“You said that?”
“I shouldn’t be telling you this. Especially the part about the partying!”
“Mom always told me that’s how I got my name, but she never mentioned the partying.”
I thanked the universe my parents had been looking at a raven that day and not a squirrel. The results would have been disastrous.
“Dad, what do I do?”
“You’ll have to figure that one out yourself. But if the ball lands in your court again, don’t smash it into the fence. Just open your eyes and swing right through.”
We got my salad to go as I couldn’t chew on it and the tennis metaphors at the same time.
I was greatly confused. I didn’t know what to do. Hit the ball or wait for it to come to me? My father was lollygagging with a friend when I heard a voice say, “You play a mean game, Raven!” I turned around and saw Matt leaning against the front counter.
“I can’t play at all!” I replied, surprised. I looked around for Trevor.
“I’m not talking about tennis.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m talking about school, about Trevor. Don’t worry, he’s not here.”
“So, are you trying to start something with me?” I asked, clutching my racket. “Here at the club?”
“No, I’m trying to end it. I mean, what he does to you and Becky and everyone. Even me. And I’m his best friend. But you stick up for everyone here. And you don’t even like us.” He laughed. “We’re mean to you and you still get Trevor back for all of us.”
“Are we on Spy TV?” I asked, looking around for hidden cameras.
“You bring spice to this town, with your funky clothes and your attitude. You don’t care what people think, and this town revolves on what people think.”
“Is Trevor hiding in the gift shop?” I asked, peering over.
“The Snow Ball really changed a lot of people’s minds. Trevor used the whole school, and in the end he made fools of everyone. I think it was our wake-up call.”
I realized there were no hidden cameras or hiding Trevors. Matt wasn’t joking.
“I wish Alexander could hear you say this,” I finally said. “I haven’t seen him, and I’m afraid I never will again. Trevor ruined everything,” I said, my eyes starting to well up again.
“Screw Trevor!”
Several people looked over, as it wasn’t polite to swear at the club, even though they did on the court after they missed a shot.
“Gotta run, Raven—see you,” Matt said as he took off.
“I’d like you to meet an old acquaintance, Raven,” my father said, approaching with a strikingly suntanned man after Matt left.
“It’s nice to see you, Raven,” he said. “It’s been a while. You look so grown-up now. I wouldn’t recognize you without the lipstick. Do you remember me?”
How could I forget him? The first time I entered the Mansion, the basement window, the red cap. The warm kiss on my cheek from the handsome new guy trying to fit in.
“Jack Patterson! Of course I remember you, but I can’t believe you remember me.”
“I’ll always remember you!”
“How do you two know each other?” my father asked.
“From school,” Jack answered, with a glint in his eye.
“So what are you up to now?” Jack asked me. “Rumor has it that you’re going into the Mansion through the front door these days.”
“Well, I was, but…”
“Jack recently moved back to town and took over his father’s department store,” my dad said.
“Yeah, stop by sometime,” Jack said. “I’ll give you a discount.”
“Do you sell combat boots and black cosmetics?”
Jack Patterson laughed. “I guess some things haven’t changed!”
Matt suddenly returned. “Ready to go, Matt?” Jack asked.
“You know Matt?” I asked, surprised.
“We’re cousins. I’m glad I moved back—I have some reservations about the crowd he hangs around with.”
21
Darkness and Light
It was Saturday evening. I was dressed in my Cure T-shirt and black boxers, watching Dracula in slow motion. I paused the part where Bela leans into a sleeping Helen Chandler and recalled the time Alexander kissed me on his black leather couch. I stared longingly at the screen and grabbed some more tissues.
The doorbell shocked me out of my self-pitying trance. “You get it!” I shouted, and suddenly remembered my family had gone to the movies.
I peered through the peephole but saw nothing. Then I looked again and discovered tiny Becky standing on the doorstep.
“What do you want?” I asked, opening the door.
“Get dressed!”
“I thought maybe you came here to apologize.”
“I’m sorry, but you must believe me! You have to come to the Mansion—now!”
“Go home!”
“Raven, immediately!
“What’s going on?”
“Please, Raven, hurry!”
I ran upstairs and threw on a black T-shirt and black jeans.
“Hurry!”
I ran back downstairs. She grabbed my arm and pulled me out the door.
I bombarded her with questions as we got into her father’s pickup, but she refused to tell me anything.
I imagined the Mansion covered with graffiti, its windows shattered, Trevor and his soccer snobs having it out on the hill with a bloody Alexander. And then another horrible image, but a silent one. A FOR SALE sign in the yard and not even the dark curtains hanging in Alexander’s attic window.
Becky didn’t park at the Mansion, but a block away.
“What gives?” I asked. “Why don’t you park closer?”
But as we jumped out, I saw several cars parked along the curb leading up to the Mansion, unusual for the desolate street.
In the distance I spotted two women dressed in black like they were going to a funeral. But they were swiftly walking, holding lighted torches.
My heart sank. “We’ll never make it!” I shouted.
Worse still was seeing a man, also dressed in black and carrying a lighted torch. I freaked. Everything stopped inside of me. It was just like the ending of Frankenstein—where the townspeople gather to burn the castle and cast out poor Franky from his home. Only this was a smaller mob. I couldn’t believe it had come to this. I could already smell the smoke.
“No, no!” I shouted, but the man had already turned the corner toward the gate.
My darkest imagination could not have prepared me for what I laid my eyes upon: A small crowd of Dullsvillians had gathered on the Mansion grounds. Conservative townspeople dressed in vampire black? Everyone was so dark I thought I must be wearing sunglasses, but a glowing Becky convinced me I was seeing a perfect picture. There were lively people hanging outside the front of the usually lonely Mansion—and they were all having a blast!
I didn’t understand any of it. The gathering was more like a party, but it made no sense. Was it just another sick joke? And then I saw the banner on the open gate that made everything wonderfully clear: WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
“Better late than never,” Becky said.
Red streamers also hung from the gate, and lawn torches lit the hill.
“Hey, girl, don’t ignore us!” someone called as Becky and I entered the grounds.
I turned around. It was Ruby! She was dressed in a skin-tight black-vinyl dress, and thigh-high black-vinyl go-go boots.
“I’ve gotten a date out of this outfit already, Raven. You’ll never believe it—it was from the butler!” She grimaced like a smitten giggly school girl and fluffed her dyed black hair as she checked herself out in her compact. “He’s older, but he’s kinda cute!”
By the looks of Ruby, she had been pulled straight off a Paris fashion runway. Even her white poodle was wearing a studded black leash and a black doggie sweater.
“Recognize me?” It was Janice in a black min
i and combat boots. “Think it’s my color?” she said, revealing her black nail polish.
“Any shade of black will do!” I said.
“I tried to tell you not to come to the Snow Ball,” Becky began quickly as we walked up the driveway. “But Trevor blackmailed me. You’re always there for me when I need you and I wasn’t there for you. Will you ever forgive me?”
“I was so caught up, I didn’t listen to your warnings. And you’re here for me now.” I took her hand. “I’m just glad you’re not under Trevor’s spell anymore.”
As Becky and I continued to walk up the hill of party goers, we ran into Jack Patterson wearing a black turtleneck and jeans.
“I’ve been waiting all these years for the right moment to pay you back,” he confessed. “I’ve outfitted the party. There’s nothing black left in the store!”
Now, after all these years, it was my turn to give him a grateful kiss on the cheek. “This is so unbelievable!”
“It wasn’t my idea for the partiers to wear black,” Jack said, pointing to a guy in Doc Martens, a black T-shirt, and slicked-back hair.
“Hey, girl!” It was Matt. “I was afraid you wouldn’t show. We had to send Becky for you. We couldn’t properly welcome Alexander to town after all this time without you!” My eyes lit up. “Alexander’s been asking about you all night.”
I glanced around frantically, speechless. I wanted to throw my arms around everyone. But where was Alexander?
“I think you’ll find him inside,” Matt hinted.
“I can’t believe you did this!” The thought of seeing Alexander again thrilled me. I gave Matt a Ruby squeeze-hug. I think he was as startled by my affection as I was.
“You better get up there—before the sun rises,” he said.
I paused, remembering one Dullsvillian I hadn’t spotted. “He’s not going to be lurking in the shadows, right?”
“Who?”
“You know who!”
“Trevor? He wasn’t invited.”
“Thanks, Matt. Thank you so much!” I said, giving him a thumbs-up.
“You did this, really. It’s been good for us to take a walk on the wild side.”
Becky grabbed my arm and led me toward the Mansion. A refreshment table was set up by the door. Juices and pop, chips and SnoCaps, Sprees, Good & Plenty, and Dots. Everything that Alexander had that night we watched TV at his house.
“No way!” I exclaimed. I glared at Becky. “I even told you about the SnoCaps?” I realized.
“If I kept that a secret, too, we wouldn’t have refreshments,” Becky added.
She prepared herself for my fury, but instead I smiled and said, “I’m glad you have such a good memory. Whose idea was this welcome party?” I wondered.
Becky glanced toward the front steps.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed two trendy honeymooners holding hands.
“Oh, there she is,” I heard the hipster man say.
It was my parents! My mom was in black bell-bottoms, black platform sandals, and a silky black shirt, with a string of red love beads around her neck. My dad was wearing black-rimmed John Lennon glasses and had squeezed his body into black Levi’s and a black silk shirt unbuttoned halfway.
“Are you on drugs?” I wondered aloud, astonished.
“Hi, honey,” my mom said. “We had to do something to get you out of bed.”
My dad laughed and two young kids in Dracula outfits came whizzing by. One extended his cape with his hands and pretended to fly toward me.
“I’ve come to suck your blood!” It was Billy Boy.
“You look divine! You’re the cutest vampire I’ve ever seen,” I said.
“Really? Then I’m going to wear this to school on Monday.”
“Oh, no, you’re not,” my dad scolded. “One radical in the family is more than I can handle.”
My father looked at my mother for help. Billy winked at me and flew off.
Jameson stepped out of the Mansion holding a black jacket.
“Here is your sports coat, Mr. Madison,” he said, handing the jacket to my dad. “The boy wouldn’t let it go. Something about your daughter’s perfume.”
I was totally embarrassed, but I melted inside.
“It’s good to see you, Miss Raven.”
I wanted to see Alexander. I wanted to see him right then. I wanted to see his face, his hair, his eyes. I wanted to see if he still looked the same, if he still felt our deep love connection. Or if he thought it was all a lie.
As if he could read my thoughts, Jameson said, “Won’t you come in?”
I walked inside, thankful that the reunion—or the blowout—would be a private one. It was quiet inside, no music pulsing from the attic, and dark, with only a few candles lighting the way. I checked the living room, the dining room, the kitchen and the hallway. I climbed the grand staircase.
“Alexander?” I whispered. “Alexander?”
My heart was pounding and my mind frenetic. I peeked in the bathrooms, the library, the master bedroom.
I heard voices from the TV room.
Renfield was ratting to the doctor about Count Dracula. It was during this scene that Alexander had kissed me and I had fainted. I sat on the couch and watched impatiently for a minute, expecting him to return. But I grew anxious and wandered back out to the hallway.
“Alexander?”
I looked at the faded red-carpeted staircase leading to the attic. His staircase!
The door at the top of his squeaky stairs was closed. His door. His room. The room he wouldn’t let me see. I gently knocked on the door.
No answer. “Alexander?” I knocked again. “It’s me, Raven. Alexander?”
Behind that door was his world. The world I had never seen. The world that had all the answers to all his mysteries—how he spent his days, how he spent his nights. I twisted the knob, and the door creaked slightly open. It wasn’t locked. I wanted more than anything to push it open. To snoop. But then I thought. This is how the trouble began: with my snooping. Haven’t I learned anything? So I took a deep breath and acted against my impulse. I shut the door and hurried down the creaky attic stairs and the grand staircase with a new confidence. I paused at the open front door, and feeling a familiar presence once again, I turned around.
There he stood, like a Knight of the Night, looking straight at me with those dark, deep, lovely, calming, lonely, adoring, intelligent, dreamy, soulful eyes.
“I never meant to hurt you,” I blurted out. “I’m not what Trevor said. I’ve always liked you, for who you are!”
Alexander didn’t speak.
“I was so stupid. You’re the most interesting thing that’s ever happened in Dullsville. You must think I’m so childish.”
He still didn’t speak a word.
“Say something. Say I was totally third grade. Say you hate me.”
“I know we are more similar than different.”
“You do?” I asked, surprised.
“My grandma told me.”
“She speaks to you?” I said, feeling a sudden chill.
“No, she’s dead, silly! I saw the flowers.”
He reached his hand for mine. “There’s something I want to show you,” he said mysteriously.
“Your room?” I asked, grabbing his hand.
“Yes, and something in my room. It’s finally ready.”
“It?” My imagination ran wild. What did Alexander do up in his room? Was “it” alive or dead?
He led me up the grand staircase and the creaky attic stairs. His stairs.
“It’s time you knew my secrets,” he said, opening the door. “Or at least most of them.”
It was dark except for the moonlight that shone through the tiny attic window. A beat-up, comfy chair and a twin-sized mattress rested on the floor. A strewn black comforter exposed maroon sheets. A bed like any other teenager’s. Not a coffin. And then I noticed the paintings. Big Ben with bats flying over the clock face, a castle on a hill, the Eiffel Tower upsid
e down. There was a dark painting of an older couple in gothic outfits with a huge red heart around them. There was Dullsville’s cemetery, his grandma smiling above her gravestone. A picture drawn from his attic window with trick-or-treaters everywhere. “Those are from my dark period,” he joked.
“They’re spectacular,” I said, stepping closer.
Paint was everywhere, even splattered on the floor.
“You’re totally awesome!”
“I wasn’t sure you’d like them.”
“They’re unbelievable!”
I noticed a canvas covered with a sheet on an easel in the corner.
“Don’t worry, it won’t bite.”
I paused before it, wondering what lay beneath the sheet. And for once my imagination failed me. I took a corner of the sheet and slowly peeled it back, just like when I had uncovered the mirror in Alexander’s basement. I was stunned.
I was staring at myself, dressed for the Snow Ball, a red rose corsage pinned to my dress. But I carried a pumpkin basket over my arm and held a Snickers in one hand while on the other I wore a spider ring. Stars twinkled overhead and snow fell lightly around me. I grinned wonderfully through glistening fake vampire teeth.
“It looks just like me! I never imagined you were an artist! I mean I knew you did those drawings in the basement and then the paint on the side of the road…I had no idea.”
“That was you?” he asked, reflecting.
“Why were you standing in the middle of the road?”
“I was going to the cemetery to paint this picture of my grandmother’s monument.”
“Don’t most painters use little tubes?”
“I mix my own.”
“I had no idea. You’re an artist. Now it all makes sense.”
“I’m glad you like it,” he said with relief. “We better get back to the party before we give them something to really gossip about.”
“I guess you’re right. You know how rumors spread in this town.”
“Isn’t it weird?” he asked, handing me a soda, back on the lawn after we’d mingled among the darkened Dullsvillians. “We’re not the outcasts tonight.”
“Let’s enjoy it now. It’ll all be back to normal tomorrow.”