Amber Brown Is Feeling Blue (2 page)

On the “Zero Square,” he’s written “Reunion” and he’s drawn more hearts.

Only fourteen more days to check off…. I can’t wait.

I, Amber Brown, have just seen a ghost.

Actually, I’ve just seen three ghosts.

Actually, I’ve just seen three ghosts, two werewolves, fourteen superheroes, five princesses, one devil, seven skeletons, six headless people, and a partridge in a pear tree.

I, Amber Brown, am dressed as a crayon and am handing out Halloween candy.

After school, my friend Brandi and I did our trick-or-treating, and I got three bags of stuff. So now I’m helping my mom hand out treats, and I’m still wearing my crayon costume, the one that I made all by myself.

When I was growing up, I hated my name, hated being teased about being the shade of a crayon, and I never would have dressed as a crayon.

Now that I’m in fourth grade, I, Amber Brown, am proud of my name.

It’s a very colorful name for a very colorful person…. That’s what my mom always tells me. I like having a unique name, one that no one else has. That’s why I made my costume.

I forget what I’m wearing and start to sit down on the sofa. It doesn’t work.

The only problem with being dressed as a crayon is that it is very hard to sit down and it’s a pain to keep taking it off so for the past four hours I’ve been standing. Actually, there is another problem about being dressed as a crayon, but I don’t want to talk about it because it has to do with trying to go to the bathroom.

I, Amber Brown, am one very tired crayon.

I’m also a very full crayon, having eaten lots of things from my own trick-or-treating and from what we’re giving away: candy corn, Tootsie Rolls, and Fruit Roll-Ups.

We’re also giving away some of the stuff that I got when I went trick-or-treating, things like granola bars and packages of trail mix.

The doorbell rings.

It’s someone dressed as a pizza man.

He’s wearing the uniform and a mask.

He’s also carrying a pizza box.

I, Amber Brown, can smell pizza, real pizza.

I know that smell a mile away.

Either the pizza man is carrying real hot pizza or he’s wearing a cologne that smells like pizza.

Maybe when I grow up that’s what I should give my friend Justin, who moved away ……. eau de pizza. Justin would probably like eau de pizza with pepperoni …. but without anchovies.

“TREAT…. NO TRICK,” the pizza man yells out.

I know that voice.

It’s Max.

My mom walks into the room.

She’s dressed as a Halloween pumpkin, wearing a huge orange sweatshirt with one of those paper-accordionlike pumpkins on her head. It’s a little embarrassing to see my own mother dressed like that, but at least she’s not wearing it outside, where my friends can see her.

“Now, that is what I call a treat.” She grins.

Max hands me the box of pizza and goes over to her.

They hug and kiss.

Then they look at each other and laugh.

Then they hug and kiss again.

“Cut the mush,” I yell.

They turn and look at me.

Max walks over, picks me up sideways, and pretends to be writing on the wall as if I really am a crayon.

“I LOVE YOU, SARAH AND AMBER,” he says, spelling out the words.

The way he moves me is making me a little sick …. especially at the O, the U, and the B. It’s either that or all the candy corn, the Tootsie Rolls, and the Fruit Roll-Ups …….. that, plus the fact that I haven’t gone to the bathroom since I’ve put the costume on.

Max puts me down.

I make sure that my costume is still OK.

Max and my mother make sure that their lips can still magnetize to each other’s.

It’s still a little weird to see Mom and Max kiss.

Even though my mom and my dad didn’t kiss very much when they were still married, at least not in front of me, it makes me a little embarrassed to see Mom and Max liplock.

I can feel myself blush.

Maybe on my crayon I should change the name of the color from Amber Brown to Cherry Red.

I go over to Mom and Max and step on their toes.

“TRICK OR TREAT,” I say, holding the pizza box.

Max grins. “I’m the one who should be saying ‘trick or treat.’ Just wait until I tell you what I have planned for us to do.”

I, Amber Brown, feel like a wax crayon that is beginning to melt.

I take off my costume and rush to the bathroom.

Life as a noncrayon is much easier than life as a crayon.

When I return, my mom is opening the pizza box.

“Yum,” she says.

Glup
, I think.

I’m so full from all the candy that I’ve eaten, I bet I can’t eat a thing. It’s pizza with black olives.

I, Amber Brown, have developed a taste for black olives.

My stomach feels like there is a small place in it where the pizza can fit.

I quickly decide which piece has the most black olives on it and pick that one up.

I wonder what pizza with candy corn would taste like.

I take some out of my pocket and put it on my slice, hoping no one notices.

“Amber, I know that the food gets mixed up in your stomach, but the candy corn on your pizza looks repulsive.” My mom shakes her head.

“Thank you,” I say, licking the cheese off one of the corns and putting some of the candy on the table. “It’s a new recipe. Try it.”

Max puts a few pieces on his slice.

My mother makes a face and doesn’t try it.

“I just spoke to Alice,” Max says.

“How is she?” my mom asks.

“Who is she?” I ask.

“Alice is my sister.” Max takes a bite of his pizza and says, “Amber, honey, I don’t think that candy corn is going to catch on as a new topping.”

Alice. She’s the person who changed my life and my mom’s life. When she worked with Mom, she introduced her to Max, and then she moved away. I don’t think that she moved because she was nervous about what
if they didn’t like each other and blamed her. But I don’t know for sure, because she moved away while I was in England with my Aunt Pam.

Max continues, “She’s not very happy now. She and Bob broke up, and she really doesn’t know many people in Walla Walla, and she doesn’t like her job.”

Walla Walla. I wonder if anyone can say the name of that place without smiling. Walla Walla.

“She’d love to leave,” Max continues, “but Jade’s just gotten used to the move and her new school. So she’s going to stay until the end of the school year. She can save up some money and decide then. She didn’t want me to help out with the move right now.”

I wonder what Max’s plan is, what the treat is going to be. I also wonder if all of this talk about Alice, Jade, and Walla Walla has anything to do with Max’s treat. Mom is always telling me that I have to learn to
be patient and listen and wait. So I, Amber Brown, am trying to be patient and listen and wait. That’s not always easy.

I think about how Jade’s name is also a color.

Then I think about how no one else should have been given the name of a color after I was born.

I, Amber Brown, really like being original.

At least Jade doesn’t have two names that are each a color and together make still another color.

Max and Mom start talking about how neither of them ever liked Bob, whom Alice had dated for only about six months before they moved to Walla Walla.

I’m glad that Max and Mom didn’t do anything like that.

I’m glad that they’re waiting for a while to get married. I, Amber Brown, don’t think I can go through another breakup.

It was awful when my parents split up.

It would kill me if Mom and Max did split up ….. unless it means that when my dad moves back from Paris, my parents make up and get back together again.

I don’t think that’s going to happen, though, and if it did, it would probably be a disaster. And if my mom and dad did get back together, what would happen to Max? I can’t imagine not having him in my life.

I think about Jade, Alice’s six-year-old, and feel bad for her. Her father leaves before she’s born, never comes back, and never gets in touch.

My dad went to Paris to work, but he’s always in touch, and he’s coming back.

And Max cares about me, too.

I feel bad for Jade.

“So, Amber, what do you think?” Mom asks.

I don’t want to tell her that I’ve been thinking about lots of stuff, especially that
I was thinking about my dad and I was not listening to their conversation. I just shrug.

“Amber,” Mom says, “don’t you want to go to Walla Walla for Thanksgiving? Won’t that be fun?”

I, Amber Brown, am very surprised.

Walla Walla for Thanksgiving…

“Where is Walla Walla?” I ask.

“Washington … the state,” Mom informs me.

Walla Walla, Washington ….
That’s so far away
, I think. That’s also a lot of W’s.

We have only four days off from school.

“How are we going to get there? Where will we stay? Will Mom still make her sweet potato pie?” I love my mom’s sweet potato pie.

Max answers: “I’ll buy the plane tickets. We’ll leave right after school ends. There’s a flight that leaves from Newark airport. We’ll arrive late in Walla Walla …. but, remember,
there is a time difference between Newark and Washington State, so it won’t seem so late.”