caterpillaring, and cocking above her liquid eyes. The gray turtleneck sweater hangs loose over her obviously curvy torso. Little bits of fluff and strands of wool catch the sunlight as bands of it come through the blinds, more white than yellow, and crisscross her chest and the tip of her chin. She is reading Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow, and she likes it very much.
Tobias has never read Ragtime . He has read the latest issue of Maxim , however, and has learned several things from it. First, how to make a Lava lamp. Second, that to get a girl in bed, you shouldnât act interested. Or rather, you should act interested but not too interested.Keep âem guessing. Tobias couldnât keep a paper bag guessing, and Molly, by all rights, should not have been interested in him. But Tobias is handsome, and Molly is a little confused.
Mollyâs parents come from the land of crazy people. Or maybe the land of assholes. Molly was in a health class at her school one day, and the teacher was talking about the importance of role models. Molly, uncharacteristically, raised her hand. She was by nature a quiet girl. She asked the teacher: âOkay, but what happens when the people who are supposed to be role models are jerksâ?â
The teacher replied: âI donât think I understand the question.â
Molly thought: No kidding .
The spring break of her eighth-grade year, the beautiful Molly went on a trip with her crazy parents to visit with some of her fatherâs friends who had rented a compound on Scotsmanâs Cay in the Bahamas. Molly doesnât remember how they were all connected, but there were several families and lots of kids. The second oldest was a boy named Mike whose mother was sick and didnât come. Molly had a crush on him, but she knew nothing would ever come of it because he was, like, a family friend and that never worked.
The thing that made the trip bad for Molly, though, was not an unrequited crush. It was that her father saidhe had some sort of infection on his thigh so he couldnât go snorkeling. He would just hang around the house all day, making phone calls and waiting for everyone to get back so he could drink his wine with them. The truth was that he was a bad athlete and a bad swimmer and didnât want to go on any adventures where people would see that. So he would drop hints about his pain, and go on and on about how sorry he was that he was missing out on so much.
White Mike noticed how she felt and told her to concentrate on what she saw underwater. He said it worked for him, so it would work for her too.
Chapter Thirty-One
TOBIAS MAKES CONVERSATION with Molly. He seems like a kid from the other crowd. A kid who gets fucked up and goes to those open houses that Molly always hears stories about afterward. He is sort of glamorous, even. Tobias tells her about his recent trek through Chinatown, and how he got some new petsâa tank of piranhas. Molly listens and tells him she likes fish and animals and has a sheepdog named Thomasâwhich is not true. She doesnât want him to figure her out. She tries to be a little different. She puts down Ragtime so he canât see the cover.
They talk about how hard it is to be a model until Tobias gets called inside. She gets called in before heâs out, but after her meeting, he is there waiting for her.
âI thought if you were still here, you might want to come and see the piranhas.â
âSure,â Molly says. Here we go .
Tobias has been keeping his flesh-eating icythiopods at Claudeâs house, to Claudeâs delight. They are living ina neon-lit phosphorescent-blue aquarium above the bed in the guest bedroom with the drums on the fifth floor, across from Claudeâs room and the balcony. Molly is wary of her surroundings. She is certainly not intimidated by the splendor of the house, but her apartment is pretty small by comparison. Everyone is wealthy, but there are gradations.
Tobias
Tobias has never read Ragtime . He has read the latest issue of Maxim , however, and has learned several things from it. First, how to make a Lava lamp. Second, that to get a girl in bed, you shouldnât act interested. Or rather, you should act interested but not too interested.Keep âem guessing. Tobias couldnât keep a paper bag guessing, and Molly, by all rights, should not have been interested in him. But Tobias is handsome, and Molly is a little confused.
Mollyâs parents come from the land of crazy people. Or maybe the land of assholes. Molly was in a health class at her school one day, and the teacher was talking about the importance of role models. Molly, uncharacteristically, raised her hand. She was by nature a quiet girl. She asked the teacher: âOkay, but what happens when the people who are supposed to be role models are jerksâ?â
The teacher replied: âI donât think I understand the question.â
Molly thought: No kidding .
The spring break of her eighth-grade year, the beautiful Molly went on a trip with her crazy parents to visit with some of her fatherâs friends who had rented a compound on Scotsmanâs Cay in the Bahamas. Molly doesnât remember how they were all connected, but there were several families and lots of kids. The second oldest was a boy named Mike whose mother was sick and didnât come. Molly had a crush on him, but she knew nothing would ever come of it because he was, like, a family friend and that never worked.
The thing that made the trip bad for Molly, though, was not an unrequited crush. It was that her father saidhe had some sort of infection on his thigh so he couldnât go snorkeling. He would just hang around the house all day, making phone calls and waiting for everyone to get back so he could drink his wine with them. The truth was that he was a bad athlete and a bad swimmer and didnât want to go on any adventures where people would see that. So he would drop hints about his pain, and go on and on about how sorry he was that he was missing out on so much.
White Mike noticed how she felt and told her to concentrate on what she saw underwater. He said it worked for him, so it would work for her too.
Chapter Thirty-One
TOBIAS MAKES CONVERSATION with Molly. He seems like a kid from the other crowd. A kid who gets fucked up and goes to those open houses that Molly always hears stories about afterward. He is sort of glamorous, even. Tobias tells her about his recent trek through Chinatown, and how he got some new petsâa tank of piranhas. Molly listens and tells him she likes fish and animals and has a sheepdog named Thomasâwhich is not true. She doesnât want him to figure her out. She tries to be a little different. She puts down Ragtime so he canât see the cover.
They talk about how hard it is to be a model until Tobias gets called inside. She gets called in before heâs out, but after her meeting, he is there waiting for her.
âI thought if you were still here, you might want to come and see the piranhas.â
âSure,â Molly says. Here we go .
Tobias has been keeping his flesh-eating icythiopods at Claudeâs house, to Claudeâs delight. They are living ina neon-lit phosphorescent-blue aquarium above the bed in the guest bedroom with the drums on the fifth floor, across from Claudeâs room and the balcony. Molly is wary of her surroundings. She is certainly not intimidated by the splendor of the house, but her apartment is pretty small by comparison. Everyone is wealthy, but there are gradations.
Tobias
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