El Camino A Casa / Local Girls
By Alice HoffmanRoca Editorial
Copyright © 2005 Alice Hoffman
All right reserved.ISBN: 9788496284289
Chapter One
One thing I've learned is that strange things do happen.They happen all the time. Today, for instance, my bestfriend Jill's cat spoke. We were making brownies in thekitchen when we heard it say, Let me out. Well, we rushedto the back door and did exactly that. We experienced amiracle and now we're looking for more, although Franconia,the town we live in, is not known for such things.Jill and I have known each other our whole lives. Onehouse separates our houses but we act as if it doesn't exist.We met before we were born and we'll probably still knoweach other after we die. At least, that's the way we're planningit.
My mother and I left for Atlantic City so quicklyI didn't have time to call Jill. We told people we were onour way to visit an old aunt, but really our departure hadsomething to do with love, or the lack of it, and the auntdoesn't even exist. I know other people whose motherssuddenly pack up when their fathers drink or scream, butfor us this is more serious. My mother doesn't do thingslike go to Atlantic City. She doesn't order room serviceand cry. She once told me that anyone who gets marriedhad better like herself, because there's nobody else in thisworld that she'll ever really know, not truly.
We stayed in our room in Atlantic City for three days,and didn't go outside once, thanks to room service. We atelike pigs and didn't even bother to brush our teeth untilmy mother's cousin Margot, who got a divorce last summerand changed the color of her hair to give herself anemotional lift, came to get us. She drove to New Jersey inthe Ford Mustang convertible that she refused to let her exhave, since he'd taken her very soul and raked it over redhotcoals.
"Get dressed right now," she told us.
We were wearing our bathrobes and watching an oldcowboy movie, which, for some reason, made my mothercry. Maybe it was all those men on horseback who were sosteadfast and loyal. Their own men had disappointed them,but somehow Margot and my mother both had hope forimprovement. Frankly, I had more faith in the horses.
"I mean now, Frances," Margot said, and because shemeant business, my mother actually dressed and put onsome lipstick and we went to a Chinese restaurant wherethe drinks came with little paper umbrellas, which I keptas a souvenir.
Listen to me, Gretel, Margot told me when we'd goneback to the room to pack and my mother was finally outof earshot. When a marriage breaks up, it's the children who suffer,so baby, hold on tight. That's why Margot was relievedthat she and Tony had never had children, although shebecame teary whenever she saw a baby.
"Margot is my best friend, but she's completely full ofbaloney," my mother whispered as we were throwing oursuitcases into the trunk. "Take it all with a grain of salt.Maybe even a whole shaker."
Say what you want about the Mustang, it may be gorgeous,but it has very little trunk space. I had to sit in theback seat with the hair dryer and the makeup case on mylap all the way to Franconia, but that didn't stop me fromkeeping my fingers crossed and wishing we'd wind upsomeplace other than home.
We're in Florida for one week, the week whenthe turtles die on the beach and there are jellyfish in theocean. As soon as we checked into the hotel, my brother,Jason, who likes to pretend he's not part of our family,went out to study tide pools and no one has seen himsince. My parents are here to try to revitalize their marriage,which seems a pretty impossible feat to all outsideobservers. Gretel honey, don't get high hopes, Margot had alreadywarned me when she took me shopping for abathing suit, a mission which can give anyone with a lessthan perfect body a complete nervous breakdown. Whenit's over, it's over, Margot told me, and I had the distinct feelingthat she was right.
Long before the plane touched down in Miami wecould hear our parents arguing, and at the hotel theylocked themselves in their room. If you ask me, workingso hard at being married can backfire. It certainly is makingmy father nastier than usual. Not that his bad temperaffects me. I keep my own counsel. I go my own way. I orderroom service and eat Linzer tortes and shrimp scampialone in the room I was supposed to be sharing with Jason,not that he was ever planning to show up. Even though Iwas across the hall from my parents, I could still hear themfighting.
I went out to the beach late, later than I'd be allowedto if anyone knew I was alive. That's where I met JonathanRabbit, who is now in love with me. He is known as JackRabbit, which makes me laugh out loud. Doesn't it figurethat the boy who fell for me would be a rodent? He livesin Atlanta and is in the ninth grade, and frankly he's terriblyboring. I let him kiss me once, but believe me, I didnot hear bells. I only heard the jellyfish sloshing around inthe water and the noisy beat of Jack Rabbit's heart.
Florida didn't do anything for my family, butat least it's starting to be spring. Jill and I are keeping oureyes open for miracles. Jack Rabbit calls me constantly andthat is something of a miracle. He writes so often you'dthink his fingers would start to cramp up. I bring his lettersto school, so everyone is well aware that I have a boyfriendin Atlanta. They'll never meet him. They'll never know it'sactually possible for a boy to be so boring you'd agree tokiss him just to get him to shut up. I should get paid to listento him when he calls on the phone. I should get a dollarfifty an hour. Minimum.
Jill told me that when you're really in love, you knowright away. I'm not exactly sure how this happens. Is it likea flash of lightning? Like an angel tapping you on theshoulder? Or is it similar to choosing a puppy? You thinkyou're picking the cutest one, but really you wind up goinghome with the one who keeps insisting on climbinginto your lap. That's how we got our dog, Revolver. Wethought he was so crazy about us, but it turned out thatLabrador retrievers adore everyone. Well, maybe that'swhat love is, a state of mind ready to grace anyone willingto accept it. Anyone who cares.
School's out. Hurray. Life, however, is still so boringthat I'm writing to Jack Rabbit every day. I go to thepool with Jill and take along my notebook and write untilI think I'm going blind, then jump into the deep end. Weare not going on vacation because no one in my house istalking to each other, so going anywhere together is definitelyout. My brother's on the summer science team at thehigh school, so he's never home. My father is on an exercisekick and has joined a gym, so he's never around either.
My mother and Margot and I spend a lot of time goingto movies. It's dark and it's cool and no one knows ifyou're crying, except for the person sitting directly besideyou. Margot buys me anything I want, even Jordan almonds,which are so terrible for your teeth. She's the kindof person who knows about love. She has men calling herin the middle of the night, but they're all no good, or soshe says. Just like Jill, she insists she'll know when shemeets the right man. But unlike Jill, she tells me exactlywhat love's evidence is. I'll just want to kiss him till I die. Tome, this doesn't sound like something to hope for, butpeople seem to hope for it all the same.
Jill is...
