Little Women and Me - By Lauren Baratz-Logsted Page 0,15
hoped he hadn’t already made a play for Anne!
“That same day Jo spoke to him over the fence,” Amy went on, “I guess you could say I was spying on them … but only for a minute!”
“Amy!” Beth was shocked. Then, with a voice dripping with wistful curiosity: “What did he look like?”
“Oh, he was very fine.” Amy, all amped up to know something we didn’t, was full of self-confidence and excitement now. “He had big black eyes, curly black hair, brown skin like he’d been riding his horse in the sun, a longish nose, nice teeth, curiously small hands and feet. Oh, and he was easily as tall as Jo and seemed awfully polite and jolly.”
“That must’ve been some long minute for you to have seen so much,” I said. Then: “Wait a second. Did you say ‘small hands and feet’? Combine that with some of his other features, and your description could fit Jo’s rat, Scrabble!”
“Oh no,” Amy insisted as her yellow curls shook in vehemence. “He was very fine indeed. I only mentioned the small hands and feet because they impressed me as being so much more refined than, you know, the usual galumphing hands and feet you see on other boys.”
I sniffed, a rather Jo-like sniff. Amy suddenly made it sound as though she knew a lot about boys. Still …
“So, the Laurence boy is hot, then?” I wanted to know.
“Oh no,” Amy said, looking puzzled. “I am most certain that when I saw him he did not have a fever.”
“I wonder what they are doing at the dance now?” Beth cradled her cheek in her palm, a dreamy expression on her face. “I would bet anything that the Gardiners have the finest piano—”
“Yes,” Amy cut her sister off, “but there are six girls in that family, including Sallie, so you’d hardly ever get a chance to play.”
“Well, there are five girls in this house,” I said, “and Beth gets to play that wretched piano all the time, so I don’t see how much difference one more sister could make.”
Beth looked on the verge of tears.
“Honestly, Emily,” Amy said, “sometimes I think you’re as bad as Jo.”
As bad as …?
My hands went straight to my hips.
“Wait a second here,” I half shouted. “What did I do?”
Amy nodded smugly as she gave me the once-over from head to toe. “Well, that for one.” She imitated the way I was standing. “And you hurt Beth’s feelings, even if you didn’t mean to. You know how she loves her music.”
“I’m sorry, Beth.” I could feel my cheeks redden. “I never meant to say your piano is … wretched.” (Except it was.) “It’s a … lovely piano and you play it … splendidly.” (Well, as well as anyone could play a wretched piano.) “Certainly you play it better than I could.” (This was no lie. I couldn’t play at all.)
“I guess,” I went on, “I was just still feeling nasty about not getting to go to the party.”
Just like Jo made me feel annoyed, Beth could make me feel ashamed of myself. Of course, of all the girls, Beth also had the greatest capacity for making me feel better after one of my screwups.
“Oh, I know exactly what you mean,” Beth said, smiling now. “I don’t think there is anything more confusing in this life than life.”
“Well, I haven’t figured it out yet,” Amy said with a very Jo-like snort of her own. “Life—it’s just one great big muddle to me.” Then she laughed. “Except for boys.”
“Boys, boys, boys!” I laughed back, tickling her. “Is that all you ever think about, Amy March?”
And then we were all laughing and tickling.
When we had had enough and were back again before the fire …
“I wonder what they’re doing,” I said aloud, “right this minute?”
“I’ll bet,” Amy said, her face lighting up, “that the boys will be talking about skating, since it is winter, and Jo will want to join in the conversation.”
“But Meg will lift her eyebrows at Jo before she can,” Beth said with a sigh. It was impossible to picture Beth approaching a group of guys about anything, let alone something like skating, but maybe she sighed at the idea of Jo’s wings being clipped. Beth may not have had much boldness in her, but it was obvious how much she admired that quality in Jo.
“Jo will not be able to dance because of the burn at the back of her dress,” Amy reminded us.