Calla was more startled than shocked, but the noise that escaped her lips did sound scandalized. The young couple guiltily separated. Unsure of what to do, Calla left the room. In the safety of the kitchen, she paced. She could hear their furtive whispering and the distinct sound of nervous giggling.
She tidied up a counter that was already neat, until she heard her son’s voice behind her.
“We were just kissing, Mom.” Nathan’s voice was defensive.
Calla turned and gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I know,” she said. “I trust you.” Then she lowered her voice to add, “Just remember she’s only seventeen and you have four years of college ahead of you.”
Calla turned away quickly, as if the counter desperately needed her attention. If Nathan was going to roll his eyes or make some other impatient response, she didn’t want to see it. Her son was nearly a grown man. She wanted to treat him with the respect he deserved.
“So are you two staying in tonight?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, we’re going to watch the game.”
Calla idly wondered if Jazleen was also a fan of the NBA or just interested in more snuggling on the couch.
“You look nice. Where are you off to? Is something happening at the church tonight or are you meeting up with the ladies from your office?”
“I’m going to the movies,” Calla said.
Nathan’s eyebrows went up. “The movies? I didn’t think you liked movies.”
“I don’t even know, it’s been so long since I’ve gone.”
“Are you going by yourself?”
“No, with the next-door neighbor.”
“Eunice?” Nathan snorted. “Voluntarily putting up with that woman for hours is not a night out, it’s a path to sainthood.”
“I’m not going with Eunice,” Calla said. She was reluctant to say the words out loud. “I’m going with Landry Sinclair.”
“Who?”
“Landry Sinclair, the guy that lives next door.” Calla gestured toward the window.
Nathan stared at her wide-eyed. “Is this a date?”
Calla stumbled over her reply.
“It is a date,” her son declared, incredulous.
“We’re just two people who enjoy each other’s company and want to see a movie.”
Nathan frowned. “I don’t know if this is a good idea,” he said. “Who is this guy? What does he want from you?”
“He’s our next-door neighbor,” Calla answered. “And it seems as if he wants the pleasure of my company.”
Nathan was shaking his head.
“I like him.” The statement came from Jazleen in the doorway. Jazleen. Her typically sullen expression was now replaced with a more thoughtful one.
“What do you know about him?” Nathan asked her.
Jazleen shrugged. “I saw him at your awards thing. He’s okay. He’s got a good job. He treated your mama with respect. And he didn’t pretend like I was invisible. So if your mama wants to date him, what’s it to you?”
Nathan clearly did not appreciate his girlfriend chiming her two cents into the discussion. But he was saved from having to say so by a knock on the door. Because Jazleen was closest, she took it upon herself to answer.
“Oh hi,” Calla heard Landry say. “Nice to see you again...Jazleen.”
“Well, it’s pretty nice getting a look at you, too,” the girl answered. “You must be the hot date from next door.”
Landry cleared his throat a bit self-consciously and gave a halfhearted chuckle.
Jazleen let him in and ushered him into the kitchen. His dark eyes met Calla’s from across the room and she felt herself blushing like a schoolgirl.
Landry addressed her son as he offered his hand. “Nathan.”
The manners instilled by his mother made it impossible for the teenager to do anything but accept the handshake. Landry then moved to stand beside Calla. He didn’t touch her in any way, but his mere closeness seemed to say, “we are together.”
The few minutes of polite chitchat were stilted. Only Jazleen seemed completely relaxed, as if she were grateful to have the focus on someone else.
When she and Landry finally made their goodbyes and were able to get out of the house, Calla was too relieved to even remember how nervous and jittery she’d been about going on this date.
Landry walked beside her as they talked about the weather. The sunny afternoon had turned into a very chilly evening, but Calla enjoyed the warmth of male-female companionship. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it.
They took the L, the elevated train, into a downtown neighborhood. The stop was only a few blocks from the movie theater and they got their tickets and were headed inside in plenty of time.
Landry bought a huge bucket of popcorn.
“Two human beings could never actually consume that much,” Calla warned him.
He laughed and nodded in agreement. “The guy told me we get free refills on this one, so who knows.”
In the darkness of the movie theater, they sat close together. As previews played, Landry leaned closer and asked her, “Should we see that one, too?”
“Okay,” she replied.
“It’s a date then,” he said. “What about this one?”
The next trailer was even better than the previous.
“That looks good.”
“Then it’s a date,” he said.
When the final preview came on, he leaned close once more. “Third time is a charm,” he told her. “Why don’t you agree to see this one with me, too.”
“It’s not showing until spring,” she pointed out.
“I’m still going to be on Canasta Street next spring,” he said. “Are you still going to be available?”
Fortunately the movie started and Calla turned her attention to it without answering.
The director had chosen not to deal with all of the abuse horrors that had been in the book. The ones he did address were shocking enough. Like the book, the movie was filled with wrenching emotions, anger and disgust. And yet the ending was somehow hopeful. The film grabbed the audience by the throat and refused to let go. Yet Calla didn’t think the movie was as powerful as the author’s written words had been, and she told Landry so as they filed out.
He took her hand in his own. “Our minds can capture a scene much more completely than the most sophisticated camera,” he agreed. “But at least the movie was mostly true to the spirit of the book.”
Outside the theater the night had a surprise waiting for them. The sky was filled with big, fluffy snowflakes that drifted lazily toward the sidewalk.
Calla fastened the top button of her coat. She wasn’t cold, but when Landry wrapped a protective arm around her, she didn’t pull away.
In the glistening darkness they walked slowly back to the train.
“Would you like to do something else?” he asked her. “We could go to a club and listen to some music. Or we could find a place to do some dancing?”
“I don’t really feel like a lot of noise,” she said.
“Me neither,” he admitted. “I just don’t want to take you home. I enjoy talking to you.”
Calla didn’t answer, but felt much the same.
“How about we stop in here,” he said.
She glanced at the glass-fronted building. “Ice cream? You want to stop for ice cream while it’s snowing?”
He shrugged. “I know we’ll have the place to ourselves. And it fits in perfectly with my evil plan of getting you alone.” He added a melodramatic malevolent chuckle and feigned twirling a nonexistent mustache.
Calla laughed. “You’re a lunatic.”
“Yes, but one who will feed you ice cream.”
She chose pistachio almond and
Landry went for Rocky Road. They sat in a table near the window where they could watch the snow come down as they chatted and enjoyed their late-night snack.
“So Nathan didn’t seem all that comfortable with the idea of you dating,” he said.
Calla shrugged. “I think it caught him off guard. And...and things are challenging for him right now.”
“How so?”
“His future is coming at him headlong,” she said. “And breaking away from the old neighborhood is always hard. Added to that, he’s very stuck on his girlfriend and she doesn’t want him going anywhere.”
Landry nodded. “Relationships are tough for everybody. And the younger you are, the more complicated they seem.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Calla agreed with a sigh. “They have hit a rough patch, and to be quite honest, my first thought was I hoped they would break up. But I can’t bear to see Nathan hurt. He believes there is something special in this girl, something unique and worthwhile. So I’m trying to think that way, too.”
“What’s her story?” Landry asked.
Calla shook her head. “I don’t really know,” she said. “Just lots of rumors. Her mother’s been bad news for a long time. I think Jazleen’s been passed around among her relatives. And then a few months ago she came here to live with her great-aunt. The aunt is nice enough. I think she genuinely cares about the girl. But somehow not enough. I guess her plate of problems was already pretty full when she was forced to take Jazleen. Now I think she’s just waiting for her to turn eighteen so she can turn her out.”
Landry nodded. “There’s a lot of that going on.”
“Jazleen doesn’t have any friends,” Calla said. “She has no one she can count on, except Nathan.”
“All that pressure on a teenage boyfriend—it never works. No one person can be everything to somebody else.”
Calla nodded. “I keep thinking about that young woman from your school, the one with the book group. I wish Jazleen had something like that.”
“Well, she could have if she came back to school.”
“She could?”
“Sure, we’ve got a new group just getting started. I could have a place made for her, but she has to come to school.”
Calla shook her head. “She sure doesn’t seem interested in school.”
“Maybe the book group could spark her interest,” he said.
“What would it be like?”
“Most of the girls are young moms who were out part of last year either having their babies or caring for them. This is their chance to get back into a school setting. A lot of these young women are as isolated as Jazleen is, no friends, not enough family support. They might be able to be there for each other.”
“That would be great,” Calla said. “But nobody can make the girl go back to school if she doesn’t want to.”
Landry nodded. “I guess that’s going to be your job. I’ll get a place for her in the group and you get her there.”
“Me? I’m not the person to tell her what to do.”
“I guess you’ll have to,” Landry told her. “Because nobody else is going to do it. If we want flowers in the spring, we have to get those bulbs in the ground right now.”
CHAPTER
FOUR
Calla didn’t know exactly how she was going to broach the subject of going back to school and getting involved in the book group. Her first plan involved the easy way out. She’d tell Nathan and he’d tell his girlfriend to go and she would.
Of course, nothing was ever easy.
“She doesn’t like the idea of going to an alternative high school,” Nathan said. “Jazzy says they’re only for misfits and criminals. And she’s not that big on reading. I don’t think she’d be interested in a book club.”
“It’s not really a book club for people who already love reading,” Calla explained. “It’s more a book club for young women who haven’t even thought about reading.”
He shrugged. “Look, I don’t think she’ll go. But you can ask her.”
“I was hoping that you would,” Calla replied.
“Me?” Nathan looked up from his breakfast cereal. “Not a chance.”
“Why not?”
“Things are just not that good between us,” he said. “She’s in this weird place. She wants to be with me every minute. But everything I say or do seems to annoy her. If I suggested it, she’d think I was trying to get rid of her or change her or...or something. I’m just laying low and letting things work out. Isn’t that what you told me to do, Mom?”
It had been what she told him. And he was probably right about her reaction. Calla needed to be the one to convince her. She decided to try the direct approach, and if that didn’t work, she’d play it by ear.
She made arrangements to leave work early the next Monday. She wanted to go by the Cleveland apartment before either Gerty or Nathan had gotten home.
She knocked on the door of 2B. She could hear the sounds of a game show on the television. A shadow momentarily passed across the peephole and then the door opened abruptly. Jazleen’s eyes were wide with fright.
“Is Nathan all right?” she asked.
“Oh yes, yes, Nathan is fine,” Calla answered. “I didn’t come here about Nathan.”
Jazleen sighed with relief, then immediately her expression turned puzzled.
“What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to talk to you about something.”
Jazleen’s gaze became wary. She leaned indolently against the doorjamb.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“May I come in?”
With a reluctant shrug, she invited Calla inside.
The place was neat as a pin, and from the tiny kitchen came the warm and homey smell of pinto beans boiling on the stove.
Jazleen flounced across the room and seated herself cross-legged on the couch. She glanced at Calla and then deliberately turned her attention to the game show, as if she intended to ignore the woman’s presence completely.
Calla, giving herself maternal license, picked up the remote control and silenced the room.
“I was watching that.”
“I want to talk to you about something,” Calla said. “It shouldn’t take long.”
Jazleen’s expression was tight-lipped and defiant. “I’m not your child,” she pointed out. “Don’t think you can boss me around the way you do Nathan. Nobody tells me what to do.”
“I didn’t come here to give any orders,” Calla said as gently as she could manage. “I came to extend an invitation.”
“An invitation?”
“Yes. Do you remember the girl at the All-Academics Night, the one from Cavitz Alternative High School?”
“Uh, yeah, sort of.”
“Remember she had her book group there and they all stood up and cheered for her.”
“Oh yeah, that was totally lame.”
“It was? I thought it was pretty wonderful. All those girls supporting one another.”
“Don’t believe it. You can’t trust a bunch of females. I know that for sure.”
Calla was beginning to think Jazleen didn’t trust anyone—except maybe Nathan. How sad was that?
“There’s a new book group just starting up,” Calla continued, undaunted. “I thought you might be interested in attending.”
“A book group?” Jazleen’s question was incredulous.
“Yes. It would be an hour and a half each week. You have to be attending Cavitz Alternative, but being in the book club would ease you into a new school situation. It would give you a ready-made group to be a part of, and I’m sure you’d make some new friends.”
Calla was smiling. Jazleen was not.
“I don’t want to go to Cavitz Alternative,”
she said. “I don’t care anything about some book group. And I don’t need any friends.”
“I think it might be good for you,” Calla said. “Nathan is so busy and I know he talks about what he’s doing a lot. This would give you a chance to talk about what you’re doing.”
“It’s none of your business what we talk about.”
Calla felt her own temper rising. This girl was none of her business and she didn’t know why she was even trying. Then she reminded herself that she was trying because of Nathan. She was trying because Nathan believed in Jazleen. She needed to believe in her, too. And she had to find a way to get through to her.
“It’s very important to me that you start back to school,” Calla said. “And this book club is a great chance for you. Landry Sinclair is making a special effort to get you placed in the group.”
Jazleen’s jaw dropped open and her expression changed. She eyed Calla in silence for one long minute and then she smiled.
“Wait a minute,” she said. “Oh, I see what’s going on. I didn’t get it, but, of course, now it makes perfect sense.”
“What?” Calla asked.
“This book group...why you’re asking me to do this?”
Calla stared at her. She had no idea what the teenager meant.
“This is for Landry Sinclair,” Jazleen stated. “Your boyfriend wants me back in school, so you’re doing this to impress him.”
“No, of course not,” Calla said quickly.
“Yes, absolutely yes,” Jazleen said. “You can’t fool me.”
Jazleen was grinning. Calla didn’t think she recalled her smiling at anybody except Nathan.
“You want a favor from me,” Jazleen said. “That’s what this is. You want something and you’re trying to pretty it all up to make me think it’s for me, but it’s really for you. It’s for you to show off to your man.”
The girl found that delightfully funny.
Calla was about to deny it, but instinct stilled her tongue. She realized she had a better chance of convincing Jazleen when she was laughing than when she was defensive.
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