that set my teeth on edge. This morning, sitting with Shelby, Haze, and Pete around the kitchen table, I feel like that violin, only my strings are loosening, unwinding from the pegs, and I feel strange this way. I feel that maybe it isn't safe to laugh, to let go of my vigilance over my dad, and myself, but I can hardly help it because it feels so good. It just feels so good.
The four of us finish our breakfast, and then everyone prepares to leave for their own homes to get ready for school. Shelby and her bicycle are hitching a ride with Haze and Pete in Haze's van.
I tell them I'm going to stay home with my dad, and Shelby says, "You know you can't exactly lock him inside the house all the time, so what are you going to do, stay home every day and guard him? You need a better system, Jason."
I don't feel like fighting with Shelby, whose family can afford a private nurse to look after her mother,
so I just wave her out the door, thank them all again, and head up to my dad's bedroom with a cup of hot coffee in my hands. He's still asleep when I get there and I'm glad. He sleeps as little as I do, so I'm glad he's getting some rest. I leave the coffee on the bedside table along with the two pills he's supposed to take each morning. Then I go to my room to work on the Dear Mouse letters. I'm not sure when I'll find time to take my laptop to the library to send them, but I know I'll have to or someone might notice that every time I'm missing from school the letters stop.
CRAZY GLUE :
Yeah, and then you'd be up to your neck in some major doo-doo.
Exactly.
Dear Mouse:
You little puke face! Why don't you show yourself ? When I find out who you are, I'm gonna shove...
CRAZY GLUE :
I thought you deleted all of those kinds of letters.
Yeah, me too. I sure didn't mean to save that one. I delete it and move on to the next one.
Dear Mouse:
My best friend copies everything I do, and I mean everything. She dresses like me and talks like me and even laughs like me. She got a job at the same place I did, even though she doesn't even like horses, and she blamed a big
mistake she made on me, so I got fired. I could tell the boss that she did it, but she so sucks up to him she's like the favorite, and I know the boss wouldn't believe me. We've been friends since always and we have lots of fun hanging out together when it's just us, but around everybody else she's such a phony. She competes with me for grades and attention and stuff, and now she's taken my boyfriend. She didn't even like him until I did. Now they're all over each other. I told her how I feel and she acts like she gets it, but then she does something else, so I know she doesn't. What's scary is that I think she's better at being me than I am. What should I do?
Cloned
Dear Cloned:
Here's a clue. She's not your best friend. She's not even your friend. She's a soul stealer. I mean, a little imitation might be flattering, but it doesn't seem like she even thinks about your feelings. It's all about her. Sounds like she doesn't really know herself and so she has to glom on to your life. She's a vampire just sucking the lifeblood out of you. Anyway, get a better friend. So what if you've been friends for always and sometimes have a good time. Dump her! Oh, and shell never make a better you. You're the original.
Mouse
I'm in the middle of rereading my letter to see if it makes sense, when I hear the doorbell ring and loud
banging. I figure it's one of the neighbors coming over to complain because my dad is awake now and in his room playing the violin. Since our house is a townhouse, we share a wall with our neighbor and they must be hearing the music.
On my way to answer the door I poke my head into Dad's room. "Hey, the neighbors are complaining. It's too early in the morning to be playing the violin."
"I must play furiously to rid the Furies. I think they might try to kill me today," my dad says, not stopping.
I hear more loud banging, so I hurry downstairs to
The four of us finish our breakfast, and then everyone prepares to leave for their own homes to get ready for school. Shelby and her bicycle are hitching a ride with Haze and Pete in Haze's van.
I tell them I'm going to stay home with my dad, and Shelby says, "You know you can't exactly lock him inside the house all the time, so what are you going to do, stay home every day and guard him? You need a better system, Jason."
I don't feel like fighting with Shelby, whose family can afford a private nurse to look after her mother,
so I just wave her out the door, thank them all again, and head up to my dad's bedroom with a cup of hot coffee in my hands. He's still asleep when I get there and I'm glad. He sleeps as little as I do, so I'm glad he's getting some rest. I leave the coffee on the bedside table along with the two pills he's supposed to take each morning. Then I go to my room to work on the Dear Mouse letters. I'm not sure when I'll find time to take my laptop to the library to send them, but I know I'll have to or someone might notice that every time I'm missing from school the letters stop.
CRAZY GLUE :
Yeah, and then you'd be up to your neck in some major doo-doo.
Exactly.
Dear Mouse:
You little puke face! Why don't you show yourself ? When I find out who you are, I'm gonna shove...
CRAZY GLUE :
I thought you deleted all of those kinds of letters.
Yeah, me too. I sure didn't mean to save that one. I delete it and move on to the next one.
Dear Mouse:
My best friend copies everything I do, and I mean everything. She dresses like me and talks like me and even laughs like me. She got a job at the same place I did, even though she doesn't even like horses, and she blamed a big
mistake she made on me, so I got fired. I could tell the boss that she did it, but she so sucks up to him she's like the favorite, and I know the boss wouldn't believe me. We've been friends since always and we have lots of fun hanging out together when it's just us, but around everybody else she's such a phony. She competes with me for grades and attention and stuff, and now she's taken my boyfriend. She didn't even like him until I did. Now they're all over each other. I told her how I feel and she acts like she gets it, but then she does something else, so I know she doesn't. What's scary is that I think she's better at being me than I am. What should I do?
Cloned
Dear Cloned:
Here's a clue. She's not your best friend. She's not even your friend. She's a soul stealer. I mean, a little imitation might be flattering, but it doesn't seem like she even thinks about your feelings. It's all about her. Sounds like she doesn't really know herself and so she has to glom on to your life. She's a vampire just sucking the lifeblood out of you. Anyway, get a better friend. So what if you've been friends for always and sometimes have a good time. Dump her! Oh, and shell never make a better you. You're the original.
Mouse
I'm in the middle of rereading my letter to see if it makes sense, when I hear the doorbell ring and loud
banging. I figure it's one of the neighbors coming over to complain because my dad is awake now and in his room playing the violin. Since our house is a townhouse, we share a wall with our neighbor and they must be hearing the music.
On my way to answer the door I poke my head into Dad's room. "Hey, the neighbors are complaining. It's too early in the morning to be playing the violin."
"I must play furiously to rid the Furies. I think they might try to kill me today," my dad says, not stopping.
I hear more loud banging, so I hurry downstairs to
Similar Books
