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well,
please don't be too real. I mean ..."
Annie gave me a funny look and said, "Annie Kenyon's dull, huh?"
"No!" I protested. "No, not dull at all. Annie Kenyon's ..."
"What? Annie
Kenyon's what?" I wanted to say fascinating, because that's really
what
I was thinking, but I was too embarrassed. Instead, I said
"Interesting," but then that sounded flat, and I knew Annie couldn't
see
my face clearly in the twilight anyway, so I added "Fascinating"
after
all. I thought magical, too, but I didn't say that, even though just
sitting there in the growing darkness with Annie was so special and
so
unlike anything that had ever happened to me before that magical
seemed
like a good word for it and for her.
"Oh, Liza," Annie said, in a way I
was beginning to expect and hope for. Then she said, "So are you,"
and I
said stupidly, "So am I what?" Instead of answering, Annie pointed
down the street to where Pixie and Mommy were coming back. Then, when
I
was looking at them--the streetlights were on now--Annie said very
softly,
"Fascinating." Pixie was still carrying the shopping bag, but now it
had
a head of lettuce in it. Pixie was so low to the ground that the bag
was
humping along the sidewalk. "I hope," Annie said, "that Mommy's
planning
to wash that lettuce." We sat huddled together on the wall in the
shadow
of some big trees, watching until Pixie and Mommy were back inside
their
house, and then we walked back down to the ferry slip, shoulders
touching. I think one reason why we didn't move away from each other
was
because if we had, that would have been an acknowledgment that we
were
touching in the first place. We each called home to say we'd be late,
and on the way back in the ferry we stood as far up in the bow as
possible so we could watch the lights in Manhattan twinkling closer
and
closer as we approached. We were the only people on deck; it was
getting very cold. "Look," said Annie. She closed her hand on mine
and
pointed up with her other hand. "The stars match the lights, Liza.
Look." It was true. There were two golden Lacework patterns now, one
in
the sky and one on shore, complementing each other. "There's your
world," Annie said softly, pointing to the Manhattan skyline, gold
filigree in the distance.
"Real, but sometimes beautiful," I said, aware that I was liking
Annie's
hand touching mine, but not thinking beyond that. "And that's like my
world." Annie pointed up to the stars again. "Inaccessible."
"Not," I said to her softly, "to unicorns. Nothing's inaccessible to
unicorns.
Not even--not even white birds."
Annie smiled, as if more to herself than
to me, and looked toward Manhattan again, the wind from the ferry's
motion blowing her hair around her face. "And here we are," she said.
"Liza and Annie, suspended in between." We stood there in the bow for
the whole rest of the trip, watching the stars and the shore lights,
and
it was only when the ferry began to dock in Manhattan that we moved
apart and dropped each other's hands.
7
Two days later, on Wednesday,
Annie managed to get out of her school long enough at lunchtime to
smuggle me into the cafeteria--a huge but shabby room as crowded as
Penn
Station or Grand Central at Christmas. While we were sitting there
trying to hear what we were saying to each other, a tall gangling kid
unfolded himself from his chair, took at least a foot of heavy chain
out
of his pocket, and started whirling it around his head, yelling
something nobody paid any attention to. In fact, no one paid any
attention to the boy himself either, except for a few people who
moved
out of range of the swinging chain. I couldn't believe it--I couldn't
believe anyone would do that in the first place, and I also couldn't
believe that if someone did, everyone would just ignore him. I guess
I
must have been staring, because Annie stopped in the middle of what
she
was saying and said, "You're wondering why that guy is swinging that
chain, right?"
"Right," I said, trying to be as casual about it as she was.
"Nobody
knows why he does it, but in a few minutes one of the carpentry
teachers
will come along and take him away--there, see?" A large man in what I
guess was a shop apron came in, ducked under the flying chain, and
grabbed the kid around [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]