In The Unlikely Event Part 26

He didn't answer.

"Are you telling me the truth?"

"No."

"Let me talk to your mother."

"Say please."

"May I please speak to your mother?"

"Sorry, no can do." And he hung up.

Then Henry came home with the paper and Miri didn't call the Osners again.

Elizabeth Daily Post

AIRLINER SMASHES INTO SALEM AVENUE APARTMENTS.

Explodes in Yard of Janet Memorial Home Third Crash in 58 Days Brings Closure of Newark Airport By Henry Ammerman FEB. 11-Disaster from the sky rained down on Elizabeth for the third time in eight weeks. At 12:20 a.m., a Miami-bound National Airlines four-engine DC-6 taking off from Newark Airport sliced open the roof of a three-story apartment building on Salem Avenue. Spilling fuel as a wing tip ripped off, it set the apartment building ablaze before plunging to the ground and exploding in the playing field of the Janet Memorial Home.

Like a Swollen Cream Puff Wrapped around the base of a tree was one of the plane's engines. Hanging like a huge dead leaf from the blackened top of another tree was a jagged piece of silver wreckage. The roof of the apartment building looked as if the plane had taken a gigantic bite out of it. The wreckage of the 101-foot-long aircraft stretched across the recreation field of Janet Memorial, and into Westminster Avenue, all brightly lit by roaring flames that took hours to bring under control. Nearby, silhouetted like a sentinel against the orange-red flames was another engine, one propeller blade pointed skyward.

The plane had broken apart like a swollen cream puff. Lying in Westminster Avenue was the forward section, the tomb of the three pilots. Unlike the two previous crashes, which claimed the lives of all on board, 38 survived this time, some seriously injured, some able to walk away.

Janet Home and Schools Nearby Twenty-two pa.s.sengers and three crew members aboard the plane died. Four occupants of the ravaged apartment building perished, three of them from the same family-Irving Zahler, 30, his 27-year-old wife, Marilyn, and their 4-year-old son, Monte. They had recently moved from Newark to the Salem Avenue apartment house, where Mrs. Zahler's parents live. Her father, distraught, said, "Planes come so low over our place you could make a malted milk from the vibrations." Mr. Zahler worked at Zahler Brothers Potato Market in Newark.

But the block-long pile of death and destruction providentially spared the 48 children asleep in the Janet Home, virtually next door to the ill-fated apartment house. Only a block away were two schools, Vail-Deane and Pingry, which would have been occupied by hundreds of students a few hours later.

Young Heroes from Janet Many owe their lives to a group of four boys from the Janet Memorial Home. Led by 16-year-old Mason McKittrick, the teenagers rushed from their building and were the first to offer a.s.sistance. Ignoring flames and the threat of further explosion, they pulled survivors out of the wreckage. Setting up an a.s.sembly line, they pa.s.sed the injured to others, who transferred them to safety, many of them laid out on gym mats, awaiting medical attention.

- MIRI READ HENRY'S STORY, then read it again. Swollen cream puff? She'd always thought of cream puffs as soft and sweet. But Henry was using it to describe something hard and horrible. She worried, for a minute, he was losing his mind. Or was it that when something so unimaginable happens you need to find a new way to help people see it?

Elizabeth Daily Post

NO VALENTINE'S WEDDING

BOSTON, FEB. 13 (UPI)-Plans for a Valentine's Day wedding went awry because a tall bride-to-be has disappeared after leaving a note to her still taller fiance, and her engagement ring pinned to a pillow. She said she just couldn't go through with the ceremony.

Walter James Curran, 27, of Philadelphia, waited in a hotel room for some word of his fiancee, Kathleen Lorna Flynn, 23.

The Valentine Day's wedding scheduled for Thursday was to climax a romance that began at a convention of tall people's clubs last year in Kansas City. Curran, a strapping six-foot-five engineer, made a radio appeal last night, urging his five-foot-eleven fiancee to return.

Mrs. Barton Flynn said her daughter "simply vanished into thin air" on a shopping trip, after getting out of the family automobile.

23.

Miri Miri tried to imagine what went wrong. What would make Kathleen, the tall bride-to-be, decide at the last minute she didn't want to marry Walter? Had she come to her senses and realized all they had in common was their height? Did she find him hopelessly boring? Or maybe she wasn't attracted to him. Maybe she was disgusted by the idea of having s.e.x with him. Maybe she didn't like the way he smelled or the way he chewed his food or the way he misp.r.o.nounced certain words. Maybe she never wanted to get married in the first place but her mother told her she'd better find somebody soon or she was going to wind up an old maid. He could have had a terrible temper or criticized everything she did. Or maybe she loved to dance and he wouldn't even try. Maybe he drank. Maybe she was in love with someone else. Miri wished she could talk to Kathleen and find out the truth.

- SHE TRIED to convince Irene to invite Mason to dinner on Valentine's Day. "He's a hero. Everybody says so. Just ask Uncle Henry."

"He was very brave," Rusty said, backing up Miri, "rus.h.i.+ng into a burning plane and saving the stewardess."

Miri said, "She's not the only one he saved."

"A hero is always welcome at my table," Irene said.

Miri threw her arms around Irene.

"What?" Irene asked.

"Thank you," Miri said.

"I'm not inviting him as your boyfriend," Irene told her. "So don't go getting any ideas. I'm saying it would be a shonda not to include him."

"Relax, Mama," Rusty said. "They're just kids."

"I remember when I thought you were just a kid, Naomi."

Irene used Rusty's real name only when she was dead serious. And it always shut Rusty up. She turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Miri felt bad for Rusty that night and went to her room, where she sat on the edge of the bed and held Rusty's hand. No words were necessary. They both knew what Irene meant even if she hadn't spelled it out, as if what happened with Mike Monsky was Rusty's fault. Well, in a way Miri supposed it was. She'd let Mike Monsky trick her into going all the way, hadn't she? Getting into that Nash with him, a car where the seat actually turned into a bed. She would never go out with a boy who drove a Nash. No boy was going to trick her into doing anything she didn't want to do. Which made her think, maybe Rusty wanted to do it. Maybe he didn't have to trick her at all.

She'd learned about the Nash a few years ago when Rusty was teasing Henry about his car. They thought she was asleep. "It's so old," Rusty had said. "And that rumble seat! You can't make love in a rumble seat."

"I suppose you think I should get a Nash," Henry said. "One with a seat that turns into a bed."

At which point Rusty threw her shoe at Henry. But Henry ducked and laughed.

"I will never get into another Nash as long as I live," Rusty said. "And neither will my daughter."

Miri kissed Rusty goodnight, something she didn't automatically do these days. Rusty gave her such an appreciative look she vowed to be kinder to her mother.

On her way out of Rusty's room, Miri spied part of a white box tied with a red ribbon, sticking out from under Rusty's bed. Could it be a gift from Longy? That would be disgusting! Or from Natalie's cousin Tewky? Even worse. Or wait, maybe it was for her. Rusty might have bought her something for Valentine's Day. Maybe pajamas with hearts, or a set of day-of-the-week underpants. She knew she was way too old for day-of-the-week underpants but she'd always wanted them. Natalie said when she was young she'd never worn hers on the right days. Too much trouble. But Fern was obsessive about getting the days of the week right.

- ON VALENTINE'S DAY the Other Naomi came home from the office with Rusty to join the family for dinner. Miri thought of the Other Naomi as "Miss Rheingold" because she'd been a finalist in the national contest. She lived in a studio apartment in Greenwich Village, a fourth-floor walk-up opening into a tiny kitchenette. Miri and Rusty once spent the night when Miss Rheingold got them tickets to see a production of Peter Pan. Miss Rheingold knew the guy who wrote the music and lyrics, Lenny Bernstein. She showed Miri his photo. He was sitting at a piano. Good-looking, isn't he? Miss Rheingold had asked Miri. The photo was signed To Naomi, Best wishes, Lenny. Now Miss Rheingold was thirty-one and single. Miri didn't know about Lenny. But she knew Miss Rheingold's fiance had been killed in the war and she swore she'd never fall in love again, though she wouldn't mind marrying somebody rich. Miri didn't understand why Rusty enjoyed spending time with Miss Rheingold, except they were close to the same age and single. All of Rusty's old friends from Battin High were married and didn't include her when they threw parties or went out with their husbands on Sat.u.r.day nights. She was a double threat-too good-looking, and with a reputation for being loose, which she wasn't. As far as Miri knew she'd never had another boyfriend-not since Mike Monsky got her in trouble. Once a month Rusty spent the night at Miss Rheingold's apartment and always brought the Playbill and theater ticket stub home to Miri.

Rusty could have entered beauty contests when she was younger and she'd probably have won first prize. She could have been Miss Rheingold for real, not some runner-up, except you weren't allowed to enter unless you were single and certainly not if you were a mother. Well, too bad. Miri never liked the way Miss Rheingold talked to her, using the same tone she used to talk to her cat, as if she were the cat's mother. Miri found that people without children either did that or they acted like you were the same age as them, which at this point, would have been better.

- LEAH AND UNCLE HENRY WERE already there, making small talk with Rusty and Miss Rheingold, when Ben Sapphire came in carrying a box from Nia's Lingerie tied with a fancy red bow.

"For me?" Irene asked when Ben presented it to her. "Should I open it in public?"

"Why not?" Ben said.

Rusty and Henry exchanged looks. Leah looked down at the box of twenty-four valentines on her lap, one from each child in her cla.s.s. Miri couldn't imagine why she'd thought the family would want to see them.

Irene raised her eyebrows and smiled at Ben without opening her lips. She untied the red ribbon and handed it to Miri, reminding her to roll it up and save it in the ribbon box. Then she took the top off the box, and peeked into the layers of tissue paper, finally pulling out a silky white robe covered with red poppies. She held it up for the family to see. "Is this beautiful or what?"

Ben Sapphire beamed.

"What a thoughtful gift," Irene told him. "How did you know I needed a new robe?"

"Who doesn't need a new robe?" Ben asked.

"Try it on, Nana," Miri said.

"Now? Over my clothes?"

"Yes," Miri said.

"Well...if you insist." Irene pulled on the robe, which fit perfectly. She tied it around her waist, and paraded around the room like a model at a fas.h.i.+on show. "Ta dah!" she sang, stopping to give Ben a peck on the cheek. "Thank you, dear friend."

"It's the least I can do," Ben told her.

Again, Miri caught the looks between Rusty and Henry.

"I saw a box just like that, with the same red ribbon, in Mom's room," Miri said. She didn't know why she said it. She was just filling up what felt like an awkward moment. She didn't want any awkward moments tonight. She wanted it to be perfect for Mason, though he hadn't yet arrived.

"No, you saw that box," Rusty said. "I hid it in my room so Nana wouldn't see it."

"Or are you suggesting Rusty has a secret admirer?" Miss Rheingold asked Miri.

"No," Miri said. "I mean, how would I know?"

Rusty laughed. "You think there could be any secrets in this house?"

"She should only be so lucky," Irene said. "Who wouldn't want a secret admirer?"

"How about one who's not so secret?" Ben Sapphire asked.

"Better yet," Irene told him.

When the doorbell rang, Miri jumped up. "I'll get it."

She opened the door to find Mason holding a single red rose and a box of Barricini chocolates. She would not tell him that Leah had brought boxes of candy, gifts from the mothers of her students, or that Miss Rheingold had brought a box of chocolate-covered cherries, all stashed in the pantry. He handed her the rose. "Happy Valentine's Day." He checked to make sure the coast was clear before he kissed her.

Fred was inside his jacket. "I had no place to leave him."

"He can stay in my room." Mason handed the dog to Miri and she ran up the stairs with him while Mason waited.

When she came down again she led Mason into Irene's living room. "Mason brought me a red rose for Valentine's Day." She made a big thing out of running water into a bud vase, tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the stem and placing it just so.

"And these are for you." He handed Irene the box of chocolates.

"For me?" Irene said for the second time that night. Miri could tell she was pleased.

Miri introduced him to Miss Rheingold. "This is my friend Mason. This is Mom's friend Naomi."

"Miss Corsini," Rusty corrected her.

"Please, call me Naomi," Miss Rheingold told him. She held out her hand with her bright red nails and Mason shook it. "Pleased to meet you, Mason."

"Same here," he said.

"So, this is the boyfriend?" Miss Rheingold asked Rusty in a whisper loud enough for everyone to hear.

Miri shot Rusty a look. What business was it of Miss Rheingold's?

"They're just friends," Rusty told Miss Rheingold.

But it was clear to Miri that Rusty had told her more.

"Friends are good," Miss Rheingold said.

"I couldn't agree more," Ben Sapphire said. "Friends make all the difference."

Miri stole a quick look at Mason, who was looking at the floor.

For a minute Miri's thoughts went to Natalie. But she didn't want to think about Natalie tonight or where or how she might be. She was glad when Irene called them to the table, where Henry proposed a toast to Mason, calling him a "true hero."

"I'm proud to have a hero at my table," Irene said.