Chapter Thirty-three

Dumb Randy was back and Whitney had been trying to get a chance to ask him if he’d seen anybody strange talking to Molly’s mom. Randy was out on the street all the time. Her mom didn’t say so, but Whitney was pretty sure it was because he was so loud. He loved anything with a motor and he made really loud engine sounds and inside you could hear him everywhere. He was in a special school that only met part of the day, and the rest of the time he was outside.

Especially when her mom’s soap pop was on. That’s what her mother called it. Her soap. That wasn’t the name of it, and Whitney didn’t understand why it was called soap because she’d never seen anyone with any soap on it, but her mom told her to never mind.

The soap had a long twisty, turny name that Whitney could never remember. She’d watched parts of it sometimes when her mother wasn’t paying attention and didn’t see her. But mostly she wasn’t allowed. It must have been sad, though, because even in the parts where people were laughing and kissing, her mom still cried. And they kissed a lot. That’s mostly why Whitney liked to watch it—for the kissing.

The soap was very important, her mother said. She even talked about it with her friends on the phone while she made dinner. Whitney always heard her talk about tons of people she’d never met, like they were her mom’s friends and stuff.

Whitney hoped maybe the people on TV were her long-lost cousins. She hoped so, because they were all so pretty, and right now all she had was dumb Randy. The ladies on the TV were blond and tall and had really pretty clothes.

Once, Whitney had hidden under the coffee table and watched, and she’d seen them all go to a fancy party. They were in the most beautiful dresses. Whitney almost said something to her mom, but her mom was crying again because some man was saying something about finding a little boy.

The woman on the soap had this blue dress with a million tiny beads, and Whitney decided that was the one she wanted. Maybe she’d get married in it. Her mom said people got married in white the first time, but after that they could wear whatever they wanted, so Whitney would wear that.

Whitney walked down the outside steps, and around the corner, looking for Randy. Usually, she could find him a hundred miles away. But he was awfully quiet now. She saw him sitting on a tire down by Justin Rapozo’s house. Whitney thought Justin was cute. He always flirted with her and made her blush. He said she was cute when she blushed. Justin was a mechanical genius. At least, that’s what he said he was.

Whitney wasn’t sure what that was, but he spent a lot of time working on cars and bikes. Right now, he was under the hood of the old blue car. He had three old cars in his driveway—a blue one, a silver one, and a red one. They were always there and he was always working on them. Maybe the genius part meant that he could work on them for a really really long time.

He and his brother lived in the house with their dad. Justin was really friendly, but his brother, Drew, was kind of mean. They both rode motorcycles, and Justin had promised to let her ride with him when she was older. But if Whitney was standing too close to the edge of the street, Drew would zoom by her and make the engine real loud right beside her, so she jumped. He laughed when she jumped.

Her mom said boys did lots of stuff just to be jerks, and she said Whitney would just have to get used to it. She said there was no good way to tell the jerks from the other guys, but Whitney didn’t think that was true. She knew who the jerks were at school. There were a lot of jerky boys at school.

That mean Tommy Reicher stabbed her in the arm with his pencil. That really hurt. She had tried not to cry, but it hurt too much, and then they laughed at her.

She sat down next to Randy and tried to think of something clever to say to Justin. Nothing came out.

Randy started making shrieking noises, and Justin signed him to be quiet. Justin had learned some sign in order to talk to Randy. One of the first things you had to learn with Randy was how to say be quiet or you’re too loud. She’d learned shut up, too, but her mom got real mad when she used that one. And Randy always told. Sometimes he told even when she didn’t say it.

Whitney watched Justin work, but he barely did anything. Once, he lifted his head and slammed it against the hood, and that made her giggle. He gave her a dirty look and said, “Thanks.”

But then he went back to working again.

And Randy was busy using a rusty metal box like a car and driving it along the edge of where Justin was working.

Whitney needed someone new to play with. She wished Mr. Gerry would come back again. He’d brought her more candy since the first time, but he hadn’t been back in a few days. He said he was going to teach her some fun games when he had time, but he was always in a hurry when he came.

She thought he must have a very important job that kept him running around. But he called her his Cherry Princess. He said he had a daughter a lot like her, but she lived far away now. Whitney wondered if his daughter knew how much he missed her. Maybe her dad missed her that much, too. Maybe she didn’t need a husband. Maybe her dad would come and fly her away like Peter Pan. Or maybe Mr. Gerry would take her home and she could be his daughter.

She thought about that for a minute. She might miss her mom some, but she wouldn’t miss dumb Randy.

Randy came over and ran the metal box over her shoe. It left a dark track on her foot.

She got up and pushed him back. “Look what you did to my shoe, stupid,” she yelled.

Randy looked at her and smiled. “Line,” he signed.

“Yeah, you made a line. That was bad.”

“Line like the motorcycle,” he signed.

She frowned.

“What’s he saying?” Justin asked.

“Line like what motorcycle?” she asked back, saying it out loud as well as signing.

Randy pointed to the end of the street.

Whitney shook her head. “He’s not making any sense. Something about a line the motorcycle made.”

Justin shrugged. “Probably just Drew burning rubber.”

Randy went back to driving his metal box.

Justin started pounding on something under the hood.

Whitney covered her ears, but he didn’t stop.

Randy didn’t mind, of course, but the noise was driving Whitney crazy, so she got up and walked away, looking for something interesting to do.