Читать книгу Chasing at the Surface - Sharon Mentyka - Страница 13

CHAPTER 5

The lunchroom is buzzing with everyone chattering about Mr. O’Connor’s extra credit project. Listening to some conversations, you’d think he’d promised they’d get to swim underwater with the whales instead of hauling trash and directing traffic. I try to slip in and out unnoticed, but no luck. Harris sees me and waves me over. Somehow, Lena is already magically there, along with Grace, a thin, pale girl with deep blue eyes. I sit down at their table and Grace looks at me with the same expression she always gives me: Oh, you again.

“Why not do it?” Harris is saying. “We get excused from all afternoon classes if we sign up. Besides, I got some free time now that my old man’s showed up again.”

“Because it’s going to be work,” Lena reminds him. “Not just time off school.”

Harris sips his pop and shrugs. “How hard can it be?”

“Harder than most stuff you’ve ever done,” Grace says, her voice flat.

Lena shoots her a look, but Harris just grins.

“You don’t know hard,” he laughs, looking Grace in the eye. Then he turns to me. “You sign up, Marisa?”

I feel my face redden. A simple “no” won’t do it, because it’s sure to be followed by “why?” And that’s complicated, just like Harris’s life, or at least that’s what I used to think before my life got complicated. It’s no secret that Harris is in charge of his little brother, Jesse, when their dad’s not around, which seems to be most of the time. I wouldn’t even know Harris or Jesse at all if it weren’t for Mom’s volunteering at the youth shelter. Mom again.

I fumble to open my lunch and decide to ignore his question when Lena smoothly answers for me instead.

“Heck yes, we’re going.”

I stare at her. “What are you talking about? I didn’t sign up.…”

“I know. I signed us both up.” She smiles, eating a handful of grapes. “What are friends for?”

“You can’t do that,” I whisper. “You can’t just go signing other people’s names for things!” Grace snickers and I lower my voice, “Besides … I can’t do it.”

“Why not?”

“I … I’m too busy,” I stammer. “I can’t miss all those afternoon classes.”

“Right,” Lena says, frowning. “Gotta make sure you bring your ‘A’ in Language Arts up to ‘A+’. What happened to your famous Love of Science?”

“That’s not the point!” I jump up. “You can’t just go making decisions for other people!” I feel my face starting to flush. Everybody’s listening. Grace sticks out her lower lip, giving me a fake “poor you” look.

How can I explain? I can’t shake the weird feeling that I’m just moving through days, going through the motions, when really I should be doing something more important, like trying to find Mom and bring her home.

“Well, it’s too late,” Lena says simply. “Oh come on, Marisa, when else will you have a chance like this?” She crumples up her lunch bag and looks at me hard. “Ever since fifth grade you’ve been going on and on about how awesome orcas are, you’ve dragged me to whale movies, you play whale songs on your Walkman.…”

I sigh, listening. There’s nothing to say without outright lying. She’s right.

“You even did one of those whale adoption things with your mom, didn’t you?”

I stop her right there.

“Look … I told you, I’m not going.” My voice sounds louder and meaner than I intended.

She frowns and leads me away from the others. “Listen, Marisa. I’m not stupid. I know things are weird for you since your mom left.” I cringe, but she doesn’t back off. “But you won’t talk to me about it. So I have to do something.”

I start to protest but she holds up her palm.

“You owe it to me to at least try.” She spins in place and is gone before I can even open my mouth to say “no” again.

––––

It’s almost six-thirty by the time I get home. I glide down the marina embankment and heave my bike over the wharf’s edge, securing it against the leeward wall. When I unlock the front door, it’s dark inside—Dad’s not home yet. I turn on the light and slump down on the couch, not moving until my growling stomach gets my attention. No homemade dinner waiting for you, Marisa. Looking around the quiet room, it’s so easy to feel sorry for myself again.

Irritated, I punch the TV button on and head to the kitchen, hoping I can find something fast and easy to eat. I open the door and the refrigerator whirs to life, but what’s inside is pretty bleak. Not much more than an almost empty jar of peanut butter, yellowing broccoli, and some questionable egg salad.

Not like before. Dad and I used to cook together, a lot. Lemon chicken. Six-onion soup. A spicy red pasta sauce made with garlic, capers, olives, and anchovies that Dad said was named for the “Italian Ladies of the Night.” We always made it on special occasions because it was the dish Dad was cooking when he first met Mom years ago. The story goes that she was waitressing at a Pioneer Square steakhouse and putting herself through nursing school in Seattle. Dad had taken a job as a fry cook. Mom said one of the things she loved about him was how he would sear steaks wearing a tie that he’d throw over his shoulder. “I took one look and knew he’d be a special guy,” she laughed.

Mom was never big on birthday parties but each year, she’d let Dad dress up with a white shirt and tie, toss it over his shoulder, and cook her up a big batch of Pasta Puttanesca for her birthday. As I got older, he let me help. But this year was different. Mom sat at the table, staring out the big window that faced west toward the inlet. It was like she wanted to be anywhere else but here with us.

“Happy Birthday, Abbe,” Dad had said, coming up from behind and ceremoniously laying a plate of pasta down in front of her. Then he kissed her on her neck. “I love you,” I heard him whisper.

Mom’s eyes flickered and she looked as if she was going to burst into tears. She didn’t, but she didn’t smile either. She didn’t do anything. We ate our dinner in almost complete silence.

“C’mon, Abbe, you know how I love cooking this for your birthday,” Dad said, after awhile, “Don’t disappoint us—”

“It’s easy to disappoint, isn’t it?” Mom said. “We try and try and still we let so many people down.…”

She wasn’t really talking to us. I tried to catch her eye but it was like she didn’t even know I was there.

“I thought I was being brave. All these years.…”

“Abbe, honey—” Dad pleaded.

“Stop,” Mom turned and looked at him sharply. “This is wrong. It’s just all wrong.”

And with that, Mom stood up. I can still hear the sound of her chair scraping on the wood floor as she pushed it roughly back. A minute later, I heard the door slam as she left the house.

I remember turning to Dad, not understanding. Wrong about what? I asked, but he didn’t answer. Didn’t or wouldn’t. But I’d never seen him look so sad.

The sound of tinny music on the TV wheedles way into my head. The evening news is starting its wrap-up.

“And that’s it for tonight, folks. But before we sign off, Stacy, can you give us an update on our marine visitors?”

“I sure can, Jake. We now know that the whales in Dyes Inlet belong to a subgroup of orcas that summer here in Puget Sound known as L Pod. Researchers are worried that they might be lost, Jake, because these are unknown waters for these whales.”

“And I understand they’ve identified nineteen whales?”

“That’s right, Jake. L Pod is really one big happy family. Each whale has a name as well as an assigned number: Faith, Canuck, Muncher—”

I stand there, frozen, the refrigerator door open. Did I hear that right?

“They’re going to be monitoring them closely to be sure they’re not showing any signs of stress.”

“Well, Stacy, they look pretty relaxed to me.”

Jake and Stacy continue to banter with each other, laughing at their own jokes. I slam the refrigerator door shut so hard it shudders, then click off the TV. It’s suddenly and pleasantly quiet again.

I try to think back if I ever learned how whales behave when they’re stressed, but I can’t remember. I’m pretty sure Jake and Stacy don’t know. Do they get quiet and forget to eat? Do they leave the pod and swim off by themselves?

Back in my room, I push aside a pile of papers and notebooks lying in front of the chest, and pull open the bottom drawer. It’s packed tight. There was so much stuff that I had to throw out when we moved from East Sixteenth Street that I’m not sure what’s left and what got tossed, but I start looking anyway. I riffle through half-used sheets of wrapping paper, folded-up posters, paintings and watercolors from art classes. I recognize a couple of drawings that I made for Mother’s Day cards. My throat catches a little and I push them aside.

Finally, I see what I’m looking for. Carefully, I pull it out and lay it on the bed, flattening it as well as I can on the soft surface. The title, running across the full width of the sheet, in black italic caps, stares up at me:

L POD ADOPTION CERTIFICATE: L91 “MUNCHER”

I sit back on my knees and breathe deeply.

Four-year-old Muncher—the little whale Mom and I adopted—was back.