Page 11 (1/2)

‘Even though we’re together every day …’

‘We’re never really together,’ she said

‘It’s like we have fifty chaperones’

‘Hostile chaperones,’ Eleanor whispered

‘Yeah,’ Park said

He put his pen in his pocket, then took her hand and held it to his chest for a ine It ive him both of her kidneys

‘A date,’ he said

‘Practically’

CHAPTER 19

Eleanor

When she woke up that , she felt like it was her birthday – like she used to feel on her birthday, back when there was a shot in hell of ice cream

Maybe her dad would have ice creaot there He was always dropping hints about her weight Well, he used to, anyway Maybe when he stopped caring about her altogether, he’d stopped caring about that, too

Eleanor put on an old striped men’s shirt and had her mom tie one of her ties – like knot it, for real – around her neck

Her oodbye at the door and told her to have fun, and to call the neighbors if things got weird with her dad

Right, Eleanor thought, I’ll be sure to call you if Dad’s fiancée calls me a bitch and then makes me use a bathroom without a door Oh wait …

She was a little nervous It had been a year, at least, since she’d seen her dad, and a while before that He hadn’t called at all when she lived with the Hickmans Maybe he didn’t know she was there She never told hiet really angry and say he was going topromise, and everyone knew it Even Mouse, as just a toddler

Their dad couldn’t stand having them even for a few days He used to pick them up from their mom’s house, then drop them off at his mom’s house while he went off and did whatever it was that he did on the weekend (Presumably, lots and lots of marijuana)

Park cracked up when he saw Eleanor’s tie

That was even better thandressed up,’

he said when she sat down next to hi you to take me someplace nice,’ she said softly

‘I will …’ he said He took the tie in both hands and straightened it ‘Someday’

He was a lot more likely to say stuff like that on the way to school than he was on the way home Sometimes she wondered if he was fully awake

He turned practically sideways in his seat

‘So you’re leaving right after school?’

‘Yeah’

‘And you’ll call et there

…’

‘No, I’ll call you as soon as the kid settles down I really do have to babysit’

‘I’ to ask you a lot of personal questions,’ he said, leaning forward ‘I have a list’

‘I’,’ he said, ‘and extre answers …’

He sat back in the seat and looked over at her

‘I wish you’d go away,’ he whispered, ‘so that we could finally talk’

Eleanor stood on the front steps after school

She’d hoped to catch Park before he got on the bus, but she must have missed him

She wasn’t sure what kind of car to watch for; her dad was always buying classic cars, then selling the to worry that he wasn’t coh school or changed his mind – when he honked for her

He pulled up in an old Karmann Ghia convertible It looked like the car Ja over the door, holding a cigarette ‘Eleanor!’ he shouted

She walked to the car and got in There weren’t any seat belts

‘Is that all you brought?’ he asked, looking at her school bag

‘It’s just one night’ She shrugged

‘All right,’ he said, backing out of the parking space too fast She’d forgotten what a crappy driver he was He did everything too fast and one-handed

Eleanor braced herself on the dashboard It was cold out, and once they were driving, it got colder ‘Can we put the top up?’ she shouted

‘Haven’t fixed it yet,’ her dad said, and laughed

He still lived in the same duplex he’d lived in since her parents split up It was solid and brick, and about a ten-ot inside, he took a better look at her

‘Is that what all the cool kids are wearing these days?’ he asked She looked down at her giant white shirt, her fat paisley tie and her half-dead purple corduroys

‘Yup,’ she said flatly ‘This is pretty irlfriend – fiancée – Donna, didn’t get off work until five, and after that she had to pick her kid up from daycare In the meantime, Eleanor and her dad sat on the couch and watched ESPN

He sarette, and sipped Scotch out of a short glass Every once in a while the phone would ring, and he’d have a long, laughy conversation with somebody about a car or a deal or a bet You’d think that every single person who called was his best friend in the whole world Her dad had baby blond hair and a round, boyish face When he smiled, which was constantly, his whole face lit up like a bill-board If Eleanor paid too ed since the last time she’d been here, and it wasroom and thehim here –

after the divorce, but before Richie – their dad’s duplex had been a bare-bones bachelor pad He didn’t even have enough bowls for them all to have soup He’d served Eleanor clalass And he only had tels ‘One wet,’ he’d said, ‘one dry’

Now Eleanor fixated on all the sarettes, newspapers, azines … Brand-naerator was full of things you tossed into the cart without thinking about it just because they sounded good