Jonah Havensby (20 page)

The moment Jonah saw Emma, he lit up. A broad smile crossed his face. “Hi” came out of his mouth before he knew he was going to say it.

“Hi,” she smiled back and then immediately said “Hi, Eric”, because she knew what she wanted to ask and she couldn’t believe her luck in running into Jonah. She was suddenly flustered.

“Hi,” Eric replied, but registered somewhere in the back of his brain that she had not called him Eric M. She always called him Eric M.; everyone at school called him Eric M. He kind of liked being recognized as just ‘Eric’.

Mrs. MacIntyre read the signals well. She put an arm around Eric and said “why don’t we go check in and see if Sarah is ready for you two, huh?” and gently maneuvered Eric toward the door.

“You coming?” Eric asked Jonah, struggling to twist out from his mother’s arm.

“I actually wanted to ask you something,” Emma blurted out.

Jonah looked at Eric and then at Emma and then back to Eric. “In a minute,” he said to Eric.

“It’s fine, take your time,” Mrs. MacIntyre said, suppressing a smile. “Good bye, Emma. Nice seeing you.” And with that, she ushered Eric into the salon with a hand on his back.

Now alone, Jonah and Emma stared at each other for a moment. Jonah looked down at his shuffling feet. “You were going to ask me something?” He asked his feet.

“Oh, right,” Emma said with a small giggle and then blushed. “Logan didn’t hurt you the other day, did he? No permanent damage? That guy’s such a jerk.” Her mind shouted that wasn’t the question.

“No.  Not at all. That guy’s a weasel. I’m not afraid of him,” Jonah said back, unconsciously puffing his chest. “I’m totally good. Is that what you wanted to ask?”

“Well, no.” Emma said to her shoes. When she looked up, she pulled her hair behind her ear. It was Jonah’s favorite gesture she did and he didn’t know why, but he was completely captivated. “See, there’s this dance coming up,” she said.

“The dance you bought shoes for,” he said, finishing her thought.

“Yes, that one,” she agreed. “It’s just, well, I don’t have anybody to go with yet. So I was just wondering if…” She dropped off, waiting for him to answer.

“If what?” he asked, totally lost in the conversation.

“Well, do you want to go with me?” She stammered with a big smile, a small giggle and a deep blush.

“Oh,” was what came out of Jonah. This was new. He’d never been in this situation. He didn’t know what to say. “I’ve never been to a dance before. Is that okay? I don’t even go to your school. Is Eric going?”

It was such a random assortment of questions that Emma didn’t know which one to respond to. “I don’t know,” she said, answering his last question. Although she knew full-well that Eric M. did not go to school dances.

Just then, Eric poked his head out the door. “Dude, they’re ready. Are you coming or what?”

“Are you going to this dance?” Jonah asked him.

“What?” Eric said, looking at him like he was a crazy person. “I’m not going to any dance. Are you serious?”

Jonah looked back at Emma. “I’ll go if he goes,” he said. “It’ll be fun.”

“What?” Eric said.

“Really?” Emma said, full of delight and relief. “So you’ll go, Eric? You’ll know everyone there. Everyone goes.”

“Kind of my point.” Eric said dryly.

“He’ll go,” Jonah said to her.

“Will not,” Eric answered back.

“It’s fine.” Jonah continued.

“Really? Awesome.” She said, still energized. “Okay, we can meet there, or maybe my dad can pick you up.” She was already making plans. “He’s driving me and Courtney and Heather,” she said to Eric.

Eric slouched and blew his bangs out of his face. He didn’t know how many ways he could say no.

“We’ll meet you there,” Jonah agreed.

“Okay, cool.” She said. “Totally awesome,” she added. “It’s next week. I’m sure Eric has the flyer. So, I’ll see you there.”

“Yeah,” Jonah said with a huge grin.

“Okay, cool,” she said again. She turned around and started walking away proud of herself that she found the nerve to do that. She hadn’t counted on the Eric thing, but it was a compromise she was willing to live with. She could still say she was going to the dance with Jonah.

She turned on her heel and started walking backwards, she found that he was still smiling and watching her walk away. “Bye,” she said.

“Bye,” he said back.

She turned and walked away.

Eric cleared his throat, which snapped Jonah back to the present. Jonah turned and walked in the door of the salon.

“So are both of us going on a date with Emma Wong?” Eric asked.

“What?” Jonah said. “It’s not a date? Oh, God, is it a date? It’s just a dance, right? It’s not a date.”

“When you go to a dance with a girl, it’s a date,” Eric said.

“No it’s not, it’s just a dance. Right?” Jonah asked.

Eric shrugged.

“You’re still going,” Jonah said.

“Am not,” Eric said.

“Are too,” Jonah retorted.

The debate went back and forth until the stylists separated them.

Jonah’s stylist was a woman called Susan who had short black hair and a ring in her lip that Jonah thought was really cool. He’d never met anyone in real life that had one of those. He was also surprised when he was sat in the chair that she asked him what he wanted to do with his hair.  The barbershop at the other end of the mall only had one specialty, so he had never been given a choice. “Short, I guess. But not too short,” was his answer.

There were some rapid fire questions about just how short – Over the ears? Long in back? – Things of that nature. “You want to keep some of these gorgeous curls, huh?” Susan asked with a smile while running her fingers through his hair. Jonah nodded and blushed.

He was once again surprised when he was ushered back to a row of sinks and his hair was washed and conditioned. He was starting to like La La’s Salon much more than the barbershop. As they moved to the sink, he saw Eric in a chair across the way debating with his mother about how he wanted his hair while a stylist ran a comb through it.

As Jonah got his haircut he asked every question he could think of about the ring in her lip, where she had gotten it and how much it hurt. Susan at one point said Jonah would look really cool with an earring when he got older, but Jonah just giggled. He didn’t think that was his style, and he was pretty sure a piercing would hurt a lot more than she was saying.

Mrs. MacIntyre came over to check in and generally approved of how his hair was looking.

When it was all over, Jonah was surprised to see how much of his hair was on the floor. It was much shorter, but still looked like an unruly bed-head, and not the military cut he was used to. It did look a lot better cleaned up though.

He met Eric and his mom at the cashier counter. Eric’s blonde hair was neatly trimmed with just a shade of the bangs that used to meet the top of his glasses. “It’s too short,” Eric said, and tried to mess up his hair with his hands. His mother shut him down with one look, and he stopped.

“I like mine,” Jonah said, running his fingers across the short hair over his ears. “Thanks Mrs. MacIntyre.”

“You’re welcome, Jonah,” she said as she turned from the cashier. She ran both her hands through the boys’ hair. “Now why don’t you two handsome boys escort an old lady to lunch.”

“Zabeggo’s?” Eric asked.

She considered it. Although they had just had pizza the night before, she agreed they could do something Italian.

“Yes!” Eric said.

Jonah had the ten dollars in his pocket that Eric had given him, he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to pay for his own lunch. He hoped not, but the invitation sounded like Mrs. MacIntyre was buying.

Zabeggo’s in the Promenade had a packed lunch crowd, they had to wait a few minutes for a table. The outside patio was closed for the winter. The boys both ordered spaghetti with meatballs. Although Mrs. MacIntyre changed the order to whole-wheat pasta with chicken meatballs; Jonah could barely tell the difference while he cleaned his plate. Mrs. MacIntyre had a salad with grilled chicken. When it came, she was shocked at how large it was and ended up taking half of it home.

When the bill came, Jonah half-heartedly began digging in his pocket and came out with a wad of dollar bills. He knew this was his bus money and probably his only chance to get to Clapton for a long while. Eric’s eyes went wide but it would look awkward if he said something.

“Oh, Jonah, it’s fine. I’ve got this,” Mrs. Macintyre said. “You’re so sweet,” she added.

Jonah breathed a silent sigh of relief and stuffed the dollar bills back in his pocket. Eric had a look on his face that asked what in the world Jonah was thinking. Jonah just shrugged at him.

As they got back in the car, Mrs. MacIntyre asked for Jonah’s address so she could drop him. She knew the street he lived on, but not the house number. Eric was prepared for this.

“Just take us home, mom, Jonah’s going to borrow my bike,” he said.

“Really?” She asked. “It’s really getting cold out, Jonah. Are you sure you want to do that?”

Eric turned to the backseat with a look that said ‘follow my lead’.

“Sure, Mrs. MacIntyre, It’s not far.”  Jonah said “I’ll be warm enough ‘til I get home.”

“I wish you boys had decided this when we left. We could have put the bike in the trunk,” she said.

“It’s not a big deal,” Eric said.

When they got back to the house, Mrs. MacIntyre said goodbye to Jonah, telling him to be safe on the way home, and went into the house. The boys went to the garage.

“That was close,” Jonah said.

“I figured we were going to have to come up with something,” Eric said. “Just do me a favor and hide my bike behind the dumpster or something.”

“No problem,” Jonah said.

Eric gave him the combination to his bike chain and then Jonah took off.

He drove down the hill and re-traced the bike route from yesterday. Mrs. MacIntyre was right, it was really cold. Jonah bundled his hands up into the sleeves of his coat, making it a little harder to drive and he tried to keep his head down so the wind hit his hood instead of slapping him directly in the face. By the time he was back at the warehouse, he was chilled to the bone.

He slid the bike behind the dumpster and then walked out into the alley to see if it was at all visible. He looked from different angles and was sure you couldn’t see it. He went back to the bike and pushed the dumpster out of the way just a little bit so he could wrap the chain around the center bar of the bike and chained the bike to the handle of the dumpster, then slid the dumpster back into place.

He couldn’t wait to get inside. He didn’t even stop to see if Grouchy was out and about, he bee-lined it directly up the stairs and plugged in the electric blanket, wrapping himself up in it. He took a few sips from his water bottle waiting for the thing to warm up and sat shivering and blowing on his hands for warmth. Finally, the heat started to soak in. In a few minutes, he was finally warm enough to stand up. He was just warm enough to take off his coat when Eric’s voice boomed through the office.

“Hell Kat, you there?” It was a normal tone of voice, but loudly amplified. Jonah just about jumped out of his skin, not only from the loudness of the voice, but because he thought he was very much alone.

“Hello?” Eric’s voice called loudly again.

Jonah finally realized that the voice was coming from the walkie-talkie inside his backpack. He went over to the pack and dug it out. The volume was turned up to its highest point. Jonah turned it way down and then spoke into it. “You just scared the crap out of me.”

Nothing came back over the walkie-talkie for a moment. “Hello?” Jonah said into it.

The sound that came back was Eric’s trademark cackle, the one that was reserved for when he really cracked himself up.

Jonah shook his head, “Dude, it’s not funny,” he said. “The volume was jammed all the way up.”

“Did you turn it down?” Eric asked, still giggling.

“Duh,” Jonah said.

“So you can hear me though, right?” Eric asked.

“Clear as a bell,” Jonah confirmed.

“Is the bike okay?” Eric asked. “No way you got that thing inside, did you?”

“No,” Jonah said. “It’s behind the dumpster, but you can’t see it at all. I locked it up real good.”

“Think it’ll be okay when you go to Clapton tomorrow?” Eric asked.

“Don’t know. Want me to lock it up at the mall before I go?” Jonah asked.

“That’s a great idea. I can get it after school. What time do you think you’ll be back?”

“No idea,” Jonah said.

“Buzz me when you get back.”

“You’ll be the first,” Jonah replied in a tone that clearly stated both boys knew Eric was the only one he could talk to about the trip. “Unless I run into Emma,” he added as a tease.

“Right,” Eric said. “Still all jazzed up about date night.”

“It’s not a date,” Jonah said as he sat on the floor and wrapped up in the blanket.

“Is too,” Eric said.

“Is not,” Jonah retorted. “And you’re going.”

“Am not.”

“Are too,” Jonah shot back.

“We’ll talk about it,” Eric said, breaking the stalemate. “Later, Kat.”

“Yeah. Later, Danger.”

Jonah reached up and put the walkie-talkie on the control panel. He wondered how long the battery life was on something like that. He and Eric had obviously not thought that far ahead. He considered getting back on and asking Eric if he knew, but figured it could wait.

He stood up and dug in the backpack for the tablet and turned it on, he returned to his nest as he waited for it to cycle up and connect to the internet. He checked the local news and scanned for anything interesting. Three days ago, there was a break-in at a home goods store in Masonville. It kind of sounded like the break-in at the hardware store here in town and the home improvement store in Clapton. There were some reports of a big hairy man or some kind of gorilla costume, but the surveillance cameras were all knocked out in the same way and the alarm had been disarmed. Police had little evidence to go on, but authorities in all three cities were cooperating on the investigation. They were also trying to link the investigation to the lumber yard in Masonville, since the town had been hit twice in weeks. There was no physical evidence left at any of the robberies.