THE CALL CAME after eleven. Dec was already in bed when Birdie appeared at his door with the portable in hand. She frowned as she handed it to him. He returned her frown and waited with the receiver pressed to his chest until she retreated, closing the door behind her.
“Hello?”
“Guess who.”
He went cold all over. It was her. Lindy. He sat up, collecting what was left of his tattered nerves, regaining his wits.
“Are you there, Dec?”
He couldn’t believe his mistake. “Vivien?”
“You thought it was someone else, didn’t you?”
“No,” he lied. “I’m just slow.”
“Sorry to be calling so late. Is your mother really mad?”
He was going to correct her, but it was too late to start explaining things. “No, it’s cool,” he said.
“And I’m sorry about the whole guess-who routine. God, that is so lame.”
Dec smiled. It was a crazy lady, all right, but good crazy.
“Did you just phone to apologize?”
“Oh, what a goof,” she said. “I mean me, not you. I’m… no, I won’t say it.”
His grin widened. He hoped she could feel it when he spoke.
“We don’t take any classes together,” he said, “so I’m guessing this isn’t about homework.”
“Right. You’re absolutely right. This is not about homework. I was talking to Ezra the other day about his scholarship.”
Dec laid his head back on his pillow. “Uh-huh.”
“It’s brilliant,” she said. “I mean, for him. But, well, I saw you later that day in spare and I thought how hard it was going to be for you when he’s gone.”
Dec was taken aback. Was he that transparent? Or was Vivien just that tuned in? “That must have been when I was spray-painting the big sign on the wall, ‘Don’t go, Ezra!’”
“Well, sorta,” she said, laughing. “I remember how hard it was leaving my friends when I moved here. There was this one girl, Pixilene. We were like tight, really tight. And I got to this place where I couldn’t breathe thinking about her not being around. You know?”
“Yeah. I think I do.”
“And that’s why I’m calling,” said Vivien. “Well, sort of. Pixilene and me — we’re still tight. I mean, she’s out in Saskatoon but we’re, you know, in touch. She’s probably even going to come out this summer, which is totally cool. I hope you’ll meet her.”
Dec settled his head into his pillow. “Is this a set-up for a blind date?”
“No way!”
He smiled. “I think I know what you mean,” he said. “Life goes on.”
“Exactly. And this is good practice.”
“For what?”
“Life. I don’t know about you, but I plan on seeing a lot of the world and so it might end up that all my friends are somewhere else. You know what I mean?”
“I think I do.”
There was a pause of about twenty years. Then Dec said, “Thanks for calling. I was feeling down.”
“Good,” she said. “I mean bad.” Then she laughed and her voice seemed to relax a bit. He hadn’t really noticed how coiled up she had sounded until then. “That isn’t the only reason I called. I was watching you, like I said, and I…well, I wrote this poem. Don’t worry, I’m not going to read it to you.”
“Thank God,” he said, laughing.
“You looked so alone. So kind of…deserted? Anyway, I wrote this poem. And I liked it a lot. I always like a new poem a lot. You need to, if it’s going to, you know, not die. You need to adore it into existence. Then, later, you can tear it to shreds or fix it or whatever. So, as I was saying, I really liked this poem and I thought I might send it to you.”
“Cool. I’ll look forward to it.”
“You don’t have to,” she said. “You can just chuck it, if you like. I won’t mind. You may hate it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. You may think it sucks. I almost put it in the mailbox, and then I went, no way!”
“So, let me get this straight… you didn’t send it.”
“No, but I still might.” She laughed nervously. “I just don’t want you to think I’m this freak who’s like stalking you.
Just then there was a knock on his door. He raised his head enough to see Birdie in her bathrobe pointing at her watch.
“I’m getting dirty looks,” he said. Birdie made a face but backed out of the room. He waited until she was good and gone. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said into the phone.
“Cool,” she said, as if it wasn’t just school. As if tomorrow was this idea they both shared.