Learning to Swim(33)

Alice knew this? And she hadn't told me? That was so unlike her. These days she wasn't living up to her flawless status.

“So why did you tell me the truth?” I asked.

He smiled widely. “I had a feeling you would understand. Because your life hasn't been easy either.”

In essence, Keith was saying that we were alike, but still, I felt as though he was much stronger than me. “I think losing someone you love is worse than anything I've had to endure. I mean, my dad died, but that happened before I was born.”

“Any grandparents?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I have no idea who my dad's parents are, and my mom's died when she was in high school. They drowned in a freak catamaran accident. That's why I never learned how to swim. Barbie's been terrified of the water ever since.”

“Yeah, well, losing one parent was enough to make me a little crazy. Losing both at the same time has to be tough.”

I thought about my mom and wondered how much of her love lunacy was due to waking up one morning and realizing that the two people she loved most in life were gone forever. “Barbie said that the one thing she learned when her parents died was that you have to live each day like it's your last,” I said.

“So your mom has good advice sometimes,” he said.

“I guess,” I said with a shrug.

And then he reached out and took my hand in his. Keith had touched me many times before, but it had always been in the water, where he'd been acting more like an instructor. This felt completely different. I stared at his fingers, which were entwined with mine, and realized that this meant something big. And as terrified as I was of being eaten alive by love lunacy, I didn't want to let go.

So I didn't. Instead I squeezed his hand tightly and sat there with him, looking at the creek, imagining the grin that would have appeared on Alice's face if she had come home right then and seen us.





13


I woke up on Monday morning determined to cut Barbie some slack. All the sentimental dead mother stuff had made me realize how lucky I was to at least have a mother. And my love for Keith was proof that he was right, that sometimes “crap happens.” So I was feeling extremely generous and forgiving, until I noticed that my whole Funniest Animals video collection had gone AWOL.

This was enough to make me forget about every nice thing that I had ever said or thought about my mother. I stormed out of my room, anxious for a confrontation. How dare she? She brought some strange guy home, paraded him in front of me, and then she actually had the gall to punish me? What had I done? (Besides the whole starting an argument and walking out on her thing.)

Unfortunately, Barbie wasn't there to scream at, so I walk into her room, intent on revenge. I went through all her drawers, searching for something to hold hostage. I finally got a big plastic bag and threw all her lingerie into it. Then I stuffed the bag into my backpack and went to work.

When I got there, I had another surprise. Alice was cleaning the toilets in the ladies’ locker room as if nothing weird had transpired the previous evening. She seemed perfectly fine too, not tired in the least.

“What happened to you last night?” I asked. “Why did you go Thelma's house?”

Alice continued to scrub the bowl with a long brush. “Thelma… wasn't feeling all that well. Must have been a bad wonton. Anyway, she asked me if I wouldn't mind coming over for a while.”

“But why did you have Keith drive you?” This story sounded pretty suspicious.

“My car was acting up. How do you know I went to Thelma's?” She sounded as irritated as Barbie did when I gave her the third degree.

“Because I went over to your house last night and I ran into Keith when he came to check on the door.”

Alice stopped scrubbing and gave me her full attention. “You came over last night?”

I nodded. “Barbie's boyfriend was at the apartment when I got home.”

“Oh, Stef,” Alice said sympathetically. And I could tell from the look in her eyes that she knew without my saying anything else just how terrible it had been. “I'm sorry I wasn't there for you.”

“That's all right,” I said. A smirk crept across my face. “Keith was there.” And then while Alice took a seat on a sparkling clean toilet, I told her everything.

When I was finished, Alice was grinning. “He's really special, Steffie.”

“I know,” I replied. And then I told her what I was pretty sure she already knew. “I think I love him.”

Of course, this was all before I saw Keith making out with Mora.

Until 5:30 p.m. things had really been looking up. I had a backpack full of my mother's lingerie, I'd had a nice heart-to-heart with Alice, and I had gone palm to palm with the greatest guy in all of Maryland.

I had left work feeling like I was on top of the world, humming at the top of my lungs. I couldn't help noticing that the world actually seemed brighter, as if it had gotten happier right along with me. The grass was greener, the birds more colorful. Even the stone Adonis in the fountain looked fulfilled. It was as if the entire world was rejoicing at my and Keith's progress.

I walked to my bike and paused. That was my big mistake. Instead of just moving the kickstand and riding away, I glanced toward the pool to see if I could spot Keith. And I saw him all right, except not at the pool. He was with Mora, off to the side of the pool in a secluded area so thick with shrubbery that the golfers referred to it as the woods. They were smashed against each other, chest to chest and cheek to cheek. Keith was running his fingers through her hair and appeared to be whispering into her ear.