At the drugstore we look through the candy aisle. I find a candy bar that matches the one I ate. It costs ninety-eight cents. I would like to eat it so I ask Maura if I can get two—one for me and one for Michelle Whipple—and she says no, that would defeat the whole point. Then I ask if I can split it with her and she still says no. So I pick up the candy bar and we bring it to the cash register. I don’t want to put it down on the counter. I want to hold it and keep on holding it and open it and put it in my mouth. It will be delicious. But Maura looks at me and says, “Ginny, it’s time to put the candy bar down.” So I do.
The lady behind the counter picks it up and scans it with a red light. Then she says, “Ninety-eight cents.” I take a twenty-dollar bill out of my pocket and say, “Here,” and drop it on the counter.
“Ginny, that’s not how we hand something to someone,” Maura says. Then to the lady she says, “I’m sorry, my—Ginny is special.”
The lady nods her head and makes a half smile with her mouth.
“She’s adopted,” Maura says.
“Really?” says the lady. “How long has she been with you?”
“About two years,” says Maura.
“Wow!” says the lady. “I have a cousin who just adopted a baby from Korea. It’s such a beautiful thing, adoption. It’s the most unselfish thing a person can do. And you adopted a teenager! I don’t think anyone could resist adopting a baby if they were in a position to do something like that, but it takes a really selfless person to adopt a teenager. And a special one to boot.”
Then the lady looks at me. “Your mom is really awesome,” she says. And then, “Do you call her that? Mom, I mean?”
Maura looks at me. “No,” I say.
Then I pick up the money. I pinch a tiny corner and lift it. I hold it out to her. “Here,” I say again.
The lady takes it and puts it in the drawer of her cash register. She gives me a ten-dollar bill and a five-dollar bill and then four one-dollar bills and two pennies.
And I say, “Seriously?”
“Is something wrong?” says the lady.
“What is it, Ginny?” Maura says.
“That woman gave me a ten-dollar bill and a five-dollar bill and four one-dollar bills and two pennies,” I say.
“That’s your change,” Maura says. “Put it in your pocket so we can go home.”
I put the money in my pocket and we go back to the car. Now I have a lot more money than I had before. Gloria will be excited. I’m guessing she never knew how to make money by buying things. My new trick will help us get money when we go up to Canada. Getting money was always hard for her. That was why she liked free things so much. When we were living in the Green Car before my Baby Doll came we used to go to the grocery store when it was time to eat. We would get free cookie samples from the bakery. Or slices of meat from the deli. Virginia smoked ham was my favorite. Could I have another piece of that Virginia smoked ham? Gloria used to say. My daughter is a picky eater. I want to see if she likes it.
But after a while the people in the grocery store stopped giving us free samples. A man in a blue coat came out from behind a door and asked Gloria to shop somewhere else so she got mad and yelled at him and in the parking lot she peeled out.
We’ll just have to expand our range, she said to me when we were driving out of the parking lot.
“Ginny?”
I come up out of my brain. I am not in the Green Car. “What?”
“Do you understand that it’s wrong to take things that aren’t yours?”
I nod my head yes even though I know sometimes you have to.
“We have plenty to eat at the Blue House. You don’t have to take food or hide it anymore. If you want to bring an extra snack to school, you have to tell me,” she says. “We can’t have any more incidents. It’s all just too much. Okay?”
“Okay,” I say.
68
EXACTLY 3:12 IN THE AFTERNOON,
FRIDAY, JANUARY 14TH
I used to play Flap, Flap, Flap, Tent! with my Baby Doll. It was an easy game to play. You hold the edge of a shirt in two hands and flap it three times so that it makes wind on the baby’s face and then on the third flap you let the shirt rest on its head. But you keep holding it so that it makes a tent and then you look under it so that both of you are inside. And the baby laughs. So you do it again.
But I don’t have to use a shirt now because Baby Wendy has a family and nice things. It has a mom and a dad who take good care of it. It even has its own bed.
I am playing Flap, Flap, Flap, Tent! with Baby Wendy right now. We are using a white burp cloth.
Maura is on the couch. Asleep. She was sitting next to Baby Wendy while I did my homework at the kitchen table and then her eyes closed. Baby Wendy was next to her in its bouncy seat. It started to fuss so I picked up the burp cloth and started playing Flap, Flap, Flap, Tent! with it.
Now Baby Wendy is laughing and laughing. I am kneeling in front of it. It makes a surprised face when I make my mouth and eyes turn into round circles and it waves its arms while the cloth is flapping and then every time I say Tent! a laugh comes up from its belly. The laugh makes it smile and look into my eyes.
I play Flap, Flap, Flap, Tent! nine times with Baby Wendy. I am careful not to touch it because I remember the most important rule. It laughs and laughs and laughs. I look over at Maura. She is still asleep. Then when I look back at Baby Wendy Maura moves her arms. She stretches. Her eyes open.
I put the white cloth down on my lap and wait.
She doesn’t move. “What’s the most important rule?” she says.
“I will not touch Baby Wendy whatsoever,” I say.
She sits up. She looks at the clock. “Did you touch her?”
I shake my head no.
“Then what are you doing with the burp cloth?”
“Playing Flap, Flap, Flap, Tent!” I say.
“What is that?”
“A game I used to play with my Baby Doll,” I say. “You flap the cloth and make wind.”
Maura sits up. “Let me clarify the rule for you,” she says. “Touching means touching with your hands or with an object. Now, what’s in your hand?”
“A white cloth,” I say.
“And a white cloth is an object,” she says. “So, are you allowed to play that game with Wendy?”
I think. Then I shake my head no. I put the white cloth down on the ground.
“Good,” says Maura.
I stand up. Baby Wendy laughs when I move past it.
Maura looks surprised. “Did you just laugh?” she says to Baby Wendy.
Baby Wendy doesn’t answer so I nod my head yes for it.
Maura gets down on the floor in front of the bouncy seat. Where I was. It is like she wants to take my place. She kisses Baby Wendy on the head and says to it, “Can you laugh again for Mommy?” But Baby Wendy doesn’t laugh. I am glad.
I know it won’t laugh because I’m not playing Flap, Flap, Flap, Tent! with it anymore. I know it laughed when I stood up because it thought I was still playing. So I say, “It wants to play the game some more.”
Maura looks at me then at Baby Wendy again. “Show me,” she says.
So I kneel down in front of it and pick up the cloth. I make my mouth and eyes into big round circles. Baby Wendy picks up its hands. Then I lift the cloth high and bring it down nice and slow. The wind makes the baby’s hair move. It closes its eyes and mouth and opens them again. Its feet and hands start to wave. After the third flap I say, “Tent!” and bend forward and let the cloth cover our heads.