Dex (18 page)

CHAPTER twenty-six

Dex was on his laptop watching Guy Fieri and his son on YouTube making waffles in Times Square. Dex was thinking about adding waffle sandwiches to his menu. It would be a challenge to use them like bread, but he was pretty sure he could pull it off.

He didn’t want to jinx it, but it seemed like the most important things in his life were improving. Somehow the rotten chicken salad seemed to have made everything better.  The lunch stand was more popular than ever with new customers showing up every morning.  Kids had stopped bothering him at school, and even though he and Sarah never talked about their kiss, they were finally Facebook friends.

To top things off, Ezra hadn’t freaked out and was actually talking about building Dex’s career. He mentioned the possibility of expanding his show, maybe even giving him a special. There were enough ‘maybes’ being tossed around to fill a salad, but the one sure thing was working meant money, and money meant saving Poppy’s Kitchen.

Dex was replaying the kiss with Sarah in his mind when there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” he mumbled.

“Dex?” Vince opened the door. “You okay? You sound bummed.”

Dex wasn’t about to tell his father he ruined his daydream about Sarah.

“No. I’m fine,” Dex sighed. “Just tired.”

“Oh, okay.” Vince sounded relieved. “It’s just the girls are out shopping and I was hoping you were up for some Super Mario.”

“Sure,” Dex said, thinking the distraction would be a good thing.

“And a pizza?” Vince grinned like he was the kid.

“Sounds great.”

Dex put down the laptop and arranged the game.

“You know Dex, I’m really proud of you.” Vince was already clicking his way through the first level.

“You are? Why? All I did was make a mistake.”

“A mistake is a mistake, but you didn’t let it own you.” Vince beamed. “Things got tough, but you came through.”

“Everyone helped,” Dex admitted. “I’m not so sure I could have done it all by myself.”

“Maybe, but it was still on you.” Vince put the controller down. “I wanted to wait till everyone was here to tell you, but I can’t.”

“Tell me what?”

“I just got a call from Ezra. The ratings came in.” Vince scrunched his face, sending a shot of terror through Dex that made him suddenly doubt his good fortune after all.

“Okay..?” Dex said cautiously.

“You’re...” Vince started. “Well, you’re NUMBER ONE!”

“Really!?” Dex pumped his fist into the air. “Number one?!”

“I know.” Vince hugged Dex and kissed the top of his head. “It’s amazing! And he wants you to host the New Year’s Eve special. It’s live at the studio!”

“That’s awesome!” Dex shouted, then stopped himself. “But wait, you and Mom won’t be home.”

“I know. But don’t worry. Geema and Alicia will be. And I asked the hotel to give us a room with the biggest TV they have so we won’t miss anything. And when Mom and I get back we can have a big party at Poppy’s Kitchen to celebrate.”

“The restaurant?” Dex’s stomach turned.

“Of course,” Vince insisted. “Geema’s been stubborn about keeping the renovation a surprise, but I’m sure it’ll be ready by then.”

#

“Things are getting complicated, Leesh.”

Dex watched as Alicia was trying to change the tape in her camera. “Can you start knocking from now on? You are still my little brother, famous or not.”

“Sorry, I just...I just can’t take lying to everyone anymore. Dad just told me he’s planning to have some party at the restaurant when they get back from Aruba. How are we going to have a party at our restaurant if the bank owns it?”

“You said we’d have enough to buy it back.” Alicia looked frustrated as the tape kept kinking up in the same place.

“We might. It’s not like I haven’t been trying.”

“I know,” Alicia whispered. “I’m sorry all I had to give you was what I got from the Rosenbaums.”

“No big deal. It all counts.” Dex grabbed the camera from her to fix the tape. “I think we should tell Geema we know the truth about the restaurant and we’re working on getting the money to buy it back.”

“We can’t!” Alicia protested. “That letter didn’t even say how much she owes.”

“So?”

“So, we don’t want to risk getting her hopes up. What if we don’t have enough?” Alicia asked. “We need to find Geema’s records. That’s the only way we’ll know for sure.”

Dex gave the tape a final tug to fix it and handed it back to Alicia. “And how do you figure on doing that?”

“Duh, when she goes out,” Alicia sneered.

“Double duh, there’s a reason we didn’t do that already. She never goes anywhere!” Dex shot back.

“True,” Alicia scowled. “Well, something is bound to come up.”

CHAPTER twenty-seven

Dex was lying on his bed staring out the window too preoccupied to read. Sometimes he had to wonder if he was missing out on being an ordinary kid. In most ways it was insanely amazing to be different. He didn’t know anyone his age who had a business and a TV show, but there was another side to it that weighed heavily on his mind. What would happen if he couldn’t buy back Poppy’s Kitchen? It would be like losing his grandfather all over again, and the possibility plagued him more than he cared to admit.

Alicia was right. Failure was not an option. If Vince was proud of him for coming through once, Dex would have to do it again, only this time, Vince wouldn’t know about it. He was just about to start reading Great Expectations to prepare for his English test when Alicia burst into his room.

“Geema went to the dentist!”

“Yeay?!?!?! Dex applauded. “Teeth are good?” he added, shrugging.

“No Dex-factor—we have time to look through her room for the bank statements.”

Dex didn’t even bother to argue. He jumped up and followed Alicia into his grandmother’s bedroom.  The full bed was covered by a new floral comforter that had matching curtains that hung from both her windows. There was a large white dresser with a mirror hung above it next to a desk with thin, very swirly legs. A small chair was tucked into the desk and the rest of the wall space was taken up by book cases and white wooden shelves. Geema called it ‘shabby chic,’ to convince herself it wasn’t cluttered, but it was kind of hard not to notice her inability to throw things out.

“I think she saved every card anyone ever gave her,” Dex moaned, holding up a ‘HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY’ card covered in now-faded flowers. “I’m not sure we’ll have enough time to find anything, even if her appointment lasts a year.”

“Well don’t give up before we start,” Alicia scolded.

“Fine.” Dex opened the top drawer and saw a stack of bras and underwear. “Um…Leesh, this is just all kinds of wrong.”

“What are you complaining about now?” Alicia asked, her head buried in a notebook titled
My Poetry
.

“Look. Actual granny-panties. Eeeew.” Dex held up a pair of white lacy panties.

Alicia turned around. “Ooooh!”  She snatched them away.

“Just so you know, there is no way I am going through my grandmother’s drawers.” He immediately blushed remembering Geema called underwear, ‘drawers.’ “Not for anything!” Dex went to the closet and slid the door open.

Alicia put down the notebook and went over to the dresser.

“Dex, did you know that Geema wrote poems?”

“Kinda. She said she used to write when she was in high school.” He found a box at the bottom of the closet and took it out to open it. “It feels weird going through her stuff.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m not loving this either,” Alicia admitted as she searched between layers of clothes. “But, if we want to help her, what choice do we have?”

Dex put one box back and took out a curious light-blue circular container that had a zipper running around its center. He opened it cautiously, chuckled, then went into the closet.

“Did you find anything yet?” Alicia asked, busily going through more clothing. “Dex?” She turned to address his silence.

“Dex, where’d you go?” She went to peek out the door. When she returned she found Dex wearing a glamorous blonde beehive wig on his head.

“What do you think?” Dex laughed.

“I think you look like a dweeb,” she said, struggling to stay focused. “Come on, we have to be serious about this.” She went back to the dresser, took another look at Dex, and burst into a fit of laughter. “Thanks,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at you the same way again.” She couldn’t stop laughing.

“Why, you think I’m pretty?” Dex asked, trying to keep her going.

“Gorgeous,” Alicia teased as Dex took off the wig.

They both went back to hunting when a loud squeak caught their attention.

“Was that the door?” Alicia turned to Dex, who was now wearing a short black wig that made him look like Rihanna.

“I think so.” Dex snapped off the wig and quickly put it back in its case.

“Oh crap!” Alicia panicked. “What are we going to do now?”

They both stood frozen as they heard the front door slam shut.

Geema’s voice bellowed through the house. “Leeshie? Dex? Where is everyone?”

“Go stall her,” Alicia ordered. “NOW!”

“Stall her? How?!?”

“Uh, I don’t know. You entertain people for a living.” Alicia pushed him out the door. “Keep her entertained! I’ll clean up. Go!”

“Hi Geema!” Dex called out from the top of the stairs. He flew down to greet her.

“Here. Let me do that for you,” he said, helping her take off her coat. Then he pulled out a hanger from the closet in the entryway.

“What are you up to?” she asked suspiciously. “I want to say thank you, but you don’t watch enough Cary Grant movies to be doing that move.”

“Up to?” Dex tried to think quickly. “I was…doing homework.”

“Homework. Okay. I won’t keep you.” Geema started for the steps.

“I thought you were going to the dentist,” Dex said, guiding her into the family room.

“I did. I don’t have enough teeth to be there that long.” She sighed. “I’m beat. I think I’ll go take a nap.”

Dex put his arm around her and laid his head on her shoulder. “Why don’t you stay down here on the couch? You can keep me company.”

He sat down and practically pulled her down next to him.

“I thought you were doing homework,” Geema said, studying his face.

“I was. I’m done. It was on some love poem. Those are always short.”

“I suppose most of them are.”

A lightbulb went off in Dex’s head as he remembered what Alicia found in the bedroom. “Did you write poems?” Dex asked.

“A long time ago.”

“Remember any of them?”

“No.”

Dex fumbled for another idea. “How did you meet Poppy?”

“I thought I told you that story a hundred times, Dexy.”

#

Alicia was sorting through papers and books as she was cleaning up the piles she and Dex had made.

“Come on,” she muttered under her breath. “If I were bank statements, where would I be?” She looked in a
Better Homes and Garden magazine
. “In the garbage,” she answered herself, “because everyone except Geema uses the Internet.”

Alicia had to stop when she noticed a large laminated picture that looked like it came from a photo album wedged between two brightly-covered books facing outward on a shelf. It caught her attention and she allowed herself a moment to look at it.

“Wow!” Alicia let out, her eyes fixed on her grandparents’ wedding picture. She hadn’t seen it in years. Her grandmother was wearing a long, tapered white satin gown and a crown with a narrow veil, and she held an arm bouquet of roses. Her grandfather looked a little like Ashton Kutcher in a top hat and a tuxedo with a carnation pinned to his lapel. “Geema, you were so young and such a beautiful bride.” For a second, Alicia imagined being in a wedding gown standing next to Jazz. It was a daydream she didn’t let herself have too often, but her mind couldn’t help but wander.

“Okay, no more time for this!” Alicia shook her head as if to snap back to reality and quickly went through a batch of mail she found tucked into a red folder. She was nearly done when she heard a noise that sounded like keys being thrown on a table. Alicia closed her eyes tightly, as if that would keep her search a secret. “I give up,” she whispered. “I have no clue where Geema put the stupid papers.”

She went to place the photo album back on the shelf and a worn scrapbook fell to the floor. Alicia picked it up to put it back, but a bunch of papers that looked like old menus fell out and covered the rug. She began shoving them back into the book when she found several envelopes from Meridian Bank stuffed in between the pages in back.

“Yes!” Alicia let out a sigh of relief.

#

“You really want to hear this story again?” Geema griped.

“Yeah. I…uh…need to know it for class. You know, love stuff. It’s like due tomorrow.”

“You’re acting strange,” Geema noted. “But okay, sure. I’m too tired to argue.”

Dex made himself comfortable on the couch.

“We met at my friend Bev’s apartment. She had just gotten married and she and her husband Bill threw a big house-warming party. Turned out to be the building your Poppy grew up in. Your great grand-poppy Emilio was the super, known to all as the best repairman on the block. He trained Poppy to help him with some of the work, which came in handy the night of Bev’s party.

Right in the middle of Perry Como singing, and Dino Antonucci frying eggplant, Bev’s toilet started playing a song of its own. She called Emilio, but he was out of town visiting his sister. Bev hadn’t met Poppy before, but he promised her he would be able to fix the problem. When my Ralphie walked through the door, he didn’t look like he was there to fix a toilet. He looked like he was ready to go dancing. He was so handsome I couldn’t help myself so I followed him. I stood by the bathroom door and watched him work. And he watched me watch him. So I met your Poppy over Bev’s toilet bowl. That may not sound very romantic, but we all became good friends after that.”

Geema yawned. “Dexy, I’m falling asleep.” She got up and approached the stairs.

Dex stopped her. “Wait, before you go upstairs, I need you to look over the menu for my New Year’s special.”

“Now?” Geema moaned.

“Yeah, I have to let them know all my ideas by...what’s today?”

“Friday.”

“Yup, by today. I just have to get them from my room. Don’t go anywhere, promise?”

“Okay,” she sighed and flopped back on the couch.

Dex could see his grandmother nodding off, so he ran up to his room to make a call.

“Liza?” Dex asked into his cell phone, hearing a lot of background noise. “What’s going on?”

“Oh Dex, you should be here to see this. Jordy is doing a sewing project for Home and Careers class and he wrapped his face all up in thread like he’s Frankenstein’s cousin or something.”

“Sounds scary,” Dex said.

“Yeah, he ain’t goin’ on Project Runway anytime soon.”

Dex could hear Liza’s voice trail off. “Your tongue is going to get stuck in the threads, fool! I’m telling you watch that needle, Jordy. You’re going to mess up your lips and no one’s ever gonna kiss you.”

“Liza!” Dex yelled into the phone.

“Sorry Dex, I gotta go help him. I’m crazy mad because I was supposed to hang with Kyle.”

“Listen, I need a favor that’ll help you out too.”

Dex bounced back into the family room waving a file of papers in his hand.

“So, Geema, here they are.”

“What time is it?” Geema asked as she opened her eyes. “Did you miss the bus?”