Fancy Pants

Chapter 33

Dallie's arms shot up in the air, one fist holding his putter aloft like a medieval standard of victory. Skeet was crying like a baby, so overcome with joy that he couldn't move. As a result, the first person who reached Dallie was Jack Nicklaus.

"Great game, Dallie," Nicklaus said, putting his arm over Dallie's shoulders. "You're a real champion."

Then Skeet was hugging him and pounding him on the back, and Dallie was hugging back, except his

eyes were moving the whole time, searching the crowd until he found what he was looking for.

Holly Grace broke through first; then Francesca, with Teddy in tow. Holly Grace rushed toward Dallie

on her long-stemmed legs-legs that had first won fame as they ran the bases at Wynette High, legs that had been American-designed for both speed and beauty. Holly Grace ran toward the man she had loved just about all her life, and then she stopped cold as she saw those blue eyes of his slip right past her and come to rest on Francesca. A spasm of pain went through her chest, a moment of heartbreak, and then the pain eased as she felt herself let him go.

Teddy nudged up next to her, not quite ready to join in such extravagant emotion. Holly Grace slipped

her arm around his shoulders, and they both watched as Dallie lifted Francesca high off the ground, hoisting her by the waist so that her head was higher than his. For a fraction of a moment, she hung there, tilting her face into the sun and laughing at the sky. And then she kissed him, brushing his face with her hair, battering his cheeks with the joyous swaying of her silly silver earrings. Her little red sandals slid from her toes, one of them balancing itself on top of his golf shoe.

Francesca turned away first, searching for Holly Grace in the crowd, holding out her arm. Dallie set Francesca down without letting go of her and held out his arm, too, so that Holly Grace could join them. He hugged them both-these two women who meant everything to him-one the love of his boyhood, the other the love of his manhood; one tall and strong, the other tiny and frivolous, with a marshmallow heart and a spine of tempered steel. Dallie's eyes sought out Teddy, but even in his moment of victory,

he saw the boy wasn't ready and he didn't press him. For now it was enough that they could exchange smiles.

A UPI photographer caught the picture that was to grace the front pages of the nation's sports sections

the next day-a jubilant Dallie Beaudine lifting Francesca Day up off the ground while Holly Grace Beaudine stood to one side.

Francesca had to be back in New York the next morning, and Dallie needed to perform all the duties that fell to the winner immediately following a major championship. As a result, their time together after the tournament was much too short and all too public. "I'll call you," he mouthed as he was swept away.

She smiled in answer, and then the press engulfed him.

Francesca and Holly Grace traveled back to New York together, but their flight was delayed and they didn't reach the city until late. It was past midnight by the time Francesca had tucked Teddy into bed, too late to expect a call from Dallie. The following day, she attended a briefing on the upcoming Statue of Liberty citizenship ceremony, a luncheon for women in broadcasting, and two meetings. She left a series of phone numbers with her secretary, making certain that she wasn't out of contact anywhere she went, but Dallie didn't call.

By the time she left the studio, she had worked herself into a froth of righteous indignation. She knew he was busy, but he certainly could have spared a few minutes to call her. Unless he'd changed his mind, a little voice whispered. Unless he'd had second thoughts. Unless she'd misread his feelings.

Consuelo and Teddy were gone when she got home. She set down her purse and briefcase, then slipped wearily out of her jacket and headed down the hallway to her bedroom, only to come to a halt in the doorway. A erystal and silver trophy nearly three feet long lay in the exact center of her bed.

"Dallie!" she screeched.

He came out of her bathroom, hair still wet from the shower, one of her fluffy pink towels wrapped around his hips. Grinning at her, he hoisted the trophy off the bed, walked over to her, and deposited

it at her feet. "Was this pretty much what you had in mind?" he asked.

"You wretch!" She threw herself into his arms, almost knocking over both him and the trophy in the process. "You darling, impossible, wonderful wretch!"

And then he was kissing her, and she was kissing him, and they were holding each other so tightly it seemed as if the life force from one body had poured into the other. "Damn, I love you," Dallie murmured. "My sweet little Fancy Pants, driving me half crazy, nagging me to death." He kissed her again, long and slow. "You're almost the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Almost?" she murmured against his lips. "What's the best?"

"Being born good-looking." And then he kissed her again.

Their lovemaking was full of laughter and tenderness, with nothing forbidden, nothing withheld. Afterward, they lay face to face, their naked bodies pressed together so they could whisper secrets to each other.

"I thought I was going to die," he told her, "when you said you wouldn't marry me."

"I thought I was going to die," she told him, "when you didn't say you loved me."

"I've been afraid so much. You sure were right about that."

"I had to have the best from you. I'm a miserable, selfish person."

"You're the best woman in the world."

He began telling her about Danny and Jaycee Beaudine and the feeling he'd gotten early in life that he wasn't going to amount to much. It was easier not to try too hard, he had discovered, than to have all

his shortcomings proven to him.

Francesca said that Jaycee Beaudine sounded like a perfectly odious person and Dallie should have had enough sense early on to realize that the opinions of unsavory people like that were completely unreliable.

Dallie laughed and then kissed her again before he asked when they were getting married. "I won you

fair and square," he said. "Now it's time for you to pay up."

They were dressed and sitting in the living room when Consuelo and Teddy returned several hours later. The two of them had spent a wonderful evening at Madison Square Garden, where Dallie had sent them earlier with a pair of ringside tickets to see the Greatest Show on Earth. Consuelo took in Francesca's and Dallie's flushed faces and wasn't fooled for a minute about what had been going on while she and Teddy were watching Gunther Gebel-Williams tame tigers. Teddy and Dallie eyed each other politely but warily. Teddy was still pretty sure Dallie was only pretending to like him because of his mom, while Dallie was trying to figure out how to undo all the damage he'd inflicted.

"Teddy, how about taking me to the top of the Empire State Building tomorrow after school?" he said. "I'd sure like to see it."

For a moment Dallie thought Teddy was going to refuse. Teddy picked up his circus program, rolled it into a tube, and blew through it with elaborate casualness. "I guess it'd be okay." He turned the tube into

a telescope and looked through it. "As long as I get back in time to watch The Goonies on cable TV."

The next day the two of them went up to the observation platform. Teddy stopped well back from the protective metal grating at the edge because heights made him dizzy. Dallie stopped right at his side because he wasn't all that crazy about heights himself. "It's not clear enough today to see the Statue of Liberty," Teddy said, pointing toward the harbor. "Sometimes you can see it over there."

"Did you want me to get you one of those rubber King Kongs they're selling at the concession stand?" Dallie asked.

Teddy liked King Kong a lot, but he shook his head. A guy wearing an Iowa State windbreaker recognized Dallie and asked for his autograph. Teddy was an old hand at waiting patiently while grown-ups gave autographs, but the interruption irritated Dallie. When the fan finally walked away,

Teddy looked at Dallie and said wisely, "It goes with the territory."

"How's that again?"

"When you're a famous person, people feel like they know you, even though they don't. You have a certain obligation."

"That sounds like your mama talking."

"We get interrupted a lot."

Dallie looked at him for a moment. "You know these interruptions are only going to get worse, don't you, Teddy? Your mama'll be upset if I don't win a few more golf tournaments for her, and whenever the three of us go out, there'll be that many more people looking at us."

"Are you and my mom getting married?"

Dallie nodded his head. "I love your mama a lot. She's about the best lady in the world." He took a deep breath, charging in just as Francesca would have. "I love you, too, Teddy. I know that might be hard for you to believe after the way I've been acting, but it's true."

Teddy pulled off his glasses and submitted the lenses to an elaborate cleaning on the hem of his T-shirt. "What about Holly Grace?" he said, holding the lenses up to the light. "Does this mean we won't see Holly Grace anymore, because of how you and her used to be married?"

Dallie smiled. Teddy might not want to acknowledge what he'd just heard, but at least he hadn't walked away. "We couldn't get rid of Holly Grace even if we tried to. Your mama and I both love her; she'll always be part of our family. Skeet, too, and Miss Sybil. Along with whatever runaways your mom manages to pick up."

"Gerry, too?" Teddy asked.

Dallie hesitated. "I guess that's up to Gerry."

Teddy wasn't Feeling so dizzy now, and he took a few steps closer to the protective grating at the edge. Dallie wasn't quite as eager to move forward, but he did, too. "You and I still have some things to talk about, you know," Dallie said.

"I want one of those King Kongs," Teddy declared abruptly.

Dallie saw that Teddy still wasn't ready for any father-son revelations, and he swallowed his disappointment. "I have something to ask you."

"I don't want to talk about it." Teddy mutinously laced his fingers through the metal grating.

Dallie laced his fingers through, too, hoping he could get this next part right. "Did you ever go to play

with a friend, and when you got there you found out that he had built something special when you

weren't around? A fort, maybe, or a castle?"

Teddy nodded warily.

"Maybe he made a swing when you weren't around, or built a racetrack for his cars?"

"Or maybe he built this neat planetarium out of garbage bags and a flashlight," Teddy interjected.

"Or a planetarium out of garbage bags," Dallie quickly amended. "Anyway, maybe you looked at this planetarium, and you thought it was so terrific that you felt a little jealous you hadn't made it yourself." Dallie let go of the fence, keeping his eyes on Teddy to make sure the boy was following him. "So, because you were jealous, instead of telling your friend what a great planetarium he'd made, you sort of stuck your nose up in the air and told him you didn't think what he'd made was all that terrific, even though it was about the best planetarium you'd ever seen."

Teddy nodded slowly, interested that a grown-up would know about something like that. Dallie rested his arm on top of a telescope that was pointing toward New Jersey. "That's pretty much what happened when I saw you."

"It is?" Teddy declared in astonishment.

"Here's this kid, and he's a real great kid-smart and brave-but I didn't have anything to do with making him that way, and I was jealous. So instead of saying to his mom, 'Hey, you raised yourself a pretty neat kid,' I acted like I didn't think the kid was all that great, and that he would have been a lot better if I'd been around to help raise him." He searched Teddy's face, trying to read by his expression whether he was following, but the boy wasn't giving anything away. "Could you understand something like that?" he asked finally.

Another child might have nodded, but a child with an I.Q. of one hundred sixty-eight needed some time

to sort things out. "Could we go look at those rubber King Kongs now?" he asked politely.

The Statue of Liberty ceremony took place on a poet's day in May, complete with a soft, balmy breeze, a cornflower blue sky, and the lazy swoop of sea gulls. Three launches decorated with red, white, and blue bunting had crossed New York Harbor toward Liberty Island that morning and had landed at the dock where the Circle Line ferry normally disgorged tourists. But for the next few hours, there would be no tourists, and only a few hundred people populated the island.

Lady Liberty towered over a platform that had been specially built on the lawn at the south side of the island next to the statue's base. Normally, public ceremonies were held in a fenced-in area behind the statue, but the White House advance team thought this location, beneath the face of the statue and with an unblocked view of the harbor, was more photogenic for the press. Francesca, in a pale pistachio dress with an ivory silk-shantung jacket, sat in a row with the other honorees, various government dignitaries, and a Supreme Court Justice. At the lectern, the President of the United States talked about the promise of America, his words echoing from the loudspeakers set up in the trees.

"We celebrate here today-old and young, black and white, some from humble roots, others born into prosperity. We have different religions and different political beliefs. But as we rest in the shadow of the great Lady Liberty, we are all equals, all inheritors of the flame…"

Francesca's heart was so full of joy she thought she would burst. Each participant had been permitted to invite twenty guests, and as she gazed out over her diverse group, she realized that these people she had come to love represented a microcosm of the country itself.

Dallie, wearing an American flag pin on the lapel of his navy suit coat, sat with Miss Sybil on one side of him, Teddy and Holly Grace on the other. Behind them, Naomi leaned to one side to whisper something in her husband's ear. She looked healthy after having given birth, but she seemed nervous, undoubtedly worried about leaving her four-week-old baby girl even for half a day. Both Naomi and her husband wore black armbands to protest apartheid. Nathan Hurd sat with Skeet Cooper, an interesting combination of personalities in Francesca's opinion. From Skeet to the end of the row stretched a group of young female faces-black and white, some with too much makeup, but all of them possessing a spark of hope in their own futures. They were Francesca's runaways, and she had been touched when so many of them wanted to be with her today. Even Stefan had called her from Europe this morning to congratulate her, and she had pried out the welcome news that he was currently enjoying the affection of the beautiful young widow of an Italian industrialist. Only Gerry hadn't acknowledged her invitation, and Francesca missed him. She wondered if he was still angry with her because she had turned down his latest demand to appear on her program.

Dallie caught her looking at him and gave her a private smile that told her as clearly as if he'd spoken the words how much he loved her. Despite their superficial differences, they had discovered that their souls were a matched set.

Teddy had snuggled over close to Holly Grace instead of to his father, but Francesca thought that situation would soon resolve itself and she didn't permit it to disturb her pleasure in the day. In a week

she and Dallie would be married, and she was happier than she had ever been in her life.

The President was revving up for a big finish. "And so America is still the land of opportunity, still the home of individual initiative, as witnessed by the success of those we honor this day. We are the greatest country in the world…"

Francesca had done programs on the homeless in America, on poverty and injustice, racism and sexism. She knew all the country's flaws, but for now she could only agree with the President. America wasn't a perfect country; it was too often self-serving, violent, and greedy. But it was a country that frequently

had its heart in the right place, even if it couldn't always get all the details worked out correctly.

The President finished to a rousing ovation, captured by the network cameras for airing on the news that night. Then the Supreme Court Justice stepped forward. Although she couldn't see Ellis Island behind her, Francesca felt its presence like a blessing, and she thought of all those throngs of immigrants who had come to this land with only the clothes on their backs and the determination to make a new life for themselves. Of all the millions who had passed through these golden gates, surely she had been the most worthless.

Francesca stood along with the others, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she remembered a twenty-one-year-old girl in a pink antebellum gown trudging down a Louisiana road carrying a Louis Vuitton suitcase. She lifted her hand and began to repeat the words being spoken by the Supreme Court Justice.

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty…"

Good-bye, England, she thought. It wasn't your fault that I made such a muddle of things. You're a good old country, but I needed a rough, young scrapper of a place to teach me how to stand on my own.

"… that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic…"

She would try her best, even though the responsibilities of citizenship awed her. If a society was to

remain free, how could it take those duties lightly?

"… that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States…"

Gracious, she certainly hoped not!

"… that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by law…"

Next month, she was to testify before a congressional committee on the problem of runaways, and she had already started forming an organization to raise funds to build shelters. With "Francesca Today" broadcasting only once a month, she would finally have a chance to give something back to the country that had already given her so much.

"… that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

As the ceremony ended, a series of Texas cheers went up from the audience. With tears in her eyes, Francesca watched her guests making spectacles of themselves. Then the President greeted the new citizens, followed by the Supreme Court Justice and the other government dignitaries. A band struck up the first bars of "Stars and Stripes Forever," and the White House staff member who was in charge of the ceremony began moving the participants toward bunting-draped tables set up under the trees and laden with punch and tea sandwiches, just like a Fourth of July picnic.

Dallie got through the crowd to her first, a Texas-size grin spread all over his face. "The last thing this country needs is another voting liberal, but I'm real proud of you anyway, honey."

Francesca laughed and hugged him. On the east side of the island there was a noisy roar from the lawn as the presidential helicopter took off, bearing away the Chief Executive and some of the ceremony's other dignitaries. With the President gone, the mood of the occasion relaxed. As the helicopter disappeared, an announcement was made that the statue had been opened for private viewing by those who wished to enter.

"I'm proud of you, Mom," Teddy said. She gave him a squeeze.

"You looked almost as good up there as that Korean dress designer," Holly Grace told her. "Did you know he had on pink socks with rhinestone butterflies?" Francesca appreciated Holly Grace's attempt at good humor, especially since she knew it was mostly pretense. Too much of Holly Grace's sparkle had faded over the past few months.

"Over here, Miss Day," one of the photographers called out.

She smiled into the camera and talked to everyone who came up to greet her. Her former runaways lined up to meet Dallie. They flirted with him outrageously, and he flirted right back until he had them all giggling. The photographers wanted pictures of Holly Grace, and each of the networks asked to film a brief interview with Francesca. After she had finished the last one, Dallie pressed a cup of punch into her hands. "Have you seen Teddy?"

Francesca glanced around. "Not for a while." She turned to Holly Grace who had just come up next to them. "Have you seen Teddy?"

Holly Grace shook her head. Dallie looked worried and Francesca smiled at him. "We're on an island," she said. "He can't get into too much trouble."

Dallie didn't seem convinced. "Francie, he's your son, too. With a gene pool like that to draw from, it seems to me he could manage to get into trouble just about anywhere."

"Let's go look for him." She offered the suggestion more from a desire to be alone with Dallie than from any concern about Teddy. The island was closed to tourists for another hour. What harm could come to him?

As she set down her punch cup, she noticed that Naomi was clutching Ben Perlman's hand and looking up into the sky. Shielding her eyes, Francesca looked up, too, but all she saw was a small plane circling overhead. And then she noticed that something seemed to have dropped from the plane. As she watched, a square-canopy parachute opened. One by one, the people around her gazed up into the sky and observed the descent of the parachutist toward Liberty Island.

As he fell, a long white banner gradually unfurled behind him. It had letters printed on it in black, but they were impossible to read as the wind whipped the banner in one direction and then the other, threatening to tangle in the parachutist's rig. Suddenly the banner straightened.

Francesca felt a set of sharp fingernails digging into the sleeve of her silk shantung jacket. "Oh, my God," Holly Grace whispered.

The eyes of every onlooker-as well as those of the network television cameras-were glued to the banner and the message it carried:

MARRY ME, HOLLY GRACE

Although he was concealed inside a helmet and a white jumpsuit, the parachutist could only be Gerry Jaffe.

"I'm going to kill him," Holly Grace said, venom dripping from every syllable. "This time he's gone too far." And then the wind shifted and the banner's other side was visible.

It held a drawing of a barbell.

Naomi came up next to Holly Grace. "I'm sorry," she said. "I tried to talk him out of it, but he loves you so much, and he refuses to do anything the easy way."

Holly Grace didn't reply. She kept her eyes glued on the descent. The parachutist dropped closer to the island and then began to drift. Naomi let out a small squeak of alarm, and Holly Grace's fingers dug deeper into Francesca's arm. "He's going into the water," Holly Grace cried. "Oh, God, he'll drown. He'll get tangled in his parachute or that stupid banner-" She broke away from Francesca and began running toward the seawall, shrieking for all she was worth. "You stupid commie! You dumb, stupid-"

Dallie draped his arm over Francesca's shoulder. "You got any idea why he has a picture of two doorknobs on that banner?"

"It's a barbell," she replied, holding her breath as Gerry just cleared the seawall and landed on the lawn about fifty yards away.

"Holly Grace is really going to give him hell for this," he commented, thoroughly enjoying himself. "Damn, she's mad."

"Mad" wasn't the word for it. Holly Grace was furious. She was so enraged she could barely contain herself. While Gerry struggled to gather up the parachute, she screamed every foul word at him that she could think of.

He balled the parachute and the banner together and threw them down on the grass so that he finally had two hands free to deal with her. When he saw her flushed face and felt the heat of her fury, he realized he was going to need both of them.

"I'll never forgive you for this," she cried, taking a punch at his arm, to the delight of the network cameramen. "You don't have enough experience to make a jump like that. You could have been killed.

I wish you had been!"

He pulled off his helmet, and his curly hair was as disheveled as a dark angel's. "I've been trying to talk

to you for weeks, but you wouldn't see me. Besides, I thought you'd like it."

"Like it!" She nearly spit at him. "I've never been so humiliated in my life! You've made a spectacle out of me. You don't have an ounce of common sense. Not one single ounce."

"Gerry!" He heard Naomi call out and from the corner of his eye, he saw the statue's security people running toward him.

He knew he didn't have much time. What he had done was definitely illegal, and he didn't doubt for a moment that they were going to arrest him. "I just publicly committed myself to you, Holly Grace. What more do you want from me?"

"You publicly made a fool of yourself. Jumping out of an airplane and almost drowning with that stupid banner. And why did you put a dog bone on it? Do you mind telling me what you meant by that?"

"Dog bone?" Gerry threw up his arms in frustration. No matter what he did, he couldn't seem to please this woman, and if he lost her this time, he would never get her back. Just the thought of losing her gave him a cold chill. Holly Grace Beaudine was the one woman he'd never been able to bring to heel, the one woman who made him feel that he could conquer the world, and he needed her the same way he needed oxygen.

The security people had almost reached him. "Are you blind, Holly Grace? That wasn't a dog bone. Jesus, I just made the most terrifying commitment of my entire life, and you missed the whole point."

"What are you talking about?"

"It was a baby rattle!"

The first two security men grabbed him.

"A baby rattle?" Her fierce expression melted in surprise and her voice softened. "That was a baby rattie?"

A third security officer pushed Holly Grace aside. Apparently deciding Gerry wasn't going to give them any real trouble, the officer cuffed Gerry's hands in front of his body.

"Marry me, Holly Grace," Gerry said, ignoring the fact that his rights were being read to him. "Marry me and have my baby-have a dozen of them! Just don't ever leave me."

"Oh, Gerry…" She stood looking at him with her heart in her eyes, and the love he felt for her swelled in his chest until he ached. The security people didn't want to look like bad guys in front of the press, so they let him lift his cuffed wrists and slip his arms over her head. He kissed her so intently that he forgot to make sure they were turned to face the network television cameras.

Luckily, Gerry had a partner who wasn't as easily distracted by females.

Far overhead, from a small window in the crown of the Statue of Liberty, another banner began to unfurl, this one a bright canary yellow. It was made from a synthetic material that had been developed for the space program-a material that was lightweight and could be compacted for portability into a package not much bigger than a wallet, and then would generously expand once it was released. The canary yellow banner slipped down over Lady Liberty's forehead, unrolled along the length of her nose, and gradually opened as it came to a stop at the base of her chin. Its message was clearly legible from the ground, simply printed in seven thick black letters.

NO NUKES

Francesca saw it first. And then Dallie. Gerry, who had reluctantly ended his embrace with Holly Grace, smiled when he spotted it and gave her a quick kiss on the nose. Then he lifted his handcuffed wrists to the sky, tilted back his head, and balled his hands into fists. "Way to go, Teddy!" he cried.

Teddy!

Francesca and Dallie looked at each other in alarm and then began running across the lawn toward the entrance to the statue.

Holly Grace shook her head at Gerry, not sure whether she should laugh or cry, knowing only that she had an interesting life ahead of her.

"It was too good an opportunity to pass up," he began to explain. "All these cameras-"

"Be quiet, Gerry, and tell me how I go about getting you out of jail." It was a skill that Holly Grace suspected she would be making good use of in the years to come.

"I love you, babe," he said.

"I love you, too," she replied.

Political actions weren't unknown at the Statue of Liberty. In the sixties, Cuban exiles chained themselves to Liberty's feet; in the seventies, anti-war veterans hung an upside-down flag from the crown; and in the eighties, two mountain climbers scaled the surface of the statue to protest the continued imprisonment of one of the Black Panthers. Political actions weren't unknown, but none of them had ever involved a kid.

Teddy sat by himself in the hallway outside the statue's security office. From behind the closed door, he could hear his mom's voice and occasionally Dallie's. One of the park rangers had brought him a can of 7-Up, but he couldn't drink it.

The week before, when Gerry had taken Teddy over to Naomi's to see her new baby, Teddy overheard Gerry and Naomi arguing, and that was how he learned about Gerry's plan to parachute onto the island. When Gerry had taken him home, Teddy questioned him. He felt like a hotshot when Gerry finally confided in him, even though he thought it might have been just because Gerry was feeling sad about losing Holly Grace.

They had talked about the No Nukes banner, and Teddy begged Gerry to let him help, but Gerry said he was too young. Teddy hadn't given up. For two months he had been trying to think of a social studies project spectacular enough to impress Miss Pearson, and he realized this was it. When he tried to explain that, Gerry had given him a long lecture about how political dissent shouldn't be undertaken for selfish reasons. Teddy had listened closely and pretended to agree, but he really wanted an A on his social studies project. Dorky old Milton Grossman had only visited Mayor Koch's office, and Miss Pearson had given him an A.

It defied Teddy's imagination to think what she might do to a kid who helped disarm the world!

Now that he had to face the consequences, however, Teddy knew that breaking the window in the crown had been stupid. But what else could he have done? Gerry had explained to him that the windows in the crown opened with a special key some of the maintenance people carried. One of those people was a friend of Gerry's, and this guy had promised to slip up into the crown as soon as the President's security people left and unlock the middle window. But when Teddy got to the crown, all sweaty and out of breath from having climbed the stairs as fast as he could to get there ahead of everybody else, something had gone wrong because the window was still locked.

Gerry had told Teddy that if there was a problem with the window he was supposed to climb right back down and forget about the No Nukes banner, but Teddy had too much at stake. Quickly, before he had time to think about what he was doing, he had snatched the metal lid from a trash can and banged it against the small center window a few times. After four tries, he finally broke the glass. It had probably only been an echo in the crown, but when the glass broke, he thought he could hear the statue cry out.

The office door opened and the man who was in charge of security came out. He didn't even look at Teddy; he just went right on down the corridor without saying anything. Then his mom was standing in the doorway, and Teddy could see she was really mad. His mom didn't get mad too often, unless she was really scared about something, but when it did happen, he got a sick feeling in his stomach. He swallowed hard and slid his eyes down, because he was scared to look her in the face.

"Come in here, young man," she said, sounding like she'd just eaten icicles. "Now!"

His stomach did a somersault. He was really in trouble. He'd expected to get into a little trouble, but not this much. He'd never heard his mom sound so mad. His stomach seemed to be turning upside down,

and he thought he might have to throw up. He tried to stall for time by dragging his good shoes as he walked toward the door, but his mom caught his arm and pulled him into the office. The door shut hard behind him.

None of the statue people were there. Just Teddy, his mom, and Dallie. Dallie was standing over by the window with his arms crossed over his chest. Because of the sunlight, Teddy couldn't see his face too well and he was glad about that. On top of the Empire State Building, Dallie had said he loved Teddy and Teddy had wanted to believe it so bad, except he was afraid that Dallie had said it just because his mom had made him.

"Teddy, I'm so ashamed of you," his mother began. "What in the world made you get involved in something like this? You vandalized the statue. How could you do that?" His mom's voice was quivering a little bit, like she was really, really upset, and her accent had gotten thicker than normal. He wished he wasn't too big to be spanked, because he knew a spanking wouldn't hurt as much as this did. "It's a miracle they're not going to press charges against you. I've always trusted you, Teddy, but it will be a

long time before I'll be able to trust you again. What you did was illegal…"

The more she talked, the lower Teddy's head dropped. He didn't know which was worse-hurting the statue or upsetting his mom so much. He could feel his throat start to close up and he realized he was going to cry. Right there in front of Dallie Beaudine, he was going to cry like a jerk. He kept his eyes glued to the floor and felt like somebody was shoving rocks into his chest. He took a deep, shaky breath. He couldn't cry in front of Dallie. He'd stab himself in the eyes before he'd do that.

A tear dropped and made a big splat on the top of one of his good shoes. He slid the other shoe over it so Dallie wouldn't see. His mom kept talking about how she couldn't trust him anymore, how disappointed she was, and another tear splatted on his other shoe. His stomach hurt, his throat was closing up on him, and he just wanted to sit down on the floor and hug one of his old teddy bears and cry real hard.

"That's enough, Francie." Dallie's voice wasn't very loud, but it was serious, and his mom stopped talking. Teddy took a swipe at his nose with his sleeve. "You go on outside for a minute, honey," Dallie said to her.

"No, Dallie, I-"

"Go on, now, honey. We'll be out in a minute."

Don't go! Teddy wanted to scream. Don't leave me alone with him. But it was too late. After a few seconds, his mother's feet began to move and then he heard the door shut. Another tear dropped off his chin and he made a soft little hiccup as he tried to breathe.

Dallie came over next to him. Through his tears, Teddy could see the cuffs on Dallie's trousers. And then Teddy felt an arm slip around his shoulders and pull him close.

"You go ahead and cry all you want, son," Dallie said softly. "It's sometimes hard to cry real good with a woman around, and you've had a rough day."

Something hard and painful that Teddy had been holding rigidly inside him far too long seemed to break apart.

Dallie knelt down and pulled Teddy against him. Teddy wrapped his arms around Dallie's neck and held on to him as tight as he could and cried so hard he couldn't catch his breath. Dallie rubbed Teddy's back underneath his shirt and called him son and told him that sooner or later everything would be all right.

"I didn't mean to hurt the statue." Teddy sobbed into Dallie's neck. "I love the statue. Mom said she wouldn't ever trust me again."

"Women aren't always reliable when they're as upset as your mom is right now.'v

"I love my mom." Teddy hiccuped again. "I didn't mean to get her so mad."

"I know that, son."

"It makes me feel scared inside to have her so mad at me."

"I'll bet it makes her feel scared inside, too."

Teddy finally got the nerve to look up. Dallie's face seemed all blurry through his tears. "She'll take away my allowance for a million years."

Dallie nodded. "You're probably right about that." And then Dallie cupped Teddy's head, pulled it against his chest, and kissed Teddy right next to his ear.

Teddy held on, not saying anything for a few seconds, just accustoming himself to the feel of a scratchy cheek against his own instead of a smooth one. "Dallie?"

"Uh-huh."

Teddy buried his mouth in Dallie's shirt collar so the words came out muffled. "I think-I think you're

my real dad, aren't you?"

Dallie was quiet for a moment, and when he finally spoke he sounded like his throat was closing up, too. "You bet I am, son. You bet I am."

Later, Dallie and Teddy went out into the hallway to face his mom together. Except this time, when she saw the way Teddy was holding on to Dallie, she was the one who started to cry, and before he knew it, his mom was hugging him and Dallie was hugging her, and the three of them were standing right there in the middle of the hallway at the Statue of Liberty security office hugging each other and crying like a dumb old bunch of babies.