Chapter 15
I fell into this coma-like sleep that night and didn’t wake up until three the next day. I don’t remember dreaming; I don’t even remember climbing the stairs to my room and getting into bed. The house was empty when I woke up and I was making myself a cup of tea when the phone rang. It was one of my friends from school, Brenda. Actually Brenda and Wendy were my two closest girl friends at school. We were in a lot of the same classes and had known each other since grade one. They both lived in Glenn Park, the new development around the high school. In the summer I usually didn’t see much of either of them but this year since Beth moved in across the street I hadn’t seen them at all. They had both phoned a few times but I never returned their calls. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them any more; it’s just that I didn’t see the point. Even before Beth came my life was divided between school and home and that division included summer holidays. During the school year I hung around with Brenda and Wendy and Janet and a few other kids from home room but on holidays, especially summer vacation I hung out in the neighborhood with Dan and Harold and the other kids from the street. It started when I was young and Ma wouldn’t let me go out of the neighborhood to play. I guess in a way my friendships were based more on convenience than anything else.
“Hey stranger!” she said. Brenda had a real cheerful voice especially over the phone. “Where ya been all summer? I’ve called at least a dozen times. So has Wendy.”
“I’ve been kind of busy,” I said.
“I heard about Danny,” she said.
“News travels fast in this bustling little metropolis. It only happened yesterday,” I said sarcastically. I was feeling kind of edgy and irritated about Brenda’s call.
“She okay?” she asked.
“A couple of broken legs and a cut on her head but otherwise she fine,” I said.
“Ouch! Mrs. Jensen came into the restaurant yesterday. She said there was this big commotion first thing in the morning and that they took Danny away in an ambulance. Did you hear I got a job? At The Rainbow Trout. It stinks. Literally. I come home every night reeking of greasy fries and FISH. Yuck! It takes an hour in the shower and a ton of perfume to kill the stench of the fish. Gross, but I like the money, and the other waitresses are really nice—especially this one chick Lorraine. We piss ourselves laughing sometimes over the stupid things the customers say. She’s old enough to be my mother but she’s a real hoot. You’d love her! Wendy got a job too—cashier at Kmart. She really likes it. She’s already met a cute guy—Dave—the manager of the shoe department.”
As Brenda was babbling away my mind was taking this little trip. It hadn’t even occurred to me to get a job this summer. I would be sixteen in a few weeks and Ma said I could get a parttime job as soon as I turned sixteen. Wendy and Brenda were a few months older than me; that’s why they were working already. Ever since Beth came to town I hadn’t even thought about normal things like that. I felt this sudden surge of panic, like I had to go out and get a job right away so I could prove to myself that I was normal like Brenda and Wendy.
“So Wendy meets this guy on her first day. He’s a few years older than her but he’s kinda cute and he asks her out so she goes and they end up at the movies and lard-face Karl’s working there that night and sees them together and she’s all embarrassed because this is her first real date in her life and her brother’s there watching the whole thing laughing and pointing his flashlight at them every five minutes. It was awful but he must have really liked her because he’s asked her out again only this time they went to the Double Gee for pizza and then they went for a walk down by Boulevard Lake and who should be there but Karl with a bunch of his buddies drinking beer out of the trunk of his car and he spots Wendy and
Dave and immediately starts making all these cat calls and kissing sounds and this gets all the other guys going and Wendy’s so mad she goes up to Karl and kicks him in the you-know-what’s and he falls to the ground moaning and screaming and Wendy and Dave high tail it out of the park laughing because it’s thrilling or something and when they get to Dave’s car he kisses her right there on the lips and everything and now she’s in love with him and loves her work and even thinks she might quit school and everything which would be a shame because she’s smart, well at least smarter than being a cashier for the rest of her life. Anyway it’s just something she’s thinking about right now because she’s in love and likes kissing this guy even at work sometimes whenever no one is looking.
My job stinks. Did I tell you that? There aren’t any cute guys there at all. It’s a real drag. Have you found a job yet?”
“Not yet. But I’m looking,” I lied. “I’ve been taking care of
Dan all summer and now with her legs all messed up I probably won’t be able to start anything till school starts.”
“That’s too bad. About Dan I mean. What happened anyway?” she asked. She was chewing gum and snapping it and popping it in my ear the entire time we were talking. Brenda had some really annoying habits like that. She also used to twist her hair which was naturally curly around her pointer finger until her finger was locked in the hair like a Chinese finger cuff and then she’d unravel it and start all over again in a different spot on her head. She’d do this absent-mindedly all day long in class. One time Mr. Williams, our physics teacher was so distracted by her hair curling that he stopped teaching and asked Brenda to pull her finger out of her head immediately or leave his class so she just up and left. I didn’t think Brenda had it in her to do something so ballsy but I spoke to her in the washroom afterwards and she had been crying from embarrassment. She left the class because she was humiliated not courageous. It didn’t stop her from twisting her hair though. I guess she wasn’t that humiliated.
“She was foolin’ around in the tree and fell,” I said. “At six o’clock in the morning! Mrs. Jensen said it was before anyone even got up and that your parents didn’t even know she was outside. What was she doing out there in the middle of the night?” “Don’t know. Mrs. Jensen’s full of crap anyway. That’s for sure,” I said.
“Well that’s just what she said. I never liked her anyway. And those awful Jensen boys. What grease balls! Yuck! Hey, Wendy and I were thinking of going to the movies tonight. Easy Rider’s playing at the Odeon, with Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson—never heard of them. And Peter Fonda. He’s Jane’s brother. What a hunk. Total babe. And it’s free! Karl’s working tonight and he’ll let us in.” “Where’s Wendy’s lover boy tonight?” I asked.
“Boys night out. Besides she doesn’t see him every night you know. It’s not that pathetic if you know what I mean. Come with us. It’ll be fun. We can go for pizza after. Come on Jo. We haven’t seen you all summer,” she begged. I hated it when people begged like that. It reminded me of Dan.
But it appeared that the only way I could get Brenda to shut up was to cave in and go out with her and Wendy. I sat in the living room sipping tea and watched an ancient black-and-white movie on channel four with a bunch of actors I didn’t know. The phone rang again but this time I didn’t pick it up. I couldn’t stand the thought of another second on the phone after Brenda blew my ear off like that.
Brenda and Wendy were coming to pick me up at six-thirty. I felt kind of guilty about not going up to the hospital to see Dan that night but Ma said it would be good for me to spend some time with my old friends and since Dan was coming home the next day anyway, there really wasn’t much need for me to go. Ma was right of course; I did need a night out with Brenda and Wendy, to get my mind off the events of the day before.
We were catching the early movie because that was the only time Karl could get us in for free. It was actually great to see them. I felt bad for avoiding their phone calls all summer and made this promise to myself that I would spend more time with them. “Let’s walk,”Wendy said. “It’s such a nice night.” Of the three of us I guess Wendy was the athletic one. She was on the track team and volleyball team and bowled with a league since she was old enough to pick up a ball and roll it down the alley.
“Wow! What happened to Mr. Luoto’s house?” Brenda asked squinting into the evening sun. She put her hand over her eyebrows like a visor so she could gawk at the house better. “Who lives there now?”
“His son,” I mumbled, and making a futile attempt at steering them away from anything at all to do with Beth, I said “we should get a move on it if we’re gonna make the show on time.” But good old Brenda could be as stubborn as a bull sometimes and just ignored me.
“It looks fantabulous! Is that their car? Is that a Mustang? Let’s go see!”
Before I could stop her Brenda was across the street running her hands all over the Mustang like she was patting some giant horse. It looked like she was really getting turned on. “Wow! Check this out Wen. It’s even got leather seats. And oh my God! Oh my God! An eight track!”
“A convertible! And red no less. I saw one of these in Seventeen magazine last month. It was a fashion spread for summer and all the models were wearing bikinis. Wouldn’t it be groovy to take a ride in it?”Wendy said. The two of them gushed and giggled like a couple of five-year-olds.
“Are you kidding? I can’t believe I’m this close to a Mustang,”
Brenda gushed, all gaga and hysterical.
“Hey it’s just a car you guys,” I said trying to sound cool but secretly I knew just how they felt, “and you’re touching private property in case you haven’t noticed.”
“It’s okay Jo-Jo.”
Beth came out of nowhere and startled us. Both Wendy and Brenda stopped dead in their tracks. It was like they were suddenly frozen in time where one minute there’s all this action and the next thing you know it’s Wap! Zonk! Bop!—just like in Batman. “Hey Beth! My friends were just checking out Sally,” I said embarrassed and feeling a little guilty because I was caught redhanded with people outside our tight little circle that she didn’t know about. It was like we had this unspoken rule that Beth was the only one who could draw others in—like Josh and his crowd— and just more proof that she was taking over Harold’s and my life. “This is Wendy and Brenda. They’re Mustang virgins,” I joked to cover up how anxious I was feeling about us being there. It worked too because we all started laughing and yukking it up and then Beth asked, “How’d you like a ride?” and I felt all light and happy like this big pressure had just been lifted from my shoulders. Wendy and Brenda both nodded their heads like those goofy sock puppets, Lamb Chops and Charlie Horse that Sherry Lewis had on Ed Sullivan. Before I had a chance to decline the offer, Wendy and Brenda had already hopped in the back seat of Sally and were rubbing their hands over the leather upholstery and giggling all excited again. When she started the engine they both let out this little gasp of pure joy.
“So where are we headed?” she asked looking back at them through her rear-view mirror. For once they both kept their big traps shut except for these little oohs and aahs and let me do the talking.
“We’re going to the movies,” I said.
“What’s playing?” Beth asked.
“Easy Rider,” I said.
“Oh I just love Peter Fonda don’t you?” Beth said all excited sounding just like Brenda and Wendy. It was weird how she could change herself like that so no matter who she was with she just fit in.
“He’s okay. Jack Nicholson’s pretty cool though,” I said. “I don’t know. The way he talks. He is so sexy. But Peter’s better looking. Just like his father,” Beth said, looking at Brenda and Wendy through her rear-view mirror again.
“I know what you mean!”Wendy said adding her two cents from the peanut gallery and before I knew it the three of them were going on about how sexy Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda were, who were their favorite actors and what movies they had seen in their whole entire lives. And then just like that—boom—we were a cozy little foursome and headed off to see Easy Rider. “Karl, that’s my brother. He gets us in free all the time. Most of the time he’s a royal pain in the butt but at times like this he comes in handy,”Wendy said, as we pulled into the parking lot behind the Odeon.
“Well at least he’s good for something,” Beth joked and everyone but me started to laugh.
We got out and before I knew it Beth had her arms looped through Brenda and Wendy’s like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz where her and the Scarecrow and the Tin Man are dancing up the Yellow Brick Road on their way to see the Wizard. And I felt like Toto barking and nipping at their heels.
Karl was at the door to let us in when we got to the Odeon. He gave Beth this look, a cross between fascination and lust. Karl was a letch. I wanted to tell him to back off but instead I gave him this look that said ‘get lost creep, I hate your guts and your sister’s annoying too’. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed this about Wendy and Brenda before; just how utterly annoying and obnoxious they could be. They were yakking away while they were getting their popcorn and pops. I started to grow anxious that they were going to talk all the way through the movie, which was one of my pet peeves. It was weird because to a stranger you would have thought that Beth, Wendy and Brenda were best friends who had known each other since grade one and that I was the newcomer, not Beth. I ate my popcorn with the extra butter while that scary Dennis Hopper and hunky Peter Fonda rode around the country on motorcycles swearing and stuff and generally being pretty gross. It was a good flick though. Wendy and Brenda sat on either side of Beth sharing their licorice goodies and cherry nibs having the time of their lives.
After the movie Wendy suggested we go to the Double Gee. Beth and I looked at each other and started to laugh. “I don’t think so guys,” I said between snorts of laughter. “We’re not exactly welcome there right now.”
“Why?” Brenda asked, jumping up and down with excitement. “Let’s just say we got a little emotional last time we were in there and it wasn’t appreciated,” Beth said. “How about the A and Dub? I could really go for a Teen Burger and fries about now.” Of course everyone agreed and we hopped in Sally and headed to Inter-city and the A and Dub.
Along the way we made whooping calls to all the cute and notso-cute guys hitch hiking across Memorial Ave on their way to Fort William. I was definitely in a better mood. Like everyone else who met Beth, Brenda and Wendy were seduced by her charm and thrilled to be riding through the streets of the city in an honest to goodness red Mustang convertible with an eight track and everything. The music was blasting through the night air so loud even the stars were shaking. We sang along to the Who and the Stones, the Beach Boys and the Beatles. Wendy, Brenda and I always sang together, long before Beth and I did. We’d walk home from school and sing songs instead of talking.
Suddenly clear out of the blue, I was overcome by this feeling of intense affection as I looked back at the two of them singing along, clapping their hands and pretending they were rock stars holding microphones and air guitars. With meeting Beth and the events of the summer I had forgotten that these girls were my friends—next to Harold—my best friends. Yes, next to Harold. He was my best friend, had been all my life. We were born together and would probably die together. As much as he bugged me and drove me crazy I couldn’t imagine life without him. The A and Dub was full of cars at that time of night. It was one of the local hangouts where kids congregated to flirt with danger, which meant attempt picking up guys or chicks that were all wrong for you, and to find out where “the party” was. Because no matter what night of the week it was, during the summer there was a party somewhere. Not that this was ever a concern for me in the past since I didn’t hang out there, and neither did Brenda or Wendy, but this was a different night, on this night we were with the unpredictable Miss Luoto and that meant anything could happen and it usually did. After the carhop took our orders Beth got out of the car to go to the washroom. On her way back she stopped to talk to that guy Josh we had met at the love-in at Waverly Park.
“Who’s that cute guy she’s talking to?” Brenda asked.
“That’s Josh. We met him at Waverly Park a few days ago,” I said. I didn’t want to tell Brenda and Wendy that we went to the love-in. I just didn’t feel like re-living the entire day, which I knew they’d make me do if they knew about it.
“He’s so cute eh! I think he looks a bit like Cat Stevens don’t you Wen?” Brenda said, gawking at Josh like she’d never seen a boy before.
“Just like,”Wendy said. “This has got to be the grooviest. I can’t believe we’re actually at the A and Dub in a far-out Mustang convertible, with all these fantabulously cute guys around, not to mention one of them is talking to a friend of ours. I can’t believe this turned out to be such a great night!”
“What about Dave?” I asked.
“Dave who?”Wendy laughed but I think she actually did forget all about good old whatshisname for a minute there. The three of us watched as Beth talked to Josh, touching his arm as she spoke and leaning into him whenever they laughed. He pulled a strand of her hair that was falling in front of her face behind her ear and then gently touched her cheek with the back of his hand. Then he put his arm around her waist and drew her closer to him so their bodies were touching as they talked. They looked like they could have waltzed across the parking lot the way they were holding each other.
“Your friend is very interesting Jo,”Wendy said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I dunno. She’s beautiful for one thing in a different kind of way. Everything about her is different,”Wendy said.
“Yeah. You’re right about that. Everything about Beth is different,”
I said.
“I think it’s a good thing, eh Bren?”Wendy asked.
“Absolutely. No wonder we haven’t heard from you all summer if you’ve been hanging out with Beth. I wouldn’t have called us either,” Brenda said.
“Me either eh,”Wendy agreed.
“That’s not it,” I said. I was feeling guilty all of a sudden because they were being so nice about everything. They should have been at least mildly irritated that I hadn’t bothered to return one of their calls but here they were completely understanding and happy just to be where they were at that moment. I swear Beth cast spells on people. “It’s just that I’ve had to spend a lot of time with
Dan this summer and I’ve been hanging out with Korkala too.”
“How is old Harold?” Brenda asked.
“He’s fine,” I said.
“I thought you hated him,”Wendy asked.
“He’s changed. A lot,” I said.
“What is he? Mildly tolerable now?” Brenda joked.
“Yeah! Instead of down right obnoxious. That is a big improvement!”Wendy said. Then Brenda and Wendy broke into fits of laughter at her razor sharp wit.
“Come on you guys. He’s changed,” I said, feeling this inexplicable need to defend Harold of all people.
“Into what?” Brenda said. They started to howl even louder and by the time Beth returned they were just about wetting themselves. Their legs were tangled around each other and their backs were pushed against either side of the car like bookends. “What’s so funny?” Beth asked as she opened the door to Sally. She looked at me and then at the two hyenas and then back at me again. We shrugged our shoulders and smiled. A few minutes later the carhop came with our food.
“How’s Josh?” I asked, not because I really cared but because I was curious about what they were talking about.
“There’s this thing at his house tomorrow night. He invited all of us,” she said.
“What kinda thing?” I asked.
“A party thing,” she said.
“I don’t think I can make this thing,” I said.
“Why?” she asked.
“Dan’s coming home tomorrow,” I said.
“So. She’ll be in bed early for sure. This thing won’t start until late. Ten, eleven maybe,” she said.
“I don’t know. Let’s talk about it tomorrow. See how things go,” I said putting her off. I wasn’t interested in doing some “thing” late at night at weird Josh’s place.
“How about you girls?” she asked. “You want to go to a party tomorrow night?”
“I’d love to,”Wendy said, “but I have a date.”
“Bring him along,” Beth said. “What about you Brenda?”
“I have to work. I’m usually pretty tired afterwards. And smelly. All the grease. I smell like a human French fry after an hour in that place. By the time I get home and shower I’m pretty beat. Don’t really feel like doing much.” That was all code for Brenda being too scared to do something like that—not in a million years. “Boy I’ve never heard three more pathetic, lame excuses in my life!” Beth said, shaking her head.
“They’re not excuses,” I protested, not in a big way just enough to let her know I was serious. “We’ve got lives too eh.” “Could have fooled me,” she said, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. “Anyway, think about it Jo-Jo. It could be a blast.” The truth was, Wendy, Brenda and I weren’t the type of girls who went to “things” at strange guy’s houses. Wendy was in her first relationship and Brenda and I had never been kissed much less on a date. This thing reeked of another one of Beth’s escapades, the kind that got me into big trouble, and I really wasn’t up for it, much less drag my two oldest school chums along for the ride. Besides the jury was still out on Josh. He was cute and mysterious which had its appeal but it also made me suspicious. There was something about him that spelled TROUBLE.
We finished our teen burgers and root beers, reliving the movie and laughing at some of the creeps at the A and Dub who thought they were so cool. Beth didn’t bring up Josh again the rest of the night. She dropped off Wendy and Brenda at their houses and drove me home last. We rode back to the neighborhood in silence. Beth invited me in for cookies and milk and to listen to some music, but I wasn’t in the mood. I was feeling tired again and just wanted to sleep, go into another coma and wake up when this was all over. But I had to admit the evening had been a nice distraction from thinking about Danny and Joe and Ma and all the disasters in my life.