Chapter 6 Grace's Bad-Hair Day
"Yo! Luke!"
Luke slowed his walk off of the school grounds, recognizing the voice. He was still not quite sure how to deal with Adam.
The young artist caught up. "How is Jane? I thought she and I would spend more time together now that school is back, but I've scarcely seen her this week. Now it's Thursday afternoon"
On earlier occasions Luke might have shared Adam's puzzlement as to what was going through Joan's head. But now he understood his sister a lot better, though he was not at liberty to explain it all to Adam.
"It's not you, Adam. Joan's pretty overwhelmed right now. She's anxious to do well in her new law course. Monday, the very first day, she got hauled into Price's office -- did you hear about that? And yesterday she was worried about Glynis. Just give her time to get her head above water." As Adam nodded, reassured, Luke deliberately changed the subject. "How's Bonnie?"
"Doing well so far. The doctor gave her medicine to control the morning sickness. She's wearing loose clothes that won't show the shape of her belly, and she got excused from gym, so she won't have to change with other girls seeing. You know, I wonder how many of the other girls are in her condition? Getting near 18, thinking that they can handle sex--"
"I don't know. All I know that neither Grace nor Joan are in the club. And Glynis is such an ice princess."
"Yah. Well, give my love to Jane."
Luke waved at the artist. But as soon as the latter was out of earshot, Luke heard a familiar voice say:
"That went well."
It was the improbably handsome boy that Joan had dubbed "Cute Boy God." But Luke was immune to the charm that seemed to wow Joan whenever he showed up.
"I suppose that you've come to give me a mission. The girls got theirs three days ago."
"You like coming directly to the point, don't you? Joan's told you about Ryan Hunter." It was not a question. After all, the Boy knew everything.
"Yeah. She expected trouble from him this summer, but it didn't happen."
"Hunter has been out of the city consolidating his earthly fortune, which he believes will protect him. But eventually things will come to a crisis, and you three must be ready. I want you to find out everything you can about Ryan Hunter."
Luke stared. "What's the point? You're omniscient. You can tell me everything I need to know about Ryan Hunter."
"Luke, I could have simply advised that you change your focus to the life sciences. Instead, I sent you to vacation on a farm for two weeks. Why?"
"Because you thought I'd learn the lesson better if I worked it out myself. And I suppose that you're saying that the same is true about investigating Mr. Hunter."
The Boy nodded. "Feel free to ask the girls for help, just as they're free to consult you. But do not go to your father or his colleagues on the police."
No, that would make things too easy, wouldn't it? And although Luke didn't say that, he knew that the Boy could read the thought in his mind. Luke was starting to understand the frustration Joan felt dealing with their divine friend.
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The trio had agreed that Grace would sleep over at the Girardi house that Friday. She had often done so during the last month of summer, though now they had a more practical reason; an opportunity to compare notes. The Girardi parents didn't mind the visits, since Kevin's marriage now left them with a spare bedroom, nor did the Polonskis, as long as Grace shared the Sabbath meal with them. Of course neither pair of parents knew exactly what the teens were up to.
Grace walked into the Girardi house just before 8:00, and the two Girardis teens stared at her hair. Gone was the stringy, plastered-down look. Instead the hair was soft, brighter, and curled around her ears, in an attractive page-boy cut.
"Yeah," she said in answer to the unspoken question. "I went with Maggie to a beauty shop. My bad."
"Maggie?" repeated Joan.
"Morgiana. She wanted to get her hair done, now that it wouldn't be hidden by the scarf. I was just supposed to wait for her. But all sorts of women kept urging me to go ahead of them, as if the state of my hair was an emergency that couldn't wait. So finally I let a beautician mess with my hair, and she did THIS to me!"
"I think it looks cute," said Joan.
"You're not helping, Girardi. The good thing is, I can undo it. Just soak my head for a few seconds the next time I take a bath."
"You should wait until somebody tells you to soak your head," said her boyfriend with a straight face. "Given how often you get in arguments, that shouldn't take long."
"Very funny. Can't we talk about more important stuff?"
Neither of the parents was downstairs at the moment, but that might not last. "We can talk in the shed with the Boat," suggested Joan. "Dad and Kevin aren't likely to work on it until tomorrow."
They repaired to the shed, and Joan asked Grace to tell them more about Maggie.
"She wants to makeover herself as the all-American girl, partly to be cool but partly as a sort of cultural experiment for her father. She's no ditz. I'm going along, to see that she doesn't go too far. I think she should enjoy her uniqueness."
"Do you think all that is part of the Plan?" asked Luke. "Maybe you weren't supposed to do anything more than rescue her from the bullies."
"Maybe. But on the other hand, maybe this as a matter of crucial importance. Maybe Maggie is destined to do something really important, healing the breach between Muslims and West, but only if we get her through her current problems." Grace shrugged. "Until God pops up and convinces me otherwise, I'm just going to follow my gut."
"God vs gut. Interesting conflict," said Joan.
They laughed, then Grace added, "so what about Glynis? If it was just a matter of temporary nausea on Wednesday, God wouldn't turn her into a mission. Since He did, there are two other alternatives: either she's ill, or somebody knocked her up."
"Yeah, she's pregnant," Joan conceded reluctantly.
"What!" exclaimed Luke. "Just yesterday I commented to Adam what an ice princess she was when I dated her."
"Well, looks like somebody came on and lit her fire," snarked Grace. She had harbored a slight grudge against Glynis ever since that usually demure girl had told her to "take that stick out of your butt".
"I promised not to talk about it," said Joan. "Please leave her to me."
"All right," said Grace. "Now tell us about Hunter, Luke."
"I spent a lot of Thursday evening searching the Internet for information," Luke said, "and I've found at least one thing that's important."
"What?"
"Nothing," said Luke impishly.
"But you said--"
"I found literally nothing, and that's an important clue. Like the Sherlock Holmes story, when Holmes realized a burglary was an inside job because the watchdog did nothing to stop it. There's no record of Hunter prior to last spring, so 'Hunter' must be an alias."
"Ah!" exclaimed Joan. "We can use that to arouse Dad's suspicions."
"Yes, but somehow I don't think that's part of God's plan."
"I don't care," said Grace, suddenly losing her cool. "That bastard set fire to my place of worship, and upset my mother so much that she fell off the wagon for a few weeks. I want to hurt him, and I hope that's part of the plan."
Luke, a bit taken back by her anger, said: "We'll just have to wait and see."
TBC