“Omigod, look at this,” said Nick. It was a toilet seat cover made out of felt. It was Santa Claus. When the lid was down, Santa was smiling, but when the lid was up, he had his hands over his eyes. It was the tackiest thing Nick had ever seen.
“And you thought my mother had everything. You were sure you wouldn’t be able to find her a unique and original gift…and here it is right in front of you,” laughed Abby. “I dare you.”
“You can dare me, double-dare me, double-dog hang-me-up dare me…there is no way!”
Suddenly, a child appeared in front of them. She was beautiful, but had a haunted look about her eyes.
“Hi, Sasha,” signed Abby, speaking the words at the same time. Then, “Hi, Abby,” as she interpreted Sasha’s signs for Nick. “This is my friend, Nick.”
Nick kept his hands firmly in his pockets and nodded instead. “Hi,” he said, smiling broadly.
“What did you buy?” signed Abby, nodding at the bag peeking out of Sasha’s backpack.
Presents for the teachers, said Sasha’s fingers. Nick hoped it wasn’t the toilet seat cover.
“We let her choose what she wants,” said a woman standing behind the girl, “and then we throw in a nice bottle of wine along with it. Hello, Miss Fremont!”
Abby greeted Sophia Braxton and introduced her to Nick. Nick removed his hand from his pocket long enough to shake hands. Then he put it right back.
The two women carried on a conversation while Nick looked around him. There were lots of people here. Only a few of them were signing. That made sense to him, he guessed. Not all of them would be deaf. He was brought back to the conversation by Sasha’s emphatic rubbing of her hand on the top of her chest and pleading eyes.
“She wants me to tell her a story,” said Abby to Nick. “That’s the sign for ‘please’.”
“She talks about them all the time at home,” said Sophia. “We never have any trouble getting her to go to school on the days you’ll be there.”
Abby blushed and ducked her head shyly. She thanked Mrs. Braxton and they moved on. Sasha signed, “Goodbye, Nick,” using the same sign that Abby had for him.
“How do you know what the sign is for my name?” asked Nick.
“I made it up,” said Abby. Each person has their own personal sign name. When you meet someone, you spell your name and then you show them your sign name. It’s usually the first letter of your name in some gesture.”
“What’s yours?”
Abby made a fist and tapped the side of her jaw twice with her thumb. “That’s the letter ‘A’, for Abby.”
“Show me mine again,” said Nick.
Abby crooked her index and middle finger and ran them across her right eyebrow. “Signs for females are usually made at the mouth and for males at the forehead.” Her eyes twinkled. “Now you might think that is because the women do all the talking and the men do all the thinking, but you would be wrong. It’s from when signing first started. Girls wore bonnets with strings and boys wore peaked caps.”
“So it’s just an ‘N’ and the sign for a guy?” said Nick.
“Nope,” laughed Abby. “It’s ‘N’ and your classic facial feature. You have great eyebrows! Oh, here’s Rita.”
Abby introduced Nick to the teacher. They made polite remarks about the bazaar.
“I have to be careful about approaching any of the children,” said Rita. “They might be in the process of buying me a Christmas gift.”
They all laughed and agreed that she wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.
“You know, Abby, every one of the children that is here, has asked me if you are going to tell a story.”
“Oh, Rita, this isn’t the place. And besides, there’s all these grownups. The stories are just for the kids.”
“Yes, but the kids have been going home and telling their parents. I’ve had several mention it. They all want to meet Princess Penelope. You could do it in the tea room.”
“Oh, I don’t know…we weren’t going to stay…” She turned begging eyes to Nick.
“We’ve got lots of time,” said Nick, who wanted to see Abby interact with the children.
“Oh, that’s wonderful then. I’ll gather the children.” The teacher turned away.
“But…” Abby’s protest was lost in the crowd.
“Suck it up,” said a voice at her ear.
She turned quickly and found herself nose to nose with a grinning Nick Carter.
“Big help you were,” she said, taking a step back. She crossed her arms across her chest and tried to look annoyed. It was the only way to stop herself from touching his face. She could feel herself starting to blush. She turned and headed for the corner of the hall that had been set aside as the tea room.
Nick followed her and then stopped at the edge. He leaned against a pillar and watched as the children gathered at Abby’s feet. The adults stood on the periphery.
Abby looked at the adults. “This is a story I wrote for the children.” Her hands flashed the signs as her voice said the words. “They seem to like it. It’s about a girl named Princess Penelope. The story is called ‘Why me?’”
Abby looked down at the children’s eager faces and the adults disappeared from her world. She told the story with bold gestures and wonderful facial expressions that Nick would have bet she’d be too shy to do. He ran his thumb absently over the object in his pocket and melted into the story. At the end, he joined in the applause.
“Isn’t that a wonderful story?” said Rita McCallum, who had appeared at Nick’s side.
“It’s amazing,” said Nick. “Does she have more?”
“She’s told the children three so far, but she’s working on more. She says they’re ‘in the freezer’ right now!”
Nick nodded thoughtfully as he looked over at Abby who was making her way through a crowd of youngsters who all wanted a hug. “Has she been doing this long?”
“No,” said Rita. “I think she just started over the summer.”
“Great story!” said Nick, as Abby came up to them.
“Thank you,” said Abby sincerely. “Now, are you going to buy the toilet seat cover or shall we move on with our day?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~They moved on. Abby gave Nick a driving tour of the city, pointing out landmarks and giving bits of historical information. Then she parked the car and they took on the Magnificent Mile.
“Give me your hand,” said Nick, as they came out of the parking garage and turned right, headed for Michigan Avenue.
“Why?” said Abby.
“Because we’re supposed to,” said Nick, picking her hand up in his.
“Right,” said Abby. “On that subject, Nick, what should I do if…I mean, when fans recognize you?”
“Nothing,” said Nick. “We’re just a happy couple out shopping. If they come up to us, I’ll handle it.”
They walked along hand-in-hand, looking in some store windows and actually going into others. Abby remembered the excursion in Braywood and how Nick’s tolerance for shopping was thin when he wasn’t interested. Since Abby had no desire or need for anything, she followed his lead. Nick was a little disappointed. So far no one had recognized him. A couple of people had looked at him twice, but then kept walking. He wondered if it was because he was wearing a wool cap. But the weather was chilly and he wasn’t willing to risk his ears. He looked around him to see if he could see a store where there would surely be young people.
“Let’s go in here,” he said, holding open the door of Virgin Records. “I want to buy you my solo CDs.”
“Already got them, you ninny,” said Abby with a laugh. “First requirement of a girlfriend, wouldn’t you think?”
“Oh, okay,” said Nick.
“Got them, listened to them, wore them out,” said Abby. “They’re good songs, Nick. I like them.”
“Which ones?” he asked, leading her past the posters and into the music section.
Abby gave her opinions on the songs and asked questions about things. Nick answered and they spent a very private, very personal fifteen minutes before a voice said, “Omigod, that’s Nick Carter.”
Nick turned toward the sound. He pursed his lips and mentally kicked himself. Here he had been wanting some fans to come up to him so he could point out Abby as his girlfriend, and now he was pissed that they had…because he had been so involved with the conversation with Abby that he didn’t want to be interrupted.
Abby watched Nick turn into a Backstreet Boy. She had been enjoying the conversation so much that she had sort of forgotten who he was, which didn’t make any sense to her at all, since what they had been discussing was his music.
Nick smiled and shook hands with the two girls who were standing before him, quivering with excitement. Abby thought one of them was about to cry. Her lip trembled and she couldn’t talk. The other one more than made up for it.
“You are, like ya know, the greatest, like I mean, the greatest. You’re my favorite, you always were, even when you nearly broke up the group, I was right there, defending you. I mean, like you are just…I have all your records and posters and…I can’t believe this…this isn’t real…this isn’t happening…I can’t be standing here with Nick Carter.”
Finally, she wound down and had enough sense to ask for an autograph. Nick complied graciously, signing the back of her receipt from the store. He did the same for the second girl who finally found her voice enough to whisper ‘I love you’. Nick opened his arms and hugged them both.
Abby stood quietly by and watched. He sure was good at it, she thought. Well, why wouldn’t he be, she asked herself, he’s been doing it for ten years.
“You’re good at that,” she said softly, as the girls walked away.
Dammit, thought Nick, he hadn’t pointed out Abby to them. The girls hadn’t seen anyone standing there but Nick. Abby could have been naked and on fire and they wouldn’t even have seen her. And once Nick went into Backstreet mode, he’d forgotten she was there as well.
“C’mon Baby,” he said loudly. “Let’s get on with the shopping.” He grabbed Abby’s hand and headed for the exit. The talkative girl didn’t pay any attention. She was too busy talking, burbling about her autograph. But the quiet girl turned at his words and squinted at Abby.
“Baby?” said Abby, when they were out on the sidewalk.
“Uh…yeah…sorry about that,” said Nick. “I guess that doesn’t really suit you. We need to make up a nickname for you.”
“What’s wrong with Abby?”
“Nothing, but you know…for the fans…” finished Nick lamely.
Abby looked thoughtful. “I’m not really the nickname type, but if you feel you must, go ahead…but not Baby!”
“Okay,” laughed Nick, “what should it be?”
“I don’t know, you make it up,” said Abby, “But be warned! I’ll be making one up for you too.”
Nick chewed on his bottom lip and nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, then, so the whole nickname thing is over…done with…forgotten completely.”
Abby threw her head back and laughed. “Wise choice! Well, shall we?”
Nick looked over her shoulder at the windows of the record store. He could see the two girls. They were talking to two other girls and they were pointing at Nick and Abby.
“Yes, let’s move on,” said Nick, picking up her hand again. “We’re done here.”
