Dreamland Social Club(36)

“No,” Jane said. “That’s okay.” She really had no interest.

“Oh, come on,” Debbie said, then took Jane’s hand and pulled it toward her face. Jane complied and stroked it for a second, then shrugged. “It’s just a beard,” she said. “My dad used to have one.”

Debbie raised her beer can to toast. “Now you, I like. And your grandmother, for the record, was one cool lady.” Debbie nodded her head approvingly and Jane said, “You knew her?”

“Not really, but I’ve seen her movies and I used to see her around. I asked her for her autograph once and she told me to feck off.”

“Feck? Really?”

“Yeah, like in a funny way.”

“Oh, okay.”

They both just looked out at the room for a minute and Jane tried to think of something to say. Then Debbie said, “So are you thinking of joining any clubs or anything?”

“I don’t know,” Jane said, stiffening, then decided how to answer. “I move a lot. With my family. Maybe math club or something, though. What clubs are you in?”

It felt like a dare.

She’d seen Debbie in the hall near Room 222 after school that Wednesday.

“Oh, just the math team and science club.” Babette was almost back. “Some others . . .”





Jane hadn’t noticed the music equipment in the corner until Leo was up at the microphone, guitar in hand, with three other guys—one of whom was either Mike or Ike—behind him. The twin who wasn’t in the band approached Leo, said something, and Leo stepped away from the mike.

The twin said, “Give it up for my boy, Leo. And check out my brother rockin’ the bass. Here they are, for your entertainment . . . Cleon!”

A couple of people clapped and woo-hooed, then people started moving forward to watch as the band kicked in with a burst of guitar blare and bass booms. Jane had a weird angle on the stage and saw the seahorse on Leo’s neck, where muscles and veins were shifting as he sang. She saw Venus across the room and thought, Told you so. It was familiar, then decided not to give Venus another thought.

The song was full-on, fierce, an assault on the ears but not in a bad way. And it was followed by another and another—and the room pulsed and sweat—and then the whole party seemed to inhale and wait when Leo put his guitar down. No one wanted it to be over, least of all Jane. But Mike or Ike—whichever twin wasn’t in the band—handed a chair up to the stage, such as it was, and Leo sat down and picked up a saw.

Yes—Jane had checked again—a saw.

Like from a hardware store.

And with the barest of accompaniment from Mike or Ike—whichever one was in the band—on a keyboard set to sound like an old-timey piano, Leo started to play the saw with a violin bow. Jane closed her eyes and listened to the sound—it was uncanny how like a woman it sounded—and recognized the tune somewhere deep in her heart.

Meet me tonight in Dreamland . . .

Opening her eyes, she watched as each person in the room seemed drawn to Leo and his saw. She could only catch glimpses of him as the crowd moved forward to see what was going on, but he was there, working the saw, which bounced and bent and vibrated in his hands.

And even though it was a wordless melody, even though it was clearly not human, Jane swore she could hear the lyrics. Swore it sounded almost exactly like her mother’s voice, humming her to sleep....





She pushed through one room after the next when the band was finished, looking for Leo in the sweaty, drunken crowd—the keys gripped tightly in her hand—but when she found him, he was down the hall, pinned against a wall by Venus. She couldn’t see their faces, but his hands were on the skin between her tiny top and low-rise jeans, their bodies pressed together tight.

Jane’s gut retracted as if from a punch.

She turned away and decided to find Babette and go home, but then she heard Leo call her name. She turned back.

“Hey.” He came closer, then nodded in the general direction of his performance. “What’d you think?”

“Oh.” The moment, the magic, Dreamland was all gone. All she could think about was that shiny red bra, of his hands on Venus’s waist. “You were great.”

“Thanks,” he said, but he looked sort of hurt, like she hadn’t really meant it.

Her body jolted forward from a push, and the keys fell from her hand as she fell into Leo and then recovered with the help of his strong arm.

“Hey,” Leo said, pushing Harvey Claverack in the chest with both hands.

“Mike! Ike!” Leo called out, and immediately the twins and a few other guys were dragging Harvey away, telling him he was out of line, unwelcome.

“She’s not giving you the horse!” Leo snapped as Harvey disappeared through the door.

I’m not? Jane wanted to say.

“You okay?” Leo said finally.

She worked hard to breathe and nodded, then realized the keys weren’t in her hand or anywhere that she could see. Bending down to look for them, she heard Venus calling from down the hall, “Leo, come out to play,” in a singsong, over and over.

Some kind of inside joke.

“Hey,” Leo said softly, and he took her elbow and helped her up. “What did you lose?”

Right then she saw them and bent to snatch them up. She’d been so mad a few minutes before that she wasn’t going to tell him, after all, but now, well . . . “So you know how your mom said that she and my mom used to break into places after dark and stuff?”