The Photographer (5 page)

“A good editor is going to cut this copy,” Megan whispered.

“So I'll shut up and show you what I think.”

Robert kissed her, a warm, loving kiss that did let Megan know he cared for her. She returned the kiss and for a long time they stood, Robert holding her, soothing away all the worry of the evening for both of them.

“I'll call you tomorrow. If Cynthia is still in the hospital and you want to go over, I'll come get you.”

“Thanks, Robert.” Megan slipped inside, wanting to keep the memory of his kiss instead of the rest of the evening.

The doctor let Cynthia go home on Sunday, since nothing showed up on the tests he'd given her. But she didn't go to school on Monday.

The school was abuzz with rumors. Megan didn't stop to listen to any of them or to correct anything people were saying. There really wasn't anything to say yet. She didn't see Robert until lunchtime, when he flopped down beside her in the lunchroom. He smiled, but he was all business, the dance and the kiss a memory.

“Will you help Bunny write the Homecoming story, Megan? I should never have given it to her, but she begged. Now she's having trouble finishing it. She has the facts, but there's no life to it. You've spoiled me with your lively writing.”

Helping Bunny would be a drag. It would be so much easier to write the piece herself. But Megan said yes—for Robert, not for Bunny.

“How is Cynthia today?” Robert bit into a taco and it crumbled all around him. He shook his head and gathered up the scraps onto his plate.

“I didn't get to talk to her, but her mom said the doctor thought it was stress and exhaustion. She worked hard getting ready for Homecoming.”

“Yeah, she did. Bunny and Roxie and the others spent big bucks on dresses. Cynthia took it as a challenge to make hers. She has a lot of talent.” Robert looked at Megan, making her feel warm all over. “So do you, Megan. We make a good news team.”

Megan felt her cheeks grow hot. Don't be silly, she scolded herself. This is just Robert, your partner in gathering all the news worth reading about in Boulder High. She tried to change the subject to the Halloween issue of the newspaper.

Robert changed it back to them. “The mall celebration will be after the Friday paper is out, but will you go with me? We can get some good pictures.”

“Sure, Robert,” said Megan, trying to think of it as work, not a date. She didn't want to get all silly over a guy. “I'd like that.”

Megan called to Bunny, who was sitting one table over, in order to cover her sudden embarrassment over Robert. “Bunny, meet me in the newspaper office after school?”

Bunny waved her yes. Megan gathered the rest of her lunch quickly. “I need to stop by the library before history, Robert.” She might as well study. Sitting by Robert, she was having trouble eating. Maybe she'd lose ten pounds because of her new relationship with him.

Bunny was in a strange mood when Megan met her after school. She sprawled across the newspaper desk. “I think I'm having post-Homecoming depression, Megan. Suddenly I'm tired. Tired of school, tired of the newspaper, the whole thing. I can't even get this story started. Maybe I really am dumb.”

“Hey, Bunny,” Megan said, trying to cheer her up, “where's your great sense of humor? You probably are tired, but we have a deadline.”

“I'm tired of deadlines, too. You write the story for me, Megan, will you? I'd be eternally grateful.”

Megan sighed. Bunny did look tired, and she wasn't acting like herself. “Okay, just this once. Go on home and get some sleep.”

Megan shook off the heavy feeling she'd picked up from Bunny and dashed off the article. Robert would know it was hers, and he was the only one she cared about. Mrs. Hubbard was pretty lax. She left all the glory, as well as the work, to her students. She'd never realize it wasn't Bunny's story.

By Friday, when Cynthia wasn't back in school, Megan stopped by her house with a dozen copies of
The Owl
. Cynthia was propped up by several pillows in her canopy bed. She looked pale and wan. Megan felt a shiver of fear race through her at Cynthia's appearance.

“Mother insisted I have some tests, so I've been to the doctor again today. They took so much blood I'm probably anemic by now.” Cynthia's nightgown was white, and with her hair the Nordic blond and her face colorless, she was almost the picture that Megan had seen in her dream.

“What did he say?” Megan took Cynthia's hand. It was cold.

“He suspects mono. Says it's hard to diagnose unless you catch it at one exact moment. Just what I need to liven up my senior year, isn't it?” Cynthia smiled.

“I still vote for your wearing yourself out before the dance, Cyn.”

“I confess I did. But this bug was waiting to get me. When I got tired, my resistance was down. Phooey, I'll miss Halloween.”

“Robert and I are going to take pictures on the mall.”

“Hey, you sure you can mix going out with your boss and working for him?” Cynthia said, teasing.

“I'd like to try.”

They looked at the newspaper. There was a huge picture story on the Homecoming ceremonies, the football game, the dance. There were photos of Cynthia on the field, individual photos of her and her attendants in the formal shots Derrick had made before the dance. Robert had included several informal photos of Cynthia at the dance before she fainted. She did look beautiful.

“Megan, thanks for coming over,” Mrs. Harlow said, breaking up the gossip session. “But Cynthia needs to rest.”

“I'll bring some homework next week if you aren't back, Cynthia,” Megan promised as she left. She wondered if Cynthia would feel like studying, though. She couldn't help but worry about her friend.

Derrick picked up Megan as usual for the next Tuesday's staff meeting. Since there was no way to tell him she didn't feel comfortable around him, she made the best of it.

“Great photo, Derrick,” Robert said when Derrick opened his briefcase and pulled out his new work.

“Hey, I like it!” Candy Gilford grabbed the picture. She was draped in chiffon in front of a crystal ball. “No one would suspect it's an upside-down light globe. Your lighting makes it look real.”

Derrick smiled, but Megan noticed that he looked tired. Had he stayed up all night developing photos? Senior year was going to kill them all if they weren't careful.

“I'm going to use it for the front page,” Robert said. “I sure wish we had some more Halloween photos. The timing is off, with Halloween coming the day after the paper comes out.”

“We can take photos early, pretending they're from the mall celebration,” Derrick suggested in an unusual burst of words. “I'll pose some of the girls in costume.”

“Wait till you see what my mom brought from New York.” Roxie MacNeil brought out a big dress box she'd been saving for a surprise. She'd brought them to show Bunny, but now she could show them off to everyone.

Everyone gasped when she opened the box. There were two incredible fairy costumes, one gold and one white. Skimpy leotards were covered with sequins and ruffles and beads. The wings were gauze, painted with silver or gold.

“I'm going to wear the gold,” Roxie said. “It'll go well with my red hair. You wear the silver one, Bunny. I asked Mom to get it for you so we could go together. We'll go down to the mall tonight and pose for Derrick.”

“Okay,” Bunny said. She lacked her usual exuberance for getting her picture in the paper, but agreed, holding up the costume. “It is pretty.”

“How about ‘Two of Our Lovely Fairy Queens' for a caption?” Robert said, laughing, as they finished planning the issue.

“I really don't think Miss Hubbard will let you get by with that, Robert.” Megan laughed too, knowing Robert was teasing. He seemed in an unusually good mood. “Even with as little supervision as she gives us, I'm sure she proofs every word before giving it to the print shop.”

“Besides,” Roxie grinned, taking the joke farther, “Bunny and I aren't
that
close. We're only good friends. Right, Bun?”

Derrick laughed out loud, actually laughed. Megan, sitting by him, had to move away. She was picking up that unusual energy from him, despite his tired appearance. She walked to the coffeepot and slowly poured herself a cup. Then she helped herself to a doughnut even though she didn't feel hungry. It gave her something to do, an excuse to move away from Derrick. His laughter had sent shivers down her back and goose bumps over her arms. His laughter hadn't come from humor, but from something she couldn't identify.

She stayed as far away from Derrick as possible until the meeting was over. Then she helped Robert clean up after the staff had left.

“Robert, have you noticed Derrick acting unusual?” Megan asked, boxing up the leftover doughnuts so they wouldn't dry out. The staff could eat them throughout the day.

“Unusual? How? His work is terrific. That's not unusual, but he did get overly excited about it today. Said a whole sentence.”

“And laughed out loud.” Megan tried to laugh. “I had to move. I couldn't sit by him.”

“Then I don't have to get jealous, do I?” Robert pulled her close and bounced a kiss off the end of her nose. “Too much imagination is not good for a reporter, my dear. The facts, just the facts.”

“I don't know what the facts are.”

Chapter 8

Megan visited Cynthia every day the rest of the week. And every day she became aware of Cynthia's worsening condition.

On Friday, when Megan delivered
The Owl
with the Halloween photos, Cynthia had bad news. “Oh, Megan.” Her fingers folded and pleated the pink-flowered sheets pulled up around her. “I have to go into the hospital tomorrow. The doctor wants more tests for—for leukemia.”

“Cynthia, no, oh no.” Megan knelt beside her friend's bed and took her slender hand. It was so cool and lifeless. “It can't be. You have to fight back, though, whatever it is. Promise me you'll fight. You have to get well.”

“I'm just so tired. I don't have any fight left.”

“Are you in pain?”

“No, I don't have any strength. It's as if something is just sapping all my energy. I can hardly stand up when I get out of bed.”

Megan didn't know what to say. What could you say when your best friend was fading away before your eyes? She stood and paced the floor.

“I wish I could go to the mall with you for Halloween,” Cynthia said, changing the subject. “Will you come to the hospital first thing Sunday morning and tell me all about it?”

“I will, Cynthia. I promise. And I'll bring our pictures as soon as we get them developed.”

On the way home from Cynthia's, Megan stopped at the photo shop where she got most of her developing and printing done. She ordered two poster-size enlargements of her photos of Cynthia in her Homecoming dress. She'd put them on the wall in Cynthia's room. Then she bought rolls of crepe paper and Halloween decorations at the drugstore next door. The hospital room was so sterile—so white. All she could do for Cynthia was try to keep her cheered up. They'd stop at the hospital on their way to the mall on Saturday night.

Robert thought that was a great idea. Even Derrick, who to Megan's dismay was going with them, seemed concerned about Cynthia and was willing to stop. She had thought she and Robert were going to the mall alone, but this really was a picture-taking expedition, not a date. She was glad she had called Bunny and Roxie and asked them to meet at the hospital in their fairy costumes. Cynthia would love the New York creations.

Megan wore a clown costume. She had long ago stopped trying to be glamorous for Halloween. It wasn't her style. She had a lime green acrylic wig-Afro style—that her mother had found in a shop in Denver. Painted on her face was the biggest smile she had room for. Her eyebrows arched in perpetual surprise. Her floppy suit was green with orange polka dots, and she'd painted an old pair of her dad's shoes orange with green dots. White gloves with a mass of colored pompons on the wrists completed her outfit. As she entered the hospital room she hoped the painted-on smile would hide her sadness for Cynthia.

They strung the crepe paper across the room while Cynthia and her roommate giggled. Cynthia's roommate had a broken leg and was much more energetic than Cynthia. She clapped and cheered for the unexpected celebration.

“How'd you break your leg, Geri?” Megan asked.

“In a warm-up basketball game.” Geri made a face. “Now I'll miss basketball season as well as skiing.”

Bunny and Roxie appeared just in time to see the last witch taped on the wall. The girls looked like twins despite their different coloring.

“Fantastic,” Cynthia squealed at the sight of the fairy costumes. “I wish I had made them.”

“Now for the finale. Ta-ta-ta-da!” Robert, dressed appropriately in a magician's outfit, pulled out a big bag he'd saved for last. In it was a tall, black witch's hat. He placed it on Cynthia's head. Propped up by pillows, she managed a smile. “Let's have a photo, Derrick,” Robert suggested. “Not for publication,” he assured Cynthia. “But for your scrapbook—the time you bewitched all the doctors at Community Hospital.”

Megan posed a fairy on either side of Cynthia. First they perched beside her, then did ballet poses, holding to the railing at the head of the bed, tapping Cynthia with wands topped by gold and silver stars. Derrick, again with two cameras, snapped several photos with each to insure some good shots. Megan noticed that Bunny was quieter than usual, but she looked incredibly beautiful in the silver-and-white costume. Megan caught one glimpse of herself in a mirror and tried not to compare clowns and fairies. The world needed both, she reminded herself.

“Cynthia should get magically better.” Roxie tapped Cynthia on the head with her wand. “I command it.” They laughed and wished Cynthia well as they left.