Central Park Showdown Read online

  ‘Don’t worry, Evie. Joanna will come around; give it time.’

  ‘Ok,’ I said.

  After all, I thought, Joanna has a very big heart. I decided to do as Scott suggested and give the Big Freeze plenty of time to thaw. I had lots of other distractions like school and Lorcan. And I certainly wasn’t going to waste energy thinking about that Michael guy. Scott’s lawyer, Rob, would take care of that and make him go away. Michael was nothing but a … nothing.

  Chapter 8

  So, I gave it time, lots and lots of time, four and a half months to be exact. It’s now the third week of February, two weeks after my thirteenth birthday. I thought I’d feel different being a teenager and adults would treat me differently. But I feel like I always have. I haven’t noticed the slightest difference between being twelve and thirteen. None at all. Disappointing. But Deirdre and Cate, my best friends back in Dublin, remembered my birthday and sent me lovely presents. So did my godmother, Janet. It was Scott who gave me the most AMAZING present, my very own glossy brown, leather saddle for Luna.

  My present from Greg is currently pooping in my closet. His name is Persie (short for Personality Disorder). Greg’s dad named him. I haven’t seen any evidence of a personality disorder … or a personality. Kylie says Persie is a problem present. Most New Yorkers regard pigeons as rats with wings. I’m not particularly fond of them myself. Greg’s doorman, Jorges (the ‘J’ sounds like an ‘H’), gave Persie to Greg as a gift. Since Greg’s Dad can’t stand pigeons, Greg re-gifted Persie to me for my birthday. Obviously, I didn’t go overboard in thanking him.

  Persie isn’t a clean white pigeon that you might hope to pass off as a large dove. He looks filthy no matter how many baths we give him in the kitchen sink and a whitish sludge drips out of his little backside almost all the time, even when he is eating. I have yet to discover any redeeming qualities. I can’t imagine our flamboyantly-dressed Brazilian housekeeper, Eurdes, welcoming Persie with open arms. Her idea of an appropriate welcome would probably involve a sweeping brush and a dustpan. Luckily, there have been so many changes around here in the last few months that Persie has slid past Eurdes’s radar undetected so far.

  The most unwelcome change has got to be Jeffrey, Joanna’s intense new boyfriend with poor posture. Jeffrey’s a professional activist. He probably got the stooped shoulders from hoisting heavy placards in thousands of demonstrations. When I first met him, I asked if he was an eco-warrior, but he said that he embraces any cause that speaks to him. He takes himself very seriously. At least someone does.

  Kylie thinks that Joanna only acquired a boyfriend to try to make Scott jealous. Obviously, Kylie hasn’t met Jeffrey yet.

  I’m pleased that the tension between Scott and Joanna has eased off over the last few months. They were almost back to being friends until Holly came along, but that’s not Holly’s fault. You see, a few weeks ago, Karen announced that she had decided to go back to school part-time to study to become a veterinary nurse. We were all thrilled for her, but we needed to find someone to cover for her on Tuesdays and Thursdays when she’s at school. Joanna said she’d take care of it and put an advertisement for a new part-time receptionist in New York Dog Magazine. The very next day, a freezing cold Saturday, Holly turned up at the clinic with a large dog she had recently adopted, a Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog named Buddy. He doesn’t look anything like a leopard except he has black spots. Scott’s always appreciates people who adopt dogs who need a home and he was in a jovial super-friendly mood during the check-up. Scott said,

  ‘Buddy. Holly! Good one!’ but Holly wrinkled her nose in confusion.

  Scott said, ‘Like the singer, with the square glasses … the Buddy Holly, Buddy Holly and the Crickets … he died in a plane crash,’ but Holly still looked confused so Scott said he felt old and he let it drop.

  As Scott gave Buddy a check-up, Holly pretty much told us her life story. She’s twenty-two years old and grew up in a small town called Dudley in Georgia. There’s only one stop sign in the town and no Starbucks. I could listen to Holly talk forever. If candy floss could speak, it would sound like her. (They call it cotton candy here. Greg thinks the name candy floss is dumb – who would want to eat candy dental floss – but Kylie thinks candy floss is a fantastic name because it reminds you to floss after eating it. It wouldn’t remind me; I’ve never flossed in my life).

  Holly told us that she moved to New York on the second day in January (she meant to come on New Year’s Day, but she missed the bus) to take acting and singing classes because she wants to be a star on Broadway. She found a job as a coat-check girl in a nightclub called Red in Nolita but they tried to make her dye her hair red (which she didn’t think would suit her skin tone at all) so she quit. She found a waitressing job in a Peruvian restaurant in Soho, which specializes in serving seventeen different kinds of ceviche. Holly said that we could feel real safe eating there any time because nobody spits or pees in the food – even if it is sent back.

  ‘Good to know,’ said Scott, ‘in the unlikely event I am ever tempted to dine out again.’

  Holly started to sniffle. Scott looked alarmed.

  ‘I was only kidding!’ he said.

  ‘Oh, I know,’ said Holly, searching in her pockets for a non-existent tissue, ‘it’s not that. I’m upset because I got fired from the restaurant job.’

  She explained that the previous night, her ex-boyfriend, a former drug dealer, who has just been released from prison in Alabama, tracked her down to New York and turned up at the Peruvian restaurant and pulled a knife on her boss in a fit of jealousy. He thought (wrongly) that Holly was dating the boss.

  Holly’s boss called the police and the ex-boyfriend ran off. After the police left, the boss fired Holly as if it was her fault that her crazy knife-wielding ex showed up. So, here she was, jobless and with virtually no friends in New York. Telling the story was traumatic for her. She burst into hysterical tears at the end.

  Scott hired her as the new part-time replacement on the spot, even though I was waving my arms frantically at him and mouthing ‘noooooooooo’ behind Holly’s back. It’s not that I didn’t like Holly, but it wouldn’t take a genius to realise that Joanna wasn’t going to be impressed.

  After Holly left, greatly cheered up by having a new job, Scott turned to me and said that telling Joanna was going to be a ‘little tricky.’

  I looked at him.

  ‘Joanna’s much less likely to have a total flip-out if you’re around, so maybe we can tell her together,’ he said.

  ‘What?’ I said, ‘you want to use me, your thirteen-year-old niece as some sort of human shield?’

  ‘I wouldn’t express it quite like that but basically, yes,’ said Scott.

  ‘No, I won’t do it,’ I said.

  ‘I’ll give you an extra hour a day on the iPad for two weeks,’ he offered.

  ‘Make it a month and you have yourself a deal,’ I answered.

  Done,’ he said.

  Joanna’s reaction was even worse than I expected. She remained ominously calm, only slightly raising her eyebrows when Scott admitted that Holly had no experience with working with animals or as a receptionist. As Scott tried to explain how he had hired a new employee without so much as consulting her, Joanna kept saying, ‘I see,’ in a tone that unmistakably indicated that what she meant was, ‘I see that you’re a total idiot.’

  I’m not going to gloss over things. It definitely was a pretty major setback in the road of repairing their relationship. But things have settled down a bit particularly since Holly has turned out to be a very popular receptionist, much adored by many of the patients and their owners – when she’s here that is. She has to travel back and forth from her new apartment in Astoria, in Queens, and she’s often late.

  Holly is quite short and endearingly chubby with a heart-shaped face and big blue eyes. Her hair is the same colour as the original classic blonde Barbie and it is very big and wavy like the pageant contestants on TV. She is extremely fon
d of wearing waist-length fake fur jackets in a variety of very bright and unusual colours like lilac and hot pink and caterpillar green. They aren’t very practical for the cold weather because they are sleeveless. Greg is Holly’s biggest fan. He always wants to hang out here on Tuesdays and Thursdays now, even when I am not around! He says it’s for research because he’s writing a screenplay and the main character is based on Holly. He won’t let Kylie or me read any of his screenplay yet. Kylie is annoyed with him because she wants to be the star in his film but he says he can’t have an Asian play the Holly character, which Kylie says is discrimination of the worst kind. I didn’t like to ask her what is the best kind of discrimination. I have some sympathy for Greg. I can’t imagine Holly being played by Kylie in a movie. But I have not been brave (or stupid) enough to say this to Kylie. I just make empathy noises like ‘mmmm’ when she complains about Greg’s attitude.

  Even Ben has fallen for Holly’s charm. He follows her around the clinic with the exact same look on his face as Greg has – all sloppy, goofy adoration with his tongue hanging out. (It’s a better look on Ben). When Holly is working, she always brings Buddy with her. Ben’s not happy about that at all. He’s used to being the number one dog around here and he must be exhausted from ensuring that Buddy doesn’t sneak anything belonging to him. Ben’s going to collapse soon. No dog could keep up this kind of vigilance. Greg thinks Ben needs to go to a yoga for dogs class they are holding over on East 64th Street so he can learn to relax. When I raised this suggestion with Joanna, she snorted very loudly. She’s been snorting so much lately, I’m a little worried she might be risking damaging the membranes in her nostrils.

  Talking of nostrils, I’m certain that Mrs Davidson’s nostrils are distorted. She is always sticking her finger in them. She doesn’t seem to care if people are looking or not. She doesn’t seem to care much about anything. She certainly doesn’t care about pretending to teach us. I thought that school in New York was going to be different to Ireland; edgier, more glamorous, more exciting, more everything. But it is basically the EXACT same. There are some brilliant teachers … and then there are the Davidson types and worse. The kids are the same too, some great, some not so great. Lorcan is definitely on the great side. He always has something interesting to say. He hangs out all the time with Kylie and Greg and me. I’m lucky that they like him and welcomed into our gang without any bother. Camille, however, is a pain in the butt. She is always finding ways to put me down. I read somewhere that nobody can put you down without your consent. That’s the kind of thing that sounds deep and meaningful but is not helpful at all. I’m definitely not giving Camille permission to do anything. She does what she likes and she’s popular, so kids listen to her. She’s always making up petty little lies about me. It’s not like she consults me in advance, so that I can refuse permission! I never find out about the lies until after she’s spread them. I ignore her as much as I can, which isn’t easy because she’s always hanging around Lorcan and inviting him to cool places. Sometimes he says yes.

  Chapter 9

  I took part in my first horse riding competition today. It didn’t go anything like planned except for my hair, which was perfect, thanks to Kylie’s mom, Rachel, who knows how to do Dutch braids. Tamara, Finn’s depressingly-sweet girlfriend took part as well, but in a much higher class than me. Her hair was also perfect, but it always is, so it couldn’t have been much of a treat for her. Scott couldn’t come because he had an emergency, a chipmunk with a broken jaw. But a big bunch came along to support Tamara and me: Kylie, Greg, Finn, Lorcan, Akono and Tamara’s slimy twin brother Coltan. When Camille found out that Lorcan was coming, she invited herself along because it has been patently obvious for some time now that she fancies him. He can’t stand her. Well, that’s what he told me. But I’ve noticed that it doesn’t stop him from saying yes when her daddy gives her cool concert tickets.

  The gymkhana took place on Long Island (which, everyone just calls the island, and they always say out on the island). We had to go in two cars. Finn wasn’t in my car and I was grateful for that because things have a habit of going wrong when he’s around. Coltan nearly knocked me down in his haste to get into the same car as Finn. I’ve never seen him move with so much speed before. Usually he’s too cool to be anything other than languid. He even stands like he’s leaning against a wall.

  Akono rode in the car that I was in even though he’s Finn’s best friend, not Coltan. Akono sat beside Kylie and teased her a lot. She was so able to throw it back at him. I was too nervous about the competition to join in the conversation. My legs shook a little the whole ride, but nobody noticed or at least they were kind enough to pretend not to notice. Danielle, my instructor, and some of the grooms had brought the horses, including Luna, much earlier in the morning. As soon as we arrived, I made straight for Luna’s stall and gave her half a bag of baby carrots and whispered to her in soothing nonsense language that only she and I understand. After I had finished grooming her and tacking her up and after a final check that the girth was tight enough and the stirrups the right length, I went into the corner of the ring laid with grainy grey sand, for Danielle’s inspection. I passed except she told me to fix my shirt because it was sticking out at the back. My class was first, and I was the oldest in the class, so it was a little embarrassing to be competing with other kids who were mainly eight and nine year olds. But I thought it would be a lot more embarrassing to be beaten by one of them.

  Finally, it was my turn to ride around the ring over the little jumps. As soon as I mounted Luna, my nerves disappeared and I felt as excited as if we were about to take part in the Olympics. I wondered if I would be on the Irish or the US Olympic Equestrian team; I could visualise myself staring straight ahead on the winners’ podium as the Irish and the US flags were lowered and they played both national anthems as a single tear coursed down my cheek. Danielle called out; ‘Evie, focus!’ and that snapped me back to real time.

  It was a chilly morning and Luna’s white breath rose in the air in front of me, mingling with my own exhaled breath. The ground was a little hard and Luna’s hooves made a satisfying solid thumpety-thump sound as we cleared the jumps. At the very last jump, as we sailed over, the saddle slipped violently to the left. I tried to grab Luna’s mane but shot clear over her head and landed on the ground with such force that I thought every bone in my body had broken into a million pieces. I couldn’t breathe. So many people crowded around me, sounding very far away and far too close at the same time and someone kept asking me questions, like, ‘What’s your name?’ and ‘Can you move your head?’ and at the same time, someone else was saying, ‘Don’t try to speak,’ ‘Don’t move your head.’

  ‘I’m suffocating,’ I gasped.

  ‘Give her some space,’ someone said.

  Then I felt someone pick me up and carry me out of the ring. I said ‘hi’ and Finn said ‘hi, you’ back.

  ‘Put me down,’ I said, and tried to put some force into my voice but he ignored me, which I didn’t actually mind because it felt very special to be carried by Finn. Although, I have to say that it wasn’t like the movies at all. Finn carried me like I was part of his hockey equipment. A thick strand of my hair had loosened from my braids and got in his mouth and he had to spit it out. The nicest part was how very close his face was to mine. I felt a little like Bella in the Twilight books always getting rescued by Edward except he fell in love with her because of her smell and I’d definitely prefer if someone liked me for some other qualities. Anyway, I didn’t smell so good. I think I might have landed in some horse poop.

  Finn put me down very gently on a bench right outside under an archway. Danielle came rushing out followed by the whole gang. She yelled at Finn, ‘You shouldn’t have moved her, that was dangerous,’

  I said, ‘I’m fine thanks to him. I couldn’t breathe in there.’

  Danielle said she had to call Scott. I begged her not to but she said she had to. Scott asked to speak to me and said, ‘Hang in t
here Black Beauty,’ and he told me that the chipmunk was going to be fine, probably better than me and that he was already on his way out to get me. I felt bad I had caused so much trouble.

  Danielle said that I had learned a very important lesson about tightening the girth on my saddle.

  ‘But I did tighten it,’ I protested.

  ‘It wouldn’t have loosened to that extent if you had done it properly,’ she replied.

  ‘But I did,’ I said again and she sighed and said,

  ‘Evie, I know you’re not lying, I know you believe what you are saying but you slip off sometimes into your own daydream world and you think you’ve done something but really you were just, you know, out there, losing time.’

  The injustice rankled.

  ‘I know I drift off sometimes, but I DID tighten the girth properly,’ I muttered.

  ‘We’ll talk about it again another time, when you have recovered from the shock,’ Danielle said.

  ‘If Evie says she tightened the girth, then she did it,’ said Finn in his low voice.

  That surprised me. Whenever I think I’ve started to understand Finn, he says something that makes me realise I don’t have a clue.

  From inside the arena came the sound of one of the organizers announcing over the loudspeaker that the ‘little girl’ who had taken a fall was ok and that the competition was about to resume. So much for being thirteen.

  ‘I have to go back in and watch Tamara,’ Finn said to me, ‘you’re ok?’

  I nodded. ‘Thanks,’ I said.

  He smiled his lopsided half-smile at me and tucked some of the loose strands of my hair behind my left ear before strolling off. I felt a little dizzy. Well, it had been a heck of a fall.

  When I felt steady on my legs again, Greg, Kylie and Lorcan came with me around to the stalls behind the arena to check on Luna and give her some hay. She was fine and looked very pleased to see me. Someone had hung my saddle and my tack over her stall door. I fingered the long new brown girth.