Evidence of Things Not Seen Read Free Page A

school year and not talk to anyone. It turned out she couldn’t. Something happens. You forget your gym shorts and you have to borrow some. After that, Mary Louise—the girl with the extra shorts—says something to you every day. Something nice. Not very prying. You wonder about her paint-splotched fingers. She tells you more about herself. You find yourself liking not being alone. Pretty soon you go to lunch with her and then you’re sitting with two guys and presto you’re going to the prom. Maybe it’s the perfect thing to do to finish off this exile from her life back in Midland. A prom. A step toward normal. With friends. No romance. A sort of date with Marshall. A sort of date would be all right. With Marshall.
    She still wasn’t sure about him. He looked like a dangerous combination of smart and sensitive. She liked smart because she hated dumb. But smart meant she had to be watchful. Smart meant someone could pull a fast one on her. Smart meant she wasn’t sure she could trust him.
    Sensitive confused her. She thought he was sensitive. Maybe it was his eyes. Or those glasses. They made him look vulnerable. Breakable. Maybe it was the way he didn’t push himself at her. He couldn’t hurt her if he was sensitive. Could he?
    It couldn’t hurt her to go to the prom with a pretend date. Could it?
    Leann was never sure what would hurt. It was like her antenna mixed all the signals up when someone got close. She couldn’t figure out what they wanted. Or she did know what they wanted and it was wrong but they said they loved her so it couldn’t be wrong. But it was her uncle so it was wrong but he said he loved her so maybe it wasn’t. Then it was her cousin but he said he loved her so maybe it wasn’t but it was. It was wrong. Every time. But they said they loved her. They said so. Then her mother found out and said Leann was a “little tease, the kind of girl that gets boys in trouble.” She sent Leann away. “Go live with my sister. See if she can teach you to keep your hands to yourself.”
    The night before she left, her cousin whispered at her door, “Wanna suck me off one more time?” Leann didn’t move. She wasn’t sure what she should do. She thought she should go to the door. He was always nice to her afterwards. She could hear him breathing. Then he kicked the door and said “Bitch.” Leann gripped the edge of her bed and held her breath. She felt guilty. Maybe she should have opened the door. Whenever he got angry, she felt like should have done something different.
    When her aunt picked her up at the bus station in Fredericksburg, she didn’t ask what happened. She never pried. She let Leann be. After a month or so, Leann relaxed enough to take her first big breath of air. Then a second and a third.
    Now it’s time for the prom and she is almost breathing like normal again.
    When Marshall pulls up in front of Leann’s house, he has to remind himself this is pretend. It isn’t really a date. He can hardly believe that yesterday he convinced all of them that picking up their date was part of the ritual, even for pretend dates.
    “How about we meet Mary Louise and Robert outside the dance in the parking lot and walk in together,” he’d said to Leann.
    Leann didn’t like the idea. “This sounds more and more like a real prom date. I think we should all go together.”
    Marshall shrugged. “Okay. Then I want to be the driver.”
    “No way,” said Robert. “I want my own ride.”
    “I get carsick if I ride in the back,” Mary Louise added.
    “Okay, I get it,” said Leann. “No one wants to be the cute couple in the back seat.”
    Marshall wouldn’t have minded playing the part of the cute couple, but driving all together would have made coming out to the pull-out at the end of the night more difficult.
    Walking up to Leann’s door, Marshall composes himself. As soon as he knocks, an older woman answers. She has Leann’s long dark hair but it’s streaked with gray.
    “My