Next thing I knew, he’d straddled the old man and was pounding on his chest.

“Call nine-one-one,” he yelled at me.

I just stood there, not understanding. “He was just talking to me,” I said. “We were having a totally normal conversation. I mean, he was coughing a lot, but… but he was fine. And then all of a sudden—”

The attendant had to say it twice.

“Call 911! Get an ambulance!”

That’s when I noticed that there was a phone right there in the room. I picked it up and dialed. When the operator came on, I told her that we needed an ambulance and gave her the address. Meanwhile, behind me, the attendant had placed an oxygen mask over Dr. Slaski’s face, and was filling a syringe with something.

“I don’t understand this,” he kept saying. “He was fine an hour ago. Just fine!”

I didn’t understand it, either. Unless Dr. Slaski was much more ill than he’d ever let on.

There didn’t seem to be much else I could do to help, so I figured I’d better go and tell Paul his grandfather had had some sort of attack. I got back to the living room just in time to see Kelly, seated beside Paul on the couch, her legs draped over his like a throw, stick her tongue in his mouth.…A sight I actually would have paid money to have been spared.

“Ahem,” I said, from the hallway.

Kelly pulled her face off Paul’s and looked at me sourly.

“What do you want?” she demanded. Given her animosity toward me, you’d hardly have guessed that we were currently president and vice president of the junior class, and had to work daily (well, weekly) together in order to decide such important issues as where to go for a class trip and what kind of flowers to order for the spring formal.

Ignoring Kelly, I said, “Paul, your grandfather appears to be having a heart attack or something.”

Paul looked at me through eyes that were half lidded. That Kelly sure has some sucking power.

“What?” he said stupidly.

“Your grandfather.” I lifted a hand to push some hair from my eyes. I hoped he didn’t notice how much my fingers were shaking. “An ambulance is on the way. He’s had like a stroke or something.”

Paul didn’t look surprised. He said, “Oh,” in kind of a disappointed voice… but more like he was bummed that his make-out session with Kelly had been interrupted than that his grandfather was, for all we knew, dying.

“Be right there,” Paul said and started to disentangle himself from Kelly’s legs.

“Paul,” Kelly cried. She managed to give his name two syllables, so it came out sounding like Paw-wol.

“Sorry, Kel,” Paul said, giving one of her calves a good-natured pat. “Grandpa Gork’s OD’d on his meds again. Gotta go take care of business.”

Kelly pouted prettily. “But the pizza’s not even here yet!”

“We’ll have to take a rain check, babe,” he said.

Babe. I shuddered.

Then realized what he’d said. As he moved past me to get to his grandfather’s room, I reached out and seized his arm. “What do you mean, he’s OD’d on his meds?” I hissed.

“Uh,” Paul said, looking down at me with a half smile. “Because that’s what happened?”

“How do you know? You haven’t even seen him yet!”

“Uh,” he said, the smile growing broader. “Because maybe I helped make it happen.”

I dropped my hand as if his skin had suddenly burst into flames. “You did this?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Except that I should have. I really should have. Because it was Paul.

“For God’s sake, Paul, why?”

“I knew you’d be coming over to see him after what happened today at the auction,” he said with a shrug. “And frankly, I didn’t need the hassle from the old man. Now if you’ll excuse me…”

He went sauntering down the hall in the direction of his grandfather’s room. I stared after him, not quite believing what I’d just heard.

And yet…

And yet it made sense. It was Paul, after all. Paul, a guy whose morals were more than a little askew.

Feeling numb, I wandered back out into the living room, where Kelly was pulling on her shoes and squawking into her cell phone. “No, I’m telling you, she came busting in here, demanding to know what I was doing with her boyfriend. Well, okay, she didn’t say it quite like that. She made up some story about wanting to talk to Paul’s grandfather. Yeah, I know, the one who can’t talk. I know, have you ever heard a lamer excuse? Then she—” Looking up, Kelly saw me. “Oh, sorry, Deb, gotta go, call you later.” She hung up and just stood there, glaring at me. “Thanks,” she said finally, “for spoiling what otherwise might have been a really nice evening.”

I was tempted to tell her the truth—that I hadn’t spoiled anything. Paul was the one who’d apparently overmedicated his grandfather. At least, that seemed to be what he wanted me to believe.

But what would have been the point? She wouldn’t have believed me, anyway.

“Sorry,” was all I said, and started for the door.

When I opened it, however, I saw my stepbrother Jake standing there, a pizza box in his hand.

“Peninsula Pizza, that’ll be twenty-seven ninety…” His voice trailed off as he recognized me. “Suze? What are you doing here?”

“Just leaving,” I said.

“Yeah, well, you’d better.” Jake glanced at his watch. “You’re gonna be late for dinner. Dad’ll kill you.”

Yet another thing to look forward to.

“Kelly,” I called up the stairs. “Your pizza’s here!” To Jake I said, “Hope you remembered the hot pepper flakes.”

Then I left.

Chapter

eleven

Because of the auction, Andy was late putting dinner on the table, so I ended up getting home just in time. My mom couldn’t understand why I was so quiet during the meal, though. She thought maybe I’d gotten too much sun sitting out at the bake sale table.

“Sister Ernestine should at least have given you an umbrella,” she said as she dug into the pork tenderloin Andy had prepared. “That little girl you were sitting with… what was her name again?”