Personal Effects by E. M. Kokie

Author:E. M. Kokie [Kokie, E. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Historical, Death & Dying, Social Issues, Juvenile Fiction, Family, Siblings, Parents, Military & Wars, Homosexuality
ISBN: 9780763655273
Google: dcyB5OKGaR4C
Amazon: B008DYJV1Y
Publisher: Candlewick
Published: 2012-09-11T07:00:00+00:00

SHAUNA’S ANGRIER THAN I’VE EVER SEEN HER. AT ANYONE.

I tried calling her when I got home Saturday night. She said she didn’t want to talk about it. Ever. When I tried to apologize, she hung up on me.

She wouldn’t talk to me at all on Sunday.

Monday, I pretended nothing had happened. For a while that worked, but when I tried to get her to laugh, she seemed to get even more pissed at me — like being able to pretend everything was fine somehow made me a bigger jerk than she already thought I was, even though it’s what she said she wanted. But I didn’t try to point that out.

By yesterday after school, we were back to her not talking, at all, but she took me to get my money from Mr. Anders anyway, like she promised. She didn’t say a word the whole way there, at least not to me — she seemed to be arguing with someone in her head. The whole time I was in with Mr. Anders, I kept wondering if I’d come back out to find she’d left me there, stranded across town, just out of spite. When I got back into the car, she was looking at the map again.

I waved my pay envelope at her.

“So, you’re all ready to go?”

Took me a few seconds to answer, because it sounded more like an accusation than a question. “Yeah. Pretty much.”

She traced my route across the map. Her finger followed the orange highlighter across the spiderwebs of roads and ghostly state lines, past landmarks and cities, over rivers and mountains, snaking along the bottom of two huge patches of lake blue before pressing down over Madison, Wisconsin, like she could make me forget by hiding the destination.

“What if your dad decides you have to turn it in tomorrow instead of Thursday?”

“He won’t. Early day at a site out by Johnstown. He’ll be gone early and home late. Hopefully.”

Her hand was still on the map, hiding Madison and its star. “You know this sucks, right?”

I didn’t try to answer. I knew many things sucked right now, but I wasn’t gonna try to figure out exactly which one she meant, especially since I was starting to get a little pissed off myself. Why couldn’t she see that I needed to do this alone? But I just let her fume and kept my mouth shut — I’d had enough practice at that with Dad. I needed the car.

Eventually, she slid the map closed and turned in the seat to face me. She held it to her chest and we had a staring contest, but eventually she handed it over.

When she dropped me off, I thought she was gonna say something else. But she didn’t. When I reached for the handle to open the door, she laughed, but it was a bitter, awful sound. Made me panic.

I left her two messages last night, but she didn’t call back. Until I got her text this morning — I said id be there — I wasn’t sure she was gonna show up.

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