Come a Stranger (30 page)

“What's funny?”

“You are. I am. How old is Clarissa?” She hoped to distract him.

“Thirteen, which is . . . a bad age. I think. Is there something wrong with the neighborhood?”

“Come on back to my house, we've got lemonade, if you're not in a hurry?”

“I'm in no hurry to get back to the hotel,” his voice said.

He was another one of those exact ones, Mina thought. She walked along the three more blocks to their house and up into the small living room. “I've got to be sure my brother's all right. Both my parents are out,” she explained, trying not to just stare at him.

He nodded, his smile showing her he understood about little brothers and sisters. Mina kept herself from running up the stairs, walking up normally even though she was in a hurry to get herself hidden for a minute, to get her feelings covered up and kept private. Laughing at herself, she watched Louis sleep for a while, before she took off her shoes and danced on back down the stairs to join Dexter.

They sat on the screened porch, with the candles lit. “It's an okay neighborhood,” she said. “Although, there
are
a couple of white families who've moved in.”

“I'm not prejudiced.” He smiled. He had a broad straight nose and a strong jawline. He kept smiling at her and she kept smiling back. “The school I go to in Baltimore, the University School, it's mostly whites.”

Mina nodded her head. She knew how that was. His skin was the color of dark chocolate, semi-sweet.

“My dad teaches with Professor Greene, but he's in the Physics Department. Professor Greene's how we heard about Crisfield. Dad says he won't mind the commute if it's a good place for us kids. But I'm not really a friend of Jeff's.”

“Oh?” Mina wondered what that meant, why he said that.

“I don't know him. I'd like to be, I like what I do know about him, but—I always move carefully with whites, because I always have the feeling I'm not sure I can trust them. Have you known Dicey long?”

“Long enough. So I guess you
are
prejudiced.”

“I try not to be. I guess I'm just your standard, wishy-washy liberal type. Your father's a minister, Jeff said.”

Why had he skipped to that? Mina wondered, as she nodded her head.

“I'm an atheist,” Dexter told her. “Do you mind?”

“It's up to God to mind about that,” Mina said. “It's none of my business.”

He found this funny too. “I play lacrosse. What about you?”

“Tennis. I was on junior varsity this year.” It was like they were exchanging data about one another.

“And I like classical music. I even play some.”

“The clarinet,” Mina guessed, because of the sound of his voice, the sounds of his voice.

“No, the flute. Why did you say clarinet? Do I look like a clarinetist or something? Do you like that kind of looks? Do you play?” He certainly asked a lot of questions and didn't give her any time to answer most of them.

Mina didn't mind. She could keep up with him. “I sing,” she said. “In the choir.”

“That's all right then. I'm probably going to medical school, which takes a long time.”

“Why are you telling me all this?” Mina finally demanded.

“Because I want you to know me. Because I intend to see you again,” Dexter said. “If it's all right with you. If we do move down here, which you can believe me I'll be arguing for with my not inconsiderable skill in debate.”

“Modest, aren't you,” Mina teased. Oh yes, she thought, it was all right with her. All right and then some.

“No,” he answered, not treating it as a joke. His eyes looked serious and amused and interested and hopeful all at once. “I try to keep a clear reading on myself.”

“I know what you mean,” Mina said. She did like him, even if he wasn't what anybody'd call a relaxing or easy person. He had an unmanageable amount of energy, that was her guess.

“So, tell me about yourself; where are you going?”

“You mean to college?”

“Of course. Cornell has a good undergraduate premed course, and a good liberal arts school too. Or Duke.”

“I see,” Mina said. “We're going to the same school.”

“You wait,” he teased her. “You'll make a good doctor's wife.”

“Yeah, but will you make a good lawyer's husband?” she asked him. This was just a game, some strange form of flirtation.

“Are you going to go to law school?”

“I might. I've been thinking about it. I might do about anything,” Mina said, which was true. She knew he was feeling about her just as she was feeling about him, like they'd been born good friends, even if they'd just now met up with one another.

Dexter didn't stay long, and he didn't try to kiss her or anything, although he did put a hand on her shoulder, just briefly touching her. Mina almost wished he would kiss her, because she
thought she wanted to kiss him with her eyes open, seeing who he was. But it was as if they had a long time before them and no need to hurry through it. Mina stood on her front porch and watched him walk back toward town. About half a block away, he started just running. She knew why he did that, she thought.

The lights were on in Miz Hunter's old house, where they were having a meeting about finances. The rest of the street was dark, and the branches of the trees were rustling in the wind. Mina stood on the front porch until she couldn't stand still any longer.

Mina leaped down off the porch into the dark yard. There she danced around in circles, as if she was on a stage, jetés and pirouettes. She didn't mind if anybody saw her, not that she wanted anybody to. She just wanted to dance, just for a few minutes, because sometimes there was nothing but dancing to really say what you felt. Even if someone had told you years ago that you couldn't dance, and you'd been silly enough to believe them, even if they were right.

CYNTHIA VOIGT
won the Newbery Medal for Dicey's Song and a Newbery Honor for A Solitary Blue, both part of the beloved Tillerman Cycle. She is also the author of many other celebrated books for middle-grade and teen readers, including the Bad Girls series; Izzy, Willy-Nilly; and Jackaroo. She was awarded the Margaret A. Edwards Award in 1995 for her work in literature, and the Katahdin Award in 2003. She lives in Maine. You can visit her at
cynthiavoigt.com
.

Books by Cynthia Voigt

THE BAD GIRLS SERIES

Bad Girls

Bad, Badder, Baddest

It's Not Easy Being Bad

Bad Girls in Love

Bad Girls, Bad Girls, Whatcha Gonna Do?

THE TILLERMAN SERIES

Homecoming

Dicey's Song

A Solitary Blue

The Runner

Come a Stranger

Sons from Afar

Seventeen Against the Dealer

THE KINGDOM SERIES

Jackaroo

On Fortune's Wheel

The Wings of a Falcon

Elske

OTHER BOOKS

Building Blocks

The Callender Papers

David and Jonathan

Izzy, Willy-Nilly

Orfe

Tell Me if the Lovers Are Losers

Tree by Leaf

The Vandemark Mummy

When She Hollers

ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1986 by Cynthia Voigt

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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Also available in an Atheneum Books for Young Readers hardcover edition

Book design by Debra Sfetsios-Conover

The text for this book is set in Baskerville.

First Atheneum Books for Young Readers paperback edition July 2012

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Voigt, Cynthia.

Come a stranger.

Summary: Mina's deep love for a grown-up minister drives her to seek a way to give him an unforgettable remembrance, restoration of his faith.

ISBN 978-0-689-31289-2

[1. Clergy—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.V874Co 1986

[Fic] 86-3610

ISBN 978-1-4424-5063-9 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-4424-2882-9 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-44248-917-2 (eBook)