Heart and Soul by Sally Mandel Read Free Book Online Page A

I’ll buy your ticket.”
    â€œBut you don’t have any money,” she wailed at me through the phone.
    â€œThe music competition’s reimbursing me for my ticket,” I told her. A lie, but how was she to know?
    Sniffles, a wet blow of the nose, and then the time’s-up recording cut in.
    â€œWait right where you are,” I said.
    Now I was really late, and running in the ninety-degree heat turned my shower-clean self into a sweaty mess. But then I spotted Pauline standing on the corner and didn’t care anymore. When you’ve got a friend who’s been around since you were four, who’s played in your sandbox and listened to the same endless gripes about your parents and held your hand when your heart was broken and your head when you were throwing up from too many rum-and-Cokes, you just show up.
    Pauline had a beautiful athletic body, tall and sleek. Like me, she didn’t do so well in school and for a long time she’d just sort of hung around Rocky Beach picking up one crappy job after another. But she was always fantastic with kids and Jake talked her into taking some special ed courses at his college. She loved everything about it, and for the first time she felt like she was good at something besides Rollerblading and jogging. Last semester she was second in her psych class.
    Broadway was the usual zany parade, but it was easy to pick Pauline out the way she was standing all forlorn by the phone booth with her arms clutched around her body. She had a big nose and a bony face that had looked strange when she was a kid, like somebody had stuck the wrong head on her shoulders, but now, with her cushiony mouth and green eyes, it all worked to make her striking and sexy.
    â€œHey,” I said.
    She spun around and grabbed me in one of her rib-crushers. “I’m so sorry, Bess,” she said. “You’re an angel. ”
    â€œAre you going to tell me what happened?”
    Her voice dipped to a whisper. “On the bus. Are you sure it’s okay? It would be so perfect, having you all to myself.”
    â€œAbsolutely. You’ll keep my mind off the contest.” And it was true. I’d barely thought about the performance since her call, except for an insane hope she was going to tell me that the world was about to end and I wouldn’t have time to play before we blew up.
    We hopped on the subway, picked up our tickets at the Port Authority and were on the bus to Boston in no time. It was cool and quiet, and I could feel Pauline begin to relax beside me. She took the aisle seat where she could stretch out her long legs.
    â€œOkay, Pauls, spill it,” I said when we’d pulled out of the station.
    She looked at me with eyeballs the size of pizzas. “You remember that time I told Jake his mother was sick?”
    We were in the junior high cafeteria having lunch, the three of us. Pauline had suddenly turned pale, set down her burger, and stared at Jake.
    â€œWhat?” he said.
    But Pauline started to shake and couldn’t answer.
    â€œCome on, Sabatino,” Jake said. “The food’s not that bad.”
    â€œJake, I think your mom…”
    Jake was real close with his mother. His father had died when he was little and he was the oldest of the three boys. Now he was getting nervous. He grabbed Pauline’s arm. “What about her?” he asked.
    â€œI think she’s sick.”
    â€œWhat the hell does that mean?” he asked.
    Pauline shook her head and I still remember how the tears splattered out onto her plastic plate. “I don’t know,” she said.
    But Pauline was famous for getting emotional, so we let it pass. Two weeks later, Jake’s mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Pauline had made us swear we’d never mention what happened in the cafeteria, or even bring it up with her, and we hadn’t, even though Jake and I sometimes talked about it.
    â€œSure I remember,” I