Роберт Паркер - Edenville Owls

It was a bright Saturday afternoon and no one was around. I walked down to the harbor and looked at the bandstand. It was empty. I went on down the hill past it and out to the end of the longest wharf, and sat on the stone surface and looked at the water.

Nick and I were a little ill at ease these days. Neither one of us said anything, but I figured it must have something to do with Joanie. I know it did for me. And I knew Russell was kind of PO’d because he thought the Owls were his team, and he didn’t like me doing all the coaching. I didn’t like it either, but there wasn’t anyone else to do it, and we had to do something if we were going to get anywhere in the state tournament. Part of me doubted that we would. It was the part that was sort of separate from the rest of me, that knew the stuff that I didn’t want to know.

That part knew why I had come down here past the bandstand.

Looking straight down into the greenish water, I could see small fish moving about the base of the dock. Much too small to catch. It was too late in the year to fish, anyway. I wondered if people didn’t fish after Labor Day because the fish went somewhere, or if it was just because people thought it was too cold to sit out there with a line. Or maybe that was just the way it was done. The grown-up world was filled with stuff that you did because that’s the way it was done.

The sun was behind me and to my right as I sat looking at the water. I saw her shadow before I saw her.

“Can I sit and stare at the water too?” Joanie said.

“It’s not my water,” I said.

She sat beside me. Her hair was shiny and smelled nice, like she’d just washed it.

“Nick says he thinks you’re mad about him going to the Boat Club party with me.”

“I’m not mad,” I said. “He’s your boyfriend.”

“No,” Joanie said. “He’s not.”

Something jumped inside me.

“He says he is.”

“I can’t help that,” Joanie said. “But I am not his girlfriend.”

“So why did you invite him to the party?”

“He’s cute, and he’s kind of nice,” she answered. “He isn’t grabby or anything.”

I nodded. Two gulls landed near us and looked at us. In the summer, when we fished, we’d throw them a piece of bait, or maybe a small fish.

“But I’m not his girlfriend,” Joanie said.

I nodded again.

“So why are you mad?”

“I told you,” I said, “I’m not mad.”

“We promised never to be mad at each other,” Joanie said.

I nodded.

“And we promised always to be each other’s friend,” she said.

I nodded again. Our feet dangled over the edge of the dock, side by side. Hers were crossed at the ankles. She had on her saddle shoes again. I was wearing the thick-soled oxblood-colored shoes with two eyelets that I liked.

“Did we promise not to lie to each other?”

“I don’t think so.”

“I think we should,” Joanie said. “I mean, how are we going to be each other’s friend always, if we lie?”

“You think I’m lying?” I said.

Joanie nodded her head slowly. I smiled at her.

“Damn,” I said.

She cocked her head a little and widened her eyes and shrugged.

“Promise?” she said.

“Promise,” I said.

The two gulls got tired of waiting, and gave up and flew off.

“So,” Joanie said. “Are you mad at me?”

“No.”

“Nick?”

“No.”

“But you’re mad about something.”

“I’m jealous,” I said.

It came out before I knew it was going to, and now that it was out, there was no way to put it back.

“Did you wish I’d asked you?” Joanie said.

“I don’t know. I know I didn’t like it. I know I kept thinking about you in there. I thought, What if they are doing stuff?”

“You mean like kissing?” Joanie asked. “Making out?”

“Yes.”

My voice sounded hoarse to me. The sky seemed much higher than it had and the harbor seemed bigger. Across the harbor the neck seemed really far.

“I asked Nick because he’s very nice,” Joanie said. “He doesn’t even joke around or talk dirty the way Russell does. He’s very polite.”

I nodded.

“I’ve never made out with anybody,” Joanie said.

I took a big breath. The ocean air was clean and bright. The neck didn’t seem so far away.

“Me either,” I said.

There was a substitute teacher for Miss Delaney on Monday and Tuesday. We tortured her until Miss Delaney came back on Wednesday. There were some bruises showing on her face.

“I fell down the stairs,” she told us. “I just tripped and fell.”

“You drunk, Miss Delaney?” Russell said.

Everyone laughed, including Miss Delaney. It looked to me like when she laughed, it was uncomfortable.

“Sadly,” she said with a smile, “I was not.”

After class I hung back, and when no one else was in the room I went to the desk where Miss Delaney was sitting marking something in her rank book.

She didn’t look up.

“Did he do something?” I asked.

“Who?” she said.

“That guy,” I said. “The one I saw you with.”

She looked up at me.

“Bobby,” she said slowly, “it is none of your business.”

“I just want to help,” I said.

“You can help by saying nothing more about it, to me, or to anyone else,” Miss Delaney said, “as you promised.”

“I’ll bet it was him,” I said.

“No,” Miss Delaney said. “It was not.”

She looked straight at me. Neither of us said anything else. I didn’t know what to do. Finally, I turned and walked out of the room.

Outside in the school yard the Owls were already practicing. They were running up and down the court passing the ball back and forth, not dribbling at all. It was Russell’s idea. We got to work on our wind and our passing at the same time. The object was not to take more than two and a half steps with the ball. It was pretty cold, and it was getting dark earlier and earlier. But as long as it didn’t snow, we were all right, even if we had to play with too many clothes on.

Billy dropped out of the running and came over to me.

“You talk to her?” he asked me.

“Yeah.”

“Did he do it?” Billy said. “That guy?”

“She said no.”

“What’d you say?”

“I said I thought he did.”

“She get mad?”

“Kind of,” I said. “I told her we just wanted to help.”

“What’d she say about that?”

“She said it wasn’t him and she kind of gave me the evil eye, you know?”

“Oh yeah,” Billy said. “The mean look. She’s usually so nice, you can’t friggin’ believe it when she gives you that mean look. So what are you gonna do?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“You guys gonna practice?” Russell said. “Or you just gonna chew the fat all the rest of the day?”

“Maybe we should tell somebody,” Billy said.

“We promised not to,” I said.

Billy shrugged.

“Hey,” Russell yelled. “You too good to practice?”

Russell liked being in charge. He fired the ball at us and it bounced off the school wall and rolled away. I went after it, and got it and dribbled it back toward the practice area.

“Okay,” I said. “Watch yourself. Murphy’s on the move.”

Thank God it was raining hard after school the next day, so I didn’t have to practice. Instead, I waited in the stairwell until Joanie came down the stairs with her girlfriends. We looked at each other.

As she passed she said, “Bandstand?”

I nodded. She went on with her girlfriends and I walked down to the bandstand with my Owls jacket buttoned up, and the rain falling hard on my bare head. I was in the bandstand for maybe ten minutes when Joanie arrived in a raincoat with a big green scarf over her hair. It was dark. The rain clouds seemed only a few feet above the bandstand. The harbor water was almost black. There was no one else in sight.