girly-girl than I usually wear, but I thought it was
pretty.
“Wow,” Mom said
when she got back. “You look fabulous.” She smiled and looked me over side to
side. Mom gets into this girly stuff - “Love it!” I knew I wouldn’t have to do
much convincing to get her to buy me the make-up. I could see that she was
going to go with the moment.
I went straight
upstairs when I got home, to look my new purchases over, and get ready to go to
Eve’s. I’d done all my homework in study hall, and the plan was that I’d get
over to Eve’s around five, and stay about an hour. Any longer than that and Eve
started to get tired. I felt braver about going to see Eve when I was wearing
something nice. If I just dragged myself over there in some lame outfit, it’d
be like I was just showing up, and there was nothing special to it. When I got
dressed-up, it was like there was some of the old Andy-and-Eve thing going on.
I pulled out of
our driveway at dusk, and Mom had all the outdoor lights on and it was kind of
foggy. Our house is modern, with two big windows in front that I’ve always
thought looked like eyes, but, still, the place looked pretty in the dim light,
since the wood of the house blended in with the trees all around it. It was so
foggy over by Eve’s side of town, I almost missed the turn to her road, and
then, for a second, I couldn’t tell, in that yellowish darkness, which house
was hers. It was pretty nondescript, and if you asked me what color the
O’Meara’s house was, I’m not sure I could describe it, but they had one big
pine tree right in front, almost blocking the front porch entirely. It was the
one place a tree shouldn’t be, and that’s how I could always tell I was in the
right place. I parked out on the street, even though there were no cars in the
driveway. I didn’t want Doug to drive in and block my car, so I’d have to go
around the house looking for him at some point to move it.
When I went
inside, no one was around, not even the nurse, but I let myself in and went
upstairs since Eve was expecting me, and in the old days, before she was sick,
that would have been the normal thing to do.
Eve was propped
up in bed with her head on the pillow, clearly waiting for me, which was a
relief. Instead of the little plastic oxygen mask on the pole, Eve had plastic
tubes up her nose that were attached to an oxygen tank on a metal rolling cart,
like they have in hospitals. As scary as Eve looked with the tubes coming out
of her nose, it was an improvement over the mask, because at least she could
carry on a conversation without losing her breath, and her voice sounded less
wispy than it had.
“Hey, you look
awesome,” she said. “I got dressed up, too. It’s the best I could do, but I
like these tunic things - they tie on the side.” Her tunic-top was white and
loose-fitting, and not unlike the things I had pictured her in in my more
disturbing dreams. Her Mom, or one of the nurses, had curled her hair for her
and she was wearing a light pink lip gloss. Her hair spread out over the pillow
in a lot of tiny waves. If she had done that to her hair on a normal night,
when we were going somewhere together, it probably would have put me in a bad
mood. I’d have felt upstaged by her in the big-hair department, which was, in
all fairness, my particular strength area. Given the situation, though, I felt
a little choked up seeing her like that. You could almost see the curly
hairstyle as part of her Junior Year List, the things she had to cover before
time ran out.
“Oh, you’re like
the lovely Layla in the book,” I said and we both laughed. “I have to fill up
my day somehow,” she said. “These little waves took forever to get right.
Anyway, I’m kind of bummed I never got a perm. My hair has always been exactly
the same. I was looking at old movies and my hair is always so flat. Like at
that eighth grade formal? I thought I looked so good, but my hair is a disaster
in that
pretty.
“Wow,” Mom said
when she got back. “You look fabulous.” She smiled and looked me over side to
side. Mom gets into this girly stuff - “Love it!” I knew I wouldn’t have to do
much convincing to get her to buy me the make-up. I could see that she was
going to go with the moment.
I went straight
upstairs when I got home, to look my new purchases over, and get ready to go to
Eve’s. I’d done all my homework in study hall, and the plan was that I’d get
over to Eve’s around five, and stay about an hour. Any longer than that and Eve
started to get tired. I felt braver about going to see Eve when I was wearing
something nice. If I just dragged myself over there in some lame outfit, it’d
be like I was just showing up, and there was nothing special to it. When I got
dressed-up, it was like there was some of the old Andy-and-Eve thing going on.
I pulled out of
our driveway at dusk, and Mom had all the outdoor lights on and it was kind of
foggy. Our house is modern, with two big windows in front that I’ve always
thought looked like eyes, but, still, the place looked pretty in the dim light,
since the wood of the house blended in with the trees all around it. It was so
foggy over by Eve’s side of town, I almost missed the turn to her road, and
then, for a second, I couldn’t tell, in that yellowish darkness, which house
was hers. It was pretty nondescript, and if you asked me what color the
O’Meara’s house was, I’m not sure I could describe it, but they had one big
pine tree right in front, almost blocking the front porch entirely. It was the
one place a tree shouldn’t be, and that’s how I could always tell I was in the
right place. I parked out on the street, even though there were no cars in the
driveway. I didn’t want Doug to drive in and block my car, so I’d have to go
around the house looking for him at some point to move it.
When I went
inside, no one was around, not even the nurse, but I let myself in and went
upstairs since Eve was expecting me, and in the old days, before she was sick,
that would have been the normal thing to do.
Eve was propped
up in bed with her head on the pillow, clearly waiting for me, which was a
relief. Instead of the little plastic oxygen mask on the pole, Eve had plastic
tubes up her nose that were attached to an oxygen tank on a metal rolling cart,
like they have in hospitals. As scary as Eve looked with the tubes coming out
of her nose, it was an improvement over the mask, because at least she could
carry on a conversation without losing her breath, and her voice sounded less
wispy than it had.
“Hey, you look
awesome,” she said. “I got dressed up, too. It’s the best I could do, but I
like these tunic things - they tie on the side.” Her tunic-top was white and
loose-fitting, and not unlike the things I had pictured her in in my more
disturbing dreams. Her Mom, or one of the nurses, had curled her hair for her
and she was wearing a light pink lip gloss. Her hair spread out over the pillow
in a lot of tiny waves. If she had done that to her hair on a normal night,
when we were going somewhere together, it probably would have put me in a bad
mood. I’d have felt upstaged by her in the big-hair department, which was, in
all fairness, my particular strength area. Given the situation, though, I felt
a little choked up seeing her like that. You could almost see the curly
hairstyle as part of her Junior Year List, the things she had to cover before
time ran out.
“Oh, you’re like
the lovely Layla in the book,” I said and we both laughed. “I have to fill up
my day somehow,” she said. “These little waves took forever to get right.
Anyway, I’m kind of bummed I never got a perm. My hair has always been exactly
the same. I was looking at old movies and my hair is always so flat. Like at
that eighth grade formal? I thought I looked so good, but my hair is a disaster
in that
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