I started after her and she ducked back of the counter. "You're not allowed back here!" she yelped.
I stopped. "You'll have to come out some time. Then we'll find Gabrielle and you will tell her the truth-all of it!"
"Tell her yourselfl" she snapped. Two boys drifted in and the Registrar came out of the inner office and Georgia became briskly official. I left.
Cliff was waiting at "H-To-L"; I was never so glad to see him.
"Well," Cliff said a bit later, "phone her. Tell her she's~ been had and not to go to the Snack Shoppe."
"But, Cliff, I can't! That would be almost as cruel as the way Georgia planned it. Look-can't you get -- sOmebody to take her to Bun's party?"Cliff wrinkled his forehead. "I don't see how." "Cliff, you've got to!"
"Puddin', today is Gabnelte's birthday, too. Right?"
"Yes, yes-that's what makes it so mean." "You don't want to send her to Bun's party. What we do is give her a surprise party of her own. Simple."
I stared with open-mouthed adoration. "Cliff-you're a genius."
"No," he -- said modestly, "just highly intelligent and with a heart of gold. Let's get busy, chica."
First I phoned MQther. She said, "Tonight, Maureen? I like to entertain your friends but -- " I cut in with a quick up-to-date. Presently she -- said, "I'll -- check the -- deep freeze. Sommers Market may still be open. How about turkey legs and creamed mushrooms on toast?"
"And ice cream," I added. "Birthday parties need ice cream."
"But the cake? I'm short on time."
"Uh, we'll get the cake."
As I hung up Cliff came out of the other booth. "I got the Downbeat Campus Combo," he announced.
"Oh, Cliff-an orchestra!"
"If you can call those refugees from a juke box that."
"But how will we pay for it?"
"Don't ask-it was a promotion. They bid on Bun's party and got left, So they listened to reason. But I'm not doing well on guests, baby."
"You called your house?"
"Yes. A lot of the boys have other plans."
"You call again and tell those free loaders that they will never eat another Dagwood in my house if they are -- not there, on time, and each with a present. No excuses.
This is total war."
"Aye aye, sir~"
We went to Helen Hunt's Tasty Pastry Shoppe. Mr.
Helen Hunt was just closing but he let us in. No birthday cake...not a baker in the place until four the next morning-sorry. I spotted a three-tier wedding cake. "Is that a prop?"
"Frankly, that's a disappointment. My wile and I each entered the same order."
"You're stuck with it?"
"Oh, we may get a wedding cake order unexpectedly."
"Eight dollars," I said.
He looked at the cake. "Ten dollars" -- then added, "Cash."
I looked at Cliff. He looked at me. I opened my purse and he got out his wallet. We had six fifty-seven. Mr. Helen Hunt stared at the ceiling. Cliff sighed and unpinned his fraternity pin from my blouse, handed it over, and Mr~ Helen Hunt dropped it into the cash register.
- He took the little bride-and-groom off the cake, set candles around each tier, then fetched an icing gun. "What name?"
"Gabrielle," I replied. "No, make it 'Gabby' -- G, A, double-B, Y."
I called Madame O'Toole from there. Madame bends hair for half the girls on the campus. She lives back of her beauty salon and agreed to be panting and ready at seven-fifteen. Fast driving let Cliff drop me at six-ten. Junior was stringing Christmas tree lights across the front porch and Daddy was moving furniture. Mother was swooshing like a restless tornado, a smudge of dirt on her cheek. I kissed Daddy but Mother wouldn't hold still.
I made three calls while the tub was filling, then dunked, put my face on, and inserted myself into my almost-strapless formal. Cliff honked at five minutes to seven; he looked swell in a tuxedo a little too small and the darling had two gardenia corsages, one for me and one for Gabrielle. We roared away toward the Snack Shoppe, hitting on all three.
We got there at seven-fifteen. I looked in and saw Gabrielle at a rear table, looking forlorn and nursing a half-empty coke. She was in a long dress which was not too bad but she, had tried to hse makeup and did not know how. Her lipstick was smeared, crooked, and the wrong color, and she had done awful things with rouge and powder. Underneath she was scared green.
I walked in. "Hello, Gabby."
She tried to smile. -- "Oh-hello, Maureen."
"Ready to go? We're from the committee."
"Uh-I don't know. I don't feel well. I'd better go home."
"Nonsense! Come on-we'll be late." We got on each side and hustled her out to Cliff's open-air special. --
"Where is the party?" Gabrielle asked nervously.
"Don't be nosy. It's a surprise." Which it was.
Cliff pulled up at Madame O'Toole's before she could ask more questions. Gabrielle looked puzzled but her will to resist was gone. Inside I said to Madame O'Toole, "You have seventeen minutes."
Madame looked her over like a pile of wet clay. "Two hours is what I need."
"Twenty minutes," I conceded. "Can you do it?" Over the phone I had told her that she had to create Cleopatra herself, starting from zip. --
She pursed her lips and looked the kid over again. "We'll see. Come along, child."
Gabrielle looked dazed. "But Maureen -- "
"Hush," I said firmly. "Do exactly what -- Madame tells you."
Madame led her away. While we waited Cliff called the Deke house and the senior dorm and stirred out five more men and two couples. It was thirty minutes before they reappeared-and I nearly fainted. --
Madame was wasted here-She belonged at the court of Louis Quinze.
And so did Gabrielle. --