Vacation-Part Five

Friday, August 30, 2002

Farnsworth Manor

12:40 PM

“Have a good time, sweetheart,” Amanda gave Jenna a hug.

“We will,” Jenna said. “Bye mom.”

“Goodbye Mrs. Stetson—um—Mr. Stetson,” Geoff said. Lee just nodded.

“I’ll have her home by six,” Geoff said.

“Oh there’s no rush,” Emily said.

Geoff looked at Lee. “I’ll have her home by six,” he repeated. Jenna looked from Lee to Geoff, a bemused expression on her face. .

“Six is fine with me,” Jenna said. Lee nodded again.

“Well anyway, I hope that both of you have a lovely time,” Emily gave Jenna a kiss on the cheek and shook Geoff’s hand.

The front door closed. Amanda looked at Lee.

“Mind telling me what that was all about?”

“I’ll just go— and see about the tea,” Emily gave Lee a pointed glance. “Let you two have a little talk.”

“Amanda, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lee said once Emily had gone.

“Don’t give me that, Lee—Geoff was looking at you like he was scared to death. What exactly did you say to him?”

“I didn’t say anything,” Lee said. Amanda said nothing and finally Lee sighed. “Okay, I may have had a little talk with him.”

“And you talked to Francine, didn’t you?” Amanda said. “About a background check? Don’t try to tell me you didn’t because she called back.”

. “Maybe I did,” Lee said. “Francine wasn’t supposed to say anything.”

Amanda sighed. “Oh, Lee.”

“But it’s only because I care about Jenna.”

Amanda crossed her arms. “And just what exactly did you say to Geoffrey?”

“Only that he better have her back by six,” Lee said. “—and that she better have a good time.”

“What were you planning on doing if they weren’t back on time?” Amanda said. “Were you going to sit on the front porch with a rifle? Don’t you think that’s just a little drastic?”

“Amanda she’s only thirteen.”

“She’s growing up,” Amanda told him. “I know you don’t want to see that, but she is. At some point you’ll have to trust her.”

“It’s not her that I don’t trust,” Lee said. “It’s him. I know teenage boys, Amanda. I used to be one, for God’s sake. I know what’s on their minds.”

“And just what is that,” Amanda raised an eyebrow. “Urges?”

“Possibly,” Lee said. “Okay, yes. Look all I want to do is protect her. What do you expect me to do?”

Amanda shook her head. “I don’t know. What I do know is that when Jenna gets back you two are going to have a long talk about all this. Is that clear?”

Funland, Trocadero

1:35 PM

“Here we go then,” Geoff said, pointing to the escalator. Jenna looked up at the electronic sign above the blue glowing rings that circled the escalator-giving it a very futuristic appearance.

“Funland?” she said.

Geoff nodded. “Trust me, it’s brilliant. There are loads of video games, virtual reality—all kinds of stuff.”

“I’m not very good at video games,” Jenna held onto the railing with one hand as they went up. A couple of Japanese tourists, wearing their backpacks on their fronts and apparently not willing to wait, ran up the left side of the escalator, chattering excitedly all the way.

“Now why doesn’t that surprise me?” Simon said.

Jenna took a deep breath, fighting to keep her cool. She’d had a dull ache in her forehead ever since meeting Simon at Hampstead Tube Station, and it was getting worse. The rest of Geoff’s friends—mates-- seemed pretty nice; Tim and his girlfriend Sophie and Sophie’s friend Daisy, called ‘Daze’ for short—but Simon—Jenna swore to herself that if this guy said one more thing about Americans or tourists, she would—actually she didn’t know what she would do, but something.

“Well I’m not very good at video games either,” Sophie told her. “But Tim here is brilliant and Daze here is all right.”

“Only because I have little brothers,” Daze pushed a lock of dark hair behind her ears.

They came off the escalator and Jenna stopped for a moment, staring at the rows of games that seemed to her to stretch for a mile at least. Blue and pink neon lights seemed to be everywhere, making everything seem almost like part of another world

“Bet you’ve never seen a place like this in America, have you?” Simon’s nasal voice broke into her reverie.

“No,” Jenna said. “I never have.”

Simon snorted. “Thought not.”

“Yeah, well Simon only sees this place when his mummy lets him out of the house,” Tim gave Jenna a sideways wink and grin. Jenna smiled.

“What would you like to do?” Geoff asked her. “It’s your day, Jenna.”

“Well—” Jenna pointed at the sign that said ‘Bowling’. “We could do that.”

“Bowling?” Simon said. “That’s crap. We’re not in primary school, after all. What’s next, the dodgems?”

“Leave it out, Simon,” Geoff said. “If she wants to go bowling, we can go bowling.”

“Now this is what Jenna really wants to do,” Simon led them over to a game on the right side of the escalator. The game looked like a large screen mounted on two platforms-each platform had what looked like buttons on it; red, blue and a yellow button in the center. The platforms each had a red glowing rail on the back.

“What is it?” Jenna asked.

“You must be joking. Haven’t you ever heard of Pump it Up?” Simon said.

“It’s a dance game,” Geoff said. “You just watch the screen and move your feet to whichever buttons appear on the screen. I can teach you if you like.”

“Jenna’s probably afraid to learn,” Simon said. “Maybe we should find some playschool games for her.”

“I’ll do it,” Jenna said. She let Geoff lead her up to the platform. The red and blue buttons on the floor were actually arrows, she realized. He put three coins in the slot and pushed some buttons.

“We’ll start out simple,” he said. “We’ll pick a one-star song and play together on battle mode. Just watch the screen and try to move your feet to the arrows on the screen.

“Okay,” Jenna said. The music began and she started dancing. It was hard at first, but it steadily got easier—she even found herself getting into the beat of the song.

“Wow,” Geoff said breathlessly as the song ended. “You’re good, Jenna. You know you got a B? My very first try I got a D.”

“Well I was my school dance team—” Jenna started to say when a pair of arms encircled her waist from behind, lifting her off the platform. A scream ripped from her throat and Jenna struggled, trying to break free. She hit the floor hard, her left knee banging painfully against the tiles. Simon stood over her, a contemptuous smirk on his features.

“Give someone else a chance, would you?” he said.

There was dead silence—even people walking by had stopped to stare. Jenna could feel tears in her eyes—she stared hard at the ground, not willing to look at anyone

“Jenna?” Geoff said.

Jenna tried to stand but her legs were shaking too badly. Geoff knelt beside her.

“Are you all right?” he asked her.

“I—” Jenna tried to speak but her mouth didn’t seem to want to cooperate. She let Sophie and Daze help her to a standing position.

“I think that Simon here owes someone an apology,” Tim said.

“I don’t owe anyone here anything,” Simon said. “It was just a bit of fun—she doesn’t have to be such a spaz about it.”

There was dead silence for a moment. Geoff walked over to Simon, standing nose to nose with the other boy.

“Leave,” Geoff said.

Simon laughed disbelievingly. “Do what?”

“You heard.” Geoff said.

Simon stared at him for a long moment. “Fine,” he said finally. “I was fed up with you lot anyway.” When he left Geoff turned to Jenna.

“Are you all right?” he asked her again.

“Yes,” Jenna said. “I’m sorry—I guess I really made an idiot out of myself. It’s just when he grabbed me from behind I guess I—” she stopped, knowing that there were things she couldn’t tell him. “I kind of panicked,” she finished lamely.

“Yeah well what he did was out of order,” Geoff said. “Hey, do you like milkshakes? I know this little café on All Saints Road that makes great milkshakes—we could all go.”

“I love milkshakes,” Jenna said. Geoff smiled at her, an infectious smile that made her smile back.

“Great,” he said.

TBC