“I mean, what makes you think she would be going out this time of the day, anyway? Do you know something about her schedule or something? Did you find out something you never told me?”
I shook my head. What was I going to say? I had no reason for us to be there at that particular time except for the fact that it was when I could find a way to do it, a way to fool my father.
“You’re right,” she said after another few seconds. “This is dumb. We should come here at night sometime or maybe just before she would go out to dinner or something, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know. I guess this is silly. She could walk right by us without me knowing.”
“You don’t even have a relatively recent picture of her?”
“Nothing after she was fifteen or sixteen. Pictures of her when she was younger are buried in boxes in a closet.”
She nodded and thought. “Your sister must have done something awfully terrible to have her own parents throw her out when she was that young. What did she do, exactly? Did she get pregnant? Get caught stealing?”
“From what I know, it wasn’t just one thing but an accumulation of things.”
“Yeah,” Chastity said, but with disappointment. I knew she was hoping for some juicy story.
We both came to attention when a black limousine pulled up. The woman who stepped out was young and attractive, but she wasn’t Roxy.
“Not my sister,” I quickly said when Chastity looked at me.
“You sure? You just said you might not be able to recognize her.”
“I’m sure.”
We watched the woman enter the hotel. The doorman nearly fell over himself getting the door opened for her. Even from where we were standing, we could see how he lit up.
“Okay,” Chastity said after another ten minutes, during which I read some more of my social-studies unit. “This is very stupid. Let’s go.”
I had expected her to say that eventually, but not this quickly. The novelty of what we were doing was rapidly losing its hold on her attention, and I suspected that she had not stopped thinking about those napoleons and tarts we’d passed in the bakery window.
There was no weather threat to drive us away, either. The day itself had actually grown warmer as the afternoon grew older. I had heard there was an unusual warm front on the way. More people were out on the streets. Some of the men had taken off their jackets and walked with them folded over their arms. Women wore light clothing, many with no jackets and definitely no sweaters. Most of the small restaurants and cafés had their windows open. Those that could had tables and chairs out on the sidewalk.
“Another fifteen minutes, maybe,” I said.
“You want to stay longer?”
“I don’t know. I guess we can wait a little longer, since we came here anyway.”
Her face brightened with an idea. “Why can’t you just go in there and ask for her?”
“Are you nuts?”
“She won’t tell your father you were here, right? From what you’ve said, they haven’t spoken for years, so what’s the difference? C’mon. We’re wasting time, and at least we’ll know if she’s here now or not.”
“No, I can’t do that, Chastity.”
“Why not?”
“I guess we’ll just leave,” I said. I closed my book and put it into my book bag.
“What a drag this was,” she muttered. “I can’t believe how you wasted our time.”
Just as we started away, however, I saw Roxy come out of the hotel. I didn’t speak, but Chastity realized I had stopped short, and when she looked at me, she saw the expression on my face. She gazed at Roxy, too.
“Her?”
“Yes,” I said, my heart thumping. Would she see me? She didn’t even look our way. She turned and started down the avenue. She wore a dark blue beret and had her shoulder-length hair pinned on the sides but falling straight down the back of her neck. She was dressed in an elegant dark blue designer suit, the skirt about mid-calf and tight at her hips.