I Loved You in Another Life by David Arnold

Author:David Arnold [Arnold, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2023-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

SHOSH

missed connections

Ivy Kids Art Night was a perennial program the week before Thanksgiving wherein Iverton Elementary students exhibited their artistic skills in one of three categories: a visual art show presented throughout the hallways of the school; a reading of an original piece presented in the library; or a theatrical performance presented onstage in the gym.

It was tradition for Shosh to help out with her mom’s class; in years past, she’d bring a friend from school, and they’d help corral the kids onstage, teaching them cues, and quietly chuckling at the variety of first-grade shenanigans that passed for performance art.

Whose charmed life was that, she wondered now, watching from the wings as a group of small children squirmed in the moments before the opening number, a scene from The Wizard of Oz.

“You miss it, don’t you?”

Shosh turned to find her mother beside her, eyes on the children.

“Miss what.”

As she watched her students, Lana Bell’s mouth curled up at each end, and while no one in their right minds could have called it a smile, it was as close as she’d gotten in months. “I know you think I came back to work too early. But I needed something that wasn’t . . . to do with her. I needed an anchor, Shosh. We all do.” She turned from her students to her child. “You miss it, right? Being onstage?”

She felt it in her shoulders mostly, her neck and arms too, as if she’d been thrusting a boulder up a hill for weeks. As if the mental strength required to push back against something that came so naturally had taken a physical toll. It was hard to say what irked her more: that she missed acting so much it hurt or that her mother saw it.

For just a second, Shosh imagined grabbing her mom around the waist, burying her head, crying, but instead, she said, “I need to pee.”

“You’ll miss the opening number.”

But Shosh was gone, hopping offstage, crossing the gym for the doors. As soon as her feet hit the hallway, the voice of the ghost-singer materialized. It was the same song she’d accidentally plagiarized, about secrets hiding in trees of snow, and she was about to scream in frustration—over the music, over the stage, over her inability to outrun either—when a familiar face emerged from one of the bathroom doors.

“Oh. Hey.” His eyes were a dusky blue, his hair long and half-tied back, and she knew she’d seen him before, but couldn’t remember . . . “Chili’s bathroom,” he said.

The song was still there, though slightly diminished now.

“Right,” she said. “With the little kid.”

He smiled at his shoes, tucked a loose strand behind his ear. “That’s my brother. Will. I’m Evan.”

“Shosh.”

“I know. We were in school together. I mean—I’m still in school. I’m a year younger.”

Evan was cute in the way some big dogs were spineless: he had no idea what he was dealing with. Suddenly, Shosh found herself wishing she’d spent more than approximately zero-point-zero seconds in the mirror before leaving the house.

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