I thought Dad would look back, but he didn’t. Not even once. Mei did, and waved. They went up the front walk to a dreary-looking house, dark brown with dark green trim. It had a paved driveway but no garage. There weren’t any cars in the driveway. While Grandma waited to be sure they got in, I moved to the front seat.
Dad rang the doorbell and stood listening. Nice seeing you again, Cree. That was it? His own daughter? After six years?
The door opened. I couldn’t see who opened it, but I heard a loud exclamation that could have been male or female. Dad and Mei disappeared inside.
“I was hoping they wouldn’t be there,” I said.
“How come?”
“Then he’d—” Then he would have to come to our house, at least for a while. I didn’t want Grandma to know how I felt. Let her think I didn’t care.
I said, “That must have been a surprise, him showing up like that. Unless he called them on the way.”
“Not from the road. I’d have noticed.” Grandma pulled away from the curb. “Now how do I get out of here?”
“Back the way we came.” I directed her as best I could remember. As soon as we were on familiar ground, I started in.
“Okay, I’m guessing that’s Hey Buddy’s home. Do you have any clue who Hey Buddy is? I asked Mei and drew a blank.”
“Nope. Not a clue,” Grandma said.
“He didn’t say anything in all that time?”
“He said plenty, but not about Hey Buddy. Now I got a question. Who’s Mei in all this? Is she a girlfriend? A wife? A secretary?”
“Why would he need a secretary? He doesn’t do anything. I thought she must be a girlfriend of some sort.”
“How many sorts are there?” Grandma asked.
“You’re evading me again. I want to know who Hey Buddy is and who Liam is and if they’re the same person.”
“When you find out, tell me. I don’t know anything about his family. Could be a brother, a cousin, a friend. Who knows?”
It was possible she really didn’t know. But I couldn’t understand why nobody had any answers. Someone, like Mom, must have known something.
I had a sudden longing for Ben. Okay, it wasn’t sudden, it was all the time. So what if he had his odd moments? At least he was sane, not like everybody else in my life.
As soon as we were home, and through the greeting routine with Jasper, I said, “I think I’ll take a walk. I’ve been sitting too long.”
Grandma looked at me in surprise. “Oh, to be young. Me, I’m gonna crash. It’s kinda nice I don’t have to make lunch and be a hostess.” That was Grandma’s way of looking on the bright side.
I set off on foot for Frosty Dan. My feet were all I had. Sometimes I got to use Grandma’s car, but this time I didn’t ask. She would say it needed rest as much as she did. To her the car was a person, not a machine. She even gave it a name. She called it Archie.
According to my watch, it was a little after three. Ben started work as soon as school let out. When I got there, he was serving two freshman girls who eagerly chatted him up. Ben did his best to be polite, but I could see he wasn’t genuinely interested. That made me happy. I settled myself at the end of the counter and waited till he had a free moment.
More customers came in. Ben had to serve the tables as well as the counter. They should have given him an assistant, namely me.
After everybody got what they wanted, he picked up a rag and began mopping. When he worked his way down to where I was, he asked, “How did it go?”
“Weird,” I said. “He went to a house in Hudson Hills. Grandma dropped him off there and that was the last we saw. If they never got word he was coming, it must have been quite a shock, especially because he brought his girlfriend. The one in the picture I showed you. Her name is Mei and she doesn’t know anything either, not about Hey Buddy. That really stumped her. As for Liam, I couldn’t tell.”
“Who’s Liam?” he asked.
I forgot Ben didn’t know. “It’s a name that came up at the airport. Dad was surprised to see us there and asked, ‘Where’s Liam?’ I’m thinking it might be Hey Buddy, but that’s not much help.”
Ben went on mopping, with nothing to say. I asked, “Do you know anybody in Hudson Hills named Liam?”
He took a moment to squint at me. “I don’t know anybody in Hudson Hills named anything.”
“He lives on Salt Street.”
“Never heard of it.”
The two girls watched us, yearning after Ben and probably wishing I would disappear. Maybe Ben wished so, too. Finally they finished their sundaes and left, looking over their shoulders. One of them called, “You should be in the movies.” They giggled and fled.
A party of four came in and sat at a table. While they debated what to order, Ben came back my way. I said, “Seventy-nine Salt Street.”
“Never heard of it,” he said again.
“It’s brown with dark green trim.”
“So?”
“Is there any way you can find out? You have all those Internet search things you know how to do.”
“What do you want found?”
“I want to know who lives there.” I thought that would be obvious.
“What’s it to you who lives there?”
“Well, he is my father, or so they tell me. I might even have relatives.”
“You have doubts about him being your father? How about a DNA test?”
“Oh, boy. I can just imagine asking for that. What would Mom say?”
“One way to find out.”
Frosty Dan got busier. I knew I was in the way, so I went home.
Grandma offered me an egg salad sandwich. It was late afternoon, but Grandma was a stickler for three meals a day. I ate it in the kitchen while she puttered.
“Have a nice walk?” she asked. Translation: Where did you go, and why, and what did you do there?
So I told her. “I went to Frosty Dan but I didn’t eat anything.”
“Yeah? How’s the hunk?”
“Hunky, as usual.”
“You didn’t stay long.”
“No, he was busy.”
“Did he kick you out?”
That was getting too close. He might have, if I hadn’t left. I didn’t tell her that and she didn’t ask.
I wanted answers, too, and didn’t ask. Why bother? Nobody answered me anyway.
I went upstairs to my room and lay on the bed. I kept it near the window so I could look out.
On weekdays Ben didn’t get off work till nine or later. Then he went home and studied physics and solid geometry. I worried that all the pressure would give him a heart attack and he’d miss graduation.
After a day like today, I figured at the very least he would go home and crash. It had to be exhausting, working long hours on his feet. Dealing with people and making chit-chat. To an Aspie like Ben, that alone could be stressful. So it was a big surprise when I saw his blue truck coming down the hill from Maple Street, right into our driveway.
Grandma called, “The hunk’s here! But don’t stay up too late.”
I went down to meet him. His first words were, “Are you running?”
He meant my computer. I dashed back up and turned it on. While it loaded, I went to the kitchen for Pepsi and chips. He accepted a Pepsi and sat down at my desk.
“Ben,” I said, “what are you doing? What about physics and solid geometry?”
“It’s Friday.”
Since usually he preferred his own computer, I assumed he meant to help me with Hudson Hills.
“Don’t you need special software?” I asked.
“For what?”
Okay, he knew a lot more than I did, so I shut up. He took a swig of soda and began clicking keys.
“Seventy-nine Salt Street,” I reminded him. It wasn’t necessary. Ben had a phenomenal memory for that kind of detail.
I couldn’t help watching. He twitched his shoulder as if to knock away a fly. I backed off and waited.
“Salt Street, huh?” He wasn’t asking, only making conversation. I resisted the urge to say “Seventy-nine.” Or mention the dark green trim. Since the house was already dark brown, why didn’t they trim it in a lighter shade? It wouldn’t have looked so dismal.
“Hmm.” He scowled at the screen. “Mulvaney. Do you know any Mulvaneys?”
“Not a single one.” I tried to think and came up empty.
“It’s U Mulvaney. What would U stand for?”
“Ulysses? Ugo? That’s Italian for Hugo. Umbert? Ulrich?”
“It could be female,” he said. “A lot of women list only their initial to keep the creeps away.”
“Why are there so many creeps in the world?”
“Don’t ask me. Ask God.”
“Do you think God made creeps? Why would He do that?”
“It’s one of those mysteries. Do you want a phone number?”
I cringed at the thought of calling strangers. What would I say to them? I went back to the name. “Una, maybe? Or Uma?”
“What’s the point in guessing? If you’re really interested, you can call them and ask.” He gave me the number that I didn’t want. I wrote it down.
“How about Uta?” I couldn’t stop. “Undine? I read a story once about somebody named Undine. I think she was a mermaid.”
“What did we say about guessing?”
“I didn’t say it. You did. I know there’s no point. I’m only trying to figure out what makes sense.”
He shook his head. I wished he would kiss me instead. He turned off the computer and we finished the bag of chips.
“Now that you have that information,” he said, “what are you going to do with it?”
“Nothing, maybe. All I want is to know. I still don’t know much, like who those Mulvaneys are.”
“You could drive by the house and stare.”
“Which would tell me what? Anyway, I’m not that desperate.”
Maybe I was. Or at least curious. But driving by wouldn’t answer my questions.
I might catch a glimpse of Dad. It would give me an excuse to stop and talk to him. If I caught a glimpse, which I doubted.
Anyway, it was Ben I cared about. I wanted him to kiss me and stop being so businesslike.
He left without even a snuggle. I could understand what people meant about a hole in the heart. It was there, I could almost see it, a red pit that went on forever. I tried to ignore it, and busied myself instead with the phone book.
No Mulvaneys were listed in Hudson Hills. And none anywhere with the initial U. I stared at it, hoping one would appear. When it didn’t, I booted up my computer and tried to follow Ben’s viewing history. It took a lot of fiddling but eventually I came up with exactly what he had found. It didn’t tell me anything new.
I thought of calling the number, but what would I say? “Hello, I saw my dad go into your house and I’m wondering who you are?”
Hey, I could ask to speak to Dad. They would demand to know who I was. Didn’t I have a legitimate reason?
What would I say to him? I was suddenly bashful. He’d made it so clear he didn’t want to bother with me. I should give up the whole thing.
Or start with what Ben said, drive by the house and stare. It wouldn’t give me any answers, but I’d feel I was doing something.
First I would have to get hold of Grandma’s car. She’d never turn over the keys without a lot of questions. Probing ones that I’d feel silly answering. Everyone seemed to think it was odd that I’d want to know the dad who made up half my genes.
I thought of calling Maddie. She would say she couldn’t talk, with that Very Important Work for her dad. Or else she’d be sleeping. If not that, she’d be busy with her cop friend, Rick Falco. They got to know each other last winter when she was having problems. Much worse ones than I had.
Maddie claimed she wasn’t really involved with Rick; they’d only kissed a couple of times. To me, that seemed involved. After all, she was a high school junior while he was a great, big, twenty-something cop. Still, he was a huge improvement over the obsessive, ex-boyfriend maniac she couldn’t get rid of. Having a cop in her life must have made her feel safe.
Plus, he was cute. Her parents liked him but they thought Maddie was too young to get serious about an older man. They made that clear, but so far let it go. Possibly because he’d saved her life once and could do it again.
Okay, that was Maddie’s problem. I had a few of my own. After much debate, I got up the nerve to ask Grandma if I could borrow Archie.
I found her half asleep on the sofa with the TV on. My question made her pop straight up. As expected, she narrowed her eyes and asked, “What do you want him for?”
I told you she considered the car a person.
“I just want to check a few things,” was all I could think of.
“Like what?”
I knew this wouldn’t be easy. I had to keep reminding myself it was her car.
“Maybe I should get a new bike,” I said.
“You’d bike all the way to Hudson Hills?”
“I wouldn’t even consider it. That’s what I need Archie for. How did you know I want to go to Hudson Hills?”
“’Cause I’ve got insight. Plus all those questions you keep asking.”
I could feel myself losing it. “If somebody would just give me some answers, I wouldn’t have to keep asking. I wouldn’t need to ride all the way to Hudson Hills on a bike I don’t have.”
“Honey, if I had the answers, I’d give them to you. I got no idea who lives in that house.”
“Somebody named Mulvaney,” I told her. “First initial is U. Gender unknown.”
“Where’d you get all that?”
“Ben looked it up on the Internet.”
She turned off the TV so she could question me better.
“Next thing.” She poked the air as if making a list with bullet points. “Did you happen to notice it’s dark out there? It seems to me the law says at your age you’re not supposed to drive after dark.”
“I know it’s dark. I wasn’t going right now. Could I borrow him tomorrow?”
“I guess maybe. Unless something comes up.”
Arghh.
Still, I tried one last time to save myself the trip. “Didn’t Dad tell you anything on the way home? You guys were talking nonstop.”
“He had a lot to say about Borneo,” she answered. “And he asked about your mom.”
“Like he cares about Mom.”
“He really does.” Grandma was probably kidding herself. “It’s just that he got this itch. The thing they call wanderlust.”
“A lot of times people don’t do what they’d rather do, because they have responsibilities. He never heard of growing up and facing responsibilities?”
“Guess not. But your mom did okay without him.”
Grandma turned the TV back on. I was dismissed.