Gee Whiz by Jane Smiley

doubt because they were looking at street numbers. Mom eased around them and went into the Goldmans’ driveway, and I jumped out and waved. Mrs. Rosebury pulled in behind us. Maybe I expected Sophia to be nervous—shedidn’t know the Goldmans, though she had seen them a long time ago in a play—but if she was, I couldn’t tell. She was her usual self—she might as well have been walking into geology as into the Goldmans’ house. Barbie met us at the door before we rang the bell, as if she’d been watching through the window. She hugged me, and shook Sophia’s hand, then said, “I’m so happy to meet you! Abby says that your equestrian style is perfect! She gives me lessons, you know, but I have a long way to go.”
    Sophia smiled. Good beginning. Another interesting thing was that Sophia’s hair was loose rather than in her usual thick braids. It was blond and smooth and rippled down her back as she walked. It fell to her waist. Stella would have been full of compliments.
    Being in the Goldmans’ house was almost like not being inside a house at all. The living room had a huge window that looked out over a big valley—now the valley was utterly dark, and the sky above and beyond the edge of the hills was brilliant red-orange. We set down our overnight bags next to three others. Sophia had brought a sleeping bag, and I had brought what Mom called a bedroll, which was really just a blanket and a sheet folded together and rolled up. Doors at either end of the window opened out onto a deck. I could see Leslie, Alexis, and a girl I didn’t know out there. Leslie waved to us and Sophia waved back.
    To the left of the living room was a big kitchen, and to the right was Mr. Goldman’s study. I saw that the furniture had been pushed aside, so this would be where the slumber party would take place, not upstairs in Barbie and Alexis’srooms. (There were two—they slept in one of them in bunk beds, and had their musical instruments and a table of art supplies in the other one. They were the only kids I’d ever known who had been allowed to decorate their own rooms, by painting pictures on the walls—I hoped Sophia would get to have a look.) Staccato was curled up on a pillow on the couch. He’d put on weight in the last few months, and looked like a grown-up cat. When we’d found him in the spring, Mom thought he was less than a month old, so he was still only about nine months. But he was relaxed. When I tickled the top of his head, he rolled over and displayed his belly. He started purring immediately. I said to Barbie, “Does Staccato ever do anything? Every time I see him, he’s relaxing.”
    “He caught a fly yesterday. But it was a very slow-moving fly.”
    The doorbell rang and she went to answer it. Another girl I didn’t know came in, followed by Lucia. Barbie must have said something funny, because they started laughing, and then smiled at us and said, “Hi!”
    Mrs. Goldman came down the stairs, smiling, and said, “Oh, how nice to see all of you girls! How are you? You look so grown-up!” She gave everyone a kiss on the cheek and went into the kitchen.
    As we drifted out onto the deck, Lucia said, “I was wondering who would be here!” I suspected not Stella and Gloria, and by the time everyone had arrived, I saw that I was right. One surprise was that Leah did come, and why not? She was their cousin even if she was four years older and in college. She gave me a hug that said all sorts of things from “I think Ilove your brother” to “What is going to happen now?” But Leah was quiet—at Goldman parties, she never said much, though she drew funny pictures on napkins and showed them to you sometimes. It was a sign of how much fun the Goldman twins were that Leah had decided to show up.
    On the deck, there were five artichokes set on two tables, ready for the leaves to be plucked and dipped in five sauces. I could tell that one was melted butter. The others were white, green, red, and brown.