The Bermudez Triangle

For the other sides of the hexagon:

Shannon Skalski, Peggy Banaszek, Alexis Fisher
,
Laurie Sharp, and Dr. Kirsten Rambo

Many thanks are due to Leslie Morgenstein, Ben Schrank, Josh Bank, Claudia Gabel, and Liesa Abrams. Special thanks to Eloise Flood, whose faith and enthusiasm made it all happen.

For their insight: Elizabeth Freidin, Megan Honig, and the always-gracious Alexander Newman. For Kate Schafer, who has an uncanny ability to solve every crisis.

And to Jack Phillips, for putting up with me. Someday I’m going to get you that pet monkey I’ve been promising for so long now.

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The host stood
at his podium under the pink-and-yellow neon arch and surveyed the three girls who had just come through the door. Avery Dekker stepped forward and gave him a huge smile.

“Bermudez,” she said. “Two o’clock birthday party.”

He looked Avery over, taking in her fishing hat and her For Good Luck, Rub My Belly T-shirt. His eyes passed to the two girls standing behind her. First they settled on the petite, pale redhead in a denim skirt and a pink tank top. Then they fell on the tall, cocoa-colored girl in a red summer dress and matching flip-flops. This girl looked around in bafflement.

They were not the five-year-olds the host had been anticipating.

“Just the three of you?” He looked expectant, as if he was hoping that Avery was about to produce a small child from the pocket of her oversized cargo shorts.

“Just us.”

“And who’s the … birthday girl?”

“Right here.” Avery reached behind and grabbed the girl in the red dress by the hand. “This is Nina Bermudez. She knows the drill. She had every single one of her birthday parties here from the time she was eight until she was eleven. Didn’t you, Neen?”

Nina was still looking around her, staring into the huge room that was just beyond the archway—at the video games, the indoor playground, the stage, and the costumed characters that mingled with the hordes of children.

“Okay …” He sighed while grabbing a boxful of small party bags. “Come this way.”

He led them through a sea of small running bodies to a booth, cheerfully decorated in red and blue streamers that were covered in pictures of a smiling cartoon mouse. At each place setting there was a festive party hat and a decorative plastic cup. Avery jumped into one of the seats happily.

“Here are your tokens,” the host said, hesitantly giving them each a small yellow mesh bag. “You also get your picture taken in the ball pool. And you get a birthday show. Do you want that before your pizza or after?”

“We don’t need to have the show,” Nina said. “It’s not even my birthday. My birthday’s in March, on Saint Patrick’s Day.”

This was totally unnecessary information, but when Nina got nervous, she tended to give too many details.

“It’s kind of the rule,” the host said apologetically. “You got the party package.”

“Oh.” A rush of pink crept into Nina’s cheeks. “After, I guess.”

“After.” He wrote this down on his pad. “Okay. Your pizza will be out in about half an hour. This is your … playtime.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Nina whispered across the table as soon as he was gone.

The mechanical mouse behind Avery’s head started playing a song. Avery did a little seat dance.

“
Death
, Ave. And they will never find your body.”

“It was Mel’s idea too. We wanted to give you a proper send-off to camp.”

“It’s precollege, not camp,” Nina said with a grin.

“Whatever,” Avery replied, with a flip of her hand.

Mel took the small conical hat from the table and planted it on Nina’s head, stringing the elastic over Nina’s Princess Leia buns, her signature hairstyle.

“Oh, yeah.” Avery snickered, taking in the effect. “That is sexy.
Sex-hay!
” Avery looked around with an expression of undiluted pleasure on her face. She pointed to the play area, with its tangle of bright cubes and tubes and plastic webbing. “Everything is as good as I remember it. There’s the net where Mel got her hair caught and started crying. And up there in the crawl tube, where those little yellow peepholes are, that’s where Sarah Nickles
accidentally
kicked me in the nose with her heel and I started to bleed. Good times. Why did we stop coming here?”

“Because we started wearing bras and going to high school?” Nina offered, adjusting the thin elastic string that was digging into her chin.

“Sarah gave us the name when we were here,” Mel said. “That was good.”

“That’s right,” Nina said. “Because she was jealous that we were only playing with one another.”

“Yeah, she was comparing us to some kind of evil vortex.”

“It was still a good name,” Mel protested.

The host returned with what he called a “bottomless” pitcher of soda. Avery tapped the base and glanced at the host suspiciously as she accepted it.

“That’s going to be you in about three hours,” Nina said as he hurried away. “Just keep that in mind when one of your customers gives you attitude.”

“Attitude?” Avery said, widening her eyes. “
Moi?
”

Mel started filling all their cups with soda, trying hard to make sure everyone got the same amount of ice.

“You’re going to call me every night, screaming.” Nina grinned. “I know it.”

“We’re going to be waitresses at a high-class restaurant for adults,” Avery said with dignity as she tried to affix her party hat to her fishing hat. “P. J. Mortimer’s Fine Food and Drinks Emporium. Conveniently located in the same shopping center as Wal-Mart and Home Depot. The best Saratoga has to offer.”

“We have to wear tweed caps,” Mel said, passing Nina the first cup. “And green shirts with shamrocks on them.”

“And suspenders,” Avery added. “We can’t forget the suspenders.”

A girl about their age with two long blond braids and a Polaroid camera came over to the table. She had a stiff, straight smile that must have come from endless hours of being around swarms of screaming children—the kind of smile that looked like it might require muscle relaxants to uncurl.

“Ready for your picture?” she asked cheerfully.

Avery bounced out of her seat and hurried toward the giant pen of colored balls. Mel gave Nina a gentle nudge out of the booth. Avery was already sitting on a plastic tree stump, pulling off her red Chuck Taylors. Mel untied her white-and-pink Pumas. They both stepped over the short wall into the balls. Nina went to follow, but the girl with the camera stopped her.

“You have to take your shoes off,” she said.

“They’re just flip-flops,” Nina replied.

The girl pointed to a sign that read:
BE
COOL
,
NO
SHOES
IN
THE
POOL
!

“I have to go in there with bare feet?” Nina asked.

“That’s the rule!” The girl smiled brightly at this, as if she were telling Nina that she’d just won a pony.

Nina kicked off the flip-flops and stepped gingerly into the pit, feeling the cool tarp under her toes. The balls came to a spot halfway up her thigh. Since she was wearing a dress, it was very difficult for her to move and keep her balance. She had to lean forward, holding her arms out in front of her, mummy style. Mel was having similar problems in her skirt (though she did have the advantage of small socklettes). Avery was having no problems at all. She had gone in deep, almost to the far side. A few children glanced at her with baffled expressions, wondering why their zone had been invaded by this
older person
.

Nina waded a bit farther in toward her, cringing with every step.

“I feel something wet,” she whined.