Being Fishkill by Ruth Lehrer

Author:Ruth Lehrer [Lehrer, Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9702-0
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

Grandpa’s rules had changed every day. And every day it was Keely’s and my job to guess what the rules were. Be quiet. Don’t be quiet. Set the table. Don’t set the table. Answer the door. Don’t answer the door.

At the beginning of every school year, teachers talked a lot about Rules and the Real World. They went on about how we weren’t babies anymore; if we didn’t learn to follow the rules, what did we think was going to happen when we got to high school? They had rules for eating and not eating, for peeing and not peeing, for talking and not talking. Don’t think the real world is this easy! they said. Don’t run, but don’t be late. Don’t wear short dresses. Don’t wear long earrings. They had rules about swearing and teasing and back talk. They had rules about bikes and skates and scooters. They banned cell phones and knives and cigarettes. It was all online too, in case you forgot.

Once I almost got detention for sitting down and shutting up when we were supposed to be standing up and talking. When I told Duck-Duck about that, she called it a travesty of justice. I thought I would say that to the principal the next time he accused me of disobedience/defiance, which was forbidden according to page fifty-two of the Salt Run Middle School Code of Conduct.

Molly would have made a good lawyer. I think even Duck-Duck was impressed. Molly talked to the lawyers, she talked to the Social Service ladies, she talked to the police, and they all came up with rules. Keely was my mother, so she had a claim on me, they said, but not if she didn’t clean up her act. How do we know you won’t disappear again? they asked Keely. This was something Molly had said. We need to see that you can provide a good home, they said. Molly also had said this. Good home meant cooking and cleaning and going to parent-teacher conferences and group therapy. The Social Service ladies laid down rules. Fishkill stays with Molly and Duck-Duck, they said, until Mom cleans up her act. This meant no-drinking rules and clean-pee-test rules. This meant getting a job, even if it was just McDonald’s, and keeping it for six months. This meant showing up for group therapy with other screwed-up mothers every Friday at ten o’clock in the morning. It meant family therapy with me and one of the Social Service ladies.

I would have added a test to see if she could learn how to make a peanut-butter sandwich and if she could buy milk, bread, and Yodels without being reminded, but Molly didn’t say this, so the ladies didn’t either.

In general, I was relieved, because six months was a lot of time, and it would be next to impossible for Keely to keep going to therapy for that long. Maybe she would get bored and move to California. Maybe she would fall into the river again, this time without any help.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.