Millicent and I walked into the kitchen where my mother was preparing supper. It was Wednesday, and Wednesdays meant spaghetti and meat sauce with garlic toast at our house. The aromas filled my nostrils and made my mouth water.
When my nonna was still alive, she jarred homemade tomato sauce for us, made and froze meatballs, and made pasta from scratch. Because my mother worked when I was in school, she used canned sauce and boxed pasta from the grocery store. She cooked ground beef in a skillet and added it to the sauce.
I never complained about my mother’s way of making our spaghetti dinners. Hers was tasty, it just wasn’t Nonna’s.
I could tell from the look on Millicent’s face that the smell of my mother’s cooking was making her hungry, too.
“What can I do for you kids?” my mother asked when she saw us standing in the kitchen doorway watching her stir the tomato sauce.
“Can Millicent stay for dinner?” I asked, earning a grateful smile from my best friend.
“I already asked her mom if it would be okay. Was that all you wanted to know?”
“Will you call Father Thomas for me and see if Millicent and I can come see him?”
My mother stopped stirring and turned to look at me. “Is this because of all the business with the robbery?”
I nodded. “We, Millicent and me -”
“Millicent and I,” my mother corrected.
I nodded again. “We think it would be a good idea for us to talk to him.”
“You’re probably right,” my mother said, turning back to her stirring. “It’s too late today. I’ll call him first thing in the morning.”
To prove the ice cream hadn’t ruined my appetite, I had two helpings of spaghetti and two pieces of garlic toast.
Millicent and I helped clean up after dinner and then, since it was dark, my mother insisted I walk her home.
On the way back to my house, I saw someone standing at the edge of the property line between our place and the Johnson’s. The person was so bundled up against the cold I couldn’t tell who it was and for a split second I imagined it was Leland’s ghost.
The voice that called out to me wasn’t Leland’s.
“Hey, Baldwin,” Leanne called out. “What are you doing out here in the dark?”
I stopped and turned toward her. “I could ask you the same thing.”
“I was taking out the trash and saw you walking back from Millie’s house. I haven’t seen you much since break started, so I thought I’d say hi.”
After the birthday party for Millicent and me in the summer, we hadn’t seen much of Leanne. I thought she was avoiding us. My mother found out from Mrs. Johnson that Leanne was away at a girl’s summer camp in New Hampshire for most of the summer.
Once school started, we couldn’t help but see each other. We all went to the parish school and there was only one sixth-grade class. My desk and Leanne’s were several rows apart, and we didn’t share a lunch table. Those were assigned to keep order in the lunchroom, or so Brother Henry told us. The eighth graders were the only class allowed to sit where they wanted. As a result, even though she lived right next door, we didn’t see each other very often.
“Uh, hi. Did you have a nice Christmas?”
She sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her mitten.
“Sorry. That was gross. We went to my cousin’s for Christmas dinner and I caught their cold.”
“You should go inside. Staying out in this night air will make you worse.”
I knew it wouldn’t. My mother taught me that colds were caused by germs, not by being out in the cold.
“In a minute,” Leanne said. She took a few steps into our yard. “I heard about the robbery and that guy getting killed. My dad said you and Millie were right there in the store when it happened.”
I wondered what else she’d heard. “Yeah. It was pretty scary. Luckily, Travis showed up and saved us.”
“So, you’re okay? You and Millie, you’re okay?”
“We didn’t get hurt, but I don’t know if I’d say we’re okay. We saw a guy get killed and my mom’s boyfriend get shot. I have nightmares about it every night.”
She sneezed and wiped her nose again.
I said, “God bless you.”
She thanked me.
“I’m sorry about your nightmares. I’d probably have them, too, if it happened to me. Does Millie have them?”
I shrugged. “She’s never said so to me.”
“Oh. Then maybe she doesn’t. Anyway, I’m glad you’re all right. I should get inside before my mom starts to think I got lost finding the trash can.”
“Sure. Okay. Thanks. I’ll see you at school.”
Leanne started turning toward her house and stopped. “Or maybe before. Goodnight, Baldwin.”
“See you,” I said.
She stopped on her porch, and I saw her turn and look my way before going into the house.
I heard a tap on glass and looked up at the kitchen window. My mother was waving for me to come into the house.
As I mounted the steps to the kitchen porch, Leanne’s question about Millicent having nightmares came back to me. She’s never mentioned any. I’d never told her about mine, either. In the mudroom, after hanging up my coat and taking off my snow boots, I made up my mind to tell her about my nightmares and ask her if she was having them, too.
©2025 DW Davis All Rights Reserved
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