Chapter 34

Right after supper, Monday night, the phone rang. I had my hands full of dinnerware that I was taking to the kitchen, so my mom answered the phone.

"Larry, it's for you." I assumed that it was Clara calling back to let me know about whether she could go with me to the movies Friday night.

"Hello."

"Larry, it's Denise. Can you talk?"

"For a little while. Kate and I need to clean up the dining table and do the dishes."

"I meant can anyone hear you?"

"No, I can talk."

"My parents are leaving Saturday to go visit my brother in Terre Haute." Denise had an older brother who went to Indiana State University. "They'll be gone all weekend, if you want to come over here."

"Is Karen coming?"

"No. It will just be Trudie and me, and Trudie says she doesn't want to do anything with you. She says you're too big, and she is still sore from the other time. Hold on a minute." I heard Denise talking to someone in the background, I hoped it was only Trudie. Denise came back on the line. "Larry, Trudie wants to say hi to you."

"Larry?"

"Hi Trudie."

"I didn't say what Denise just told you. I said probably. She just wants to keep you all to herself. Did your mom tell you I won a scholarship to the studio? I get all free lessons! Isn't that neat? Agnes said I could start coming three or four times a week now, and it won't cost anything."

"I heard. Agnes says you have the most potential of any of her advanced students. She thinks you can be a professional ballerina. Agnes doesn't say those kinds of things about any of the other dancers."

"I'm not even as good as any of those other three that were at the lesson today."

"You aren't even twelve yet, Trudie. The others have been in dance training for a whole lot longer. By the time you are as old as them, you'll be way better than they are."

"I hope you're right. Are you coming over here on Saturday?"

I still needed to talk to Clara before I knew about Saturday. I was already planning on seeing if Karen could come to Agnes's apartment alone on Sunday. This could work out really well if everything would fall into place perfectly. Clara, on Friday night, Denise, on Saturday, and Karen on Sunday. It had the potential to be a real full weekend.

"I'll be over sometime on Saturday, but I might need to do something in the early afternoon before I can come over."

"I might be over being sore by then. My birthday is Thursday. Will you give me twelve kisses on Saturday?"

"Sure. Anyplace you want them too." Trudie giggled. Right after, Denise was on the phone. I told her the same thing I'd told Trudie, about maybe needing to do something on Saturday, in the early afternoon. She told me that she hoped I could spend the whole day with her. After we hung up, I went back to the kitchen to help Kate. She started asking me questions about who was on the phone.

"Just a girl from school. She wanted to ask me some questions about a test we've got coming up on Wednesday."

"That's funny, Larry. I could have sworn you said she wasn't even twelve yet, and called her Trudie."

"Well, I did say that. Denise is the one who called me. It was her sister, Trudie, that cut in on the phone because she wanted to tell me that Aunt Agnes gave her a scholarship today. Why are you paying so much attention to who I'm talking to on the phone, anyway?"

"I wasn't paying attention. I just heard you talking, and I was curious. Why are you worried about it, if you didn't do anything bad? Guilty conscience?"

"Let's just finish these dishes. I've still got to study for that test. The one Denise called me about."

I was in my bedroom after, studying like I had told Kate I was going to be, when the phone rang. I heard Kate pick it up in the hallway. She didn't come get me, so I just assumed it was either for her or one of my parents. After about half an hour, Kate told me the call was for me. That's when I knew it was Clara calling.

"Hello Clara."

"Hello. I asked my mom, and I can go on Friday. Would you be mad if Kate went with us? She says she hasn't been anywhere in a long time. She promises to sit somewhere away from us, if you'll take her."

"I was hoping we could treat this like a real date, Clara. If we let Kate tag along, it won't be the same."

"Larry, I told my mom that Kate would probably go with us. I didn't think she'd let me go if it was going to be just with you. You shouldn't have told her that we were going to do it soon. Do you still want to go to the Saturday matinee with me if my mom says no about Friday?"

"No, let's just take Kate with us on Friday. I guess it won't be that bad if she sits by herself. After the movie though, we drop her off at my house first, and then I'll walk you home, okay?"

"Okay. Can you put Kate back on the phone so I can tell her?"

"I better go ask my mom first, in case they won't let her go with us. Hold on for a minute, okay?" I went into the living room and asked my mother if it was all right to take Kate to the movies on Friday.

"You will be responsible for her, Larry?"

"Sure, mama, like always. She isn't going to get in any trouble while I'm right there with her."

"You won't either, if she's right there?"

"It's a movie, that's all. We'll watch the movie and then all come home. After that, I'll walk Clara home."

"You can take her if you will be responsible for her. Larry, your papa and I trust you with Kate. We expect you to always respect our trust." I nodded that I understood. In a way it was funny. Clara and Kate did all sorts of things behind Kate's locked bedroom door, but my mother was afraid she'd get into mischief at a public movie theater. I went back to the phone.

"We're all set from here."

"Good. Put Kate on because I want to tell her the good news." I went over and knocked on Kate's door, telling her that Clara wanted to talk to her. I went back to my room and cracked open my Biology text. Fifteen minutes later Kate knocked on my door. I told her to come in, and she opened my door and stuck her head inside.

"Thanks for letting me go with you guys, Larry."

"Come in for a minute, Kate, and shut the door behind you." I waited for her to do that. "I want to tell you that I hope you weren't planning on meeting someone at the movies. I promised mom that it wasn't going to happen. You'll sit next to me for this movie."

"Why are you being like that? I don't want to sit next to you, watching you and Clara making out."

"Don't look then. Watch the movie. I'm not going to have you going off with some boy when I'm supposed to be responsible for you."

"Who said I was going to do that?"

"Nobody had to say it. If you want to meet some boy there, go get mom's permission for it. If she tells me it's all right, I won't stand in your way. What I got permission for was you to go to the movies with Clara and I. I don't want you using me to get around them."

"Maybe I will ask her someday. Not now though. I'll go to the movies Friday, just to be getting out of the house for a change. Just remember though, if you don't help me, I won't help you either."

"I guess that's fair. I don't really need any help right now. I don't know why you think I'm not helping you. I didn't need to take you on Friday. I did it because Clara asked me to."

"She didn't ask you to make me sit with you though. That's all your idea, isn't it?"

"Kate, why do you keep doing this? People try to make things a little bit better for you, and you make them feel bad. Whatever we do, it never turns out to be enough for you. It makes us want to quit trying to help you. Have you ever once taken the trouble to thank mom for allowing Clara to come over here after school? You saw the way she had to fight with dad in order to get him to let her do it that way. She knows what you guys are doing, but she allows it anyway. For your sake, and for Clara's, so you two don't have to sneak around."

"You never answered my question, Larry. It was all your idea that I sit next to you?"

"Yes, it was all my idea. It was all my idea as soon as mom made me promise to make sure nothing happened while you were at the movies, and my responsibility. You aren't going to make me the bad guy here, Kate. The worst you can say is that I'm not allowing you to do something our parents wouldn't want you to be doing. If they found out that I couldn't be trusted to do what I promise them to do, they'll just quit letting me take you anywhere."

"Did they tell you to not let me sit with a boy at the movie?"

"Not in those words. Should I go ask mom if it would be all right?"

"You know what she'll say!"

"That's my point, Kate. You know it too. You're trying to use me to get around them. They know you're going to do that, so they make me promise not to let you. You keep trying to get me to go against my promises to them."

"They never told you to not let me sit with a boy."

"They said I was responsible to them for you. They expect me to use my judgment in deciding what they would or wouldn't allow."

"If you let me sit by myself, you'd never have to know."

"Does Clara know what you are planning?"

"I don't know if she knows or not. I've been talking to her about something like this, but I needed to get out of the house first. Clara isn't going to do it with you unless someone is doing it with me too. She promised me."

"Doing it like kissing at the movies, or doing it like screwing?"

"Both."

"We'll just see about that. If she told you that, it means she cares more for you than she does for me. I'm not taking her anywhere if that's the case. I never cared what you two did together, especially now that mom has said it's okay. I won't let Clara use me to help you do something I don't want you doing. I don't want you fooling around with boys yet, and neither does mom or dad."

"Why should you care?"

"I care. Because I love you, and I don't want you making the kind of mistake that can really hurt you."

"You can't stop me. I don't even need your help." She turned around and left my room. This time, she remembered not to slam my door. I looked at my door, trying to process all that she had told me. It was a little before eight o'clock when I looked at my watch. I went out in the hallway and dialed Clara's number. She answered the phone after only one ring.

"Clara, what is going on with you and Kate?"

"Nothing, what do you mean?"

"She claims that you made her some promises to her, about the movies, and about doing things with me."

"What promises?"

"She said you weren't going to let me do anything with you at the movies, unless some boy did them to her too."

"That isn't what I said."

"She also said you promised not to do it with me unless someone was doing it to her at the same time."

"I tried to tell you about that earlier. I told you that was before you told me you loved me."

"I told Kate she had to sit next to me at the movies. That was because my mom made me responsible for her there. That's when she told me about the promise you had made to her."

"Keith can sit on her other side. You can pay all your attention to me, I'm your date. It won't hurt anything for Kate to kiss him."

"I feel like you and Kate are both trying to use me. I don't like it if you are."

"I don't see it that way. Why do you have to make it seem like we're doing that? Kate wants to have a good time, and so do we."

"I don't think this is something I want to argue about with either of you anymore. Kate is my responsibility, and I'm not going to let her do whatever she wants to do. I also don't appreciate you trying to help her get around my parents and me."

You don't understand. It isn't like that. It's going to happen to Kate anyway."