Radiant (14 page)

"
Other than at school?"

"
Let me rephrase. I like being
with
you."

More excuses
came to mind.

"
Your silence is difficult to interpret," he said.

"
Sorry, I'm just thinking of what I have to do. I was thinking of—" cleaning out the fridge. "Or, I think I have to—" refinish the kitchen cabinets. "What I mean is, I was planning to—" soundproof the ceiling against the little monsters and their obnoxious video games. Actually, that was a pretty good idea.

She sighed.
"Never mind. Saturday's fine."

"
Is that a
yes
?" he asked.

She chuckled.
"
Yes
."

He beamed.
"I will meet you here at seven o'clock."

"
Sounds good," she said.

"
Good night, Mary."

"
Night, Carter."

She watched him walk down the street
and disappear around the corner. Then she rocketed up to the apartment and looked online for the meteor shower. It was scheduled for 11:28 that evening with high visibility from North America. That gave her plenty of time to clean the dishes in the sink and take some laundry down to the machines. Mary then went to her room for her telescope, since she wanted to look at some of the planets in between watching the meteoroids. She also grabbed a jacket, since it was still a little cool outside.

As she rummaged through her closet, her hand found the
pink
áo dài
. She pulled it out and unzipped its protective garment bag.

Ba had been one o
f the luckier ones when she fled Saigon. She had enough time to pack a few belongings, and she didn't have to spend any time in a refugee camp. Mary heard stories of how some people had nothing when they left, and how women were raped in the camps and on boats as they were trying to get to safety. Others, like Ba's family, didn't make it out at all when the Americans pulled out.

This pink dress was one of the few things th
at survived the trip to France and then to the States. It had traveled farther than Mary had in her life. That was the biggest reason why she kept it hidden in her closet. She didn't wear many dresses, but this was one of the few pieces linking her to her past. One day, when Ba passed away, it would be the only thing.

Mary zipped the garment bag shut and tucked the
áo dài
back into its safe place. Then she grabbed her telescope and headed for the roof.

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Ep
iphany

"
Mary? Sweetie, wake up."

Mary slowly opened her eyes.

Mom smiled. "Good morning."

Mary blinked
. She noted the lack of a ceiling over her and the absence of a bed under her. She was still on the roof.

"
Oh
crap
!"

"
Whoa,
whoa
!" Mom said. "It's all right! You're not late. You still have time to get ready before school."

Mary stared at her for a moment.
Then she slumped back onto the lounge chair.

"
Star gazing again?" Mom asked.

"
There was a meteor shower," Mary said. "I was just going to watch it a little bit, but I must've fallen asleep."

"
Not the first time," Mom said. "How was the art show?"

"It was great!" Mary described Ben's sculpture
, as well as some of the other works there. "It was really something. I wish you could've come."

"I'll try to catch the next one," Mom said. "Did you go shopping, too?"

"Shopping?" Mary asked. "No, because Ba and I went a few days ago. I already returned the stuff like usual. Is there something wrong with the bank statement?"

"No," she said. "But
I found this in your room."

Mom
held up Carter's black sweater.

Mary
didn't say anything. She had forgotten to give it back to him. When she got home last night, she had left it lying on her bed.

"
Who's is it?" Mom asked.

Mary reached for it. "No one
's."

Mom snatched it back. "Who
's. Is. It."

The stern look in her eyes made Mary feel like she was
six years old again. She folded her hands in her lap. "Carter's."

"
Maxwell?"

She nodded.
"He went with me and Ba yesterday. He wasn't doing anything and we had the extra ticket, so I asked if he wanted to come."

"
Mary," Mom started, "I know we've talked about guys before."

Mary sighed and jumped up from the lounge chair. She grabbed her scope
and headed for the door.

"
I'm just saying that I made a lot of mistakes when I was young," Mom said. "And I don't want you to get hurt."

"
Mom, I'm not going to make out with a guy right in front of Ba," she said. "Besides, it's not like that."

"
Then what is it like?" Mom chased her down to the apartment. "Are you seeing him again?"

"
I see him at school all the time."

"
You know what I mean!"

Mary
nearly threw her scope onto the floor. Why was she feeling defensive suddenly? Probably because she
was
seeing him again. "Saturday," she said.

"
It's not like
that
, huh?" Mom said. "Isn't he the guy who was caught having sex with his girlfriend in one of the orchestra practice rooms last year?"

"
That was a rumor," Mary said. And Mom actually hadn't heard it from Mary. It went through the grapevine of other parents who heard it from their own kids. It was quite the scandal. "And I think that was, like, three girlfriends ago. He's unattached now."

"
How convenient," Mom said. "That certainly makes him citizen of the year."

Mary turned to her.
"Look, I know what people think of him. What
I
thought of him. But…he's different now. Ever since the accident, he's changed. He's kind. He broke up with Laci because he said that was the best for her. And he doesn't hang around his sleazy friends anymore. He's really
different
. And Ba likes him. Aren't you the one who told me that Ba had always been a good judge of people's character?"

Mom crossed
her arms. "I want to meet him."

"
The hospital didn't count?"

"
I want to meet him when he's
conscious
," she said. "Bring him by work on Saturday."

"
I can't do that," Mary said.

"
Bring him by or you'll have to postpone seeing him until
I
can go with you. It's only fair, since Ba got to meet him already." Mom dangled the sweater from her index finger.

Mary stared at her.
She'd never had to deal with her mother like this before. And she didn't realize how angry she was until she saw the sweater again. Mary snatched it back. "We'll be there."

"
I'll be waiting."

Mom
went to bed, and Mary got ready for school. It was still pretty early, but being in the apartment with her mother seemed difficult this morning, even if she was asleep. So, Mary skipped breakfast and headed out. She meandered over to a nearby park, where she could still get to the bus stop on time, and sat on a bench. People were out jogging or walking their dogs. A pair of elderly men sat at a table playing chess.

Mary
pulled out her sketchbook and started drawing whatever came across her path. Her mind wondered as her pencil moved. Why had she put up such a fuss with Mom? It's not like she had done anything wrong. But then again, it was Mom who started the nastiness.

Of course, Mary should
've known that Mom would react that way. She had made some mistakes and hooked up with some bad people. It was only natural that she wanted to keep Mary from doing the same.

But Mary wasn
't like that. She knew that every single choice had consequences. Even Mom admitted once that she was much more mature than she was at her age.

The
pencil lead broke. Mary stared at her drawing and realized that she had put a black sweater on one of the men, when he was actually wearing a beige one. Frustrated, she brushed away the broken lead, causing a gray line to streak across the page.

Last night,
Carter had said that he enjoyed being with her. Possessed or not, as much as she hated to admit it, Mary was starting to like being with him, too.

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Sci-Tech

Carter wasn't at school the next day. Mary wondered if he was okay, but no one talked about him in the hallways anymore. Since he hadn't done anything scandalous for a while, he was old news, and people had already moved on to the next juicy bit of gossip.

In the
afternoon, Mary had brought a change of regular clothes and grabbed the bus to the university. She'd been there once before to see a play with Ba and Mom. It was
Pinocchio
, but really different from the Disney movie. Mary remembered loving the elaborate sets and costumes.

She
walked around the campus for a bit before asking a pair of college kids where the science and technology building was.

"
Sci-Tech?" one of the girls said. "It's that big ugly building over there."

Mary looked
where she pointed and saw a pimple of a concrete structure that was all age and no charm. "That's it?"

"
Yeah. Piece of crap, huh?" the girl said. "You'd think something we call 'Sci-Tech' would be shiny and have lots of windows and stuff. But all the money went to building the new football stadium."

"
Which isn't even complete, because the money ran out," her friend said. "The fine arts building is garbage, too."

"
Well, thanks for your help," Mary said, and she left them.

The inside
of Sci-Tech was about as ugly as the outside, with cracking linoleum floors and snot yellow walls. The halls were narrow, the ceilings low, and the fluorescent lights hummed. Sci-Tech was also a maze. There were no helpful signs anywhere, and Mary wondered about aimlessly for a while. As she was meandering down a hall, she heard singing. She followed the voice until she happened on a janitor emptying out a trash bin.

"
Excuse me?" she asked. "Can you help me?"

The janitor
stopped singing and looked at her. "I can try. What do you need?"

Mary
studied him for a moment—his tied back hair, his cleaning uniform, and the red athletic wristbands on his hands. For some reason, he seemed familiar. "Have I seen you before?" she asked.

He chuckled
. "Probably. I'm around this place a lot."

"
No, I mean I'm not a student here. I'm actually looking for someone. I just had this weird thought that…" She was sure she'd never met him until now. But there was just something about him. She just couldn't put her finger on it. "Sorry. I'm not making any sense."

He
chuckled again. "It's all right. I have that kind of face. Anyway, who were you looking for? Student or teacher?"

"I don't know," she said
, taking out a piece of paper from her pocket and reading the note she had written on it. "His name is Drew, and I think he works in the astronomy department."

"I know where that is. It's on the second floor. I'm on my way up there, so you can follow me."
He finished with the trash bin and began pushing his cleaning cart down the hall. "I'm Josh, by the way."

"Mary," she said.

"Nice to meet you. Do you go to another college?"

She shook her head. "Not yet. I'm still in high school."

"I see," he said. "An artsy type, aren't you?"

"How did you know?" she asked.

"You've got a creative air about you," he said. "And some paint on your arm."

Mary twisted her elbow around and saw that she had a lit
tle blue and white paint on it. "Oh, thanks." She licked her hand and tried to rub it off.

"Here, this works better." Josh sprayed her arm with some window cleaner and gave her a towel to wipe it off.

They boarded the ancient elevator. It made some loud creaks and groans, and Mary questioned for a moment whether it would make it safely. Fortunately it did, and she followed Josh and his cart out. They passed through another maze of hallways before coming to an unimpressive door marked "Astronomy."