“Where do I have to go?”
“Go left out of the movie theater and then two blocks to a coffee shop on the corner of Barnes and Hyman Way. The shop isn’t open, but he’ll be standing in front of it. He’ll be wearing a red cap. Just go. Tell him what’s happened, and come back. If I can’t stand it anymore, we’ll call Mother, but I’d like to try to give her time to have her dinner date.”
“What if something more happens to you while I’m gone?”
“Nothing more will happen. I’m not dying. I’m just sick to my stomach. Go!” she said, and closed the stall door.
I stood there for a moment.
“Barnes and Hyman Way,” she said behind the closed door. “Left and two blocks. Red cap.” She groaned.
“This is crazy, Haylee.”
“You’re making me feel sicker,” she said. “Well?”
“You didn’t tell me his full name like you promised you would.”
“Oh, what’s the difference now?”
“It matters to me,” I said.
“His name is Anthony Cooper. Just tell him, and come right back. Hurry.”
“Okay. I still don’t like this, but I’ll do it.”
“If I’m not in my seat when you get back, I’m in here. Go. The faster you get it over with, the better it will be. For both of us.”
I turned, hesitated at the door, and then left and walked out of the theater, pausing at the ticket booth to tell the woman working there that I had to go somewhere but would then return. She shrugged, clearly indicating that she couldn’t care less. I turned to the left and started walking quickly.
The evening had gotten cooler. I was sorry now that I had agreed to wear this outfit. The sky was mostly overcast, and the streets were not well lit. I hugged myself and hurried along. My intention was to say everything in practically one breath and then turn and run back to the movie theater. I wondered why this Anthony would have chosen this address to meet Haylee. Why couldn’t he have simply come to the movie theater at a set time? Maybe she had never told him our plan, I thought, so he didn’t know about the movie theater. She had said she wasn’t as forthcoming about herself as he had been about himself. He might not know how tightly Mother kept her eyes on our every move. Haylee probably had him believing she could do whatever she wished. If he knew the truth, he would have ended it for sure. Well, now he would, so maybe this would turn out to be the best thing.
There was little traffic on these streets, and houses were gradually fewer and fewer as I went along. Some of the houses looked run-down and deserted, windows dark, lawns overgrown or spotted with dead grass. I was hoping it would be busier when I reached the corner where the coffee shop was. When I started to approach it, I realized it wasn’t just closed up for the day; it was out of business. The sign in front was hanging from one side, and the words on the front window were faded.
I didn’t see anyone standing there. Maybe he had decided not to show. Perhaps he had realized what he was getting himself into and finally was frightened. He probably worried that this rendezvous was a trap set by the police, that Mother had found out about his Internet seduction of Haylee and had reported it. There was lots of that going on. If that was his decision, it was more than fine with me. I could turn around and hurry back to tell Haylee that he was a no-show and she should consider it al
l over.
I crossed the street and slowly approached the closed-down coffee shop. A car came along, slowed down, and then kept going. It looked like two men with a woman in the rear. It disappeared around a corner, and the street was quiet again. I was surprised at how little traffic there was. I was getting more frightened standing here. I’ll count to ten, I thought, and then I’ll turn and run back.
“One . . .”
“Hi, Kaylee,” I heard, and spun around to see him standing there, red cap and all. He had his hands in his pockets. “I was afraid you weren’t coming.”
Why did he call me Kaylee, not Haylee?
The streetlight was very dim here, but I could see him clearly enough when he stepped out of the shadows. He wasn’t much taller than us, but his shoulders looked wider than they did in his Internet picture. His hair looked thinner, too. I thought there was even a little gray in it, and it suddenly occurred to me that he had posted a picture of himself when he was younger. He was even older than I had first thought. Haylee would have been disappointed. He was far from good-looking in person. Too bad she was too sick to come. This would surely have brought it to an end.
“You mean Haylee. She’s not coming,” I said. “I’m sorry. I am her sister, Kaylee. Haylee has taken ill, maybe a stomach flu. I came to tell you she won’t be here.”
He laughed and stepped closer. “You never stop with the jokes. That’s what I like about you. You have a sense of humor that runs on nuclear energy or something.”
I didn’t like his voice. He spoke in a loud whisper, raspy, like someone who had just had the front of his neck in someone else’s tight grip. He didn’t have a beard or a mustache, but he looked like he hadn’t shaved for days. The granite-like stubble was all over his neck and Adam’s apple. He was wearing a jean jacket, a black T-shirt, and a pair of creased black pants with dirty white running shoes and no socks.
I took a step back. I paused and thought. It couldn’t be that she had used my name and not her own and not even told him that she had a twin, an identical twin, could it?
“You know about Haylee and me being identical twins, right?”
He threw his head back and laughed harder. “This is great,” he said. “I knew you would come up with something special for our first real meet. My van’s parked right there.” He nodded to his right.