Read Online Imaginary Men by Enid Shomer - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Enid Shomer
Tags: Fiction, General, Literary Criticism, Anthologies (Multiple Authors), Literary Collections, test
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to Riva before. When she was twelve, she had dreamed about Tab Hunter after she saw him in a movie. She had a terrible crush on him after that. And in eighth grade she'd had a love dream about Eliot Finkelstein that rendered her mute for weeks in his presence. After her dream about Paul, she had talked to him in school the next day. What had been the pretext? She had sold him a ticket for the
Page 50
Latin Club's raffle, and then he had walked her to the cafeteria and asked her for a date.
"Riva! Riva diva!" Barry called out. "I'm leaving here in exactly five minutes." Barry was her twenty-one-year-old brother. He dropped her off at school every morning on the way to work.
Riva lunged from between the covers and reached for the day's clothes draped across a chair, a cerise wool skirt and matching sweater. "Be right down," she called back.
Paul was absent that day from school. During lunch she called his house. She had to be careful about phoning there. His father did not like Paul to receive calls from girls. His mother was more understanding. His mother, Riva thought with a start, would not know how to push a rat away that was gnawing on her face.
"Why aren't you here?" Riva asked.
"He's left again. She's very upset."
"He left even though you gave him the money?"
"Yeah. Look," Paul whispered, "I can't talk now."
"Call me tonight. I love you."
"Tonight."
<><><><><><><><><><><><>
That night, after she and Paul talked, Riva wrote in her diary. She made a list of ways she could help him raise the money for San Antonio. She wrote down everything she could think of, as fast as she could write:
1. Get the money somehow and make him let me lend it to him .
2. Give the money to the school (after I get it) and have them give it to him, compliments of "anonymous."
3. Give the money to his mother to give him. Swear her to secrecy .
4. TALK TO POP GOLDRING!!!
She had been keeping a diary for nearly three years. When she entered high school, her mother had bought her a "Chums" desk seta matching blotter, pencil holder, scrapbook, and five-year diary in pink leather. Carefree teenagers resembling the "Archie" cartoon
Page 51
characters strolled along each piece, their books slung casually across their hips. The diary had lasted a little more than a year. Then Riva spilled over into a serious-looking lined notebook with a black-and-white marbleized cardboard cover. She kept the diary and the notebook hidden in her closet at the bottom of a tall Kotex box, along with the novel she had written in eighth grade. "Once Only" was the story of a fifteen-year-old girl who fell in love with an alien from another galaxy. It was based loosely on her crush for Eliot Finkelstein.
Riva had devised a code for her diaries. She stashed the code-key in the pages of an old Honey Bunch mystery. The blood the first two days this month was the color of crushed rubies. . . . . I like the sickening feeling I get before my period comeslike when you eat too much chocolate and the stomachache reminds you of all that pleasure. Only this reminds me that I can bring a new human being into the world any time I want! She would have died if anybody else read these passages. Especially Barry. Even though he was grown-up, she still remembered the days when he unscrewed the heads of her dolls, put raw oysters in her bed, and shot food at her across restaurant tables. Barry had grown into his lanky body and turned out to be handsome, much to Riva's surprise. Now he was engaged to Olivia Wykowski, a beautiful redhead two years older than he. Riva's family believed in early marriage. Her sister, Fran, had married at eighteen and so had her cousin Melissa. Whenever Riva saw distant relatives, they talked about living to dance at her wedding.
Olivia had the look of an airline stewardessa permanent smile and perfect makeup, her hair sprayed into a stiff beehive. Riva couldn't stand her. Her diary was full of invective for PV (Olivia's code name, short for Professional
Page 50
Latin Club's raffle, and then he had walked her to the cafeteria and asked her for a date.
"Riva! Riva diva!" Barry called out. "I'm leaving here in exactly five minutes." Barry was her twenty-one-year-old brother. He dropped her off at school every morning on the way to work.
Riva lunged from between the covers and reached for the day's clothes draped across a chair, a cerise wool skirt and matching sweater. "Be right down," she called back.
Paul was absent that day from school. During lunch she called his house. She had to be careful about phoning there. His father did not like Paul to receive calls from girls. His mother was more understanding. His mother, Riva thought with a start, would not know how to push a rat away that was gnawing on her face.
"Why aren't you here?" Riva asked.
"He's left again. She's very upset."
"He left even though you gave him the money?"
"Yeah. Look," Paul whispered, "I can't talk now."
"Call me tonight. I love you."
"Tonight."
<><><><><><><><><><><><>
That night, after she and Paul talked, Riva wrote in her diary. She made a list of ways she could help him raise the money for San Antonio. She wrote down everything she could think of, as fast as she could write:
1. Get the money somehow and make him let me lend it to him .
2. Give the money to the school (after I get it) and have them give it to him, compliments of "anonymous."
3. Give the money to his mother to give him. Swear her to secrecy .
4. TALK TO POP GOLDRING!!!
She had been keeping a diary for nearly three years. When she entered high school, her mother had bought her a "Chums" desk seta matching blotter, pencil holder, scrapbook, and five-year diary in pink leather. Carefree teenagers resembling the "Archie" cartoon
Page 51
characters strolled along each piece, their books slung casually across their hips. The diary had lasted a little more than a year. Then Riva spilled over into a serious-looking lined notebook with a black-and-white marbleized cardboard cover. She kept the diary and the notebook hidden in her closet at the bottom of a tall Kotex box, along with the novel she had written in eighth grade. "Once Only" was the story of a fifteen-year-old girl who fell in love with an alien from another galaxy. It was based loosely on her crush for Eliot Finkelstein.
Riva had devised a code for her diaries. She stashed the code-key in the pages of an old Honey Bunch mystery. The blood the first two days this month was the color of crushed rubies. . . . . I like the sickening feeling I get before my period comeslike when you eat too much chocolate and the stomachache reminds you of all that pleasure. Only this reminds me that I can bring a new human being into the world any time I want! She would have died if anybody else read these passages. Especially Barry. Even though he was grown-up, she still remembered the days when he unscrewed the heads of her dolls, put raw oysters in her bed, and shot food at her across restaurant tables. Barry had grown into his lanky body and turned out to be handsome, much to Riva's surprise. Now he was engaged to Olivia Wykowski, a beautiful redhead two years older than he. Riva's family believed in early marriage. Her sister, Fran, had married at eighteen and so had her cousin Melissa. Whenever Riva saw distant relatives, they talked about living to dance at her wedding.
Olivia had the look of an airline stewardessa permanent smile and perfect makeup, her hair sprayed into a stiff beehive. Riva couldn't stand her. Her diary was full of invective for PV (Olivia's code name, short for Professional
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