The People in the Park (8 page)

With my iPod playing, the windows down, the sunroof open, my mind moving in all directions but the present, and the brisk air caressing my face, somehow I arrived in Columbia. If I still had my car, I would have the top down. If! If a lot of things.

I passed familiar places I had visited with Callie, Melanie, and Stacie. And Steffy, too, even though I hated to admit it. We would shop, attend movies, and go to the student union on the campus of the University of Missouri.

Being on a university campus was a good place to get lost. Nobody knew me. I walked and walked and walked, mixing and mingling with the students, seeming to be one of them. I browsed in the campus bookstore and stopped for a chocolate concrete mixer in the student union. Tiring of walking, I drove around campus a while, passing the new science complex and new dorms under construction before heading to a new mall that had opened near the interstate.

I browsed around the Barnes & Noble bookstore. This was the first time I had been in Barnes & Noble without buying anything. When I was in elementary school, Mom used to pick me up from school at least once a month, and we went book shopping. Both of us carried armloads of books to the checkout counter. Today I just looked at the new titles and thought about my limited funds.

Being here made me sad, so I went next door to a bistro and had a sandwich and lemonade. Even though I sat alone at my table, there were no eyes looking at me with pity and whispering to their companions. I was totally off everybody’s radar.

My waiter tried to flirt with me. I wondered if he was a college student trying to make some extra money. He could be my prom date. I’m sure it would gross him out if he found out I was still in high school.

It was time to get back to Fairfield. I paid and even left a generous tip. For a moment, I pretended that life hadn’t changed, because nobody knew me here.

At the traffic light before entering the expressway, a panhandler held a sign: Out of Work, Need Food for Family.

I rolled down my window and gave him a couple of dollars. I heard him say, “Thank you very much.” And I saw the relief and thankfulness on his face.

I wished I had more to give him. What struck me about him was that he was a relatively well-dressed, middle–aged man, wearing slacks and a buttoned shirt. He wasn’t scruffy looking. He was clean-shaven.

That man could be Dad standing on the street trying to raise money for food for us. Then a horrible thought struck. That man would never be Dad. Dad would be in prison instead.

If that happened, what would become of me? What would become of Mom?

What’s wrong with me? I had just spent a peaceful evening by myself, and I was thinking of things that might never happen. Reality check.

As I entered the expressway, I realized that I hadn’t called Mom to let her know that I wasn’t coming directly home after school. She hadn’t called me either, which meant that she was also preoccupied with life.

I drove up to my house around nine o’clock. The first thing I noticed was the absence of cars out front. The lawyers and law clerks were usually there until at least ten. Only the security guards were still posted outside.

Dad’s car was gone. Lights on the top floor of our house were out. Only the downstairs hall light was on. I passed my parents’ bedroom. The door was open. Mom was in bed with a carton of ice cream. I grabbed a spoon from the wet bar in their room and crawled into bed with her.

I tried to erase the memory of the middle-aged panhandler from my mind, all the while being fearful that life as I knew it would end real soon.

Mom kissed me on top of my head. It felt good to snuggle with her; I can’t remember the last time we had done so. I put my spoon in the carton and retrieved a big scoop of black walnut ice cream, my favorite.

“Where are the lawyers?” I asked.

“Gone,” Mom said. “They’re finished.”

“Where’s Dad?”

“Out to dinner with the lawyers. They’re treating him tonight. I didn’t want to go.”

“You should’ve gone,” I said.

“Why?” she said. “It’s your Dad’s problem. Let him fix it. Where were you?”

“I drove to Columbia,” I said. “I just felt like driving and driving.”

“I know the feeling,” she said.

“Mom,” I said. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Do you think Dad will clear his name?”

“The lawyers seem to think so.” She paused to eat a scoop of ice cream. “I hope so.”

“What are we going to do if his case has to go to trial?” I asked.

“We’re not going to think about that,” she said. “It can’t happen. You need to focus on your studies and do your best so you can get into a good college. I want you to have a career, something I didn’t have.”

“You used to work in advertising, wasn’t that a career?” I asked.

“But I didn’t keep with it after your father and I got married. It was important for him that I work on charities and be available to host dinners for his colleagues and clients.” She looked at me strangely. “If I had to do it over, I would’ve kept working so I could have something of my own.”

I leaned my head over to her shoulder and she put her arm with the ice cream box around me. “Don’t make the same mistake.”

Signaling she was finished with that topic, she said, “Have you seen Jay?”

“At school. He doesn’t talk to me anymore.”

“Now that’s the kind of man you want to steer clear of,” she said. “Someone who doesn’t want to be seen with you and who cancels the prom because of your father’s situation is no stand-up guy. You can do better!”

“Ever since we started upper school I always dreamed of going to the prom with Jay,” I said. “I envisioned him seeing me in my dress for the first time and wondered what he would say and how he would look at me. I could see us dancing practically every dance. Now that’s not going to happen.”

“But you are going to the prom!”

“Mom. How can I?”

“You are going to have a date too.”

“Mom. You can’t set me up with anybody.”

“I don’t intend to. Your prom fees are paid and you are going, with your date, who is not Jay.”

She was so emphatic that I couldn’t do anything but laugh. Soon she was laughing, too.

Laughing felt real good. I can’t remember the last time I laughed. Just Mom and me.

I could tell she was thinking the same thing when she put her head atop mine and whispered, “Where have all the years gone, baby?”

I thought of something. I sat up in bed and turned to look at her.

“Mom, did I tell you that Jay’s friends were the ones who spray painted my car? Rick and Jared.”

“No! His friends did that? You are definitely not going to the prom with him.”

Mom put the ice cream carton aside. She became very quiet. I could tell that her mother hen protective instinct had kicked in. She was ready to leave this room and leave this house and go out in public and fight on my behalf, regardless of who saw her. I could tell she was hurt, too. Rick and Jared had been to our house many times over the years.

“Those are the kinds of people he hangs out with? Now you know what his true character is,” she said softly.

15

I settled into an afternoon of shopping with my friends.

This was the first Saturday afternoon I had hung out with them since the scandal broke. I was doing more window-shopping than Callie, Melanie, and Stacie. Things had not changed for them. Callie’s father was CEO of a multi-national corporation. They lived in a sprawling estate on a hill on the outskirts of town. Melanie and Stacie’s mom was president of a big food company. They lived closer to me in a gated golf club community. We had been BFF’s since middle school. We had all moved to Fairfield at the same time and met on the first day of school.

Buying semiprecious stone leather bracelets for $170 was no problem for either of us, except I couldn’t do it anymore. I tagged along as they exchanged their phones for newer ones and downloaded the coolest apps onto them.

I tried to tell myself that just being with them was what was important. It was good to hang out with my friends and laugh and talk.

With the lawyers gone from our house I could almost believe that life had returned to normal and the past few weeks had been a dream. Except I still couldn’t spend any money, other than my $100 a week allotment from my savings. If I wanted to buy something, I had to calculate in my mind if this was a necessary expense. Or I would have to think if we might need the money to purchase food for dinner.

I was glad I had all my new clothes from our Chicago trip. I didn’t feel so bad just tagging along with my friends while they shopped.

After shopping in all my favorite mall stores, we stopped for a bite to eat at a gourmet hamburger place and had malts and burgers. My hamburger had Swiss cheese and mushrooms. Stacie’s burger was stuffed with blue cheese. Melanie had the barbeque burger, and Callie’s burger was wrapped in cured hickory smoked bacon.

They talked about their boyfriends and what they were wearing to the prom. I told them about my dress.

“Jay will find a way to take you to the prom,” Callie said. “He hasn’t asked anybody else.”

I didn’t say anything. Even if he did find a way, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go with him. He had added heartbreak to my family concerns when I was so looking forward to going to the prom with him.

It was time I faced certain things. As good as life had been for me in Fairfield, I now knew who my real friends were because of the situation with Dad. Callie, Stacie, and Melanie had been there for me from the beginning and they were still there.

“Jay’s time has come and gone,” I said. “He didn’t step up at the right time, so it’s time I face the fact that we’re over and move on.”

“Jay’s a rat,” Stacie said. “He didn’t have the guts to stand up to his parents on your behalf.”

“Yeah, he’s really something,” Melanie said.

“Jay’s not so bad,” I said. “He just wants to please his parents.”

“Listen to you,” said Callie. “You’re going to break a guy down and defend him.”

“Yeah,” said Stacie. “You’re waiting to fish him back in.”

“You just can’t cut a guy off like that,” Melanie said.

“Let’s talk about something else,” I said. “No more Jay talk.”

Callie said her boyfriend was renting a Hummer limo and wanted all of us to go the prom together. We chatted about the fun we’d have and who was hosting after parties and who was serving breakfast the next morning. I was caught up in the planning even though I didn’t have a date. I thought of Jay and how he had messed up our plans. He was probably planning this same type of prom evening with his friends.

“I have the perfect date for you,” Callie said.

“Who?”

“The new guy, Richard Moss. Remember, he transferred here this year.”

“Naw, I don’t think so,” I said. “He’s sort of heavyset.”

Callie, Melanie, and Stacie screamed with laughter.

“Beggars can’t be choosy,” Stacie said.

“I’m not desperate,” I said.

The manager gave us keep-it-down looks. But we couldn’t keep our voices to a low decibel.

“What about Stanley Reed?” Callie asked. “He’s a smart, studious boy.”

“And boring!” I said.

“You are picky, picky, picky!” Melanie said with mock horror.

They kept on naming boys from the entire upper school that nobody wanted to be seen with. A group of three guys came into the restaurant and sat at a table near us. One of them caught my eye. He had dark curly hair and seemed to be looking at me whenever I looked his way. He would smile and go back to talking with his friends.

“Ask him!” Melanie nudged me in the side, having noticed the exchange.

“I don’t even know him,” I said.

“Get to know him,” said Callie.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” Stacie said.

“I just can’t.” He was cute, handsome really. And he seemed to be looking my way a lot, but deep down I didn’t want to be disappointed after he found out I was Dad’s daughter.

The journalists had done a good job of keeping my face out of the media. At least, I could be incognito here with my friends. Unless someone already knew me, I could just be myself out with friends.

The next thing I knew Callie had walked over to their table and introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Callie and these are my friends, Melanie, Stacie, and Lauren,” she said, pointing out each of us as she called our names.

“I’m Patrick, and this is Mike and Alan,” the boy with the curly hair said.

“We just wanted to introduce ourselves,” she said. “Do you live around here?”

“No, I’m visiting my grandmother. My friends rode out here with me.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he talked. He seemed to have some sort of accent.

“Where are you all from?” Melanie asked.

“We live in Olathe,” he said.

A nice area, but not on the same level as Fairfield. I heard they had good schools. And apparently good-looking guys too.

Alan asked if they could join us. My friends said yes. They pulled their table next to ours. They told us they were jocks. Alan played football, Mike played baseball, and Patrick was on the basketball team.

“Different sports?”

“We’ve known each other since first grade,” Patrick said by way of explanation.

We talked into the evening, until the restaurant closed. At least everybody else talked, and I listened. Then they teased me about not speaking.

I just smiled, and Patrick smiled back.

We all exchanged telephone numbers.

When we left I told my friends that they had better not tell Patrick I didn’t have a date for the prom.

A fun evening.

I hadn’t had one of those in quite a while.

****

Even though I was driving Mom’s car I had to put gas in it. To make sure I had enough money for all my needs out of my weekly allotment, I’d been putting only five dollars’ worth of gas in the tank at a time. Usually I had to do it every day, with the high cost of gas, five dollars only got me from my house to the park and school and back home again. If I wanted to go somewhere else, like out with my friends, I hoped and prayed that there was enough gas in the tank.