Be Frank With Me by Johnson Julia Claiborne

Be Frank With Me by Johnson Julia Claiborne

Author:Johnson, Julia Claiborne [Johnson, Julia Claiborne]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-12-15T23:00:00+00:00


PART IV

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH XANDER?

( 14 )

SO WE FOUR bobbed along through the fall and winter. Our days went something like this: I delivered Frank to school each morning. Sometimes he said “I don’t belong here” and refused to get out of the car. “Sure you do,” I said, unbuckled his seat belt for him, pried his fingers free of the car door, and aimed him in the direction of the schoolyard. After breakfast, Mimi disappeared into her office and banged away on her typewriter but never showed me anything. Xander puttered around the yard and house, trimming and painting and hammering and doing whatever else gave him an excuse for being there until I was done with my chores. Then quite by accident the two of us would end up together at the Dream House.

When I went to school to fetch Frank, per his instructions I’d stand by the station wagon in the parking lot, waiting for him to cross the playground and climb into the backseat. Even though the schoolyard was a swirl of kids in bright T-shirts and shorts, dresses and skirts, flip-flops and sneakers, you could spot Frank coming from a mile away. He looked like a peacock in a barnyard full of chickens.

I kept hoping to meet the famous Fiona. “So,” I’d ask as casually as I could manage, “what do you and Fiona do when you stay late at school to play?”

“We talk,” he said. “Then we join hands and run from our enemies.”

Though I kept angling for an introduction, I never got one. “So, what does Fiona look like?” I tried another afternoon.

“She wears argyle knee socks and saddle shoes,” he said.

“And?”

“Cardigan sweaters with little pearl buttons. Kilts that look like wool but are actually made of rayon, a wood-based fiber invented in 1855 but not popularized until the 1920s because until then it was highly combustible. Her rayon kilt feels like cashmere but is more suitable for playground wear as it is machine washable.”

“Her kilt feels like cashmere? You touched her kilt?”

“Of course not. She let me try on the sling that matches the tartan of one of her kilts. She alternates that one with another she has, in houndstooth. I liked her sling very much. I never realized before what a responsibility it is for the forearm to support the wrist and hand.”

“What does Fiona’s face look like?”

“She wears oversized hair bows,” he said. “I believe they’re made of taffeta.”

I thought about pressing for more details but doubted Frank could fill me in on the color of her eyes or even her hair. Besides, how many little Los Angelenos who looked like they’d stepped off the set of Brigadoon could there be on that playground?

I was proud of summoning that reference from my mental warehouse. In case you’re unfamiliar with it, Brigadoon is a 1954 film starring Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse that’s about some town in Scotland that doesn’t really exist. I’d fallen asleep watching it with Frank back in July.



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