What Comes After by Steve Watkins

Author:Steve Watkins
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780763654627
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2011-11-12T22:00:00+00:00

Mindy was waiting for me the next afternoon when I got back from my first ferret walk. It was a Thursday, but I hadn’t gone back to school.

She stood on the front steps with Mrs. Tuten. It looked as if they’d been there for a while. Mindy asked if I wanted to go for a walk, and right away I didn’t like the sound of things.

“I just did,” I said.

“Without the ferrets, then,” she said.

I took in Mindy’s outfit. She was wearing a tight calf-length skirt and high heels. Not ideal for walking. I handed the leashes to Mrs. Tuten and shoved my hands as deep as I could get them in the pockets of my black hoodie. It was cold, and I hugged myself but didn’t like feeling my ribs. One time Dad had to put down three horses that an old farmer had starved nearly to death. It wasn’t on purpose; the farmer had Alzheimer’s and had hung on to his farm too long. I wondered if I was starting to look like those poor horses. Maybe someone would put me down, too.

We walked a couple of blocks before Mindy began talking. I should have been icing my ankle; my limp got worse, but Mindy didn’t notice. She shivered without her coat and wobbled along beside me in her high heels.

“The reason we haven’t been able to reach your friend or her mother is because they’ve been staying in Portland with relatives. I believe there’s a younger brother with them as well. The father is still living in the house, but he’s not answering the phone. The school put me in touch with the mother. There’s been a separation.”

I stopped. “Are they getting a divorce?”

“I don’t know,” Mindy said. “That has to be a possibility.”

“When did they get separated?” I asked.

Mindy shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t know that, either, Iris.”

“Then what do you know?” I snapped, but I didn’t wait for her to answer. “Just give me the phone number in Portland,” I said. “I’ll call Beatrice myself.”

“I can’t do that, Iris,” Mindy said. “You’ll have to be patient. I gave Beatrice’s mother the Tutens’ phone number, and I’m sure your friend will call you as soon as she can. Things are just very difficult for them right now. I know this is sad for you, and I’m so sorry, sweetie. I really am.”

She tried to put her arm around me, but I stepped away from her. She thought I was sad, but it wasn’t that at all. I was angry — at Beatrice and her parents. How could they not appreciate everything they had? How the hell could they throw it all away? And for what?

Mindy tilted her head to the side sympathetically and said those damn words again: “You just have to hang in there, Iris.”

I stared up at the sky through the mostly bare branches of a sickly elm tree. Cirrus clouds were racing south on fast-forward — so fast it made me dizzy.

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