and with great effort dragged it ten feet, all the way into the grass. The three men watched her, and the driver of the other car leaned over to Robin and whispered, ‘She is crazy, man, crazy. That thing goes for her and she’ll be in bad shape. Crazy, I tell you.’
Tully wiped her hands on the grass and said to Robin. ‘Let’s go.’ She did not look back at the dog.
‘Well, it sure is pretty eventful being with you, Tully,’ said Robin, parked in front of Jennifer’s house on Sunset Court.
‘What do you mean, with me? Nothing ever happened to me until I started being with you,’ said Tully.
‘Somehow,’ said Robin, ‘I find that pretty hard to believe.’ And Tully smiled.
‘I’d like to see you again,’ Robin said.
She stared at her feet. ‘It will be a little difficult,’ she said at last.
‘That’s all right.’
‘I can’t get out much.’
‘Still, though.’
‘I can’t stay out.’
‘Well, there you go,’ said Robin.
‘Aren’t you going out with Gail?’ Tully asked him.
‘We’re not serious.’
‘You are not serious,’ she corrected him.
Robin smiled. ‘I’ll talk to her. I really want to see you.’
‘When?’ asked Tully.
Robin breathed out. ‘I work every day,’ he said, and tried not to show his pleasure. ‘Uh, except Sundays. How about next Sunday?’
‘Sunday is okay,’ she answered. ‘Same deal? In the afternoon? ’Cause I usually go to church on Sunday mornings.’
‘You go to church, Tully?’ said Robin with surprise.
‘Well, you know,’ said Tully. ‘Just to keep Jen company.’
‘That’s fine. Next Sunday, I’ll take you to lunch. Somewhere nice.
‘Okay,’ she said, leaning over and kissing him on the lips. It was a long time before Robin stopped seeing her serious gray eyes and smelling the coffee and meringue on her breath.
Jennifer and Julie were waiting for Tully in Jennifer’s kitchen.
‘Well,’ said Julie. ‘Do tell all!’
‘Not much to tell,’ replied Tully, sitting down and taking a sip from Jennifer’s Coke. Jennifer got up and got herself another one.
‘Where did he take you?’ asked Julie.
‘For a drive. Jennifer, you should’ve told me his father has lung cancer.’
Jennifer stared at Tully. ‘I didn’t think it was my place,’ she replied. ‘Did you want me to tell him stuff about you?’
Tully rolled her eyes. ‘Can you tell me if he is nice, Jen?’
‘Of course he is, very nice, but what do you think?’
‘He is very good-looking,’ Julie put in. ‘And drives such a good-looking car! What does he do?’
Tully said, ‘He manages his father’s ritzy-glitzy men’s fine clothing store,’ adding, ‘And he is good-looking. He knows it, too.’
‘This bothers you?’ Julie smiled. ‘But what does a handsome, well-off, grown-up guy like him want from you?’ She poked Tully in the ribs.
Tully was unperturbed. ‘The same thing,’ she said, ‘that an ugly, poor, young guy wants from me.’
The girls drank their Cokes.
‘Are you going to see him again?’ asked Julie.
‘Next Sunday, if Jen’s willing.’ Tully patted Jennifer on the head and turned back to Julie. ‘Are you going to see Tom again?’
‘Tully!’
‘Yes, yes, of course. You looove him!’ Smiling, Tully turned to Jennifer, who sat there, spaced out. ‘Jennifer? Has he called?’
Jennifer looked at Tully and Julie as if she couldn’t be sure which one spoke to her.
‘Jennifer, has he called?’ repeated Tully.
Jennifer got up. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘He hasn’t called!’ Tully and Julie chimed in unison.
‘You both are so silly and immature,’ said Jennifer.
‘I agree,’ said Tully. ‘But Julie, have you ever seen a guy who wears tighter Levi’s?’
‘Never,’ said Julie. ‘But I hear it’s a sign of maturity –’
‘To lust after someone with tight Levi’s? Absolutely,’ finished Tully.
‘Girls,’ said Jennifer, ‘I really think it’s time for you to be driven home.’
She ran into Jack on Monday.
He walked over to her locker and said, ‘Hi, Jen, great party, thanks for inviting us, hope we didn’t all trash the place, hope you can make it to the Homecoming game in a couple of weeks.’ Hope this hope that thanks for this thanks for that, blah, blah, blah.
And Jennifer smiled and nodded politely and said of course and yes and I’ll see you at practice and I hope you play well at Homecoming, and then he left and she closed her locker, took her books, and went to her American history class, where she had to take a surprise quiz and failed.
Back home, she walked past her mother, went upstairs, closed the door behind her, and lay face down on her bed until her father came home and it was dinnertime.
Jen kept to herself at dinner, slightly amused at the recurring topic of dinner discussion nowadays: Harvard. Harvard and the SATs. Harvard, the SATs and med school. Harvard, the SATs, med school, and isn’t she amazing, Lynn? Isn’t she just amazing? And she, their amazing daughter, sat and concentrated very hard on driving each of her fork tines through four green peas. Sometimes she only managed to get two or three instead of the full four and this made her want to fling the entire plate across the room. But she set her jaw and kept on, while Lynn and Tony continued. So what if the mean SAT score was 1050, while Jen got a combined 1575 on her mock SATs last year, out of a possible 1600? Mock SATs! Even Jack got 1100 on them. And Tully got 1400, except no one knew it because no one cared. Nobody cared what Tully got on her mock SATs, and that was really okay with Tully, Jen thought. At least she didn’t have to hear this during dinner seven days a week for months. Jennifer thought of telling her parents that she had no intention of going to Harvard; Jennifer and Tully had their plans. But she just couldn’t be bothered. She excused herself, went back to her room, and spent the rest of the evening calling his number and hanging up before it rang.
Hundreds of times, many hundreds she must have called his number, and hung up many hundreds of times, dialing it with unseeing eyes, in her master bedroom.
2
Robin finally called Gail. Her voice was like ice, and he was not surprised. His adoptive mother was as warm as the noon summer sun, but Gail was nothing like his mother. Robin apologized to Gail, saying he had never misled her; they were never in any way serious. Gail asked him if he actually thought she would stand, could stand him seeing both of them at the same time. Robin was surprised at this: he had no intention of seeing Gail at all. But to her he said, ‘No, of course. I understand. I could never stand being two-timed,