David and Sarah walked out of the administrative building and headed for the playing fields. Rounding the corner of the science building, they stopped when they saw Mickey. Frank had gone home. Sarah walked over and looked at her. Suddenly Mickey reached out her hand. She was holding a disciplinary notice.
“Let me guess,” Sarah said. “An IDA perhaps?” Then she burst out laughing. Mickey smiled. Sarah pointed to the gap in the fence. “Come along, Mickey, you can walk home with us.”
When they got home, Sarah found that Ellen had awakened from her nap in time to save the rye bread. David went upstairs to his room.
“Sarah, why did you leave? The bread was almost ruined.”
“That old Kröte called. David got in trouble again. I went to the school to deal with it.”
“Trouble? What sort of trouble?”
Sarah grinned and handed Ellen the disciplinary notice. Ellen glanced at it and looked at Sarah.
“IDA? Good heavens, what’s that?”
“An Inappropriate Display of Affection! And look at the Comments line mother.”
“Making out with Mickey Mason,” Ellen read aloud. “Hmm, Mickey Mason? Oh, she’s Evelyn Mason’s daughter!” Then she looked at Sarah and smiled. “She is a pretty little thing!”
******************************************
It was Saturday, and Ellen and Carl met Zach and Adele for lunch. David was sitting on a patio chair in the backyard. Suddenly he saw a figure hop up on the back fence, and then jump down into the yard. She walked over to him.
“Hi, Mickey!”
“Hi, David,” she said, sitting down in a deck chair.
“Why are you here? Where’s Jay?”
Mickey shook her head. “I don’t know. He hasn’t been around for a couple of days. He does that.”
“Oh. So what do you want?”
“I heard the news.”
David smiled. “From who?”
“From Lani. I bumped into her at the corner store. She was actually quite nice to me. She told me all about it. I know you always talked about it, but I didn’t think you’d go through with it.”
“Why not?”
“She’s a beast.”
“Not to me.”
“I guess so. I still don’t get why.”
“Why what?”
“Why you’d actually marry her.”
David paused. He looked up at the sky, and then at Mickey. “It’s simple—I love her.”
Mickey froze. A very long few moments passed as both sat silently.
“What did you say?”
“I said I love her.”
For a moment it looked as though Mickey was going to cry. But then she suddenly smiled.
“Bye, David,” she said.
He watched her get up and walk to the back fence. She hopped up and sat on the top, and then jumped down into her parents’ backyard.
******************************************
David ran up the stairs and down the hall. There were spare bedrooms on either side of the hall, and then a large room at the end of the hall. Marty said it was supposed to be a library. As it was, it was empty except for spare furniture like chairs and sofas. There were no books anywhere. At some point in the evening, a group of kids ended up in that room. Lani told David that she was going to the bathroom. But that was some time ago. He was talking to Pete and Stephanie when a girl from David’s anatomy class suddenly appeared in the living room. She was upset and out of breath.
“David,” she said, stopping to take a deep breath. “You should come upstairs right away.”
David and Pete ran up the stairs, and saw a guy all the way at the end of the hall suddenly motion to them. Running down the hall and into the supposed-to-be-a-library-room, he found Mickey lying on her back on the floor. She had a terrified look on her face and was holding her arms out in front of her. Lani was standing over her, screaming at her. She was holding an object in her right hand. It was a heavy looking marble ashtray she grabbed off a coffee table. At first David stood and stared. Then he walked up behind her when he saw her raise the object above her head. As she was about to hit Mickey with the ashtray, she suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Fuck you Marian!”
David reached out and grabbed her arm. She dropped the ashtray, whirled around and raised her other fist. Then she stopped.
Mickey Mason
Mickey is the daughter of Evelyn Mason, who moves into the newly built house on the other side of the back fence of Carl and Ellen Larimores' house. She becomes David's girlfriend during high school. They spend a lot of time together, often outside the back of the Science Building. Both like to party, but Mickey, who begins stealing her mother's weight-loss pills, soon finds herself with a serious speed habit. As her addiction becomes worse, David finds it impossible to deal with her erratic and increasingly violent behavior. Soon after abruptly ending their relationship, David becomes involved with Lani Kincaid. As a result of David's past relationship with Mickey, Lani, a girl who displays an almost pathological hatred of the girls David knew before her, sees Mickey as her primary rival. This results in constant fighting between the two. As time goes on, Mickey becomes involved with an elusive figure known as Jay Rawlinson. Mickey is unique in that she is the only friend of David's that Sarah really likes. As high school graduation approaches, and David's engagement to Lani is right around the corner, the still unbroken connection between David and Mickey resurfaces one last time. A final showdown between Mickey and Lani almost results in an event that would have had tragic consequences for the rest of Lani's life.
******************************************
But that day, a family was moving into the new house. It was the only house on the new street that was finished, although the other houses on West Lake Road were almost done too. Movers were bringing furniture into the house. There was a young girl sitting in a lawn chair in the backyard. Actually, it was just dirt. The developers left it to the homebuyers to put in the lawn themselves.
“Hey, what’s your name?” David hollered.
The girl looked up. She had shoulder-length dark hair, and a thin build. She was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a rainbow on it and a pair of jeans.
“Why? Who are you?” she shouted.
“I’m David.”
“I’m Mickey. Mickey Mason.”
David smiled. “Really? Your name’s Mickey? Cool name!”
When he opened the door, a figure was sitting on the front porch. She was wearing a prom dress and smoking a cigarette.
“Mickey?”
She turned around. “Hi, David! You look nice.”
He smiled at her. “No, I look dapper!”
“What?”
“Never mind,” he said laughing. “Where’s your prom date?”
“Jay? He’ll be by in a few minutes.”
“Why are you here?”
“I’m leaving after prom. Well, leaving town. Jay’s got a job in Birmingham.”
David sat down next to her. “You already said you were leaving.”
“Yeah. I thought I’d say goodbye before your rabid girlfriend shows up.”
David laughed as he pulled a cigarette out from behind his ear. “You gonna marry this Jay?”
“He’s the only one to ask. Are you actually gonna marry Lani?”
David paused. “Yeah; I’m kinda committed.”
Mickey laughed. “You knocked her up?”
“No, I didn’t knock her up! But it was close. I found her pills once and some were still there. She said she forgot.”
“Yeah, that must be it,” Mickey muttered. Then she paused to think. “I’m sorry.”
“About what?”
“You know; it was stupid. I didn’t think so then.”
“Everybody makes mistakes.”
“You warned me. I’m sorry I didn’t listen.”
David nodded. “Well, I’m sorry too.”
“Why?”
“That things didn’t turn out different. I wished they had.”
Suddenly a red mustang pulled up to the curb and the driver honked the horn twice.
David looked at Mickey. “Jay’s not very patient.”
She leaned over and kissed him. “I hope you’re happy with Lani. I’ll miss you.”
Mickey got up and walked toward the street. Suddenly she stopped and turned around, staring at David. It looked like she was about to cry. Then she waved and got in the car. David sat on the step and stared as the car sped off.