look pale. She wondered how much pain he was in all the time, pretending he wasnât. A pale bluish halo of light surrounded his gray hair.
âWhat does that mean?â he asked.
She wanted to confide in him. She needed to talk to someone and he would understand better than her mom would, but it was difficult for her to say it.
Finally she blurted out, âWhat do you know about doppelgangers?â
âSupposedly Abraham Lincoln saw one. And Percy Shelley. John Donne. Your mom thinks itâs related to stress. They were all ill, under stress at the time. John Donneâs wife had a stillborn baby. I donât know much more. Thatâs from Wikipedia.â
She sat down on the grass and started pulling the heads off of the little daisies that bordered the wall of bougainvillea. Crushing them in her fingers until they felt wet, like with blood; tossing them aside.
âWhy? Whatâs wrong? Too much stress at school?â
She shook her head. âI donât fit in. So boring. Every teenager feels like that.â
âThat doesnât mean itâs easy.â
Really, she didnât believe that she felt likeevery teenager at all. She was much more of a freak. Than anyone, probably, except maybe Haze.
âI had an experience,â Bee said. It was a risk to tell Lew. He might tell her mom. But she couldnât hold it back anymore.
âDo you think this is something for your mother? Is it about boys?â
She grimaced. âNo. Not that. Donât worry.â
âOkay, sorry. Tell me, kiddo.â
âI saw someone in my room last night.â
Lew jerked forward so abruptly she was afraid heâd fall.
âA girl,â she added.
âIn your room?â
âShe looked just like me.â
âSo thatâs what this doppelganger talk is about.â
âYes, well. I donât know. She was just standing there, and then she said, âYou are me,â and disappeared. I didnât dream it.â
ââYou are meâ? What do you think itâs about?â
âI have no idea. Mom would say itâs a hallucination. Too much stress, like you said. Donât tell her.â
âWell, you are our little Gemini after all.â
âVery funny. So says the astrologer.â
âNo, I mean seriously, from a symbology perspective. Letâs say she wasnât a real girl. What do you think the significance is? Is it about growing up?â
âWhat does that mean?â
âAn identity thing. âYou are me.â Leaving one self behind for a new one. But the old self is always part of you, too. Does that sound right?â
âNo. I donât know.â
âWho are you, then?â
She scowled at him. Even if she pretended (I am a thirteen-year-old double Gemini girlâScorpio moonâwho lives with her therapist mom and her momâs astrologer boyfriend in Venice, California; I go to school, where I get bad grades; I write poetry with my left hand, dance in my room, read books, listen to music, Google images of goblins and the tattoos my mom wonât let me get, dream of devouring my garden), she really had no idea.
In some ways that was nearly as frightening as seeing the girl in her room.
âSome people think you begin to grow up when you stop trying to figure out who you are,â Lew said.
3
Strange Fruit
T he girl was singing to herself under the jacaranda tree, her eyes looking skyward and her full mouth unapologetic. She was singing about Southern trees with strange, bloody fruit, bodies swinging in the breeze. She wore a checked cotton dress, and her hair was in nappy braids. Kids stared ather, hurried past, snickered. It didnât matter that her voice was rich and sweet as orange-blossom honey, Bee thought. It didnât matter that only the setting made her strange. On a stage in a long gold satin gown, under a few lights, she would have been purely stunning.
âStunning,â
Tim Curran
Elisabeth Bumiller
Rebecca Royce
Alien Savior
Mikayla Lane
J.J. Campbell
Elizabeth Cox
S.J. West
Rita Golden Gelman
David Lubar