“Who?”
“Phyllis Kirk’s mother.”
“Phyllis Kirk, the actress?”
“Yes, isn’t that something? And she told me Phyllis is up for a big part in a Vincent Price movie. And it’s going to be in 3-D.”
“What does that mean?” Miri asked.
“I’m not sure.”
Now the figure in the other bed sat up. She was so thin Miri was sure she’d been in a concentration camp. Next to her Natalie seemed almost healthy. Natalie, at least, had some color in her cheeks.
The skeleton said, “You have to wear special glasses and it looks like things are jumping out at you.”
“How do you know?” Miri asked.
The girl shrugged.
“Lulu knows a lot,” Natalie said.
So, the skeleton had a name.
“How come they let you see a friend?” Lulu asked Natalie.
“I don’t know,” Natalie said.
“Friends can make you feel worse about yourself,” Lulu said.
“I don’t want to do that,” Miri told her.
“You don’t want to, but you might anyway.”
“Should I go?” Miri asked, hoping the answer was yes.
“Why don’t you just shut up for once, Lulu?” Natalie said.
Lulu laughed. “So are you from Plane Crash City, too?” she asked Miri, swooping her free arm around like a plane taking off, then coming straight down, onto her bed. “Boom!”
“Come on.” Natalie grabbed Miri by the sleeve and pulled her out of the room, then down the hall to a sunroom, where other kids had visitors, too. Many of the kids had braces on their legs. Some had crutches. Others were in wheelchairs, their legs straight out in plaster casts. “They had polio,” Natalie explained. “They’re learning to walk again. If you want milk and cookies they’re on a table over there.” She pointed across the room.
“What about you?”
“I don’t drink milk or eat cookies.”
“Okay.” Miri helped herself to two shortbread cookies and a small cup of milk.
She sat down on a sofa next to Natalie.
“My hair is growing back.” Natalie said.
“I didn’t know you cut it.”
“I didn’t. It was falling out. From my condition.”
Miri was dying to ask, What condition? But she was trying to act ordinary, like it was just another day. “It looks good. Like always.”
“Lulu and I are the only freaks here. We didn’t have polio, and we don’t have cerebral palsy. What’s happening at school?”
Wait—what do you mean freaks? Miri wanted to ask. Instead she said, “School…you know…the usual, except I was almost expelled.”
“You, Goody Two-Shoes? What’d you do?”
“Wrote a story for the paper Mr. Royer didn’t like, so I handed it out on my own.” And I’m not Goody Two-Shoes, she wanted to add, but didn’t. “The chorus is practicing for graduation. We’re singing ‘Younger Than Springtime.’?”
“I hate that song.”
“It’s pretty sappy.”
“What about you…are you still in love with Mason?”
“We’re still the same.”
“Why won’t you admit you’re in love?”
Miri didn’t answer. Didn’t say she was afraid to call it love, although it was love, and not puppy love, either. It was something much deeper now. Last week, in Irene’s basement, she took his hand and placed it on her breast. It bothered her that he never tried to get to second base, never mind third. Why didn’t he want to go any further with her? As an experiment she pulled her sweater over her head. His hands on her naked back were almost more than she could stand. But she didn’t stop there. She reached around and unhooked her bra, showing him her breasts. Neither one of them spoke for the longest time. Then he said, “What are you doing?”
“I want you to touch me.” She took his hands and placed them on her perfect A-cup breasts.
She could hear his breath quicken as he ran his hands over them. And she felt something, too, something down there, the way she did at night in her bed when she touched herself.
“It’s not a good idea,” he said.
“Why?” she asked, kissing him.
“Suppose I can’t stop?”
“I’ll stop you.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I just wanted to make sure…”
“What?”
“That you like me that way.” She put her bra back on, pulled on her sweater.
“And now?” he asked.
“Now I know you do.”
She couldn’t tell Natalie or anyone how much she cared. Probably Rusty once loved Mike Monsky, or thought she had. And look how that ended.
“What are the girls saying about me?” Natalie asked, bringing Miri back to the moment.
“They hope you’ll get better soon.”
“What do they think is wrong with me?”
“None of us knows what’s wrong.”
“Do they laugh when they talk about me?”