Better Late Than Never

'I'm not going to come in,' he told her. 'It's too close to dinnertime and it'll look like I'm scrounging for a free meal.'

Jenna wanted him to stay, but she understood. He was proud, just like her.

'Well, I'll see you,' she said. 'You're staying in town for a while, aren't you?'

'Absolutely,' he assured her. He put his hands on her shoulders, leaned forward, and kissed her lightly on the cheek. Then he pulled back and looked a little embarrassed.

'I hope I wasn't being too pushy there.'

Jenna shook her head happily. 'No, it's okay I

mean, I guess that's what fathers do, right?' He smiled. 'Right.'

Chapter 11

AMANDA-KEN LAY ON KEN'S bed, staring at the ceiling, and listened. We spent a lot of time at the beach. The sun on her blond hair -- it was like gold sprinkled on gold. Her tan was golden, too. She was like that girl dipped in gold. Did you ever see Goldfinger?

No, but I've heard of it. It's an old James Bond movie, right?

She thought Rick was laughing. I keep forgetting you're living in another century! I was fourteen when I saw Gold finger. That's how old you are, right? You should see it; it's great.

I'll borrow it from the DVD store. .

Man, I wish we'd had DVDs in my time. That must be so neat, to watch movies whenever you want.

Yeah, it's . . . neat.

Nancy and I used to go to the movies practically every Saturday night. She liked romantic films, and I liked action ones. Every Saturday, we'd argue about what to see. Not argue, really -- more like debate.

Who won?

We took turns choosing. But she could have won all the time. I'd always give in to her.

By now, Amanda had figured out how to keep some thoughts to herself. So she could think about how wonderful it would be to have a boyfriend like Rick, who would cherish you and give you anything you wanted. And she didn't have to worry that he might hear that, because Rick still thought he was talking to another guy.

She communicated her next question.

What else did you guys do together?

You know the Public Gardens, near City Hall?

Sure.

That was one of her favorite places, especially when the roses were in bloom. She loved roses. When I sold my motorcycle, I used the money to give her one red rose every day till the money ran out.

Red roses and motorcycles. Wow! What a guy.

What?

She realized she hadn't kept that thought to herself.

Um, I was just wondering, why did you sell your motorcycle?

My brother joined the army and gave me his to use. There was a pause. I don't want to talk about that, okay?

She wondered if his brother had been killed. Had there been a war going on when Rick was a teenager? She still wasn't sure when that had been.

There was a knock on Ken's bedroom door.

'Come in,' Amanda called.

Ken's mother stuck her head in. 'Are you feeling all right?'

'Sure. Why?'

'It's Saturday afternoon, the sun's out, and you've been lying in bed all day!' She frowned. 'I'm going to call a doctor. You haven't been eating much lately either. I think you need a checkup.'

Amanda-Ken jumped off the bed. 'I'm fine. I was just thinking about stuff. I'm going out now.'

To Rick, she said, Later.

What she wanted to do now would require the computer, but she needed to get out of the house before she raised more suspicions in Ken's mother's mind. A teacher had told her class once that there were free online services at the public library. She'd never set foot in the public library before, but she knew where it was.

She was surprised when the librarian at the desk greeted her--greeted Ken, actually.

'Good to see you, Ken,' she said with a smile.

Amanda noticed the nameplate on the desk. 'Hello, Ms. Fletcher.'

The woman looked startled. Then she saw that Ken was staring at the plate, and she turned it around. She laughed softly. 'Very funny, Ken. Okay, I just came on and I haven't gotten around to changing the name.' She put the plate in a drawer and took out another one that read Ms. Greenwood.

Amanda smiled back at the librarian and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. That was a close call.

Locating the computers, she sat down at one and turned it on. The screen lit up, and then a message appeared.

Enter Code.

She got up and went back to the librarian's desk. 'The computer says I need a code to log on.'

'That's right,' she said with a puzzled expression. 'Ken, you've used these computers before.You know what to do.'

Amanda swallowed. 'I, uh, forgot it.'

The lines of puzzlement on the librarian's forehead deepened. But at least she answered him. 'It's five zeros, Ken. Pretty easy to remember.'

'Yeah, right. Of course. I'm a little out of it today.'

Now the librarian looked concerned. With Amanda's luck, the woman would turn out to be a friend of Ken's mother and call her to report that Ken was behaving strangely.

Back at the computer, Amanda logged in, and in the search box she typed Gold finger. What came up was a description of the movie, some pictures of the actors, and a date: 1964. How old had Rick said he'd been when he saw it? Fourteen?

She didn't want to go back to Ms. Greenwood or Fletcher or whatever her name was and make a fool of herself again. So she got up and wandered around the library.

It was kind of interesting--she didn't know libraries had CDs and DVDs and video games. But she didn't take time to look at any of them. She was on a mission.

Finally, she found what she was searching for in a little room off the main area, a room that looked like it hadn't been dusted in years. On a row of shelves she found all the yearbooks of all the schools in town, going back to the dark ages or whatever. If Rick had been 14 in 1964, that meant he probably was supposed to have graduated from high school in 1967 or 1968.

There were three high schools in town. She didn't know his last name. And Rick, or Richard, turned out to be a pretty common name. Checking indexes, she found seven possible Ricks.

She started checking pictures, although she had no idea what she was looking for. In their conversations, there had been no reference to his hair color or any other identifiable characteristic.

It was extremely frustrating. Several of the Ricks looked cute, others not so much. Some of them had really long hair, which must have been the fashion at the time.

There were photos of student activities, teams, and clubs, but she didn't know what Rick had been into in high school. Except Nancy, of course. Which was why she got very excited when she accidentally hit on a picture of