46
“You just sit down and take a load off,” Musicman said to Summer, bustling around the galley. “How do grilled cheese sandwiches and a Coke sound?”
Summer didn’t like grilled cheese sandwiches, but she thought she’d better say she did.
He was trying to be nice to her. He brought the grilled cheese sandwiches to the table on paper plates, the kind you got from Paper Warehouse. These plates had purple, blue and yellow fireworks and said HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Beside her plate was a present.
“Go ahead, open it.”
She tore off the wrapping, feeling queasy. When did he get her a present?
“Could you be a little more careful?” Dale said. “We can use that paper again.”
She did as she was told, gently parting the wrapping where the Scotch tape was until it revealed her gift: A Lucite photo cube.
“Well? Do you like it?”
“It’s great,” she said, trying to sound enthusiastic.
“That’s for our trip. Here, let me put it away so we don’t get food on it.” He cleared the paper and put the cube away up in a top cupboard. He removed the bow from the wrapping paper and smoothed the paper out, folded it neatly, and put both the paper and the bow in a kitchen drawer. Then he sat down at the dinette table to watch her eat.
The idea of eating anything made her want to gag, but she smiled and bit into the sandwich. It tasted like cardboard. She chewed and chewed, trying to make the food small enough to swallow, and kept smiling. That seemed to please him. He acted like he had a crush on her—like he was shy or something. He reminded her of Justin Teeters in fifth period, who, whenever he saw her, got this look on his face that was really comic. She’d say “hi” and he couldn’t even answer back.
In that way, Dale was just like Justin. She knew he wanted to do it with her, but she also knew that he was holding back. Because he was shy?
Was he just like Justin, only older? She closed her eyes, imagined that her power was bigger than herself. That she was bigger and bigger, and Dale was smaller and smaller.
When she opened her eyes, he was looking at her. Staring. “How is it?” he asked.
“Mmmm. Really good.”
“I bought ice cream for dessert. I know it’s almost breakfast time, but hey, we can do anything we want.”
Like a little kid. Jeez.
“Would you like some?”
She swallowed more of the cardboard. “Sure.”
“I got Neopolitan,” he said shyly. “That way you can choose what you want—chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry.”
“Cool.”
“You look so much better in that dress.”
That reminded her. “What did you do with my clothes?”
“They’re gone. Never you worry about that. You won’t have to see them again.”
She almost said she
She set the sandwich down, sipped some Coke. Looked at him, memorizing his face. That way, her dad would be able to track him down after she escaped.
How she was going to escape, she didn’t know. But the more time she spent with him, the better she felt about her chances. He was kind of pathetic. She almost felt sorry for him. Sorry and grateful that he wasn’t the kind of kidnapper she’d seen on the Discovery channel, the ones who murdered their victims. She couldn’t see him murdering anybody.
“You like the sandwich?” he asked again.
“Oh yeah. I just don’t eat a lot. I’m on a diet.”
He frowned. “You don’t need to diet. Why do girls do that? You should be healthy, enjoy your life, not diet. I told Misty that.”
“Who’s Misty?”
“She was my first girlfriend.”
“I bet she was pretty.”
“Oh, she was.”
“How come you aren’t still with her?”
“We grew apart.”
“I’m sorry … I don’t know why she’d want to leave someone as nice as you. I mean, you’re really pretty cool.”
He stood up abruptly. “If you’re not going to finish that, I’ll throw it away.”
