Someday Angeline (11 page)

He washed his feet and in-between his toes. He washed behind his ears four times. He washed behind his knees. He couldn’t remember the last time he had washed the back of his knees.

He turned off all the hot water, leaving just the cold. He stayed under it as long as he could, then stepped out of the shower and vigorously dried himself off. “Angelini!” he called. “Guess what? Gus is coming over tonight. He’ll have dinner with you. Just you and Gus, Angelini!

“Do you want to know where I’ll be?” he called. “Angelini? Angelooni?”

He lathered his face with shaving cream. “I’ve got a date!” He waited for her to respond. “I have a date, Angelooni!” He was so excited he cut himself shaving.

He went into his bedroom to get dressed. “Do you want to know with whom?” he called. “You’ll never guess whom I’ll be going out with tonight!” He walked out into the living room. “Do you want to guess?”

She wasn’t in the living room or in the kitchen. “Where are you, Angelooni?” he called. He looked for her in all the usual hiding places,
under the bed, in the closet, although he knew, with Angeline, there were no
usual
hiding places. “I haven’t got time for this!” he called. “I have a date!” He decided to break the news. That would surely get her to reveal herself.

“With Mr. Bone!”

He waited. She still didn’t respond. He knew Angeline was great at playing hide-and-seek. It suddenly occurred to him that it had been a long time since they had played. He wondered why that was. “I’ve got a date with Mr. Bone, Angelooni!”

He looked for her all over the apartment. It was a small apartment but he knew she always found a new place to hide, one that he would never think of. Once, he remembered, she sat on top of the refrigerator, right out in the open, but he was so busy looking behind things and under things that he didn’t see her. If she hadn’t laughed when he looked inside the mustard jar, he never would have found her.

The bell rang. He wondered if it was Angeline. He wondered what she was doing outside. He buzzed open the front door to the building and waited. It was Gus.

“Where’s Angelini?” Gus asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Is she home?”

“She’s just hiding. Angelini, Gus is here.”

“Then I’ll find her,” said Gus. “I happen to be the world’s greatest hide-and-go-seeker. Look out, Angelini! I’m gonna getcha!”

“You have to search everywhere twice,” said Abel. “She watches you and waits until you’ve already looked in one hiding place, and then she hides there.” He bent down and looked under the sofa.

“She couldn’t even fit under there,” said Gus.

“You don’t know,” said Abel. “She can fit anywhere.”

While Gus searched the apartment, Abel sat on the sofa and proceeded to tell a story. “Once upon a time, there was a little girl who was left all alone in a great big house. Suddenly she hears a very faint noise…rap…rap… rap.”

“What are you doing?” asked Gus. “Why don’t you help me look for her?”

“You’re not going to be able to find her that way,” Abel explained. “The only way to find her is to tell her a joke.”

“How do you know she can even hear you?” Gus asked.

“Oh, I’m sure she’s real close,” said Abel. “You don’t know her like I do. She’s probably on the verge of hysterical laughter.” He continued with the story. “So, Angelini, the girl walks down the hallway and the noise gets louder…rap!…rap!…rap! And she walks into the room at the end of the hall where the noise is even louder…RAP…RAP…RAP. And she opens the closet door and it is even louder…RAP!…RAP!…RAP! And she looks into the closet and what do you think she sees?”

“What?” asked Gus.

“What do you think she saw, Angelooni?” Abel asked.

They waited.

“Wrapping paper!” Abel announced.

They waited. Angeline didn’t laugh.

“That was a pretty good joke,” said Gus. “I’m glad to see that. You’re telling her jokes and playing with her and calling her Angelooni. You never used to do that.”

Abel thought a moment. “You’re right,” he said. “I didn’t even realize.”

“And you’re going out tonight, too,” Gus added. “I bet that’s why. See? That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all along.”

Abel smiled. “Yeah,” he said. He realized Gus was right. For the first time in a very long while, he felt like he could talk to Angeline. He wasn’t afraid of her, or worried about her anymore.

When Melissa arrived for her date with Abel, she found him and Gus each drinking a glass of salt water. “Now I know where Angeline picked up that habit,” she said.

“No, really,” Abel protested. “This is the first time I ever drank it. We wanted to see why Angeline liked it so much.”

“And?” asked Melissa.

Abel laughed. “It’s awful.”

“I’m Gus,” said Gus as he held out his hand. “You must be Mr. Bone.”

She shook his hand. “Melissa,” she said. “Where’s Angeline?”

Abel and Gus looked at each other. “She’s hiding,” Abel said.

“Oh, I hope she’s not upset because we’re going out tonight,” said Melissa.

“I don’t think so,” said Abel.

“What did she say when you told her?” Melissa asked him.

“Nothing. I mean I couldn’t find her. She was already hiding.”

“When was the last time you saw her?” asked Melissa.

“She was here when I came home,” said Abel. “She was lying on the floor reading a book.”

“That’s good,” said Melissa. “I was afraid something might have happened in Mrs. Hardlick’s class.”

“I think,” Abel muttered. “I don’t—she’s a great hider. She’s in the apartment somewhere.” He didn’t sound so sure anymore.

“Have you tried the aquarium?” asked Melissa.

Abel called the aquarium. “Angeline Persopolis,” he told them. “She’s eight years old, has black hair and green eyes.” He hung up the phone. “They know who she is,” he informed Gus and Melissa, “but they haven’t seen her today.”

“She’ll be all right,” Melissa assured him.

Abel wasn’t worried, but that’s not what he said. It was as if someone else spoke for him, someone who was eight years old, with black hair and green eyes. “You never know,” he said.

“Gary!” declared Gus. “She said she had a friend named Gary. How about calling him?”

“I don’t know his number,” said Abel, “or his last name.”

“Boone,” said Melissa. “I know Gary.” She smiled. “Gary Boone.”

Gus laughed. “Mr. Boone,” he said.

Abel looked through the phone book. “There are over two pages of Boones in here,” he said. “I can’t call them all.”

“Wait,” said Melissa. “I met his parents. What were their names? Oh…” She put her hands to her ears and shook her head, as if she were trying to shake their names out, like a gum ball from a gum ball machine.

“You’ll just have to call up every Mr. Boone!” laughed Gus. Neither Abel nor Melissa knew why he was laughing, but he thought it was very funny that Angeline’s two friends were named Mr. Bone and Mr. Boone.

Melissa hit her head. A name came out.
“Spencer,” she said. And another. “Prentice. Spencer and Prentice Boone. Give me the number. I’ll call them.”

Gary answered the phone.

“Hello, Gary,” said Melissa. “This is…” She paused. “…Mr. Bone.” She explained the situation to him and asked him if he’d seen Angeline or knew where she was. He said he didn’t.

“Have you tried the aquarium?” he suggested.

“She’s not there,” she told him.

Gary asked her what she was doing at Angeline’s apartment. She told him she was planning to have dinner with Angeline’s father.

“With Angeline and her father?” Gary asked.

“No, just her father.”

“You mean like a date?” Gary asked.

“I guess,” said his teacher.

“You’re going on a date with Angeline’s father!”

“Just cool it,” she replied.

“Does Angeline know?”

“I don’t know.”

She hung up the phone. “He’s coming over,” she told Abel and Gus, “to help look for her.”

That was one reason. The other reason why
he was coming over was because he wanted to see what Mr. Bone looked like when she went out on a date. He also wanted to be there when Angeline found out her father was going on a date with Mr. Bone, and hopefully he’d be the one who would tell her.

When Gary arrived, all four of them searched the apartment.

“You check that side of the bed, Mr. Boone,” said Gus, “while I check this side. That way she can’t switch back and forth.”

Gary laughed. “Okay, Gus,” he said.

Abel tried to organize the search very systematically. He locked the bathroom door so she couldn’t circle around them.

“You sure look pretty tonight, Mr. Bone,” said Gary.

“Thank you, Gary,” she said.

“Do you always look so pretty when you go out on dates?” he asked.

“Knock it off, Gary,” she replied.

“Don’t you think she looks pretty, Mr. Persopolis?” he asked Angeline’s father.

Abel blushed. Fortunately, just as he opened his mouth, the phone rang, with perfect saved-by-the-bell
timing. It made everyone laugh.

Abel answered it.

“Yes, I’m her father,” he said. “Yes. Yes.”

Melissa watched as he slowly turned pale. His whole body began to tremble. The sight of him made her feel like crying.

Abel dropped the phone. It dangled on the cord. He walked slowly across the room. His face quivered.

Gary felt like crying, too. He now wished he had never come over. He held Miss Turbone’s hand.

Abel opened his mouth, but all he was able to say was “Mitchell Beach,” as he tried to fight back his tears.

Gary squeezed Mr. Bone’s hand. He waited for Angeline’s father to say more, only he didn’t think he wanted to hear it.

Abel’s face was now streaked with tears. “Hospital,” he whispered.

“Let’s go,” said Melissa, still holding Gary’s hand. “I’ll drive.”

They rode the elevator down to the street and climbed into her car. She and Abel got in the front and Gary and Gus sat in the back. And on the very rear of the car was a bumper sticker which said
SAVE THE WHALES
.

“She fell off Mitchell Pier,” Abel uttered. He stared out the window at a billboard advertising
chewing gum as if he were suddenly very interested in which brand packed the most punch.

Gary was glad he got to go along. He thought that if anybody had stopped to think about it, they wouldn’t have brought him. Kids never get to go along on emergencies. They would have sent him home, instead. He felt terrible for feeling glad about this. He didn’t think he should be feeling glad about anything, when—and this suddenly occurred to him—when Angeline might be dead.

He tried to think about something else, or better yet, not to think at all. He wondered why he was thinking so much. His brain was going a mile a minute. He didn’t think he usually thought so much.

He wondered if Mr. Bone and Gus were thinking as much as he was, or if he was the only one, because he was a goon.

He didn’t wonder about what Angeline’s father was thinking. He didn’t want to think about that.

When they got to the hospital, they were directed to a waiting room where they were told to wait. There was somebody else already in the room, but he looked more like a patient than a
visitor. He was dressed in a hospital gown and robe. Gary wondered who he was.

He suddenly thought of a joke. “If we have to wait, does that mean we are waiters, like we have to serve food?” Then he felt awful for having thought of it. “How could I make up jokes,
now?”
he wondered.

“Gary,” said Mr. Bone. She held out a tissue to him.

He took the tissue from her. He hadn’t realized he’d been crying. “Angeline would have thought it was a funny joke,” he thought.

The man in the hospital gown shivered.

A doctor finally walked in. “Are you Angeline’s parents?” he asked.

“I’m her father,” said Abel.

The doctor took a deep breath. “Angeline was underwater a long time, I’m afraid,” he said, “before Mr., um—” He gestured toward the man wearing the hospital gown and robe. “Mr., um—” He pointed again at the man.

The man shivered. “Cool Breezer,” he said in a high and raspy voice.

“Before Mr. Cool Breezer was able to pull her out,” said the doctor.

Everyone turned and looked at Cool Breezer. Cool Breezer looked away.

“When she arrived, her lungs were almost completely filled with salt water,” the doctor said. “We’ve done all we can do. Now it’s up to her.”

Melissa put her arm around Abel. “She’ll make it,” she said. “I know she will.”

“Angelini’s tough,” said Gus.

“I’ll take you to see her now,” said the doctor. “But before I do, I want to prepare you. She won’t be able to see or hear you. I think the earliest we can expect any kind of positive reaction from her won’t be for at least another twenty-four hours.”

“Then will she—” Abel started to ask.

“Her brain went a long time without oxygen,” said the doctor. “You just never know.” He led them down a long corridor, through several sets of double doors.

“You never know,” Abel repeated.

He led them into Angeline’s room, then left. Angeline lay on top of a bed, not under the covers. She was wearing a hospital gown, like the one Cool Breezer was wearing. There were bottles hanging above her, and there were tubes coming out of the bottles and sticking into her arms and neck.

A nurse was stationed alongside her. The nurse stood up and moved out of the way as Abel approached.

Abel silently stared at his daughter. “Mitchell Beach,” he said after a while. He looked around the room. “What was she doing at Mitchell Beach?”