The Gingerbread Boy Read online

  She was confused. “Why?”

  “Because Joey lives upstairs in a rooming house, and they’re having a party tonight. Nothing at all to do with football, it’s just what they do. I wanted to get there before the crazies. I want to get in and out, fast.” He paused. “I wondered if maybe that was where you were going. I thought maybe you dated one of those guys or something.”

  Catherine looked disgusted. “Hardly!”

  Daniel raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

  “Most of them are cave-pigs.” she muttered, using an expression she’d coined for good ol’ Calvin Prigg once she’d found out just how incorrigible he really was.

  Daniel shook his head. “Then this area is no place for you.” He thought a moment, then his voice sounded careful. “You must be freezing. Why don’t you come to Joey’s with me, and then we’ll see you get back to your place safely. You’ll like Joey. He’s an old-fashioned southern boy teeming with good old-fashioned hospitality.” He mimicked a southern accent, “Good ol’ Joey’s ‘bout as harmless as a foam rubber baseball bat.”

  Catherine straightened, taken aback by the offer. Considering she was lost anyway, and had no idea how to get back to her house, she felt more helpless than afraid. Still…

  “I am getting colder,” she finally admitted. “I guess I’m not as good at bundling up as you are.”

  “I’m getting a bit of a sore throat,” he said. “I don’t want to lose my voice. But here,” he added, reaching toward his hat, “why don’t you wear this and…”

  “I’m fine.” Catherine refused.

  “Afraid to mess up that pretty dark hair?”

  “That’s not it,” she said, secretly savoring the compliment.

  “You afraid I have lice?”

  “No.”

  “What then?”

  Catherine became flustered. “I’m not sure.” She hesitated, then the words sprang from her mouth. “Okay, let’s go to Joey’s. I could use a ride home. My house is way back on Abbot Street.

  “Great,” Daniel said. “Anyway, I do have lice. Big ones. One of them is almost big enough to use this hat himself.”

  Catherine’s mouth twisted into a smile. “Let’s go.”

  ****

  It was pleasant strolling along with Daniel in the snow. Their boots crunched together, and it already seemed like hours ago she’d been afraid of this man. They walked comfortably apart, and Catherine noticed her short, brisk steps were a good match for Daniel’s long, slow strides. And all he’d been doing, it seemed, was watching out for her. She had a dozen questions running around in her mind to ask him, but she didn’t want to seem nosy. Laughing, she flicked her tongue out and caught a few snowflakes on it, and Daniel lowered his scarf and did likewise. Then they laughed together. A comfortable silence fell between them. Finally, feeling too awkward to ask Daniel more about himself, she shifted the conversation to his friend, Joey.

  “What’s Joey like?” she asked.

  Daniel cocked an eyebrow at her. “Well…he may seem like one of your feeble-minded college guys, but he’s not. He lives there because his room is cheap.”

  “What does he do?”

  “He’s an electronics wizard. One of the smartest guys I’ve ever known, and I’ve known him half my life.”

  “Which is how long?”

  “Fourteen years.”

  “Oh.” So, Daniel was twenty-eight. Four years her senior.

  “How old are you?” he asked.

  “How old do you think I am?”

  Daniel rolled his eyes. “That’s cruel.”

  “It was rather cruel of you to ask. At least I’m not at that point in my life where I worry about it yet.”

  Daniel stopped abruptly, leaned back and placed his hands on Catherine’s shoulders. He stared into her face.

  Catherine fought it. Fought the notion that she liked the touch of those long, slender fingers on her shoulders. She stared back at him a few moments, then turned away, unable to hold contact with his such intriguing eyes.

  Who was this guy?

  “I’d say you’re about my sister’s age, twenty-three or so,” he finally said. “Just don’t ask me how much I think you weigh.”

  Catherine smiled at his guess. “Close enough. And I’m certainly not ashamed of my weight, but I’ll let you ponder that one.”

  Daniel nodded. “You’re quite a waif for a potential veterinarian.”

  Catherine made no reply as Daniel added, “I can tell that you’re not from Michigan, you have some kind of eastern accent…”

  “Maryland. But I spent time in New Jersey.”

  “Well aren’t you the travelin’ fluffy-puppy fixer.”

  Catherine sighed. “Some day, I will be. In a few more years, and if I work very hard.”

  “You will. You’ll make it.”

  “You bet I will. I absolutely have to. It’s my life’s dream.”

  “Life’s dreams are good.”

  She smiled, and they walked on.

  Soon the sound of distant chatter and music drifted through the air, and the road became littered with haphazardly parked cars. The farther they walked, the more densely parked the cars.

  “It’s already started.” Daniel said, then added, “People must have come early.” He pulled back a coat sleeve to look at his watch. “I can’t believe it.”

  Catherine slowed her pace. “Should we walk in on that?”

  He shrugged. “They’re probably already sauced. No one will notice us. Won’t even care. We can manage this.”

  As they turned a corner around a thick pine tree, an immense stone mansion came into view. The masonry seemed to throb from the music and cacophony of voices inside.

  “We’ll hurry and find Joey, then sneak out a back way,” Daniel said, sensing her uneasiness. “Or,” he added, “you could always hide behind another tree out here.” Catherine raised her eyebrows. “Very funny. I think I can handle it for a few minutes.”

  “Sure?”

  “I’m sure.” She jumped a wrought iron fence at the edge of the yard and followed a smattering of footprints to the front door. She was determined to not be afraid of this, yet her heart hammered. She detested the idea of deliberately walking into such a houseful of people drinking, partying, and who knew what else.

  Snob, said the voice in her mind. The voice wasn’t Tony’s this time though, but her own. “Lighten up, Catherine,” she whispered to herself, turning to see Daniel trotting to catch up to her. “Lighten up kiddo, or you’re going to become more loathsome than Beth.”

  And no one could be as vain or superficial as her outlandish roommate, Beth Shaker.

  “You say something?” Daniel asked, reaching her.

  Catherine shook her head. He seems like such a happy person, she thought. She ought to try smiling a little more. “Just mumbling to myself,” she replied.

  “About the cave-pig club ahead?” Daniel asked, slowing his steps to walk next to her. Catherine looked at him in surprise, incredulous that he had remembered and used one of her own odd expressions. Deliberately smiling, she went with him to the front door. Daniel stepped ahead and rapped on a large iron knocker, then stepped back again, regarding her warmly.

  The scene instantly imprinted on her mind: the softly falling snow behind Daniel’s silhouetted form, his sparkling eyes, the red scarf tucked around his face like a little boy. She felt cold air prickling the insides of her nostrils, felt the wetness of her clammy backside still damp from the snow, and breathed in the ancient scent of the imposing stone structure looming above her. This one tiny moment seemed to signify the start of something; of what, she could only imagine.

  Ignoring frantic little whispers in her mind about how silly the idea was, she grinned at Daniel. If she could rise above the discomfort of being around the inebriated people inside, she might even enjoy herself.

  Suddenly the door opened and music, movement and voices gushed out at them, causing Catherine to step back in surprise. When a hand be
ckoned them inside, Catherine took a deep breath, and, as a cauldron of hot air rushed against her face, entered a darkened hallway. As people milled in a cavernous, tall-ceilinged room beyond, she forced herself to move forward, her ears ringing, nose stinging from the smell of beer and bodies. She could do this, she could…

  “Three bucks.” Said a voice to her left.

  Catherine turned to see a square-faced young man in a chair, a cigar box stuffed with bills cradled in his lap. Panic rose in her. They actually wanted money? She didn’t have anything with her. Would they make her wait outside?

  “She’s with me,” came Daniel’s voice from behind.

  The fellow stretched to get a closer look at Daniel. His eyes rounded.

  “Oh, sorry, Daniel! I didn’t recognize you. Are you incognito?”

  “Just getting a cold, saving my voice.” Daniel replied, then gently ushered Catherine inside.

  “You must have some kind of clout.” Catherine said above the noise as he stood protectively near her.

  “They know me around here,” he shrugged.

  Catherine nodded. “Which way to find Joey?” she asked, looking in dismay at all the people, hoping for a quick escape from the crowd, many yelling “State! State! State!” She noticed a narrow stairway to their right, but Daniel’s finger then pointed alongside her face toward another, wider stairway with an oak banister at the opposite end of the room.

  “We’ll have to wade through the teeming masses to get there,” Daniel practically shouted above the noise.

  “Wonderful,” Catherine muttered under her breath.

  Daniel reached back to take her hand, but a spike of fear forced her to pull her own hand away. She looked around, pretending she hadn’t noticed his effort. She barely knew this guy. She could hardly see his face. She wasn’t ready to throw caution to the wind just because Daniel was funny and had charmed her a bit.

  But you’re going to head upstairs in a rooming house with a guy you can’t even describe? Asked Tony’s voice in her mind. Moron.

  She pressed on behind Daniel, trying to ignore the shoving bodies, the noise, the smell of alcohol tingling her nose. She was going to get a ride home, that was all. It was quite innocent. She could take care of herself if she had too, she thought grimly.

  But she sensed Daniel was one of the truly good guys. She knew it as surely as she knew that her starchy old friend from back home, Hazel VanHoofstryver, had a kind heart beneath all her crabbiness. Catherine had been wrong about Calvin, that was for certain, but she was much wiser now. So she pressed on, blindly dodging shoulders and rib cages and clumsy hands holding white cups of beer. A haze of cigarette smoke in the atmosphere stung her eyes and made it even harder to see. But soon she was most of the way across the room, and caught a glimpse of the banister before her. Breathing a sigh of relief, she scurried around one last drunken clod to find that Daniel was nowhere in sight.

  “Oh, no,” she groaned, kicking the bottom step. An obviously intoxicated man arched his eyebrows and winked at her from the edge of the crowd. He raised a glass of beer. “Get your s-sparty on!” he blubbered drunkenly. She rolled her eyes, ignoring the slang term for college parties at MSU, and turned away. Now what should she do? What if Daniel got sidetracked and forgot she was with him? Worse, what if he didn’t plan to come join her at this stairway at all? She felt a sudden sense of dislocation, and turned around helplessly, trying to ignore the bleary-eyed people making her so uneasy. Did they realize she didn’t belong here, that she was totally out of place? Her throat constricted. What if it was another of Daniel’s jokes, like the hurt kneecap, and she was left alone with all these drunken strangers?

  A wretched memory came to mind. She’d been in her high school gym class, and Doreen Black had asked her if she would do a coordination test. Catherine was to stand with arms outstretched at her side, then close her eyes, bring her arms in front of her, and try to connect her index fingertips together ten times without missing. Catherine tried the test, and was quite pleased to find that her fingertips met, all ten times. However when she opened her eyes, instead of receiving a round of cheers from the girls, she discovered she was standing in the middle of he gym floor totally alone just as the boy’s gym class paraded through the doors.

  Think, girl, think!

  The voice snapped suddenly into Catherine’s mind, startling her with its crispness. Hazel’s voice. Good old Hazel VanHoofstryver‘s common admonishment for Catherine to gather her wits and think through seemingly impossible circumstances. Too bad she was so far away, back in Maryland.

  “You made it!” said a voice in her ear, startling her.

  Catherine wheeled around, relieved to see Daniel. She snatched him by the arm and tugged him up the steps. “Let’s get out of this madhouse!”

  Daniel nodded. Ignoring a rude whistle from a man with rheumy eyes and a scraggly reddish beard, Catherine wondered if Daniel’s face was turning as red as hers beneath his hat and scarf. But let all these guys think what they wanted. Pigs, every one of them.

  Soon she and Daniel topped the first flight of stairs where the steps curved behind a wall, blocking the mob from view. Catherine sighed in relief when they reached the next floor, and the music and noise had dulled, the acrid smells dissipated. She found herself standing before a maze of rooms. Some doorways were open, and she heard voices and saw shadowy movement from the light spilling into hallways.

  Daniel gestured toward the next flight of stairs. “We keep going up.”

  It grew increasingly dark. The sound below evaporated into a dull hum as they climbed higher, and higher yet. The top of this flight looked much the same as the hallway below, except there were fewer open doorways and less light. The smell of old woodwork and musty wallpaper became nearly suffocating, and Catherine felt glad not to be alone. The place would be even spookier without anyone else around. Yet for the first time since meeting Daniel, an actual nervousness crept through her. If Tony could see her now, he’d probably warn that Daniel’s scarf hid a ghastly deformity and it was time to run back downstairs, screaming for help.

  “Where to now?” she asked, forcing herself to remain calm.

  “Follow me,” Daniel said, leading her through a twisting jungle of hallways, stairwells and turnarounds. Soon there were no other people in sight.

  “This place is huge. Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Catherine murmured, rubbing her shoulders.

  “We’re taking the scenic route,” he said, gingerly reaching back to take her hand. Again, Catherine shied back, but Daniel made no note of her discomfort and continued on. At last he stopped and gazed at a paint-scarred doorway.

  “Is this Joey’s room?” Catherine inquired, remembering Daniel’s comment about the cheap rent. This far away from everyone, it couldn’t get much cheaper.

  “Nope. One more flight to go.”

  Catherine eyes widened. “How high is this house?”

  “Pretty high. If you don’t mind, I’d like to show you something I found when exploring,” Daniel said. “I have a hunch you’ll like it.”

  He dipped his hand into his jeans pocket and pulled out a key then worked it into the keyhole and twisted until the door creaked open. A rush of cold air swept across Catherine’s face as she was confronted by a narrow black stairway.

  “You should go first,” said Daniel. “The steps are rickety and I could cushion you if you stumble backward or fall.”

  “Just how rickety?” Catherine said slowly, drawing in a breath.

  “Don’t be afraid,” Daniel said, “You won’t fall through.”

  “Okay,” she sighed. “Anyway, I’ve explored places with creepier steps than these.”

  “You still sound nervous. Are you afraid of me?”

  “No. I’m going to go up.” She pointed a finger at his face. “I’m fine.”

  She couldn’t let him be aware of the quiet stirring of excitement inside of her, like a little girl’s sense of awe at living out an old Nancy Drew mystery
. She climbed the stairs slowly, balancing herself with hands against cold, flaky walls. Her footsteps made scraping sounds on the wood. Suddenly she realized she wasn’t hearing Daniel’s footsteps from behind. She turned. “Daniel ” she whispered…then,

  “Good heavens!” she cried.

  A headless body was silhouetted against the doorway below.

  “Heaven is good, but it’s not heaven. It’s just me,” came a voice emanating from where Daniel’s face should have been. There was a sense of movement, a faint whoosh, and Daniel’s face appeared. It was shadowy and indistinct but still his face at least what she could see of it. He’d apparently pulled his cap all of the way down, and then yanked it back up.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, lifting his hands, “I couldn’t resist.”

  Catherine could barely speak above the pounding in her chest. “You’re quite the prankster, “she scolded, “I should shove you down those steps and see how you feel!”

  She clicked her tongue and turned, glad Daniel wouldn’t be able to see the grin forming on her face. She had to admit, it had been kind of a funny prank. What else could she expect? She continued to the top of the stairs and felt for the doorknob. She found and twisted it just as Daniel squeezed next to her to do the same. Crazy, maybe, but Catherine found she enjoyed being squeezed in the stairway next to him. She pulled open the door and an eerie light flooded the stairway. She stepped through, then stood, spellbound, at what lay before her. Dusty globes from an enormous chandelier filtered twinkling lights off of beveled windows lining a vast, empty room. The timelessness, the stillness, the emptiness in the air enchanted her.

  “It’s a pity this place has been so neglected,” Daniel said, walking on ahead and tracing his foot across the floor, making a dark path in the dust. He looked toward the opposite end at a large wooden stage. “This ballroom must have been a wonderful place in its day,” he said, his voice echoing,” these high ceilings, tall dormer windows, thick crown moldings. It would have been a dream to play in a place like this.”