Journey to an 800 Number by E.L. Konigsburg Read Free Book Online

Glass?”
    “Of course it’s first class. Small, but first class.We always say that in Rahway to go first class, don’t go First Class, go Lilly.”
    “What’s the name of her place?”
    She paused, sucked in her breath, and said, “Tours de Lilly.”
    “Will you come to the Exhibition Hall tomorrow?” I asked.
    “I don’t know. Mother wants me to go to some of the meetings with her. There are always so many meetings at a convention. So much to learn. All of our convention expenses are tax deductible, you know.”
    “Come by at noon tomorrow. I’ll have a Big Mac waiting for you.”
    “Let me ask Mother.”
    Sabrina went over to her mother and pulled her away from Father. They conferred in whispers. Once or twice Sabrina held her hand to the side of her mouth so that I couldn’t see her lips move. I saw Lilly looking over at me from time to time and nodding. Their conference seemed to me to take a long, long time. They seemed more like Watergate co-conspirators than like a daughter asking her mother for permission to have a Big Mac.
    “Tomorrow, twelve-thirty,” Sabrina said. Then she and her mother turned to leave. Lilly waved her hand, letting her fingers dance in the air.
    I sat with two hamburgers, two fries and two shakes on my lap until the hamburgers were hard, the frieslooked like they were coated with Vaseline, and the shakes looked like detergent foam after a batch of very dirty dishes. My feelings went from patience when she was fifteen minutes late, to impatience at thirty, to anger at an hour, to worry as suppertime came and went, and she still didn’t show up.
    Father said that there could be a hundred reasons why they didn’t come. He gave me some change and told me to try calling them at their hotel. I tried once, then twice and returned to our booth each time. I thought that my best chance of finding them in their room would be just before suppertime when they were getting dressed for their banquet. Since it is not easy to use a phone in a loose burnoose and turban, I left them in the booth and walked outside the display area to where the telephones were, for I was determined not to leave until I got them. I kept trying, and finally Lilly answered the phone. “Oh, Maxwell,” she said, “Sabrina was just asking me how we could get in touch with you. She’s been so worried. Let me put her on.”
    I heard mumblings as the two of them had a conference while a hand was held over the telephone’s mouthpiece. At last Sabrina was on the phone. She lost no time in apologizing. “Oh, Maximilian,” she said, “I’m so sorry that we couldn’t make it at twelve-thirty, but Mother had a very important business deal to discuss, and the man asked her to lunch, and he included me, and Mother felt it would look bad if I didn’t go with her because shehad rather insisted that he include me. She wanted me with her as sort of a chaperone, if you know what I mean. Have you ever had to chaperone your father?”
    “Have I ever had to what?”
    “You know,
be
there so that someone won’t lay some heavy passes on your parent.”
    “No, I have never chaperoned my father, and—truth be told—I’ve never chaperoned my mother either.”
    “Maybe your mother, being more of a house-wife, doesn’t meet as many men as Lilly does being at conventions.”
    “My mother works. Not right now, of course, she’s on her honeymoon, but she worked up until the wedding.”
    “Your mother got remarried?”
    “Yes. She married F. Hugo Malatesta the First.”
    “The First? Are there others?”
    “Two and Three.”
    “If he’s a clone, that interests me.”
    “He’s not a clone. He’s a very rich man with a son who is the second F. Hugo, and a grandson, F. Hugo, who’s the third.”
    “Well, congratulations,” Sabrina said.
    “For what?”
    “For having a First stepfather.”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “Whatever you want it to mean.”
    “Will you be at the exhibition hall tomorrow?”
    “I