Second Child (26 page)

Melissa’s eyes shifted from the dress to her half sister. “It’s horrible,” she said.

“It isn’t, either,” Teri protested. “Let me try it on.” Without waiting for an answer, she disappeared behind a curtain that was hung across the door of a makeshift dressing room, and Melissa went back to picking through the
racks of discarded clothes in search of something that might pass for a costume.

She still wasn’t sure she really wanted to go to the dance on Saturday night. In fact, when Jeff Barnstable had called on Monday afternoon, she’d been certain he was playing some kind of joke on her, and told him she’d call him back. But when she’d asked Teri about it, Teri had insisted that the invitation was real. “We’re going to double date,” she explained. “You and Jeff, and Brett and I.”

Melissa had looked at Teri suspiciously. “Whose idea was it?”

“Well, I don’t know,” Teri had hedged. “We were just talking about it at the club this morning, and we all sort of decided it together.”

Melissa had still hesitated, but then Phyllis came out to the terrace where they were sunning themselves. “Decided what?” she’d asked, and before Melissa could stop her, Teri had told her mother about the invitation. “Well, of course you’ll go,” she said. “It’s just perfect for your first date.”

“But I don’t—”

“Not another word,” Phyllis told her, and though she’d kept smiling, her voice had taken on a hard edge that warned Melissa that she would tolerate no argument. “After all, I
am
on the Social Committee this year. How would it look if my own daughter didn’t go? And Teri can help you find a costume. Besides,” she’d added, “it will give you something to think about other than that dog.”

Melissa had said nothing, certain that whatever she might say about Blackie would only make her mother angry. Besides, what could she say? She and Tag had searched everywhere they could think of, walking through the woods, calling out to Blackie, but there had been no sign of him. And Melissa had only become more confused as they searched. If she’d really seen the dog in the attic, then why hadn’t they been able to find his body?

Was it possible that the whole thing really had been a nightmare, that she had, after all, been walking in her sleep? Could she have seen the whole thing only in her mind and only awakened when she screamed?

She hadn’t dared talk to anyone about it except Teri, and even Teri hadn’t been able to think of an answer. “He
probably just ran away,” she’d said. Then she’d grinned mischievously. “Or maybe D’Arcy got him.”

D’Arcy.

Melissa had been thinking about it ever since, trying to figure it out. Was it possible that D’Arcy had done something to Blackie? But how could she? D’Arcy didn’t exist, except in her own mind.

Did she?

What if she did?

What if she were real?

A slight shudder ran through her, and then she jumped as a hand touched her shoulder. She spun around to see Teri, clad in the old pink formal, gazing at her curiously. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing,” Melissa stammered.

“Well, didn’t you hear me talking to you just now?” Teri said, turning around. “I can’t get the stupid zipper up.”

Her fingers trembling, Melissa pulled the zipper up, and Teri turned around once more. “I can fix the hem and we can put a whole lot of sequins and rhinestones on the overskirt. Then we can make a wand and I can go as a fairy godmother. It’ll be perfect.”

Melissa frowned, perplexed. “But what about the stains?”

“Who cares about them?” Teri asked. “It’s a costume party, right? Everybody will be digging around looking for old clothes.” She giggled. “I bet half the people there wind up looking like their own grandparents. Now let’s see what we can find for you.” She disappeared into the dressing room, coming back out a few moments later with the dress over her arm. Together they began searching through the old clothes for something that might be converted into a costume for Melissa, but every time Melissa found something, Teri had an objection:

“It won’t fit you right. See? We’d have to let out all the seams.”

“It’s falling apart! We don’t want your clothes to fall off you in the middle of the dance, do we?”

“It’s miles too big—we could never take it in in time.”

Finally, Melissa found an old-fashioned tuxedo, complete with a top hat, that seemed to be in a boy’s size.
“How about this?” she asked hopefully. “I could be a magician, or Charlie Chaplin, or something.” But once again Teri shook her head.

“It’s just not
right.
We need something really spectacular.” She glanced around the shop, looking for a corner they hadn’t yet searched. But they’d been through everything. “Why don’t we go get a Coke?” she suggested. “Maybe if we stop hunting, we’ll come up with an idea.”

Melissa took a last longing look at the tuxedo. She was certain it would fit, and if they could make a cape …

“No,” Teri decreed, as if she’d read Melissa’s mind. “It’s just not right for you. Anyway, if we can’t think of anything better, we can always come back for it.”

Melissa hung the tux back on the rod and followed Teri to the front of the store. She was passing a case full of antique costume jewelry when a bright sparkle caught her eye. Lying on the top shelf of the case was an old tiara, topped with a fleur-de-lis, all of it thickly encrusted with rhinestones. “Look!” she cried out. “It’s your crown!”

Teri gazed at the tiara, then shook her head. “It’s perfect,” she agreed. “But how much is it going to cost?”

“Mrs. Bennett?” Melissa called to the manager, who came over and went behind the cabinet to take the tiara out. “How much is it?”

Freda Bennett peered at the price tag. “Seventy-five dollars,” she said. “It’s an antique.” She placed the tiara on Teri’s head, and Teri turned to look at herself in a gilt-framed mirror that hung on the opposite wall. Sighing, she took it off and handed it back to Mrs. Bennett. “It’s perfect, but I can’t afford it.”

“We’ll take it,” Melissa said just as the shop manager was about to return the tiara to the case.

Teri turned to look uncertainly at her half sister. “But we can’t,” she protested. “I don’t have the money.”

“But I do,” Melissa replied, grinning as she groped in her purse for her wallet.

Teri stared at the wad of bills stuffed into the wallet. “Where’d you get all that?” she breathed.

Melissa shrugged. “It’s from my allowance. All I ever buy are paperback books, and Daddy gives me money practically every weekend, but I never spend it. So you pay for the dress, and I’ll buy the tiara for you.”

“But—”

Melissa shook her head. “I
want
to buy it for you. It’ll make your costume perfect. Please?”

Teri smiled, and let Mrs. Bennett wrap up the tiara.

Half an hour later, as they were about to leave the drugstore, the door opened and Brett Van Arsdale, followed by Kent Fielding, came in. A grin spread across his face as he saw Teri. “Hey, there you are. Just the person I’ve been looking for.”

Teri cocked her head. “Me?”

Brett nodded. “Kent’s dad is going to let us take their boat out this afternoon. I just thought you might want to go along.”

Teri glanced quickly at Melissa, who seemed suddenly to have become fascinated with a display of magazines just inside the door. “Who all’s going?” she asked.

“Everybody,” Brett replied. “Us, and Jeff, and Ellen. Maybe Cyndi and a couple of others. You want to come?”

Teri turned to Melissa. “What do you think?” she asked. “Should we go?”

Melissa turned around, her cheeks flushing, certain that Brett hadn’t meant to include her in the invitation. “I—I don’t know—” she floundered. “If you want to go—”

Teri nodded eagerly. “Of course I want to go! What kind of boat is it?” she asked, turning back to Brett. “Is it a sailboat?”

Brett nodded. “It’s not much—just a thirty-two-foot Lord Nelson.” His eyes involuntarily flicked toward Melissa. “If Melissa doesn’t want to come—” he began.

But Teri cut him off. “Why wouldn’t she want to?” she said. “What time shall we meet you?”

Brett glanced at Kent, then shrugged. “I don’t know—two o’clock?”

The time agreed to, Teri and Melissa left the drugstore and started back toward Maplecrest. As soon as they were gone, Kent glared at Brett. “Smooth move, Van Arsdale. Now we’re going to be stuck with Melissa all afternoon.”

“Well, what was I supposed to do? She was standing right there. Besides, what’s the big deal? It’s not like she’s
your date or anything.” Then, as a thought occurred to him, he snickered. “Jesus, it’ll be worth it just to see the look on Jeff’s face when she shows up. He’ll think we did it on purpose.”

Kent rolled his eyes. “You really got it bad for Teri, haven’t you? I mean, so far you’ve asked her out twice, and both times she’s dragged Melissa along. What are they, Siamese twins?”

“Well, what’s she going to do?” Brett countered. “She barely got here, and she’s already got more friends than Melissa. She’s just trying to be nice to her sister, that’s all.”

“So all the rest of us have to put up with her, too?” Kent groused. “Shit, next thing, you’ll be trying to get
me
to take her out.”

Brett gave his friend a punch on the arm. “Who knows?” he teased. “You might fall for her.” He ducked away quickly as Kent took a swing at him, then darted out the door.

But as Kent fell in beside him again, he wondered what was really going on.
Was
Teri ever going to go out with him without insisting that Melissa go along?

Well, he’d wait until after the dance Saturday night and see what happened. After all, she couldn’t insist on him finding dates for Melissa if no one would go out with her.

Still, that was one of the things he really liked about Teri—she always seemed to care about what other people were feeling.

Even people no one else cared about, like Melissa Holloway.

He turned to Kent, grinning. “She’s really nice, isn’t she?” he asked.

Kent cocked his head. “Who?”

“Teri,” Brett replied. “You know what? I think she’s about the nicest girl I’ve ever met.”

Melissa’s step slowed as they approached the small marina tucked in behind the leeward side of the point that formed the south boundary of the cove. “M-Maybe I’ll just stay here,” she suggested to Teri, her eyes nervously scanning the whitecaps that were scattered across the surface of
the sea beyond the protection of the cove. “What if I get seasick?”

“Why would you do that?” Teri asked, though she remembered perfectly well the conversation they’d had one day last week, when they’d been sprawled out on the beach watching a regatta of small boats wheeling around the cove.

“How come we don’t have a boat?” she’d asked. Melissa had giggled. “Because Daddy and I both get seasick. He took me fishing for my tenth birthday, and we both barfed our brains out. It was really gross. I don’t care if I never get on a boat again.”

Now, her eyes widening as if she’d just recalled the conversation, Teri looked at Melissa apologetically. “Oh, God. I forgot.” But then she brightened. “But that was a long time ago,” she said. “You’ll be fine. Besides, look at the water. The cove’s perfectly flat—why would you get sick?”

Melissa rolled her eyes. “I’m getting sick just thinking about it.” They were on the dock now, and Melissa came to a complete stop. “Would you be real mad if I didn’t go?” she asked, her voice anxious.

“Of course not,” Teri assured her. “If I’d remembered, I wouldn’t have told them we’d go at all. But what are we going to tell your mom?”

“M-Maybe we don’t have to tell her,” Melissa suggested. “I could just wait here till you get back, and she wouldn’t know I didn’t go.”

Teri shook her head. “She’d find out. She’s coming to the club this afternoon, and you know how she is. She’ll be talking about how we’re both out on the Fieldings’ yacht and acting like it’s a big deal. And if anyone spills the beans that you didn’t go …”

Melissa groaned, knowing Teri was right. She could already hear her mother, furiously telling her how rude she’d been to accept an invitation and then not go. And then later tonight, after she’d gone to bed …

And besides, she thought, Teri’s right. If I concentrate real hard and stay up in the fresh air, I’ll be fine. And if I don’t go, I’ll just look like I chickened out. “You’re right,” she said, making her voice sound a lot more confident than
she felt. “Why should the kids like me if I won’t ever do what they like to do?”

Teri gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. “Good for you,” she said. “And it’ll be all right—you’ll see. It’ll be fun.”

They walked down the dock and found the boat,
Zargon,
its varnished teak gleaming in the sun, the rest of the kids already on board. Teri and Melissa stepped onto the deck and down into the cockpit as Jeff and Brett loosened the dock lines and Kent started the engine.

Teri looked at him uncertainly. “I thought we were sailing.”

“We are,” Kent replied. “But the wind’s all wrong to try to sail away from the dock. We’ll go out into the cove and put the sails up there.”

Jeff and Brett cast the lines off, then jumped aboard as Kent pulled the boat away from the dock. “I’m opening Cokes,” Ellen Stevens called from below. “Anyone want one?”

“I’ll come down and help,” Teri replied, ducking her head as she made her way down the narrow companion-way into the cabin. A moment later she emerged, holding three cans of soda. She passed them out, giving the last one to Melissa, who shook her head.

“You better drink it,” Teri urged her. “It’ll help keep your stomach settled.”

Kent’s eyes shifted over to Melissa. “Oh, no,” he moaned. “You don’t get seasick, do you?”

“Once,” Teri told him, as Melissa’s face turned crimson. “She only got sick once, and that was years ago. She’ll be fine.”

“Well, she better be,” Kent shot back. “Dad’ll kill me if she pukes all over the boat.”

Melissa bit her lip as her eyes welled with tears, but then she forced herself to stay calm. All she had to do was sit still and keep her eyes on the shoreline and she’d be fine. But still, she took the Coke from Teri, who gave her an encouraging grin.

Kent took the boat out into the middle of the cove, cut the engine, and signaled to Brett to raise the main sail. Brett began hauling on the sheet and the canvas lifted upward, snapping loudly as it caught the breeze. A minute later Jeff Barnstable began hoisting the jib, while Ellen and
Cyndi manned the lines. With the sails set, Kent brought the boat around, and suddenly the sails filled and the boat heeled over. Melissa, caught by surprise by the sudden shifting of the hull, almost dropped her Coke, but grabbed it just before it spilled onto the deck.