Billy Miller Makes a Wish by Kevin Henkes

Author:Kevin Henkes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

“Mama said I had to wait till I was eighteen,” said Sal. “But I did it myself.”

Yeah, you did it, thought Billy. You really did it. He picked up a marker, turning it in his hand to read the label. He put it down and picked up another. And another. He picked up the black marker Sal had been using. Reading the label caused his breath to catch. “Oh no,” he said.

“What?” said Sal. She was tilting her head and turning her outstretched legs, admiring them. Her smile was toothy.

“The black one’s permanent,” said Billy.

“What’s that mean?”

“It means it won’t wash off.”

“Good,” said Sal. “I like my butterfly tattoos.”

“But they’re not good. They don’t even look professional. They look like a baby scribbled all over your legs.”

Sal took a deep breath. She traced over one of her butterflies with her finger. “You don’t like them?” she asked.

“Who cares if I like them,” said Billy. “They’re permanent.”

“Permanent?” she whispered.

“Don’t you understand?” said Billy. “Don’t you get it? Permanent means you’re going to have ugly black marks on your legs forever. Even if you live to be one hundred.”

Judging by Sal’s sunken face, she understood.

It was so quiet even the furnace room was silent.

Sal licked her finger and rubbed one of the butterflies. The blue and green wings smeared, but the black outline did not. She licked her finger again and rubbed harder. The color was nearly gone. The black was unchanged.

Then Sal pulled her legs up and tried to cover them by wrapping her arms around them. Her knees were under her chin. She seemed to be trying to make herself smaller, drawing inward. She looked at Billy. Her eyes were shining with welled-up tears and probed his as if to say How, oh how, will you fix this?

“I don’t like this,” Sal said in a thin, squeaky voice. She started rocking, back and forth, back and forth.

Billy knew this was not good. Sal’s rocking was often accompanied, first, by whimpering, then by full-fledged, very loud crying. He chewed on his lower lip until he tasted blood.

He tried to think of something to do. Something that would keep Sal from throwing a fit. Something that would keep Mama from being disturbed.

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