Out of the Box by Michelle Mulder Page A

come,” she says. “I need to see you.”
    â€œI—”
    Jeanette snatches the phone before I can say any more. “Gloria, what is going on?”
    Even from a foot away, I can hear Mom’s garbled moan.
    â€œWhy are you second-guessing your own daughter?” Jeanette asks. “Has she ever lied to you before?…No, she’s not. In fact, it took considerable courage for her to tell you how she feels…Of course you’re still welcome to come. When have I ever locked my door on you?…Forget the poor-me stuff, Gloria. She doesn’t hate you. She simply said you don’t need to come here on her account. That’s good news. Nothing worth wailing about.”
    Jeanette turns and finds me staring at her. She shoos me away with one hand, but I stay rooted to the floor, wondering why Mom hasn’t slammed down the phone yet. I think, too, about my dad hiding away in his basement office. I suspect he won’t be coming out to comfort her this time, and part of me wants to clamp a hand over Jeanette’s mouth. The other part of me wants to reach through the phone and shove my mother across the room.
    I turn and run.

T WENTY -O NE
    I ’m not much of a runner, and by the time I reach the end of the block, I have to slow down. I storm across Douglas Street to the park and head to the stone bridge over Goodacre Lake. Sarah and I often came here on hot days to watch turtles sunning themselves on the rocks. It’s a breezy evening now, though, so the turtles have all hidden away, and Sarah’s probably holed up with her family playing a happy game of Scrabble. Her dad probably made a chocolate cake, and all five of them are savoring each mouthful, basking in their perfect family-ness.
    â€œHi there.” It’s Sarah, of course, the last person on the planet that I want to see—well, second-last, after my mother. She is sitting at the water’s edge, poking a stick into the dirt next to her.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” I mean it as a curious question, but I admit it comes out a bit harsh.
    She looks startled. “Why shouldn’t I be here?”
    â€œI mean, I thought you’d be with your family.”
    â€œNah,” she says. “Jennifer’s at music camp, and my parents and Wylie are watching some movie about dinosaurs.”
    â€œOh.”
    I sit down on the grass, kind of beside her but a little bit apart. It would be rude to leave, but I don’t want her to feel like she has to talk to me either.
    Neither of us says anything for a while.
    â€œSo what’s up with you anyway?” she asks, poking at a bit of algae floating on the water.
    I swallow. “What do you mean?”
    â€œWhy have you been avoiding me lately?”
    I wish I hadn’t come here tonight. I wish a giant UFO would suck me up and take me away, never to return. I close my eyes, but nothing happens. When I open them, Sarah is still there, waiting. “I—”
    â€œI was good enough for you when you first got here, but now you’ve found better things to do? Is that it?”
    â€œWhat?” I ask. “No, that’s not it at—”
    â€œThen what?” She’s jabbing at the algae now.
    How do I explain that she’s got it backward? How do I say that I don’t know what to talk to Michael and Steve about, that if it weren’t for her hanging out at the petting zoo in addition to looking glamorous, I never would have even tried talking to her? How do I say any of that without sounding pathetic?
    â€œIf I did something to make you mad, why don’t you just say so?”
    â€œWhy is everyone so convinced I’m mad at them, for god’s sake!” I’m surprised to find myself shouting.
    Sarah jumps up. “Don’t yell at me, Ellie. I’m not deaf, and I didn’t come to the park to get yelled at.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” I say. “It’s been a rough