Chester made a little sound, and she met his hypnotic green stare. The seriousness of his expression made her smile, and he took that as an invitation to spring onto her lap.
“I’m not alone, am I?” she asked him, stroking his velvety back. “I have you.”
twoSASSY
Sassy Rankin hugged her arms around herself, trying to stay warm despite the May chill. Forty-six degrees, someone had said. Nowhere near the seventy it had been only four days ago. It had been so warm then, she had loaned out her poncho, and she hadn’t seen it since, which was too bad. She really could have used it right now. She glanced up, wondering where her friends had gone, and hoping they’d bring back snacks. Whatever Sassy had just smoked was making her crave peanuts. The buzz was fading fast, and her stomach was demanding attention.
Today was an awesome day: the biggest love-in the country had ever seen. After weeks of planning, the organizers filled Queen’s Park with people like her, providing entertainment through singers and poets and speakers. The day was all about peace, and about proving to the public that she and the other hippies were not the monsters they were made out to be. Most were nonviolent and loving and offered no threat at all. They were happy just tobe.
She couldn’t tell if their message was getting out, though. The waves of people dancing and singing around her blocked her view of everything else. It didn’t matter. She was here for a good time. She’d worn the mod dress she’d sewn, which covered her in big flowers but left her goose bump–rippledarms bare. She lamented her missing poncho again, but she had no idea who she had loaned it to.
She and her friends had arrived at the park early enough that they’d found a spot on the grass in the midst of hundreds of warm bodies, as close to the stage as they could get.
The blond girl sitting on her left leaned toward her. “I think I should paint a flower on your cheek.”
Sassy took in the girl’s crown of daisies and her peaceful, glazed expression, and she offered her face.
“Wiiild,” the girl said, long and drawn out. She reached into an overstuffed bag at her other side, embroidered with all the colours of the rainbow. “Here you go.”
Sassy closed her eyes, enjoying the caress of the stranger’s paintbrush skimming over her cheek.
“You need two,” the artist declared critically, dipping her brush into a bright orange pot. When she was done, she handed Sassy a compact. “How’s that?”
Sassy angled her face toward the little mirror, appreciating the simple, childlike flowers that took up her entire left cheek, as if she grew a garden from the corner of her lip to just under her eye. One was yellow, the other orange, and their centres were switched.
“Groovy,” she said with a wide grin.
“Yeah,” the artist agreed. “I’m Sagittarius.”
“I can tell. It’s in your smile. I’m Libra.”
“The keeper of peace.” The girl sighed, soaking in the meaning. “Cool.”
Joey is Sagittarius, Sassy thought vaguely. Her brother would have loved this scene. When she glanced up at the stage, a random memory came to her of sitting on the school’s gymnasium floor, watching the grade threes put on a play.Three Little Pigs, she remembered. Joey was supposed to be sitting with the grade twos, but he’d snuck back to the grade fours to sit with Sassy. The two of them had nearly split their sides laughing at the girl playing the wolf. She had worn a ridiculously huge wolfskin coat, probably provided by her mother, and its hood kept falling off her head. Doing her best to appearbig and bad, the diminutive actress kept yanking the hood over her blond curls. Joey laughed so hard at her frustration that the teacher dragged him back to the place of discipline, at her feet. Even then, he’d glanced over his shoulder at Sassy, still grinning.
He hadn’t been afraid of that teacher or anyone else. Not that Sassy knew of, anyway. Joey lived in his own world, and she’d often felt lucky that he brought her into it. He was always doing unexpected things, and he did them with commitment. Like that toothpick house he’d glued together one time. The teacher had asked the students to assemble four simple walls and a roof, but Joey added a second floor and only quit building walls when he realized the stairs he’d built didn’t fit.
When she was ten and he was eight, the two of them had constructed a playhouse within the trees around their large home by bending saplings together and piling branches for walls. They’d rolled in stones and a short log to serve as stools. Joey lost interest in the playhouse after a couple of days, but Sassy loved the little shelter. She carried books out and read them there in private.
She preferred the playhouse to their home, a mansion that echoed with empty rooms and hiding spots. Her father had inherited the big house from her grandfather, and to Sassy, it always felt too big and too quiet. One night in her playhouse, the soothing sounds of the woods lulled her enough that she forgot to go home once it began to get dark. She’d glanced up from the pages and found herself in dusky shadows, a place she’d never been before. With wide eyes, she’d stepped out from between the branches and surveyed an unfamiliar night that suddenly screeched with scary-sounding crickets. Somehow she’d gotten turned around and had no idea how to get to the house. Her father’s estate had extensive grounds, but with so many tall shade trees, she couldn’t see any lights from the house between the boughs.
Then Joey was there, like a puppy with a wagging tail, waiting for her to follow him. He didn’t tease her for the tears on her face that night, never made fun of her for getting lost in her own backyard.
“I can’t,” she said.
“Come on. It’s easy. Just two little steps.”
Then he just took her hand and chattered the whole way back. Thefollowing afternoon, he’d suggested they go out to the secret spot together, but she’d refused. No way she was going to get stuck like that again. He persisted, so she reluctantly agreed, but only for a short while. She even wore a watch to make sure she didn’t overstay. When they reached the spot, Joey was beaming, looking like a cat who’d swallowed a canary. Confused, she ducked inside to find a bouquet of flowers he’d plucked just for her and stuck in a bottle of water. He’d even built a wobbly little bookshelf, where he’d stacked her favourites along with a flashlight.
“See?” he said. “You never have to be scared, because I’ll never let anything happen to you. You and me, Sass. We’re like peanut butter and jelly, remember?”
That was something their nanny, Minnie, had said, shaking her head at the song they’d performed at her birthday party years ago. “Peanut butter and jelly, you two. Good on your own, but better together.”
Sassy’s stomach growled. Now she was craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She sighed and leaned back on the grass, determined to appreciate the gorgeous day. The only thing that could have made today better was if Joey was here.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a surprise guest artist coming onto the stage now.”
Sassy held her breath and crossed all her fingers. There had been rumours, but she’d hardly dared to believe. Could this be…
