Zigzag (34 page)

Of course, Chris said he was still in love with me, too, and he was kissing Gabriella, so at least I wasn't the only person who was confused. We'd just have to figure it out on August 20.

Franny loved the ring Iris and Marshall had given me, so we took her to see the Indian jewelry at the Plaza. While we were walking from one display to another, she had us all laughing over her breakup with Des Sanders. “He wanted me to go out with him every weekend! And he was always calling me on the phone. Like I don't have my own life!”

“Franny, that's what you do when you have a boyfriend,” I said.

“Yeah? Maybe I'd be better off getting a dog then.”

“Even a dog wants a walk every night,” Savannah told her.

“Every night? Isn't there some animal that doesn't demand so much? What about a bird?”

“You just haven't met the right person yet,” I said.

“Maybe. By the way, I have a feeling your mother
has
met the right person.”

I stopped laughing. “Who? You don't mean Michael Evans?”

“Is she going out with anybody else? I'm telling you, they've checked out every schmaltzy romantic movie in the store, and I've seen them together at the Fish Shack every time I've been there—sitting very close together. I think they're attached at the hip. Doesn't she talk about him when she calls you?”

“She mentions him, but she never said they're inseparable.”

“Maybe she thinks you don't like him.”

“I like him fine. I mean, I don't know him very well. It's a little weird, you know? She's my mother and she's going on dates. With a guy who looks like Ernest Hemingway's enormous twin.”

“Well, I think you better get used to it. I have a feeling the bell tolls for Mr. Hemingway. The
wedding
bell.”

Now
there
was something to think about. What if they got married and he moved into the house? The idea had been appalling to me when I'd first considered it in June. But now I thought,
why shouldn't my mother fall in love
? In another year I'd be leaving for college—our mother/daughter act would be breaking up, anyway. I should be happy she'd found somebody to be with. I should be, and maybe by the time I drove all the way back to Iowa, I would be.

We got back pretty late and tried to be quiet coming in so we wouldn't wake any motel clients who might be asleep. Savannah had been telling Franny about Sukey's weaving and Roland's pottery, and Franny wanted to see it, so they went inside together. There was a weird minute when I thought I ought to go with them because, if I didn't, I'd be standing outside in the dark, alone with Cesar, which might not be such a good idea. But I didn't seem to be able to move one way or the other. I stood there looking at him in the neon light from the motel sign; it gave his dark hair a blue shine and made his eyes glow. Finally, Cesar cleared his throat.

“Your friend Franny is very funny. I like her.”

“Me too. She's my best friend.”

Then, just when I thought we were on a safe topic, Cesar leaped into a new one. “Robin, I'm not going to be here in the morning to tell you good-bye.”

“You're not? You don't usually work in the morning.”

“I just . . . have things to do.”

“Oh.” Why did I feel so disappointed?

“So, good-bye,” he said, sticking out his hand.

This was it? We were going to have an awkward handshake in the dark and then go our separate ways? I put my hand out to meet his, but instead of shaking it, he curled his fingers around it and held it so tightly I could feel his pulse beating in his palm.

“I know you have a boyfriend,” he said. “But if he goes to the East Coast, and you come out west, maybe the next time I see you things will be different.”

My voice had disappeared. I looked at his dark eyes and tried my best to remember what Chris's eyes had looked like.

“You don't have to say anything. But you could write me a letter when you get back to Iowa. Tell me about everything you saw on your trip. Let me know if you still think New Mexico is the most beautiful place.” He smiled. “You know my address.”

I nodded, looking down at our hands, still clenched.

“Good night,” he said, almost whispering.

“Good night,” I repeated.

And then he leaned toward me, and I leaned toward him, and we kissed each other. I was going to say I didn't know what I was doing, but that would be a lie. I knew exactly what I was doing. I kissed him slowly and sweetly, and then he was gone.

“How come you're standing out here all by yourself?” Franny asked. She fanned a hand in front of my face. “Hello? Do you read me, Houston? Come in.”

“I'm here. I'm just thinking.”

“Thinking about what? Chris? Cesar? Moving to New Mexico? Driving across the country with your hilarious friend?”

I linked my arm through hers and walked her back to room number 5. “All the possibilities, Franny. All the possibilities.”

Ellen Wittlinger
is the critically acclaimed author of the teen novels
The Long Night of Leo and Bree, Razzle, What's in a Name,
and
Hard Love
(an American Library Association Michael L. Printz Honor Book and a Lambda Literary Award winner), and the middle-grade novel
Gracie's Girl
. She has a bachelor's degree from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. A former children's librarian, she lives with her husband in Swampscott, Massachusetts. Visit her Web site at
www.ellenwittlinger.com
.

Ellen Wittlinger writes: “I began with the idea of having a teenager travel cross country. I knew Robin would be mourning the immediate loss of her longtime boyfriend, but I stumbled on the idea of having her deal with her difficult, truly mourning cousins. The idea of the ‘journey' novel during which the actual traveling echoes an inward journey is not new, but it's effective, I think, because it's so often true. Traveling takes you out of your usual routine and allows you to see other options for your life.”

Jacket photographs: Background: © Andreas Schmidt/Photonica;
Girl: © Dan Potash; Toy car: © CSA Plastock/Photonica
Jacket design by Dan Potash

S
IMON
& S
CHUSTER
B
OOKS FOR
Y
OUNG
R
EADERS
S
IMON &
S
CHUSTER
, N
EW
Y
ORK

SIMON AND SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York, 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2003 by Ellen Wittlinger

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

S
IMON
& S
CHUSTER
B
OOKS FOR
Y
OUNG
R
EADERS
is a trademark of Simon & Schuster.

Book design by Dan Potash

The text for this book is set in Berling.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wittlinger, Ellen.

Zigzag / Ellen Wittlinger.

p. cm.

Summary: A high-school junior makes a trip with her aunt and two cousins, discovering places she did not know existed and strengths she did not know she had.

ISBN 0-689-84996-6

ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-1631-9 (eBook)

[1. Automobile travel—Fiction. 2. Vacations—Fiction. 3. Cousins—Fiction. 4. Aunts—Fiction. 5. Interpersonal relations—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.W78436 Zi 2003

[Fic]—dc21 2002002145