I HAD IT! I HAD more than I needed. I counted it a few extra times to be absolutely sure, and there was a hundred and three dollars. With the ten from Gracie, the dollar saved from my allowance, and the pay for sitting with Ronnie and Randy that afternoon, I’d reached my goal. And with hardly any time to waste—in four more days I’d be on my way to Florida.
The twins had become kind of attached to me, but they had funny ways of showing it. When I was leaving their house, Ronnie jumped onto my back like a monkey, and Randy punched my arms and legs all the way to the door. “Don’t go home yet, Bernie,” they warned, “or you’ll be sorry!” It took both their parents to get them off me, and then I was free.
After counting the money on my bed, I made up my mind to get my plane ticket right away, before the price changed or something. It was four-thirty, and I had to hurry because the Let’s Go! travel agency on South Oyster Bay Road closed at five. I crammed the bills and coins into my wallet and pockets and ran downstairs. Ma called to me as I was walking my bike out of the garage. “Where are you going, Bernie?”
“Out,” I said.
“Where?”
“No place. For a ride.”
“Are you wearing your jacket? It’s chilly out. Be home for supper!” She may have said a few more things, but I was pedaling fast by then and didn’t hear them.
On the way, I worried that somebody at the travel agency might give me a hard time because of my age. I had a mental replay of my job interview at the movie theater, and made up this long, convincing story about an uncle in Florida who needed emergency brain surgery and wanted me at his bedside.
I didn’t have to. Ginny, the travel agent (her name was on a badge she wore), wouldn’t have cared if I was two years old and had to sit on telephone books to reach her desk. I was just another paying customer, and that’s how she treated me. All I had to say was “Miami” and the date, and she began tapping computer keys with her long, purple fingernails. She said that I was lucky to be traveling after the holidays, because everything was booked solid through Tuesday. I mentioned seeing something in the paper about a ninety-nine-dollar fare, and she nodded and kept tapping. The computer screen was filling up with rows of science-fiction-green numbers.
There were travel folders in the bins on the walls, with pictures of hula dancers and Eskimos. At the next desk, a man and woman were arranging their vacation in Mexico City, and arguing about whether they should take the Hacienda Plan, which included a side trip to Acapulco and complimentary cocktails.
“O-kay,” Ginny said to me. “You’re all set on Eastern, Flight 17, leaving LaGuardia at noon. I can get your seat reservation for you now, too, if you’d like.”
“Sure,” I said, spilling money all over her desk.
“Non-smoking?” she asked. “Window?”
It was that easy. After I climbed on my bike again, I realized I might have sold that, too, and wouldn’t have had to do as much sitting. But Ma would probably have noticed it was missing from the garage, and Grace could use it when she outgrew hers. Anyway, I had my ticket. It was safely tucked in the inside breast pocket of my jacket, under the Velcro flap.
When I got home, I saw Celia getting out of someone’s car. She went up the porch steps as I pulled the garage door open, and she made a big thing out of ignoring me. “Goodbye,” I told her, when I was alone in the garage. “And good riddance to you, too!”
We came face to face in the hallway a few minutes later, and we kept sidestepping in the same direction, trying to get past each other. It was like a comedy routine, except nobody was laughing.
Ma said, “Is that you, Celia? Bernie? Come in here, please, both of you.”
Celia shoved me aside and swept by into the kitchen. I waited a moment, and then followed. Grace was at the table, drawing, and Ma was stirring something at the stove. Was she going to try to get Celia and me to make up?
“I have a surprise for everybody,” Ma said.
Me, too, I thought, looking at my family in our kitchen, with this ache in my chest, right under the ticket. I wished Ma would hurry up and say what she wanted to say. Then maybe I’d go upstairs and start packing my knapsack for the trip.
“What is it, Ma?” Celia asked. “Did you and Nat elope or something?”
Ma laughed. “And deprive you of wearing that gorgeous blue dress to the wedding? No, this is a nice surprise. Your Grandpa Sam is coming for a visit.”
I almost fell against Celia. She moved forward, toward Ma, and I hit the refrigerator instead, with my shoulder. My sisters were squealing. No one seemed to notice me, and I had a chance to recover. “Hey, that’s great,” I said. It was hard to get the words out of my mouth.
“You don’t sound as if you think it’s great, Bernie,” Ma said.
“Well, I do. Why shouldn’t I? I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
“When is Grandpa coming?” Grace asked.
“Oh, Ma,” Celia said. “Will he be here for the wedding? For the play?”
“Yes, for both. He’s flying in on Thursday. I spoke to him just a few minutes ago.” Then Ma said we’d have to make some new sleeping arrangements for a while. Either the girls could bunk together and give Grandpa one of their rooms, or she’d put the folding cot in mine and Grandpa could sleep in my bed.
“I didn’t think he’d want to be at the wedding,” Celia said. “Because of Daddy.”
“I didn’t think so, either,” Ma said. “I asked him several weeks ago, but I told him I’d understand if he couldn’t come, if it was too painful for him. He said he had to think it over. Then he called today and said yes!”
I went up to my room, still wearing my jacket, and feeling icy cold in the warm house. I had to think, to get away from everybody. So this was the surprise my grandfather had written about, that I was so sure couldn’t be as big as mine. I was never so disappointed in my life. All those weeks of planning, of saving, of keeping my secret to myself. There had been times I wanted to tell Pete, and then Mary Ellen, to say goodbye. But I couldn’t risk it. When I got to Florida I was going to send them picture postcards, like Grandpa’s. Wish you were here. My eyes filled with tears. He and I had almost flown past one another.
But I was going to see him. He would sleep here, in my room. I started picking up some junk and throwing it into the closet, shoving it under the bed. The cot would go against the wall across from the bed, and we could have our heads facing the same way and talk together at night.
Suddenly I was too warm. I pulled my jacket off, opened the Velcro flap on the inside pocket, and took my ticket out. It had my name on it, and my seat number. I had taken the window seat, and imagined the clouds, and the houses of Long Island as tiny below me as the little green ones in my Monopoly set.
Grace came upstairs and said, “Supper’s ready, Bernie, and Mommy wants you to set the table. Don’t forget, forks on the left.” She was wearing my World’s Fair ring on the middle finger of her right hand. It fit perfectly, because of the adhesive tape I’d wrapped around it. The closet door was still open. I threw my jacket inside, and the ticket after it. “Hold your horses,” I said. “I’m coming.”