“WHERE’S MOM?”
Lulu looked up in surprise from the canvas in front of her. She was painting an eye that was crying grayish green acrylic tears, which dripped down onto the floor in front of her stocking feet.
“Your mom had to work late today, so you’re coming home with me,” Heloise said and flung her arms up in the air. “Surprise!”
“Yay!” Lulu threw her arms around Heloise’s neck so her long chestnut-brown curls flew into the air.
They found Lulu’s coat and backpack in the entryway at the rec center and walked out onto the schoolyard hand in hand, past the basketball court, and then stopped at the intersection in front of the school.
“Well?” Heloise asked and gave Lulu a loving bump with her elbow. “Did you have a good day?”
“Mm-hmm,” Lulu said.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Nah.”
“Not a single thing? You’ve been at school for—what?—eight hours and you haven’t done a thing?”
Lulu giggled. “Well, yeah, I have, but I don’t want to go into it.”
“Oh.” Heloise nodded in agreement. “That’s a totally different matter.”
The light turned green, and they started crossing the street.
“What about you? What did you do?” Lulu asked.
“Nothing.”
“No way. You did too do stuff!”
“Sure, but I don’t want to go into it,” Heloise said, shaking her head in mock somberness. Then she smiled.
Lulu laughed and looked up at her, her eyes twinkling with delight.
“What do you want to have for dinner?” Heloise asked.
“Spaghetti and meat balls!”
“Well then that’s what we’ll have.” She gave Lulu’s hand a squeeze. “I think I have most of the ingredients at home, but we are going to need to pick up some meat and a few other little odds and ends.”
“Where?”
“We can get them at Føtex Food.”
“Can’t we just buy one of those jars with the meatballs already in it? Mom usually buys those.”
“What kind is that?”
“I don’t know. They keep it in the ready-made section. It’s in a glass container. It tastes a lot better than when you make it yourself.”
“Okay,” Heloise said. “On one condition.”
“What?”
“You pick out some candy for us while I find the other things.”
Lulu cracked a grin.
Heloise watched her in secret as they walked along Grønningen. The little girl she had known since she had been a newborn, a pink lump with a monk’s hairdo and a hormone rash. She had gotten so big—so pretty. Eight years old and heartbreakingly optimistic, secure in her belief that the world was a good place.
Someday it would let her down, Heloise thought and felt a pang in her heart that almost made her double over.
When they entered the store, Heloise pointed to the wall with the pick-and-mix candy bins.
“Knock yourself out, beautiful. I’ll find the spaghetti sauce you like and then we’ll meet back here at the self-checkout in a few minutes, okay?”
Heloise grabbed a basket and headed over to the refrigerated section at the far end of the store, where she found the display fridge with the prepared meals. She grabbed a jar of Bolognese sauce from the top shelf. She also added some Parmesan cheese, parsley, and a package of fresh linguine noodles to her basket.
Just as she had selected a bottle of chardonnay from the chilled wines, a text arrived from Martin.
Would you like to have dinner together? Restaurant Frank at 8?
Heloise called him and he answered right away.
“I have Lulu tonight,” she said. “Gerda had to work and couldn’t find a sitter, so I’m bringing Lulu home to my place. We’re going to have dinner there.”
“That sounds great!” His voice sounded exuberant. “Can I come over or is this a girls’ night?”
“You’re welcome to join us if you want to. But if Lulu spends the night, you’re going to have to go home after dinner.”
She turned around to look for Lulu over the shelves in the wine section. She spotted her dark curls and eyes, which lit up with excitement. Heloise saw her laugh and she took a step to the side so she could see all the way down the aisle with the spices and baking supplies to where Lulu was.
Lulu was at the end of the aisle, weighing a bag of candy. A man was squatting next to her, a skinny man, pale as wax, with silvery gray titanium glasses and short, dirty blond hair that was receding a bit at the temples. He gazed at Lulu, mesmerized, enthralled, eager as a dog whose owner had just walked in the door.
His enthusiasm sent a chill down Heloise’s spine.
Heloise hurriedly concluded her conversation with Martin and walked quickly over to Lulu and the stranger.
She stepped in front of Lulu right as the man held a chartreuse-green apple out to her. Heloise put her hand on the apple and pushed the man’s hand away, forcefully.
“No thank you.”
The man got up and nervously adjusted his glasses. He was the same height as Heloise, and even though they were standing face to face, his eyes were still on Lulu.
“Can I help you with something?” Heloise eyed him stiffly.
“I … I just wanted to give her an apple,” the man said, holding the fruit out in both hands like an offering.
“No thanks,” Heloise repeated and took Lulu by the hand. “You just stay far away from her, you hear?”
The man avoided making eye contact with Heloise. He nodded strangely agreeably, awkward and confused, and then quickly vanished around the corner, heading toward the fruit section.
“What’s wrong?” Lulu asked once they had left the store.
“Nothing,” Heloise said, trying to smile. “It’s just … You shouldn’t take things from strangers. You know that, right?”
“But I always get a free apple when we go to Føtex. Mom says it’s okay.”
“From that guy?” Heloise pointed at the store. “You usually get apples from him?”
Lulu nodded. Her brown eyes were wide and questioning.
“Hmm,” Heloise said and zipped Lulu’s jacket up to her chin so she wouldn’t get cold. “That’s not a great idea.”
Heloise knew she was overstepping the lines of what she should say to someone else’s child, but she didn’t care.
“People can seem nice even when they’re not. Do you understand?”
Lulu shrugged.
“You can’t trust everyone. Your mom and dad, grandma and me—you can always count on us. But when it comes to other people, it’s a good idea to be a little skeptical, okay?”
“Skeptical?”
“Yes. I mean it’s totally fine to hope for the best, but you always need to take precautions and be prepared for the worst. Some people are kind of messed up in the head.”
Lulu looked puzzled and then smiled. “Well, you’re a little messed up in the head too.”
“Yes.” Heloise smiled. “You may be right about that.”
“But you do know that I’m eight, right?”
Heloise nodded.
“I’m not a baby anymore.”
“I know that.”
“Next year I have to start walking home from school by myself.”
Heloise nodded in surrender. “Yes, yes, and soon you’ll move away from home and be hired to do some big, impressive job at NATO and before we know it, you’ll start walking with a cane, but …”
Lulu giggled.
“Just remember to take care of yourself along the way is all I’m saying. Okay?” Heloise reached out and brushed a couple of strands of dark hair off Lulu’s face.
Lulu rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Did you find the spaghetti sauce or what?”
Heloise raised the plastic bag in confirmation. “Let’s go home and have some food. Are you hungry?”
Lulu nodded, and they started walking.
“Hey, who’s this Tristan guy you’re so crazy about?” Heloise asked.
“Where’d you hear that?”
“Your mom.”
“He’s in fifth grade.” Lulu smiled. “He plays basketball.”
Heloise whistled, impressed. She looked back and discovered that the man with the apple was standing in the store’s sliding front door watching them.
Heloise shot him a warning look, but he didn’t notice her.
He saw only Lulu.