Extraordinary October. Diana Wagman

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СКАЧАТЬ we were both healthier because of his condition. She’s a stick woman, really skinny. My dad said when he and my mom walked down the street together they looked like the number 10. Ha ha ha.

      I could hear Dad down in the kitchen at that moment, rummaging for something to eat. I shuddered remembering the night of my tenth birthday party. I couldn’t sleep, so I came downstairs and saw my dad eating my leftover birthday cake right out of the big bakery box. I hid behind the door and watched him read the newspaper and eat bite after bite. He ate the whole thing and it was a lot. I was shocked. He was overweight then, but he wasn’t enormous. I know it’s a sickness and he can’t control himself so we just don’t have the stuff in the house anymore. I never wanted another birthday cake.

      My cell phone rang. That was a surprise; almost no one ever called me. I had to dig it out of my backpack, way down in the bottom under the papers, old lunch bags, pencils, and crap. Had to be a grown up. Maybe Mom. Anyone else would text me.

      “Hello?”

      “October Fetterhoff?”

      “Yes.”

      “My name is Walker Smith. We saw each other at school today—in the hallway.”

      I almost choked on my own saliva. Blue-eyes? He was calling me?

      “Oh yeah,” I managed. “I was scratching.”

      Stupid! I kicked the side of my bed. As if he needed reminding.

      “Yes. Are you okay?”

      “Perfect. Thanks. Right as rain.” Ugh. Now I was sounding like some fake British girl out of a Disney movie.

      “Great. Well. I’m a psychology major at Hayden College and I’m going to be doing an experiment at your school and I wondered if you’d like to participate.”

      “Really?”

      “It won’t take much of your time.”

      He wanted me! But would I have to wear a hospital gown, or be filmed sleeping? I didn’t want him to see me drooling. “What kind of experiment?” I asked.

      “It’s about the effects of college placement on the late adolescent.”

      “I haven’t been placed yet.” My applications were all in, but I wouldn’t hear for a month.

      “Exactly. I have a list of questions about your thoughts about the process, your hopes and aspirations and any fears you might have. Honestly, you’re the first I’ve tried this on. You’ll be my guinea pig.”

      Great, first I was a bear, then a pig. “When would this start?”

      “We could start today,” he said and when I didn’t answer right away, he continued, “You’ll be glad you did. Trust me.”

      “Today. Okay. That’d be like, way cool.” I groaned again. Seemed I could not speak like a normal person. “I guess I shouldn’t meet you at school since I went home sick.”

      He laughed a deep, warm, manly chuckle. My toes curled against the rug. Those eyes. That laugh. I hoped the experiment would take forever.

      “How about Henderson Park?” he asked.

      “Sure.” We agreed on a time and a particular bench by the swing set. I hung up. I wasn’t itching, but I had a weird, jittery feeling. A good one. The thought that I was going to sit and answer questions for Blue-Eyes, Walker, was—well, the most exciting thing that had happened to me in a long, long time. Pathetic, but true.

      The big question was what to wear. My new jeans were in the laundry. I didn’t think I could get them washed and dried in time. I forced myself to look in the mirror again. Old favorite jeans: check. I’d worn them a day or two, but they weren’t too baggy. Gray 80’s band T-shirt: sort of check. It was okay, not great. I held up my new summer blouse, an early birthday gift to myself, that I hadn’t worn yet. It was pretty, kind of revealing, but if I changed it might appear as if I was trying to impress him, or worse, seduce him. Not that I knew how. I looked outside. It was getting cloudy. I decided to put on my favorite sweater, a soft, black V-neck. A girl wasn’t supposed to freeze to death for a psych experiment, was she? I looked good—for me. But what to tell my dad? It would have to be the truth—minus Walker being the most beautiful man I’d ever met. I needed the car if I was going to Henderson Park.

      The doorbell rang. I started down the stairs to answer it and was surprised to see my dad had beaten me there. He opened the door to a young red-haired woman who had to be six feet tall. She was incredible looking. Her face almost didn’t look real, or as if she’d had plastic surgery to look like a Disney princess. Her skin was flawless and a creamy coffee color with a faint blush on her high cheekbones, her green eyes very large and framed in long dark lashes, her eyebrows a perfect arc and her lips shaped like Cupid’s bow. I thought she might hypnotize my dad just by her perfection. Oddly for someone in her twenties, she wore a long dress with wide, flapping sleeves plus layers and layers of scarves and flowing material—all in shades of rust and orange. She floated in the door.

      “Hello, Neal,” she said warmly.

      She took my father’s two hands in hers and looked at him for a long, long moment. He stared back at her without moving, his mouth hanging open. Yup. It was just as I feared. A gorgeous woman had never looked at him that way and he was stunned. Finally I’d had enough and I cleared my throat.

      My dad shook his head. “Hey, Pumpkin.” He looked kind of embarrassed. As well he should have.

      I walked over to the two of them. It was my turn for her eagle eye; she stared at me like she was trying to see through my skin to my bones. It wasn’t comfortable. I stepped out of her line of sight and half behind my dad.

      “This is my daughter,” Dad began and for the first time ever in my life, he blushed as he continued, “October.”

      “What a beautiful name,” she said and turned to me. “Pleased to meet you.” She tried to grab my hand in hers, but I moved back and sort of waved. For some reason, I didn’t want her to touch me.

      Dad said, “This is Madame Helena Gold.”

      “You’re the hypnotist?” I said. “You make house calls?”

      “I go wherever I am needed.” Madame Gold gave a little flutter and her sleeves and dress swirled around her. “How are you feeling, October?”

      Did I imagine it or was she asking as if she knew something? “I feel great,” I said.

      “I hope we can be good friends.”

      She tried to look me in the eye and I avoided her. Maybe she was only twenty-five or six, but I still didn’t want to be her friend. I turned to Dad. He was staring at her. “Dad.” I snapped my fingers by his ear. “Yo, Dad. Can I take the car?”

      “Please stay,” Madame Gold said before he could answer. “I would love to get to know you better.”

      “Don’t you have a lot of hypnotizing to do?”

      “My method includes the entire family,” she said. “We all have many influences, the surrounding energies are so important.”

      “Well. СКАЧАТЬ