They turned onto Montcalm Street. Mimi didn’t know the house number, but she thought she’d recognize the house because she’d passed there once before. “Oh, here it is.” She rang the bell but nobody answered. Then she noticed that the name under the bell wasn’t Thompson. She had come to the wrong house. Oh, how embarrassing, she thought. She dropped the cheese into her coat pocket and rejoined Robert.
“Wrong house,” she said. “I was sure she lived there.”
“What do we do now?” Robert asked.
Mimi bit her lip. She couldn’t bring the cheese home again now. It would just have to go to the dance with her. “Let’s go,” she said. She was so miserable she couldn’t think of anything else to say, and she and Robert walked the rest of the way in a silence as thick as the bad smell of the cheese.
When they arrived at the dance, the place was full of people and there was no room to hang their coats. Mimi wanted to wash her hands, but Robert led her straight onto the dance floor. Mimi noticed that Robert smelled sweet, like lily of the valley. She smelled of Limburger cheese.
Mimi danced with all her heart. Robert’s eyes were closed, probably trying to forget her and her smell, she thought. … |
