By Any Other Name by Theresa Jenner Garrido

Author:Theresa Jenner Garrido [Garrido, Theresa Jenner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult Mainstream
Publisher: L&L Dreamspell
Published: 2011-10-04T04:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

Saturday morning over a bowl of Frosted Flakes, I pondered the predicament I found myself in. Rose had turned out to be full of surprises. Her amazing talent in creating the paper daffodils plus her possessive concern for her little brother bewildered me. Still totally repulsive—stinking to high heaven—but now she also intrigued me even more. The whole thing was off the charts in the weird department.

Mom appeared from around a corner, and I snapped out of my reverie. “Penny for your thoughts.” She joined me at the table with a cup of steaming coffee.

“Not worth a penny.” I sighed. “My mind keeps wandering in and out of this really impossible maze.”

“Thinking about Rose Coughlin, huh?”

“Yeah. How’d you guess? Written all over my face?” I grimaced.

Mom chuckled. “No, but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out. Are you concerned about her coming over again today?”

“Yes and no. I mean, I’m sort of resigned to the idea of her being my partner in this stupid project. I’m even kind of excited about what we’re doing. Half of me can’t wait to see the class’s expression when they get a load of it.” I put my spoon down and leaned back in the chair. “But, gosh, Mom. The other half of me is still totally turned off. Didn’t you smell her yesterday? I mean, it wasn’t as bad as it is sometimes—guess she wasn’t having her period—but she still smelled pretty bad. Didn’t it bother you that she was in your kitchen and sitting on the chair cushions and everything? I’m embarrassed to say this but, well, after we took them home last evening, I crawled into the back seat and took a sniff of the seat to see if it smelled from them sitting back there. And, oh gosh, Mom. It did. You could smell them. It’s like they never change their underwear. I nearly gagged. I hurried and got the spray stuff and really gave it a good dousing. Doesn’t that freak you out?”

“Well, yes…” Mom put her coffee cup down and sighed. “Of course I found it disconcerting to be too close to her. But I put it out of my mind and concentrated on her good qualities. Thought about how that Catholic nun—you know, Mother Teresa?—Tolerated working in the slums of Calcutta. Poor Rose. Underneath that less than desirable exterior there is a very pretty girl. Her eyes, for one thing. Did you notice how startling blue they are?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“If she had her hair styled to show off her lovely features, she’d be quite attractive.”

“Styled? How about just plain old washed?”

“Of course. A good hot bath and shampoo would do wonders for the both of them. Poor, poor kids. I hate to think how miserable their lives are. It just makes me livid. I could shake Roberta for doing this to her family. Just shake her.”

“Yeah. I get this really creepy feeling when I think about how the Coughlins live. I know Dad told you how Mr. Coughlin acted when we dropped them off last evening.

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