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"Oh? And why is that?" I asked. I wasn't in the mood for him, despite his good looks and the way all the other girls were eyeing me jealously every time he took a step in my direction. The truth was, I felt like wrapping myself up in some cocoon and sleeping away the whole day.
He leaned so close his lips actually touched my ear.
"Because Karen called me last night," he whispered, and then he kept walking toward his own homeroom. I felt the blood drain from my face.
Did that mean he knew she was still in the area, or had she called him, pretending she was in New York City? Why would she risk calling him after all this, anyway? Where was she? I stood there in the doorway in such a dumbfounded state I didn't feel the other students nudging me aside to get into the room. In fact, I didn't move until the bell rang and our teacher clapped his hands sharply to get my attention.
"Zipporah, take your seat, please," he ordered, and I hurried to it.
Everyone was looking at me. Did they all know how deeply I was involved with Karen's situation? Had they heard about the police interrogations? My visit to her mother? One way or another, I was still the center of attention. When would that stop? I didn't want to look at anyone or do anything that would suggest I wanted anyone to talk to me. I dreaded all their questions, comments, and accusations. Moving through my school morning was like paint-bynumbers for me. I could have had my eyes closed the whole time, and it wouldn't have made any difference. However, every time I heard a noise in the hallway or a door was opened, my heart stopped and started. I anticipated one of the detectives looking for me or my father coming to take me out of school. I even imagined Karen returning, opening the door, and taking her seat with a smile on her face, as if nothing at all had ever happened. I actually dreaded going to lunch, not only because of how the other students would look at me and treat me but because I was afraid of talking to Dana now, afraid of hearing anything more. Didn't Karen realize the tight spot she had put me in? I had to be careful of every word I spoke, every look and gesture.
Impulsively, when the bell rang, I headed outside instead of toward the cafeteria.
From what everyone who had lived in Sandburg most of their lives had told my parents and me, we were having a warmer than usual spring. They all said it meant a hot, humid summer. The last weeks of school were uncomfortable, because the school had no air conditioning, and some of the rooms were stifling. By midafternoon, it put the students into a stupor. Even the teachers looked drained. As soon as they had a free period, they rushed to the faculty room to bathe in the electric fans. There were fans set up in the cafeteria, so it was the coolest place for the students.
I found a shady place under a sprawling oak tree just to the right of the building. I could look out at the ballfields. No one was there, and because of the heat, no one else had decided to spend lunch hour outside. There wasn't even a breeze. I leaned back against the tree and closed my eyes. How was all this going to end? What exactly would my father do with the information I had given him? Where was Karen? Had she really run off to New York? What did Dana Martin really know? How much trouble was I about to be in? My nerves were like stripped electric wires, sizzling.
Sensing him standing there before he spoke, I opened my eyes and looked up at Dana.
"I wondered where you had gone to hide," he said. "Alice Bucci saw you leave the building."
"Figures she would be the one to tell. She'll play Brutus in the school production of Julius Caesar."
He laughed and squatted beside me, pulling up a blade of grass and clenching it between his teeth.
"Karen told me last night that she wants us to get together," he said.
"Where is she?"
"You don't know?"
"Would I ask you if I did? Well?"
He shrugged. "I don't know for sure. She wouldn't tell me. I know she called from a pay phone somewhere, because she had to put more change in, and I heard the coins dropping."
"Why does she want us to get together?"
"She said we were her best friends, and we should talk about how we could help her."
"How can you be one of her best friends?"
He shrugged. "Beggars can't be choosers," he said. "Anyway, she suggested I tell you that I would come by the post office tonight. She said you could ride your bike there about seven-thirty, so your parents wouldn't know you were meeting me. Was she right?"
"It doesn't matter. I can't do that. I can't lie to my parents anymore."
"What do you mean, anymore?"
"I mean, I can't lie to them."
He shrugged. "You won't. You just won't tell them everything. That's not a lie."
I looked away, and he lay back on the grass beside me, his hands behind his head, gazing up at the pale blue sky, with its wispy clouds so still they looked dabbed on the celestial canvas. Even the birds around us were too hot to fly. They stared out angrily from where they perched on tree branches, as if they
thought Nature had betrayed them by imposing this blanket of humidity and heat.
"It wouldn't surprise me to learn that she's gone somewhere, probably somewhere far away. You know, of course, that Karen was always planning on running away from home," he said. "She was saving her money. She told me she wanted to go to California and become a movie star."
I didn't say anything. Karen and I had talked about many things, but she had never told me she was planning to run off without me, and I couldn't imagine her doing anything like that without telling me first.
