Georgie's Moon (7 page)

Georgie definitely wanted to leave, but the feeling that her body wasn't big enough to hold all her anger came over her. It had been happening more and more lately. Suddenly she didn't want to go—not because she wanted to stay, but because she wanted them to feel as lousy as she did.

She walked toward the dining room. “I'll stay, but just remember, you asked for this.”

Georgie sat, putting her feet up on an empty chair as she watched Aggy pour tea into mismatched teacups. It was as if she were having a kids' tea party with her mom's castoffs. Sophia smiled her thanks when Aggy passed a paper napkin to her. The napkin Aggy put in front of Georgie said “Happy Birthday.” Georgie watched Lisa lay her heart-shaped napkin with “Be Mine” in pink letters on her lap, cross her ankles, and say, “Yes, please,” when Sophia asked if she wanted sugar.

Lisa wasn't the person Georgie had thought she was. Today she was so
perfect,
so
prissy.
She probably walked around with a book on her head and took classes on which fork to use and stupid etiquette junk like that. She'd been whiny ever since Mr. Gordon had called them in. And now she was simpering over a dumb piece of crumb cake. Georgie decided she didn't like Lisa at all.

“There!” Aggy said after everyone had been served. She sat in the tall chair, her back not quite touching it. She drank her tea with her pinkie stuck out. She smiled at Georgie, and little fans of wrinkles appeared at the corners of her eyes.

Georgie wanted to barf. The air was stuffy. She was sure she would smell the place for days after she left. Aggy was crazy as a loon and Lisa behaved as if she were having tea with the Queen of England instead of the Mad Hatter.

Georgie looked around the room. Lisa would pay for making her feel so angry. She saw the old man with the cane hobble into the room. She could trip him, she thought. Lisa would hate her, but they'd kick Georgie out of there and she wouldn't have to go back.

But Georgie couldn't make herself hurt an old man.

Just then, Georgie noticed Aggy leaning to the side. Suddenly there was a loud
pplllllllllooofff!

“What was
that?
” Georgie asked.

Sophia finished sipping her tea and put the cup back on its saucer. “Well, Georgie, I do believe Aggy sat on a duck.”

Aggy beamed as if she'd blessed them all with a gift and sang out the Alka-Seltzer jingle: “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh, what a relief it is!”

Georgie quickly looked at Lisa, who lifted her head up, startled. Her lips parted and splashes of pink sprang up on her cheeks, as if she'd never before heard a fart outside a bathroom.

Georgie cackled. She laughed so hard that she slid out of her seat onto the floor.

She held her side, gasping for breath, and looked up at Lisa. Lisa stared at her for a minute and then laughed. Soon Sophia joined in, and they were lost in a fit of giggles.

When she finally stopped laughing, Georgie was flat on the floor, her anger gone. She wiped tears of laughter from her face and said, “Soph, you've
gotta
let us come back.”

Sophia looked down at her hands folded neatly in her lap. “I guess it would be all right. But only if you both want to.”

“You really want to, Georgie?” Lisa sounded surprised.

Georgie got up, grabbed a piece of crumb cake, and said, “I wouldn't miss it.”

9

Georgie ran into the restroom before lunch on Monday and saw Lisa at the sink.

“Look at this mess!” Lisa said.

Georgie squinted at Lisa's hair. It had a streak of green running down the side.

“You look like Lily on
The Munsters.
Except hers is white,” Georgie said, washing her hands.

Lisa moaned and rubbed soap onto her hair.

“What happened anyway?”

“Kathy Newman's in my health class and I heard her telling her new best friend, Angel Cameron, how cute she thought Craig Evans was. I know she was just doing it because I told her last year that I liked him.” Lisa turned to the mirror. “We were making posters and I have this stupid habit of tucking my hair behind my ears when I'm nervous. The next thing I knew, I pulled my hair back
and I had green paint on my hand!
”

“It could be worse,” Georgie said. “You look good in green.”

Lisa flipped water at Georgie for an answer.

Georgie laughed. She'd been so put out with Lisa at the Sunset Home, but by the time they left, she'd decided that Lisa wasn't so bad. She had been looking for her when she came into the restroom.

“You got much homework?” Georgie asked.

“No,” Lisa answered. “Not yet anyway. How about you?”

“Nah. Let's do something tonight.”

“Tonight?” Lisa asked. “A school night?”

“I can't stand it at my house! My mom has two cribs in the living room for babysitting. Two! I feel like the rooms shrink when I'm there.” Georgie yanked a paper towel and dried her hands. “I'd rather go to your house. Better yet, let's go to the Sunset Home. Sophia's a square but Aggy's groovy. I want to see what else she does. It's like a free freak show, y'know?”

Lisa flinched visibly. “Aggy
is
pretty weird, but maybe she can't help it. I mean, she is
old.
”

“So?” Georgie said.

“I just don't think we should make fun of her,” Lisa said. “Besides, Sophia isn't expecting us until Saturday.”

Lisa wiped her hands on a paper towel and then wrapped it around the handle of the bathroom door when she opened it.

Georgie didn't move. “What are you
doing?
”

Lisa looked down at the paper towel. “I'm opening the door. A lot of people don't wash their hands after using the restroom, so I always do this to keep from getting their bacteria.”

Georgie threw back her head and laughed.

Lisa's face went straight to red. “Why is that funny?”

“Never mind. You're just different,” Georgie said as she walked through the doorway. “If we're not going to the Sunset
asylum,
I guess that leaves your house. I can be there around seven o'clock.”

*   *   *

Georgie scraped the food off a plate, grabbed the dishrag, and began scrubbing before the sink filled with water.

Mom added their dirty silverware to the suds. “I know you're anxious to visit Lisa, but you don't have to be in that big a rush.”

“I told her I'd be there at seven. I don't want to miss the news.”

“Georgie, not tonight.”

“But—”

“No buts.” Mom dried her hands. “I said I'd take you to Lisa's, even though this is a school night, because I want you to have fun. You can pay me back by not watching the news.”

Georgie threw her dishrag into the sink, spraying bubbles onto the counter. “Fine! I'll call Lisa and tell her I'm not coming.”

“You'll do no such thing. I swear, Georgie, if you don't stop this obsession of watching that war play out on television, I'll sell it. And wipe that scowl off your face, young lady.”

Georgie knew Mom wouldn't really sell the television, but she felt as if she'd explode if she didn't get out of the house soon. So without another word she fished the dishrag out of the water and attacked a pan.

*   *   *

Mom slowed the station wagon in front of Lisa's house. Georgie opened the door before it had completely stopped.

“Georgia Francine! Don't ever do that again! You could have fallen out.”

“Okay. Sorry.” She looked at Mom. Georgie used to want to be little again and to curl up on Mom's soft lap. But more and more, she felt that she would suffocate if she didn't get away from her.

“Lisa's a new friend and I like her. I'm just anxious to see her, that's all.”

Mom glanced at Lisa's house. “I think I'll come in and meet her mother.”

“No!” Georgie almost shouted. “I mean, geez, Mom, talk about embarrassing! You act like I'm a little kid.”

“Okay, okay. I can take a hint when I'm clubbed with it.” Mom leaned over and hugged Georgie. Georgie didn't shrink away, but she didn't hug back, either.

“Have fun. I'll be here at nine o'clock.”

“Right.” Georgie threw open the door, slammed it, then immediately felt guilty for not being nicer. She looked at her mother. “See ya at nine.” Then she bounded up the steps just as Lisa opened the door.

“Hi!” Lisa said, all smiles.

“Hi.”

“Is that your mom?” Lisa asked as the car pulled away.

“Uh-huh.”

“I'd like to meet her.”

Georgie shrugged. “When you've seen one mom, you've seen them all. So where's your room?”

“Oh, follow me.”

They walked through the living room and past the den. Georgie could see Lisa's dad's outline in his chair. The television was throwing odd shadows across the room.

“Is that your dad?” Georgie asked.

“Yeah, but if you've seen one dad, you've seen them all,” Lisa said, and laughed.

“That's an easy thing to say when your dad's in the next room, not halfway across the planet,” Georgie said.

Lisa pulled her hair behind her ears. Georgie hadn't meant to make her feel bad. Sometimes thoughts seemed to fly out of her mouth by themselves.

“Well, come on. Where's this room?” she said.

Georgie followed Lisa up the stairway, looking at the pictures on the wall as she went. She passed a framed school picture of Denny at the bottom, then Lisa. Next there was the girl Georgie had seen at the picnic, Carla. Near the top was a bare nail with the outline of a picture frame that was no longer there.

“What happened to this picture?' she asked.

Lisa looked at the spot. “Oh, that.” She tucked her hair back. “Alan's picture was there. I guess Ma's cleaning the frame or something.”

“Where is this Alan anyway?”

“Um, he's—he doesn't live here anymore.”

“I know. So where does he live?” Georgie didn't really care, but Lisa acted so fidgety, it made Georgie push on. “I mean, you mention him but he's never around. He's like a mystery man.”

Lisa let out a tiny, high-pitched laugh. “Like
Mystery Date.
Have you ever played that game?”

“Not hardly,” Georgie said.

“It's fun! We should do that sometime.”

They'd gotten to the top of the stairs when Lisa's little brother opened his door. He held a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his hand.

“Hey, stickpin!” he said to Lisa.

When she looked his way, he opened his mouth to show the chewed-up food inside.

“Oh, grow up!” Lisa said.

Georgie laughed. He turned to her and nearly choked.

“I know you,” she said.

His face turned red and he quickly slammed the door.

Lisa walked into her bedroom. “Denny acts tough around me, but he always clams up when another girl is around. Maybe you should move in.”

“Why does he call you stickpin?”

“He says it's because I'm so skinny.” Lisa sat on the edge of her bed.

“So is he!” Georgie said.

“Tell him that, will ya.”

A plastic beaded curtain divided the room down the center. Georgie grabbed a handful. “Neat-o!”

She moved to the other bed and pushed down, testing for softness. “Whose bed is this?”

“Carla's. She's away at college.”

Georgie picked up each stuffed animal that Carla still kept on her shelf. Then she turned around and saw newspaper articles tacked to the wall that read, “Kent Tragedy Was ‘Sickening'” and “Stung by the shooting deaths of four Kent State University students, young persons on college campuses across the nation have begun new protests, strikes, and demonstrations against U.S. involvement in Indochina.”

Lisa said, “Um, when that happened last May, Carla kind of got involved in the peace movement.”

“Yeah, I see.” Georgie knew about the students being shot by National Guardsmen during their antiwar protest, but how could she feel sorry for them? For all she knew, her dad was being shot at every day.

“She's not, you know, one of those people who are angry at the soldiers or anything.” Lisa sat tall on her bed and held on to a stuffed rabbit. “I mean, she told me about this soldier who came on campus to surprise his girlfriend. Some guys beat him up just 'cause he wore a uniform. She thought that was wrong.”

Georgie looked at Lisa out of the corner of her eye. “Am I supposed to be impressed?”

“Well, no, I didn't mean that.” Lisa did that hair-behind-the-ears thing again. “I just mean, I know it's probably hard having a dad fighting in Vietnam, then coming here and seeing those pictures. But Carla just wants it all to be over.”

Georgie tried to shrug it off. “Who doesn't want that, right?”

Lisa lay back on the bed and hugged the rabbit. “Our dad is pretty ticked off at her. He hasn't stopped paying for her education yet, but he keeps threatening to. And he won't let her come home until she
gets a different attitude.
” Lisa said those words in a deep voice.

Georgie chuckled.

“So there's a lot of tension around here. You might be sorry you came.”

“You don't have any babies,” Georgie said as she made her way to Lisa's side of the room. “That's a plus.”

“I have Denny,” Lisa said. “That's a minus.”

“What do you normally do when you have a friend over?” Georgie asked.

“I don't know. Same stuff you do, I guess.”

“I don't have friends over. We've moved so much I could probably say I don't have friends
period.
That makes you a first, Loutzenhiser.”

“You'd better be more specific. You're in a house full of Loutzenhisers,” Lisa said. “You know—a house full of two-headed Polish freaks.”