فصل 13

November 18, 1991

Dear friend,

My brother finally called yesterday, and he can’t make it home for any part of Thanksgiving weekend because he is behind on school because of football. My mom was so upset that she took me shopping for new clothes.

I know you think what I’m about to write is an exaggeration, but I promise you that it isn’t. From the time we got into the car to the time we came home, my mom literally did not stop talking. Not once. Not even when I was in the dressing room trying on “slacks.”

She just stood outside the dressing room and worried out loud. The things she said went all over the place. First, it was that my dad should’ve insisted that my brother come home if only for an afternoon. Then, it was that my sister had better start thinking more about her future and start applying to “safety” schools in case the good ones don’t work out. And then she started saying that gray was a good color for me.

I understand how my mom thinks. I really do.

It’s like when we were little, and we would go to the grocery store. My sister and brother would fight about things that my sister and brother would fight about, and I would sit at the bottom of the shopping cart. And my mom would be so upset by the end of shopping that she would push the cart fast, and I would feel like I was in a submarine.

Yesterday was like that except now I got to sit in the front seat.

When I saw Sam and Patrick at school today, they both agreed that my mom has very good taste in clothing. I told my mom this when I got home from school, and she smiled. She asked me if I wanted to invite Sam and Patrick over for dinner sometime after the holidays are over because my mom gets nervous enough as it is during the holidays. I called Sam and Patrick, and they said they would.

I’m really excited!

The last time I had a friend over to dinner was Michael last year. We had tacos. The really great part was that Michael stayed over to sleep. We ended up sleeping very little. We mostly just talked about things like girls and movies and music. The one part I remember distinctly was walking around the neighborhood at night. My parents were asleep along with the rest of the houses. Michael looked into all the windows. It was dark and quiet.

He said, “Do you think those people are nice?”

I said, “The Andersons? Yeah. They’re old.”

“What about those people?”

“Well, Mrs. Lambert doesn’t like baseballs going into her yard.”

“What about those people?”

“Mrs. Tanner has been visiting her mother for three months. Mr. Tanner spends his weekends sitting on the back porch and listening to baseball games. I don’t really know if they’re nice or not because they don’t have children.”

“Is she sick?”

“Is who sick?”

“Mrs. Tanner’s mother.”

“I don’t think so. My mom would know, and she didn’t say anything.”

Michael nodded. “They’re getting a divorce.”

“You think so?”

“Uh-huh.”

We just kept walking. Michael had a way of walking quiet sometimes. I guess I should mention that my mom heard that Michael’s parents are divorced now. She said that only seventy percent of marriages stay together when they lose a child. I think she read it in a magazine somewhere.

Love always, Charlie