The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein

Author:Rachel Klein [Rachel Klein]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780571296569
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2012-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

January 10

Lucy was annoyed with me for going out all afternoon yesterday, so I promised her I would spend Sunday with her. After lunch we rode on the train out into the country and went skating on Crumb Creek. It’s gotten so cold this last week that the creek is frozen. Last year we did this practically every weekend in the winter. We were able to skate quite a ways down the creek. As we glided over the black ice, I looked up at the crisp blue winter sky, and I thought, I should remember this moment. My skates are a bit tight, and my feet ache. My fingers and toes are practically numb, but the sun is so bright that I’m sweating under my jacket. I feel perfectly happy right now.

We came to a bend in the creek, where it gets wider and a steep hill comes right down to the water. On the other side, the bare black branches of weeping willows brush the bank. Two boys were sliding down the hill on pieces of cardboard and what looked like a tray from a cafeteria. We slid down with them a few times, which was pretty hard since we were wearing our skates.

Lucy went down on the cardboard with one of the boys, and they fell off near the bottom. He was lying on top of her, and they stayed like that for a long time, not kissing, just lying together in the snow. When she got up, she was bright red in the face. On the way back, the day already seemed far away.

My mother’s had affairs, even when she was married to my father, I think. She always makes fun of me and asks me when I’m going to get a boyfriend. I keep telling her that no one is ever interested in me at the tea dances. They always want to dance with someone like Lucy, someone with blond hair and pale eyes. “There’s something so passive about her. She’s not quite there,” my mother once said of Lucy. “You’re the real beauty, with your dark hair and lovely skin. One day the boys will grow up, and suddenly they’ll notice you.” It puzzles me when she talks like this.

Besides, the last thing I want is a boyfriend. Last year for the May Dance, Linda Cates set me and Carol up with her younger brother and a friend. I got the friend. I was surprised that Linda asked me. I had no idea why. I’m not at all like Carol, who has thick brownish-blond hair that curls up naturally at the ends and a little upturned nose. I was sure the boys would be sophisticated like Linda, and I was excited for weeks before the dance. Lucy and I went to a fancy shop and picked out a dress of green silk with big pink and yellow flowers. It’s the only long dress I’ve ever worn. The boys arrived for the weekend, and we met them at the train station.

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