The Orange Blossom Special by Betsy Carter

could he know?” she wondered. Crystal nudged her on the arm and whispered, “I swear, I never told him a thing. He’s just weird that way.”
    Victoria followed with some song she’d learned in her sorority: “It’s a great big wonderful world we live in, when you’re in love you’re a master of all you survey, you’re a gay Santa Claus . . .”
    Her voice was sweet and warbled and slightly off tune. It was one of the few times she seemed nakedly vulnerable, and when Maynard got up to do his imitation of Nat King Cole’s “Mona Lisa,” he dedicated it to her. They all tried to get Tessie to sing, but the most she would do was chime in on the “Mona Lisa” chorus. Afterward, they ate barbecued ribs and killed three bottles of Rosé. At the end of the evening, Victoria actually used Dinah’s name when she said, “Thank you for coming, Tessie and Dinah. This is one of those nights we’ll never forget.”
    â€œSo was it as bad as you thought?” asked Dinah later as she and her mother drove through Cypress Woods.
    â€œIf a woman is built like a you-know-what brickhouse, does that mean she’s attractive?” answered Tessie.
    â€œIt’s a compliment, Mom, like
va va va voom.
”
    Tessie got lost in her thoughts. How did Dinah know about all this? How could a married man send the kind of notes that the Baron had written to her? What else did Dinah know that she didn’t?
    â€œI had a very nice time,” she finally said.
    â€œYeah, it was pretty neat,” said Dinah. “The brother’s nice.”
    Neither of them mentioned the cat.

SEVEN
    On the second day that Eddie Fingers didn’t show up for class, Mr. Reilly stood in front of the class, his hands clasped and his head bowed like an altar boy’s. “I have an announcement. You know our friend Eddie Howell? He will not be back for the rest of the school year. Why? Because he is sick and will have to be in the hospital for a while.” Mr. Reilly continued, as though he were a ventriloquist using two different voices. “What’s wrong with him? The doctors think it might have something to do with his heart, but they’re going to do their darndest to find out.”
    Normally, Dinah and Crystal would be biting the insides of their cheeks to keep from laughing. But they didn’t even exchange glances. Dinah knew how people could disappear forever, and Crystal knew that her friend had a strange attachment to Eddie. That’s why she never revealed what Charlie had told her months earlier. Eddie had caught his eye at the end of a school assembly. “How ya doing?” Charlie had asked. “Can you help me?” Eddie had answered. “I’ve wet my pants and need to get to the men’s room.” Charlie told Crystal that Eddie seemed to have a wheeze in his voice. He also said that the way Eddie had spoken to him, so straight forwardly and without embarrassment, made him think that Eddie was used to asking for help.
    All day, Dinah thought about Eddie. About his bluish fingernails,the way he slumped in his desk, how he looked thin and used, like a much older person. While she hated listening to her mother talk to her father each night, she was certain that this boy was the direct connection to her father. Should she write him a card? What would she say? Maybe she should send a present. She couldn’t imagine someone her own age being in the hospital. With him not at school, how would she talk to her father?
    I F JERRY LOCKHART was in heaven, he wasn’t having much fun. Between doling out advice and devising cryptic numerical codes to transmit through a six-fingered fourteen-year-old boy, when would the poor man have time to indulge in the glories of his new location? For the past week Tessie had besieged him. What about the Baron? June 4th was only two days away. Should she have lunch with him? And now there was a