I shook my head and gazed around the cluttered room again. "What do your parents say about all this?"
"Nothing," he replied quickly. "They pretend I don't exist. It's all right." he added. "I do the same in regard to them. We have a mutual nonexistence pact."
I thought for a moment. This wasn't that much bigger a unit than ours. Where would his parents sleep if his grandmother lived here. too?
"How about something cold to drink, dear?" she asked, coming to the door of his room. "Or perhaps you would like to stay to dinner with us. I have a pot roast."
"No, thank you. My mother must be wondering where I am. I have to get home." I said, joining her in the hall.
"Oh, well, please don't be a stranger." she said.
"My grandmother was a famous poet," Augustus said quickly. "Oh, stop," she told him.
"Her poems are still reprinted in many magazines. and she is often asked to do readings of her works. The groups that ask her to read don't understand the poems, but they think themselves intellectuals for asking her and listening and nodding their heads. Right Granny?"
"Don't listen to him." she said, a blush coming into her cheeks.
"She plays guitar, too, and writes songs. She was at Woodstock. Do you know what that was?"
"Yes," I said, looking at her more closely. She had a pretty face and wore no makeup at all, not even lipstick. Now I saw the necklace of precious stones around her neck.
"My grandmother was a hippie. She still is. She refuses to accept her AARP card and never takes senior citizen discounts."
"I simply don't understand why merely getting alder entitles people to anything extra. We should be giving the discounts to teachers and nurses and social workers."
"Celebrities care only about themselves. Heroes care about others," he recited. "Right. Granny?"
"Yes," she said.
There was a moment of silence.
"I've got to get back to work," Augustus said. "See you at the pond," he added. 'Don't forget to listen,"
He turned and went back into his room, closing the door.
His grandmother smiled at me as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with that.
"I'd better get home," I said, and walked to the patio door. She followed and opened it for me.
"It's very nice of you to be friends with Augustus," she told me. "He has no friends. really. He's a brilliant boy. He's already achieved his high school diploma and is in home study, so he doesn't meet many people his age."
You mean he doesn't attend a school?"
"Not in the ordinary way. He's in a special program. Once a week he goes to see his mentor. They expect big things from him."
"Why does he say his parents act as if he doesn't exist?"
"Is that what he said?" she asked. I nodded. She sighed deeply. "His parents have been dead for more than five years. A horrible, horrible car accident. You of all people know how devastating that can be, so don't blame him for whatever he creates to contend with it." She smiled. -Please give, your mother my regards and best wishes. Tell her if there is anything I can do to help you two, please don't hesitate to call. I'm in the telephone book. Clarissa Darahush," she added, smiled, and closed the patio door,
Dorahush? But I thought Augustus said...
For a moment I stood there and looked at her standing in the patio door window, and then I hurried away, a little terrified by what the pain of deep sorrow could do, even to someone with Augustus's incredible mind.
.
Phoebe Tremont finally called. When the phone rang I was hoping it was Trent, hoping he had finally been given the message. I practically lunged for the receiver.
"Is this. uh, Tracy?" she asked.
"Who?"
"Wait a minute," she said in an annoyed tone of voice, "Oh, Gracey."
"It's Grace Houston. yes," I said.
This is Phoebe Tremont. My stepmother wanted me to call you to see how you are doing and if you would like to get together with me and some of my friends." she recited as if she was reading it from a cue card.
"Oh."
"You're going to attend my school. I
understand. I feel sorry for you," she added, and laughed. Someone, a male, laughed behind her. "Anyway, can you go to the beach with me and a few of my friends tomorrow?"
"The beach?"
"Yes, that's a place with a lot of sand near the water." she said, and the boy behind her laughed again. "We'll pick you up about one. No one gets up too early these days. Bring a towel and a change of clothes. We'll probably go out later. Bring some money." she added.
"Oh, well..."
"Don't worry. I know where you live. My stepmother has it tattooed to the inside of my eyelids."
There was more laughter, and then the phone went dead,
"Who was it. honey?" Mommy asked. I told her. "Oh, that's nice. You should be meeting young people, normal young people," she added with wide eyes. I had told her about Augustus and his
grandmother.
"Phoebe sounds weirder than Augustus," I muttered. but I couldn't help being somewhat excited about meeting girls and boys about my age who were what everyone would consider normal, Like Mommy, I needed some diversion, too.
I waited near the front door at one o'clock the next day. They didn't show up until nearly one-thirty. Mommy had gone to lunch with Dallas. She was doing better than I was, actually, and was thinking she would begin working this corning weekend.
She wished me a good time, and I promised to call her later to let her know what we were doing.
I was beginning to think Phoebe wasn't going to show up at all when suddenly I heard a horn blaring and saw a classic old Cadillac convertible whip around the turn to our condo. It was as long as a boat and bright red with high rear fins. A boy with blond hair cropped short on the sides was driving. He wore a white athletic shirt and looked lean and sinewy like a tennis player. I really didn't know what Phoebe looked like, but I imagined she was the dark-haired girl in the front seat, practically sitting on the driver's lap. Another boy sat beside her. He, too, had a short haircut but darker brown hair with a blond streak running through the middle.
Phoebe was in her bathing suit, a rather abbreviated two-piece. I had my bathing suit under a pair of dark blue shorts and a white halter. I wasn't sure what clothes to bring. so I had put a pair of jeans and a blouse in my bag along with my towel.
There were two other girls and another, younger-looking boy in the rear of the convertible. He had curly black hair. I noticed that while the others were laughing he looked very uncomfortable. One of the two girls in the rear looked much younger as well.
The driver pressed on his horn before I could open the door and step out.
"Come on Phoebe cried the moment I appeared. "We're wasting precious time."
I hurried to the car.
"Hey," the boy on her right said as I stepped up. "I thought you said she was a kid. She looks older than you. Phoebe."
"She is a kid," Phoebe declared. "But you wouldn't know the difference. Wally."
"Hey. Randy, you lucked out," Wally told the younger boy in the rear seat.
He gazed at me with interest but dropped his eyes quickly when I looked at him. He had small facial features and a slim body, almost birdlike with thin wrists,
-"All right. idiots," Phoebe said. "Grassy, this is Roger Winston," she said, tapping the driver on the top of his head. ''He thinks he's my boyfriend, and for my own amusement I let him think it."
They all laughed. even Roger.
"You just met Wally Peters, who's never met a girl he didn't like.
"Ha, ha, very funny," Wally said.
"That's Ashley Morris." she continued, gesturing at the taller, alder-looking girl in the rear seat.
"Hi." Ashley said. She had dark red hair but was plain-looking except for her nearly Kelly-green eyes. She, too, was in her bathing suit, a one-piece that revealed her heavy legs and wide hips.
"Her sister Posy and Randy Walker who is in your
grade."
Posy smiled at me. She looked about twelve with red hair a shade lighter than her sister's. She was prettier, with the same beautiful green eyes.
"Hi." I said. "My name isn't Grassy. though. It's Grace." I told them.
"We decided to call you Grassy," Phoebe declared, as if that was that and there was nothing more to be said about it. "Let her in. Wally, and keep your hands to yourself," she ordered.
He smiled, opened the door, and pulled back the seat. Ashley and Posy moved to their right to make a place for me next to Randy, who looked as if he was trying to push the other side of the car farther out I squeezed in beside him, and the moment
Wally closed the door. Roger gunned the engine and made the tires squeal. They all screamed. He spun the car around, backed up, and shot forward.
As we headed for the front entrance of our complex. I caught sight of Augustus standing by his home. He had his hands behind his head as if he was lying back on the grass and looking up at the sky. His face was expressionless.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"We were planning on going to the beach." Phoebe shouted. The wind was whipping us all because of the speed we were traveling. It was hard to hear. "But hicks us. Roger's parents are off to Bermuda with some friends for a couple of days, so we have the house. There's no beach, but it's on Singer Island in Sugar Sands. We have the boat, and we can water-ski, and there is a pool."
"Do you water-ski?" Posy asked me.
"No. I've never really done much boating at all."
"I thought your father was in the Navy," Ashley said. "Didn't you go in boats all the time?"
"No. He was a pilot." I said.
"I didn't know the Navy had planes." she replied.
I smiled to myself, remembering how proud Daddy was of the naval air command.
"You're so dumb. Ashley. Didn't you see Tom Cruise in that movie?" Wally asked her.
"I did. but I didn't know they were in the Navy."
"The Navy air command goes back to the Second World War." I said.
"See. Ashley, you shouldn't have failed history last year," Phoebe teased.
"I didn't fail. I almost failed."
"Your teacher gave you two points just to get rid of you." Wally told her.
"So? At least I passed." Ashley retorted. "Which is more than some people in this car can say."
The three in the front seat laughed. Who had failed? I wondered. Had all three? How could they laugh about that?
"How do you like living in Florida?" Posy asked me. Randy turned quickly to listen to my response.
"I haven't lived here very long." I said. "It's hotter than I expected...
"You get used to it." Ashley said. "I did." "Like you have a choice," Wally told her.
She twisted her mouth and shook her head at him.
"Be nice, or I won't let you lick my face later." he threatened.
"Ugh, how gross," Posy cried,
"Didn't you tell your sister about that?"
"Shut up. Wally. He's an idiot," Ashley told me.
For a group of people who were supposed to be friends, they sure acted nasty to one another. I thought. How did they treat people they didn't like?
The first time Randy spoke I understood why he was so shy. He had a bad stutter.
"Are... yo... yo... you taking any, any, elect... electives?" he asked me.
"I don't know. I haven't been to the school yet," I said don't know what's available and how much time I have."
"She's taking sex education. Randy. Maybe you can give her some pointers," Wally teased.
"Leave him alone," Roger said.
"Just trying to help him get started."
"Worry about yourself." Roger followed more firmly. He glanced at him. too.
Wally immediately retreated, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and offered one to Phoebe. She took it, and he lit his and hers. The smoke came spiraling back at us. Phoebe turned to talk to me.
"So, you going to work in my father's restaurant. too?"
"Me? No." I said. "I don't think so. I've never been a waitress." "We always need dishwashers or busboys."
"She's a girl, or haven't you noticed?" Wally said.
"Busgirl, like big deal."
"If I can help. I'll help." I said nonchalantly. She looked as if she didn't appreciate the fact that I wasn't frightened by the idea.
"Like it wouldn't hurt you to help out once in a while." Roger told her.
"Shut up." she snapped. She looked at me again, her eyebrows turned downward and in toward each other as if she was struggling with a deep thought. I noticed how twisting herself had deepened her cleavage and revealed more of her breasts. Wally was glued to the view.
"Your eyes are drooling," she told him, and he laughed and turned away, gazing quickly at Roger first.
Phoebe stared at me a moment longer and turned around again, "Can't you go any faster?" she asked Roger.
"Like I can afford to get another speeding ticket."
"I feel like we're on our way to an early-bird special," she said. Wally laughed hard.
"Damn it." Roger said, and accelerated. "If I get stopped..."
We were going so much faster now, my hair was snapping at my cheeks. Ashley crouched to lower herself below the front seat.
"Put your arm around her. Randy," Wally told him. "So she don't blow out of the car."
Posy was turned into the rear of the seat. We were whizzing past cars. I leaned forward to get a view of the dashboard and saw we were going ninety miles an hour, "We're going too fast!" I cried.
"I thought you were the daughter of a Navy pilot." Phoebe shouted back at me, and laughed.
Finally we reached an exit and Roger slowed down. He wove the car through some side streets, and a little while later we ca-me to a gated community. The guard recognized him and triggered the main gate. He watched us suspiciously as we passed through.
"That's Gerson Weiner, retiree with the biz mouth. He'll tell my parents I had a few dozen people over for a party." Roger muttered.
His home was a white and pink stucco house with a screened-in pool and a three-car garage. It was right an the water, with its own dock. The rear section of the house had two stories. When the garage door went up I saw a black. late-model Mercedes convertible.
As soon as he turned off the engine. Phoebe spun around to face me. "just remember. Grassy, whatever we do is our business and nobody else's, get it?"
"As long as we don't murder anyone, it's fine with me." I said, and everyone but Phoebe laughed, even Randy, She poked
Wally in the ribs,
"Open the door already," she ordered, visibly annoyed, and he jumped out.
She got out. and I saw she was taller than I thought, with a slim waist. The bottom of her twopiece was cut sharply, leaving less and less to the imagination.
We all got out and followed her and Roger into the house. It was a beautiful home. Everything in it looked new. There were many windows and patio doors providing natural light. The decor was Spanish, with tiled floors and expensive-looking artifacts, vases, statuary in the halls, and vibrantly painted scenes in gilded frames.
Phoebe moved through the house as if it were hers. She went directly through the den to the patio doors that faced the pool and the dock.
"C'mon." she urged the rest of us. "We wasted enough time diverting to pick up Grassy."
"My name's not Grassy," I muttered, mostly under my breath. Randy heard me and smiled.
"I won't, won't ca... call you that." he promised.
Roger led the way to the dock, where there was a good-size motorboat.
"It's a 2500 LSR Regal," Wally told me, as if he was the proud owner. 'Powerful, 310 horse."
"Help me get ready instead of gabbing." Roger ordered. "You. too. Randy."
"Where's your bathing suit?" Ashley asked me.
"I have it on underneath."
"Leave your clothes in the cabana by the pool," Phoebe commanded. "Put on some sun screen.
I don't want to have my stepmother on my back because you got sunburned."
"I brought it along," I said.
"Good for you," she said. '"C'mon, Ashley. I want you to help me with something."
Posy followed me to the cabana. She had her bathing suit on under her shorts and blouse. too.
"Do you all go boating here often?" I asked her. "I've been along only once before."
"How old are you, Posy?"
"I'm thirteen next month. Don't worry. I'm not a blabbermouth," she said with feigned sophistication.
"Blabbermouth about what?" I asked as I folded my clothes and put them in the bag.
"Anything," she replied, heading out.
"Who's going to be first today?" Wally cried from the boat when we walked onto the dock. Phoebe and Ashley were already on the boat. Ashley sat in the rear, but Phoebe. was lying on the front, sunning herself.
"Why don't you show everyone how to do it first, Wally?" Roger said.
"Sure. No problem." he said. He wasn't as slim and muscular as Roger, and I thought his bathing suit was too tight and revealing.
"See something you like?" he asked me. I couldn't help blushing and moved quickly to a seat. Roger started the engine, and we moved away from the dock.
"Better get down here." he called to Phoebe.
She rose and made her wav beside him. Roger gunned the engine, and we were bouncing over the waves. Ashley and Posy screamed with glee. Randy was smiling, and Wally was finding music on the CD unit. I couldn't help but be excited. The water. the sunshine, and the wind were all invigorating.
"Like Florida a little more now?" Ashley shouted at me.
I nodded. smiling. I saw Phoebe gaze at me and turn back to whisper something in Roger's ear. They both laughed, and he slowed down.
"Get in the water, Wally. We don't have all day. Stop fiddling with the music. Who the hell can hear it anyway?"
"Right, right." Wally said. "Prepare yourself for a real treat," he told me, and slipped on a life vest. Then he dropped the skis into the water and jumped in.
Phoebe attended to the line and handle and moments later signaled to Roger that Wally was ready. He began to accelerate the boat. and Wally rose out of the water. I was genuinely surprised at how agile he looked and how well he moved, bouncing on the waves, following the wake the boat created. Very soon he was showing off, lifting one leg and skiing with only one.