Jonah Havensby (36 page)

When he got to the mall, Jonah decided to go in the older entrance, the one farthest from Mrs. MacIntyre’s store. He wouldn’t be comfortable running into her because he felt responsible for getting Eric into trouble, and he also had to talk to Eric first to see what Devlin’s conversation with her turned out to be.

As his luck would have it, the minute he lowered his hood and welcomed the heat of the interior of the mall, Mrs. MacIntyre was just coming in from the Promenade section carrying two cups of coffee. She delivered the coffees to two janitors who were replacing some of the overhead lights. When she turned, they made eye contact. Jonah was nervous for a moment, but Mrs. MacIntyre broke into a grin and started over to him.

“Hi, Jonah,” she said warmly. “Look at you. You look chilled to the bone,” She straightened his hair a little. “You shouldn’t be out on afternoons like today, it’s too cold.”

“Hi, Mrs. MacIntyre,” Jonah stumbled.

“Missing your partner in crime, huh?” She asked.

“Huh?” He responded only to the word ‘crime’.

“It’s only two more days and you guys can be right back to your video games. Kind of sucks when your friends get in trouble and there’s nothing to do, huh?” She asked.

 “Oh, I wasn’t really looking for Eric,” Jonah explained. “I have to find a shirt to wear to the Winter Ball.”

“Are you going?” She asked.

“Well, Emma Wong asked me, I said I’d only go if Eric went, so…” he trailed off.

“Eric’s going to the ball?” She asked. She lit up when she said it. “He hasn’t told me anything about it. I just agreed to chaperone the dance and he didn’t say a word.”

“Well, I don’t know if he’s going…” Jonah said, but he was cut off when she pulled her mobile phone from her pocket, pushed a few buttons and the other end of the line began to ring through the speaker.

Eric answered after just two rings.

“Young man, do you have anything you’d like to tell me about?” she asked into it. “Anything pertaining to a particular event that’s coming up?”

Jonah didn’t know how he kept getting himself in these awkward situations.

“Oh,” Eric said. Jonah could hear him very clearly through the phone. “Yep, I’m probably gonna go.”

“You’re ‘probably gonna go’?” Mrs. MacIntyre asked in return. “And this is something you didn’t mention to your mother the entire time I was telling you I signed up to chaperone?”

“I haven’t even talked to Jonah about it, why would I say anything?” Eric asked.

“Because mother’s like to know these things in advance, Eric. It’s kind of a thing these days.” She retorted. “Do you even have anything clean to wear?”

“Um, I don’t know,” he replied, there was the distinct sound of the closet door opening. “I guess.”

“Okay,” she said. “Find your khaki pants and your white button-down shirt and put them both on my bed. I’ll have to get to the one-hour dry cleaners tomorrow. Then find your brown shoes in that wreck of a closet.”

“Alright. Alright. Jeez.” Eric said. “How’d you even find out?”

“Jonah’s right here. He came to the mall to buy a shirt for the dance and I had to find out from him.” She said.

“Oh, tell him I said thanks a lot,” Eric said.

“Sorry dude,” Jonah spoke up.

“So I guess we’re going?” Eric asked.

“Guess so,” Jonah said.

“So, Jonah will come over for dinner tomorrow night and we can work out a game plan,” she said. This part of the conversation obviously included both of them. “I can obviously drive, since I’m going anyway.”

“Can Jonah stay over?” Eric asked hopefully.

“You’re still technically grounded young man,” she said. “I’m just making a special circumstance.”

“Alright,” Eric huffed through the phone. “Nice talking to people on the outside.”

“You’ll survive.” She said. As a good bye, she said “Love you.”

“Love you too,” Eric said, but Jonah could envision the accompanying eye roll.

She rang off.

“So do you know where you’re going?” she asked Jonah.

“Yes, ma’am, just over to the department store.” Jonah said.

It was the store his father always took him to, although this would be his first time shopping by himself.

“Okay,” Mrs. MacIntyre said. “Don’t shop too long, it’s supposed to snow tonight.” Then she added. “And thank your father for the phone call last night. We had a really nice conversation.”

At this Jonah’s breath caught for just a moment, but she seemed to have genuinely bought that Devlin was his dad. That was kind of a relief. “I’ll tell him.” He replied.

“Will I see him at the dance?” She asked.

No, I don’t think so.” Jonah said.

“Oh, that’s too bad. You should invite him along.”

“I will, but he might be busy.” Jonah said almost too quickly.

“Okay. Get home safe.” She said with a wave and then she was off through the Promenade doors towards her store on the other side of the mall.

Jonah knew exactly where the boys section was in the department store. He went through the revolving door and went right through the store until he came to the section of both casual and dress wear.

He sauntered through the displays, trying to look just like any other shopper, but he was on a mission. He simply wanted to get a shirt and get back out. The problem was, he had never been shopping by himself. He flipped through a rack of t-shirts with different designs on them, but concentrated more on the section that was marked ‘medium’. At least he knew what size he was, that was going to help. And all of the clothes seemed to have price tags. That was another good thing.

But when he made his way over to the button-down shirts, he found that not all of the racks were marked with pricing, and some of the shirts were wrapped in plastic and had no tags at all. He maintained his composure when a saleswoman smiled at him from the counter, he certainly didn’t want to involve her in the search.

Just then, he spotted a circular rack of button-down shirts with a sign announcing that anything on this particular rack was seventeen-ninety-nine. He breathed a steady sigh of relief, not only because the price was clearly marked, but also because it was a price he could certainly afford.

He walked over and found the ‘medium’ section and began to look through. Some of the shirts had subtle designs sewn into them, which he wasn’t quite sure he liked. He decided he should ignore those and look for something in a solid color. He found a white one and a white one with blue stripes and tried to decide which one was right when the saleswoman finally made her way over.

“Would you like to try those on?” She asked with a smile.

His father always made him try things on. He was pretty sure he should, but shopping was turning out to be more stressful than he thought it would be and he just wanted to get out of there.

“No, thanks,” he said. “I’m just going to take this one.” He held up the striped shirt without even realizing he had made a decision between the two.

After he had paid and was putting his remaining money in his pocket, he decided he was going to save the rest of his money until it was time to buy food again.

Everything went pretty well when Jonah came over for dinner the next night. He was nearly frozen when he got to the house. He brought Mrs. MacIntyre’s bike back all the way from the tree-house. She was disappointed, again, with not meeting Jonah’s father. She asked if she might meet him if she drove Jonah home, but he had come prepared for this and told her they were meeting at the movie theatre in the mall, but he’d appreciate a ride over there after dinner.

During dinner, Mrs. MacIntyre laid out her plan for the night of the dance. She would drive the boys over, since she was chaperoning with some of the other parents. Jonah would have to arrive at their house just before seven o’clock so they could make it there by seven-thirty. Eric had asked if they could sleep over at Jonah’s that night, which she didn’t have a problem with as long as Doctor Havensby called her beforehand to finalize the plan.

Eric also asked if Jonah could stay and hang out, but his mother told him he was still technically grounded for one more day, so that wasn’t going to happen.

When she drove Jonah to the mall, Mrs. MacIntyre asked if she should come in with him just to meet his father. He put her off by saying they might be late for the movie already, said he’d have his father call, thanked her for the ride and almost too abruptly shut the car door. Then he walked into the mall without turning around.

When he got into the mall, he looked back to the window and saw that she had waited until he got inside. He almost thought she might get out of the car and follow him, but she ended up pulling away.

He walked back outside into a bitter, cold wind and got just past Jefferson Street when he decided it was too cold to walk all the way back to the woods. He found the alley where Devlin had quietly directed him the day he went after Logan Oswald in the schoolyard. The last time he was in this alley he remembered the crippling pain boring through his left eye. This time, when Devlin manifested there was no pain at all. The transformations were happening pretty seamlessly.

Jonah found himself back in the tree-house standing by the generator. In front of him was the camping hammock, and on that, the notebook was open. In what Jonah had come to be aware of as Devlin’s handwriting, was one simple line:

I’m not a taxi, chief

That almost made Jonah giggle. Until he had another mode of transportation, or the weather cleared up, Devlin was going to get stuck with a lot of footwork. And, after all, wasn’t he the chief?

Then a thought struck him as he changed into his basketball shorts and his t-shirt.

“That doesn’t mean go steal a car or anything,” he said sternly to the walls.

XXII

On Saturday night, Jonah had Devlin call Mrs. MacIntyre from the same payphone with the same blocked number and pretend to be his father again. This time the conversation was even shorter. Unfortunately, ‘Doctor Havensby’ was simply too busy to come to the dance as he was preparing for a conference at the college and just could not get away. As for Eric staying over on Saturday, he said that he may be home too late, but would appreciate if she could take the boys just one more night. This worked out well, since Mrs.MacIntyre would want to drive the boys back to Jonah’s house after the dance and then probably demand an introduction. Since Jonah had neither a real house, nor a real father, the idea of Eric trying to sleep over would have to wait for a better plan to develop. ‘Doctor Havensby’ also said he would drop Jonah off at the house at precisely seven o’clock sharp. He then seemingly changed his mind and asked if he couldn’t drop Jonah off at the mall around six-thirty as that would save him some time. Of course Mrs. MacIntyre agreed with the whole plan.

Saturday evening was blustery, cold, snowy evening. While he was getting ready, Jonah noticed even the heavy velvet curtains were fighting to keep out the cold wind. The curtain near the generator blew all the way open and he closed it, then pushed one of the camping hammocks against it, hoping that would keep it in place.

He finished getting ready and then put on his coat and gloves. He decided he’d rather change into Devlin inside the tree-house than out on the patio. After Devlin manifested, he pushed open the front door and was greeted with a flurry of snow and wind. He bundled up his black coat and blew on his hands to keep warm. He was surprised at how much snow had fallen under the canopy of trees.

“Alrighty, chief,” he said to no one. “Another run to the mall, huh?” Then he blew on his hands again. “Let’s see if I can make it before I turn into a cherry Popsicle out here.”

He launched himself over the railing and hit the ground running.

Within minutes Jonah realized he was in the alley off of Jefferson Street again. Instead of stopping at the tree-line, Devlin had run him much closer to the mall. He quickly zipped his coat and threw up his hood and then dashed across the street to the mall parking lot. There was no traffic to dodge and very few cars in the parking lot. He wondered if Devlin could have run him all the way to the front door, but thought it was smart of him not to try something like that.

He found Eric on their usual bench, right outside of Vineyard, playing a game on his phone. He was already dressed up in a white shirt, khaki pants, and a brown tie. He looked ready to go.

“Dude, you’re already ready?” Jonah asked.

“Mom said it might take a while to get over to the school with the snow and stuff, so she brought my clothes here. We’ve just been waiting for you.”

Eric stood and put his phone in his pocket and started walking over to the store. Once inside, they found the store empty except for Mrs. MacIntyre, who was adjusting her red dress and checking her makeup in a full-length mirror by the register.

“Wow, mom,” Eric said.

“You look really nice, Mrs. MacIntyre,” Jonah added.

She turned and put her hand on her chest with a broad smile. “Well thank you boys. It’s not often I have two dates for the dance.” And she turned back to admire herself again.

“It’s not often she has one,” Eric said under his breath in Jonah’s direction.

“I heard that,” she chimed, not turning from the mirror.

“I didn’t say anything,” he chimed back.

She turned and walked past them and ruffled Eric’s hair on the way by. He quickly pulled it all back down into place.

Mrs. MacInyre pushed a button on a keypad by the glass double-doors at the front of the store and a metal security gate started scrolling down into place in front of the doors. When it touched the floor, it automatically stopped and she locked the keypad with a key, which apparently meant the gate would be locked into place. She then locked the glass double-doors.

She handed Eric his coat and picked up her purse and coat from the counter and ushered them to the back of the store. Jonah had never seen this part of the store. In the back was a very small office which doubled as a break room. There was a sink and a refrigerator on one wall and a desk and two filing cabinets along the other wall. The rest of the room was taken up with loads of boxes, some of which were open, and some weren’t.