For a while, people were afraid to go near the falls. But then a spinster, who was up there picking huckleberries with her cousins, saw Rebecca’s ghost the very day before she received a proposal of marriage. After that, it became a lucky thing to catch sight of the lost bride’s ghost flitting behind the falls—a sure sign that the woman who saw Rebecca Cane would soon be getting married.
So now Pat was going ghost-hunting. Really, could she be any more obvious?
“She wants him, doesn’t she?” Muriel asked Olivia as she lay across her bed later that afternoon, talking on her princess phone.
“Well, who wouldn’t?” Olivia replied. “He’s so cool. You know he was in Vietnam?”
“My gosh, how old is he?”
“He’s twenty-two.”
Another dream-man qualification met. The mysterious man of Muriel’s dreams was older and wiser than her. “What does he do now?” What kind of job did he have that allowed him to ride around in the middle of the week on a motorcycle?
“He isn’t working.”
That would not go over well with Daddy.
“He says he has some money in savings. He picks up jobs when he needs them. He’s already done a year of college.”
Handsome, smart and older—oh, and he made her heart race. Another important qualification met.
“I’ve got to go,” she said. She needed to wash her hair and redo her nails before dinner.
“What do you have planned for tonight?” her father asked her as they ate macaroni-and-cheese and fish sticks, one of her mother’s standard work-night meals.
“Arnie and I are going out,” she answered, glad she’d invited Arnie to join the fun. She never liked to lie to her parents.
“He’s a sweet boy,” her mother said.
He was sweet, but he wasn’t the stuff dreams were made of. This Stephen, on the other hand...
“I hope you’re not going to anything where that long-haired hippie will be,” said Daddy.
Did he listen in on her phone conversations?
“I’m sure if she’s with Arnie she’ll be fine,” Mother said calmly.
“You stay with Arnie,” Daddy said, pointing a fork at Muriel.
It was at times like this that Muriel hated being an only child. There was no one else to take the spotlight off her.
“Is he coming here to pick you up?” Daddy persisted.
“No, I’m meeting him at the park.”
Daddy frowned. “Well, see that he brings you home.”
“Yes, Daddy,” she murmured. If things went according to plan someone very different would be bringing her home.
She helped her mother with the dishes, then escaped the house, dressed for a party in bell-bottom jeans and a batik top, a sweater tied around her waist.
By the time she got to the river, a lot of the newly graduated seniors were already making themselves at home on blankets on the riverbank, some seated on fallen logs, some roasting hot dogs over a roaring fire, others drinking pop. A few, like Hank Carp, were drinking beer. The legal drinking age was twenty-one, but the older teens often scored contraband beer and met in fields or down by the river to indulge in illegal activity.
Muriel wasn’t much of a drinker and she was worried this thing would get out of control, especially when she saw that Olivia’s ten-year-old sister, Wendy, was present, along with Nils’s twelve-year-old brother, Peter, and Hank’s wild kid sister, Josie. Usually it was just the older kids who came to these parties. If everyone started drinking, who would look out for the younger ones?
Arnie stood by the fire next to Olivia and Hank, uncomfortable and out of place. He was visibly relieved by the sight of Muriel and hurried over to greet her. “Hi, Muriel. I wondered if your dad would let you come.”
“He knew you’d be here so he said yes.” That made Arnie smile. Oh, dear. “Olivia looks cute tonight, doesn’t she?”
Arnie spared Olivia a glance. “Yeah, she looks okay. You look great, Muriel.”
Why couldn’t boys see what was right in front of their eyes? All Arnie had to do was ask, and Olivia would go out with him. Olivia was frustrated and desperate. At this point she’d probably go out with anyone.
Not Muriel, though. She was holding out for her perfect man. She smiled at Stephen, who was talking to Pat. He gave her an appreciative once-over, but stayed where he was. Had Pat hypnotized him?
Lenny Luebecker took his guitar out of its case. “Hey, Muriel, got a song for you,” he called, then began singing Tommy Roe’s “Dizzy,” grinning hopefully at her. Muriel didn’t want to give him any encouragement so she merely smiled. But Olivia drifted over to where he sat with Nils and began singing along. So did some of the other kids. Pat and Stephen remained at the edge of the party, talking, and Muriel found herself frowning. This party wasn’t going to be as much fun as she’d thought.
Definitely not fun. She kept looking to where Stephen and Pat were camped out, hoping to catch his eye but not succeeding. She tried to channel Scarlett O’Hara, tossing her hair, throwing her head back and laughing uproariously at something Lenny said. “Hah, hah, hah, hah.”
But all she succeeded in doing was losing her balance and falling backward off the log she was sitting on. Oh, great. This was the way to get a man’s attention. Act like a fool and wind up looking like an upended turtle.
When Lenny and Arnie pulled her back up her face was flaming. She sneaked a look in Stephen’s direction and saw that he was watching her now, an amused smile on his face.
Good grief. Here was an article she could write for Seventeen, now that she knew what not to do. “How to Get His Attention,” by Muriel Patrick,
