Jonah Havensby (15 page)

“Bye,” she said and smiled back. Then she turned around and kept walking.

“Bye, Emma.” Eric said in a high-pitched whine to Jonah. When Jonah looked at him, he added, “Seriously?”

“What?” Jonah giggled.

“Crushing on Emma Wong much or just a little?”

“Neither,” Jonah demanded. “So am not.”

“So are too!” Eric retorted.

“Shut up, dude,” Jonah said, trying to laugh it off, but felt a blush coming on.

They got back to Vineyard and Mrs. MacIntyre was out front standing with her arms crossed and her briefcase at her feet. “Where have you two been?” She asked, with just a subtle hint of anger looking at her watch.

“We ran into Jonah’s girlfriend,” Eric said.

“We did not,” Jonah said glaring at him, then to Mrs. MacIntyre he said “I mean, I just met her.”

“Oh,” she said quietly. She thought she understood the situation and didn’t want to embarrass him but that answer certainly diffused anger. She turned to Eric. “Well, Maria is going to close up, so we’re free for the weekend.” She zipped his coat and put an arm around him.

“Do you want to come?” Eric asked Jonah. “Jonah can come over, right?” he asked his mother.

“Jonah might have to go home for his own dinner,” she said.

“Um, okay,” Jonah said. He didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t anticipated this. It came out wrong.

“You don’t have to if you’d rather go home.” Eric said. “But we
are
having tacos tonight. They’re good.”

Mrs. MacIntyre brushed his hair out of his face for the compliment. “We’ll have more than enough if you’d like to come, Jonah.” She said. Eric brushed his hair back down.

“Here,” Eric said, pulling out his phone. “Call your dad and ask.”

Jonah took the phone and didn’t know what to do. He stared at it in his hand for a second. “Oh, it’s after six,” he said. “He just went into a meeting.”

“Alright,” Eric said. “Then call him from my house. I mean, if you want to go”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Cool.”

They started walking to the door when Mrs. MacIntyre spoke up. “Shouldn’t you call your mom?”

“No,” he said “I don’t have a mom.”

“Oh, honey,” Mrs. MacIntyre said, and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“Oh, no,” he said. “It’s not like that. I never knew my mom.”

“Sweetie, that’s still so....” she let the thought trail off and just rubbed his arm up and down quickly. She took both of them arm in arm and they walked to the car.

Jonah only took a fleeting glance at the small fountain near the door. “Bus money,” he thought to himself.

X

They got into Mrs. MacIntyre’s car, a white Toyota Prius. Jonah took the back seat and Eric slid the front seat up more so he could have some room.

“So what does your father do, Jonah?” Mrs. Macintyre asked as they left the parking lot.

“He’s a scientist,” Jonah blurted out without thinking.

“A scientist? Wow!” She said, not fully believing it. “Where does he work?”

“Clapton,” he answered. It was the first thing that popped in his head.

“Oh, you mean he works at the college over there,” she said. That made a lot more sense to her.

“Um, yeah,” he replied.

“That must be exciting. Such a commute though. I can’t imagine.” As an aside she added, “You know Eric’s going to astronomy camp there in a few weeks, just over winter break.”

“Maybe,” Eric said a little too loud. He tried to deflect what this might say about his personality. He didn’t want Jonah to judge him too harshly.

“Maybe?” She said. “You’re already signed up. No maybe.”

Eric sat back in the passenger’s seat and looked out the window.

“That sounds kind of cool actually.” Jonah said, just to erase the pressure.

“Really?” Eric asked over his shoulder.

“Maybe you can both sign up.” Mrs. Macintyre said.

“I’m not really that good with science. I don’t know anything about astronomy,” Jonah said.

“Oh that’s right, you go to school at home, don’t you?” She said. “I’d actually like to hear about what you learn at home. I’ve never known anyone who was home-schooled before. I mean, if you don’t mind talking about it sometime.”

“He has tutors and stuff,” Eric butted in.

“Yeah,” Jonah said, agreeing with his own lie. “Two of them.”

“And where do you live, Jonah?” She asked.

“Drury Road.” He answered. It was the street he had found the five dollars on.

“Oh, that’s nice. I like that neighborhood over there, the trees are so pretty,” she said.

They were driving up a steep hill into a neighborhood Jonah hadn’t been to before. The top of the hill flattened out and was filled with homes that all seemed to look alike in one way or another. There were only subtle differences in color or shape. Each had a small yard in front, some had fences around them.

Mrs. MacIntyre pulled into the driveway of a dark gray house with rock accents all over the walls. The windows were painted white, creating a sharp contrast. The house had a dark slate roof and a small veranda that went all the way around the house with a white fence and white posts that went all the way to the roof. The garage was painted in the same fashion. It had a second floor that was accessible by a white, wooden staircase toward the back and a flat roof.

She parked the car in the driveway and everyone piled out.

“I like your house,” Jonah said as they went in. It was very charming and looked warm and inviting.

“Well thank you, Jonah,” Mrs. MacIntryre said, impressed again by good manners.

Once inside, there was a small front hall. Off to the left appeared to be a family room, off to the right was a formal dining room. The walls were painted an off while color and the floors were a dark, rich wood which appeared to extend throughout the house. There was an Oriental rug runner that led to the back of the house and a stairway that led to the second floor covered in tan carpet.

Mrs. MacIntyre dropped her briefcase next to a small hutch in the hallway and looked in a mirror on the wall right in front of her. She took the pen out of her hair and dropped it on the hutch. Her red frizzy hair fell to her shoulders.

Eric dropped his coat on the floor and headed up the stairs. “C’mon,” he said.

“Hey!” His mother said, and picked up the coat and held it out.

Eric blew his bangs out of his eyes and walked down the three stairs he had climbed. He took the coat.

“Thank you,” she said, as if he had any choice in the matter.

He walked up the stairs dragging the coat behind him. Jonah unzipped his coat and followed.

The tan carpet from the stairs extended throughout the second floor. When you came up, there was a wall right in front of you, which made you turn left or right. To the right, there was a rather large bathroom. To the left, you walked down a small hallway, passing a closet and a smaller room that looked like an office. If you continued straight, there was a bedroom at the end of the hall. There was a small path around the railing that ended at a closed door past another hutch against the wall.

“The bathroom’s there,” Eric said, pointing to the right of the stairs. Then he pointed toward the room past the hutch. “That’s my mom’s room.” And finally, he opened the door to the bedroom at this end of the hall. “This is mine.”

Eric’s room was a swirl of activity. Two of the walls were off-white, but the wall behind his bed was a deep red. It matched his bedspread which was red and black. The fourth wall was dominated by a large closet that had mirrored sliding doors. The room had off-white carpeting that was very thick. The queen-sized bed took up most of the room, but there were two dressers right next to each other, one tall and one short, each had drawers open with clothes half stuffed into them. A desk took up a lot of another wall. It had a computer and a printer and paper everywhere. Hanging from the ceiling was a mobile of the solar system and a ceiling fan spinning slowly.

“Have a seat,” Eric said, offering the desk chair.

“Wow, I really like your room. There’s no way my dad would let me have my room this color,” Jonah said, clearly in awe.

“My mom didn’t like it, but we were having the whole upstairs painted, so she let me pick it,” he said. “It took some arguing.” He threw his coat on the bed and started trying to close dresser drawers. “I have the ‘Kat Skratch’ blog up if you want to check it out.”

Jonah turned around and clicked the mouse. There on the screen was the game logo and a page full of comments and responses from gamers.

Jonah paged down, scanning the topics. “Hey, did you know you can unlock a secret character in level seventeen,” he asked.

“No!” Eric said “Where?” He forgot the drawers and sat on the edge of the bed looking at the computer. The rest of the time was spent scanning through topics and trying to make mental notes until Mrs. MacIntyre called them for dinner.

They both bounded down the stairs. Jonah had taken off his coat and left it on the desk chair. The green gem was bouncing around inside his sweater as he came down. He stopped on the stairs, turned around and jammed it in his pocket. Eric beat him to the kitchen by a few feet.

The kitchen was quite large. A sink and cabinets took up a whole wall. There was a long window over the sink that looked into the back yard. On another wall there were more cabinets and, over those, several shelves. Everything was painted white, except for the gray marble counter tops.

In between was an island that, at the moment, was covered in food. There was a plate of soft tortilla shells, bowls of tomatoes and shredded lettuce and shredded cheese. There was a large pan of beans and another large pan of ground chicken. In the center of it all was a mound of tortilla chips dripping with melted cheese, salsa and guacamole. There was a small bowl of sour cream.

“What do you want to drink, Jonah?” Mrs. MacIntyre asked. Her body was half in the refrigerator. “Can you have soda, or I have milk?”

“Soda’s fine, thanks.” Jonah said.

“We only have diet soda,” Eric whispered. “Some kind of ‘less sugar’ kick she’s been on lately.”

She took three diet sodas to the table, shutting the refrigerator door with her foot. “Okay,” she said. “Have at it boys.”

Eric made himself two tacos with just lettuce, cheese and sour cream and heaped what looked like half the plate of nachos onto his plate. Jonah made himself one taco with lettuce, cheese and tomatoes.

“Gross,” Eric said. “I hate tomatoes.”

“You’re eating half the salsa,” Jonah shot back. “It’s the same thing.”

“No it’s not,” Eric retorted, shoveling in three tortilla chips dripping in salsa.

“Maybe,” Mrs. MacIntyre chimed in from making her own plate, “you two could have a conversation about manners while you’re doing your homework after school.”

“Whatever, Mom,” Eric said, and headed for the table.

Jonah giggled.

While eating, they discussed music and games and strategies for ‘Kat Skratch’ and Mrs. MacIntyre was just lucky to keep up. She got the occasional question about school in, but only got one word answers in between more interesting conversation.

Eric went back to the island twice, Jonah went back once.

All three of them cleaned up the kitchen after the meal. Mrs. MacIntyre put Eric on washing and Jonah on drying. She told him to just stack things where he could and she’d put them away.

“Hey,” Eric said. “Do you want to stay over?”

“Yes!” Was what Jonah wanted to say, what came out was “I don’t know if I can.”

“Call your dad and ask.” Eric said.

“You really should call your father and tell him where you are, Jonah.” Mrs. MacIntyre said.

“Can Jonah stay over, mom?” Eric asked.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” she said. “As long as it’s okay with your father and I get to talk to him. You can use the phone in the hallway, Jonah.”

He almost called the whole thing off. He tried to make up some excuse and found he had nothing. Maybe he could just say no. What he found himself doing was moving toward the hallway.

He picked up the phone. He could hear Eric and his mother talking. Should he just fake a conversation? He didn’t know. What was he doing?

After a few minutes, Mrs. MacIntyre came out with a dish towel over her shoulder.

“Okay, dad,” he said “Thanks” and put the phone down a little too hard.

“Oh, you didn’t let me talk to him.” She said.

“He said it’s okay, but he couldn’t talk. He has a conference call with Japan.” He said it really fast. What just came out of his mouth?

“That’s so interesting!” She said. “Japan, wow!” Then she said, “Well, if he said it’s alright, I guess you’re ours tonight.” She took his arm and led him back to the kitchen. “I at least want to talk to him just to say hello sometime though, okay?”

“Sure, Mrs. MacIntyre,” he said.

“So can you stay?” Eric asked when they entered the kitchen.

“Yeah, I can” Jonah answered.

“Cool.” Eric said.

They finished up the kitchen and Mrs. MacIntyre started sorting left-overs, what she was going to put in the refrigerator and what she was going to throw out.

“Mom?” Eric asked.

“Um-hmm,” she answered absently, putting some plastic wrap over the remaining tortillas.

“Will you keep those tomatoes?” He asked.

“Why?” She asked curiously, looking up from the plate. “You don’t eat tomatoes.”

“But they match your hair,” Eric said in a high voice. “Your shiny, shiny hair.” He finished with a huge grin.

There was dead silence in the kitchen. Eric’s mother was confused. The boys were staring at each other. Eric looked like he was going to turn purple if he didn’t burst out laughing.

“You’re so dead right now,” Jonah said. He threw down his dishtowel and went after Eric. He went one way around the island, Eric went the other and out the door. Mrs. MacIntyre heard them clamoring up the stairs.

Later, they settled into the T.V. room. There were two overstuffed, brown leather chairs with matching ottomans and a long tan couch. Eric had stretched out on the couch, so Jonah took one of the chairs. This room was carpeted with a deep off-white carpet and there were two brass lights that curved around and softly glowed down on each chair. A big watercolor painting sat framed on one wall, while thick, cream-colored curtains covered a long window on the other wall above the couch.  The painting was a landscape of a clear blue lake with a number of soft green trees surrounding it.