I see a lot of them wearing their caps backwards.'
'I think it's silly,' I said.
I didn't tell her the other ways that Chet wasn,t practical, because it was about our running away. For instance, I had to tell him what to take and help him pack. And I was the one who looked up the telephone number of the cab company so we'd have it when we were ready to leave home and go out to my Uncle Chas to get the hundred dollars.
'Now here's what I think,', I told Chet. 'Labor Day is on September seventh. Then school starts on Tuesday, the eighth. So I think we should leave on September second, which is a Wednesday.'
Why on that day?' he asked me.
I sighed. Sometimes I have to explain things to Chet twice or maybe three times. I know he's smart, but he just doesn't pay attention.
'We decided we would leave before school started,' I said.
'And September second is just as good a day as any. Also, it's in the middle of the week, so it will be easier getting a cab than if we leave on a Saturday or Sunday. And besides, your mother and father might be home on the weekend, and mine, too. So Wednesday is when we'll leave.' i guess,' he said.
'Now you must be all packed on Tuesday night,' I said. 'And I'll be ready so we can just take off on Wednesday anytime we want. I think we should go around noon, which will give us time to pick up the money from Uncle Chas and start out before it gets dark.'
'Boy,' he said, 'you sure are bossy.'
'Well, my goodness,' I said, 'somebody's got to think of these things.
And I wish you'd wear your cap the right way. You look silly.'
'Do not,' he said.
'Do so,' I said. 'But if you want to look silly, I really don't care.'
'Listen,' he said, 'my folks haven't been so bad lately.
Maybe we should talk about this some more.'
'You mean you don't want to go? Chet, it was your idea.'
'I know it was,' he said like he was mad at me.
'I'm just saying maybe we should give them like another chance.'
'Chester Barrow, ' I said, 'if you back out now after all my work, I'll never speak to you again as long as I live.
'I'm not backing out,' he said, getting that look he gets sometimes when he clenches his teeth. 'I just mean my mother and father have been nicer to me lately, like I told you. Are your parents still fighting?'
'Yes, they are,' I said, 'and if you don't want to leave home, then I'll go by myself.'
'Oh, no,' he said, 'you can't do that. I'll go, I'll go just like we planned.'
'Promise?'
'Sure,' he said, 'I promise.'
I felt sort of guilty because to tell you the truth my parents hadn't been fighting lately like they usually did. My father was still missing dinner and coming home late smelling from alcohol, but it didn't seem to bother my mother anymore, because she didn't yell at him, and she smiled a lot and was always humming. just because I'm a girl going on nine doesn't mean I don't notice things, and I wondered why she was acting so happy.
We were eating in the kitchen one night late in August, and I said, 'I wish Daddy would come home to have dinner with us every night.'
And Mom said, 'Oh, I think he will. I think he'll change his ways real soon.'
I wasn't so sure. 'Can people change the way they are?' I asked her.
She said. 'People change of course they can,' All the time.'
I thought about that awhile. 'I think Chet Barrow is changing,' I told her.
'Is he, dear? How is he changing?'
'I don't know,' I said. 'But sometimes he says things, and then he goes back on them. I don't like that.
Suddenly she looked sad. 'Men are like that, Tania, she said. 'As you get older, you'll learn that they frequently say things, promise things, they don't really mean.'
'Well, that's just lying.'
'Not exactly. Sometimes they'll say things because they want something, or to keep you happy, or because they don't want an argument.'
'And all the time they don't really mean it? I think that's awful.'
'Yes, it is,' she agreed with me. 'But you'll just have to learn to put up with it.'
Well, she could put up with it if she wanted to, but I wasn't going to.
So the next time I was alone with Chet I spoke right out.
'Now listen here, Chester Barrow,' I said, 'I don't like the way you've been acting.'
He looked at me. 'What are you talking about?' he said.
'Well, sometimes you say things because you want something, or to keep me happy, or because you don't want an argument. And all the time you don't really mean what you're saying.'
'You're nuts,' he said. 'When did I ever do things like that? '
'All the time,' I said. 'Like I can tell that now you don't really want to run away. You're just pretending.'
'Oh my gosh,' he said. 'I told you I'd leave with you, didn't I? I promised, didn't I?'
'But you don't really mean it,' I said. 'I can tell.'
'I do so mean it.'
No, you don't. At the last minute you'll make some excuse not to go.'
'You know,' he said, 'you can be a real pita.
'Pita?' I said. 'That's like a bread.'
'Yeah, I know,' he said. 'It also stands for'pain in the ass.' And that's what you can be.'
I started crying. 'That's the worst thing anyone ever called me in my whole life,' I told him, 'and I hate you.'
'Well, you called me a liar.'
'Did not. I just said that sometimes you say things you don't really mean. Like running away.'
'But I do mean it ' he insisted. 'Will you stop crying, for gosh sakes. just because I said maybe we should think about it some more, that don't mean-'
'Doesn't.'
'That doesn't mean I'm not going to keep my word. When did I ever go back on my word, tell me that.'
'Cross your heart and hope to die that you'll absolutely, positively, run away with me on Wednesday, September second.'
'All right,' he said. 'Cross my heart and hope to die.'
'Well, that's better,' I said, sniffing.
'You believe me now?'
'Yes, I believe you.'
We've got some frozen Milky Ways in our fridge, he said. 'You want one?'
'Okay, ' I said. Making up after an argument is the best part.
Hey,' Chet said,,what you said about hating me you don't really mean that, do you?'
'No,' I told him. 'I just said it because you called me a pita and I was mad, but I didn't really mean it.' ,That's good,' he said.
After we ate our frozen Milky Ways, we decided to put on our bathing suits and have a hose fight. So that's what we did. We were playing around, dousing each other, when suddenly Chet stopped and stared out at Hibiscus Drive. I looked and saw a big silver car driving slowly by.
'There's that guy again,' Chet said.
'What guy?' I asked him.
'A man who knows my mom and dad. He says he's going to stop by when they're both home and surprise them. it's supposed to be a secret.'
'What's his name?'
'He didn't say. But he gave me five bucks.'
'That was nice of him,' I said., 'Yeah,' Chet said. 'He's an okay guy.
