“What do they do in science club?”
“I imagine they do all sorts of things. Chemistry experiments, or taking apart engines, or . . . you know what I’d really like to do?” Lily leaned forward excitedly. “I want to build a model rocket. I saw an ad for a model rocket kit in Popular Science once—it didn’t look that difficult—but the trick is, you need someplace to set it off.”
Kath’s eyebrows rose. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s powered by a carbon dioxide canister, so it’ll launch into the air.” She grew thoughtful. “I suppose it’s a lot like a firecracker, so maybe I could just set it off in the street.”
“Sounds dangerous,” Kath said.
From her tone, Lily knew Kath was teasing her, and she felt a little flush of pleasure. “Oh, it’s just a little thing,” Lily said, pretending nonchalance. “Nothing like a real rocket. I hope I can see a real one someday.”
“Where would you see one?”
“I’d have to get a government job. I’ve planned it all out already. First I’ll go to Cal and major in math. My aunt Judy did her master’s degree in math there, so she knows all the professors. I might need to go to graduate school, but I’m not sure. If I don’t need to, I’m going to get a job as a computer at the same place Aunt Judy works. They design rockets there, although she can’t tell me much about it because it’s top secret. I’ve read all about rockets already. They already know how to build rockets that could go into space—well, they have theories about how it would work, but they need to develop better fuels to reach the right speed to leave the Earth. I think they’re going to develop these fuels really soon, though.”
“How soon?” Kath asked, scraping the bottom of her ice cream bowl.
“Probably within a couple of decades. I’m sure we’ll be sending rockets up into space then. And we can put automatic instruments on board to send back measurements, and maybe even take photographs! It’ll take longer to send people into space, though. We have to design ships that can withstand potential meteor strikes and maybe even create artificial gravity, because otherwise people will just be floating around the ship.”
“Floating? Why?”
“Because there’s no gravity in space. I suppose it must be a little bit like swimming, except with no water. How strange that would be.”
“Is it safe for humans?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps! Isn’t it exciting?” Lily beamed.
Kath returned her smile, then shook her head slightly. “All right. I’ll go to the dance, but you have to come bowling.”
“Deal,” Lily said, and extended her hand across the table as if they were making a business agreement. Kath reached out to shake it, but when they touched, it didn’t feel like a business agreement at all. Lily suddenly remembered a scene early in Strange Season when Maxine took Patrice’s hand to study her manicure and said, What lovely fingers you have.
She snatched her hand out of Kath’s, and then tried to cover up her selfconsciousness by taking her last bite of ginger ice cream. She wanted to ask Kath another question—she wanted to ask her the question—but she couldn’t. All around her, the laughter and chatter and tinkling sounds of spoons against sundae glasses reminded her of where she was. This bright, clean restaurant in Chinatown that smelled of sugar and cream was not the place to ask, but Lily felt as if her thoughts must be written in plain English on her face. Are you like the girls in the book too? Because I think I am.
13
Preparations for the Spook-A-Rama began hours before the dance was officially scheduled to begin. One of the girls on the dance committee had borrowed her parents’ car to run errands, and Lily persuaded her to drive them to the nearest grocery store to pick up pineapple juice and 7-Up, pretzels and heavy bags of ice.
Back at Galileo, Lily raided the home economics supply closet for punch bowls, then carried them through the underground tunnel that connected the main building with the gym, passing the girls’ locker room on the way. The door was propped open, and inside she saw Shirley’s baby-blue party dress on a hanger hooked over the edge of a locker door, like the shell of a girl floating in midair. Lily was already wearing her dance outfit, a black rayon skirt with a short-sleeved pink cotton sweater. The skirt already had water marks on it from the dripping ice she’d lugged into the gym. She hoped it would dry before Kath arrived.
Inside the gym, Shirley was supervising the decorations. The committee girls had already hung the space with lime-green streamers, cut-out ghosts, and skeletons made of white butcher paper. They’d pasted on clusters of sequins for eyes, which gave the ghosts and skeletons a glazed-over look. Shirley had probably been aiming for whimsical, but Lily found them a little disturbing. Now the girls were pinning letters that spelled out SPOOK-A-RAMA onto the wall beneath the football pennants. They were cut out of aluminum foil into the wavy forms of a horror movie title. A small stage with a band was set up in front of the silvery letters, and Lily recognized a couple of the band members from school.
The refreshment table was on the far side of the gym, and as Lily headed over with the punch bowls, she began to worry that Kath wouldn’t come to the dance after all, and if she didn’t, did that mean something? The question made her uncomfortable, and she tried to forget about it as she mixed the punch, but she felt her uncertainty like an unreachable itch between her shoulder blades.
* * *