Aunt Florence was back in the living room in no time.
“C’mon, girls.”
Sally grabbed me as we walked through the back yard to the garage. She squeezed my arm and whispered, “Thank you.”
Aunt Florence dropped off Sally and waited until her parents opened the door. “Mike said that Jake was the one who took the whiskey. Is that true?”
“That’s true.”
“Okay. Mike is calling your parents now so they’ll know by the time you get home.” Aunt Florence looked at me. “I asked your mom about taking you up to St. Paul tomorrow. She wasn’t sure. I didn’t know about Jake when I asked her. She may want you to stay home.”
“Sure. I’d like to go.” If I stayed at home, I’d be grounded for sure. I’d probably have to chop up vegetables all afternoon.
“It’s up to your parents.” We pulled up to my house. It was almost eleven. “Here we are. Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Thanks for helping us tonight.”
“You’re welcome.” She patted my arm. “You better go.”
My parents both opened the door. “Colette, let’s go sit in the living room,” my mom said. “We were very worried about you. I called Suzy’s at ten o’clock and she said you left long before nine. She was puzzled about where you could be because you didn’t mention going anywhere else.”
“It was a last minute decision. I didn’t plan on going to the party.”
“Okay. Then why did you go there?”
“I thought Sally might be in trouble.” I was glad I went to the party but my parents wouldn’t understand that.
“I didn’t know you were even talking to Sally. Why did you think she might be in trouble?”
“I just had a feeling. I’m sorry you were worried about me. I went to the party because I was worried about Sally. That’s the truth.”
“Uncle Mike called,” my dad said. “He said Jake was the one who took the whiskey. Why didn’t you tell us that?”
“I don’t know.”
“You should tell us things, Colette. You were grounded for two weeks because of him. Why?”
“I don’t know. I just can’t talk anymore. Please don’t ask me any more questions.”
My mom went over to stand next to my dad’s chair. “John, why don’t we go to bed? You’re getting upset, I’m getting upset, and I bet Colette is upset too.”
My dad started to say something. My mom put her hand on his shoulder. “We can talk more tomorrow. Let’s go to bed.”
“Aunt Florence said I was going to St. Paul with her tomorrow. Am I?” I really didn’t think I could take any more grilling. I wondered if Sally was being grilled by her parents.
“Florence asked me if you could go with her.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” My dad said.
“I didn’t know about Jake when she asked. Do you want to go, Colette?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Then I want you to talk to us when you get back,” my mom said.
“I’ll be firing Jake tomorrow,” my dad said.
“Can I go to bed now?” I asked.
“Go to bed. We have nine o’clock Mass in the morning”
My mom woke me at eight fifteen. She told me Aunt Florence would pick me up at ten o’clock. I was glad I got to ride in the car up to St. Paul, eat in the wonderful River Room at Dayton’s, and who knows what else with Aunt Florence.
Gramps walked right next to me all the way to the church. He asked me about the end of school, summer plans, working at the store; everything but the party the night before. I didn’t want to talk about it anyway. He put his arm around me and to tell you the truth, I wanted to cry because I couldn’t stand the thought of Gramps being disappointed in me.
Mass was the same as usual with people standing, sitting, kneeling, saying prayers, and singing along with the off-key sopranos. And then, as luck would have it, Father Walsh’s sermon was about the effects of lying and dishonesty on the family. He talked about rebuilding trust after it had been lost. I could have sworn he was talking to me.
At the back of the church, Sally waited for me. “Thanks, again, for getting me out of there. We’ll talk later.”
“Good. I’d like that.” I wanted to say I’ve really missed you.
Aunt Florence tapped me on the shoulder. “Ready?” She said.
“I’m ready for the River Room’s popovers.”
Chapter Twenty Six
St. Paul
Aunt Florence was very chatty on the drive to St. Paul. The drive was a little over an hour and it was filled with really pretty sights. There were wonderful farms and planted fields of corn, wheat, and other crops. The crops weren’t very high yet since it was only the beginning of June but they looked so green and I loved their perfect rows. The hills were rolling so you could see far in the distance. We saw cows munching and horses running in the fields. I couldn’t get enough of it.
Aunt Florence said we should come back in August when the corn would be taller than us. We drove through Hastings, another cool town on the Mississippi. There were big, old mansions with turrets to look at that Aunt Florence and I loved. Three rivers came together in Hastings; the Mississippi, the St. Croix, and the Vermillion. If we were lucky, we would see eagles circling.
So the conversation was pleasant on the way to St. Paul and not a word was said about the events of the night before. We pulled up to Dayton’s Department Store and Aunt Florence parked underneath the store. Soon we stood waiting to be seated at the River Room.
There were white tablecloths on the tables and pretty chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. It wasn’t bright in the restaurant so I had to blink until my eyes got used to the darkness. Aunt Florence and I sat at a round table for two. The waitress brought over popovers on a china plate. There was a little metal dish filled with whipped butter.
“Go ahead, Colette. I bet you’re hungry.”
I was hungry since I hadn’t eaten yet. I broke off some of the popover and buttered it. It melted immediately. I bit into it and thought I was in heaven. It was that good.
Usually I ordered Quiche Lorraine at the River Room but Aunt Florence said I should try their chicken pot pie. She said it was delicious. Well, Aunt Florence talked me into it and I tell you it was the best decision I ever made. The chicken pot pie was more than delicious and when I added popovers melting in my mouth, I had to say that the River Room was my favorite place to eat.
We walked out of the restaurant and through the women’s clothes area. “Do you want to look for a new dress?” Three years ago Aunt Florence and I came to St. Paul and ate at the River Room. After lunch, I talked Aunt Florence into buying the most fabulous red dress ever.
Aunt Florence laughed. “No, I don’t need another dress. Although my red dress is Mike’s favorite, so thank you.” She gave a little curtsy. “Should we go to the Dairy Queen for a malt?”
“Sure.” I had never turned down a Dairy Queen in my life.
“How about the Monument to eat it?”
“Okay.” We had slurped our malts at the Monument three years before while Aunt Florence told me about her son, Daniel.
“Your choice. Should we drive down Summit Avenue on our way to the Dairy Queen?”
“Sure. You know it’s my favorite street in St. Paul.” Aunt Florence was being really, really nice. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t believe how nice she was. I wondered why she hadn’t asked me about last night.
We drove by the Cathedral, the big church in St. Paul, and we were on Summit Avenue. Even though Hastings had some wonderful houses to look at, Summit won, hands down. It was mile after mile of huge houses, some churches and schools, the Governor’s Mansion, and people jogging down the center boulevard. What I liked was that every house was unique. Aunt Florence and I liked so many of the houses that we really couldn’t pick a favorite. She told me every house had a story all its own.
We went over the Lake Street Bridge; not my favorite thing to do, believe m
e. To call it rickety was an understatement because the whole bridge shook and shuddered if a bus went over it. Aunt Florence paid no attention to the state of the bridge because she was too busy droning on and on about the Mississippi River. We got our two strawberry malts at the Dairy Queen and then drove back over the Lake Street Bridge. I hung onto both of our malts as we shook along.
Aunt Florence turned onto the River Drive and the shaking stopped. Within a couple of minutes we were at the Monument. The Monument was a memorial to the World War One soldiers from St. Paul and Ramsey County. It was a tall, simple cross with benches surrounding it and it had a great view of the river.
“Should we sit, Colette?” Aunt Florence asked. “I need to sit to drink my malt.”
“Yeah, I do too.” We both sipped our malts.
“Ooh, that’s good,” Aunt Florence said. She looked at me. “You know that I didn’t bring you up here just to eat at the River Room and sip our malts at the Monument.”
“I know.”
“Why do you think we’re here?”
“You want to know about last night.”
“Yes. That’s part of it.”
“Okay. You can ask me questions.” I took a long drink from the straw.
“Let me start with this. Colette, you’re my only niece. I love you very much and I don’t like to see you sad or worried. Three years ago, you listened to me pour out my heart about a painful time in my life right in this same spot. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
“I didn’t mind. In fact, I was glad to listen.”
“I know. Because that’s the way you are.” She took in a deep breath. “Let me tell you what that meant to me. It changed my life. We found my son, Daniel, and I’m forever grateful for that. But it changed my life in other ways too. I don’t think I would have met Mike and then Rosie wouldn’t be here either.”
“Do you really think that?”
“Yes, I do. A great weight was lifted off of me when I was able to talk about Daniel. I could start to live my life and actually be happy.” Aunt Florence sipped her malt.
I couldn’t think of anything to say. I took another drink of my malt and looked down at the ground. I never thought it would be hard to talk about things but I didn’t know how to start.
“As I found and our whole family found out three years ago, it’s much healthier to talk about things.”
“I don’t want anybody to be disappointed in me.”
“Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s better to come clean. You told Mike that Jake stole his whiskey. Let’s start there. How did that happen?”
I told Aunt Florence about Jake coming into the house uninvited and then taking some whiskey and filling the bottle with water. “I screamed at him and told him to leave and that woke up Rosie.”
“We came home shortly after that. Why did you lie?”
“I thought you’d think that I told him to come over. And I’m not a tattletale.”
“Okay. But why would you take a punishment like grounding for him? Does he have something else over your head?”
“I don’t know if I would say that.”
“There must be something because you’re protecting him. Do you like him?”
“Not anymore.”
“But you used to like him? Is that why you recommended him for the job?”
“I guess.”
“What happened between you and Sally?”
I told Aunt Florence about Sally thinking she was going on a date with Jake and Jake sitting with me. “I was part of a lie to Mrs. Reynolds and my mom. I felt bad about that but Sally was my best friend so I thought I was helping her.”
“You told Sally you would go to the movie with her so her mom wouldn’t know that Jake was meeting her. You went out on a limb for her. What did she get mad about?”
“She accused me of trying to steal Jake away from her.”
“Were you?”
“No. I didn’t know what she was talking about. So Sally wouldn’t talk to me at school and I had no one to talk to at lunch.”
Aunt Florence patted my arm. “That’s so hard.”
“Sally started hanging around with Jake’s sister, Sam. After a while, I realized that she wasn’t going to get over it or talk it out with me. I finally sat with Suzy at lunch and that was better.”
“That was good. It’s better to have more than one friend.”
“I was mad at Sally. So I wanted to get back at her. Jake had asked me whether he could get a job at the store. I told my dad he’d be a good worker.”
“From everything I’ve heard he is a good worker.”
“Yeah, he is.” I had slurped the last of my malt. I put the cup on the ground.
“Here, Colette.” Aunt Florence held out her hand. I gave her the empty cup. “Why don’t we walk?”
We both stood up. Aunt Florence put our empty cups in the trash bin. I liked the walk along the River Drive. It felt good to move around.
“Did anything else happen with Jake?”
“Yes, but I don’t know if I can talk about it.”
“Take your time, Colette. Remember what I said about a big weight coming off when I talked about Daniel.”
I thought, what do I have to lose? I told her about accidentally meeting Jake and his friends in front of Musolf’s. The words tumbled out of my mouth, one after another, to the point where I didn’t even know what I was going to say next. Aunt Florence didn’t say a word. “So we met outside and they all emptied their pockets of things they had stolen. I couldn’t believe it. I was going to tell Tommy Musolf.”
“Okay. I still don’t understand what you did.”
“Jake told me to empty my pockets and he had put a candy bar in there.”
“Again. You didn’t do it.”
“I know but I didn’t tell Tommy either. And on the way home, I ate the candy.”
“So you felt guilty.”
“Mr. Musolf was at our house sitting with Gramps when I got home. I went upstairs instead of talking with them. I didn’t want Mr. Musolf and Gramps to know what I did. I felt terrible.” I felt the tears in my eyes sting. I blinked hard.
Aunt Florence had her hands behind her back. She didn’t interrupt.
“I guess I was embarrassed by the whole thing. I never thought that I wouldn’t stand up to someone, especially when I knew it was wrong.”
“Do a lot of people follow Jake?”
“Yeah. Everybody thinks he’s cool. He has his own car and he’s the star pitcher on the baseball team so the boys follow him. The girls think he’s cute.”
“He is a good-looking boy.”
I remembered how I used to turn red whenever Jake looked at me or talked to me. He must have seen that. He would smile at me and get me to check out cigarettes for him, another thing I wasn’t supposed to do. Now that I thought about it, I felt used. Really used.
“I have a question. Did you know he was stealing when you recommended him to your dad?”
Now I was really sad. Sometimes if I closed my eyelids tight, I could keep the tears from escaping. Aunt Florence had her arm around me. “It’s okay.” She steered me back to the benches around the Monument. The tears ran down my cheeks. Aunt Florence gave me some tissues; she always had some in her pocket. “I was just so dumb. I can’t believe how dumb I was.”
“People do a lot of things when they’re hurt. You were very hurt by Sally. And I think you did kind of like Jake, didn’t you?”
“I liked him paying attention to me. The girls at school seemed surprised when he talked to me at school. So it made me feel good, specially if Sally saw it.”
“Completely understandable. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“So he started working at the store and then I was worried about his friends coming in and stealing from us. I checked out cigarettes for him and I wasn’t supposed to. He knew I wouldn’t say anything just like when he stole from Musolf’s. And the whiskey too; he knew I wouldn’t tell.�
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“Tell me about why you went to the party.”
“I was furious at Jake after the whiskey deal. So I didn’t talk to him at school. I worked with him yesterday. I tried to stay away from him all day. He invited me to the party before he left. I said no, I wasn’t interested.”
“Why did you change your mind?”
“I told Suzy about Jake taking the whiskey and then filling the bottle with water. Suzy started talking about how conceited Jake was. I found out she had been invited to the party by Sam. She said she knew the parents were gone so there’d be a lot of drinking. I got really worried about Sally because she didn’t drink.”
“So you went over there.”
“I did. There were lots of kids there. I tried to get Sally to leave. She wouldn’t. I was going to go home when the neighbor called and Jake told everyone to leave. That’s when I brought Sally over to your house.”
“Sally was lucky you went over there. Particularly after the way she treated you.”
“I hope she didn’t get in too much trouble.”
“Colette, you’re a good friend.”
“Sally and I were best friends from first grade on. We had never had a fight. I hope we can talk it out and be friends again.”
“I hope so too. Don’t forget about Suzy.”
“Suzy’s really nice. I didn’t pay any attention to her when I was with Sally. I’m not going to dump her now.”
Aunt Florence nodded. “Feel better?”
“Yeah, I feel better.”
“Do you have anything else to tell me about?”
“No.”
“Okay, good. I’m going to tell you what I think. You didn’t do anything wrong when it came to the movie other than being part of a lie. The incident at Musolf’s was not your fault but you should have told Tommy about it. Jake coming over to our house was really inexcusable. I think he knew he had control over you and he wanted to see if you would tell on him.”
“Maybe.”
“The biggest problem with all that happened is the fact that you lied to your parents several times.”
I didn’t know what to say because it was true. I had lied; for Sally and for Jake. “What’s going to happen now? Am I going to be grounded again?”
It Starts With a Lie Page 11
