’ll be in San Francisco.”
“San Francisco?” Toni said, as if she’d never heard of it.
“Mom, Heather, and I are going away as soon as school is over,” Julie said flatly. “My parents are splitting. My father’s taking off for Alaska and we’re going out West.”
“They’re getting a divorce?” Toni said disbelievingly.
Julie crushed her cigarette underfoot. “I don’t know. All I know is that my father says he has to see Alaska before he dies. And my mother says she’s not hanging around Ridgewood all summer with everything dumped on her, that she has to have something for herself, too.”
“Oh, Julie,” Toni said. She couldn’t think of a single comforting thing to say to Julie, or to herself. She and Julie had never spent even one summer apart.
“I wish I could do something to Julie’s parents,” Toni said to her mother. What she had in mind was homicide, but what she said was “I’d like to shake them till their teeth rattle!”
Her mother raised her eyebrows. She was stretched out in a bubble bath. “I just wonder what in the world Steven is going to do in Alaska.”
“Maybe he’ll teach the polar bears to drive motorcycles.”
“Toni!” Her mother laughed.
Toni picked up the loofah and scrubbed her mother’s back. “Julie’s parents never think of anyone but themselves. Heather’s all excited about San Francisco, so it’s okay for her, but Julie’s just sick about it, and so am I.”
“I know it’s going to be hard for you without her, but you’ll survive, sweetie.”
“I don’t want to survive. I want Julie to be here.” Toni sat on the edge of the tub, brooding. “Mom, why can’t Julie stay with us? Why does she have to go if she doesn’t want to?” Toni sat up. Why hadn’t she thought of this right away?
“Live here? I don’t think that’s a good idea, sweetie.”
“Why not? Julie and I would be together all the time,” Toni argued. “You wouldn’t even know she was here. She wouldn’t be any extra work.”
Her mother put a soapy hand on Toni’s arm. “First of all, I doubt that Jerrine would agree to leave Julie behind. But even if she did, having the responsibility for another person for that long a time is something I’d have to think about very hard. What if something happened to her?”
“What could happen? Nothing will happen. I promise you! Mom, please! Please, Mom, I’ll get down on my hands and knees,” Toni said, reverting to a childhood phrase that used to make her parents laugh and almost always got her whatever she wanted, whether it was extra TV or a candy bar.
Her mother got out of the tub and wrapped herself in a towel. “Anyway, the whole thing might not even happen. It could be a tempest in a teapot.” She held up her hand, pushing down fingers, one at a time. “Steven might not go to Alaska. Jerrine might decide it’s too much trouble to close up the house. Or too much trouble to take herself all the way to San Francisco. Or they might make up. You never know. Circumstances change.…”
Her mother rubbed cream into her legs. “Are you listening, sweetie? I know what I’m talking about. I know from experience that people say things, but they don’t necessarily carry them out. It’s human nature.”
Toni nodded, but she didn’t think her mother really understood how she felt about Julie going away. And if her mother didn’t understand, then nobody could. Take something like camping in the backyard. Every summer when the heat got bad, she and Julie would pitch her pop-up tent and camp out with books and food and flashlights. It was something they looked forward to all year. It was special, something that was theirs and theirs alone. They’d even promised themselves that after they were grown and married and had children of their own, they would still get together and camp in the summer.
Toni had never thought much about time before. If she had thought about it at all, she probably would have said it was like a friend who brought her good things. She had never especially wanted to hurry time up, or slow it down. But that was before Julie told her about San Francisco. Now Toni wanted to pounce on time, take it by the neck, grab it around the ankle, hold it. Hold it back! Slow it down!
CHAPTER
SIX
The day Julie left, Toni went to the airport with her. They had said good-bye in private (they had stayed up till nearly morning, talking) and agreed that they wouldn’t be emotional in front of Julie’s mother and sister. Maybe they were too quiet. “Somone make a joke,” Heather ordered. She was sitting up front with the driver.
“Shut up, Heather,” Julie said automatically. She leaned her head against the window.
“I want a joke!” Heather said. “Toni! Give me a joke.”
“What song was the woman who came back from India singing?” Toni obliged. Her father had read the joke out loud from the morning paper. He was a sucker for corny jokes.
“I saw that. ‘Whose Sari now,’” Heather said in a bored voice.
In the airport, Toni took a picture of Julie. Mrs. Jensen was sitting to one side, checking things in her purse. “Take my picture,” Heather said, posing with one hand to her hair.
“Put your arm around Julie. I’ll take you two together.”
“What’s the matter, you don’t like my face alone?” Heather got her hands around Julie’s neck in a choke hold. “How’s this for a pose?”
“Heather, damn it!” Julie pushed her sister away.
“Girls, please.” Mrs. Jensen rubbed her forehead. “I have enough to think about.” She stood up. “Let’s go through security now. Good-bye, Toni.” She kissed her on the cheek. “Tell your mother I’ll be in touch. She knows where to get me if there’re any problems.”
Toni nodded. Her mother was going to look out for the Jensens’ house. Not that there was much to do. Toni had said she’d keep the grass cut.
“We’ll see you all in the fall,” Mrs. Jensen said. She put her shoulder bag on the moving belt and walked through the security arch. Heather followed her. Then Julie put her purse down in front of the little curtain. Her eyes were glistening. Toni lunged forward and hugged her.
“Come on, Julie,” her mother called from the other side. “You’re holding up people.” Julie walked through the arch, then went slowly down the corridor after her mother and out of sight.
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Outside, Toni waited for the bus back to the city. She heard the roar of a jet taking off and shaded her eyes to watch it for a moment, even though she knew it was too soon to be Julie’s plane.
CHAPTER
SEVEN
June 26
Dearest Julie,
The two days since you left have been long and horrible. I miss you so much. I hate looking across at your house with the shades all pulled down. I even miss Heather (I think). Mom just went off to work. Dad’s on for forty-eight hours at the station. Just Paws and me rattling around in the house. Yesterday I weeded the flower bed. Today I’ll bake peanut-butter cookies, a special request from my father. I had to promise to use his recipe. He said he spent many long hours taste-testing to get it right!
Send me a letter soon!
Love always, Toni
June 29
Dear Toni,
The last time we visited my Aunt Wendy I was eight years old. I’d forgotten how small her house is, just three little rooms tucked away at the end of an alley behind two huge Victorian-type houses. To get to Wendy’s house from the street you unlatch a gate, duck under the arch, and walk down the alley between the two big houses.
Mom is sharing the bedroom with Wendy. I get to sleep on the pullout couch in the living room with Heather. The girl kicks like a mule half the night, grabs all the covers, and never shuts up, not even when she’s sleeping. I miss you, too. I think about home and you, and even Paws, the Slimeball Killer Kat. (I won’t go so far as to say I miss him.)
Write soon.
Love you much, Julie
July 5
Dear Julie,
Here’s what I do every day. Read, read, read. Take a million showers to keep cool. Watch old reruns of The Honeymooners and Leave It to Beaver. Today I walked over to the mall just so I could then walk back home again with Mom. Isn’t that exciting?
On the way over I found a five-dollar bill. Toni Luck! When I got to the drugstore, I saw a sign in the window for part-time help. I asked Mom to hire me. She said she couldn’t hire a relative, it wouldn’t be fair. But it gave me the idea that I should get a job. If you were here, we’d put an ad in the paper together: “Willing teens want to help with housework, baby care, dog-sitting, and errands.” We’d share the work, split the pay, have plenty of fun, and be rich at the end of the summer!
Love you high, wide, and forever, Toni
P.S. My father’s trying to cheer me up with jokes. Today’s joke is “Did you hear about the woman arrested on charges of illegal possession of a fireman?”
July 13
Dear Toni,
Your letter took a week to get here. I think they sent it by Pony Express. See, I can make a joke, too. My mother accuses me of not having a sense of humor anymore. She might be right. Every morning I wake up and think about home and start feeling upset and horrible and end up fighting with someone.
Mom says I should try to be more positive. I say, “It’s easy for you to say. You want to be here!” Mom says, “Julie, you’re right, and I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is now. Isn’t there anything good for you in this situation?” I say, “No! Nothing!” I can tell I make her feel awful. Do you think I’m a total bitch?
Love, Julie
P.S. Wendy says it’s harder to find a kid job here than a rat’s tail in chicken soup. Whatever that means. Wendy has some weird expressions.
July 16
Dear Julie,
Today my father called from the station and asked me to bring him a fresh T-shirt. I biked over. Dad and a bunch of other men were outside washing one of the trucks. Buckets of suds, huge streams of water. It’s like seeing an elephant getting a shower. I gave my father his shirt and I was ready to leave, but my father said, “Wait a second, Babyface. Guys, do you all know my beautiful little girl?”
And then, as if what Dad had said was a secret code or something, they all started teasing me. Eddy Mason (I think you know him, he’s bald with the freckles on his head, my father’s fishing buddy) started it off. “Do we know your little girl, Hal? Do we know her? Is this the famous Toni Chessmore? The one they write newspaper articles about?” Then they all jumped in. “What’s it like to be a celebrity? When are you going on the Johnny Carson show? How old are you now? Do you have to keep the guys away with a baseball bat? Do you want to be a lady fire fighter?” (They thought that one was really hilarious.)
Riding home, I thought of all the things I could have said. “What’s so funny about a woman being a fire fighter?” Or “If I go on the Johnny Carson show, you’ll be the first to know!” Wouldn’t it be cool if you knew beforehand what people were going to say, so you could get prepared with smart answers?
Love you forever and always, Toni
July 22
Dear Toni,
Today I’m lying around reading old magazines and watching TV, because the weather is too nasty for a human being used to normal summers. It’s cold, the wind is blowing, the fog is in. It’s like being in the middle of a horror movie. Can you imagine having to wear two sweaters to keep from freezing to death in the middle of the summer?
Let’s see, what else exciting can I tell you? Oh, yes, yesterday Wendy showed me some tall green weedy stuff in an empty lot down the street. “Do you know what that is, Julie?” “No, Aunt Wendy.” “Dill, Julie.” “Dill, Aunt Wendy? The little seedy stuff that comes in jars and my mother likes on mustard-and-cheese sandwiches?” “Yes, Julie.” Well, well, learn something new every day.
The big news here is that Mom has decided she has to make some money and so she’s going to sell cosmetics again. She bought a car. She says even though she has to make car payments, she’ll make more money in the long run. I sure hope so, I hate being poor. Well, that’s it for now.
Lots of love, Julie
July 31
Dear Julie,
Hooray! The end of the month! One down, one to go!
Well, guess what? I have a job! How I got it is pure Toni Luck. Yesterday I saw little Arnold Frankowitz from down the street pulling a wagon. I said, “I like your haircut, Arnie.” He put his hands on his hips and said, “No Arnie stuff. I’m Arnold.” I asked him how old he was. He held up three fingers. “Nice wagon,” I said. And he said, “I have to clean this vagon, it’s dirty.”
Then, Julie, his mom leaned over the porch and said, “Toni, how would you like a job? All you’d have to do is take Arnold to the park and play with him for a couple hours every morning.” And she told me some rules, like Arnold can’t have anything with sugar. She pointed to her teeth, which are kind of small and gray, and said she didn’t want him to have teeth like hers. I start tomorrow.
Love, Toni
CHAPTER
EIGHT
August 1
Dear Toni,
Today for some reason I feel happier. It’s August 1, which means this lousy summer is going to end in thirty more days. I told my mother, “I’m counting down.” She said, “Why not count the good things about being here?” I said, “Like what?”
We were sitting at the table in the kitchen. My aunt said, “Julie, I don’t know anyone in the world who can resist the beauty of San Francisco. It’s a city of hills and water.”
More “Yeah, yeah” from Julie. But not so loud. Because that is one of the things I do like about being here. If you get up high enough, you can look down over the city and out into the bay and the ocean. And that is neat.
Love you, Julie
August 5
Dear Toni,
I just wrote a couple days ago, but I feel inspired to write again. So you’ve got a job, and it sounds perfect. Nothing for me yet. Heather has been working at a sandwich shop, washing dishes. She loaned me ten dollars. Then she gave (not loaned) Mom twenty. Mom went crazy. “Oh, Heather, you’re such a wonderful daughter!”
I felt about as high as a worm’s belly. I wouldn’t mind doing something great and having Mom fall all over me. Maybe someday she’ll see me in a movie or up on the stage and s
ay, “That’s my daughter.”
Love, Julie
August 8
Dear Julie,
Taking care of Arnold isn’t quite the piece of cake I expected. This kid could wear us both out. He is perpetual motion. In the park I follow him from sandbox to swings to slides to sandbox to swings to—well, you get the idea. He is also perpetual mouth. “Toni, do you have a broom in your house like I do in my house? Toni, do you have a stove in your house like I do in my house? Toni, do you have a bed in your house like I do in my house?”
I try saying “Arnold, I have everything in my house.” That doesn’t stop him for a second. “Toni, do you have a sofa in your house? Do you have a potty in your house? Do you have a daddy in your house? Do you have a jar in your house?” He can go on like this for hours.
And then there’s the soda crisis. When he gets thirsty, his mom says he has to drink water. This is not Arnold’s favorite drink. What does he vant? “I vant soda!” he yells. He whirls around. His face turns red. He’s having a tantrum! He’s making me crazy!
Today I had an inspiration. He was whirling and yelling, and I told him he was really funny because he didn’t know water was delicious. I patted my stomach. I said, “I’m going to get some of that delicious water for myself, right now!” Arnold trotted after me. “I vant a drink of vater!” I said, “Oh, no, you don’t like it.” He said, “Yes, I vant vater!” I said, “Well, maybe …”
Jul, he drank that water like it was the world’s greatest drink. I’m proud of myself. I didn’t let a three-year-old squirt (pardon the pun) get the best of me.
Love, Toni
August 9
Dear Julie,
This morning I walked over to the drugstore to see Mom. Guess who I saw working there? L.R. Faberman! Same black T-shirt, same dark glasses, same adorable face. I forgot all about saying hello to Mom. Instead I bought a few things and stood in his checkout line. I thought, What am I doing? My stomach felt as if a bunch of ice cubes were down there doing a dance. I put my stuff down and took out money. L.R. rang it up and gave me change. I said, “You’re L.R. Faberman.” He said, “Yes. How do you know that?” I could have said, “You sat right across from me in the auditorium, dummy!” (Another one of my clever replies I think of too late.) What I said was, “We both go to Emerson.” And then I said, “You, me, and Julie Jensen.” I don’t know where I got the nerve! What do you think of that, Julie?