Story Time (10 page)

June nodded stiffly.

"Dr. Austin will signal you, like so, during the Story Time." Cornelia demonstrated a hand gesture similar to the applause signal.

"Upon receiving this signal, you will walk up to Dr. Austin and hand him the envelope. Do you understand?"

June squeaked, "Yes," in her ventriloquist voice.

"Afterward there will be a very short audition up on the eighth floor. I doubt that anyone but Heidi will show up for it. She will be reading from my book
Orchid the Orca.
You can stick around and clean up after that."

By this time, Susan Singer-Wright had finished smoking two cigarettes, turned out the lights, and vacated the secret room. Pogo turned the green lantern on and led Kate back out through the mushroom cap.

Kate rode down alone in the service elevator and walked out into the lobby. She already knew her work assignments for the day. First she visited the children's bookshelves and located a copy of
Brown Bear, Brown
Bear, What Do You See?
Then she walked into the office, thumbed through the phonics file drawer, and pulled out a copy of the
b
-sound worksheet. She was standing at the photocopy machine when she heard the distinctive sound of someone retching on the other side of the wall, in the ladies' room.

A moment later, the door opened and June walked out. Kate felt a pang of sympathy for her mother. She wanted to ask June what was wrong, but she hesitated, and the moment was lost. Kate and June simply stared at each other in great discomfort until the copier finished its job. She scooped up her phonics worksheets and hurried out without saying anything.

Kate received another unpleasant surprise seconds later when she delivered the book and the worksheets. She saw her uncle George, looking eager to please, sitting at the desk with Heidi.

Heidi was explaining, "I will only select one or two students to be my research assistants, the crème de la crème as it were. I'll let you know if you qualify."

George thanked her politely and got up. He locked eyes with Kate and instantly flushed red with shame. Kate set down the
Brown Bear
book and the phonics worksheets. She stared at her uncle, for the first time ever, with deep disappointment.

***

Over in a cleared-out area of the lobby, parents and children were gathering for Heidi's performance.

Kate's preliminary duties were over, so she sat on a chair in the back George approached, sheepishly, and sat down. He stammered, "Kate, that thing back there with Heidi? It wasn't what you think."

"Since when do you care what I think?"

"Since always."

Kate snorted. "Don't say anything more about it. And I won't, either."

They sat in silence for two minutes. Kate tried to remain angry, but when Heidi took her place before the crowd, she could no longer contain herself. "Uncle George, why is she dressed all in white, like a Swiss milkmaid, to read
Brown Bear, Brown Bear?
"

George, eager to be forgiven, answered slowly and comically, "I do not know."

"Shouldn't she be dressed in brown? Or like a bear? You know? Maybe even a brown bear?"

"That's the outfit she wore today. That's what she wears every day. She's just weird."

"Maybe. But maybe not. Maybe today is National Swiss Milkmaid Day, and the rest of us forgot to dress for it."

"Yeah, maybe."

Dr. Austin entered and raised his arms for silence. "Welcome, all, to a Story Time in the lobby. We all hope our next one will be a Story Time on the roof." He pointed straight up. "On our newly renovated wooden stage."

Dr. Austin extended both arms magnanimously. "We are all here because we love and value reading."

He paused and looked around the lobby until he spotted June. He gave her the prearranged signal to step forward. But, although she visibly tried to do so, June could not move her feet. Instead, her head rolled back on her shoulders until she was looking straight up. Her gaze fixated on one of the four chandeliers that hung on seventy-foot steel chains from the ceiling.

Cornelia came up behind her and gave her a shove, starting her on her way. June managed to move through the crowd with her head down until she reached the front. Then she handed over the envelope and turned to go.

But Dr. Austin held her there by the wrist as he informed the crowd, "The results for today's tests are just in. They are right here in this envelope. I have not yet seen them." He looked to June to verify that fact. "Havel?"

June shook her hanging head, whereupon Dr. Austin released her wrist. June retreated in a panic as Dr. Austin continued, "I will share them with you now."

He muttered to himself, "I see. I see." Then he proclaimed, "Our King's County students have outscored their counterparts in Connecticut on
The Connecticut Assessment of Student Skills
, and they have outscored their counterparts in New Mexico on
The New Mexico Test of Mathematical Concepts.
Congratulations to all."

Cornelia stepped forward and gave the applause sign. The parents all recognized it and responded.

Dr. Austin waved to them. "Now we have a very special treat for you. Our students in grades one and two, aka the Juku Warriors, would like to show you how they have been spending their time at the Whittaker After-School Preparatory."

Dr. Austin signaled the new Math 6, a heavyset woman sitting uncomfortably in a tight
gi.
The Juku Warriors ran out and lined up. "A lot of American schoolchildren can name the fifty states in the United States," Dr. Austin told the crowd. "But how many can name the forty-seven states in Japan?"

A little girl in a
gi
raised her hand.

George whispered to Kate, "I rehearsed this part with them."

The little girl shouted, "They're not called states!"

Dr. Austin feigned surprise. "No? What are they called, then?"

"Prefectures!"

The parents in the audience laughed.

"I see. Can you name them?"

The little girl shouted, "Sure!" and all seven Juku Warriors broke into a loud recitation: "Aichi, Akita, Aomori—"

The recitation went on, but Dr. Austin talked over them, explaining how students in grades three to five, the Cram Crew, work with their Japanese counterparts.

"Fukui, Fukuoka, Fukushima..."

The audience waited patiently while the children named all forty-seven. Then Dr. Austin asked, "By the way, can any of you count to ten?"

The children started to count in English, but then they quickly switched to Spanish, then French, then something indecipherable. When they finished, Dr. Austin explained to the crowd, "Cambodian, ladies and gentlemen."

Cornelia stepped forward again to lead the applause. Then Dr. Austin sat down and let his wife take over the show.

Cornelia beamed a smile at Heidi, standing off to the side, book in hand. She declared, "How rare it is to be named after your mother's favorite book and to come to embody the spirit of that book"

Kate leaned over to George. "What? Her favorite book was
The Gross, Disgusting, Nasty Girl?
"

Kate then watched, thoroughly unimpressed, as Heidi Whittaker Austin delivered a sickly sweet performance of
Brown Bear, Brawn Bear, What Do You See?
At the end Heidi bowed and curtsied to the crowd. It was Kate's cue to get up and distribute the worksheets.

Dr. Austin got up, too. After another quick pitch to the parents for the Whittaker After-School Preparatory, he read aloud the directions. Kate retreated to a distant table and watched as the children, somberly and diligently, began looking for the
b
sound in words.

After the last of the audience members had departed, Heidi stomped over to Kate. "I hope you're not thinking of going to the audition today, because you don't have a chance!"

"Calm down," Kate responded, as if to an escaped mental patient. "Now what are you talking about?"

Heidi hissed, "You
are
going to the audition today, aren't you?"

Kate was startled to realize that, until that moment, she had totally forgotten about the
Orchid the Orca
audition.

"Fortunately," Heidi said, "you won't have to embarrass yourself. I have work for you to do." She pointed toward a large stack of books and papers on her desk "Take those into the office and type them up. Neatly. Put my name at the top." Heidi then flounced away.

Kate took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She pronounced the word "Whatever" softly to herself. Then she walked to Heidi's desk, picked up the pile of materials, and carried them into the office.

Kate sat down and prepared to type, but she felt a sudden chill and spun around.

Whit was standing in the doorway staring at her. "You're my sister's assistant," he said. "Bad luck for you."

Kate had no intention of conversing with him, but she did answer civilly, "Yeah."

Whit raised his eyebrows. "Shall I put in a word with Mother and have you transferred to me?"

Kate racked her brain for just the right insult, something to crush him like a cockroach. But she lacked the energy to reply at all.

Whit took a step closer, so close that Kate could smell his aftershave. Her nose wrinkled in distaste as he lowered his voice, "You improve the scenery here. You increase the number of hot girls, from none to one."

Kate redoubled her efforts to find the perfect cockroach-crushing remark, but before she could think of it, Cornelia entered the office.

"Whit, honey, we have an engineer from Technon to help you set up your science project."

"Aw! Does he really need me to be there?" Whit complained.

"Oh, Whit!" Cornelia laughed. "You are so funny! You come on now." Cornelia headed out; Whit followed, sighing theatrically.

Kate again prepared to type. But she hadn't made a keystroke before she heard George's voice behind her. "Hey, I figured you were going to audition for that
Orchid the Orca
part."

Kate managed to grunt, "Hey, you figured wrong."

"Come on, Kate. Do you mean you really don't want to do it?"

"No. I'd rather work at my personal assistant job to keep you in your dream school."

George stepped up to the desk "You know, Kate, aside from my uncanny ability to spot redundancy, repetition, and repetitiveness at any distance, I have an even more valuable skill. Did you know that I can type eighty words per minute? With no mistakes? Not even stupid ones?"

Kate finally looked at him. "You're that fast?"

"Come on. Vacate the chair."

George sat down in her place. He shuffled some papers. Then his fingers started to fly.

Kate didn't want to distract him, but she had to know something. "Uncle George, why is there an essay in your handwriting in that pile?"

George kept typing, but he answered, "I was hoping you wouldn't notice."

"It was right on top."

"Naturally." He did stop. "I thought ... if I was nice to Heidi, then she'd be nice to you."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Well, that didn't work!"

George told her, with utter sincerity, "I'm really sorry I got you into this, Kate."

Kate pointed at the keyboard, so George resumed his manic typing. "I'm not sure who got me into this. Ma and Pa? June? Anyway, it wasn't you. You're a kid. I'm a kid. They're the grown-ups."

"But I could have taken your side, right from the beginning. If I had said no, then our house wouldn't have gotten lassoed into the Whittaker district. But I was only thinking about me."

Kate shook her head. "Don't feel bad about that. I only think about me. All I cared about was being the star of
Peter Pan.
I never thought about what you wanted for a minute."

George paused. "I guess I wanted to be a star, too. A test-taking star, since I'll never be any other kind."

George resumed his furious typing. Kate turned away in time to spot someone running past the door. She leaned out and saw Bud Wright cramming into Elevator #1 with a black-and-white fish costume. She asked George, "Hey, did you ever go to Bud Wright's Swim-with-a-Dolphin Aquatic Park?"

"Yeah. It's a county science requirement. Every fifth grader has to go or they can't graduate to middle school."

Kate sneered. "Some science lesson, right? You watch a big, extremely depressed fish swim around in a circle all day."

"Actually, orcas are not fish. They're aquatic mammals. Like dolphins."

"And Mr. Bud Wright was standing there at the door with these stupid i
LOVE ORCHID THE ORCA
T-shirts. God, that poor fish."

"Aquatic mammal."

"Yeah. I hate to even say her name. It's such an insult. She's a wild creature, Uncle George. She's, like, the Amazon queen of the ocean. She's not some cute little character in a fairy tale."

George reached over dramatically and pressed the print button. "That's it. Six five-paragraph essays, all neatly plagiarized by Heidi the Milkmaid. Let's go."

Kate smiled for the first time all day. "Okay. Let's go."

Kate and George hurried into Elevator #3 and rode up to the County Commission Room. They burst through the door just as Heidi was finishing her audition.

Cornelia turned and stared at Kate quizzically.

Susan Singer-Wright announced, "Oh, good! Here's another auditioner. Go ahead, honey. You're next."

Heidi sniggered and tossed a copy of
Orchid the Orca
in Kate's general direction. It landed on the floor, and that's where it stayed.

Kate pointed George to a seat; then she walked in front of the dais. She looked over the panel of judges seated before her. There was Susan Singer-Wright, looking distracted; the new Reading 8, looking nervous; and Walter Barnes, looking asleep. Kate woke him by announcing loudly, "Ladies and gentleman! I am Kate Peters. And, as you shall soon see, I am also
your
choice to play Orchid the Orca!"

Then to everyone's surprise, and George's delight, Kate broke into a song from
Peter Pan.
She visualized her backyard and the big tree and the flying harness. She glided gracefully in place, forward and back, and let the words of "Never Never Land" pour out.