“No school for you today!” Mom said the next morning.
“But I’m fine,” Sally told her.
“We’re not going to take any chances. A day of rest can’t hurt.”
“But I don’t want to miss school today… we’re having a Hanukkah party with songs and games…”
“I know, honey… but your health comes first,” Mom said.
“Please, Mom… please let me go to school…”
“We’ll have our own Hanukkah party, right here,” Mom said.
“That’s not the same!”
“Tell you what… I was saving your Hanukkah present until Daddy gets here, but I’m sure he’ll understand if I give it to you now…”
“My Hanukkah present?” Can it be a baton? she wondered.
Mom went into the sleeping alcove and came back with a slender box. “I haven’t even wrapped it yet.”
It can’t be a baton, Sally thought, opening the box. It’s much too small. Instead, she found a Mickey Mouse watch with a red patent leather strap. “Oh, Mom… I love it! It’s exactly what I wanted. It’s even better than a baton. Oh, thank you… thank you…” She jumped off the day bed and hugged her mother.
“I didn’t know you wanted a baton,” Mom said.
“You didn’t?”
“No… you never mentioned it.”
“You mean I forgot? Oh well… it doesn’t matter… because this is even better… and now I’ve just got to go to school… I’ve got to show all my friends my new watch.”
“Tomorrow…” Mom said, laughing. “Today you stay on your bed and rest.”
So Sally rested. She watched the hours go by on her new watch. She read a Nancy Drew mystery. She studied Ma Fanny’s collection of family photos. She always had trouble believing that the chubby baby on Ma Fanny’s lap was once her mother. And then there was her favorite picture. Lila. She held it, running her hands along the silver frame, then tracing Lila’s features with one finger—her eyes, nose, mouth—beautiful Lila.
Dear Mr. Zavodsky,
I’m thinking about you. I know you didn’t get my other letters because I didn’t send them yet. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to send them because I am. They are safe, inside my keepsake box. I am just waiting for the right moment. A detective has to get evidence and that is what I’m doing now. I know plenty about you. I know you killed Lila. So don’t think that just because you haven’t heard from me you’re safe.
Two weeks later, when Sally’s father arrived, they joined the Seagull Pool Club. Mom said it had nothing to do with the Man O’ Wars in the ocean but Sally didn’t believe her.
“Does this mean we can’t go to the beach anymore?” she asked.
“Of course not,” Daddy said. “This is just something extra.”
“And you can take swimming lessons,” Mom said. “I hear they have an excellent instructor.”
“I can already float on my back.”
“But there are lots of other strokes,” Daddy said.
“I don’t want swimming lessons. I’d rather learn by myself,” Sally said.
“Well, that’s all right too,” Mom told her. “You know I don’t believe in forcing children when it comes to swimming.”
“And neither do I,” Daddy added.
“I’m hoping Douglas will make some friends at the pool,” Mom said, more to Daddy than Sally. “He’s always alone, riding his bicycle… even on the beach he keeps to himself…”
“Douglas doesn’t need friends,” Sally said.
“Everybody needs friends,” Mom said, “even Douglas.”
It wasn’t that Sally objected to joining the Seagull Pool Club. Shelby belonged there and so did a lot of other kids from school. It was just that she wanted to make sure she could still go to the beach. In spite of the Man O’ Wars, she loved the ocean—the smell of it, the sound of it, the salty taste—her toes squishing into the sand at the water’s edge…
On her first day at the Seagull Pool Club, Shelby taught Sally how to hold her nose and sit on the bottom. Then Sally showed Shelby how she could float on her back. While she was demonstrating, someone swam so close she felt a foot brush the side of her face. “Hey…” Sally called, loosing her balance. She stood in waist-high water. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going?”
He turned to face her. “Why don’t you watch out yourself?” he drawled. It was Georgia Blue Eyes.
“Did you see that boy who kicked me?” Sally asked Shelby.
“Yes.”
“Well, Andrea is hopelessly in love with him.”
“She is?”
“Oops…” Sally covered her mouth with her hand. “That’s supposed to be a secret. I shouldn’t have told you.”
“It’s okay,” Shelby said. “I know how to keep secrets.”
“How was the Seagull?” Andrea asked that night. They were sitting at the side of the goldfish pool, watching Omar stalk a salamander.
“It was pretty good,” Sally said, stirring the fish pool with a long stick.
“Any interesting boys?”
“I haven’t looked around yet.” Sally was surprised by her own answer. She had expected to tell Andrea about Georgia Blue Eyes right away. But having a secret from Andrea was so exciting she decided to keep her news to herself. Someday she would tell Andrea. Some day when the time was right. She would say, Oh, by the way… Georgia Blue Eyes once put his foot in my face.
“We might join in March,” Andrea said. “My father’s going to think about it. He got me and Linda a raft for Hanukkah… we rode the waves all day… it was so much fun.”
“Shelby taught me to hold my nose and sit on the bottom of the pool.”
“I don’t like water in my eyes.”
“Me neither… but Shelby told me to keep them closed and I wouldn’t feel a thing.”
“Yes… but you could bump into someone that way.”
“Listen,” Sally said, “you could bump into someone just floating on your back… you never know…”
“That’s true,” Andrea said.
“I don’t want to fly to Cuba,” Mom said.
“Just for the weekend, Louise,” Daddy told her.
Sally sat at the table in the breakfast nook, shelling lima beans for Ma Fanny, who was in the kitchen, fixing dinner. She and Ma Fanny were very quiet so that they could hear the conversation between Daddy and Mom, who were in the sleeping alcove.
“No… I don’t want to go, Arnold.”
“Because of Vicki and Ted?”
“Because I’m afraid to fly… and you know it.”
“Is that the whole reason?” Daddy asked.
“It’s reason enough.”
“There’s nothing to be afraid of… I’ve flown three times since you’ve been down here…”
“And I wish to God you wouldn’t… I wish you’d take the train down and back.”
Sally nodded. She worried so each time her father flew.
“I’d lose two days that way,” Daddy said.
“But at least you’d be safe,” Mom told him.
Sally nodded again.
“If your time’s up, it’s up… it doesn’t matter where you are,” Daddy said.
“You don’t have to take chances though… you don’t have to go looking for trouble.”
“That’s right,” Sally mumbled to herself, “especially this year.” She finished shelling the beans. She dumped them out on the table and began dividing them into five equal piles.
“I want to go to Cuba for the weekend.” Daddy sounded very firm. “And I want you to come with me.”
“No!” Mom said, sounding just as firm.
“I’m going, Lou… with you or without you.”
“Then I guess you don’t love me very much.” Mom’s voice broke.
Sally paused, feeling herself choke up.
“This has nothing to do with love,” Daddy said, quietly.
“It has everything to do with love.” Mom was crying now.
“If you loved me enough you’d come too,” Daddy said.
Sally was afraid to look up from the table. She didn’t want to meet Ma Fanny’s glance.
“You only want to go because of Ted and Vicki… they put the bug in your head…”
Daddy sighed. “Oh, Lou… why can’t you understand… I need to get away with you… I need that badly…”
“I need it too,” Mom said, sniffling. “But I’d rather move up to a hotel on Lincoln Road. Why do we have to fly to Cuba?”
“Because Ted will pick up the tab, for one thing… and for another, it’s an adventure…”
“I’m not Sally,” Mom said. “You can’t convince me by calling this an adventure!”
Sally sat up straight.
“Shush… she’ll hear you.”
“I don’t care!”
“Maybe you should be more like Sally,” Daddy said. “At least she’s willing to try.”
Sally couldn’t help smiling.
“You’re ruining our time together, Arnold… I don’t understand why you’re doing this to us.”
“Why I’m doing it!” Daddy said. “Okay… not another word on the subject… but next Friday night I’m flying to Cuba with Ted and Vicki. I’ll have two tickets in my pocket. I hope you’ll change your mind and come with us.”
Daddy clomped out of the sleeping alcove, still wearing his wooden beach shoes. Sally pretended to be busy with the lima beans as he walked over to her. He put his hand on her head. “How’s my little gal?” he asked.
“Oh… just fine,” Sally told him.
“Good… that’s good…”
“We each get twenty-six lima beans for supper.”
“Suppose I eat twenty-seven?” Daddy asked.
“Then we’ll all point and call pig…”
Daddy laughed and took a lima bean from one of the carefully arranged piles. He ate it raw.
The next morning Sally went grocery shopping with Mom and Ma Fanny. She needed a new box of Crayolas and she also wanted to make sure Mom bought enough Welch’s grape juice.
“Get smart, Louise,” Ma Fanny said. “Go to Cuba for the weekend. There’s nothing to worry about here.”
“I don’t know, Ma… both of us on the same plane… if anything happens what will become of the children?”
“Nothing will happen.”
“You can’t be sure.”
“So who’s ever sure of anything in this crazy world? Go with Arnold… don’t send him away without you.”
“I’ll think about it, Ma.” Mom looked over at Sally. “Don’t you know better than to listen to grownups when they’re talking?”
“I wasn’t listening,” Sally said. “I don’t care if you go to Cuba or not.” She pushed her cart down the aisle. Actually, Sally was torn between wanting Mom to go because Daddy seemed so anxious and wanting them both to stay home. After all, it would be more than a month before she’d see her father again. It bothered her that he wanted to get away with just Mom.
Sally and her family went to the Seagull Pool Club every day that week. It was such fun to have Daddy with them! He never tired of playing games. He played dolphin with Sally, letting her ride on his back as he swam underwater. He lifted her onto his shoulders and had chicken fights with Douglas, who carried Shelby as his partner. He played keep-away, tossing a brightly colored beach ball from one to the other. He rented flippers for their feet, showing them how to use them. And suddenly, to Sally’s surprise, she found that she could lift both feet off the bottom of the pool and not go under. She was learning to swim! It was easy. All she had to do was kick her feet and move her arms. She was actually swimming and without ever having had a lesson!
Mom stood at the edge of the pool snapping pictures.
On Thursday, Sally brought Barbara as her guest. “Barbara… you know Shelby, don’t you?” she said, when they met in the pool.
“Oh, sure…” Barbara said. “You’re the other one who’s allergic to the school food, right?”
“Right!” Shelby answered and all three of them laughed together.
That afternoon Sally spoke to Georgia Blue Eyes. She said, “You know something… you’re a good swimmer but you’re always bumping into me when I’m floating on my back.”
He said, “If you’d turn over once in a while you wouldn’t have that problem.”
She said, “You’re the one with the problem.”
He said, “I’ve seen you around, haven’t I?”
She said, “Maybe…”
He said, “You’re always with that other one… that jerk with the frizzy hair.”
She said, “Her name is Andrea and her hair’s not frizzy… it’s curly.”
He said, “And what’s your name?”
She said, “Mine?” and she looked over at Shelby and Barbara who were giggling like crazy. “I’m Sally.”
“Sally what?” he asked.
“Never mind,” Sally said.
“Sally Nevermind… that’s a pretty jerky name… but it fits you…” He laughed and swam away.
“Oh… he’s so cute!” Barbara said. “Don’t you think he’s the most adorable boy you’ve ever seen?”
“Yes,” Shelby said. “And I love his accent… I’d let him kiss me any day.”
“Me too,” Barbara said. “Any day and any place.”
“What about you, Sally?” Shelby asked. “Would you let him kiss you?”
“I’d have to think about it,” Sally answered. “I usually prefer Latin lovers… they’re the best.”
On Saturday afternoon Sally and Douglas went to the beach with Ma Fanny and the Rubins. There were no Man O’ Wars in sight. Mrs. Rubin sat on her blanket rubbing suntan oil onto Mr. Rubin’s back. “Your mother’s so lucky…” she said to Sally, “going off to Cuba for the weekend… I wish somebody would take me to Cuba… hint, hint…” She tickled Mr. Rubin’s belly.
He said, “Somebody’s already paying to keep you in Miami Beach… remember?”
“Oh, Ivan… I was just teasing,” Mrs. Rubin said. “You know that.” She kissed his cheek.
“My mother didn’t even want to go,” Sally explained. “My father had to practically force her…”
“Sally,” Ma Fanny called, “come and have a sandwich.”
“I’m not hungry yet.”
“Come and have it anyway…” Ma Fanny said.
When Sally sat down next to her, Ma Fanny leaned close and whispered, “Don’t tell family secrets.”
“But I…”
“Think, mumeshana… always think before you speak.”
“I try to…” Sally said.
“I loved it, I loved it, I loved it!” Mom sang, when she and Daddy returned from Cuba on Sunday night. “It was even more exciting than Daddy promised.”
“Did you see any Latin lovers?” Sally asked.
“Oh, dozens… everywhere you looked…” She and Daddy laughed. “And we rhumbaed until three in the morning…” She put her arms around Daddy’s neck and they danced across the room. “And we drank Creme de Cacao… and it was so delicious…”
“As good as champagne?” Sally asked.
“Oh, better… much, much better…” Mom laughed some more. “It makes you feel like you’re walking on air.”
“And what about flying?” Sally said. “How was that?”
“Well…” Mom answered, “once we got up I never even knew we were moving…”
“Once she opened her eyes, that is,” Daddy said, “and stopped digging her nails into my hand…”
“Oh, Arnold…” Mom gave him a playful punch. “Not that I’d want to do it all the time, mind you… but once in a while… in good weather…”
Sally noticed that her parents looked at each other and laughed a lot in the next few days. On New Year’s Eve they all went to the Orange Bowl Parade. Mr. Wiskoff had a box, right up front, so Sally had no trouble seeing all the marching bands and floats go by. And after the parade Big Ted took Sally by the hand, to his car, and gave her a special gift—a baton. “Someday we’re going to see you march in the Orange Bowl Parade,” he said.
“But how did you know…” Sally asked, “how did you know I’ve been dying for a baton?”
“A little bird told me,” he said.
And then it was January second and Daddy had to fly back to New Jersey. They went to the airport to see him off. Sally waved and blew kisses and prayed hard as the plane took off.
And then it was January third and time to go back to school.