Ready For The World

By Charmeljun Gallardo

1986

“You look great Dad,” I said. “In fact, you both look fantastic.”

     “Thank you, Brandon,” he said. “But you‘re still not driving. Flattery, while appreciated, will get you nowhere.”

     “Can‘t I pay you guys a compliment without having some ulterior motive?”

     Mom and Dad stared at me. Then, as if they’d rehearsed it, they simultaneously let out a resounding, “No!””

     I watched through the window as Mom and Dad pulled out of the driveway. As soon as the red of his taillights turned the corner, I ran off to the kitchen and grabbed the phone. There was no way in hell I was going to spend my last Friday night of freedom like this.

     Josh Villegas and I met when we were six years old. We were in the same first grade class and found we lived a few blocks down the street. One day at lunch his mother had packed him two cans of juice and Mom had forgotten to pack a drink for me. He gave me his extra drink without me asking. From then on, we were best friends.

     “Hello?”

     “Josh, tell me you‘re free.”

     “I’m so free,” he said. “My sister‘s having a sleepover, and they‘ve been playing with My Little Ponies all night. If I don‘t get out of here soon, I‘m gonna start cracking skulls.”

     “Come and pick me up. My parents are out for the night,” I said.

     “I can‘t,“ he said. “My dad took the car and mine isn‘t ready yet. Otherwise, I‘d already be gone.”

     “When are you finally gonna get that piece of crap moving?” I asked.

     “Hey, I‘m building it from scratch. That takes time, not that you‘d know anything about fixing a car,” he scoffed. “Besides, you‘re the newly minted driver. Why don‘t you come get me?”

     I let out a sigh. “I‘m not allowed to drive for a week. I was driving with my parents this afternoon and got into an almost-accident.”

     “What‘s an almost-accident?”

     “No crash, but with all the parental freak-out attached.”

     “So now what? We‘re stuck.”

     Hmm. This was tricky. Dad told me that I wasn‘t allowed to drive Mom‘s car for a week. But he didn‘t tell me that I couldn‘t ride in the car. “Josh? How fast can you get to my house if you run?”

     Seven minutes later, I got my answer.

*****

“Where‘d your parents go anyway?” Josh asked as headlights flew past us in the opposite direction.

     “They went to some party. They won‘t be back until midnight.”

     Dad didn’t actually say that I wasn’t allowed to go out. So technically speaking, I wasn’t breaking any rules. Once I put it that way to Josh, we were off and running.

     “You know, I could do without your dad killing me tonight,” he said.

    “It‘ll be fine. We‘re going to the bowling alley. It‘ll take us ten minutes to get home. Tops.” I was trying to quell his fears, but my stomach was doing a few twists and turns itself.

     Josh kept his hands gripped on the steering wheel. “God, the handling on this thing sucks ass.”

     We pulled into the parking lot at the 32nd Street Bowl-A-Rama and jumped out of the car. Every Friday during the summer, they cleared the game room and turned it into a club. Josh spent the first few minutes gawking at every perm and pair of neon leg warmers that walked by.

     “You‘re making us look like a couple of stalkers,” I said.

     He walked up to this short blonde girl with a triangular haircut and neon green sweater. “Which girl did you think was cute, Brandon? THIS ONE?”

     The blonde girl glared over at the troublemaker, which was me and not the doofus pointing right at her. Josh looked over at me and laughed his famous silent laugh with squinted eyes. But it wouldn‘t be complete without the knee-slap.

     A few hours later, we were sitting at a table in the corner of the club. We were toasting ourselves with a couple of sodas on a great night out.

     “Good times,” I said.

     “This night ain‘t over yet,” Josh said after taking a sip. “Whose turn is it?”

     “Mine,“ I said. I slammed my empty glass on the table. “Go ahead. Bring it.”

     Josh and I always played a game we called “Two Bucks”. It was “Truth or Dare” but without the truth part. One of us would come up with a task and a time frame to complete it. Whoever failed gave the other two bucks. Neither one of us had to give up any money in the last month and a half. The last time we played, Josh started every conversation by barking like a dog. It made for some great entertainment when we went to the McDonald‘s drive-thru that night.

     “Since you‘re grounded, I‘m gonna go easy on you,” Josh said. “Two bucks says that you can‘t go over to that girl in the corner and get her to dance with you in less than fifteen minutes. You have to dance one whole song. If you guys start in the middle of one song, you must keep her on the floor with you through the entirety of the next song. Deal?”

     I took his hand and shook it. “Which girl is it again?”

     “That one,” he said. “The girl wearing the white sweater and pink dress.”

     I saw a tall brunette with long straight hair and shapely legs in the far corner. She looked pretty good from where we were, but her back was to us.

     I whipped off my jacket and threw it at his face. “Keep an eye on that for me.”

     I walked through the dance floor and made a beeline toward the girl. It was getting near the end of the night and the DJ had already started up the slow jams. If I was going to win the bet, I had to work fast. I checked my breath by huffing into my palm and taking a whiff. It smelled passable enough, like a mix of French fries and spearmint chewing gum. I got close to the brunette and leaned in her ear. “Excuse me, do you wanna dance?”

     “That depends,” the brunette said as she turned around. “Do I get a share of the bet?”

     Standing before me was Ally. Gone was her ever present Cincinnati Reds baseball cap. In its place was a long, silky head of hair that flowed with every little motion. Her funky rimmed glasses were gone too. I saw a pair of deep brown eyes and long eyelashes touched with a bit of makeup. Her lips, which were usually smacking on a piece of bubble gum, looked redder and fuller. She had on a fluffy white sweater and a soft pink dress that made me think of the sky before sunset. She was the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen.

     Ally snapped her fingers. “Earth to Brandon, come in.”

     I blinked for what felt like the first time in a long time. “Um…sorry about that.“

     “You and Josh are playing ‘Two Bucks‘ aren‘t you? What‘s the bet?”

     “The bet is that I‘m…um, supposed to talk to um…the girl that he pointed at…um…you…which you already know…and we‘re supposed to dance for one song.” Jeez, how many times can a guy use “um“ in a sentence?

     She tilted her head and her hair cascaded down alongside her like a waterfall. “Well, I don‘t want to make it too easy for you,“ she said.

     “Huh?”

     “The bet. I‘ve gotta make it at least look good.”

     I smiled. “Oh you do, do you?”

     “Of course,“ she beamed. “So, let me hear it.”

     I had never noticed how beautiful her smile was. “Um...hear what?“

     “Your pick up line. If you didn‘t know me, what line would you have used to get me to go and dance with you?”

     I shuffled my feet a bit. “I pretty much gave it.”

     “So your best line consists of ‘Excuse me, do you wanna dance?’”

     “Well, I tend to say it with a great deal of charm,“ I said as I extended my hand. “So, what do you say?”

     She gave me a tiny smile. “Okay.”

     I walked beside her toward the dance floor until we got to a small clearing in the middle. We faced each other and I put my hands at her waist. A flush of heat ran up to my head and pulled my hands away. “Sorry, was that okay?” I asked her.

     She put her hands on my shoulders and laughed. “Yes, Brandon. It‘s fine.”

     Neither of us said anything for the first few moments. At times, I‘d look at her face and watch the colored lights move across her cheeks and shine on her eyes. But when she turned toward me, I‘d look away and marvel at the mirror ball above us. When I thought it might be safe to look back, I‘d catch her looking down toward the floor. This happened a couple more times until we finally met eye to eye. We both laughed and the tension in my shoulders melted away. From that moment on, neither of us looked away.

     “Hey,” I said.

     “Hi,” she said.

     “Tell me if I step on your feet.”

     She smiled. “I will.”

     “They‘re nice,” I said. “Your shoes, I mean. They‘re nice.”

     “Thanks,” she said as she stroked her hair behind her ear. “I like your shirt.”

     “This old thing?” I asked. I moved my hands from her sides to her back.

     She rested her hands on my shoulders and bit her lip. “It fits you really well.”

     My hands brushed against her hair. “I never knew your hair was so long.”

     “That‘s because I usually have it tied up and under a baseball cap.“ Her fingers grazed the back of my neck.

     “I like it,” I said. I moved my hands upward until I could feel the ends of her long strands of hair near the middle of her back. “It‘s soft.”

     She brushed a few stray hairs away from my eyes. “You‘ve got soft hair too.”

     The music swelled in my ears. My fingers brushed against the tiny straps of her dress. She caressed my neck with both hands and nestled her cheek against mine. I lifted my head from her shoulder and pressed my forehead against hers. I stared right into her closed eyes and I could feel myself losing air.

     “Ally?” I asked.

     Her eyes opened. “Yes, Brandon?”

     I tilted my head and drifted toward her. I felt the heat from her lips getting closer and closer to mine. I got a whiff of her cherry perfume and felt dizzy. But as our lips were about to touch, I felt a rhythmic buzzing on my chest. Ally looked down at her tiny purse trapped between us. She looked down and I felt her shoulders slump.

     “It‘s my pager,” she said.

     “A what?” I asked. I knew what a pager was. But my brain wasn’t exactly working at the moment.

     “Dad makes me carry one whenever I go out,” she said as she reached into her purse. “It‘s from home. I‘d better call them back. Did you see a payphone around here?”

     I shook my head to get my vision back in focus. “Um…there‘s one near the bathrooms toward the back.”

     She smiled and grabbed my hand. “I‘ll look for you when I get back.”

     “I‘ll be here,” I said. We kept eye contact as she made her way across the room.

     When she disappeared from view, I walked back toward Josh and our table. He rubbed his thumb and forefinger together with a huge grin on his face. I reached into my wallet and handed him the money. Josh raised one eyebrow at me.

     “What? No witty retort?”

     “Nope,“ I said. “You won the bet. I didn‘t finish the song. Here’s your money.”

     I plopped down in the chair and leaned back. I don‘t know what had happened out there on that dance floor between Ally and me. It was crazy, exciting, completely unexpected, and I couldn‘t wait to do it again.

     “Spill it,” Josh said. “I saw you bring the brunette to the middle of the floor and then I lost sight of you. Who was she?”

     I couldn‘t hide my smile. “It was Ally.“

     “Ally McCarthy? Our Ally? She was the girl in the white sweater?” Josh popped out of his chair and scanned the room. “Did she bring a friend?”

     I grabbed my soda and toyed with the condensation down the side of the glass. I replayed every bit of our dance in my head. I could still feel the softness of her skin under my fingertips. Hints of her perfume lingered all over my neck and collar.

     “You okay, B? You look like you just played forty minutes against the Celtics,” he said. “What gives?”

     “Man, I don‘t know. We were right there, you know? We were dancing. We were talking a little bit. Then I was moving in, and she was moving in…”

     “And then?” Josh asked. He had moved his chair so he was in front of me.

     I started to tell Josh about how close Ally and I had come to kissing when I stood up. I craned my neck as high as I could and stood on my chair. The dance floor was jam packed, but I couldn‘t find her anywhere.

     “Hold on a sec,” I said as I got up from my seat.

     “You tease!” Josh yelled. “Finish the story!”

     I moved through the scores of people and dodged drinks and plates of nachos as I got to the pay-phones. Ally wasn‘t there. I looked around me to see if I had passed her when I was moving through the crowd. No such luck.

     I tapped a blonde girl on the shoulder as she came out of the bathroom. “Did you see a girl with long brown hair in there? Kinda tall?”

     “I was the only one in there,” she said. “Sorry.”

     I moved past her and made my way back toward the dance floor. My head was on a swivel as I searched for any sign of her. I looked at every girl in the club with any shade of white on. Then I looked at anyone with long hair. No luck. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and made the slow walk back to Josh.

     He looked flush all over. “Where the hell did you go?”

     “I went looking for Ally,” I said. “You didn‘t see her go by, did you?”

     “Forget about her, B. We gotta get going!”

     “What?” I asked. Did Josh tell me to forget about her? He‘d better have a damn good reason...

     Josh thrust his watch in front of my face. “It‘s five to midnight! We gotta go!”

     We peeled out of the parking lot and zoomed down the streets toward my house. Josh drove like a fighter pilot in a dogfight as he wove through traffic. In, out, and somehow, up and down. When we pulled up to my street, the house lights were still out and there was no sign of Dad‘s car. Josh let out a deep sigh of relief. He parked Mom’s car back in front of the house, exactly where it was before.

      “Just in time,” he said.

     “I guess.”

     “You okay?”

     I shrugged my shoulders. “Just tired.”

      Josh tossed me the keys. “You up for hoops tomorrow? I‘ll round up the usual suspects.”

     “Yeah,” I said as I headed toward my door. “Tomorrow.”

     I got inside and kicked off my shoes. I cracked open a soda out of the refrigerator and sat down at the dinner table. I know I had dodged a big bullet with my parents tonight, but I couldn‘t help but think about Ally. Did I do something wrong? Did I scare her off? Did I move too fast? Did she regret what happened? And what was that anyway? Why was it so scary and so exciting at the same time?

     I felt like I was seeing Ally for the first time. And now, it was all over even before we could begin.

*****

     I looked at my alarm clock through my bleary eyes and saw it was a little before eight. I never got up before ten most Saturdays. After an unsuccessful attempt to go back to sleep, I dragged myself out of bed and jumped into the shower.

     I came to the kitchen expecting to surprise my parents. I wasn‘t usually awake to see Dad cook his Saturday morning breakfasts. I wanted to talk to them about what had happened between Ally and me and how confused I felt about everything. But how could I tell them about what had happened and not tell them how I had gotten out there? I felt guilty about sneaking out. Especially since they hadn‘t gone ballistic on me when they had every right to do so. I decided right then and there, I would tell them the truth. I would tell them what I did and take whatever punishment they doled out.

     But when I got to the kitchen, there wasn‘t the sound of bacon frying or the smell of brewed coffee in the air. Mom and Dad were at the breakfast table. Dad stared out the window, still as a statue. Mom had a tissue in her hands. She looked like she had been crying.

     “Mom?“ I asked. “Are you okay?“

     They looked at each other, but didn‘t speak. After a minute, Dad stood up and shuffled his feet a bit. “Brandon, there‘s something you need to know.“ He fidgeted with his hands and cleared his throat.

     “What is it?“ I asked. I‘d never seen my dad this way. His voice trembled, and he was at a loss of words. It scared me.

     Dad looked down at the ground and then back up at me. “Ally‘s mom died in a car accident last night.“

*****