Georgie's Moon (6 page)

“What's that supposed to mean?” Georgie asked.

“As I said earlier, Georgie, your mother and I have talked.”

Georgie had made a mistake letting Mrs. Donovan get to her. She began staring at Mrs. Donovan's glasses again and let her rattle on. Georgie tried to bring back the memory she had earlier of her dad writing out her battle plan. She could see him running his left hand through his hair as he wrote. The memory made her feel calm and safe.

“It looks as if we're not gaining much ground today, are we?” Mrs. Donovan said. “I'll let you go back to class.”

She picked up Georgie's books and handed them to her. “I wouldn't want you to have to come back for them.” She gave a small smile.

Georgie ignored the remark and grabbed the books.

“Oh, Georgie,” Mrs. Donovan said, “just so you know, I'll pull you from class again from time to time. To talk more.”

“Great. Just make sure it's during home ec.” Georgie opened the door. “I stink at cooking.”

8

Georgie looked at her bedroom clock. Lisa would just be getting off the bus at the corner of Fifth and Pine Street. They had agreed to meet there at nine-thirty Saturday morning, then walk together to the Sunset Home.

Georgie was still annoyed about the way Lisa had acted in Mr. Gordon's office and afterward. “Oh, you don't think they'll call our parents, do you, Georgie? I'll just
die
if they call my dad!” Georgie hoped they
would
call if Lisa was going to be such a crybaby about it.

Georgie threw on her granny sunglasses and a huge hat like the ones people wear on safaris. She didn't even brush her hair. The bus stop was a short distance from her house, so she took her time walking there.

When she saw Lisa anxiously pacing at the bus stop, with a wide-eyed, worried look, Georgie felt even more annoyed.

“Georgie! I've been waiting for ten minutes. I'm so glad you're here.”

“Let's get this over with” was the only greeting Georgie gave Lisa.

“Are you mad?” Lisa asked.

“We're working for free at an old folks' home, Lisa. I should act happy?”

“But we could've had our pick of projects if we hadn't played that trick!” Lisa said.

Georgie looked over the top of her sunglasses. “Has anyone ever told you how irritating you are when you whine?”

Lisa sucked in her breath. They walked in silence until they came to the sign that said
SUNSET HOME FOR THE AGED
.

“I don't think it's a nursing home, Georgie. It looks more like a retirement home or a place where you go when you need a little help taking care of yourself.”

“That probably means they clean out their own bedpans.” Georgie snorted. “Some improvement.”

“The place must have been pretty at one time, don't you think?” asked Lisa. “I mean, those tall peaks might look kind of like princess towers if you were a little kid.”

Georgie looked and she knew what Lisa meant. The main part of the building probably had been a stately house at one time, but one-story modern wings had been added to each side. They didn't go together at all.

“Yeah,” Georgie said. “But now it looks kinda bizarre. Which is a heck of a lot better than pretty, if you ask me.”

“I don't think
bizarre
is the right word. Disrespectful, maybe.”

“Disrespectful!” Georgie said. “To a building?” She chuckled. “I'll bet you're a writer, aren't you? One of those artsy people?”

Lisa looked at Georgie so fast and with such a stricken face that Georgie almost felt bad. She took off the safari hat, scratched her head, and crammed the hat back down on her hair. “Oh, forget it. It was just a guess. Besides, everybody has their quirks.”

When Lisa didn't say anything, Georgie said, “Just ring the doorbell. Maybe we'll get lucky and no one will answer.”

“They have a staff. Someone will answer.” Lisa pushed the button.

The door was slowly opened by a woman wearing a faded red dress that had to be from the 1940s. It had huge shoulder pads and a skirt that hung past the woman's knees. She wore a tight-fitting green hat with flowers all around it. Her hair was tucked up inside, but one very long gray strand escaped down the back.

“Good morning, girls,” she said. “Won't you come in?”

They stepped into the cool foyer. It took a few minutes to get used to the darkness after the sunlight.

Lisa said, “Hello, I'm Lisa Loutzenhiser.”

“Loutzenhiser! What an unusual name.”

“It's Italian,” Georgie said as she lifted the lid of an urn on the hall table.

“And this is Georgia Collins,” Lisa said.

Leave it to Lisa to remember her manners. Georgie peered into the urn.

“I see you've met Madge.” The woman waved her hand toward the urn. “She was a resident here. After she passed on, we decided to put her ashes in the entryway. Madge always loved it when company came to the door.”

Georgie dropped the lid so fast it clanked. She immediately recovered from the shock and said, “Far out!”

“Follow me,” the lady ordered.

Lisa started to follow, but Georgie pulled on the back of her shirt. She grabbed a used ashtray off the hall table and held it up for Lisa to see.

“Who do you suppose this was? Madge's husband?”

It was funny. How could Lisa not laugh? Instead she said, “Why don't you knock it off? Let's just be normal, all right?”

Georgie let go of Lisa's shirt as if it were on fire. “What's with you?”

“I just don't want to act stupid or goofy while we're here, that's all. What's wrong with that?”

There was plenty wrong with that. And plenty wrong with Lisa, too. Georgie sailed past her into the reception room.

“Georgie?” Lisa said.

Georgie ignored her.

“Now, what can I do for you girls?” the lady said.

“Um, we're from Glendale Middle School,” Lisa said.

“And?”

“We came to visit Mrs. Albertson.”

A side door creaked open and a large woman came in. Her caramel-colored skin contrasted with the white uniform she wore. “Aggy?” she said. “What are you doin'?”

The woman in the 1940s dress said in a childlike voice, “I was just playing, Camille. I was pretending to be the lady of the manor.”

“You know playin' is one thing. But you answer that door, you're supposed to be yourself,” the woman named Camille said. Aggy hung her head.

“So, you're the girls from the school?” Camille said. Lisa nodded.

“Aggy, you run on and tell Sophia she's got company.”

Aggy smiled so widely that her eyes turned into slits. “Okay!” She wobbled out of the room on her high heels.

“I'm Camille. I'm one of the nurse's aides here,” she said. “I can't tell you how tickled Sophia's gonna be to have company.” She said the word
company
as if it had no
a—comp'ny.
Her soft Southern accent reminded Georgie of her dad, and, despite herself, she felt her insides warm a little.

“Your school sent us a sign-in paper. Let me get it.” Camille rummaged through a drawer at the front desk. “Here we go. A letter came with it that said you were supposed to visit for two hours every week for six weeks.”

Lisa picked up the pen and filled out her line. She handed the pen to Georgie.

Georgie shook her head in disbelief.

“Come on, Georgie,” Lisa said. “I'm sure all the students have to do this.”

Georgie practically ripped the pen from Lisa's hand. “I don't like this. It's like they're spying on us or something.” She quickly signed and left Lisa to fill in the date and time for her.

Camille said, “Good, good. Now, come on. I'll take you to meet Sophia. You're just gonna love her. We all do.”

Lisa went through the door, but Georgie didn't move. Camille stopped and put her hands on her hips. “Come on, child. I ain't got all day and wouldn't want to waste it here if I did.” She stood in the doorway.

Georgie thought of leaving, but something about Camille's don't-argue-with-me attitude made Georgie slowly shuffle past her.

In the parlor Georgie saw an old gentleman carrying a box of checkers into a room. He walked with a cane. She saw two old women watching television. One of them was knitting.

“This is a nice place, Camille,” Lisa said. “You have so many homey touches, like the braided rugs on the floor and the doilies.”

“We try to make it as much like home as we can.”

Georgie couldn't help herself. “And don't forget that nice
homey
antiseptic smell.” She snorted. “If you ask me, keeping a dead person's ashes doesn't sound too much like home.”

Camille stopped and stared down at Georgie. “And what are you talkin' about?”

“That Aggy. She said Madge used to live here and now her ashes are in the urn by the front door.”

“I think Aggy's been watching that soap opera
Dark Shadows
again. Most of what she says comes from television.” Camille's expression didn't change. “We've never had a Madge, dead or alive. And you'd think a person who looks as smart as you would recognize salt when she sees it.”

“Salt?”

“For when the walk gets icy in the winter. We can't be havin' our residents fallin' on ice. Half of them can't walk good as it is.”

Camille stopped at room 17 and said, “You girls go on to the sitting room at the end of the hall. I'll bring Sophia down directly.”

Georgie flopped into a chair in the sitting room.

“It's not a bad place, don't you think?” Lisa asked.

Before Georgie could answer, Camille wheeled Sophia into the room.

“I'll leave you all here for a little visit,” Camille said. “We'll have treats after you get acquainted.”

Sophia sat in her wheelchair, a colorful afghan over her knees. She was thin, with wavy silver hair. Her face had a natural look of worry, as if the lines on it were etched that way permanently, even when she smiled at the girls.

“Hello, I'm Sophia Albertson. I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are.”

“I'm Lisa!” She was quick to answer. “Lisa Loutzenhiser, Mrs. Albertson, and this is Georgie Collins.”

Georgie ignored them and pretended to study a picture.

“Loutzenhiser, that's—”

“Polish,” Georgie interrupted. “It means two-headed freak.”

Lisa's face went white.

“Really? I was about to say that it's an old German name. One I haven't heard in quite some time.” She looked confused. “It's Polish, you say?”

Lisa said, “Georgie's just kidding around.”

“I see.” Sophia brightened a little. “Well, I'm pleased to meet you both. Now I need you to do two favors for me. Please call me Sophia. Mrs. Albertson was my mother-in-law. The other favor is, could you please tell me why you're visiting me today? My memory isn't as sharp as it used to be.”

Georgie said, “We're here because if we don't do something nice for the community, we flunk. So it's either visit you or get an F.”

Sophia's face looked shocked for a second and then sort of closed up, the way leaves protect a flower.

“It's not like that, Sophia!” Lisa said. “It's true that our school has a program to help the community, but we had choices. Lots of them! We thought you sounded like such a nice lady that we wanted to visit you.”

Georgie had to give Lisa credit for lying well when she had to, but it was too late. Sophia said, “I see. Well, now you've done your duty. You can tell your teacher you did your job. I don't know how you got my name, but I'm certainly in no need of visitors.”

Sophia unlatched the brake on her wheelchair and said, “Good day.”

As she watched Sophia wheel toward the door, Georgie thought,
Good riddance.
If Sophia didn't want them to visit, Mr. Gordon couldn't make them.

Suddenly Aggy burst into the room. Her faded gray hair hung about her face and she had changed into a caftan that billowed around her bare feet. She looked like an old hippie.

“It's brunch!” Aggy called.

“Aggy, the girls were just leaving,” Sophia said.

“Not now. We get to eat and I set the table!”

She grabbed the wheelchair handle and took off at a dead run. Sophia squeezed the armrests so tight her knuckles turned white. Aggy called out, “Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound…”

She skidded the wheelchair around a corner and they were out of sight.

Georgie headed for the front door.

Lisa said, “The dining room is this way.”

“I know,” Georgie said. “Which is why I'm going the other way. She said she doesn't want us to visit so I'm leaving. This is our ticket out.”

“Okay, fine. We won't come back, but we're here now and it would be rude to just leave. Please, Georgie.”

“I don't want to have
brunch,
okay? Even the word is stupid. It's something square people do. You stay, Lisa. You'll fit right in.”

Georgie was losing her cool fast. She'd been holding her breath, breathing only when she had to because she thought the place stank. It didn't matter that the people seemed clean and able to get themselves to the restroom. Georgie
still
thought of dirty diapers and drool. Now they expected her to eat.

Georgie thought of how Sophia had sat so regally in that wheelchair, almost as if it were a throne. Didn't she know how pathetic she looked? Aggy might actually be fun, in a creepy sort of way. But Georgie couldn't like any of it after Lisa had bitten her head off.

I just don't want to act stupid or goofy,
she'd said.
Let's just be normal, all right?
“Let's just be
boring.
Let's just be
fake,
” she might as well have said.