Alice At The Home Front by Mardiyah A. Tarantino

Author:Mardiyah A. Tarantino [Tarantino, Mardiyah A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781462068012
Publisher: Author Solutions Inc.
Published: 2011-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

At the Corner Drugstore

Was that wing curved or squared at the tip? Alice squinted as she peered through her grandmother’s mother-of-pearl binoculars and then looked down at the cards. It didn’t mean that she could always see clearly to identify the plane, if the cloud cover was too low and blotted it out or if wispy mares’ tails got in the way. But she could tell for sure it wasn’t an enemy plane, with the big, black insignia on the wings. Alice checked her watch, sighted the plane again, and wrote in her logbook: “Thurs 12 1700 Lockheed P40 heading SSW Alt 200.”

Alice heard the phone ringing downstairs and then footsteps approaching the stairwell.

“It’s for you, Alice,” Mother called.

Alice’s heart did a little dance as she went down to answer. She picked up the receiver. Hearing Jimmy’s voice on the other end and seeing that Mother was still in the entry room, she pulled the neck of her sweater over the mouthpiece.

“Hi, Alice. How yer doing? It’s Jimmy.”

“Aie, soyrbaak? Owdiiigo?”

“What? I can’t hear you.”

Alice tried again, tucking the mouthpiece into her sleeve. “Owloongyer baakfr?”

Mother smiled and left the room.

“Jeez. You got a cold, or what?”

“No, Everything fine,” she said, uncovering the phone. “How’d it go?”

“Hah! That’s a long story. You wanted me to call you?”

Alice rolled her eyes. “Of course I wanted you to call. I want to hear all about it.”

“Well, gosh, I’m kinda busy, you know. The gang’s giving me a party tonight … Alice? But if you want, we could meet at the drugstore like last time?”

“When?”

“Say, tomorrow after your school? I don’t have many free days.”

Alice put a curse right then and there on the “gang” and the “your school.” She wanted to say how about right now? But didn’t.

“So you’ll come there tomorrow? Promise?”

“Yeah, okay, Alice. I promise. Boy, you drive a hard one.”

She had no idea what “drive a hard one” meant, probably boys’ talk for making things difficult.

In spite of finally talking with Jimmy and his calling her and promising to meet, Alice felt a little nudge of sadness inside. She was pretty good at getting what she wanted, but what if the other person didn’t feel the same way she did?

Downtown the next day, the warm sun had managed to sneak along some of the narrow streets, melting the old snow, polishing up the new, and giving everything around a preview of the coming spring.

When Alice got near the Rexall drugstore, she heard a terrible racket coming out of the wedged open door. A chorus of men were singing. “… the Lord and pass the ammunition. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, and we’ll all be free!”

When she stepped in, she came face-to-face—at least that’s what it seemed to her—with an enormous orange jukebox. It was winking and blinking and throbbing and pulsing a rainbow of mismatched colors while the music blasted on, until finally, at the end of the song, the whole thing came to a halt. Music and colors vanished, and there stood a big, ugly plastic box.

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