Double Fake (6 page)

“Maybe we can switch girls next time.”

“Yeah, right. You think there’s gonna be a next time?”

Calvin grimaced. “Who knows?”

“So what are we supposed to do? Follow them around all night and buy whatever they want?”

They’d reached the counter. Calvin hesitated, then said to the heavy guy in a red-and-white-striped shirt, “Can you give me half Sprite and half orange with just a little ice?”

“This much ice,” Zero said, holding up his fingers, clearly enjoying himself while Calvin squirmed. “His date is a little fussy about that.”

The guy smirked and nodded. “Aren’t they all,” he said. He went to get the drink.

“A Coke, too!” Zero called. “No special treatment needed.”

Calvin elbowed Zero again, but he paid for both drinks. The twins and their posse had walked over to one of the gaming booths, where Spencer was trying to win some candy by betting on a wheel. Spencer had been the starting point guard on the school basketball team and was considered one of the coolest kids in their grade. He was wearing a tank top that was stark white against his brown skin. He had muscular arms for a twelve-year-old.

After a few spins, Spencer won four chocolate bars. “For the ladies,” he said, grinning broadly as he handed one each to Jessie, Danielle, Sherry, and Julie.

Calvin turned to Jessie. “Hope that don’t spoil your appetite,” he said with a touch of sarcasm.

“Don’t worry,” she replied. “I’m just warming up.” The group walked around the inner perimeter of the carnival grounds, stopping now and then to check out a booth or greet a friend. Zero and Calvin hung toward the back of the pack. Eventually Danielle joined them.

“How you guys doing?” she asked. She had a knowing grin.

Calvin shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”

“My sister’s a trip, huh? She knows how to get her way.”

Calvin just nodded.

“You guys getting hungry for some real food?” Danielle asked.

“I am,” Zero said. “I could go for a sausage sandwich.”

“Sounds good.” She gripped Zero’s arm momentarily and pointed him toward an Italian food booth. “Catch you later,” she said to Calvin.

Now Calvin found himself in a pack of seven people, with Jessie at the front and him trailing behind. She chattered away with Spencer and Sherry as they walked around the fair. After a couple of circuits, Calvin noticed Zero and Danielle waiting to get on the Ferris wheel.

Calvin caught up to Jessie and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Oh ... hey, Calvin.” She said it nicely, but acted like she’d been taken by surprise, as if he’d just arrived.

“You getting hungry?”

“Yeah. A little.” She turned to Sherry. “What are you guys gonna do?”

Sherry shrugged. “Go on some rides, maybe.”

“We’ll see you later,” Jessie said. She stopped walking and looked at Calvin. “What do you feel like?”

“I don’t know. Calzone or something?”

“Yeah. Something spicy.”

They walked across the grounds. “Where’s my sister?” Jessie asked.

“She and Zero took off a while ago. They hit some rides, I think.”

They got calzones and onion rings and a wad of paper napkins and took a seat at a green plastic table under a big red tent.

“Thanks for buying the food,” Jessie said. “I can pay for the rides.”

“Cool. If you want.”

Jessie still had her drink cup. She held it out to Calvin.

“No, thanks,” he said. “I’ll get something later.”

“Okay.”

“How was it, by the way?”

Jessie looked a little embarrassed as she smiled. “Just right.” She took a sip, and the straw made a squishy sound as she reached the bottom of the cup. “Perfectly mixed.”

Without an audience to show off for, Jessie had suddenly became a lot nicer. She asked Calvin how he liked soccer—“better than baseball, about even with football”—and reminded him of the day their math teacher had a big rip in the butt of his pants and didn’t know it. He’d spent most of the class writing on the blackboard while the kids tried to hold back their laughter.

They found Zero and Danielle and went on the Tilt-A-Whirl and into the haunted house, then got ice-cream sandwiches and tried to win some CDs. They ended the night on the merry-go-round.

“That was great,” Jessie said as they strolled through the crowd toward the Ferris wheel to wait for their father. “I’m definitely going back in the haunted house tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Calvin asked.

“Yeah.” She took a seat on a bench. Zero and Danielle were lagging behind, having stopped to listen to a jazz trio that was playing near the center of the grounds. “Spencer asked me to come with him.”

“Spencer
did?”

“Yeah.” Jessie looked around, a little embarrassed and a little bold. “When you were getting the soda earlier.” She shrugged. “What the heck, right? The carnival’s only once a year.”

Calvin was quiet for a moment. “Did he know you were here with me?”

Jessie shrugged. “It wasn’t very obvious, I guess. There were a lot of us hanging out by then.”

Calvin stared at the ground. “Man,” he said under his breath.

Jessie touched his arm, then drew her hand away. “It’s not like this is a boyfriend thing,” she said. Calvin wasn’t sure if she meant him and Jessie, or Jessie and Spencer. Either way, there wasn’t much to cheer about.

Jessie’s tone brightened. “Anyway, I had a great time. Thanks for the food and everything.”

“No problem.”

Zero and Danielle had arrived, and Calvin could see Dr. Rosado walking toward them. “There’s your dad,” he said flatly.

“Yeah.” Jessie stood up from the bench. “Thanks, guys,” she said sweetly. “It was a blast.”

“Thanks,” said Danielle, giving them that little finger wave. “See you on the soccer field.”

Calvin stood with his mouth hanging open as the girls walked away. Zero stared at him. “You okay?” he said.

Calvin shook his head slowly. “I guess,” he said. “Man, that is one confusing girl.”

“Confusing or confounding?”

“Both.” Calvin started walking. “Never did get a drink tonight. I’m thirsty.” He looked around the grounds. Spencer, Sherry, and the others were hanging with a large group over by one of the food tents. They were laughing and looking animated. “Let’s get out of here,” Calvin said.

He led the way out of the carnival grounds and down Ninth Street toward the Boulevard. “I had enough of this,” he said.

“The grocery’s closed,” Zero said as they reached the main street. A few blocks up, the digital clock above the Hudson City National Bank said 10:09.

“I know a place,” Calvin said. He was walking quickly. They were both supposed to be in by 10:30. “Might be a little late getting home, but we can weasel out of it.”

Zero stayed in step with Calvin, who didn’t say much as they walked past the mostly darkened stores. A few taverns and the pizza places were still open, and a Latin rhythm was coming from the Lupita Music store.

When they reached the corner of Third, Calvin said, “What’s the count?” to the man with the German shepherd.

“One up, two down,” was the reply.

“Must be a slow night,” Zero said to Calvin.

“He just starts over when he gets to five.”

“Where we going, anyway? It’s getting late.”

“Two more blocks,” Calvin said. “We need to expand our horizons some, you know?”

They reached First Street, just inside the town’s border, and Calvin turned down the hill toward the river. A quarter block down was Carolina’s Cantina, a small Mexican restaurant that served mostly take-out food. There were just three tables, but there was a refrigerator stocked with juices and soda near the counter.

“How’d you know this would be open?” Zero asked.

“My dad knows every late-night place to eat around here,” Calvin said. “We get tacos and stuff sometimes.”

The round, dark-skinned man behind the counter nodded to the boys and smiled. He and two men at a table were watching a soccer game in Spanish on the small TV that was perched on a shelf next to cans of beans and tomatoes. Soccer posters on the wall said FUTBOL MEXICO and CLUB DE FUTBOL MONTERREY.

“That’s our sport,” Calvin said, pointing to the TV.

The men turned to him and grinned. “Who do you play for?” one asked. He had a strong Spanish accent.

“Little Italy. In the Y league.”

The man behind the counter said, “We sponsor a team in the older division. You look like a striker.”

Calvin shrugged. “They play me all over. It’s my first year....”

“You like it?”

“Bueno,” Calvin said. Then he broke into an embarrassed grin. He didn’t know much Spanish.

“Greatest sport in the world.”

Calvin tapped on the glass door of the cooler at a row of sodas—Jarritos, Manzana, Lupiña—in mandarin orange, coconut, guava, pineapple. “That is good stuff,” he said to Zero. “A whole lot better than mixing Sprite and orange-colored sugar water.” He took out a bottle of pineapple soda. Zero reached in for another.

“We better hustle,” Calvin said as they paid for the drinks. Then he had a second thought. He paid for a bottle of guava soda and held it up to the light. “For my dad. That’ll make sure he gets over me being twenty minutes late.”

Then they hurried out the door toward home.

L
ittle Italy lost a close one to Hector’s Garage but beat Bug Busters Extermination to run its record to 4-2-1. With three regular-season games remaining, they were in good position for a playoff spot.

The standings were taped to the wall of the refreshment stand at the recreation field. Calvin checked them out as he waited for the rematch with the Grotto.

Zero had gone into New York City with his parents and wasn’t back yet when Calvin left for the match, so he’d walked over alone. Now, just ten minutes before game time, Zero still hadn’t shown. Victor Alvarez was vacationing at Seaside Heights with his family, so Little Italy wouldn’t have any substitutes if Zero didn’t get there. The evening was hot and sticky.

“This is a big one,” Coach Diaz said as the players gathered around him. He was wearing a yellow Brazil soccer jersey with green trim and had shaved off his wisp of a mustache. “If they beat us, we drop into second place. And whoever ends up second in our division is going to get Bauer Electric in the first round of the playoffs.”

“We’ll beat them,” Calvin said, meaning Bauer Electric.

“They don’t think so,” said Coach, gesturing toward the Grotto players, who were warming up on the field. “They’ve been playing well the past few weeks. They want this rematch bad.”

The Grotto was clearly fired up, and it showed in the opening minutes of the game. Mary Pineda was playing goalie for Little Italy and she made a couple of nice saves, but the third shot was unreachable and the Grotto had a quick 1-0 lead.