Page 24 of The Singing Trees
“Oh, hi,” she replied. Casual, not a care in the world, as if he were the fourth boy to call this afternoon.
“I was hoping you’d like to go to a movie tomorrow.”
A flash of excitement straightened her spine. “Um...uh.” She looked toward the kitchen to make sure Nonna hadn’t poked her nosy head around the corner. There was no evidence of eavesdropping, but Annalisa couldn’t be too careful.
Filling the silence, he said, “They’re showingAlice’s Restaurantat seven at the Davenport Drive-In. It seemed fitting for some reason.”
Alice. He was funny. She could almost hear Mr.Sunshine’s smile, enjoying his own joke. “You’ll never let that one go, will you?”
“I couldn’t resist. So have you seen it?”
“Not yet...the one with...?” She bought time in an attempt to wrangle her racing thoughts. Her conversation with Nonna the previous night was still fresh in her mind, but she had a strong urge to accept his invitation.
“With Arlo Guthrie. What do you say? We’ll have fun.”
The voices in her head went to war.Do it. Don’t do it. What’s wrong with a little date? Everything is wrong with it!She liked him, though; she really did.
Remembering the napkin he’d waved in surrender at the dinner table, she smiled. A boy so committed at least deserved a date. “Yes, I’d love...I mean, I’d like to.”
As they made arrangements, Annalisa debated whether to tell Nonna. A little fib might be best. After ending the call, she returned to the living room. “That was Christina, asking if I could go to a movie tomorrow after work.”
Nonna turned, one eye squinted in skepticism. “Christina, huh?”
“Please, Nonna. They’re showingAlice’s Restaurant, a comedy.” Nonna knew next to nothing about movies, so Annalisa didn’t expand further. She certainly wasn’t going to mention the movie starred Arlo Guthrie, who’d performed at Woodstock a couple of months earlier.
“How stupid do you think I am?” Nonna asked. “I hear when my granddaughter sneaks out, and I know when a boy calls.”
Annalisa’s eyes turned to silver dollars. Nonna knew she’d sneaked out?
“That’s right,” Nonna said. “You think I’m hard on you, but I let you get away with a lot. You can go to the movies with him, but no more lies. Promise me.”
Annalisa almost denied the allegations, but then she realized what a gift her grandmother had given her. That little bit of slack was the biggest hug in the world. She found it hard to do anything but love her grandmother in that moment.
“Thank you. I promise, no more lies. And I promise I’ll be careful with him.”
Nonna pointed at her. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Annalisa fondly remembered watchingEasy Come, Easy GoandParadise, Hawaiian Styleand a long list of other Elvis movies at the Bangor Drive-In with her mother. Her father couldn’t stand the King, so going to the movies was an unspoken escape. She remembered cuddling with her mother under a gray wool blanket, a texture she could still feel, the Yves Saint Laurent perfume her mother wore still lingering. Annalisa could still hear both their gasps when Elvis first appeared.
As the sun fell over the Davenport Drive-In and the previews lit up the giant screen, Annalisa and Thomas laughed hysterically at the people scrambling out of the trunks of cars. They’d do anything to avoid the two-dollar admission. Annalisa recalled it all from Bangor: the swath of light shooting from the projector to the screen up front, the fogged-up cars with kids making out in the back seat, the savory smell of buttery popcorn wafting through the air.
With a bag of popcorn between them and drinks in their hands, they chatted away as they waited for the feature. “What makes you want to be a dentist?” she asked. “Don’t they have a high suicide rate?”
He finished chewing his popcorn. “Yeah, I heard that, too, but I’m not sure it’s true. I caddy for a dentist at the club. A really good guy, agood dad. Only works four days a week, home by five, always has time for his two boys. All I want is to give my kids a good home life; it’s the one thing I’ve always craved. I must sound so vanilla to an artist.”
“I think it’s sweet.” Had she just said that out loud? Itwastrue, though; he was sweet. What if she’d been wrong about love?
When they looked at each other, she saw a genuineness in his eyes that felt like a warm pair of socks for her heart. He said, “I don’t need our big house and our Hinckley and our cabin up north to be happy. All I’ve ever wanted is a normal life. A wife and kids, a nice neighborhood. Maybe a sailboat, but it doesn’t have to be the biggest on the water. And—”
“If you say a white picket fence,” she interrupted, “I’ll hurl...again.” She wasn’t exactly joking.
“No, I don’t want a white picket fence. What about a...” He paused to think. “What about a nice blue picket fence?”
She reached for a handful of popcorn. “You are so in the car with the wrong girl.”
“Why is that?” he asked, sliding his eyes toward her with his Mr.Sunshine grin. “If you don’t like blue, I’ll let you pick the color. You’re the artist.”
Popping a couple of salty kernels into her mouth, she thought that this notion wasexactlyhim. He seemed so flexible, like he’d do whatever it took to include her in his life, even if that meant changing his plans—or the color of his fence.
