EMIT (THE EMIT SAGA) Read online

  I saw Mom hurrying towards me.

  “Let’s get going. I hope Amber hasn’t woken your dad.”

  Amber was our six year-old, liver-colored, field spaniel. The moment I laid eyes on her at two months old and saw her beautiful chocolate coat, the color amber came to mind. Ergo, that’s how she got her name.

  As we headed home, I turned to look at him and he was sitting up looking in our direction. It seemed like he was looking right at me.

  I noticed the trees behind him. “Mom, are those chestnut trees over there?” I asked pointing.

  “Yes. Why?” she asked.

  “I think somebody was picking chestnuts, but some were green, so I wasn’t sure.”

  “The green ones are called burrs and the nuts are inside. The red horse chestnuts are toxic.”

  I wondered if I should tell him, but it looked like he knew what he was doing. I missed Mom’s comment and asked, “What did you say?”

  “Don’t you remember that game called conkers?”

  “Yeah, I do.” I remembered kids striking chestnuts until one broke and the strongest chestnut won. “It was a silly game.”

  As we passed the Bethesda Fountain, Mom stopped to watch a juggler. Not at all interested, I looked around and saw him approaching. Oh my God! He must have been right behind us. Mom started walking and I had to follow. I began panicking. What did I look like from the back?

  Mom was talking about the puppy, but I was having trouble paying attention. “Her name’s Desirée. She’s six months old, all black and weighs ten pounds. Amber will love her.”

  “That’s nice,” I said tersely, hoping she’d cease yapping. Her incessant talking wasn’t allowing me to think straight.

  I wanted to stop and let him pass, but I didn’t know how. Maybe he wasn’t there anymore and I was frantic for nothing. I tried in vain to look sideways. How could I find out?

  As we passed Cherry Hill, it came to me. I rummaged through my bag and pulled out my lip-gloss. After applying it, I purposely dropped it when I put it back in my bag. The round container rolled down the path. Mom stopped when she heard my gasp of “uh-oh.” I retrieved it from the edge of a bush and at that point he passed us.

  When he exited the park at 69th Street, he went right on Central Park West. I watched him disappear into the crowd and thought about the boy with the blue eyes all the way home.

  I needed to talk to my cousin Lily. We told each other everything and had no secrets. Lily was spending the weekend with me and I wanted to tell her about the boy in the park.

  At home, Amber greeted us at the door.

  Dad called down, “Hi you two. I just walked her.”

  I went upstairs to see him and asked about Nana.

  “It’s going to be a really tough time for her,” he said.

  “Mom said you hired a nurse.”

  Dad nodded and said, “Nana will need a lot of help."

  "I wish I could be there to help her."

  "Well since you refused to stay with Aunt Lucy, what are you going to do this summer?”

  “Look for a job. Is your firm hiring?”

  "All the summer help has been hired, but I'll check tomorrow."

  I went to my room and grabbed my laptop to check Facebook.

  There was a private message from Daphne and Grace. They were my two closest friends in school, probably best friends, but nothing like Lily. They wanted to do something tonight and said to call Daphne’s cell.

  I grabbed the house phone and called Daphne. “Hi, I got your message and that sounds great. Lily will be here this weekend.” Everyone knew Lily.

  “Oh, good. Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you all day.”

  “I went to the MET with my mom. Did you call my cell?”

  “Yeah. I texted you three times and never got an answer, so I called but it said your voicemail was full. I sent the Facebook message and was about to call your house phone.”

  “What? That’s so weird!” I grabbed my cell from my bag and there were no texts. I called my voicemail and there were no messages. “Daphne, there are no texts or messages on my cell.”

  “That’s really strange. Whatever. What do you want to do tonight?” asked Daphne.

  The boy in the park had mentioned movies. “How about a movie?”

  We agreed on a new romantic comedy and made plans to meet in the theater lobby. I knew that Grace and Lily would be fine with the movie choice.

  I sat on my bed and stared at my photo wall. One entire wall was covered with photos. My walls used to be lavender, but last year, I painted three walls a sky blue color. My photo wall was left alone because I was too lazy to remove all the photos. The purple was barely visible except around the edges and it sort of looked like a frame. The bedding was a lavender, pale green and pale blue flowered fabric and the curtains were a pale green and pale blue stripe.

  I went downstairs and sat in the living room to wait for Lily after she texted that she was nearby. Amber was snoring on the couch totally oblivious that I was sitting there with her. She was the biggest couch potato and only moved if she heard her leash or her food bowl.

  Lily lived in Westchester. Our moms were sisters, so we saw a lot of each other and we spoke or texted daily. In the fall, we’d both be seniors in high school.

  In looks and personality, we were complete opposites. Lily had blue eyes and blond hair like both our mothers, who are Swedish. I, on the other hand, had very long, straight, dark brown hair and brown eyes. My dimples were the one feature that no one missed. Even with our differences, Lily and I called ourselves “Identical Cousins” and had a silly song we made up to go with the name.

  Lily was very practical and rational in her outlook and opinions. When it came to any high school drama, she always chose the path of least resistance. Her approach to life was to step back and discern the situation before reacting. As for me, I was much more emotional and tended to react immediately without thinking. However, when we were together, we melded our strengths and we balanced each other nicely.

  When she walked in, I hugged her hello and said, “Come on, let’s go upstairs.”

  I dragged her by the arm and accidentally tripped her.

  Lily looked at me like I was deranged and said, “Please, let go of my arm.”

  “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

  “I’m going to have a huge black and blue, but I’ll survive.”

  I slammed my bedroom door shut and excitedly said, “I have to tell you something.”

  Lily asked, “Okay, what? You’re acting really weird.”

  “Well, today I saw this guy at the MET and then I saw him later in the park….” I began, and then paused when I realized how stupid it was going to sound.

  “Yeah? Who was it?”

  I stared at Lily not sure how to continue. “Well, nobody I know,” I admitted. The second the words came out of my mouth, I regretted it and felt so dumb.

  “What are you talking about?” Lily wanted me to get to the point.

  After I told her the whole story, Lily just stared at me incredulously. She was about to laugh out loud, but when she saw my hurt look, she covered her mouth and suppressed it.

  “Okay, so what? You’ll never see him again, so forget it.”

  “I know you’re right,” I reluctantly agreed.

  Always rational and calm, that was Lily in a nutshell. “By the end of this weekend, you won’t remember him.”

  Lily began telling me about her first week working at her dad’s finance firm. She said the work was dull, but after receiving her first paycheck today, she promised to stop complaining.

  I told Lily about the movie plans and she went to take a shower. Amber started barking and Mom told me to take her out. Still daydreaming about him, I couldn’t believe it, but I thought I saw him. Halfway up the block, he was crossing the street and then he disappeared from view. Great! Now, I’m seeing him. For a second, I had considered sprinting after him.

  I returned glum from
the walk and didn’t bother telling Lily that I was now having visions of him. She’d probably really start laughing, and I’d die.

  At the theater, I glanced around the lobby hoping for a miracle. Did I really think he’d be here? Those kinds of things only happened in the movies.

  Daphne and Grace appeared right after us and we rushed inside to find seats. We weren’t able to find four together so we had to split up.

  Before calling it a night, we took a walk on Columbus Ave and even though I knew it was irrational, I found myself looking around for him.

  “Paige, earth to Paige. What do you think?” asked Daphne.

  I shrugged my shoulders and said, “I don’t know.” I had missed a large part of the conversation and had no idea what they were talking about.

  “What’s wrong with you tonight?” Daphne asked.

  “Nothing, I was just thinking about someo… something,” I corrected myself. I looked over at Lily who was grinning and I glared at her to stop. I couldn’t handle all three of them laughing at me.

  “I’m thinking of getting a tattoo on my ankle. Do you like a heart or a star? I’m taking a poll.”

  “I like them both.” I’d personally never get a tattoo because I hated pain. After having my ears pierced in fifth grade, I was scarred for life.

  “Come on, pick one.”

  “I guess star. What did you say?” I asked Lily and Grace.

  “They also said star,” Daphne answered.

  “Don’t you have to be eighteen?” Lily asked.

  “There’s a guy on St. Mark’s Place that doesn’t check ID’s,” Daphne explained.

  “Like I keep saying, I think you should wait and do it at a good place,” said Grace. Lily and I agreed.

  “I’m not waiting,” Daphne said, sounding annoyed.

  Grace looked exasperated and asked me, “What are you two doing tomorrow?”

  “Lily begged me to go shopping,” I moaned.

  “You’ll survive.” She knew how much I hated it. “By the way, Stars is having a huge sale tomorrow,” Grace told Lily.

  “Yay! We’ll be there,” Lily answered excitedly.

  When we got home, Carl, the doorman, handed me a package for Dad. I left it on the table in the foyer and took Amber for her last walk.

  My queen-size bed was perfect for sleepovers, but tonight I just couldn’t get comfortable. Lily was exhausted from her full week of work and getting up early to catch the train, so she quickly fell asleep. I turned off the TV and hoped I’d get sleepy in the dark.

  

  When I opened my eyes, it was seven o’clock and Lily was still sleeping, so I quietly slipped out of bed. Why was I up this early? Maybe since I hadn’t done anything all week, I wasn’t that tired, but I didn’t feel refreshed, either. This was crazy! I couldn’t stop thinking about a stranger I met in the park. If it weren’t so pathetic, it’d be humorous. Lily was right. If one of my friends told me this story, I’d laugh hysterically too.

  It was hot and humid outside, but shopping was the only thing on Lily’s agenda. The weather wouldn’t deter her. When she had asked to shop all day, I had agreed without mentioning that I hoped to find him strolling around the Upper West Side.

  Our first stop was Stars. As always, the store was packed and I saw Daphne and Grace helping customers in the back. Besides being best friends, they lived on the same block and both worked here together. The store was managed by Daphne’s mom and owned by Jordan Walker, a well-known model. She opened the shop two years ago and it quickly became ‘the’ store on the Upper West Side. Besides the unique décor, it carried the newest trends and fairly priced merchandise. There was a section with T-shirts of famous and up-and-coming music bands and T-shirts with quotes from songs, books and movies. There was an entire wall of funky flip-flops and a large jewelry wall.

  When Daphne saw us, she came over and whispered, “Lily, I pulled some things for you from the sale rack.”

  While Daphne went in the back room for the merchandise, Lily looked through the sale racks and then had to wait in a long line for one of the coveted fitting rooms.

  I went in the office to talk to Grace because she was on break.

  Many stores later, I felt nauseous and when we reached the Time Warner Center, I finally had enough.

  I sat on a bench and said, “Lily, go ahead, I’ll wait here for you.”

  When she finally came out, we headed home to get ready for the New York Philharmonic concert in Central Park. My parents loved classical music.

  Lily was taking forever in the bathroom trying on her new clothes and Mom was tired of waiting. “Paige, we’re leaving. We’ll see you over there.”

  When we arrived, I found my parents talking to another couple and waved to them. I spotted some kids from school, so we went over there.

  As the music wafted through the air, Central Park was magical. The full moon, the lights and stars bathed the area in a spectacular glow. When fireworks filled the sky at the end of the performance, it was amazing.

  

  Sunday morning after breakfast, Lily asked, “Can we go to Soho today?”

  I was sick of shopping, but I wanted to get out of my neighborhood to stop looking for him.

  As we turned onto West Broadway from Spring Street, I got a feeling that I was being watched. I glanced all around but saw no one looking at me.

  After two hours, I couldn’t shop anymore.

  “Lily, can we please do something else?”

  Lily reluctantly said, “Fine. What?”

  “How about we go to the High Line?”

  “No, we were just there two weeks ago,” she complained.

  We finally agreed on the Museum of Natural History and jumped on an uptown train. We got a slice of pizza near the museum and then ran in acting like kids.

  This had been our favorite museum when we were young and we especially loved the Butterfly exhibit. Our moms would literally have to drag us out of the vivarium.

  We went to our favorite spot, the Hall of Ocean Life. It was home of the ninety-four-foot-long blue whale, and every time I walked into that room, I still felt such excitement. When I was twelve, a friend had a birthday slumber party there and I’ll never forget waking up beneath the whale.

  After roaming around, we headed to the Rose Center for Earth and Space.

  On our way out, I stopped at the information desk and asked about volunteering. As the lady behind the desk was giving me the information, my cell rang.

  “Paige, Martin, Marina and Anna are here. Where are you?” Martin, my older half-brother, was there for dinner and I had completely lost track of time.

  “I’m sorry. We’re on our way.”

  “What’s the matter?” asked Lily.

  “Martin’s there and we’re late.”

  After Mom married Dad, she moved from the city to Dad’s house in Westchester. He’d been married before and had joint custody of Martin, my half-brother. He was fifteen years older, was married to Marina and had a one year-old daughter named Anna, which made me an aunt.

  When Martin was heading to college, Mom convinced Dad to move back to the city. Everyone told my parents that the city was no place to raise a child, but they didn’t listen and I’m glad. I had the best of all worlds, the city, Lily’s place for suburbia and Grammy’s house at the beach. After selling the house, my parents bought a three-bedroom duplex on West 69th Street.

  Back home, Lily and I tried playing with Anna, but she was completely mesmerized by Amber. Anna was making funny noises and it really seemed like she was trying to talk to Amber. It was hysterical. Amber escaped into the den and Anna had no idea where she went.

  I overheard Martin telling Dad that they went to the Central Park Zoo and how much Anna loved the carousel.

  “You should’ve called me! We would’ve met you there. I love the snow leopards.”

  “We did. Marina called and left a message. You never called back,” Martin said.

  “I never
heard my phone ring.” I looked at my cell. “And I don’t have any messages.” There was no indication of a missed call or a voice mail and my missed calls log was empty.

  Marina looked at my phone and said, “That’s weird. I know I called.” She showed me her phone log.

  My cell phone was doing odd things. There was clearly something wrong with it.

  Lily tried texting me a few times and that worked. Mom said the cell was only four months old and if it kept happening, we’d go to the phone store.

  Marina asked if I could babysit in a few weeks and I was thrilled to have something to do.

  When Anna started getting cranky, Martin said that it was their cue to make a quick exit.

  Lily and I helped them to the garage and then took Amber to the park. She was telling me a story about Noelle, her best friend in Chappaqua when I saw him. He was walking into the park and I nearly screamed.

  “Lily! That’s him! Over there,” my voice cracked from excitement as I pointed. This was so unbelievable! After obsessing about him all weekend, there he was in the flesh.

  “Where? Oh, the blond guy?” she said, once she spotted him. He was walking really fast. I caught a glimpse of him near the 7th Regiment Memorial statue and then I lost sight of him. At least, he was still around. That was good and bad because if I hadn’t seen him maybe I would’ve forgotten about him. We walked around, but couldn’t find him.

  “If he lives around here, maybe you’ll run into him again,” Lily said.

  

  Lily left for work Monday morning and I missed her immediately, even though, I’d see her Friday on Long Island for the Fourth of July weekend and Grammy’s birthday.

  My cell was ringing and I saw that it was my friend, Eden.

  “Hey stranger, long time no speak.”

  “I know. How are you?” I asked.

  “I’m good. Are you free today? I want to talk to you.” She sounded sad.

  “I am. Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah. I just want to see you.”

  “I’m home. Do you want to come over?”

  “Okay. I have something to do first. How about in an hour?” Eden asked.

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Eden, Daphne, Grace and I had been inseparable since fifth grade. In the beginning of our junior year, Eden started dating Paul, a boy from another school, and we hardly ever saw her anymore. They were together every possible minute and the four of us had drifted apart.