Everything Grows by Aimee Herman

Author:Aimee Herman [Herman, Aimee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781941110683
Publisher: Three Rooms Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

DEAR ELINORE.

I SHARE A BIRTHDAY WITH WILLIAM PAILES. YOU PROBABLY DON’T KNOW WHO HE IS, BUT WHEN I DID A REPORT IN SIXTH GRADE ABOUT FAMOUS PEOPLE FROM NEW JERSEY, I LEARNED ABOUT HIM. HE’S AN ASTRONAUT AND WE WERE BOTH BORN JUNE 26TH, JUST MANY, MANY YEARS APART. WILL I EVER BE IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO BE MENTIONED IN SOMEONE’S SCHOOL REPORT? PART OF ME HOPES SO, BUT AT THE END OF EACH DAY I WONDER HOW I’LL MAKE IT TO THE NEXT.

Saturday, November 27

Dear James,

I may need to get a new notebook because so much happened yesterday, I can barely believe it all fit inside one day!

After a restless sleep full of dreams about dancing turkeys and oceans full of cornstarch and chicken bouillon, Shirley announced that she wanted to take me clothes shopping.

“You wear the same thing every day,” she said. “You’re beginning to smell.”

To say that I hate shopping is not strong enough. Is loathe meaner than hate? I would rather dig beneath my fingernails and pull them up. Then eat them. Then regurgitate them. Then eat that.

MY LIST OF THINGS I HATE

(Dad says it’s not nice to hate, but don’t you think some things are deserving of it?)

1.Shopping of all sorts (clothes, shoes, household stuff). Wait, actually I do like food shopping, but that’s because sometimes there are free samples.

2.Elvis music. Flor once told me that you are either a Beatles or an Elvis fan. Obviously, Beatles for me. They are just the coolest. I guess I feel like you shouldn’t have to move your hips all weird and wear sparkles to get your point across. I don’t hate hate him, maybe it’s more dislike. Okay, I guess Elvis comes off.

3.Mushrooms. Slippery, smelly, and they’re a fungus!

4.Homophobes. No need to really explain that one.

5.When it snows on a school day, but we don’t get off. Not fair!

6.Elevator music. I don’t know, I guess it’s just kinda depressing.

7.Math.

8.You used to be on this list, James, but I’m retiring your name. I just can’t hate you anymore.

9.Music where the singer screams at me. Minus Kurt. His screams are like necessary. And beautiful.

10.Pop quizzes.

After finally finding a parking spot, Shirley and I entered through the double doors of Macy’s at the Freehold Raceway mall. It smelled of old lady perfume and cigarette smoke. Even though there is a designated smoking section, the scent of burnt tobacco wafted throughout each floor. I think that if they ever ban smoking from this place, it will forever smell like Marlboro Reds or Shirley’s Salems. Luckily, we don’t have to go to the smoking section anymore, since Shirley pretty much quit.

We headed to the junior’s section—I hate that it’s called that, though I’m not sure why. I’ll have to add that to my list too.

Shirley and I do not share the same taste for clothing. She likes turtlenecks and jeans that strangle ankles. She wears sweaters with unidentified animals on them. I prefer my clothes to barely touch my skin. Loose. Comfortable. I don’t waste time on patterns or matching tops to bottoms.

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