The Summer that Changed Everything

Chapter 15: A Two by Four and a Shovel

  It was about 6 months since we hung out with Lennie again and even by then she was still a bit weak. She had a slight limp. My uncle said it was because she broke her ankle, but it should be ok in a few more weeks. One day we were all hanging out in front of her house playing cards. Lennie was sat up on top of the slide, watching us.
"There's this dance I want to go to. I think I might." She said aloud.
"Yeah. That's kind of cool." I said and then thought a moment. "Wait. Wait. The Sadie Hawkins dance?" I looked over at her.
She shrugged.
"Yeah, that one." She said.
"That's the dance at the school." I said. "Are you serious about going?"
"Maybe?" She slid down the slide and came over to join us.
"Ace and his friends always take their girls there." I said. "You shouldn't go."
"Well, I'm going." She insisted.
Chris flashed her a look. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and handed it towards me. He got up from the ground and faced her.
"You are not going to that dance." He said.
"Why not?" Lennie said to Chris.
"It's stupid. You could get hurt. The fact that you got beat up by Eyeball and his friends a month ago. The fact that you are going by yourself. That's really dumb. I thought you were smarter than that, Lennie." He explained.
"You all know what happened, Chris. I wasn't beat up. It was an accident. And who said I was going by myself?" Lennie said.
"Yeah well whose gonna take you?" Chris asked.
"I have a few that asked me already." Lennie rolled her eyes.
"Like who?" Chris asked.
She didn't say anything else. She just stood there with her hands in the pockets of her overall shorts.
"They asked you?" Teddy looked over at her now. "Aren't you are supposed to ask them to the dance?"
"Who did you ask, Len?" Chris asked again.
"I'm not telling you nothing." Lennie sat back down in her swing.
Teddy laughed. "Well, maybe a girl asked her thinking she was a guy."
Lennie shot him a look.
"You're one to talk four eyes. I don't see any girls lined up to ask you to any dances." Lennie told him.
"Yeah well, I have better things to do than to go to a dance with some girl just to prove she can get a date." Teddy said.
"I agree." I said.
"And you won't tell us who you asked, because you didn't." Chris said. Lennie made a face at him and rolled her eyes.
"Len if you really want to go, I'd take you as long as there is food there and it's free." Vern said trying to be nice. Lennie sighed. She really didn't want to retort to taking Vern to any dance. It was bad enough that any of us guys had to be seen with him in public.
"Any date you do get is gonna wimp out when Ace's friends come to bother you again." I told her.
"Well, I'll be the judge of that." She told me.
"Len, if you go there. I swear the god I will..." Chris said getting up in her face and raised a fist near her.
"What... you swear you will what?" She egged him on.
"I'll make you look worse than the day we found you in the shed." He said trying to be tough.
Len leapt off her swing.
"Fuck you!" She said and ran back into her house.
"Jesus." Chris muttered under his breath.
I stood up.
"Chris, I know you are concerned about my cousin and all but please don't be so hard on her." I told him.
"I'm sorry, Gordie." Chris said.
He took his cigarette back from me and took a hit of it.
"It's alright." I said taking the cigarette back.
"Well, Chris...if you are so concerned about her being hurt again, than why don't you take her to the dance?" Teddy asked him.
Chris looked at Teddy in silence. He turned away.
"Because I don't like dances. They're stupid." He sat back down and started dealing the cards.
Ace came out now out of Lennie's house.
"Hey, guys." Ace said.
"What do you want?" Chris asked him.
"I understand completely how you feel about this whole situation with the dance but there is no need to worry about Lennie."
"What do you mean?" Chris asked.
"I'm taking Lennie to the dance." Ace explained.
"But don't you have a girlfriend?" I asked him.
"Well, I don't mean I'm her date or anything. My girlfriend and I are going. Len is coming with us. I explained everything to Katz, he's fine with it. We are going to do a double date with Buddy Colhoun."
"Oh." I said. "Buddy is Lennie's date?"
"Yeah." Ace said. "My friends are not going to bother her while I am there. And if they say anything I'll just knock them out. Don't worry about Lennie. It is about time she started hanging out with girls her own age you know. It's not really healthy for her to be around us guys all the time, not saying that you aren't good friends to her or anything like that, but you know what I mean?"
"I guess." Chris said.
"We understand." I said to Ace. "Thank you."

Chris at first didn't seem like he was alright with the idea but then he just went along with it. I mean what else was he going to do, argue with Lennie about going to the dance? She was a girl and girls did these types of things. Besides, Aunt Louise would have wanted her to go.

The day of the dance, Lennie had on a pink dress with diamond like studs all on the gown. Her hair was curly and lay perfectly on her shoulders and down her back, like a perfect Greek goddess. Her eyes flashed like the sun. Her emaciated height was staggering. Dotted with freckles, her face was statuesque, with prominent cheekbones. It wasn't the Lennie we knew with the gum ball or two in the back pocket of her overalls or the Lennie we knew that could fist fight Teddy any time or day or the Lennie we knew that always wore her hair pulled back in grease. This Lennie really looked beautiful.

"Wow." Vern said.
Teddy dropped his cigarette out of his mouth just as his jaw hit the ground.
I smiled.
Chris looked at her for short periods of time, but whenever she glanced over at him he lowered his head downward and kicked some rocks around.
She rushed past looking a little nervous. Ace helped his girlfriend down the stairs. There was a limo waiting out front.
"Have fun and don't come back too late." Her stepmom yelled from the doorway.
"Don't worry mom, I have everything under control." Ace told her.
Lennie came over by us.
Chris stood there with his arms folded over his chest. He was unusually quiet and kept looking at the fence.
"She did my hair." Lennie pointed to Ace's girlfriend.
"It looks cool." Vern said.
I agreed.
"I'd ask you to arm wrestle with me but I wouldn't want to get your dress dirty." Teddy joked.
"Hey, Chris." She said. "Are you ok?"
"I'm alright." He said. "Go have fun and stay out of trouble."
"I will. I promise." She said to him.
"See you guys later." She ran towards the limo. Ace opened the door for her.
"If he is less than a gentleman to her." I started to say.
Chris looked at me and nodded.
"I got a two by four and a shovel." He added.
"I doubt he'll be missed." Teddy finished the thought.
Vern sighed.
"Damn I could have been her date. I bet they got so much food there." Vern said.
We were all gonna go to Teddy's to sleep over, but Chris said that he was gonna go to the dance.
"But you don't have a ticket or a date." I said.
"I don't need one. I'm not going in. The dance isn't in a place. It's outside in a picnic. I could see everything from this certain tree that overlooks the whole area and if anything funny goes on I'll be there."
"Yeah that's a good idea." I said.
"You want us to come for back up?" Vern asked him.
Usually Chris would say yes but this time he said he thought he wanted to do this by himself. We didn't argue with him.