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“There you are!” Lupe called, coming out of the lodge with her snare drum. Only now did Jericho and Ling realize that the Haymakers’ set had ended.
“Mr. Smith, could you be a lamb and help me with this?” Lupe asked.
“Of course,” Jericho said, moving to help Lupe even though it was obvious to everyone else she didn’t need it. She was just inventing ways to be around him.
“You are just the sweetest,” Lupe said, smiling.
“It’s no trouble,” Jericho said, oblivious, and Ling could see the disappointment on Lupe’s face as he carried the drum to the bus without so much as a backward glance.
“Why are you sweet on Evie?” Ling asked the next night when it was just the two of them backstage.
Jericho looked up from his book. “Who said I was—”
“You’re nothing alike. Nothing.”
“You’re the scientist. Isn’t it ‘opposites attract’?” Jericho challenged and turned the page.
“Sometimes forces repel, too.”
“You don’t think much of Evie, do you?”
“I don’t always feel that she’s a serious person.”
“Neither is Henry. And you seem to like him just fine.”
“I’m not jealous, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I didn’t say that. You judge her differently because she’s a girl.”
“I’m a girl!” Ling protested.
“Henry goes to parties. Henry comes home late. Or stays out all night. He makes jokes all the time. But it doesn’t seem to bother you. Why can’t Evie do the same?”
“I…” Ling started, but there was nothing else to add.
Jericho shrugged and went back to reading.
Ling did judge Evie differently. And part of it was that Evie was a girl, Ling realized with great discomfort. She also didn’t like Evie all that much. The two of them had little in common. If not for this mission, they would not have known each other, or ever spent time together. Ling thought of Evie as frivolous and a little reckless. Also brave and daring. And selfish.
“Evie couldn’t see that Mabel was ripe for joining up with anarchists. I just don’t understand how a person who reads objects and collects so much about people and who they are could choose to be so blind,” Ling said.
“If you knew all those things about people, wouldn’t you want to be blind sometimes? Going to parties and living fast is Evie’s revenge on a cruel world. She looks it in the eye and says, ‘You will not break me.’” Jericho let out a long exhale. “And then she usually gets drunk.”
“So she’s pretending all the time.”
“Not all the time.”
“Did she pretend with you?”
Jericho’s jaw tightened. “Now, see here—you aren’t invited to comment on everything in my life.”
“She’s never going to be with you. She loves Sam. Stop pining for her, Heathcliff!” Ling clapped a hand over her mouth, embarrassed by her sudden outburst. “I’m sorry,” she said from behind her fingers. “I didn’t mean to be so…”
“Honest?” Jericho finished.
Ling dropped her hand, letting it rest on her crutch again. “I want better for you. You deserve happiness.”
“No one’s ever said that to me before.”
