Wirewalker by Mary Hall

Author:Mary Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2016-08-09T17:23:06+00:00

ENTRANCE AND EXIT

The boy Ms. Moffett wanted him to mentor was named Billie Wade, a seventh grader who apparently suffered from two kinds of trouble. “Trouble in school, and trouble in general,” Ms. Moffett informed Clarence as they sat together in the Stonewall Jackson lunch room after school. “And I have to be honest with you, Clarence. From what everyone here tells me, he isn’t a nice boy.” She glanced down at the piece of paper in her hand and shook her head. “Not a nice boy, but maybe a boy with some good in him, down deep. You of all people know the difference between nice and good.”

Clarence nodded, keeping his burned hand in his lap, in a painful fist that would hide his injury. He understood, all right. Nice was easy. It was like washing your hair, brushing your teeth, and sliding into a clean set of clothes. It was nothing more than dressing yourself up and looking pretty for the world. Anyone could wear Nice, even his dad and Johnnyprice sometimes. Even Y, if it meant he’d get what he wanted. But Good? Good might be buried underneath all that Nice, though for most people, himself included, Good was a lot harder to come by.

From across the table, Ms. Moffett’s orange lips formed a weak smile that looked like it took some effort. “So I’m having him meet us here. Mrs. Danielson will be walking him over; he should be showing up any minute now. Any. Minute. Now.” She adjusted her glasses, then adjusted them again, then removed the orange tip of her pinky nail with her teeth.

“Are you nervous, Ms. Moffett?” Clarence asked, though he realized, just after he’d spoken, that it might not be a question a kid should ask his teacher, not even in high school. Ms. Moffett didn’t seem bothered, but it did take her a while to answer.

“I am,” she finally said. “I’m asking a lot of you here. Are you sure you want to do this, Clarence? Would you honestly tell me if you didn’t?” Now he was the one who needed some time to answer. Would he actually say no to her about anything, this Ms. Moffett, who made him feel normal and happy and maybe even Good sometimes? He didn’t have an answer to that question, so he offered the truth as he knew it.

“What I know is that I want to do this,” he said, and he smiled at her without even thinking about it. “That should be enough, that I want to, right?”

“Clarence.” She reached over and laid her tiny hand on his for a moment. “You are a wonderful boy.” Clarence knew that from that moment on, he’d have to keep giving her reasons to believe that. Like Mona and Mr. K, Ms. Moffett saw things in him that he didn’t. Clarence wasn’t sure if those things were actually there, but he knew Ms. Moffett already helped him, on the daily, to walk safely on the wire that ran between his selves and his worlds.

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