The Class Menagerie

' 'Who's Gloria Kevitch?' Jane asked, taking a bite of a deviled ham sandwich on homemade rye bread. Oh, that Edgar!

'Gloria who?'

'Gloria Kevitch. The yearbook is dedicated to her.'

Mimi looked puzzled for a second before a light dawned. 'Oh, yes. A girl in our class who died. It was supposed to be a car accident, but it was widely assumed to have been suicide.'

'Two suicides in one class?'

'Unfortunately, yes.'

'Was she a Ewe Lamb?'

'Good heavens, no. She was an ordinary person. Ewe Lambs were all from the 'top drawer.'' She spoke with heavy, unpleasant irony. 'Poor Gloria. She was in my gym class and was a cute, funny girl, if a bit hyper. She tried to get into the club, but she was voted down. It's amazing to me to think back to how much it meant to us then. And it was so silly and snobbish. But then, so were we.'

Jane just nodded and kept eating, encouraging her to go on.

'My parents came to this country as adults, fleeing the onset of the so-called Cultural Revolution of which Dad would have been one of the first victims. My dad was a math professor, could speak English, and got a good job. Drove a Ford, bought a lawnmower, ate

Twinkies. But my mother was very old-country. She couldn't learn the language, thought Western clothes were ugly and immodest, hid in the house. I was so ashamed of her. Now I realize she must have been desperately ashamed of me. I wanted to be an American Girl. More American than Americans. Well, you saw the picture I showed you yesterday. I was grotesque.'

Jane looked at Mimi, with her serenity, her style, her obvious acceptance of her heritage and wondered how the girl she described could have turned into this woman. So she asked.

'I was forced to take a course in Chinese history in college. My father said I had to or he wouldn't keep paying my tuition. I didn't understand him; he wasn't a Chinese 'patriot' like my mom. Anyway, I took the class and I started getting interested in spite of myself because I came across mention of a scientist with my mother's family name. I asked her about him and it turned out he was her uncle. I think it was the first time I'd even wondered about her as an individual with a family other than us. She knew a lot about him and his work, and as we talked, I realized for the first time that she knew something about a lot of things and was an interesting person. It was a stunning realization. One thing led to another and I actually joined a Chinese students' club and met my husband, who is third generation in this country, but aggressively Chinese, and well — here I am,' she added.

'I'd say you turned out okay,' Jane said.

'Thanks.' Mimi suddenly looked embarrassed about having talked about herself.

'Tell me about the others. What about Beth?'

Mimi thought for a moment. 'I don't know much about her now. The others say she's a big deal, but I

wasn't aware of it. She was sure an interesting person. Her mother was an over-the-hill hooker when they moved here. At least, that was the gossip. I think Beth was in about seventh grade then. Her mom had been reduced to taking in ironing to make a living.'

'I thought Ewe Lambs were top drawer,' Jane said.

'I guess she was the exception that proved the rule. Beth managed to disassociate herself from her mother even better than I did. Something must have clicked in her brain when she was very little. She decided to make herself Perfect, with a capital P. She was always immaculately well-groomed, a brilliant student, manners so good the rest of us looked like Neanderthals — I suppose we were, really. Somehow she managed to avoid ever being the subject of gossip. People snickered about her mother, but never about her. She had no really close friends that-I know of, but no enemies. She was nice to everybody, even the geeks. She baby-sat, gave piano lessons, had a paper route before girls did such things, and, in spite of all that, had the best grades in the school. It was really amazing and admirable. Besides all that, she dated the most popular guy. Ted Francisco. Dating Ted was probably the deciding factor in her selection for the Ewe Lambs. It would have made them look silly if Judge Francisco's son's girlfriend wasn't one of us.'

'Dead Ted? Oh, dear. It must be very hard for her to stay here. Were they still dating when he died?'

Mimi nodded. 'Until that night.'

'What do you mean?'

'She broke up with him on Prom Night. He killed himself later that evening.'

'Oh, my God!'

'It must have been unspeakably horrible for her,' Mimi said. 'She was right, of course. She'd gotten

into Stanford on a full scholarship and had already decided to be an attorney. Poor Ted barely squeaked into being accepted at a local junior college. Her mother was going to California with her. Beth and Ted were never going to cross paths again and she was sensible enough to realize they ought to make a clean break.'

'And he killed himself over it! The bastard!' Mimi nodded again. 'It wasn't the popular thing to think, but it's how I felt at the time, too. What's really ironic is that he hadn't exactly been 'true' to her anyway. He'd dated Pooky before he started going with Beth and he still flirted with her like mad. She was a stunning beauty at the time, but too stupid to realize he was making a fool of her. And he was great chums with Crispy, who was a neighbor and lifelong friend of the family. Crispy was a mess of a girl then and worshiped him. There were even rumors that he was seeing a girl from another school, so nobody expected that he'd take getting dumped so badly. But then, who can tell what's in anybody else's mind? Just yesterday Lila told me that Ted's father, who was a highly respected judge, had written a great recommendation letter for Beth and helped her get into Stanford, even though I very much doubt that the Franciscos thought she was good enough for their precious son. Meanwhile poor old Ted himself couldn't even get out of town.'

'It sounds like you didn't like him very well.' 'Oh, I had a crush on him like everybody else at the time, even though he paid no attention to me. But no, I don't think in retrospect that I ever really liked him. He was spoiled and… well, somehow meanspirited. But that's an adult view. As a teenager, all I could see was his spectacular facade. Even Avalon — well,

you saw the drawing. She hung around making little sketches of him, his car, anything to do with him.'

Jane took a sip of her drink and sat back, thinking. 'Shelley originally said this place would have bad associations for the Ewe Lambs. I had no idea how bad. Was anybody not in love with Ted Francisco?'

'Of this group? Probably not. Lila went out with him once or twice between Pooky's and Beth's reigns and later claimed she'd refused any more dates with him, but he told everybody how dull she was, so I imagine it was his choice, not hers. I think she came to actively dislike him, but it was a love-hate thing. Oh, there's Kathy. I don't think Kathy ever gave him much of a thought except to consider him part of the capitalist pig army she was devoted to eradicating. She wouldn't have gone out with any male who didn't have a beard and long hair and a dirty T-shirt with something obscene written on it.'

'I know something that will surprise you about her,' Jane said, and explained what she and Crispy had found in Kathy's purse.'… so apparently she's quite well-off,' she finished the account. 'I didn't mean to snoop, but when I saw the watch and ring and the checkbook with that balance__'

'I'd have snooped, too,' Mimi said. 'How fascinating.'

'Crispy says the rule of reunions is that nobody is what they seem to be.'

'Almost nobody,' Mimi agreed. 'I haven't the imagination to invent a persona for myself.'

'I wonder who Crispy really is,' Jane said.

Mimi laughed. 'God only knows! She's deliberately put on so many layers of charming, utterly fake personality that there's no telling what's underneath.'

'And Lila? Who was Lila?' Jane asked.

Kathy came slouching in and sprawled in the chair next to Jane. 'Are you going to finish that sandwich? May I have it?

'Sure, help yourself,' Jane said, noticing now that the watch and ring line and condition of her hands were truly obvious when you knew to look.

'I'm telling Jane a little bit about all of us,' Mimi said. 'I'm trying to think how to describe Lila.'

In competition with everybody,' Kathy mumbled through a big bite of sandwich.

'You're right. I never thought about it that way, but that's what was so irritation about her back in high