Book Six of the Odyssey is all about some ladies doing their laundry and Odysseus coming naked out of the sea and since he’s been twenty days thrashing about in the water, he looks pretty awful, but he’s real polite and coherent and asks them to move away while he washes because he’s ashamed of being naked. Then, with a little help and anointing from Athene, he emerges looking terrific, like a god and all. As usual, even though he’s a total stranger, they all welcome him and give him clothes and everything.
Everyone’s still asking Carl Ray a million questions about the money and wondering who gave it to him, and he’s still walking around looking shocked, although I did see him looking through the Sears catalogue. Maybe he’s trying to decide what to buy first.
Mom got real mad at all of us today. She sent Dennis and Dougie to their room (she hardly ever does that) because they kept badgering Carl Ray, telling him they sure did wish they could have a new bicycle (that was Dougie) and a little television (Dennis) and all kinds of other stuff: toys, baseball bats, ice skates, roller skates, stilts, water skis (we don’t even have a boat) and on and on.
Mom got mad at Maggie because she just happened to mention to Carl Ray that there was a beee-yooo-teee-ful coat at the May Company that she was absolutely in love with. She got mad at Tommy because he badgered her all day about Carl Ray going to jail. She got mad at me because I wrote “Mary Lou’s favorite wish” on a picture of a desk and taped it on the wall outside Carl Ray’s bedroom. Mom said, “You can be very insensitive, Mary Lou.”
Me? Insensitive?
I just don’t even know where to start. Maybe at the pool. I went to the pool today (after Carl Ray the Prince finally got out of bed so I could clean up that room—I still have to vacuum in there, which does not seem fair since Carl Ray’s only chore so far is to make up his stupid bed). Alex asked me if I wanted to go swimming today, remember? Sure enough, Alex was there.
It was all cloudy and cool though, so after about an hour we decided (it was Alex’s idea) to go somewhere else. It sure seemed like something was bothering him, and I thought, Well, maybe he was sorry he asked me to meet him there, and maybe he was trying to think of a way to get rid of me. We went to this little park near the pool and sat on a picnic table. For a while we just read all the names carved into the table, and I was about to say that I had to go home (just in case he did want to get rid of me, I thought I’d better make it sound like I was ready to go anyway), when he said, “I got the strangest phone message the other day.”
“What message?”
“Some girl called and said to my mother, ‘Tell Alex I love him.’” Then he looked at me as if he was waiting for me to confess.
Boy was I mad. I was mad because, first of all, it wasn’t ME who called, but Alex thought it was, and second of all, I was wondering who in the heck DID call. Grrrr. But before I could say anything, Alex looks up because this girl is walking toward us. She’s smiling and waving her arm like crazy, and when she gets pretty close, she says, “Hiiiiiii! Hiiiiiii there!”
It was Christy, from school. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
She started drooling all over Alex. “Hiiiii, Alex. Oh hi, Mary Lou. Whatever are you doing over here, Alex? I’m here with my cousin. Did you ever meet my cousin Carol? She’s up there,” and she pointed toward the pool and batted her eyelashes at Alex and wiggled her shoulders and SAT DOWN next to Alex on the picnic table.
“Hi,” said Alex.
I didn’t say one word.
“So, what are you doing over here, Alex? Huh? Huh?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? So why are you over here doing nothing? You live way over in Norton!!” She turned to me and said, “Have you ever seen Alex’s house? I have. I just love your mom, Alex. She’s so sweet. I can’t believe you’re way over here in Easton. Don’t you go swimming in Norton, huh Alex, huh?”
On and on and on she went, babbling away like that, asking about a million questions and never giving Alex a chance to answer anything. I didn’t think she was ever going to leave. I started counting the leaves on this tree next to the table, just to keep from punching her one. I got up to 367 before she finally said, “So hey, Alex, why don’t you come up and go swimming with me and my cousin? Oh, you too, Mary Lou. Come on, Alex, won’t you?” Wiggle wiggle. Smile smile.
And then Alex said, “Can’t. Have to go home.”
So she made this little pouty mouth and said, “Well, Carol’s waiting for me. I’ll let you off this time, Alex….” Wiggle wiggle. Smile smile. And, at last, she got up and wiggled away.
We sat there for a few minutes. Then I said, “Do you really have to go home now?”
And he said, “Nope.”
Then I said, “I think I just figured out who left you that phone message.”
He looked a little disappointed. “Huh?”
“Well, it wasn’t me!” And I gave a meaningful look in Christy’s direction. She was still wiggling off in the distance.
“Ahhh,” he said.
And then you would not believe what he did next.
He put his hand on top of mine. At first I didn’t know if it was an accident or on purpose and I was wondering if I should move my hand. But he pressed his down a little bit, so I figured it was on purpose. Then I started wondering if I should turn my hand over—then he could hold it—but what if he didn’t want to hold it? How am I supposed to know what he’s thinking? I decided to leave my hand the way it was. If he wanted to turn it over, he could do that himself.
When I think about it right now, I could just swoon away.
And then do you know what he said? He said, “I like you, Mary Lou Finney.”
And I just sat there like some idiot. I just sat there staring at him. He looked so different all of a sudden. He looked like Odysseus probably did when he cleaned himself up and anointed himself after being in the ocean for three weeks. All the girls standing around Odysseus about fell over from his beauty. They thought he was some kind of a god. And that’s what Alex looked like to me. His skin was so pink and healthy-looking and his hair was all clean and shiny and he smelled just like soap.
Well, that sounds ridiculous, I know. Almost as bad as Beth Ann mooning over Derek-the-Di-viiiiine.
Anyway, then Alex got up and he said, “I’ll walk you home,” and he TOOK MY HAND (which turned over automatically, I think) and we walked home, and I still couldn’t talk at all, and just before we got to the corner of my street I pretended I had to scratch my ankle so I could let go of his hand because even though I really liked holding his hand, I would have died if anyone in my family saw that. And at the corner of my street, he said, “Well, I guess I’ll go on home,” and I said, “’Bye,” and he said, “’Bye,” and then he started walking away and all of a sudden I said, “Oh, wait!” and he turned around and smiled and walked back, and he said, “I’ll call you.”
And I truly thought I was sitting on Mount Olympus.
And I know this is boring you to death, whoever you are, and I know I will never ever be able to turn this in to any English teacher after saying all this mush.
But…
I can hardly stand it….
I don’t even want to write about Carl Ray and stuff.