Where the Road Goes by Joanne Greenberg

Author:Joanne Greenberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

Sol

DIARY ENTRY

April 21 , Pahrump

No sense of forward movement. Valley has yielded to up and down. The land lies watering away in false mirages. The Walk defends itself. Knock Knock jokes. Knock Knock. Who’s there? Effervescent. Effervescent who? Effervescent for this Walk, I’d be in Hawaii. Next day—Tom Swifties, the next, What Did The jokes. These idiotic word plays are funnier than they were when we were six. We laugh uproariously and from the substrates of her memory, Poppy draws up amazing numbers of them. She pulled a tendon and limps. She cut my hair—a feather cut—all the charm of wet feathers.

Next big stop—Las Vegas. Kevin’s lip curls when he says the name. Such places are excrescences that should be wiped off the face of the earth. The Puritan in him shines forth in its blunderbuss fustiness. “Get him,” Poppy smiles at me in the shimmering twilight. Have I noticed the night arrangements around here? If we stayed in one place, there’d be a path worn eight inches deep leading to Kevin’s tent.

I was ashamed to admit I hadn’t noticed. I looked. At first, I thought it was the girls preening before him. Poppy said I should watch him move through The Walk, combing it, grooming it.

So what? He makes us feel merry, courageous, necessary. The Walk, his moves say, is important. You and you and you are vital parts. Had we heard what the Park Ranger said about us and our questionnaire? The best group he’d had all season; an excellent focus on environmental issues. I found myself smiling up at him. I looked over at Poppy, whose face was gleeful and smug.

Yes, I saw him, combing and grooming, as she said. He put his gaze on two of the girls, just for a second. It’s normal enough. The Walk must have elements of a year-long lark, if you’re young. Kevin is attractive—I, too, feel the warmth of his approving smile and am cheered on by his approving word.

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