Coming Apart (9780545356152) (9 page)

“This is Janie,” Flora told him. “Jane Marie Read. She's named for my sister and me. Those are our middle names. My aunt adopted her last month. I mean, that's when it became official. But Janie was born on Thanksgiving Day.”

Mr. Barnes peeked into the stroller and Janie waved her arms at him. He smiled. Then he cleared his throat. “So … your aunt adopted her?”

“All by herself,” said Flora proudly.

Mr. Barnes glanced thoughtfully across the street. “That was very brave of her.”

“She really, really wanted a baby. And,” Flora continued, inspired, “there was no —” She paused, searching for the right phrase. “There was no man on the horizon.”

Mr. Barnes reddened. And in a flash, Flora saw it all: Her teacher had a crush on her aunt. He had barely spoken two words to her since he'd moved in at the beginning of the school year, but he was in luv with Aunt Allie.

What if, Flora wondered with a rush of excitement, Mr. Barnes and Aunt Allie got married? It would be perfect. The English teacher married to the writer. Aunt Allie would get a husband, Janie would get a father, and Mr. Barnes would get a whole family.

Ruby stood outside the window of Heaven, the jewelry store. Well, the old jewelry store, thought Ruby. A newer and much fancier one had opened in Camden Falls recently, but Ruby was desperately hoping that she might find a replacement owl here at Heaven, where things were cheaper. Heaven was where Ruby had bought plastic rings and rubber bracelets, sparkly hair combs and once a silver seagull, a birthday present for Min. Except that it wasn't silver, as it had turned out. It was pewter, which Flora said Ruby should have known by the price: $11.49. And also by the fact that the tag was stuck to the bottom of the gull. A silver gull of that size would have been hideously expensive, according to know-it-all Flora, and would never have had anything stuck to its bottom. The tag would have been tastefully arranged (facedown)
next
to the gull. Ruby had never spent more than the $11.49 on any one item at Heaven. So she was keeping her fingers crossed that in the display in the window or in one of the cases inside the store she might find an owl that looked like the one she had broken. Even a glass owl would be fine. Ruby didn't care. Glass, crystal. Would Min really know the difference?

Ruby blew on her bare hands as she scanned the earrings and necklaces and watches in the window. She realized her hands were freezing and felt in her pockets for mittens. But her pockets were bare. The winter had been so warm that Ruby had rarely needed either mittens or a hat. She found herself wishing for both now.

Ruby saw nothing resembling a crystal owl in the window, so she stepped inside and began a careful examination of each display case. It was while she was standing in front of a rack of silver (well, pewter) earrings and wondering if she might have enough money for an owl
and
a pair of earrings in the shape of ballet slippers that she became aware of the radio playing somewhere in the store. And then she realized what single word had just captured her attention:
blizzard
.

“What?” said Ruby aloud. She stepped back and stood in the aisle, listening intently.

“That's right, ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer was saying, and Ruby detected a hint of excitement in his usually calm voice. “A blizzard. All of our computer models are predicting that it will arrive late Friday afternoon. We're expecting high winds, temperatures well below freezing, and — good news for the kiddies — more than two feet of snow. Yup, twenty-four to thirty inches of the white stuff. This could be the worst storm in forty years.”

Now, ordinarily if Ruby had heard such an announcement, particularly in a winter that so far had yielded a scant flurry here and there, she might have jumped up and down and cheered, even in the middle of Heaven. But at the moment, all she could think was: Friday. The weather guy said the storm is supposed to come on
Friday
. Friday
afternoon
, no less. There was no way they would get a snow day out of the blizzard, even the worst one in forty years, if it began late on Friday afternoon.

“Ruby? What's wrong?”

Ruby jumped and returned her attention to the jewelry case, where, she now saw, Margaret Malone was standing. She had forgotten that Margaret worked at Heaven. She'd started her new job after the holidays in order to earn money for college.

“Did you hear that?” asked Ruby.

“Hear what?”

“What the weatherman just said. A blizzard is coming on Friday.
Friday
. We won't get a snow day. All that snow, and what good will it do?”

Margaret laughed. “Well, it should be exciting. And fun. Aren't you excited, even a little?”

“I guess,” replied Ruby. She scanned the display cases again.

“Are you looking for anything special?”

“Well …” Ruby hesitated. Should she mention the owl to Margaret? She didn't want Min to hear that she was going around town looking for a crystal owl. On the other hand, if she could find a cheap owl here, it
would
make things much easier. “I don't suppose you have any owls,” said Ruby finally.

“Any owls?”

“I'm looking for a crystal owl. It's, um, a present for someone.”

Margaret shook her head. “We don't have anything like that.”

“A glass owl would do.”

But Margaret shook her head again. “Sorry.”

“Well, okay. Thanks anyway,” said Ruby.

Outside, she stuffed her hands in her pockets. Only Tuesday afternoon and already she could feel a change in the weather. The sun was shining and the storm was still three days away, but the air was certainly colder. Ruby blew out her breath and watched with satisfaction as it puffed in front of her.

She paused and looked up and down Main Street. Okay. Where else might she find an owl for Min? Ruby looked in Bubble Gum, where she found a tiny china owl, and in Stuff 'n' Nonsense, where she found another china owl, and in two other stores, where she didn't find any owls at all. That left Whitworth Jewelers, the new jewelry store — which was also the expensive jewelry store.

“Rats,” said Ruby as she stepped inside.

“May I help you?” someone asked her before she even had time to close the door all the way.

“Me?” said Ruby.

A man was standing behind the longest of three counters in the store. He was wearing a suit and tie, and he was peering at her over a pair of reading glasses. Something in his voice made Ruby suspect that he might be foreign, possibly British. Now he glanced around the store, which was empty except for another salesperson, as if to say, “Do you see anyone else who needs help?” But he said nothing, simply steepled his fingers and continued to stare at her.

“Well,” said Ruby, taking in the immaculate store, the thick carpet, the jewelry arranged on pillows of black velvet, “I'm looking for a … a crystal owl.” She had almost said “glass owl” but caught herself in time. Nothing in Whitworth Jewelers would be created from something as lowly as glass.

“All of our crystal is in this case,” said the man, and he walked to the back of the store. “We have several crystal animals, and we do in fact have an owl.”

“You do?! You have an owl?” Ruby clapped her hands together. “That's great.”

“There it is,” said the man, pointing.

Ruby saw a crystal owl that was beautiful, but not exactly like the one she'd broken. It was larger, and its wings were in a different position.

“Is — is that the only one you have?”

The man cleared his throat. “Yes.”

Ruby paused. “How much is it?” she dared to ask.

The man told her the price and Ruby swallowed hard. She would have to work for months in order to earn enough money to buy it. She was about to ask if she could buy the owl on time, or if it could be set aside and put on hold for her for until April, but the man was still glaring at her, and Ruby's mouth suddenly felt dry. At last she said, “Well, thank you. It's really nice, but I guess I won't buy it right now.”

She turned and fled from the store. Outside, she stood in the sunshine and drew in a few deep breaths. Okay. She couldn't afford the owl just yet, but at least she knew where to find an owl that looked reasonably like the one she'd broken, and she knew how much money she'd need to earn as the Doer of Unpleasant Jobs in order to buy it. It was a beginning. Ruby had a goal.

 

Ruby ran all the way back to the Row Houses that afternoon, and the moment she was safely in her room she withdrew her personal and private self-improvement plan from her desk drawer and studied it.

1. Be neater
.

Ruby grinned and silently congratulated herself. She was already neater. She had kept her room and her desk tidy since the moment she had drawn up the plan. Just that morning Min had poked her head into Ruby's room and said, “My land.” Usually this was followed by, “Did something explode in here?” But this time she'd exclaimed, “I'd hardly know this was your room, Ruby. I can see the floor.” Then she'd smiled and added, “Good for you, honey. I really appreciate this. You should be very proud of yourself.”

2
.
Go to all lessons and rehearsals unless I am sick
.

Well, she hadn't had too many lessons and rehearsals in the past few days, but she hadn't missed any of them, so that was good.

Ruby skimmed the rest of the list. She was working as hard as she could. She was trying to be polite and not sarcastic, to plan ahead, to think before she acted, blah, blah, blah. Frankly, it was a little tedious. But Ruby did enjoy the compliments she was getting. She had handed all her homework in on time since making her list, and her teacher had noticed.

“Ruby, I'm impressed,” she'd said, smiling, on Monday morning when Ruby had handed in her weekend homework. “I didn't need to give you any reminders.”

Thinking about this, Ruby allowed a smile to spread across her face.

“Ruby!” called Flora from downstairs. “Phone for you!”

“I'll take it in Min's room!” Ruby called back.

She ran down the hall and picked up the extension by Min's bed. “Hello?”

“Hello, Ruby? This is Rudy Pennington. Are you available to do some work over the weekend?”

“Sure,” said Ruby.

“I just heard about the storm and I was wondering if you'd be able to help me with shoveling.”

“Definitely,” replied Ruby. She carried the phone into her bedroom and found a pad of paper. “Let me write this down. We can figure out when you want me to come after we see how bad the storm is.”

“Very businesslike of you,” commented Mr. Pennington.

“Thank you,” replied Ruby. She had just hung up the phone when it rang again. “Hello?”

“Hi, Ruby. This is Dr. Malone. Would you be able to take care of Twinkle and Bandit when we go away in a couple of weeks?”

“Of course,” said Ruby, who was already reaching for her pad.

At dinnertime, her homework finished and a third job lined up, Ruby joined Min and Flora in the kitchen.

“If it's all right with you, I'm going to practice for tap class after dinner,” she announced. Before Min could say anything, Ruby added, “My homework is done. You can check it if you want. Oh, and I started my book report, but it isn't due until Friday, so I have plenty of time to finish it.”

She looked with satisfaction at her sister and her grandmother, both of whom had stopped what they were doing and were actually staring at Ruby. She smiled at them and began to set the table.

Olivia was moody.
Moody
wasn't a word with which she was very familiar, but if it meant that her moods swung back and forth for no reason at all, and that she felt crabby and wanted to be alone more often than she felt content and friendly, and that she was often tempted to slam her bedroom door — preferably in someone's face — well, then,
moody
described perfectly the way she'd been feeling lately.