Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Author:Susan Beth Pfeffer
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi

August 18

Jonny's birthday.

Matt took the afternoon off and we played baseball. We took turns, catching, pitching, fielding, and hitting.

Mom hit a ball so long it took Matt five minutes to find it.

Then we went to Mrs. Nesbitt's for dinner. I have to admit that was a nice change, eating around someone else's kitchen table.

She made quite the meal for us. We started with fruit salad and then we had tuna noodle casserole and peas. For dessert she'd made oatmeal raisin cookies that Jonny's always loved. I could tell Mom was concerned because all that good oatmeal was going to cookies, but she had two anyway. The rest of us pigged out—I know I ate at least four cookies, which probably guarantees me a first-class ticket to hell for gluttony.

But Mrs. Nesbitt beamed while we were eating. She must have been planning those cookies for weeks now, and she pulled off the surprise.

Jonny said he wanted to make a speech. So we cheered him on. He actually stood up, and I guess he'd been working on what he wanted to say, because it was pretty close to perfect.

He said he knew times were tough now and we didn't know if the future was going to get any better, but the important thing was we had each other and as long as we stuck together, we could make it through. He even said he loved us.

Mom was crying, but they were happy tears. I know, because I shed a few myself.

It's funny. I remember my birthday so vividly, the fights Mom and I had because I wanted a big boy/girl party and Mom wanted something simpler and easier. I yelled, "Trust!" at her and she yelled, "Temptation!" right back at me. We started fighting over it the day after her birthday and I don't think we stopped until the day before mine. Four weeks of fighting over what kind of party I could have.

In the end it was perfectly fine, boys and girls, pizza, cake, no beer, and a certain amount of unsupervised making out.

It's hard to believe I was ever that young.

I guess Jonny never will be.

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