"Mama. Do NOT get your hair done for Jack. You are wasting money. Jack is (she suddenly remembered the big white gold ring, rough, with the recessed stone on the ring finger of his left hand)… married."
"Pooh! Did he tell you that?"
"No. He wears a wedding ring."
"That isn't a wedding ring. He just wears it on the wedding finger. And I just want to look nice for our guest. I am not making eyes at him."
"That's good," said Siede. Mama's hair really looked nice; it was still straight, and hanging down her back, but very shiny, with a dark red bow holding it together. "She could have done that at home," thought Siede.
Now, the next morning, Saturday, she sat by the low window in the bedroom she shared with her sister, looking out on the bright day. "What are you looking for?" asked Maria.
"Jack."
"But you have no idea when he will come…you could sit there all day," said Maria, who was in truth anxious to meet this benefactor.
She could see Jorge and Mario playing soccer in front of the apartment with the new soccer ball. I wonder if Jack knows how he spoils us? She thought. Suddenly she saw him, as he walked up to her brothers. By the time she had dashed down the stairs, with her reading book, they were playing soccer—at least, Jorge and Mario were; Jack was trying. She stood in the doorway, watching, as he finally managed to get under the ball with his head, but it hit at a sharp angle and landed behind him. Both the boys cheered, and patted him on the back. He bowed and smiled. Then he saw her, and held his arms open; she jumped into them. After a moment, he put her down and looked at her. "You are 1) very clean, and 2) wearing a new dress, and 3) shoes" he said.
"The first day of school, I was barefoot. The teacher said it was O.K. but only for that day. So then I bought sandals." They sat down on the front stoop.
"What is the book?" he asked, and she showed it to him.
"Frog and Toad are Friends," he said, vaguely remembering. This one was in Spanish. "Bobby read that last year…finally."
"Bobby?"
"He's my son. He's nine."
"Oh. Then...you really are married."
"Yes," he said, looking at her as if to say: life will keep getting stranger and stranger, but will remain interesting.
She looked at his face. "Oh! You look…wonderful!" she exclaimed. 'You are all...smoothed out. And shiny, clean. And …happy."
"Well, that's what 37 hours of driving in 3 weeks will do to a fellow."
"Where did you go?"
"Three weeks ago, I went to Wyoming."
"How long did that take?"
"14 hours. And then, a week later I drove home again. And then yesterday, I drove to El Paso, and spent the night there. And then I came here, to see you," he said, running a finger down the line of her eyes, nose, lips and chin. She was still staring at him, especially his face.
She had thought him handsome before, but now he looked like a different person, almost. "Did you perhaps see someone special in Wyoming?" she asked.
"I did. My best friend.
"Your best friend?"
"My only friend."
"Your only friend?"
"The friend—of my heart—can I say that?"
"You can say anything you want, especially if it's true." And then she said, in English "It's a free country!"
"Whoa, whoa! 'It's a free country.' Are you sure?"
"Well, almost," she said. "But I am your friend too," she said.
"Yes. But you don't count. You're just a silly girl," he said, trying to get a reaction out of her. None was forthcoming. "That is muy diferente." He said, smiling at her.
"The friend of your heart…" she said, She stroked his ring finger. "Poor ring," she said, soberly.
"Yes. Poor ring," he said.
Then she smiled again, and held the book out to him "Frog and Toad are Friends," she said, and started laughing. Jack looked at the cover of the book which showed a green frog and a yellow toad, sitting, one on a mushroom, and one on a hill of grass. The toad was reading aloud to the frog, who had a speculative finger to his mouth. "I" he started laughing really hard "I was just trying to figure out," he went on laughing, "which of us, me and my friend…is which." However funny it might really be, he was crying tears of mirth.
"I think you must be frog, because he is more handsome."
:"But," he wiped the tears from his eyes, "Frog has such huge feet. My friend has huge feet." He giggled. "And," he continued, logically, still laughing, "he can't read very well, because he can't see things up close."
She opened the book, and read: "'Spring. Frog ran up the path to toad's house. He knocked on the front door." Jack tried to be quiet and concentrate. " There was no answer. 'Toad, toad' shouted frog, 'Wake up. It is spring!'
'Blah,' said a voice.'"
"No, that's got to be Ennis!"…he threw back his head and laughed some more.
"Ennis?
"That's his name. Ennis Del Mar. It means "Island of the Sea" in some fool language."
"He says 'blah?"
"S-Sometimes, something like 'blah.'"
Siede was quiet for a moment. Then she said: "I think last month, before you came here, before the time I first met you in the alleyway of the men, you also saw your friend...but something was wrong. Maybe he said 'blah'?"
"Yes," said Jack, "You might say that he said 'blah,' and that something was wrong." Then he burst out laughing again, for his laughter had progressed to a point where everything was funny, which it sometimes is. "and do you know what?"
"What"
"It's still wrong."
"But frog and toad are still friends?"
"Yes. frog and toad are friends," he said, his laughter finally subsiding. "How…did you know that? About my friend saying 'blah'? "
"Because of the way you looked, and what you did. You went away with Juan, but when you came back, you looked just the same. You were…looking for someone to love, as if someone to love had just been taken away from you. Just the same as when you came. And you found me."
"You are right," said Jack.
Siede took his hand, as usual, and they got up and went into the house.
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Frog and Toad are Friends Is an early reader, by Arnold Lobel, 1970.