The late afternoon sun was making Abby squint and she wished she could remember where her sunglasses were. She sat between John and Merri on Merri’s front porch in Miles Station, thinking about her first day as her tutor back in June. She had sat on the same steps and told Merri that Kate wanted to come meet her. Merri, sullen in her misery, had not believed anyone could like her. Merri’s attitude had changed so much since then, and she had taken to Kate right away. She was bound to be hurt when she realized Kate wouldn’t be staying for their planned girls’ night.
Abby sent up a little prayer for Merri. She didn’t need any more disappointments in her life.
“I thought they were right behind us. I hope they didn’t get lost,” Merri said.
John, looking movie-star quality in his own sunglasses, propped his forearms on his knees and gave a little grunt of disgust. “Maybe they decided to go to ‘the city’ to get tofu or sushi. Or whatever meets Turner’s exacting culinary standards.”
Abby laughed and swatted John’s arm. “Oh, stop it.”
“They’re here,” Merri said, jumping up from the step.
Kate’s blue car pulled sedately up in front of the house and stopped. For once, she was driving below land speed records. Abby saw why when the driver’s side door opened and Ryan got out. So Kate had actually let another human being drive her beloved PT Cruiser. It must be true love.
“We’ll have to have your tires checked, Kathryn,” Ryan said. “You’re bound to have a flat from these wilderness trails that pass for roads.”
“They are pretty rough,” Abby said.
“Oh, don’t mind Ryan,” Kate said, studying the old house before her. “Wow. How old did you say this is? Let’s have the tour, Abby. I want to see where you’ve spent the summer doing your Jane Eyre thing. Which reminds me, I’ve got to choose my service project soon. Ambassador College has been hounding me unmercifully. I got another letter yesterday.”
“I hope you’ll select something that isn’t so far from civilization,” Ryan said. “This is really…rustic.”
Abby, too, had thought the ancient, sagging house was rustic at first, creepy even—that is, until she got to know it better. She put a protective arm around Merri.
“It’s been the perfect service project. Merri’s great and this house is really special. It was built in 1847 by Jonathan Miles. At one time there was a thriving little town here called Miles Station. It was really something back in the day.”
“We’ve done some repairs,” John said. “We’ll get the house back the way it was.”
John’s generosity made Abby feel all warm and gooey inside, and she contemplated awarding him another imaginary star. The good thing about imaginary charts is that she could put as many stars on them as she wanted. John had spent most of his summer break renovating a house in Alton for Habitat for Humanity. As if that weren’t enough, in his spare time he’d been doing repairs for Merri’s mom. “Yeah,” Merri said. “John put the trellises back up, and he told Mom he’s going to help us paint the house before he leaves for college.”
“Saint John, is he?” Ryan said, jingling the change in his pockets.
“And a girl named Charlotte used to sleep in my room,” Merri said. “She was really nice and we—” Merri stopped and looked apologetically at Abby and John.
“Where is your mom, anyway?” Abby said.
“Right. Mom. She’s showing a house. She won’t be back until late. Come on, Kate. I’ll show you the inside of the house.”
Merri’s brown cat Kit Kat greeted them at the door. Merri scooped her up and led them through the bare, shabby rooms, proudly explaining all the repairs and decorating her mother planned to do as soon as they had the money. She didn’t appear to notice Kate’s wide eyes and Ryan’s curled lip as they took in the house’s condition. Abby could appreciate their culture shock. It had been an adjustment for her, too. But being a “companion and tutor to an economically disadvantaged adolescent,” as Ambassador College described it, was an experience she would never forget.
Merri opened the door to the spare bedroom they used as a schoolroom. A top-of-the-line computer looked incongruous on a scarred table in the dingy room. Merri’s dad had sent the computer to her as a sop for his guilty conscience. It was his meth-making in their backyard that had caused Merri’s mom Pat to take her and flee to safety and him to end up in Joliet Prison. The irony of an educational gift bought with drug money was not lost on Abby.
“And here’s where my heartless tutor has been torturing me with participles and long division all summer,” Merri said, grinning at Kate.
“Hey, you had a break the week we got to stay at Lucy’s house,” Abby said. “Merri wrote an excellent report on Lewis and Clark. Didn’t she, John?”
Ryan brushed past John before he could answer and went through the doorway and to the computer. “Not a bad model,” he said. “Is the genealogy program on it?”
“It is,” Abby said. “I mean, it’s not really a genealogy program. But yes, the Beautiful Houses program we used is on this computer—and on John’s laptop, too.”
Merri edged around Ryan and sat down at the computer. When Beautiful Houses finished loading, images of all types of houses from around the world scrolled by on the computer screen. The title at the top invited users to Take a Virtual Tour.
“What does this have to do with genealogy?” Ryan asked.
“The way it is now? Nothing,” John said. “But as we said, it’s not working right.”
“Sorry,” Abby said, seeing Kate’s disappointed expression.
Merri looked desperate to cheer up her new friend. “But even though we can’t time-sur—” she broke off. “I mean the program won’t let us…well, anyway, it’s still fun. Here, Kate. I’ll show you. Pick whatever house you want.”
“My favorite is a thatched cottage in the Cotswolds in England,” Abby said. “Merri’s is a castle in Scotland.”
Kate leaned over Merri’s shoulder and pointed to a photo of a huge house that hugged a steep terraced hill covered in lush greenery and colorful tropical flowers. “Oh, I like that one. Does it say where it is? It looks like Hawaii, maybe.”
Merri clicked on the image, and the screen filled with an enlarged view of the hillside house.
“I wouldn’t mind a house like that one day,” Ryan said.
Even though it was undoubtedly worth tens of millions of dollars, he said it with a perfectly serious voice. Abby didn’t risk looking at John, but she pictured his eyes rolling.
“You’re right,” she said to Kate. “It says Honolulu. You can look at all the rooms inside and see the back of the house, too.”
“Here, Kate, you try it,” Merri said, getting up from the computer.
“How do I make it work?”
Ryan took over the explanation. “It’s simple, Kathryn,” he said. “It is actually a fairly common software protocol—very much like typical architecture programs.”
Merri turned a small snort into a cough.
Abby covered a smile and pointed to the buttons at the top of the screen. “Just click and you can go through all the rooms and see what everything looks like.”
“What will we do after this?” Merri asked. “Can we have a beauty makeover, Abby, like we did before?”
“I don’t know, Merri,” Abby said, telegraphing a question to Kate. “Since the program’s not working right, there’s no reason to go to Equality, is there? You can stay the night after all, you know, for our girls’ night.”
Kate’s face fell and she sighed. “I tried to call down there but never got anyone who seemed to know anything. That’s why I thought if we went down there in person we could—”
Ryan put his arm around her and smiled. “Look on the bright side, Kathryn. At least we won’t have to take your new car any farther out into the boonies.”
“Mom said we can order pizza. You can get extra cheese if you want. Abby said the delivery boy is bound to find us this time,” Merri said in a rush. “And me and Abby made Rice Krispy squares for dessert. But if you don’t like Rice Krispy squares, we can make brownies. Or snickerdoodles. John loves those. I mean he’s not a girl so he can’t come to our girls’ night, but we could save some for him. I have a really good recipe for snickerdoodles that Grandma Beulah taught me to make. Do you know how to crochet? ‘Cause I know how and maybe, if you want, I could teach you too. Or maybe we could watch movies. I have one called—”
“Sorry, Marilyn,” Ryan inserted into the barrage of words. “I made reservations for seven at a tapas restaurant called Mosaic. For the four of us.”
Kate put an arm around his waist. “That was thoughtful of you, Ryan,” she said, smiling adoringly up at him, as if she were imagining more stars for his chart.
Abby tried sending another silent message, but Kate’s radar was still down. She patted Merri’s cheek and said, “Maybe some other time, kiddo. And, Ryan? Her name is Merri, not Marilyn.”
Kate looked up suddenly as if Abby’s telegraph had finally arrived. She left Ryan’s side and went to Merri’s. “No, you’re right,” she said. “Of course, we have to have our girls’ night. We can go to Equality tomorrow. And you guys will just have to find something else fun to do.”
Ryan smiled tightly and jingled the change in his pocket. It sounded to Abby as if he had at least ten dollars’ worth. He turned toward the doorway, and Kate went to him and took his hand. “Please, Ryan?”
“Oh, sure. I’ll just hang out at the motel. Maybe I can get a cardboard meal from room service. It will be thrilling.”
“You could watch a movie,” Merri suggested.
“Good idea. I bet they have just the kind I like.”
“I hate to ask, but where are you planning to stay?” John said. “The closest decent motel is about twenty-five miles away.”
“It figures.”
“Maybe you could stay here, Ryan,” Abby said. “What do you think, Merri?”
“Well, I guess he could,” Merri said, frowning in thought. “If he stayed in the living room, we wouldn’t even notice a boy was here. We could take him some pizza and he could watch TV while we’re doing our stuff.”
Ryan hooked his arm around Kate’s neck and pulled her close. “Yes,” he said softly into her hair, “I could stay in the living room. All night.”
Her eyes going large, Kate turned scarlet and pulled away from him. Abby wondered at her sudden embarrassment. Even though Ambassador College had fairly strict rules about what they labeled public displays of affection, a kiss on the head seemed a mild enough P.D.A.
“I’ve got an idea.” John’s smile was evil. “How about if I stay, too, and keep Ryan company? You probably have a few extra blankets, don’t you, Merri? Ryan and I could have a sleepover too.”
“I guess,” Merri said. “But you’ve got to promise to stay in the living room.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” John said, staring at Ryan.
Ryan didn’t look happy.
Abby paused in the doorway to the living room, studying the marked difference between the solemn atmosphere there and the happy one in the kitchen she had just left.
John and Ryan sat on the couch, watching a baseball game. The game explained their intense concentration on the TV screen. That the Cardinals were beating the Cubs six to one explained the pained look on Ryan’s face and the smug one on John’s. To give him credit, John wasn’t rubbing it in. Occasionally, he looked down at the laptop he held, as if to say the game was no big deal.
A clanking sound and then a burst of laughter from the kitchen made the two guys look up.
“As promised,” Abby said, stepping into the room. “Merri’s wondrous snickerdoodles. She told me to remind you to share, John.”
John laughed. “Love the new hairdo,” he said, taking the plate of cookies from her. “One of Merri’s designs, I presume?”
“She believes it is her destiny to be a famous hair stylist. She pronounced this her greatest masterpiece to date.” Abby batted her eyes and patted the braids that covered her head. “And just look at the manicure she gave me.” She waggled her fingers with their multi-colored nail polish.
“Nice,” John said, grinning. He took a cookie and offered the plate to Ryan, who wordlessly frowned and waved it away.
“Come on, don’t look so wry, Ryan,” he said. “Take a chance. A few carbs won’t kill you.”
“No thanks. I care about my health.”
“Suit yourself,” John said, setting the plate next to the empty pizza box on the coffee table.
Abby figured it would be safe to bet John had polished off the whole pizza. Cheers from the Cardinals’ stadium rose to a crescendo. Ryan looked at his watch and sighed.
“Well, I’ll leave you guys to your…fun,” Abby said. “We’ll be in the kitchen. Kate’s going to give us drawing lessons.”