Dyan Sheldon: Away for the Weekend

“Luck, schmuck,” says Remedios. “I knew what I was doing. I never doubted for a second that everything would turn out fine. I planned the whole thing.”

“Of course you did,” says Otto. “And where were you when that dragon — what’s her name? Organza…”

“Taffeta.”

“When she tried to throw Gabriela out of the show and do her out of first prize? Was that also part of your plan?”

“I was taking care of the other dragon, the one with the doctorate, that’s where I was.” Remedios pulls a blade of grass from the lawn. “And besides, I knew you could handle the situation.”

“And what if I hadn’t?” Otto persists. “You would’ve ruined poor Gabriela’s life for nothing.”

“But you did handle it.” She slips the leaf of grass between her thumbs. “I never had any doubts about that, either.”

“Remedios…” He’s getting that earnest, schoolmaster tone in his voice. Her eyes wander across the quad. “I know things turned out well, but what I’m saying is that they might not have. The risks were more than equal to the rewards.”

This isn’t true, and he knows it.

“What are you saying, Otto? That people should just spend their lives sitting in one place? That they should look at the world through a pinhole in a wall and not experience life? What are they, prisoners?”

“That’s not what I’m saying. You’re always twisting my words. I’m just trying to get you to admit that you went over the top this time. And to promise that you won’t do it again.”

She looks from one group of students to another, picking up snatches of conversation, snatches of thought, shadows of dreams.

“Remedios? Did you hear me?”

Seeing things that aren’t there.

“Yes,” she says, “I heard you.”

“And you promise? You won’t get me involved in another hare-brained scheme like that again?”

“Of course not,” says Remedios. And she raises her hands to her mouth and blows on the grass as if it’s a very small trumpet.

This time Otto definitely catches a shimmer.

Dyan Sheldon is the author of many books for young people, including Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen; And Baby Makes Two; The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love; and My Worst Best Friend , as well as a number of stories for younger readers. American by birth, Dyan lives in North London.