The Cat That Went to Homecoming Read online

  “It’s okay, Hershey,” I said out loud. He blinked back at me and loosened up. Haley’s hug was gentle; she did not make any sudden moves that would startle him.

  I engaged in some small talk with Haley, pulling out some of my cat knowledge to share.

  “Haley, do you know why cats have whiskers?” I asked.

  “So they can smell mice?” she asked.

  “They use their noses to smell, but their whiskers feel vibrations in the air so a cat can tell if a mouse is nearby without seeing it. They’re also a natural ruler for them. They know they can fit through an opening to get at the mouse because their whiskers are as long as their body is wide. If their whiskers don’t fit through the opening, their body doesn’t fit. Then the mouse is safe,” I explained to her.

  “You know everything about cats!” Haley said.

  “I know pretty much, but not everything,” I said to her.

  My two hour stint was coming to an end, so when my relief showed up to take my place at the booth, I said goodbye to Haley and John. John pulled me aside and asked if I would meet him at the St Augustine concession stand around 4 p.m. He was watching Haley for his sister until then and wanted to talk to me later. I was terrified of the idea of sitting alone with the Incredible John Peck and was almost certain this was a trap.

  “No, I don’t think so John,” I said and waved at Mom as she approached us.

  “How did it go today?” she asked when she closed in on us.

  “It went well,” I replied, hastily gathering up Hershey’s carrier and my bag of supplies. I really wanted a quick exit.

  “Hi,” Haley said looking up at my mom, “You’re pretty, like Ellen.” She said.

  “Oh, thank you, sweetie,” Mom said, “and you are a pretty little girl, too.”

  “My name is Haley, and this my Uncle John,” Haley announced with pride.

  Mom and John politely greeted each other, and I hurried things along by saying “Come on, Mom, we have to go.”

  I said good-bye to my relief and her dog, to Jane, and then again to Haley and John. As we walked away, John said, “I’ll be there at four in case you change your mind.” I refused to turn around.

  On the drive home, Mom had a ton of questions, but none of them were about Hershey’s performance. She was more interested in finding out who John was. Did I like him? She thought he was good looking. I told her the truth. I’d had a crush on him forever, but it was never going to become a reality. He had asked me to meet him later to talk, but I would not even consider it. He was one of the biggest bullies in my life. I felt it was ironic that his niece was a special needs child and that he was never nice to people who were not what society considered ideal.

  “Maybe through Haley he will learn how to be more considerate of those of us who are different,” I added.

  “Maybe he has already.” She said, “You won’t know unless you talk to him and find out what he has to say.”

  I thought her point was valid, but it was most likely me that had changed, not him. The only way I’d know for sure was to see it for myself. Mom’s remark nagged at me the entire time I was getting Hershey settled in back at home. I passed my vanity then stepped back in front of it, looking myself over. The abrasion on my face was almost fully healed, but you could still tell that something had happened. I fluffed my hair a little, grabbed a lip gloss off the vanity and rolled it on. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take a few minutes out of my afternoon to chat with Mr. Perfect.

  Mom gave me a few dollars to buy a hot dog and chips at the concession stand. She then went to meet one of her girlfriends who was in the beer tent listening to a local band perform. Before she left, we agreed to text each other about where and when to meet up later.

  I thought I was fine until I was within ten feet of St Augustine’s concession stand. Then the butterflies started to take flight in my stomach and my legs were wobbly. I hoped that John had decided to find something else to do. I didn’t think I’d be able to talk without stuttering. That would give him more fodder to use against me! When I turned to escape the area, he was behind me.

  “I’m glad you changed your mind,” he said. “Come on, let’s get in line and order before they run out of food. They look pretty busy.”

  I could see Cindy at the cash register at the head of the line. I tried to see if Brandon was there and prayed that he wasn’t.

  “Ellen!’ Cindy shrieked when we reached the head of the line. She tried to reach over the counter to hug me, but the counter was too high. As she reached across the counter, she noticed I was with John.

  “What’s going on here?” she asked as she slid back to a standing position, looking from me to John and back to me again.

  “I’m really not sure. John wanted to talk to me and asked me to meet him here,” I said, hoping she could sense my fear and save me.

  “Do you think that’s wise?” She leaned in and said quietly.

  “No,” I replied honestly, “but it’s too late now.”

  Cindy greeted John. “Hi, John, how has football practice been going? Do you think we have a winning team this year?” she asked.

  “I sure hope so. I’d like that a lot. Coach pushes us pretty hard and some of the younger guys can’t handle it. It’s just a good thing I’m as fit as I am,” he said, egotistical as always. That hadn’t changed!

  “Are you sure you should eat any of the items we have? Hot dogs and burgers probably aren’t a good choice for an athlete,” she said with a hint of sarcasm.

  “I’ll be able to burn the calories off with no problem,” he said, as if he caught her sarcasm. “Ellen, what would you like?’

  “John, I will pay for my own meal. You go ahead and order first.” I said nervously.

  “No, Ellen, I am paying. I asked you to meet me here. I’m paying.” He faced Cindy and placed his order, “I’d like a cheeseburger, two hot dogs, a bag of chips, and a large Coke.” Then he looked at me and waited for my order. For some reason, I thought one of the hot dogs he ordered was for me, not realizing he meant to eat all of that by himself!

  “Oh! I’m sorry; I thought you ordered for me already,” I said. “I’d just like a hot dog.”

  He laughed, “I can’t help that I eat a lot,” he patted his stomach, “I’m a growing boy,” he added.

  Cindy wrote down our orders and handed the ticket to the staff behind her. I looked around for Brandon, but thankfully he was not there.

  “Ellen, your mom was here earlier. She invited Sarah, Margaret, and me to join you guys later tonight for the fireworks. Sarah and Margaret left a little while ago. They’re getting us some subs to eat later. I ordered you a turkey sub. Is that okay?”

  “That’ll be awesome,” I said as I fumbled through my purse for some money to pay for my food, but John beat me to it. I argued a little to get Cindy to charge me for my own hot dog, but it didn’t work.

  “When you are off duty, text me and we’ll meet up,” I said to Cindy.

  “I will do that,” Cindy said, “it looks like we have a lot to talk about.”

  Once he had our food, we headed to the condiment station to add our ketchup and onions. Then we looked around for somewhere to sit. John found a pretty secluded spot behind the stand, so we sat on the grass and made ourselves comfortable.

  John started out by asking me how my summer has been. I gave him short responses, not revealing much.

  “How was your summer?”

  “Good.”

  “Did you go on any vacations?

  “No.”

  “Are you working at all?”

  “Yes.”

  “Boy, you aren’t very talkative, are you?” he said with a mouthful of hot dog, which was not at all attractive!

  “No, I’m not,” I replied. I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of trouble, watching for Darcel.

  “So when is she going to be here?” I suddenly got bold enough to ask.

  “When is who going to be here?” he asked, again with a mouth full of fo
od. Yuck!

  “Darcel. This is a set-up, right? What’s the plan, John? Beat me up in plain sight of the entire town?” I asked, feeling even more daring.

  “You are really paranoid, aren’t you?” he said rhetorically. I put my hot dog down on the ground and looked him straight in the eyes.

  “Paranoid? Do you see this scar on my face?” I asked, pointing out the nearly healed abrasion on my cheek. “This is what Darcel did to me after my mom got you kicked out of Summerfest. The two of you have been bullying me for years, but to escalate from verbal to physical gives me reason to be cautious!” I said, full of pent-up anger and frustration.

  He looked down at the ground in shame. “I am so sorry, Ellen. I didn’t know Darcel had attacked you. I haven’t even seen her or spoke to her since that night.”

  “Bullshit,” I said. I was an entirely different person. Maybe it was his disgusting eating habits that showed me he was not the perfect specimen that everyone always thought he was, or maybe it was my anger at the way he had treated me over the years. At any rate, I felt like I finally had a backbone. “I’m sure she let your entire Facebook community know about it. I bet I was the talk of the popular crowd,” I said in disgust.

  “Ellen, I don’t even talk to Darcel anymore,” he said grabbing onto my shoulders and lightly shaking me to calm me down. “Listen to me, I am not the same person I was before. My time with Haley has changed me.”

  “I don’t believe you. A tiger can’t change its stripes John,” I said.

  “Will you at least let me explain something to you?” he pleaded. When I nodded, he went on to tell me about his niece.

  “For three years of Haley’s life, I avoided her. She has Down syndrome and I was embarrassed by her,” he said. “My sister is a single mom. Haley’s dad ran off when he found out he had an imperfect child. My sister and Haley had to move back home in June. I’ve been helping my sister out by babysitting while she works and I’ve been doing it all summer long.”

  John went on to tell me how he was afraid to be seen with Haley at first and would not take her out in public because he didn’t want to be ridiculed. He spent time with her at home playing, watching movies, and reading. Then one day after he got his driver’s license, he decided to take Haley out for ice cream. They ran into Darcel. She was polite, but aloof at the same time.

  “She wouldn’t interact with Haley or even look at her,” he said. “Haley is very friendly and talkative, as you saw for yourself. She doesn’t know she’s any different than anyone else.”

  Darcel had asked John to go to the concert with her that night and he agreed. “That was a big mistake,” he said.

  When he picked Darcel up, she had a bottle of vodka in her purse and immediately began taking swigs out of it. He was less than thrilled, especially since he had just gotten his driver’s license and did not want to get pulled over with an open bottle of vodka in the car. Darcel was being such a pain in the ass, hanging out of the window and shouting at people. He was sure he’d be pulled over.

  He said the afternoon went from bad to worse. He was convinced Darcel was high on something, and the vodka on top of it was turning her into a raging bitch. He thought if he got her something to eat, he could sober her up and that was when they ran into my mom and me.

  “It was a horrible mistake to point you out. I should have known better. The security guard came over and questioned us because there had been a complaint about our behavior. Darcel immediately started to swear at him and act like a fool. He tried to remove us and I was okay with that, but Darcel wasn’t. She carried on like a lunatic. We couldn’t calm her down so he had to call in reinforcements. Needless to say, we were removed from the grounds, but thankfully, the security guards did not call in the cops and no tickets were issued.”

  He went on to tell me that he got her in his car and started driving them home. Darcel carried on and on about how much she hated me, and how it was my fault they were evicted.

  “She told me that my sister should hire you to baby-sit for my ‘retarded ass niece’ because I deserved to be free from such a terrible job.” He looked angry. His hands were clenched into fists. “At that moment, I had an epiphany. Darcel’s cruel comment opened my eyes. I love my niece. She’s special to me. There is no reason to treat her any differently than anyone else. There’s also no reason to treat YOU any differently than anyone else. What gives us the right to judge another person?”

  After dropping Darcel off at home, he said he went straight home and went to Haley’s room. He watched her sleep for a few minutes, kissed her forehead, and went straight to his laptop. He searched for a local Down syndrome support group, and had been actively attending meetings ever since.

  “Like I said, I have not spoken to Darcel or seen her since that night. I deleted her from Facebook and I blocked her number from my phone. When I saw her at the skating rink, I took off before she could find me. A few of the guys at practice the other day told me she was trying to reach me. She told one of them to get the message to me, but I still don’t want to speak to her.”

  Was he making this up? This was the guy who would poke me with pencils to ‘pop’ me. I didn’t know if I should believe this story or not.

  I thought about the gentle way he handled Haley earlier today. I thought back to the night at Summerfest, and remembered that he didn’t say anything other than ‘Isn’t that Ellen?’ At the skating rink, he had followed me, uninvited, to sit and try to strike up a conversation with me. What was going on here?

  “Wow, John, I’m not sure how to react right now,” I finally said. “I really don’t. I want to believe you, but you can understand why I’m skeptical. You haven’t been a very nice person over the years. You’ve been a real asshole.”

  “I know, and I don’t blame you, Ellen. Please believe me. I am being sincere right now. I am sorry for all the things I’ve said and done to you.”

  There it was, the apology I had daydreamed about for so long. It was a surreal moment for me so I had to soak it in. Summer vacation was ending in two days. I was going to be sorry to see it end because this was the summer that had changed my life.

  “I accept your apology,” I said and nothing more. No long speech and no throwing old wrongs in his face. I just accepted his apology and mentally told myself that I was moving on.

  He asked me to hang out with him until Cindy was off duty. I had nothing better to do, so I agreed. I didn’t feel any threat from him. We walked through the Midway and he got suckered into a game. He had to pop balloons with a dart. The balloons must have been made of steel because it cost him eight dollars before he finally succeeded. He chose a giant stuffed pink dog for his prize and gave it to me. It felt strange to be walking through the park with the most popular guy in the town, carrying a stuffed dog he had won for me. I saw the looks on the faces of kids in our age group, some I knew and some I didn’t. I didn’t know which shocked them more, the change in me or the fact that I was with John Peck. It didn’t matter which it was because I felt confident.

  John and I were waiting in line to go on a ride when my phone went off. I figured it was Cindy.

  “I suppose that means you have to go,” John said, as I read the text.

  “Um, yeah, I do,” I stammered, closing my phone. “I’m sorry, but I really do have to go. I had a lot fun with you today.”

  “Can I at least get your number?” he asked.

  “Sure,” I recited my number to him and he entered it into his phone right away.

  “Can I walk you to wherever you are going to meet Cindy?” he asked.

  “Actually, it’s not Cindy that I’m meeting and I’d rather go myself. Thanks anyway,” I replied.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Fireman’s Park was located across the street from the library. According to the text I got from Brandon a few minutes ago, this was where I’d find him. I made my way through the park and headed for the library. My thoughts were confused as I crossed the street and saw him sitting on a
step in front of the building. I stopped for a second to look at him. From that distance, he didn’t look like he had been in a fight, but as I got closer, I saw his nose was swollen and he had a black eye that was in the yellow-green stage.

  When I reached the steps, he moved over and motioned for me to sit next to him.

  “You never struck me as liking the jock type,” he said. Apparently he had seen me with John, and here I was carrying that pink dog. So what! Walking around a park with someone didn’t mean anything at all. Boy, that irked me!

  “And you never struck me as a coward,” I shot back, “so it looks like we were both wrong.”

  “Touché,” he said. We sat in silence for a few minutes until I grew impatient. I had already decided when I was hanging out with John that I was no longer going to be a mousy little wimp.

  “What are we doing here, Brandon? Do you want to say something, or do you want to go bury your head in the sand again?”

  “Wow, that jock must have gotten you all fired up,” he said with a hint of jealousy. “You’re more confident than you were the last time I saw you.”

  “Well, let’s see. The last time I saw you was the night I got my first kiss, ever. The boy I kissed dropped me like a hot potato and stopped speaking to me. I could take that as a testament to how badly I kiss, or to what a jerk he is,” I said. “Which do YOU think it is?”

  “Given the fact that you kiss great, I’d have to say the guy is a jerk,” he replied.

  I smacked him with the head of the pink dog. “He IS a jerk!”

  Brandon laughed a little bit at that, and sighed. “Yeah, I am a jerk. I guess I deserve that.”

  “Do you mind telling me just why the hell you disappeared? Was it me? Did you regret kissing me?” I needed answers.

  “No, absolutely not! I was ashamed of how I lost my temper and showed you my ugly side.” He was wringing his hands in agitation, “My parents took me to the hospital that night and admitted me to the psych ward. I was released a week later and decided to avoid everyone, including you. I didn’t want to hear that you were afraid of me, or see it in your eyes.”