What They Left Behind

When Gennie returned to Page’s house, she was even more ill than she was that morning. She was coughing and sniffling up a storm and she looked really pale.

  “Want something to drink?” Gennie asked her.

  “Nah,” Page replied, sounding stuffed up, “but can you do something else for me?”

  “Sure,” Gennie replied. “What is it?”

  “Can you pick up all my used tissues and throw them in the wastebasket?”

  Gennie wasn’t thrilled about doing that, but she didn’t complain. “Okay,” she said.

  Gennie gathered up the small mountain of crumpled tissues that surrounded Page’s bed and threw them away.

  “Are you seeing Foster tonight?” Page asked.

  “Yeah, he invited me to his house again. This time for dinner.”

  “Oh, okay. I was wondering…do you really like this guy?”

  It took Gennie a while to answer that. “Yeah, I would say so. Why?”

  “Curious, I guess.”

  “Do you want to go out with him?”

  Page laughed so hard she started coughing.

  “I’ll get you some water,” Gennie said. She ran down to the kitchen, grabbed a semi-clean glass, and poured some water from the tap. When she returned to the bedroom, Page was still hacking away.

  Page took the glass and gulped the water down. “Thanks, but I’m not into that sort of thing.”

  “Into what?”

  “Into stealing other people’s boyfriends.”

  Gennie smiled. “It’s good to know there’s at least one person who’s not like my brother.”

  “What the hell got into him anyway? Does he think he’s Casanova or something?”

  “I don’t know what happened, but he probably thinks he is now that he’s dating Charlene.”

  “I’ll tell you…it takes some balls to steal Johnny’s girlfriend right under his nose. He’s definitely playing with fire there.”

  “Tell me about it,” Gennie said. “I never thought he had it in him.”

  “Balls?” Page asked.

  They both laughed.

  “Well, anyway, I wanted to tell you that Danny borrowed one of my Bob Dylan albums, so yesterday I went in his room to take it back and guess what I found under the bed?”

  “What?”

  Page pulled out a clear glass jar filled with marijuana. “None other than his girlfriend Mary Jane!” she said.

  “Your brother smokes weed?”

  “You’re surprised?”

  “I guess I shouldn’t be. Are you going to tell your parents?”

  Page looked puzzled. “Why?”

  “Remember that film they showed us in the auditorium last year about that stuff being really dangerous? You wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to Danny.”

  Page scoffed. “That was total bull. Pot isn’t dangerous at all. It’s a lot safer than smoking and drinking, which I might add you do all the time.”

  “I don’t do it all the time, only once in a while.”

  “See, that’s what I mean. So come on, let’s have a toke together, Little Miss Innocent.”

  The doorbell rang.

  “Let me get that,” Gennie said, relieved that she had an excuse to escape the room.

  Page frowned. “Fine. Just hand me the bottle of cough syrup, will ya? I need my rest.”

  Gennie took the bottle of medicine, along a spoon and gave them to Page.

  “Thanks. We’re going to have a good time tonight, I promise.”

  “Okay,” Gennie said, dreading it.

  At the door was the postman with a package. Gennie took it, put it on the first stair next to Midge, and then went outside. She took her bike and rode to Foster’s house, which was about four miles away. She hoped he didn’t mind that she was a little early.

  When Gennie arrived at Foster’s house thirty minutes later, she parked her bike at the foot of their walkway, and rang the doorbell.

  “You came at a great time,” Foster said to Gennie after he opened the door. She noticed he didn’t invite her in, but stepped outside.

  “You mean that in a good way, right?” Gennie replied.

  “Yes, definitely. My mother is in one of her moods, and I don’t feel like dealing with her right now.”

  “I hope you don’t mind I came a little early. You see, my friend Page was trying to talk me into something I wasn’t comfortable doing.”

  “Like what?”

  “Smoking dope.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah, exactly. I think she wants to try it because she’s sort of into the beatnik stuff and she likes the new hippie thing too.”

  “I bet she wants to go to Berkeley, right?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “That’s a happening place if you’re a hippie. It sounds like you’re not so into it.”

  Gennie shrugged. “I’m not a square, if that’s what you mean. But I don’t know…it seems kind of spaced out to me. I like to live in the real world.”

  “There’s some things I like about it and some things I don’t,” Foster said.

  “Like what?”

  “Well, I like the clothes and the music, but not taking all drugs, especially speed and LSD. I don’t care what anyone says, they’ve got to mess you up.”

  “I agree,” Gennie said.

  Gennie looked at the house. “By the way, this place looks so modern. Is it new or something?”

  “Well, it’s only ten years old. My dad had it built for my mom as a wedding present.”

  “Kind of late for that, don’t ya think?”

  Foster chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I guess nobody told you, huh?”

  “Told me what?”

  “She’s not my real mother. She’s actually my stepmother. My dad met her about fourteen years ago and they dated for a couple of years before they got married.”

  “How does your real mother feel about this?”

  “She died a long time ago. She had cancer. I was about three and Charlene was only a year old. I barely remember her and Charlene has no memory at all.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry about that,” Gennie said.

  “Don’t worry,” Foster replied. “You didn’t know.”

  “Well, if it makes you feel better, I sort of know what that’s like. My mother died when Ben and I were a couple of days old.”

  “That’s too bad,” Foster said. “Did your Dad get married again?”

  Gennie shook her head. “He never got over her. He kept all her stuff the way it was when she died. He never dated or anything like that. He had a heart attack about a year and a half ago.”

  “How are Malcolm and Colleen related to you?”

  “They’re not,” Gennie replied. “They’re my foster parents.”

  “You don’t have any family?”

  “Not really.”

  “Well, my mom doesn’t have any family either. She was married before, a long time ago, but she had to leave him. She couldn’t have any children, so she was really happy to have us.”

  “That’s good, at least she’s not the wicked kind.”

  “No, usually she’s a great mom.”

  “Usually?”

  “Well, she has her ‘off’ days, you could say.”

  “Everybody has those.”

  “Hers are more off than most people.”

  “Oh,” Gennie replied, not knowing what else to say. It seemed like he was implying that she was mentally ill, but she didn’t want to pry.

  “You want to come in?” Foster asked.

  “Uh…well…if your mom isn’t feeling good…”

  “I think it’ll be all right. My dad said he was going to have her take her pills. She should be fine by now.”

  “Oh, okay, then,” Gennie said, still feeling apprehensive.

  Foster opened the door and they entered the house.

  “Take your shoes off before you come in,” a very
thin lady with blonde curly hair said. She looked like she was in her late forties. Gennie thought she was dressed up a little formally for dinner at home. She was wearing a full-length aqua dress with ruffles at the neckline and sleeves, with pearl earrings and a necklace. She was wearing satin aqua shoes with a one-inch heel. Gennie didn’t know much about clothes but she could tell these were expensive. She wouldn’t have been surprised if the whole outfit cost five hundred dollars.

  “Don’t worry Mom,” Foster said. “We will.”

  “Well, someone came in here a few days ago with their friend and didn’t do that.”

  “It wasn’t me,” Foster replied, taking off his sneakers. Gennie did the same with her sandals.

  Gennie opened her mouth to tell Foster’s mom that it was Ben and Charlene, but she quickly bit her tongue.

  “Were you going to say something?” she asked her.

  “No, ma’am,” Gennie replied.

  “Have you met Gennie yet?” Foster asked.

  “No, I don’t believe I have,” his mom replied.

  “Gen, this is my mother, Addie Conrad. Mom, this is my new girlfriend, Gennie Perrin.”

  Addie’s expression was not what Gennie expected. Maybe she was shocked that Foster just called her his new girlfriend. It seemed to change quickly, though. She gave her a forced smile and shook her hand.

  “It’s so nice to meet you, Gennie,” Addie said.

  “You too, Mrs. Conrad.”

  “You can call me Addie.”

  “That’s neat. My mother’s name is Addie too.”

  Addie looked at her strangely. She seemed disoriented. Gennie didn’t think this meeting was going so well.

  “You know,” Gennie said, hoping to lighten the mood, “you seem familiar. I think we have met before.”

  That didn’t help at all. “I’m sure we haven’t,” Addie said very abruptly. Gennie didn’t know what her problem was but Addie seemed very agitated about it.

  “Is dinner ready?” Foster asked, sounding irritated himself.

  “Almost,” Addie said. “What do you want to drink?”

  “I’ll have a root beer,” Foster said.

  Addie turned around and went back into the kitchen without asking Gennie what she wanted to drink.

  “Gennie wants the same thing,” Foster shouted at his mother.

  “Oh,” his mother said, without turning back.

  Gennie was getting the feeling that Addie didn’t like her very much.

  During dinner, Foster’s dad, Loren, peppered her with questions. The more Gennie revealed about herself, the more disturbed Addie seemed to become.

  “I’ve heard that your brother is into gourmet cooking,” Loren said. “I think he’s after Addie’s heart. She used to own a catering company, you know.”

  Addie’s eyes seemed to light up. Gennie was glad her sour mood was improving. Gennie got the feeling Addie was the type that was always miserable unless she was talking about herself.

  “Well, actually, I always wanted to be a movie star, but my first husband wouldn’t let me, so I left him and came to California to pursue an acting career,” Addie explained. “The problem was I liked San Francisco too much to want to leave. I love to cook, so I ended up working for a catering company. Not long after, I started my own, but I had to sell it last year. It was one of the hardest things I had to do in my life.”

  Gennie was going to ask why Addie sold it, but she decided that was a bad idea. She didn’t want to seem like she was nosey.

  The dinner conversation after that was a little stiff. Loren really couldn’t talk about anything except his business, and a lot of it Gennie found really boring. Addie didn’t say much, except for looking at Foster disapprovingly when he rolled his eyes and sighed. She didn’t look Gennie’s way at all. Gennie knew Addie thought she was not of their social caliber. This bothered her a lot more than she thought it should.

  Foster apologized at the end of the night. They were in the garage checking out his car again. “My family’s weird,” he said.

  “Whose isn’t?” Gennie replied.

  “Don’t let my mother’s behavior bother you,” Foster said. “Every girl I bring home is Satan’s daughter. It’s nothing personal.”

  “Hey, maybe you did bring home Satan’s daughter this time,” Gennie said jokingly.

  They both got a good chuckle out of that.

  “She has problems, as you can tell. The last year she’s been in and out of the psychiatric ward. She has severe depression and she won’t take her medication. My dad usually has to shove the pills down her throat. That’s why she was acting so weird at dinner.”

  “She seemed okay to me, just really nervous.”

  “Well, I’m glad it didn’t bother you. By the way, the Bugatti runs now. Would you like to take it for a spin?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  They got in the Bugatti and rode around random parts of town. The car was getting a lot of attention from pedestrians and other drivers alike. Gennie had to admit Foster knew what he was doing. The car ran like a dream. Finally, they had to go back to real life, though. Foster drove into his garage.

  “Thanks for inviting me to dinner and letting me ride around in your car. I had a good time.”

  “Me too.”

  There was an awkward moment but then Foster leaned toward her and gave her a polite kiss on the cheek.

  “Was that okay?”

  “Sure,” Gennie said, “why wouldn’t it be?”

  “Are you going to the play?” Foster asked.

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Well, I’ll see you there,” Foster replied.

  “You too.” Gennie walked down the driveway and got on her bike. “See you later.”

  Chapter 27: September 24, 1965