Sixteenth Summer (31 page)

He laughed. “Of course not. None of the fellows I go around with do. Silly to tie yourself down to one girl. But, say, seeing you don’t—how about going sailboating with me
tonight? Me and Swede Vincent have got a little boat we bought last fall. Do you know Swede? He’s a good guy. He’ll come with us and sail it and you and I can just—ah—well, just sit. How about it?”

I didn’t know, I told him. I would have to ask my mother first.

“Go ask her now,” he urged, “when you ask her if she needs any bread. I’ll wait.”

“Oh, I can’t do that!” I could hear my mother upstairs running the vacuum cleaner noisily over the rugs and I remembered I hadn’t tidied up my bedroom yet. “Now’s not such a good time to ask but I’ll tell you by one o’clock,” I promised, trying not to be too eager. “I’ll try to fix it and if you’ll call me then I can let you know.”

“I’ll call you at one then and let’s skip the bakery goods for today. Please try to go,” he added. “No girl has ever been out in our boat before so you’ll be the first one. Something kind of special.”

That was the first time I ever really talked to Jack. When I went back into the garden to get my shoes I noticed how the little tomato plants seemed to be straightening in the sun. And there were small paper-thin blossoms on the new pea plants.