EMIT (THE EMIT SAGA) (11 page)

We rushed to Grand Central
and on the train; Uncle Ian sat elsewhere to read the paper, knowing that Lily and I wouldn’t stop talking.

“Noelle’s meeting us tomorrow at Susan’s Cafe,” Lily
said. Oh, no!

“Why?” I moaned.

“I changed the sleepover for tomorrow night. She asked why and I told her about breakfast."

“I only wanted you to meet him. He’ll think I’m
such a baby bringing my friends along.”

“
He wanted to meet me, just tell him that I already had plans with Noelle.” When I continued to look miserable, she said, “We don’t have to come.”

“
No, never mind. Maybe it’ll be better with you guys there,” I conceded.

My cell was buzzed and there was
a text from Reed. ‘Have a great summer. Call you when I get back.’ Reed was a problem to deal with in the future and I wasn’t wasting any more time on him. As for Daniel, now that was another story.

When we got to Lily’s house, Aunt
Cecile was busy cooking dinner. I loved being at Lily’s. After spending weeks there during summer vacations, the moment I’d passed the threshold, I always felt at home. The house was a split-level, so walking through the door; the front entry was halfway between the upper and lower floors. There were two short sets of stairs, one running upward to the living room, kitchen, dining room and bedrooms, and one going downward toward a finished basement area with Uncle Ian’s office, the family room and the guestroom where I slept whenever I visited.

Afte
r I dropped my bags in my room and changed, I found Lily in the kitchen eating chips, salsa and guacamole. While Aunt Cecile put the fruit crisp in the oven, we munched on the food and talked.

Aunt Cecile made her famous
shrimp corn chowder. After we ate, Lily and I were stuffed and couldn’t move from the table.

“I guess we’ll have the
quesadillas for lunch tomorrow,” Aunt Cecile said.

Lily
moaned, “There was more food?” I was unable to say anything.

“It’s not my f
ault you guys ate too many chips,” she scolded us. “What about the fruit crisp?”

This time, I groaned, “No more food.” Lily and I plopped on
the couch in the living room.

“
Do you like working at your dad’s office, Paige?” Aunt Cecile asked.

“It’s alright.
I’m just filing and photo copying.”

“Do you get to see your dad
? I know how big that firm is.”

“I’m on another floor
, but I sneak by and see him.”

Lily told Aunt Cecile
about meeting Noelle for breakfast.

“Sure,
I need to run errands in town anyway,” Aunt Cecile said.

We didn’t mention Daniel. S
ince I hadn’t told Mom yet, it was better not to bring him up.




In the morning
, I felt like I slept better, but it was probably due to sheer exhaustion.

I jumped in
the shower before heading upstairs. Lily was in her room making a scrapbook of our Paris trip from the summer before. It had been Lily’s sixteenth birthday and her parents surprised her, and me for that matter, with a trip to Paris. My parents didn’t tell me in case I blabbed to Lily.

On
Lily’s birthday, we spent the day exploring Paris. We had dinner on the island of Île Saint-Louis and afterwards, took a taxi to the Eiffel Tower. The views were amazing and Lily and I took tons of pictures.

Looking at Lily’s scrapbook, I was impressed.
“You’re almost done.”

“
Yeah, almost. Can you get me copies of your photos?” Lily asked.

“Yeah.
I made copies, but I don’t know where I put them. I’ll look when I get home.”

“
Have you started yours yet? I know how you procrastinate.” 

“
Very funny, but I did, and then got sidetracked.” Lily laughed at that. “Stop. I better finish it before this summer. I really wish I knew where we were going. Have your parents said anything? Mine won’t tell me anything, as usual.”

Lily shook her head no.
“All she said was that Dad didn’t know when he could take off. If we go anywhere, it’ll be last minute or we’ll just go to Grammy’s.”

My parents
only told me where we were vacationing when we were on the plane going. The reason for this was because when I was young, I got super excited about a vacation to Italy. I started looking through the guidebooks and picked sites to see. At the end of the trip, when we hadn’t visited any of my choices, I had a complete meltdown in the middle of the hotel lobby as Dad checked out. I sat on the floor and refused to leave. Humiliated, Dad picked me up and carried me to the taxi. All the way to the airport, I cried. They decided to surprise me from then on, but I think they just liked torturing me.

In early June, I protested, “Mom
, I’ll be eighteen in December.”

She
answered, “Next summer, we’ll plan the vacation spot together, okay? This year, you’ll find out in August.” Thankfully, this would be the last summer that they would do this to me.

I sat there looking at
Lily’s photos. My reminiscing was interrupted by Noelle’s call to make sure that we were still going for breakfast.

Aunt Cecile drove us into town and w
e met Noelle at Starbuck’s. At ten o’clock, we walked over to Susan’s Café and grabbed a table outside.

I was
on edge waiting for Daniel to come that I wasn’t listening to the conversation.

Noelle
stopped talking, stared at me and said, “Hey, calm down. It’s only breakfast.”

“I know,” I answered testily and hoped that Noelle
wouldn’t be her nonstop talking self.

“How’s
lifeguarding?” Lily asked Noelle.

She
started talking and wouldn’t stop. Sitting there listening and waiting was torture and as the minutes passed, I became more irrational. “Noelle, please do me a favor and don’t babble like that when Daniel comes. Also, don’t ask tons of questions, he’ll think we’re imbeciles.”

Noelle
looked visibly hurt and then she got angry. She rose and stormed into the shop.

Lily glared at me and said,
“Why are you being so crazy? If you continue like this, I’m not staying.”

She was right. What was wrong with me?
I apologized and begged her to stay.

Noelle came out with two
coffees and visibly upset. “I couldn’t carry out your tea. If you want it, it’s on the counter.” She gave Lily her coffee. “I’m sitting at another table. Then I won’t embarrass anyone.”

“No, Noelle, please don’t. I’m
really sorry.”

Noelle
was apprehensive of my mood change. “You’re being so ridiculous,” she said, but went inside and got my tea. She was probably worried that I’d spill it on somebody.

When my cell said 10:20
, I knew that I’d been stood up. My greatest fear was being realized. Noelle and Lily were exchanging knowing glances, but I had no energy to yell at them. It was almost 10:30 and he was nowhere in sight. Lily had tried getting me to call him at 10:15.

Lily was getting frustrated and repeated her earlier argument.
“Call him. Maybe something happened. He doesn’t have your number for crying out loud.”

When I refused again, Lily stood up to leave.

“Fine,” I snapped and hoped there was a plausible explanation.

Daniel answered. “Hello?”

“It’s Paige. Where are you?” I asked with an edge of anger.

“I’ve been hoping you’d call. I got stuck in the city.
I was about to call the café.” He seemed relieved to hear from me. “I was borrowing my uncle’s car and he needed it.” Maybe that’s why his phone had buzzed constantly at breakfast. “I’m leaving the city in an hour. Can we meet there tomorrow?” he asked.

After I hung up, I
told them what happened and asked if they’d come back with me.

“Of course.
I need to see why you’ve become so crazy,” said Lily, rolling her eyes at Noelle. Noelle groaned, but agreed to come too.

After breakfast, w
e went to Lily’s pool club. It was almost a hundred degrees and it was great being wet. We played Marco Polo with almost fifteen kids and it was insane.

After eating turkey wraps for lunch, we lazed
by the pool, read magazines and talked. Out of the blue, it suddenly started thundering. Promptly the lifeguards closed the pool and everyone began packing up. The sky was dark and ominous and then the rain poured down. As we raced up the hill to Lily’s house, it was relentless in its intensity. It felt like someone was throwing buckets of water on us, and the wind was incredible. The thunder sounded so close and the flashes of lightning were scary.

By the time we got in
, we looked like muddy drowned rats.

“Mom
, we’re home. Was it supposed to rain today?” Lily called out.

Aunt Cecile
walked into the kitchen surprised to see us. “I was just about to drive down and get you. Why didn’t you stay put? You shouldn’t run around in the woods when there’s lightning.”

“Sorry,” we all said,
but smiled at each other because we had fun.

Looking at the floor, she saw the mud. “Stay in the kitchen. Do not move.
Let me get some towels.”

Aunt Cecile walked out saying
, “It should stop soon. It’s just a passing storm.”

After showering, we decided to stay
at Lily’s for the sleepover and not go to Noelle’s. Aunt Cecile said it was fine, but they were going out. As I looked out the window, the dark storm clouds were slowly dissipating.

“Girls
, have the quesadillas and the soup from last night,” Aunt Cecile said before leaving.

Noelle
called her parents and they were going to the movies.

We grabbed food to bring downstairs
and planned on watching a movie. I made my favorite popcorn with melted butter, garlic powder, red pepper flakes and lots of Parmesan cheese. It was one of Mom’s creations and I loved it.

A
s we watched the movie, we heard the storm still raging outside. Around ten, we paused the movie so that Lily could go get some water bottles. She was on her way back downstairs and the power went out. The house went completely black.

“Oh, no!
” Lily shrieked.

I didn’t know what to do
, so I reached for Noelle and held her arm tightly. Only between bursts of intermittent lightening were things visible. Lily went into the laundry room and brought out flashlights. We found hurricane candles in the hall closet and lit them.

“We have a generator in the garage
, but we have to wait till my parents gets home. Don’t worry. Our house alarm goes to a battery backup if the power goes or the phone lines go out,” Lily said, acting brave, while calling her parents cells. Getting no answer, she hung up without leaving a message. Noelle called her parents and they also didn’t answer. All four parents disappeared just when you needed them most.

I called M
om and was relieved that at least she answered, even if she wasn’t nearby. “Mom, it’s me,” I whispered, feeling that if I spoke loudly the monsters would find me. My vivid imagination was working overtime especially in this darkness.

S
he knew from the sound of my voice that I was upset. “Why are you whispering? What's the matter?”

After
I told her what happened, she assured me that Aunt Cecile would be home soon. I’d been through blackouts before, but it was very different out here. When it happened in the city, everyone would rush outside, talking and complaining and you never felt alone. Out here in the suburbs, it was quite alarming since it was so desolate. Lily’s house was on two acres and the neighbors’ houses weren’t visible, or even nearby, so you felt totally alone. Behind Lily’s property, there was only the swim club, which was immense and deserted. I looked out the window and saw a car in the parking lot with its lights on.

The three of us
sat on the couch with the candles lit and talked about the situation. When my cell rang a few minutes later, I presumed it was Mom and didn’t check the screen. Lily and Mom were the only people that called me, all my friends texted. I answered trying to sound upbeat, “Hi, Mom. I’m better now.”

“Paige,
everything okay?” It was Daniel.

For a minute
, I couldn’t speak. “Hi. Yeah, I’m fine. Are you in this blackout too?”

“Yes, I am.
Are you all right?” he asked again.

“Oh
, I’m fine… I’m at Lily’s with her friend, Noelle.” After I told him that her parents were out for the evening, Daniel offered to come over and keep us company. He seemed overly concerned, but it was just a blackout.