In the two weeks following the homecoming dance, my life pretty much returned to normal. My father was back from his business trip, which made things a lot more fun around my house, primarily because I could sneak out the window again and head to graveyard for my late night potato chips party. I don't know what it was about the graveyard that attracted us, maybe the tombstones themselves, because as far as tombstones went they are fairly comfortable to sit on.
We usually sat in a small plot where the great family of Hemingson was buried some eighty or hundred years ago. There were six tombstones there, all arranged in a circle, making it easy to pass the chips back and forth between us. One day, me and my friends went to library to find something about Hemingson family. I mean, if you are going to sit on someone's tombstone, you might know something about them, right? It turns out that there wasn't much about the family in historical records, though we find one interesting information. Charles Hemingson, the eldest son, was one-armed and still went in wars, believe it or not. Now the vision of him is pretty vivid right off bat, so we talked about him alot. We wondered what else he could do with only one arm, and we'd spend long hours discussing how far he could throw a shot put ball or how fast he can pitch a baseball or weather he was able to swim or not. Our conversation weren't exactly highbrow, but I enjoyed them, in every way.
Well, me and Eric were out there one Saturday night with couple of other friends eating boiled peanuts with chips, chips was must no matter what. Eric asked me what we did after dropping her home.
"we chatted and went home" I said shrugging, trying my best to play it cool.Eric playfully elbowed me in ribs, and I grunted. He outweighed me atleast thirty pounds."did you kiss her goodnight?""what? no!"he took some more peanuts from the side of his bag, as I answered. He gave me a sidelong glance."you didn't even try?""no""why not?""she isn't that type of girl, plus I wasn't her date" I looked away, and we all knew it was true, it still sounded like I was defending her.Eric latched onto like a leech."I think you fancy her," he said"you are full of crap!" I answered, and he slapped my back, hard enough to force the breath right out of me. Hanging out with Eric usually meant that I'd have few bruises the following day."yeah, I might be full of crap," he said while winking at me,"but she choosed only you for cleaning and you agreed, plus she gave you a ride back home too!!"I knew we were treading on dangerous ground. "I was just using her to impress Diana,"I said."and with all the love notes she'd been sending me lately, I reckon it must have worked."Eric laughed aloud, slapping on my back again."you and Diana- now, that's funny..."I knew I'd just dodged a major bullet, and j breathed a sigh of relief as the conversation took a new direction. I joined in now and then, but I wasn't listening to what they were saying. Instead I kept hearing this little sound that made me wonder what Eric said.The thing was, Amelia's parents are good friends of my parents so I just need to get along with her even if I want to or not, as for the ride back, it was the best I could get at that time. We talked quite nicely dosen't mean I liked her. I hadn't talked to her since the dance, except when I saw her in drama class, and even then it was some words here and there. If I liked her at all,I told my self, i would have wanted to talk to her. If I liked her, I would have wanted to walk her home. If I liked her, I would have wanted to take her for a dinner in a nice and fancy place. But I didn't want to do any of those things. I really didn't. In my mind, I have already served my penance.
The next day, Sunday, I was in my room, working on my maths. It's probably my worst subject, especially when it comes to algebra questions of two trains leaving an hour apart, traveling in so-so speed,etc. It wasn't that I was bad in math- I usually pulled atleaat C- but it didn't come naturally to me, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, I was working on my math when the phone rang. The only phone we had was located in the kitchen, and I had to run downstairs to grab the receiver. I was breathing so loudly that I couldn't make the voice too well, though it sounded like Emma. I immediately smiled to myself.
Even though Emma was sick all over the place and I'd had to clean it up, she was actually pretty fun to be around most of the time. And her dress really had been something, uh..before everything. I figured she was calling to thank me or even get togther for a barbecue or burger or sandwich something."Landon?""oh, hey!" I said, playing it cool,"what's happening?"There was a short pause on the other end."um...how are you?"It was then that I realized I wasn't speaking to Emma. It was Amelia, I almost dropped the phone. I thought i will be unconscious any minute now, I can't say I was happy about hearing from her, and for a second I wondered who gave her my number before I realized it was probably my mom or dad."Landon?""yeah pretty good," I finally blurted out, still in shock."Are you busy?""sort of""oh...I see..." she said, trailing off.she paused again."Why you are calling me?" I asked.it took her some seconds to get the words out.
Amelia seemed quite shocked as I asked the question. Am I missing something?"you really didn't know I was the lead?""nope!""weren't you paying attention in the class?"I seem to remember something, the bell ring in my head. It was the day when Amelia smiled at me, miss chole was discussing about this play. Okay so, I wasn't paying attention since I was busy analyzing other things."oh..I seem to remember it. So, why isn't Eddie brown suitable for this role? so far I think miss chole said afterwards that Eddie will be Harry Preston"Eddie brown was a type of boy who have a squeaky voice, people would just avoid talking to. He was skinny, with pimples all over his face and he usually talked to you with his eyes all squinched up. He had a nervous tic, and he couldn't help but squinch his eyes whenever he got nervous, which was practically all the time. He'd probably end up spouting all his lines like a psychotic blind man if you put him in front of the crowd. To
Amelia turned away, but I could see the tears in her eyes. It was the first time I'd ever seen her cry. I think part of me wanted to cry, too."I am not asking you to do it for me," she said softly,"I am really not, if you say no, I'll not say anything bad about you. I promise. but if you'd like to do something kind for a wonderful man who means so much to me...will you just think about it?"Her eyes looked like those of a cocker spanial that had just messed on the rug. I looked down at my feet."I don't have to think about it." I finally said it,"I'll do it!"I really didn't have a choice, did I?The old Mason wrote The Winter Angel one day and decided to put that on play instead. After I read the script, it wasn't that bad actually. It's basically the story of a man who had lost his wife a few years back. This guy, Harry Preston, used to be real religious, but he had crises of faith after his wife died during childbirth. He's raising this little girl all
--1 month later-- The rehearsals began at three o'clock, and Amelia knew all her lines the first day there, which wasn't really surprising. What was surprising was that she knew all my lines, too, as well as everyoneelse's. We'd be going over a scene, she'd be doing it without the script, and I'd be looking down at a stack of pages, trying to figure out what my next line should be, and whenever I looked up shehad this real shiny look about her, as if waiting for a burning bush or something. The only lines I knew were the mute bum's, at least on that first day, and all of a sudden I was actually envious ofEddie, at least in that regard. This was going to be a lot of work, not exactly what I'd expected when I'd signed up for the class.My noble feelings about doing the play had worn off by the second day of rehearsals. Even though I knew I was doing the "right thing," my friends didn't understand it at all, and they'd been riding
"You want a beer?" Diana asked. I think she was trying to be funny, but no one laughed.Amelia put her hand to her hair, tugging gently at her bun. "Oh . . .no, not really . . . thank you, though."She looked directly at me with a really sweet glow, and right away I knew I was in trouble. I thought she was going to ask me off to the side or something, which to be honest I thought would turnout better, but I guess that wasn't in her plans."Well, you did really well this week at rehearsals," she said to me."I know you've got a lot of lines to learn, but I'm sure you're going to get them all real soon. And I just wanted to thank you for volunteering like you did. You're a real gentleman.""Thanks," I said, a little knot forming in my stomach. I tried to be cool, but all my friends were looking right at me, suddenly wondering if I'd been telling them the truth about Miss Chole forcing it on me and everything. I hoped they missed
The first thing we did was talk to Miss Chloe about our plans for the orphans, and she thought it was a marvelous idea. That was her favorite word, by the way-marvelous-after she'd greeted youwith "Hellooooo." On Monday, when she realized that I knew all my lines, she said, "Marvelous!" and for the next two hours whenever I'd finish up a scene, she'd say it again. By the end of therehearsal, I'd heard it about four zillion times.But Miss Chole actually went our idea one better. She told the class what we were doing, and she asked if other members of the cast would be willing to do their parts as well, so that the orphans could really enjoy the whole thing. The way she asked meant that they really didn't have a choice, and she looked around the class, waiting for someone to nod so she could make it official. No onemoved a muscle, except for Eddie. Somehow he'd inhaled a bug up his nose at that exact moment, and he sneezed violently. The bug flew out
We got to the orphanage just about the time it was getting dark. We were a couple of minutes early, and the director was on the phone. It was an important call and he couldn't meet with us rightaway, so we made ourselves comfortable. We were waiting on a bench in the hallway outside his door, when Amelia turned to me. Her book was in her lap. I guess she wanted it for support, butthen again, maybe it was just her habit."You did really well today," she said. "With your lines, I mean.""Thanks," I said, feeling proud and dejected at exactly the sametime. "I still haven't learned my beats, though," I offered. Therewas no way we could practice those on the porch, and I hoped shewasn't going to suggest it."You will. They're easy once you know you all the words.""I hope so."Amelia smiled, and after a moment she changed the subject, sort of throwing me off track. "Do you ever think about the future, La
"We'll have a small tree and a few gifts-something that all of themcan share. "You're welcome to visit Christmas Eve. . . ."After we said our good-byes, Amelia and I walked in silencewithout saying anything. I could tell she was sad. The more I hungaround Amelia, the more I realized she had lots of differentemotions-she wasn't always cheerful and happy. Believe it or not,that was the first time I recognized that in some ways she wasjust like the rest of us."I'm sorry it didn't work out," I said softly."I am, too."She had that faraway look in her eyes again, and it was a momentbefore she went on."I just wanted to do something different for them this year.Something special that they would remember forever. I thoughtfor sure this was it. . . ." She sighed. "The Lord seems to have aplan that I just don't know about yet."She was quiet