Extraordinary October. Diana Wagman

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СКАЧАТЬ garlic bread, asparagus, and my dad had refused to eat any of it. That’s when the fight began. Usually Mom was telling him not to eat so much. That night it was because he wasn’t eating at all.

      “You’ll get sick,” she had said. “That hypnotist girl didn’t mean for you to stop eating completely.”

      “I’m sorry, Ruth. I’m just not the least bit hungry.”

      He kept speaking with that unusual formality. As Mom got frustrated and started shouting, he stayed calm, also unusual for him. He was adamant about not eating. Finally he went into the den and shut the door. Mom looked furious.

      “I guess the hypnosis is working.”

      “I don’t want to talk about it,” Mom said firmly. “It’s not right.” She sniffed the air. “I can smell it. I can smell her.”

      My mom has a hypersensitive nose, better than anybody. She likes people—or doesn’t—often by their odor. As soon as dinner was over she followed Dad into the den. They’d been in there ever since.

      I opened the front door silently. Jeb was standing outside.

      “You got here fast. Where’s your car?”

      “Too noisy.” He already had the Frisbee in his hand.

      “Is it hers?”

      He nodded. “She’s been taken.”

      “What?” I knew she came from a kind of messed up family. I knew her mom worked all the time and her dad lived somewhere far away. “You mean her dad? Have you been to her house?”

      He shook his head. “She would never leave this behind.” He meant the Frisbee. “Unless she had to.”

      “Why was it in front of my house?”

      He looked down the street. “I gotta go.”

      “I’ll come with you.”

      “Go inside. Lock the door.”

      He had never been much of a talker. Now he was driving me crazy. “But what is happening?” Jeb didn’t answer. He reached out as if to touch me, but then turned and ran off. He was quick and he melted instantly into the dark. “Jeb?” I whispered. “Jeb?”

      Other than the circle of light from the single streetlamp it was pitch black. I thought I heard the bushes rustling. One of the trashcans thumped softly as if someone had bumped it. My mom’s car keys were still in the pocket of my jeans. I hurried to the car, got in and locked the doors. Jeb couldn’t say I hadn’t done what he asked—I was inside with the door locked. I let out the parking brake, put the car in neutral, and coasted down the street. When I got a few houses away from home I started it up.

      I’d been outside of Luisa’s house only once—when she and Jeb took me home from that party and Jeb had dropped her off first. I hoped I could find it again. She didn’t live near by. My particular housing development wasn’t big, but East Los Angeles with all the neighborhoods that fed into my high school was huge. I wound this way and that, made some wrong turns and had to turn around. The streets were empty. There were fewer houses, more businesses. They say no one walks in LA. but it’s a big city, you usually see someone around. That night I didn’t see another soul, not outside a bar or in the all night market. When I finally pulled up in front of her house, it was after midnight. The house was set back from the street with a white picket fence all around. It had a front porch and looked about the same as other houses in the neighborhood. Drooping over the porch rail was a dirty pink sweater that had obviously been there a long time.

      I turned the car off and sat. Was I really going to knock on the door in the middle of the night? What would I say? I woke you up because Luisa left her Frisbee in front of my house? But Luisa had come to my aid so many times. She was the closest thing I had to a friend. Beautiful, sweet Luisa. And Jeb had really been worried.

      I got out of the car and crept up the front walk. I peeked in the front window, but the curtains were closed. I’m not sure what I was looking for or what I hoped to see. It had been chilly earlier, but it had gotten strangely warm. The moon and stars were hidden behind heavy black clouds. I unzipped my hoodie for some air. Along with the odd warmth, it was perfectly still, not a breeze, not a sound. Where was the wind?

      I tiptoed off the porch and around to the back of the house. It was darker in the back. I looked through a window and saw a coffee mug on the kitchen table, signs of life. I stumbled and bumped into a metal chair. It clanged loudly and I froze. I waited, but no lights came on. I was more careful as I walked down to the next window. It was raised about three inches. I peered through the glass. I made out a Brodie Smith Ultimate Frisbee poster on the wall. Had to be Luisa’s room. And then I saw a bed with someone sleeping in it.

      I pushed up the window. “Luisa! It’s me.”

      The body moved, turned over, sat up.

      “Are you okay?” I asked. “Jeb is worried about you.”

      The body stepped over to the window and I nearly jumped out of my skin. “Oh oh! Sorry!”

      “October, is that you?”

      It was Luisa’s mom. “Hi, Mrs. Flores,” I said.

      “Come to the back door.”

      She met me there. She had been crying. She looked horrible and I knew Luisa really was gone. I started crying and she opened her arms and I fell into them.

      “What happened?” I managed. “Where is she?”

      She pushed me back, held onto my shoulders with both hands and looked into my eyes. She was a pretty woman usually, but her face was as pale as the nightgown she wore and everything was sagging, her eyes, her mouth, her shoulders.

      “We don’t know,” she said. Then she actually shook me. “Unless you know something. October, do you know where she is?”

      “No, no, I don’t.” I pulled myself out of her grasp. “Jeb came by my house. He found, we found, her Frisbee.”

      She sat down at the kitchen table. She rested her head in her hands. “I knew this would happen one day.”

      “You mean her dad coming to get her?”

      “One day,” she said it almost to herself. “What could we do?” She looked up at me and her eyes were hard and squinty—as if she was angry with me. “It was a mistake coming here. I should have said no, but Luisa wanted it so badly.”

      “They’ll find her,” I said. “The police are good at finding deadbeat dads. Even if he took her back to Mexico.”

      “You have no idea,” she said. “Oh October.” She gave me a small, bitter smile. “You are really clueless, aren’t you?” She looked me up and down. “And why? For what?” Then she put her head down on the table and cried.

      I didn’t know what she was talking about. I had the creeps as I walked back through the yard to my car. A breeze rattled the palm fronds and I jumped.

      “This is all your fault.” A woman’s voice, as clear as my own, whispered in my ear. I spun. There was no one behind me. There СКАЧАТЬ