What Happens Now Read Online Free PDF Page A

don’t know about,” said Richard as he balanced them on the pile, “and it’s filled with, say, eggplant -colored sand, I may have to kill someone.”
    It was almost six o’clock and closing time. He patted my back and stood up slowly, stretched, then walked over to lock the front door. He took a moment to carefully smooth down the lost-dog notice someone had posted inside the vestibule. FIND VERA! it shouted at us all day.
    “Come on,” said Richard. “Mom and Dani are waiting.” We were supposed to meet them at the restaurant next door for our regular Sunday session of “all of us sitting down in the same place at the same time,” occasionally known as dinner.
    “Will you do me a favor in there?” I asked as we headedout the back. “When the moment’s right, can you ask me if I’m excited about summer?”
    We all had our things at Moose McIntyre’s.
    My mother liked to line up the scalloped edge of the paper place mat with the edge of the table, as if she could get this one thing to be perfect, everything else in life would follow.
    Richard always studied the menu intently, right thumb stroking his right eyebrow, even though he ordered the same exact thing every time.
    Danielle did the maze on the kids’ menu, then the word search, then colored the turtle who was named Shelly and wore a sailor suit for reasons nobody ever understood.
    I sat next to the window, counting every familiar face that walked by outside. My record for a single meal was forty-eight.
    After we got our food, but before everyone was done, Richard gave me a look and I nodded.
    “So, Ari,” he said. “You’ve got what, two more weeks of school? Excited about summer?”
    He was good. Convincing. We’d done this little show before. It was Mom Management Vaudeville.
    “I am. In fact, I have an idea I want to run by you, if you’ll promise to keep an open mind.”
    Mom put down her grilled chicken wrap and rested both hands on her place mat. “We always keep an open mind,” she said, in a way that would never convince anyone she had an open mind.
    I glanced at Dani, who was snugly in her own little world, focused on her turtle. I took a deep breath, then looked squarely at Mom. The only way out was through.
    “There’s a morning-shift housekeeper job available at the River’s Edge B&B, and I’d like to apply.”
    Mom and Richard didn’t react, like they were waiting for the punch line.
    “River’s Edge B&B?” I added pointlessly. “Up on 9W?”
    Mom frowned. Certain lines on her face appeared only when she frowned this much. “But you already have a job.” Mom looked to Richard, but I kept my eyes on her. Seeing Richard’s face right now would destroy whatever resolve I had.
    “I’d like to do something different this summer,” I said.
    “But Richard depends on you.” Mom touched Richard’s arm and I looked at it, her limp hand on his wristwatch.
    “I’m replaceable.” I’d anticipated exactly this objection from Mom. I’d done some prep. “There must have been four college students who stopped in today, asking about work for the summer. He’ll have no trouble finding someone else.”
    “But why, Ari?” asked Mom. She turned to Richard. “We need to know why. Right, honey?”
    I dared look at Richard now. He tilted his head, staring at me. I knew I owed him an explanation.
    I thought of Richard’s face in the doorway of my room after they found out what I’d done. My mom had gone into nurse mode, checking my cuts to make sure they’d stopped bleeding, getting them properly cleaned. She didn’t have the timeor luxury to be shocked or hurt or regretful. At least not right away. (Or ever. I still couldn’t tell.)
    But Richard did. His face. So sad. It was the kind of sadness that shifts a tectonic plate somewhere inside that person.
    In some ways, watching Richard realize my truth was harder than watching Mom and Dani do it. Because he was the first person I would have gone to for help, and because I