Pearl by Jo Knowles

Author:Jo Knowles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

chapter fifteen

“You’re up,” I tell Henry when I find him watching TV from his spot on the couch. He’s wearing a white T-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms.

“Thanks for pointing that out.” He doesn’t look up at me.

“Sorry,” I say. “Why are you watching Good Morning America? Sally isn’t here.”

“Something isn’t right,” he says, still staring at the TV.

“Yeah. You’re watching Good Morning America,” I tell him.

He’s eating dry Cheerios from a plastic bowl. Henry wants to lose weight so desperately. He wants Sally to, too. But so far he hasn’t had much luck in that department. I think, every time Henry looks at Sally, he fears what could happen to him.

“Want to go for a boat ride?” I ask. “No fishing, though. Just meandering.”

Henry responds by pinching two Cheerios between his fingers and slowly putting them in his mouth. He still hasn’t looked at me.

“What is wrong with everyone today?”

He chews.

“Never mind.” I leave him on the couch and start walking back toward my house. Maybe earlier was a dream, and when I go back, my mom will be sitting at the kitchen table—alone—with a cup of coffee and a frozen Snickers bar hidden under the morning paper.

No Sally.

No Claire.

I walk slowly, just in case. The neighborhood is quiet as usual, though someone at the end of the road is sweeping the sidewalk in front of his house and kicking up a small dust cloud that floats across the street like a ghost. That would please Gus, to see someone still caring about keeping things tidy. The swishing echoes up the street.

I’m halfway home when I hear shuffling feet and a familiar wheezing behind me.

I don’t turn around, but it is the best sound I’ve heard in a long time.

“You need to get over the fish thing,” Henry says, already flapping his shirt away from his body.

I grin at him.

“I’m just saying.”

“You need to get over the not acknowledging me when I come over thing.”

“Sorry. I was just … confused.”

We stop walking and face each other. I squeeze my hand into a fist, remembering what his fingers felt like laced with mine. The heat of the pavement reaches up through my flip-flops.

“Everything’s fine,” I say.

He nods. “Okay.”

We start walking again, this time side by side.

When we get back to my house, we’re both sweating. My mom’s car is gone.

“It’s too hot to go out on the boat.”

“Yeah.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know, what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know, let’s just go in.”

“Hey,” I say before we make our way up the steps.

Henry lowers his face and squints at me. His cheeks are getting pink. “What?”

“Thanks for coming after me.”

He smiles. “Thanks for asking.”

There’s a note taped to the front door.

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