The relationship between Bradley and Cami did develop into exactly that, a relationship. They had bonded in their Shakespeare rehearsals. Cami had called after practice every Thursday night to tell me all the details. At first, she had been very aggressive, which seemed to turn Bradley off. Then, when they were in the middle of doing a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream something just clicked. She related it all to me in vivid detail: “It was like I had become Titania and he had become Bottom! We had such a connection.”
I had once had the nerve to question her. “So you fell in love with a donkey?” But she had gotten so upset I decided my one laugh wasn’t worth Cami’s scorn. Eventually they made it past the awkward stage and into the silly stage, which I didn’t like much better. I found out that my whole argument that it was great to hear everything from Cami because I got to live through her adventures was a bunch of crap. I didn’t get to live them, I just got to hear every little detail about them and get shockingly jealous. Some days I didn’t even want to check on Muffin, because it just reminded me of Bradley and all the wonderful things Cami was always gushing about.
“We’re too young to have relationships” I would justify to myself, “it just is a distraction from our school work and our friends. Cami doesn’t know it, but she’s missing out on the best parts of high school. It will all be over before we know it and she’ll wake up one day and realize she spent four years obsessing over a boy. A boy!”
As much as I harboured resentment and a wee bit of jealousy, I still loved to see Cami so happy. I just couldn’t take being around her for very long. I’ve since decided, in my later years, that there is nothing so annoying as a madly in love friend to a single gal. It is the ultimate torture. I wondered if I was even happy at all, not having any sort of uncontrollable happiness to bust out. But Cami settled that all in my mind shortly before Christmas.
*** It was, in the truest sense of the word, a blustery day. Pooh and his little house at Pooh Corner would have been right at home. The snow had lagged, although there were leftovers on the lawns, and small mounds left by the plows along the roads. On Tuesday morning, I woke up and looked through my window. It was always hard to be completely sure about the weather from the position of my bed, because my sheer lavender curtains (with the rose taffeta butterflies sewn on) made everything look grey. That day, it look like a blizzard. “No School?!” Could it possibly be? I jumped up to turn on the radio to hear the school closings. But instead of a monotone drone of school names, it was just the usual Bill and Pete jabbering on about the hockey game last night. “What, no closures?” I pulled the curtains back to reveal the sad truth. No snow day, for it was not a snowstorm, but just a strong wind picking up the snow from the ground. “Shoot! Gotta get dressed now.”
I had spent to much time dreaming of snow days, and so I left the house 15 minutes later than I usually did. “I am going to be so late.” I wrapped my scarf around my neck three times and headed off into the wind. I moved quickly down our little street to the main intersection. The school was only about a 15 minute walk down that main street. In the warmer months, I had ridden my bike to school everyday, but in the winter, it was just entirely too cold and windy. Trudging on foot might take longer, but at least the wind didn’t bite into your face like little pins poking you.
“I think I can, I think I can” trying to walk quickly in the wind seemed to be counter productive. I had my head down and was ploughing ahead when I ploughed right into a solid figure in my path.
“Oh, so sorry.” I looked up to see Bradley staring down at me. “Whoops. Didn’t mind to slam into you there!”
Bradley didn’t say anything but just kept looking at me with this odd face. “What? What’s wrong with me?” I had to ask.
Bradley started to chuckle then laugh outright. “Nothing, it’s just that you remind me of one of those little triangle dwarfs that teeter when they sing on that Japanese cartoon.”
“Alrighty then!” I had never seen nor heard of such a cartoon, but Bradley could think whatever he wanted. Bradley always seemed to have tastes that were a few steps off the mainstream path. It reached to his sense in music, clothes and movies. It was like he marched to the beat of his own drummer.
“Do you have Muffin today?”
Bradley pointed to a little donut box dangling off the back of his backpack on a carabineer. “Safe and sound! I added some extra cotton balls so she’ll stay warm. I think that will work.”
“If anyone knew you had a kitten in there, they would report you for cruelty to animals.”
“Oh, no. You don’t think it’s cruel do you? She doesn’t seem to mind it, I always make sure she’s warm and tucked in well!” Bradley looked very concerned. I was careful with my response.
“I know you always try to do what’s best for her, but I’m not sure any kitten really likes swinging from the bottom of a backpack. It might make her feel sick.”
“You’re so right.” Bradley gingerly swung his backpack off, and unhooked Muffin’s donut box. He tucked it into the crook of his right arm, then, with my help put his backpack on.
“Better?”
“I think Muffin would say, ‘much better!’”
“Now, young lady, since I assume that we are both headed in the direction, may I escort you?” Bradley asked politely, offering his free arm.
I couldn’t help from laughing. “You are so weird, what is it, the Shakespeare?” I prodded him.
“Oh, I don’t think you could pin it down to one aspect of my largely unusual life. Still, you’re trying to change the subject. Perhaps I shall reword: may I walk you to school?”
“You may, but there is no way I’m holding your arm. It’s not the 1900’s anymore.”
And so we started off, side by side. We were still walking towards the wind, and any pieces of conversation had to premeditated. I would turn my head entirely to the side, shout my part, the turn back so my ear was towards his shouted answer. It was not the easiest way to talk. Still, I had never had a real conversation just with me and Bradley, so I decided to try to learn as much as possible. So far, I was beginning to understand why Cami liked Bradley so much, he was really funny, intentionally and unintentionally.
“So do you live up Popular Aspen Drive?” It was a logical conclusion, since I had bumped into him at the bottom of it. Popular Aspen was a very steep road that led to a tree-filled circle of some very expensive houses, set above the rest of the city.
“Yes.”
Ah-ha! Some reticence in his answer, perhaps I could finally uncover the secret of why he brought Muffin the Cat to school every day.
“Does your family live there?” As soon as I had asked that question, I was kicking myself. It was such an obvious question, that no one would really ask unless they were digging for answers. I had to add something else. “I mean, do you live with your mom and dad?” It still sounded like I was snooping, but at least it was a legitimate question.
“No.”
Oh no. I had asked the snooping question, uncovered something, and now he didn’t want to talk about it. How to change the conversation politely and smoothly? While I was racking my head for gracious responses, Bradley saved me.
“Well, I mean, I don’t live with my parents. I live with my grandmother and grandfather at their house.”
“I see.” Now was my chance, I had to ask. “Is that why you bring Muffin to school everyday?”
“Sort of. See, my grandmother has Alzheimer’s, and it’s pretty advanced. Both my grandfather and I spend a lot of time watching and taking care of her. When I go to school, she’s often too much for my grandfather to deal with. If I left Muffin at home, it would be one more thing that my grandfather would have to take care of, and make sure that grandmother didn’t accidentally do anything to. One day this summer, when I wasn’t watching her closely, my grandmother took Muffin and threw her out the window.”
“No, that’s awful.”
“Well, it was just the first floor, so I ran outside to find Muffin and she was fine, just scared. But after that I knew I couldn’t leave Muffin home all day because if grandmother did do something, it would be a long while before my frazzled grandfather would notice.”
“So, that explains the Muffin mystery. I had been really wondering why you brought your cat to school everyday. I had thought of so many different possibilities…”
“Like what?”
“Well, I thought that the most logical one was that you were homeless, and couldn’t leave your cat on the street all by herself. But then of course, we had trouble reasoning away why you are always clean and well-dressed.”
Bradley laughed. “Of course.”
“I also thought that maybe your mom didn’t let anyone in your family have pets, and you had Muffin entirely secret. You hid her carefully at home every night, but of course couldn’t leave her to be discovered during the day.
“Of course.”
“But the truth, about your grandparents, I never thought of that one.”
“Well, often the truth is stranger than fiction.”
“Indeed. Well, at least now I can tell everyone that I’ve found the answer to The Case of the Muffin Mystery or whatever silly name we had for it.”
“Who’s we?”
“My friends Freddy and Ya-Ting. Don’t worry, Cami would never speculate with me or make up stories about you.”
“Yes, and it wouldn’t really make sense, because she knows all about Muffin and my grandparents, she wouldn’t have to guess.”
“Oh yah, that’d be silly” laughing to cover up my surprise. So Cami had known all this time and had let me just act like an idiot and make up stories. I would have to ask her about it. I mean, yes, it’s her boyfriend, but it’s not a state secret. She could have told me.
We had reached the school, so I thanked Bradley for ‘escorting me to school’ and then we both headed to different quads for our homeroom classes.
About Us: We're just two friends, off to choose our own adventures!Carole Nickle
Name: Carole
Current Home: Various Locales, You have to choose a country, so..., South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands
Details: I like English, teaching, writing, website design, geeky computer programs and chocolate.
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