by Dyan Sheldon
“You mind if we skip the café today?” The all-purpose mailbag swung back and forth between us. “I thought mayhaps we could do something different. Change our habit. Break the mould.”
What did he want to do, go abseiling instead?
“I thought we could go to Java.”
Java?
“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.” He was shuffling in place so much that his mailbag banged against the wall behind him. “It was only a suggestion.”
I liked going for coffee with everyone, but I liked my walks home with Cooper even more. I really looked forward to them. Hanging out with Cooper always cheered me up. I said that I’d rather go with him.
“You’re sure?” His bag hit the wall again. “I don’t want to pressure you.”
I said that I was sure.
Cooper made a sweeping gesture with one arm. “In that case, shall we sally forth?”
But I was the one who did most of the sallying. Cooper schlumped along beside me with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the ground. Instead of the steady stream of anecdotes and thoughts I was used to, he let me do all of the talking, just grunting and umming and occasionally saying “Wow” or “Right” or “That’s terrific” when I paused for his response.
“And not only that,” I was blathering as we reached Java, “but they all totally got the idea that it was so hot because of global warming. Maria, you know the one with the braids and the bows? Maria even wanted to know if the moose was so close to the houses because there weren’t many woods left! Can you believe it? Isn’t that great?”
“Yeah,” said Cooper. He tugged on the strap of the mailbag. “So this is my treat, understood? I’ll even throw in the cupcake of your choice.” Cooper wasn’t exactly looking at me – as far as I could tell he was half-smiling at someone behind me. “You won’t get a better deal than that.”
We sat by the window.
“You know, I kind of think of this as our table,” said Cooper, as he ripped open a bag of sugar so hard it shot all over.
I shook sugar from my cupcake. The woman next to us shook sugar off her skirt.
“You mean, because no one’s going to want to sit here after we go?”
He smiled sourly, darting a wary look at our neighbour.
“At least it wasn’t milk,” I joked. “Or soy sauce. I did that once in a restaurant and it went everywhere. It looked like there’d been an oil spill or something.”
“Umm,” grunted Cooper. He was concentrating on opening the next bag very carefully. “Taken in that perspective, I can see that I’m terrifically lucky. Fortune’s child.”
After he successfully got the sugar into his cup, Cooper dedicated his attention to smoothing out the bag and studying it as if he was trying to decode it.
I usually found talking to Cooper easy and effortless, but today it was about as easy and effortless as walking the Inca Trail in stilettos with an armadillo on your back.
“I’ve only had tea in here before,” I said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “This coffee’s really good.”
“I’ve never had the coffee here either.” Cooper picked up his cup to take his first sip of a Java latte. He missed his mouth and poured it down his shirt.
“It doesn’t look like you’re going to have it now.”
It was the woman at the next table who laughed at that joke.
“Damn and tarnation.” Cooper jumped up, knocking the napkin holder to the floor.
After things settled down, he held his cup near his mouth, gazing into it like there was something really interesting going on in there. You know, like a solar eclipse or a migration of starlings.
I bit into my cupcake. “This is good, too.”
He eyed his cupcake over the rim of his cup as if he thought it was going to explode. “Yeah. It looks good.”
I had to wonder what we were doing there. Were we on some reality TV show that I didn’t know about? Had he lost some kind of bet?
“Is there something the matter?” I finally asked.
“The matter?” Cooper repeated. “What makes you say that?”
“Because you’re acting like you have seven minutes to save the world and you don’t think you’re going to make it.”
“Nah.” He didn’t laugh, but he did smile. Barely. “I only have five.”
“I didn’t mean to—you know, if it’s none of my business—”
“There’s nothing the matter, Gracie. I’m just being a total klutz today.” He put down his cup. Coffee sloshed into the saucer. “But, you know, I was thinking…” His fingers drummed on the table. “Now that you’re officially not going to the dance…” He had his eyes on the sugar bowl. “Well, I was wondering if you might want to go to the party at Neighbours instead.”
“The party?” I’d pretty much forgotten about the party.
“Yeah…” He picked up his cup. “You’ve seemed a little diminished with the cares and concerns of human life lately.” He smiled. Encouragingly. “And the party’s going to be fun. An interlude of comradeship and light relief in a troubled world as it hurtles towards oblivion.” He put his cup down again.
“I don’t know…” I wasn’t a party person at the best of times – which this definitely wasn’t. “I don’t really function well in large groups of strangers.” Not if most of them are over nine. “And I don’t really know anybody except Mrs Darling and Mrs Hendricks.”
“That’s not true. You know Harlan and Anita and Mrs Greaves.” Those were the volunteers we usually hung out with after our classes. Having given up on his cup, Cooper picked up his spoon. “And you know me.” He put down his spoon. “That’s why I thought… Well, you know … that we could go together.” He knocked his spoon to the floor.
I watched him retrieve the spoon. Did he mean go together like on a date, or go together like we went to the library?
“Together?”
Cooper wrapped his fingers around his cup as if he was afraid it was going to take off. “Yeah, you know… To give each other moral support.”
I don’t want to, like, sound bad or anything, Savanna Zindle was saying in my head, but you don’t think Cooper’s interested in you, do you…? I mean he, like, definitely hasn’t said anything about you to Archie … not as a girl…
That’s when it finally hit me. He felt sorry for me. That’s what it was: pity. Because he knew Savanna wasn’t speaking to me and that she was hanging out with Marilouise instead. He was trying to cheer me up.
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to be his charity case. And it wasn’t as if I was gutted about not going to the dance. I never wanted to go in the first place. But even though I didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for me, the truth was that I could stay home by myself any other night of the week. Preferably one when I wouldn’t have to imagine Savanna all sparkling and laughing with Marilouise.
“Well…”
“You shouldn’t let that dress go to waste,” said Cooper. “Since you already bought it.” He put his hands on the table and leaned back in his chair. “I’ll dress up, too. Wear my sharkskin suit.”
“Well…”
I pictured Cooper in a shark costume. Didn’t I tell you he’s weird? whispered Savanna.
And then I heard Savanna laugh. For a second, I thought it was just in my head, but Cooper glanced out the window, so I knew he’d heard her, too. Savanna was standing in front of Java with her back to us, watching Marilouise manoeuvring her way off the bus with her arms full of shopping. Marilouise saw me and flapped a hand. Savanna didn’t turn around.
“I guess so,” I told Cooper. “You know, I don’t get that many invitations from sharks.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Come Back, Gracie Mooney – All Is Forgiven
The next week was different. Which was mainly because of Cooper.
Since I wasn’t meeting up with Savanna any more, I took my time getting dressed on Monday morning. I dawdled over breakfast. I couldn’t decide what I w
anted for lunch. I had no reason to hurry. No one was going to miss me if I wasn’t in time to hang out in the lounge. Cooper was waiting for me by the bike rack when I got to school.
“I thought I’d make sure you were all right. I was afraid you fell off your trusty steed.” He scuffed one foot along the ground. “Or something.” He seemed to be holding his breath. “You’re not known for your tardiness.”
I said that today I was. “You know, I just didn’t feel like rushing the way I usually do.”
Cooper nodded. “I’ve been thinking of going back to my old routine myself.”
I bent down to lock my bike.
“And another thing I was thinking…” said Cooper. “You know that great idea I had?” Cooper’s great idea was to write his own exercises for his students. He wanted them to be imaginative, relevant and entertaining. Instead of dull, dated and as dry as dust, like the ones in the old language books that had been donated to the project. “Well, I was thinking that maybe you might want to help me with it.” He was scuffing his foot again. “I figured that we could work on it during lunch.” I was afraid that he was going to fall over. “Instead of listening to verbal replays of Savanna’s latest fight with her mother.”
I laughed. I said that it sounded good to me.
So I stopped having lunch in the cafeteria and went to the study room with Cooper instead. Savanna stopped meeting me in the afternoon, because she always had some reason to stay late at school. Wednesday night, I tried to call her five times but the line was always busy and she never called me back, so I didn’t bother after that. I figured that she knew my number if she wanted to talk. And every morning I’d meet Cooper at the end of the Old Road and we’d walk the rest of the way to school together. I guess I was exhibiting a belated animal instinct for self-preservation. Why get too close when you’re liable to be shot?
I got so involved with working with Cooper on his great idea that I was too busy to miss Savanna so much. Cooper and I were basing the exercises on stuff that had really happened – either to us, to someone in his class, to someone we knew, or from a story we’d read in the paper. We laughed a lot – because most of the stories were pretty funny. Like the time Archie’s father got locked out of the house in his underwear. And the squirrel who stole candy from a vending machine. And the trouble Mr Magyar had trying to make the plumber understand him over the phone.
On Friday, Cooper had another great idea. “I was thinking we should celebrate,” he said. “Since we’ve been working so hard.” He wanted to bring a couple of old movies over to my house and order a pizza on Saturday night. “Maybe Notorious,” he suggested. “Or The 39 Steps. I’m in a Hitchcock kind of mood.” Unless I thought my father would object.
I said that my father didn’t have anything against Hitchcock.
We hung out in the café after our classes on Saturday as usual. Everybody was in a pretty festive mood. You know, talking about the party next week and what we were bringing for the potluck supper and stuff like that.
Anita was worried about what to wear. “Are we supposed to get really dressed up?” she fretted. “I don’t think I have anything that’s fancy enough.”
Mrs Greaves said that she was wearing the red wool dress she bought four years ago. “I only wear it at Christmas, so it’s always like it’s new.”
Harlan said he figured that he’d wear a jacket with his good slacks. “And maybe a tie,” he decided. “If I can find someone to knot it for me.”
Cooper said, “Wait till you see me and Gracie. Fred and Ginger, eat your hearts out. The Meeting House has never seen the likes of us before!”
That would be when my phone rang.
“Gracie! Gracie! Gracie, it’s me!”
And “me” would be Savanna.
“Gracie, are you there?”
I could tell that something was wrong. Not because she was shrieking, but because she sounded so normal. Like she always did when she was upset about something and needed to talk to me. As if it was three weeks ago and not a drop of water had passed under our bridge – or over it, either.
I turned my body so I wasn’t looking at the others – and could pretend that they weren’t looking at me. “What’s the matter?”
“Oh, Gracie… Thank God you answered. Gracie, where are you?”
Where did she think I was? About to get on a plane for Hong Kong?
“I’m at Neighbours. You know, where I am every Saturday afternoon?”
“Oh Gracie…”
I could hear tears way at the back of her voice, the way you can sometimes hear thunder in the distance long before it even looks like it’s going to storm.
“What is it? Savanna, tell me what happened.”
“I’ll tell you when I see you. I have to see you, Gracie. Like, right away.”
“But I—”
“Please…” begged Savanna. “I’m on the bus – I’ll be in town in, like, fifteen minutes. I’ll meet you at your house.”
“But I’m not at my house. I—”
“Please, Gracie. It’s, like, life and death.”
“Savanna…” Experience suggested that “life and death” didn’t necessarily mean anyone’s life was in danger.
“OK, not life and death exactly, but it’s reallyreally bad.”
“Are you all right?”
“Pleasepleaseplease. I, like, absolutely have to talk to you.”
A lot of people – people who don’t stand for anyone messing them around – would have said no. They would have said that they were really sorry, but they were in the middle of something important. They were busy. They had plans. They were feeling very hurt at the way she’d been treating them. It was way too soon to just forgive and forget.
But I wasn’t one of those people. The fact that she needed me made all the bad stuff practically disappear. I said, “I’m leaving right now.”
It was to Cooper, Harlan, Anita and Mrs Greaves that I said, “I’m really sorry.” I jammed my phone back in my bag and grabbed my things. “I have to go. It’s an emergency.” I looked at Mrs Greaves and Anita. I figured that neither of them was one of those people, either. “It’s my best friend. Something’s happened.”
“Of course,” murmured Mrs Greaves. “If your friend needs you…”
Anita nodded. “It sounded like she was pretty upset.”
Cooper, however, was one of those people who would have said no.
“Oh, come on, Gracie,” said Cooper. “You’re not going to drop everything just like that, are you? Why can’t she tell you what happened on the phone? Damn and tarnation, that’s what they’re for.”
“I’m sorry.” This time I said it just to him. “I really am. Maybe we can watch a Hitchcock another time.”
“As long as you have no regrets,” muttered Cooper.
Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave, The Lady Vanishes.
I expected to find Savanna pacing up and down on the porch, crying, when I got home, but she wasn’t there yet. I sat by the front window to wait for her.
My dad came out of the kitchen carrying a mug of tea. “What’s up? You look like you’re on sentry duty. Don’t tell me the British are coming again.” He gave me a fatherly smile. “Or are you waiting for your friend?”
I said Cooper wasn’t coming over after all. I was waiting for Savanna.
“Um…” said my dad. Now he was looking at me with fatherly concern. “I’ll be in my study if you need me.”
I had the door opened before Savanna reached the porch.
“Oh, Gracie… Thank God you’re here. What would I do if you weren’t here?” She threw herself into my arms.
“What happened?”
“Uhgratecheese,” she sobbed into my shoulder. “Uhgratecheese…”
“What happened?” I brushed curls out of my face. “Calm down and tell me what happened.”
“Uhgratecheese … uhgratecheese…”
“Come on inside.” I pulled her into the hall and shut the door with my foo
t. “Now breathe slowly and tell me what happened.”
Savanna straightened up, wiping tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. She looked like a really unhappy raccoon. She glanced from the living room to the dining room. “Where’s The Professor?”
“It’s OK.” I fumbled in the pocket of her jacket for the package of Kleenex she always carried. “He’s in his study. He’ll have the radio on.” I handed her a tissue.
“Oh, Gracie, you were right… If only I’d listened to you… You were, like, so totally right.” She blew her nose. “Why didn’t I listen to you? You always know best.”
Right about the catastrophe of climate change? Right that she wasn’t being fair to Archie? Right that she ignored my feelings? Right that she should have bought the red suit?
Savanna started crying again. “M–Morgan,” she gasped. “He was l–lying to me all along. Just like you tried to tell me he was.” She smeared some tears across her eyes. “Practically everything he told me was a big fat lie.”
“Look,” I said, pointing her towards the stairs, “you go to my room, and I’ll make you a soothing cup of herbal tea. It’ll help you calm down.”
“Coffee,” snuffled Savanna. “You know I don’t do flowers.”
“Right.” I gave her a hug. “One cup of coffee coming right up.”
“And hurry, Gracie.” She blew her nose. “Just wait till you hear what he did.”
Once Savanna got over the you-were-right and I-should-have-listened-to-you part and had calmed down and stopped sobbing, it turned out to be the most interesting story she’d ever told me about Morgan Scheck. It beat how he got that scar over his left eyebrow by miles.
That afternoon, Savanna’s parents were going to Lawson, the biggest town for at least a hundred miles, to do some Christmas shopping, and Savanna had
decided to go with them.
“I mean, like, how bizarre is that? I never go shopping with them. I’d rather shop at the Salvation Army. But I just suddenly heard myself saying, ‘wait for me’. I mean, it was like I was being guided. Like I had some psychotic premonition that I had to go to Lawson today.”
