“So, we’re all in this together.” She smiled at the guys.
“Yep.” Derek literally beamed at her.
A sigh of despair escaped me. I didn’t want Derek, but I wouldn’t mind being Wei for a while. I bet nothing even close to the hurt and humiliation I’d just endured would ever happen to her. I couldn’t picture Wei running away from anyone or anything, let alone cowering in a restroom.
Turning my focus to the job of keeping Dee safe, I stuffed my Sal feelings deep inside, alongside the Ginnie tears that I refused to cry. Keeping all those emotions inside wasn’t easy, and the more I tamped them down, the harder it got.
We picked up Dee outside Dickens, and she, Wei, and I split off from the guys.
“You’re sure you don’t want us to come with you right now?” Mike rubbed his stomach. “It’s growling.”
“Come on.” Derek grabbed his arm. “They said they had ‘girl’ stuff to talk about. “We’ll see you later.” They took off in the direction of the Alley.
“Get me a piece of chocolate cake,” Mike hollered over his shoulder. “Don’t forget the sprinkles!”
At Rosie’s, we chose a table near the back of the room and placed our order. When the waitress left, I turned to my sister. “Deeds, we’ve gotta tell you something.”
“You’re not gonna talk to me about boys, are you? I know all about them from my friends.”
I remembered my fifth-grade conversations about boys. How dumb had we been? “No, Dee. It’s not about that at all. It’s about that day I yelled across the street at you… I saw Ed.”
“My dad? He didn’t tell me he was coming to see me.” No one could’ve missed the excitement and longing in her voice. She wanted a father as much as I did. So much that she’d even settle for a low-life bag of space trash like Ed.
“I think he wants to take you back to live with him.”
“I couldn’t do that.” She turned to Wei. “He might be my dad, but he doesn’t need me the way Pops does.”
I didn’t want to tell her what kind of person Ed really was. She’d gotten a little suspicious about the way he treated Ginnie, but I was sure she didn’t have any idea just how awful he’d been to our mother. “If Ed comes around your school or tries to have you go somewhere with him, don’t,” I said.
“Why not? I want to at least see him. I’ll tell him I can’t live with him. He’ll understand.”
A tall, lean woman emerged from the kitchen and came to our table.
Wei placed her right hand on her chest and bowed her head slightly. “Rosie, these are my friends Nina and Dee.”
I said hello and Dee smiled.
“Rosie is my Cliste Galad master,” Wei said.
“What’s that?” Dee asked.
“It’s a kind of martial art,” Wei said. “Around the time of the Energy Wars, a group of Scottish women combined several types of fighting and came up with it.”
“What’s it mean? Cliste Galad?” Dee fumbled over the pronunciation.
“It means ‘agile brave girl,’” Rosie said. “Nowadays the Media tries to scare women away from learning it. There’s even talk of making it illegal. The GC doesn’t want girls to know how strong and courageous they can be. But that doesn’t apply to the three galads I see sitting here.” She winked at Dee.
The waitress came through the kitchen doors with our order.
“For my special customers,” Rosie said, placing the drinks in front of us.
“Wow!” Dee’s eyes widened, then narrowed. “This won’t make me fat, will it?”
“Since when do you care about that? And where did you get that idea in the first place?” I stared at my little sister.
“Maddie and I were watching a XVI Ways vid,” she said. “The earlier girls start paying attention to how they look, the better they’ll look.”
Wei smiled at her. “I wouldn’t believe everything that comes from XVI Ways,” she said. “I happen to know for a fact that a chocolate shake with whipped cream and a cherry on top will cure anyone’s problems. See?” She took a big pull on her straw. “Oooh! Ice-cream headache.” She rubbed her forehead.
Dee laughed and took a drink.
I twirled the straw around in my glass, taking halfhearted sips. Dee noticed.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “My dad will understand that I can’t live with him.”
“Uh-huh.” Her wanting to see him changed everything. Keeping them apart was not going to be easy.
The bell attached to the door jingled. It was Mike and Derek.
“Check this out.” Mike handed me a chip as he pulled up a chair. “I thought you’d get a kick out of it—it’s Van’s newest vert. They’re giving them away in exchange for your opinion about a new PAV.”
“You’re just like your dad,” Derek said.
“Am not.” Mike sounded a little hurt. “And it’s not like he wants to take all those drugs they stick in him. He only does it so we have a decent place to live. I’d never let anyone put all those drugs and stuff in me. I’d rather be homeless.”
“Just kidding—calm down.” Derek looked at Dee. “How’s everything?”
“Nina’s worried that my dad might want to take me to live with him. But Pops needs me too much. I’ll just tell Ed and everything will be fine. It’s no big deal.” The trust in her eyes made my stomach lurch.
“Hey,” Mike said. “Where’s my cake?”
After dinner, when Dee went to her room to do homework, I talked with Gran and Pops about Ed. I didn’t want to scare them, but I couldn’t keep all of this from them any longer. I chose my words carefully. “Dee says she wants to see him. I guess I understand a little. He is, after all, her father.”
“He’s a snake, is what he is. If I didn’t have this damned leg”—Pops banged a fist on his stump—“I’d go out there and give that jerk what he deserves. Father or not, he’d never come around Dee again. I know some people…”
A wave of sympathy for Pops flooded over me. These people from all Pops’s stories were probably in about the same shape he was. It must be awful to be a prisoner in your own body.
Pops went on: “I can call in some favors, you know.”
“I know,” Gran said. The look in her eyes was exactly what I felt, only a thousand times more. “Let’s hope it won’t come to that. All the same, you might want to give them a heads-up that something’s brewing.”
“Good idea, old woman.” Pops shifted in his chair. “You want to get down the scrambler, Nina?”
I hoisted myself up onto the counter and removed the machine from its hiding place. Gran took it from me and plugged it in. “We’ll leave you here to talk in private.” She laid a hand on Pops’s shoulder, then motioned for me to come with her.
Once we were in the living room, she said, “His friends will be glad to hear from him. After a few minutes of bluster and bravado, they’ll start reminiscing; he’ll forget all about Ed.” The sadness in her voice cut right through my heart.
“How do you do it, Gran? I feel awful for Pops.”
“When you’ve loved someone as much and as long as I’ve loved that old man…” Her eyes glistened. “You do whatever it takes to help them keep their pride and dignity.”
Gathering up dishes from the table, she went into the kitchen. My PAV beeped; it was Sandy. I took a deep breath and herded all my worries into a corner of my brain. They’d still be there when the call was over.
By the time Sandy and I’d finished talking, we had worked out the whole weekend. She was coming to town Saturday for the first time since I’d moved. I should’ve been ecstatic, but I wasn’t. I had no idea how she and Wei would get along. Never had I known, and liked, two more opposite people. I did still like Sandy, I told myself. She was my best friend. I shook off any thoughts to the contrary.