After George leaves, Jake and I walk back to the house.
“Boots doesn’t know George and I drive the car when she’s away,” says Jake.
“You think?” I ask.
“She wouldn’t approve,” says Jake. “Don’t tell her.”
“I don’t know if I can do that, Jake.”
“You can try,” says Jake.
I remember saying to Boots that I could try to stop change.
“George is your kindred spirit,” I say.
Jake smiles. “He is.”
“And Boots is your soul mate,” says Jake.
I reach over to hold his hand. “And you are my pal,” I say.
“And here is my secret. Boots doesn’t know that I plan to give George the car. He loves it the way I do.”
“But what about Boots driving?”
“She would never drive that car. She only drove once, and never again. And she knows nothing about gears and clutches.”
Jake and I go into the kitchen where Theo is drinking orange juice, his eyes bleary from sleep.
Suddenly I stop and look at myself in the mirror hung by the door. I look at my long mop of red hair. I stare at the look of me.
“What’s Lou doing?” asks Theo.
Jake turns and comes over to stand behind me as we both see ourselves in the mirror.
“Louisa is, I believe, thinking of herself as beautiful for the first time ever,” he says.
“She’s always been beautiful,” says Theo.
“Not as beautiful as today,” my pal Jake says to me in the mirror.
I am not looking at me, actually.
I’m looking at my “tumbling” red hair.
Boots comes home with Talking Tillie. They carry bags in. We all go out to help, Tillie talking about the sky this morning, the rain in the middle of the night, “and my cat who caught three—three, count them!—mice in the night and left them on the rug for me to step on in the morning.”
When Talking Tillie is gone, Theo and I put away the groceries. Jake goes out to the garage.
“I’m going up to pick a new book to read,” says Theo.
“How many books did you bring?” I ask.
“Forty-eight,” says Theo, bounding up the stairs.
Boots laughs.
“What’s new?” asks Boots, peering at me.
I shrug.
“George was here,” I say lightly.
“Aha,” she says. “And did Jake and George drive on the road and up around the pond?”
“You know about that?”
Boots looks closely at me.
“Oh, right. You know everything,” I say.
“I do. Plus, Jake never realizes that the hood of his car is warm when he’s been off driving with George.”
“I am.”
“I went too,” I confess. “And Tess. When he can’t see to drive anymore, maybe you can drive,” I say to Boots.
“Not me. Not Jake’s car. He loves the car as much as he loves me. I’m not about to change now.”
“But, Boots, you’re the one who told me that change could be exciting. An adventure!”
Boots stares at me.
“Gotcha,” I say.
“Gotcha,” says Boots in a low voice.
She leans back in her chair and stares at me.
I thought about saying “even steven” to George and George saying “even steven” back to me with our hands together.
I was quiet. Boots was quiet.
I didn’t tell Boots that George loved my “tumbling” hair.
I didn’t say I thought George was beautiful.
“Did you drive a car when you were young, or did Jake drive when you met him?” I ask.
Boots smiles. “Jake and I met in middle school. We fell in love across the classroom. Doing homework together. Walking home after school, laughing all the way. I was thirteen when I fell in love. How old are you?”
“Almost twelve,” I say.
“Imagine that,” says Boots. “Falling in love at your age.”
I say nothing.
“And you never drove a car?” I ask.
“Once I did. But not Jake’s car. And Jake would never have the patience to teach me.”
I grin.
“But George would,” I say in a low voice.
Boots doesn’t say anything for a long time.
Theo comes back to the kitchen with an armful of books. He drops them on the table, sorting them into piles of “yes, I’ll read now” and “later.”
I think about Boots and Jake falling in love so young.
No one I ever heard of fell in love at age twelve.
So here is the question of the day: Why, when I look in the mirror now, do I suddenly look beautiful for the very first time in my life? Is it a mistake somehow? A strange moment that will slip away like clouds?
I walk over to the mirror and look at myself.
My heart skips a beat.
I am beautiful.