Alice on the Outside by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Author:Phyllis Reynolds Naylor [Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, GR
ISBN: 9781439115923
Goodreads: 13546514
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

8

A SLIGHT MISUNDERSTANDING

I DECIDED NOT TO SAY ANYTHING TO Elizabeth and Pamela about Lori, because this was her own private business. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it, but Lori didn’t need any more problems in her life right now. I knew I was going to talk to Dad and Lester about it, though, because I tell them everything. Well, almost everything.

Mrs. Haynes and Lori drove me to the Melody Inn at nine, and I was glad to see that Lori didn’t appear at all suicidal. Her mom obviously loved her, and would go on loving her, even after Lori told her secret.

“Thanks for inviting me,” I said as I got out.

“See you!” Lori said, and smiled.

When I walked in the Melody Inn, though, and over to the Gift Shoppe where Marilyn works, it felt as though I were walking into a morgue. Marilyn didn’t say much, and her eyes got teary at the least little thing. I made it a point not to mention Lester, but that’s all she wanted to talk about.

“Is he happy now, Alice?” she asked. “Is that really what he wanted—to end our relationship?”

“I don’t know, Marilyn. He’s just the same old Lester, I guess,” I said miserably.

She turned on me then. “Well, give him a message from Good Ole Marilyn then, would you? Tell him that some day, when he’s sixty years old, The Same Old Lester will be sitting in his same old chair by his same old self, and he’ll suddenly wonder what happened. He’ll have no hair, no teeth, no love, no joy, no woman in his life, and he’ll have missed the boat completely.”

“Okay,” I said.

She sighed and began straightening the Beethoven mugs and the Scarlotti scarves on the shelf behind her, her long brown hair hanging loosely down her back, looking about as forlorn as she ever had. “Oh, I shouldn’t be getting you mixed up in all this,” she said. “But if someone were to bury Lester in an anthill up to his armpits right now, I would laugh, Alice! Laugh!”

I was glad when Dad asked me to help Janice Sherman in sheet music, but when I went over there, she was in a bad mood. Seems she’d heard that Miss Summers was going to England for a year, and I knew right off she’d thought maybe she’d have a chance with Dad after all. But then she’d asked him to a play at the Kennedy Center and he’d turned her down.

“Does he really have plans for next Saturday night, I wonder?” she mused aloud in my direction.

“Maybe he’s doing something with Miss Summers,” I offered, trying to be honest.

Janice dropped the glasses that hung on a chain around her neck and stared at me. “I … I thought she was going to England!” she said.

“She is, but they’re going to write to each other,” I told her, and that’s when she really got bossy. I was glad when my three hours were up, and spent

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