Dream Me(15)

“Um . . . that’s okay. I think I’d better get in line.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “Everyone will think you’re a friend of mine. Just laugh and talk like we know each other from school.”

“I’m new here, so we couldn’t possibly know each other from school.”

“They don’t know that.”

“Why are you pulling me out of line?”

“Look around . . . nobody my age ever comes in here. It’s pretty boring.”

I looked around and got her point.

“If you’re sure it’s okay. I’d like a pound of the fresh shrimp.”

“All our shrimp is fresh.” I winced inwardly at my unintentional insult.

“Are those your parents?” I looked toward the man behind the counter and the woman at the register.

“Yup.” She grabbed a few gloves full of shrimp from the bin and wrapped them expertly in butcher paper without even bothering to weigh the package. “I’m pretty good at estimating,” she said. “No reason to call attention to ourselves. It should be almost exactly a pound.”

The girl’s mother spoke loudly across the room in a language I assumed was Vietnamese, and the girl answered in the same language without turning her head.

“Everything okay?” I didn’t want her to get in trouble on my account.

“No problem. Do you have six dollars in cash? Just give it to me.” She handed me the packet of shrimp and I dropped it into my backpack, feeling like I was in the middle of an illegal drug transaction.

“Yeah . . .” I fumbled around in my backpack until I located a five and a one. I glanced over at the line of customers again to make sure no one was looking before I paid her. “Where do you go to school?”

“Sugar Dunes High,” she said. “It’s the only high school in the area. If you live here, you’ll go there too.”

“What’s your name?”

“Mai. Yours?”

“Babe. What grade are you, Mai?”

“I’m going to be a senior finally! Can’t wait to graduate and get out of here.”

“Me too. I mean, I’m going to be a senior too. Is it really that bad here?”

“Maybe any place where you spend your whole life gets old,” she said. “Hey, wanna hang out sometime?”

“That’d be great. Sometime when we’re both not working.” It was interesting how different our outlooks on life were. I’d have done triple backflips if it bought me more than a year or two in the same school, and Mai couldn’t wait to leave.

We exchanged cell phone numbers and then Mai’s mom was speaking loudly to her again.

“I gotta give my mom a break at the register. Talk to you later,” she said.

Score! I had my first friend.

__________

The next morning Mom and I drove to work with my dad. Mom was starting her first day in the golf shop, and I was starting in the tennis shop. We were both a little nervous, even though this was nothing new to us. The first week was always the hardest, figuring out how to fit in. We made plans to meet at the hamburger shack by the pool for lunch.

Earl was there when we drove up to the gate, and he greeted us like we were the Royal Family, making all kinds of fuss over us. I must admit, it did help to put me at ease.

“You’ll like Bing, great guy,” he assured me. Bing was the tennis pro, so I’d be reporting to him. To Mom he said, “You already know how to handle your boss, don’ choo?”

“I think I have him pretty well figured out,” Mom laughed, looking over at my dad.

“Sech a nice-lookin’ family. Tell you what, one of these days I’ll do a family portrait for y’all down at the beach. Hobby of mine.”

“We’ll take you up on that, Earl,” Dad said.

We drove through the gates to start our new lives at the Crystal Point Resort. How long will this last? I couldn’t help but wonder.

__________

As it turned out, Bing was a nice guy. And a really good looking guy too, although much too old for me. I figured he was probably around thirty, a lot younger than my dad. But playing tennis requires more stamina than playing golf, so it helps to be on the younger side if you’re a tennis pro, especially in that heat.

Bing was tall, tan, dark-haired, and definitely not Southern. All the women who came into the shop, young and old, made a beeline for him with all kinds of invented questions and problems apparently only he could solve. It was funny from my perspective. Mostly, I was ignored by the women unless he directed them over to me to fulfill some kind of function like ringing up a purchase or reserving a court. The men, on the other hand, were more interested in checking me out—the new girl, even though I was only seventeen. Lots of pheromones floating around that place. Maybe it was the humidity.

__________

It was so busy I had to work through lunch, so Mom and Dad went without me. The early afternoon was my first opportunity to talk to Bing with no one else around.

“Really slows down this time of day,” he said. “The heat gets a bit overwhelming. But pretty soon the younger crowd starts coming in, kids around your age. Maybe you’ll make some new friends.”

I doubted that. I’d been working in tennis shops since I was fourteen and the kids who came in usually didn’t mingle with the paid help. But I wanted Bing to think I was a positive person.