The Class Menagerie jj-4 (18 page)

"He's not doing breakfast? How are you feeding them?"

"I thought he and you both deserved the mom-ing off. I'm picking up McDonald's breakfasts and bringing them over."

"Edgar must be horrified!" Jane said with a laugh.

"Oh', he is. He says I'll destroy his reputation if I'm seen bringing them into the bed and breakfast. He actually insisted that I put them all in a covered box before I even drive into the neighborhood. But he's also exhausted from the extra strain we've put on him and couldn't make himself turn down the offer. Besides, our class president, Trey Moffat, is hitting him up for another big job."

Mel was unearthing sandwich makings and piling them on the counter and Jane was hoping he didn't find anything revolting enough to ruin their relationship. Given how long it had been since she'd cleaned the fridge, it was possible.

"What job is that?" she asked Shelley.

"The dinner tomorrow."

"But that's at the country club, isn't it?"

"It's supposed to be. But Trey's in a panic. A bunch of people who said they were coming didn't show up. Then about half who did come were so put off by this

murder that they're going home after the picnic lunch. Some have already left."

"But he can't cancel the country club this late, can he?"

"Well, there's something odd going on there, too. He thinks the kitchen staff is threatening to strike or something. Anyway, the country club is willing, if not downright eager, to let him off the hook."

"Have you broken this news to Edgar yet?"

"Yes, right after I insisted on bringing in breakfast."

"He's willing?"

"For a really substantial price," Shelley said wryly. "He and Trey are hammering out the details. Thank God that doesn't involve me."

"Why do I have a feeling it
does
involve me?" Jane asked.

"Only a little," Shelley said. "Edgar's doing a buffet. All you're needed for is carrying in an occasional replacement dish when they run low."

Jane groaned. "Do I have to wear a maid's uniform? Maybe one with a short skirt and fishnet hose?"

"You will not! You'll wear that apricot silk dress I made you buy when it was on sale last month."

Jane saluted. "Yes, ma'am. You did promise to loan me your pearls when I wore it."

"Jane, don't you have any mayonnaise?" Mel asked.

"Mel, in a house with teenagers, mayonnaise is The Staff of Life. Keep looking. Okay, Shelley. I'll help drive a load to and from the picnic tomorrow at one o'clock," Jane said, ticking items off on her fingers. "Then dinner duty when?"

"Seven or a little before."

"Then drive one bunch to the airport Sunday morning, right? No changes in that schedule?"

"Lord knows they've tried to change their plans and

get away sooner, but Mel hasn't let them."

Jane glanced at Mel, but the only part of him visible was his back end, bent over, while he rummaged in the fridge. Shelley leaned close to Jane and whispered, "You better get him out of there before he discovers the Biology Drawer. I'm off now. See you tomorrow around one." —.

Mel emerged victorious with a jar of mayonnaise and told Shelley good-night very cordially before he began constructing his sandwich. Jane sat down and watched with disgust as he put it together.

He caught her look and said, "I have a sergeant who claims that peanut butter is a good investigative tool. He says you can tell where a person is from by what they add to peanut butter sandwiches. Bacon means they came from Philadelphia, bananas mean Memphis or maybe Tupelo. Jelly means different places, depending on the kind of jelly. Grape is Omaha, I think he said. Guava is California and raspberry is Connecticut."

Jane laughed. "And what does mayonnaise and lettuce mean?" she asked as he slapped some rather limp leaves onto his sandwich.

"Outer space," he replied, biting into his construction with a happy grin.

After Mel ate, they sat on the sofa watching an old Jean Harlow movie. Mel had his arm around Jane, and after a while, gently leaned his head on her shoulder. She shivered with anticipation of the nice neck-nuzzle kiss that was coming.

But after a moment she realized his breathing was altogether too regular and even for kissing. He'd fallen asleep. She smiled and snuggled closer, thinking

how very comfortable it was to have a sleeping man around again. She didn't really think she wanted it to be a permanent situation, but it was certainly nice for a change.

21

On Saturday morning Jane broke down and cleaned out the refrigerator. This was like closing the barn door after the horses had gone, but made her feel better anyway. She'd have to be sure Mel saw the inside of it next time he was here, just so he'd know it didn't always look like it had the evening before. Although, in fact, it usually did.

As always when she did this chore, she found things she had no memory of buying. The red cabbage, for instance. What had she been thinking, getting that? It had rolled back into a corner and turned papery with age. There were the usual sprouting onions and potatoes and a carton of unspeakable cottage cheese.
What if Mel had noticed and opened that,
she thought. The answer was that he'd probably have fallen over, asphyxiated, as she almost did when she discovered it. Even Willard, who considered the refrigerator a veritable feast of odors, had backed away from it.

"Mom, what's that
smell!"
Katie said, stumbling into the kitchen in her nightgown. She picked Max up and cuddled him. Max, who's idea of what was edible was at significant variance from Jane's, meowed to be put back where he could watch for any tasty morsels Jane might unearth.

"A lot of very old things," Jane said. "Why did somebody put the lunch meat back here without closing the wrapper?"

"Must have been Todd. He's the only one who eats that yucky stuff," Katie said with a yawn. "It looks like a frilly hockey puck."

She leaned around Jane and fished a can of tomato juice out of the refrigerator and took it back upstairs, presumably to give her strength to begin a strenuous day of telephoning.

Mike came down a few minutes later, already showered and dressed. He poured himself a gigantic bowl of cereal and Jane automatically handed him the milk. "She's already on the phone," he mumbled around the first mouthful of flakes. Meow was sitting on the chair opposite, watching him eat.

"I know. Don't give that cat milk
on
the table! What are you up to today?"

"Scott and I are going to the library, then over to some school that's having a football game he wants to see."

"Funny, I didn't think Scott was that crazy about football," Jane said, sponging off a shelf with baking soda solution.

"Cheerleader," Mike explained. "You didn't need me for anything, did you?"

"No, but I need my car."

"It's okay. Scott's driving."

Mike had left and Jane had the refrigerator done when Elliot's mother called. "Jane, I saw something in the paper this morning about a county fair that sounds like fun. We're going to make a day trip of it. Well, day and night really. We'll probably go to the carnival in the evening and stay overnight. You don't mind if Todd comes along, do you?'.'

"I'd be thrilled. Dorothy, I'll keep them both out of your hair next weekend."

Jane went upstairs to shower off the stale odor of elderly vegetables, then told Katie she was leaving.

Katie covered the phone with her hand. "Mom! I've got to get a haircut today!"

"You should have said so earlier. I don't have time to take you. I told you I was going to be busy today, remember?"

"Everybody's going to stare at me. I look like a witch!" She flounced her hair to make the point clearer.

"You'll tough it out and be a better person for it," Jane assured her. "Be sure and lock up if you go out."

When she got to the bed and breakfast, nobody seemed in much of a picnic mood, understandably enough. But they'd all decided to go along anyway, because otherwise they would have been trapped at Edgar's all day.

"It's a nice place, but I'm sick of it!" Pooky summed up for them. "I want to go home to my own cooking and my own bathroom."

"Tomorrow," Jane said. "Now, who's riding with me?"

She ended up taking Beth, Avalon, and Pooky. "You all look wonderful," she said cheerfully. Beth and Pooky were in slacks and pretty sweaters; Avalon had on a saggy, baggy dress, but it was a definite red color, unlike her other drab outfits. She had a rolled bandanna around her hair and was wearing a little makeup. It was a clear improvement over her usual appearance. From the proprietary way Pooky was watching her, Jane deduced that Pooky had been responsible for the change.

When they reached the park, the picnic was already

under way. Trey Moffat, the class president, must have been possessed of the same strength of personality as Shelley, because there was a cheerful mood to the gathering in spite of everything. He'd put the men in charge of the cooking at three separate stone fireplaces. The women were scattering around the picnic tables, setting out paper plates and plastic silverware. Jane estimated that he'd managed to coerce nearly seventy or eighty people to attend, not including the children.

"Jane, you're staying, aren't you?" Pooky said as she got out of the car.

"Oh, I don't think so. I'm not needed." She was tempted, though. It had rained overnight, just enough to make everything look clean and fresh. There was a real tang of fall in the air.

"But that's why you ought to stay. You won't have any jobs and there are quite a few single men."

Jane spotted one as Pooky was speaking. Mel was standing by the nearest fireplace, talking to a pudgy, cheerful-looking guy with a fat baby perched on his hip. "Maybe just for a while," Jane said.

The park had originally been a farm. About the time Jane moved into the neighborhood the land, which had been neglected for many years, was acquired by the town and tons of soil brought in and landscaped into pretty rolling hills. Just last year the old homestead building had been renovated into a little historical exhibit. It was only one large room, but partitions with pictures and maps had been put in to divide it up. It nestled cozily at the top of a hill in the midst of a grove of oaks underplanted with old rhododendron hedge. Jane had been inside only once and always meant to get back, but hadn't.

Mel met her as she strolled up the hill toward the

visitor center. "I didn't know you had to be here today," she said.

"Still asking questions. Getting nowhere," he added. "Jane, I'm sorry about last night—"

"You've already apologized and I've told you I didn't mind. You didn't even snore. The way I see it, a man who can fall asleep in the presence of Jean Harlow, let alone me, is
really
tired and deserves a nap."

"Jane, let's go someplace."

"Now? Where?"

"No, when this is over. Anyplace. Just us. There's a nice resort in Wisconsin I've heard about."

Jane stopped in her tracks, trying not to act gauche and stunned. They'd never even made love and he was inviting her for a weekend. The first thing that almost popped out of her mouth was, "But what would my kids think!" but she stopped the words before they escaped.

"Uh — interesting idea. Maybe—" A thousand thoughts were flying around in her head.
Stretch marks,
she thought, panicked. Decent lingerie. Suzie can help with mat. Farm out Todd; have to trust Katie and Mike to stay alone without killing each other. Who pays? she wondered. And what
would
she say to the children if she went?

While she'd often been uncomfortable with the fact that she was a few years older than Mel, right now she felt like a child. Which she
was
as far as contemporary social customs were concerned. She'd married young and inexperienced and the world had changed radically before she was widowed. In a way, she was locked into another era, trying to pretend she was part of this one.

"They say there's great fishing and sailing up there,"

Mel was going on. "Peace and quiet and no traffic. How about it?"

"How about getting through the picnic first, and then talking about it?" she said, seeing Shelley approaching.

"Have I offended you?" he. asked.

She smiled. "Not at all."
Just jerked me forward a couple of decades,
she thought.

"Hi, Mel," Shelley said. "I want to drag Jane off to meet some people. Do you mind?"

"What were you two talking about? And why are you blushing?" Shelley said as she dragged Jane farther up the hill to a group of people.

"Later—" Jane replied.

She was introduced to a number of people, whose names went right past her. Her mind was already in Wisconsin.

With Mel.

At a resort.

Without children.

Romantic moonlit nights, perhaps some soft music in the background.
Loons
making their eerie sounds over the still water. The fresh pine-scented air brushing her bare shoulders…

Then a dreadful thought crashed this happy reverie. Thelma. Her mother-in-law had been disappointed that Jane hadn't actually constructed a funeral pyre for Steve and thrown herself on it. At least, she'd expected it emotionally, if not physically. Thelma hadn't known that Steve had been leaving Jane for another woman when his car slid on the ice and went into the guardrail. And it probably wouldn't have mattered to her. She still would have expected Jane to grieve for him in virtuous solitude the rest of her life.

"Jane!"
Shelley pinched her arm. "I want to introduce you to Trey Moffat. You've heard me talk about him."

"Oh, Trey. How nice to meet you," Jane said, rubbing her arm where Shelley had pinched. "You've done a wonderful job organizing."

This was the man Mel had been talking to when Jane first arrived at the picnic. "And you've done a great job helping Shelley, I hear."

As they were speaking, Jane noticed Crispy walking by behind Trey. She was walking slowly, head bent, frowning. That was odd. She hardly looked like herself in such deep repose.

"Would you excuse me for just a second…?" Jane asked and hurried to approach Crispy before she was swallowed by another group of classmates.