Last Night at the Telegraph Club(27)

“I have to set up the refreshments but I don’t think I’ll have to work the whole night,” Lily said, in case Kath had thought they wouldn’t be able to spend any time together.

Kath blinked, and then she smiled slightly. “I wouldn’t know what to wear.”

It took Lily a second to realize that Kath was joking, and then they were both laughing, and somehow Lily couldn’t stop—she had to clutch her stomach to contain herself as the waiter delivered their matching stainless steel dishes of ginger ice cream.

Kath picked up her spoon and took a bite, and her eyes widened in surprise as she tasted it. “This is good!”

“I know.” Lily knew she sounded smug, but she didn’t care. She spooned up a bite too. The cold, sweet ice cream was studded with small bits of candied ginger.

“I’ll go to the dance if you’ll come with me to a G.A.A. meeting,” Kath said.

“What do they do at a meeting? Calisthenics or something?” Lily said doubtfully.

“No, we don’t do calisthenics. It’s usually tennis or bowling. It’s fun! Miss Weiland is the G.A.A. teacher. It’s a great group.”

“I’m not so good at tennis or bowling. Well, I’ve never gone bowling—”

“What?” Kath looked shocked. “You have to come.”

Lily spooned up another bite and let it dissolve slowly on her tongue before responding. “I wish there was a girls’ science club or something. I suppose I could join the regular science club, but it’s all boys. I wouldn’t want to be the only girl.”

“What do they do in science club?”

“I imagine they do all sorts of things. Chemistry experiments, or taking apart engines, or . . . you know what I’d really like to do?” Lily leaned forward excitedly. “I want to build a model rocket. I saw an ad for a model rocket kit in Popular Science once—it didn’t look that difficult—but the trick is, you need someplace to set it off.”

Kath’s eyebrows rose. “What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s powered by a carbon dioxide canister, so it’ll launch into the air.” She grew thoughtful. “I suppose it’s a lot like a firecracker, so maybe I could just set it off in the street.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Kath said.

From her tone, Lily knew Kath was teasing her, and she felt a little flush of pleasure. “Oh, it’s just a little thing,” Lily said, pretending nonchalance. “Nothing like a real rocket. I hope I can see a real one someday.”

“Where would you see one?”

“I’d have to get a government job. I’ve planned it all out already. First I’ll go to Cal and major in math. My aunt Judy did her master’s degree in math there, so she knows all the professors. I might need to go to graduate school, but I’m not sure. If I don’t need to, I’m going to get a job as a computer at the same place Aunt Judy works. They design rockets there, although she can’t tell me much about it because it’s top secret. I’ve read all about rockets already. They already know how to build rockets that could go into space—well, they have theories about how it would work, but they need to develop better fuels to reach the right speed to leave the Earth. I think they’re going to develop these fuels really soon, though.”

“How soon?” Kath asked, scraping the bottom of her ice cream bowl.

“Probably within a couple of decades. I’m sure we’ll be sending rockets up into space then. And we can put automatic instruments on board to send back measurements, and maybe even take photographs! It’ll take longer to send people into space, though. We have to design ships that can withstand potential meteor strikes and maybe even create artificial gravity, because otherwise people will just be floating around the ship.”

“Floating? Why?”

“Because there’s no gravity in space. I suppose it must be a little bit like swimming, except with no water. How strange that would be.”

“Is it safe for humans?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps! Isn’t it exciting?” Lily beamed.

Kath returned her smile, then shook her head slightly. “All right. I’ll go to the dance, but you have to come bowling.”

“Deal,” Lily said, and extended her hand across the table as if they were making a business agreement. Kath reached out to shake it, but when they touched, it didn’t feel like a business agreement at all. Lily suddenly remembered a scene early in Strange Season when Maxine took Patrice’s hand to study her manicure and said, What lovely fingers you have.

She snatched her hand out of Kath’s, and then tried to cover up her selfconsciousness by taking her last bite of ginger ice cream. She wanted to ask Kath another question—she wanted to ask her the question—but she couldn’t. All around her, the laughter and chatter and tinkling sounds of spoons against sundae glasses reminded her of where she was. This bright, clean restaurant in Chinatown that smelled of sugar and cream was not the place to ask, but Lily felt as if her thoughts must be written in plain English on her face. Are you like the girls in the book too? Because I think I am.





13





Preparations for the Spook-A-Rama began hours before the dance was officially scheduled to begin. One of the girls on the dance committee had borrowed her parents’ car to run errands, and Lily persuaded her to drive them to the nearest grocery store to pick up pineapple juice and 7-Up, pretzels and heavy bags of ice.