Daphne's Book (15 page)

Although I was ashamed of myself, I hid like a coward among the L'eggs Eggs, my face burning. I wanted to help Daphne, but I couldn't force myself to walk past the people watching Mrs. Woodleigh's performance. I knew they would all look at me, waiting to see what new entertainment I was going to provide. I hated myself, but I didn't take a step toward Daphne. Not one.

Instead I slammed the candy bar down on a shelf and ran out of the Food Barn, hoping that Daphne wouldn't hate me forever.

I was halfway home when Tracy, Michelle, and Sherry caught up with me. "Where did you go, Jess?" Tracy asked. "We were looking all over the store for you."

"Did you see Daffy's grandmother?" Sherry snorted with laughter. "She's a lunatic!"

"She really had that manager going, didn't she?" Michelle laughed. "There were olives everywhere. It was like an ocean full of little green islands."

"Did you see him give her the jar?" Sherry asked. "I.think it was a bribe to get her out of the store."

"No wonder Daffy's so weird. Their whole family must be crazy or something." Michelle looked at me. "Oh, pardon me, I forgot.
Daphne,
I meant to say. I certainly wouldn't want to offend Jessica." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"No," Sherry said. "She might sic a mouse on you."

"Why don't you shut up, Sherry?" I shouted. "And you, too, Michelle! You don't understand anything, do you?" Tears started running down my cheeks, and I wanted to slap them both, hard. "How would you like to live with somebody like that?"

They stared at me, too surprised to say anything. Tracy was the first to speak. "She's right, you know. It's not funny. There's nothing to laugh at."

But Sherry and Michelle laughed anyway. "Give me my olives!" Michelle wailed in a high falsetto voice.

"I have to feed my ducklings," Sherry cried.

"And my mice," Michelle added.

"Stop it, you all," Tracy said. "Can't you see how upset Jessica is?" She put her arm around my shoulders. "Come on, Jess, it's okay. Don't cry."

I buried my face in my hands and kept on crying. I was so angry at myself for running away and leaving Daphne that I hardly knew what to do. As much as I hated Sherry and Michelle, I hated myself more.

"Come on, Jess, let's go home," Tracy said.

Without saying another word to Sherry and Michelle, we walked away. Never in my life had I been so grateful for Tracy. Without her, I don't know what I would have done.

When we got to the path that led to Tracy's court, she stopped and looked at me. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, moved almost to fresh tears by the sympathy I saw in her face. "They're so mean. How can they be like that?"

Tracy shook her head. "I don't know. Sometimes I have fun with them, but other times they get so awful I can't stand them." She sighed. "Poor Daphne. I feel so sorry for her, Jess. I wish I'd been nicer to her."

"Me, too."

"But you have been. You took her homework out there and all."

"But I should have helped her in the store. She probably thinks I hate her or something." I felt a new wave of shame as I saw the scene in the Food Barn again. Why had I hidden like that?

Tracy smiled a little uncertainly. "She'll probably under stand. You were just scared, Jess. I was scared, too. I never saw anybody act like that."

I nodded. "I
was
scared. Mrs. Woodleigh terrifies me." I hopped back and forth from one foot to the other, trying to get warm. "It's freezing out here."

Tracy nodded. "And it's almost spring. It should be warm."

"I guess I'd better go home. I'll never get all that stuff done for my mother." I looked at Tracy. "Do you think Sherry and Michelle are going to be mad at you?"

She shrugged. "I don't care if they are. The way they were acting made me sick." She smiled at me. "Anyway, I've got other friends. You, for instance." With a wave of her hand, she turned and ran up the path toward her court, and I ran the other way.

 

When I got home, I found Josh in the kitchen, eating a huge peanut butter and jelly sandwich expanded with raisins and bananas.

"Well, Jess-o, how was your day?" he asked.

"Not too good." I wished I could tell Josh about Daphne. He was older than I was. Maybe he could give me some advice. Not the kind an adult gives, all full of rules and regulations and ifs and buts and complications, but something that would help me.

"What's wrong?" He looked at me, really looked at me, as if it had just occurred to him that I was a human being, too, not just a dumb little sister. "Have you been crying?"

My eyes filled with tears. They splashed down on my sweater and clung to the wool like little drops of dew.

"What happened?" Josh took another bite of his sandwich, but he still' looked interested. He might have been a scientist discovering an unknown quality in a specimen he thought he knew everything about.

"Well, you know Daphne and how we've gotten to be friends and all." I gulped a little from all the crying I'd been doing.

Josh nodded.

"And you know how Michelle and Sherry and their friends make fun of her and call her Daffy Duck and stuff."

"Yeah. Typical middle-school garbage."

"Well, there are things about her I've never told anybody. She made me promise not to." I blew my nose. "She lives with her grandmother, and her grandmother's crazy, Josh. And today in the Food Barn she made this terrible scene."

Ashamed to look at Josh, I told him about the olives and how I'd run away instead of helping Daphne. And I told him about Daphne's father and the cats and the gas and electricity and the crack in the ceiling and Daphne's not going to school. By the time I finished, I was exhausted.

Josh kept shaking his head while I was talking and making little inarticulate sounds. "Jess, this is awful. I mean it's really serious. You've got to tell Mom, you've got to."

"But I can't! I promised Daphne I wouldn't!" I started crying again. "I thought you could help me, I thought you would know what to do!"

"I'm telling you what to do," Josh said. "Those two kids can't go on living with that crazy old lady."

"But they'll get put in an orphanage or something. And they'll hate me."

Josh frowned at me. "Who are you thinking about, Jess? Yourself or Daphne? If you want things to go on getting worse and worse for Daphne, just keep it all a secret. But don't blame me if the old lady dies or the kids get sick or the house burns down when a candle falls over."

I stared at him, horrified. "I never thought of that."

Josh shrugged. "Well, start thinking, Jess-o." He finished his glass of milk in one tremendous gulp, then went upstairs. In a few seconds I heard the Purple Punks blasting down through the ceiling.

Feeling more depressed than ever, I picked up Snuff and collapsed on the living room couch. As usual she hissed and growled until she managed to escape from my loving embrace. So I lay there alone, watching the sky turn from gray to black.

When Mom came home, she flipped on the light. "Jessie, what are you doing lying here in the dark?" She stared at me. ".Are you all right?"

Shoving my feet out of the way, she sat down on the couch. "Were you asleep?"

"No, I was just thinking."

"Did something happen at school?"

I shook my head. "Not exactly." I took a deep breath. "You know how Daphne's been absent?"

Mom nodded. "Did she come back today?"

"She's not coming back, Mom, and she's not sick either." There, I'd said it. Whatever was going to happen would happen.

"What?" Mom stared at me. "Do you mean she's playing hooky?"

"She has to, Mom. She can't leave Hope alone with her 146
grandmother." While Mom sat there looking stunned, I told her what I'd told Josh.

"Oh, Jessica, why didn't you tell me sooner?" Mom put her arm around me. "Those poor girls. I should have known something was wrong."

"Will they really have to go to an orphanage or a foster home?"

"I suppose something like that will happen."

Mom looked so unhappy that I found the courage to ask her the question I'd been rehearsing for hours. "You know what the perfect solution is, don't you? They could come and live with us! We could fix up the recreation room for their bedroom. It would be so easy." I hugged her hard, sure she'd say yes.

Mom looked at me sadly. "Oh, Jess, we couldn't do that, honey."

"Why not?" I pulled away from her. "There's plenty of room here."

"I couldn't take the responsibility of two more children." She hesitated. "And there's Ed to consider," she added softly.

"Ed?" I stared at Mom. "What's he got to do with it?"

"Well, Ed and I are thinking about getting married. I've been meaning to tell you, but I was waiting for just the right moment." Mom reached out to touch me, but I moved out of her reach.

"He has a daughter, you know," Mom added. "She lives with her mother now, but she sees Ed once a month. When we're married, she'll probably spend more time with him."

"What do you mean?" I was angry now. "She isn't going to live here, is she?"

"No, no, Jessica." Mom looked flushed. "She might be with us on weekends or for a few weeks in the summer. I meant to tell you all this when everything was definite." She tried to smile at me. "So you see, we can't take in Daphne and Hope. I wish we could, but we can't."

"Hi, Mom." Josh bounded down the stairs. "When's dinner?"

"I don't know. Not for a while. I haven't even started it yet."

"But I'm starving." Josh rubbed his stomach and tried to look woebegone with hunger. "Did Jess tell you about Daphne?"

Mom nodded. "It's such a pity."

"What are you going to do?" Josh asked.

"I was thinking about driving out there to see how bad it really is," Mom said.

"No, Mom, don't! Please don't do that!" I clutched her arm.

"Jessica, something has to be done," Mom said firmly. "I'll drive out there tomorrow morning."

"No, Mom, no. Daphne will never forgive me!"

"What did I tell you, Jess?" Josh said. "Somebody has to do something!"

I shook my head, confused. "I thought Mom would let them live here! I'd never have told her if I'd known she'd say no!"

Mom grabbed my arms and turned me gently toward her. "You can come with me tomorrow, Jessica, but I have to go out there. I can't possibly allow a situation like that to continue."

"No, I can't go with you, I can't!" I pulled away from her and ran upstairs, slamming my door behind me.

Throwing myself down on my bed, I lay there in the dark and thought about Daphne and Hope alone with Mrs. Woodleigh in that cold, spooky house. No lights to chase away the shadows, no heat, the cats milling around underfoot mewing for food, the ghost of John Woodleigh lurking outside, haunting Hope and her grandmother. Shivering with fear for them, I pulled the covers over myself and watched the moon slide out from behind the clouds, silvering their edges with its light.

T
HE NEXT MORNING
, I made another attempt to talk Mom out of visiting Daphne, but she was determined to go. To make things even worse, she had called Ed and persuaded him to drive out there with her.

"You're still welcome to come, Jessica." Mom looked at me hopefully.

"I can't." Turning away, I grabbed my jacket and books. "It's time for me to leave for school."

Slamming the door behind me, I crossed the court and headed for the footpath. Although the wind was still cold, I could feel spring in the sunlight. There was a faint smell of wild onion in the air, and I thought I saw a robin near the footbridge.

The closer I got to school, the slower I walked. Although I would have liked to see Tracy, I didn't want to run into Sherry and Michelle. To make sure I wouldn't, I turned off the path leading to school and wandered along beside the creek. I knew that I was making myself late, but I didn't care.

When I passed a tot lot, I sat down in a swing and rocked
slowly back and forth. Poor Daphne. What was she going to do when Mom and Ed showed up at her front door? I tried to imagine the scene. Mom and Ed standing on the porch, Daphne staring at them, Mrs. Woodleigh yelling from somewhere inside, the cats meowing, Hope asking for a trip to McDonald's.

I wondered if the police would come and take Daphne and Hope and Mrs. Woodleigh away. Would Daphne have to go to a detention center for skipping school? Shuddering, I pumped the swing higher into the air. I didn't want to think about what was happening at Daphne's house.

When I was tired of pumping, I dropped my head back and stared at the sky and the treetops dipping up and down. Slowly the swing lost momentum and finally came to a stop. For a while, I sat still, listening to a mockingbird singing somewhere in the woods bordering the tot lot.

All of a sudden I realized that I had forgotten all about school. Conscience-stricken, I looked at my watch. I was half an hour late. Jumping out of the swing, I picked up my books and started running down the path.

When I was about halfway there, I slowed to a walk. I had a terrible pain in my side from running, and I was gasping for breath. At a fork in the path, I hesitated. If I went straight ahead, I'd get to school in five minutes, but if I turned to the right, I'd be home in no time.

Almost without thinking, I turned to the right. I'd never skipped school before, and I kept expecting to see a policeman patrolling the path looking for truants. The only person I saw, though, was an old lady walking a dog. She smiled at me and said what a lovely day it was. Then she went on her way as if she saw nothing unusual about my not being in school.

When I got home, the house was so quiet it was spooky. No Josh running up and down the stairs, no stereo blasting rock music, no video game bipping and beeping. Just the cuckoo clock ticking and the refrigerator humming to itself.

A little thump in the kitchen startled me, but it was only Snuff jumping down from the counter. She circled my ankles and meowed hopefully when I opened the refrigerator.

"The only time you like me is when I have food in my hand," I grumbled, letting her jump for a piece of cheese.