Part 8 (2/2)
”Right.”
”Just think,” said Jeff as we wandered toward a gift shop. ”I'll have my old room back. My room. The room here was never my room.”
”Of course it was,” I said sharply. ”Who'd you share it with?”
Mom put her hand on my shoulder, silently telling me to calm down.
”n.o.body,” Jeff replied. ”It just wasn't mine the way the one in California is. I can't explain it.”
”Let's look in this store,” said Mom, not too subtly changing the subject. ”Do you need anything for the flight, honey?” she asked my brother.
Jeff looked thoughtful. ”I don't think so. I've got two books and my Walkman, and anyway, I'm supposed to go to sleep,” he added, glancing slyly at Mom. ”But could I get a Mars Bar from a vending machine?” Jeff just loves vending machines and photo booths and those machines that plasticize things for you.
”Sure,” replied Mom. ”We have time to kill.”
We found a corridor, luckily on the way to the gate from which Jeff's flight would leave, that looked like Vending Machine Alley.
”Oh, boy!” exclaimed Jeff.
”I hope you have a lot of change, Mom,” I said.
She did.
Jeff bought a Mars Bar and tossed it in his knapsack. Then he and I squeezed into a photo booth and tried to smile and look grown-up as the camera took our pictures. The photos turned out quite well and we gave Mom first dibs on them. After the photo session, we still had time to kill, so Jeff plasticized nearly everything in Mom's wallet.
When he was done, Mom said, ”We better get to the gate, kids. They may board you early, Jeff, since you're traveling alone. A stewardess will accompany you on the plane, and we've got to find her.”
The gate was a mob scene. An awful lot of people were taking the night flight to Los Angeles. Jeff and I sat down while Mom spoke to a man behind the check-in counter. While we waited for her, I looked at my brother. He was rummaging through his knapsack. My baby brother, I thought, even though he was no more a baby than I was. Jeff and I may have had our share of fights, and Jeff may have been nearly impossible to live with lately, but he was my brother and I was going to miss him.
How could we let him go? Hadn't Jeff and I huddled together in my room in California during Mom and Dad's noisy fights? Hadn't I protected him from bullies and nightmares and imaginary monsters? Hadn't he taught me how to climb ropes when my gym teacher said I was hopeless? How could I grow up the rest of the way without knowing him?
”Don't go,” I whispered.
”What?” said Jeff.
”Nothing.”
Most families stay together. A lot don't - the parents split up. But in our case, we couldn't even keep the kids together. My insides were aching. And I knew that Mom felt like a failure.
My mother sat down with us to wait, and a few minutes later a stewardess approached. She smiled at Mom, then turned to my brother.
”Jeff Schafer?” she asked.
Jeff jumped to his feet, ready to go.
”I'm Elaine,” said the stewardess. ”I'll help you board now, and I'll give you any help you might need during the flight. Okay?”
”Sure!”
Mom and I stood up. The hugging and crying started. All us Schafers were hugging, but Mom and I were the only ones crying. No tears fell from Jeff's eyes.
The stewardess watched us with some surprise. I'm sure she didn't know that Jeff had no return ticket. Most boys who leave their families plan to come back.
”Good-bye! 'Bye, Jeff!” Mom and I called as Elaine led him away.
When he was out of sight, I sank onto my chair. I was sobbing right in the middle of that crowded room. So was my mother. We held on to each other for dear life.
Mom tried, for the umpteenth time, to a.s.sure me that Jeff might not think he was going to miss us, but that he really would. I had trouble believing her.
When we calmed down, we linked arms and walked out of the airport together.
Chapter 13.
Pageant Day!
I was dead tired, not having slept much the night before. Even so, I was glad of the busy day ahead. It would be a long one, an exciting one, and I needed that in order to keep my mind off Jeff.
The pageant was to begin at 1:00. It would be held in the auditorium of Stoneybrook High School. But the contestants were supposed to be at the school by 11:30. I had told Mrs. Pike I'd come over to their house around 10:00.
At 9:45, as I was getting ready to leave, I said, ”Mom, can't we call Dad and Jeff now? Just to make sure Jeff got there okay?”
”Honey, it's only a quarter to seven in California,” she replied. ”They'd kill us. Besides, if Jeff didn't get there we'd have had a frantic phone call from your father hours ago.”
Mom was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. She looked awful. I didn't think she'd slept at all the night before. I wasn't even sure she'd gone to bed, although she was in her nightgown and robe, and her hair was a fright.
”I know,” I said. ”You're right. Hey, Mom, why don't you come to the pageant today? I know you don't like the idea of them, but this one might be funny - I mean, fun - and you'll know a lot of the girls in it.”
”Maybe I will,” she replied.
”You could sit with Mr. Spier. He's going because Mary Anne helped Myriah Perkins get ready for the pageant.” (My mom and Mary Anne's dad are old friends.) ”I'll think about it,” said Mom, and she actually smiled. ”Now you scoot.”
I scooted.
When I rang the Pikes' doorbell, it was answered by Mallory, looking positively murderous.
”I hope you can calm Claire and Margo down,” was the way she greeted me. ”They are driving us bananas.”
From upstairs I could hear, ”... that kissed the maiden all forlorn, that milked the cow with the crumpled horn, that tossed the dog ...” mingled with, ”. . . I live in a garbage can. I eat all the wor-orms ...”
”Just look at their room,” Mallory added ominously as I started up the stairs. ”Oh, by the way, Mom said to say she'll be up in a minute to help you.”
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