The Time-Traveling Popcorn Ball by Aster Glenn Gray

Author:Aster Glenn Gray [Gray, Aster Glenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

I liked it best when I went back to Rosie’s time. I liked being invisible, so that only Rosie could see or hear me, and I liked even more that she would drop everything to come play with me whenever I showed up.

But I didn’t have the guts to do the same thing for her. Of course, I enjoyed it when she showed up at my house, as long as no one was home. One night, when Angela had gone to a sleepover with her friends, Rosie showed up and cast herself on the floor in despair.

“My mom made me a lemon and raspberry cake for my birthday,” she said, “and my friends wouldn’t even try the cake. Well – Linda took a bite off of mine. Wouldn’t you think that people would at least want to try?”

“I would eat it,” I said. “I did eat it. Or I guess for you, I will eat it.”

“It’s too bad you couldn’t come to my birthday party,” Rosie said moodily. “If you went to someone’s birthday party, wouldn’t you try their cake, just to be polite?”

“Let’s have our own party,” I suggested, to distract her. “A dance party.”

“Dance party?”

“Yeah! Angela brought her iPod speakers. And we’ve got this whole room set up for a dance studio, you know.”

Rosie loved the iPod. Once I’d shown her how to scroll through, she whizzed up and down the list of song titles, dashing her finger across the screen. “This is great!” she cried. “Oh my gosh, wouldn’t it be great to be able to do this with books? You just click on a title and another book appears! Only maybe I wouldn’t ever finish any books. Just imagine trying to read Daddy-long-legs and checking out every title that Judy reads!”

“Daddy-long-legs? Is it another spider book – like Charlotte’s Web?”

“No! Nothing at all like that. Although it’s awesome too.”

I frowned. “I do like Charlotte’s Web,” I said. “I mean, I like the talking animals, and Charlotte, and Templeton the Rat. But I don’t get the end – I don’t see why Fern gives up the talking animals. Why can’t she be interested in both animals and boys?”

“I know!” Rosie yelled, so passionate that she actually tore her eyes away from the iPod screen. “I know, I know, I know! Millie says I’ll understand when I’m older, but I won’t, I won’t, I absolutely refuse to ever get older enough to understand giving up talking animals in favor of some boy who took me on a Ferris wheel!”

“I’ve never seen you older than twelve,” I said.

“Clearly I figured out a way to be Peter Pan!” said Rosie, and skimmed through the songs again. “Wheee!”

But I felt uneasy. Why hadn’t I seen her any older than twelve? Had some boy taken her on a Ferris wheel, and she forgot about me?

Or had something worse happened? Had she moved away, or…

I snatched the iPod out of her hands and picked a song at random: Lady Gaga. The sudden burst of sound drove away my thoughts, but it made Rosie indignant.

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