Chapter Two
Sitting in the middle of the row is a girl with short dark hair
wearing a bright pink sweater. She is
looking at her program. David is
surprised to recognize Mariah. Mariah has been David's friend since he wore
the same kind of underpants as the Naked Cowboy. David sees Crystal and Mariah every Wednesday
night at Socialization.
Mariah has a new hair cut.
The hair cut makes Mariah look like the pictures of girls David sees in
magazines and on TV. Her bright pink
sweater makes her look a lot more grown-up than the jeans and sweatshirts she
usually wears to Socialization. "Oh,
my!" says David. "Mariah is here?
Alone?"
"She came with her sister and her Aunt Pat," says
Pop. He puts a hand on David's shoulder
and points to the seat right next to Mariah. "Today is Mariah and Crystal's birthdays. They invited you to be part of their present."
Mariah stands up as David, Mother and Pop squeeze between
the narrow rows. She gives David a big
hug and a kiss on his cheek. Her lips are sticky and when David rubs his
cheek, a little pink smear comes off on his fingers.
Mariah smells like the perfume one of the prettiest girls at
David's work wears. Her skin above the
sweater looks as smooth and soft as the velvet curtains hanging in front of the
stage. Looking at Mariah makes David
feel as warm as if one of those curtains were wrapped around him.
Mariah smells so good and looks so pretty, David wants to keep
hugging her. For just a second, David
imagines kissing Mariah the way he imagines kissing Sarah. But he knows he can't kiss Mariah like that
without permission. So instead, he sits
down and looks at his program until the feeling of wanting to kiss Mariah goes
away.
Mariah sits down next to him.
"Where's your Aunt Pat and Crystal?" asks Mother. Mother sits next to David, and Pop is on the
end. All the seats next to Mariah on the
other side are empty.
"She took my sister to the ladies' room," says Mariah. "I'm waiting for you and Larry. Larry is Crystal's date. You're mine." She gives David her happiest smile.
David has never seen Mariah so happy, not even when she and
Crystal were elected joint Homecoming Queens at school. David didn't know she liked to come to shows
in New York City.
"Me?" David
is confused. Larry is another friend
from Socialization. David thought Mariah
and Larry were going out together, even though recently, he has seen Larry
walking around with Crystal. He thought
it was because Larry couldn't tell the twins apart.
Mother pats David's knee. "Mariah's mom called me a few
months ago to arrange this. The girls each
got to bring a friend, and Mariah chose you."
"Your birthday's coming up, big guy," says
Pop. "You'll have to think about
what you want."
"Not now, William," says Mother with a little
frown. "Don't give him ideas."
Just then, Mariah's Aunt Pat comes down the row with
Crystal, Mariah's twin. David is
surprised to see that for once, the twins are not dressed alike. Crystal is wearing a dark purple dress. Her hair is cut in a different style from her
sister's. Seeing them dressed in
different clothes and wearing their hair in different ways is almost like being
with two new people.
David sits in the shock of it while Mother and Pop hug and
shake hands. Aunt Pat lives just a few
blocks away from the theatre. Everyone
is invited back to her apartment – she calls it a flat – for birthday cake
after dinner. Aunt Pat sits next to Mariah. She mentions how well David's sweater matches
his blue eyes. She says his blue sweater
goes well with Mariah's hot pink.
Mother agrees and says she grows a rose the same color as
Mariah's sweater, or used to, until one of the new lawn people got happy with
their hedge-clippers. David listens to Mother and Aunt Pat talk
about roses. Mariah looks at David and
smiles. Then she giggles and turns
pinker than her sweater. She holds her
program up close to her face.
David smiles back even though he's not sure what she thinks
is funny.
Crystal sits on Aunt Pat's other side. There are three empty seats next to
Crystal. The theatre begins to fill up
but the seats next to Crystal stay empty.
Mother and Aunt Pat keep talking, and David and Mariah stay quiet. Then Mother says, "Mariah, how do you
like your new job at –"
Suddenly the lights start to blink on and off. It is time for the show to start. Mother stops talking and sits back in her
seat. Everyone in the audience quiets
down. The lights come up in the
orchestra pit. The conductor takes his
place. David leans forward, holding his
breath. The conducter waves his arms and
the music begins.
David settles back. He
loves music almost as much as he loves Mother and Pop. The music fills the theatre. David
looks up at the big curtains
Then a bobbing beam of light catches David's attention. He looks across Mariah to see three people
coming down the aisle behind an usher holding a flashlight. David recognizes Larry by the way he lopes ahead
on his long legs. He rushes past their
row and the usher has to catch up to him and bring him back. Larry looks very surprised to see Crystal
and Mariah and David.
Before anyone can stop him, he says "Hello!" in a
very loud voice. Someone behind Larry
grabs his arm and pushes Larry down in the seat next to Crystal. David can't see who.
People around them say "Sh!"
Mother looks over and waves.
Pop waves. David and Mariah
wave.
David recognizes Larry's brother, Steve, and his wife.
Steve's wife is named Joy. David
remembers when Steve and Joy got married because David and Mother and Pop all
went to the wedding.
Steve and Joy looked very happy at their wedding but they
don't look happy now. Joy looks like
she's been crying. With a white tissue,
she dabs at black trails of makeup running down her face.
The curtain rises and David forgets all about Larry and Joy
and Steve. He forgets all about Crystal
and Mariah and Sarah. He even forgets
about Mother and Pop.
The show is about a young man who works in a mail room, just
like David. He wants to become head of
the company he works for. He meets a
beautiful girl named Rosie and he wants to marry her. David wonders what Alan, his new job coach
would think if he started to sing and dance around the mail room like the actor
up on the stage. David imagines Sarah
dressed as Rosie, singing to him.
Beside him, Mariah hums along with the songs and when the
actors dance, she takes David's hand and swings it in time to the dancing. On the other side of Aunt Pat, David can see
Larry squirming around in his seat.
Larry loves to dance. In fact, Larry loves to dance so much David
feels sorry for him that he has to sit still and watch the dancers on stage.
The dancers whirl and dip.
They kick their legs high and wave their arms. Their costumes flash and sparkle under the
bright lights. They smile and sing. The
music builds and builds. Lots of people
in the audience are bobbing their heads in time to the music. Some snap their fingers in time or tap their
feet. David can tell from the music
that the end of the show is near.
Mariah swings their hands back and forth. David imagines he and Mariah are up on stage
dancing and singing and wearing shimmering costumes. David imagines Sarah sitting in the front
row, watching them. He would love to
sing and dance for Sarah some day. He
wonders if Mariah would sing and dance with him.
Suddenly, there's a disturbance at the end of their
row. It's Larry, standing up. Everyone around him says "Sh!" David hears Steve say, "Larry, sit
down!"
But Larry doesn't listen.
Larry runs up the aisle. Larry
dodges two men in black suits who try to stop him. He runs up the steps at the edge of the stage
into the middle of the dancers. The men
in black suits try to get on stage but the dancers are whirling directly at
them on the steps. The men are blocked
by all the kicking legs.
The dancers don't stop dancing. Instead, they make room for Larry. A pair of dancers takes his hands. They dance him to the corner next to the
steps. They dance him back and forth a
few times, then hand him over to the men in the suits.
Larry is
smiling. He is thrilled. He dances back up the aisle with the men in
the suits. They guide him back to his
seat next to Steve. Steve and his wife
get up and lead Larry, still dancing, up the aisle. Steve and his wife don't look anywhere near
as happy as Larry does.
The whole audience starts to clap as the show comes to an
end. The curtain goes down then up. The actors come out on stage. They bow and everyone claps and claps. At last the lights brighten, and it's time
to leave. David wonders what's happened
to Larry.
From the look on Steve's face,
David doesn't think it's going to be good. 
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