Anastasia at This Address by Lois Lowry Read Free Book Online Page B

letter, the one I wrote to tell you that I got a sloop. And of course since you have already had the problem of answering 416 letters, which required a computer since you didn't want to take a day off of work (what kind of work do you do, anyway?), I don't want to add to your burden of correspondence.
    So you can just consider this page 2 of the letter I sent you the other day. the one about the sloop.
    I just wanted to mention that if I should happen to receive a letter from you the first week in May, I will not be able to answer it for a few days. I am usually very prompt at answering my mail, but I will be very busy the first week in May with social events. In fact I recently had to go shopping for a fabulous gown which I will be wearing the first week in May.
    I just happened to think of it while I was sitting here at my occasional table, admiring some flowers I received today.
    Sincerely,
SWIFTY
    (Sloop-owner With Innumerable Flowers: Tall, Young)

7

    "I have to tell you, Anastasia, that Steve Harvey is a creep," Meredith muttered during homeroom. "Even if you
do
like him."
    Anastasia shrugged. "I don't
love
him or anything," she whispered. "And I know he's a creep sometimes. But so are all the seventh-grade boys. Why is Steve any creepier than anyone else?"
    "His mother called my mother last night," Meredith explained. "And she said that Steve doesn't want to come to the wedding if it means he has to wear a necktie.
Creep.
"
    Anastasia groaned. But she couldn't say anything else because the teacher was glaring at them both. They were supposed to be filling out a form from the Guidance Department.
    NAME. First Middle Last. Anastasia Krupnik, she penciled in carefully, leaving "Middle" blank. Sometimes she wished that her parents had given her a middle name. She knew that across the aisle Meredith was writing "Anne" in that space. Anastasia Anne Krupnik wouldn't be bad at all.
    Up in the front seat, Sonya would be writing "Sophia" in the middle-name space. Rats. To have no middle name was
so
boring.
    Anastasia went on to the next line and printed her address and telephone number. She wondered why the Guidance Department needed that—surely they would never call her at home. She pictured herself answering the telephone and hearing a voice say, "Hello, this is the Guidance Department." Talk about gross.
    SEX. She made a capital F, to indicate Female, which should have been perfectly obvious, since her name was Anastasia. The only person in the seventh grade who might possibly have presented a problem would be Jamie Seaver, who was female, but who
could
be a male Jamie, except that Jamie Seaver's middle name was Elizabeth, for Pete's sake, and the Guidance Department would
see
that, because Jamie would have written "Elizabeth" in the middle-name space.
    To have a line for SEX there was so idiotic. The only thing it produced was a lot of boys snickering—as they were doing right now, right this minute; Anastasia could hear them—as they wrote in the word "Often" instead of M for Male.
    Seventh-grade boys
were
immature creeps, she thought, and especially Steve Harvey. She wondered what would happen about the necktie. She did want him to come to the wedding, even if he was a creep, because she needed someone to dance with.
    The teacher had looked away, so Anastasia whispered across the aisle to Meredith, "What did your mom tell Mrs. Harvey?"
    Meredith wrote something quickly on a slip of paper and held it up so that Anastasia could see.
    TURTLENECKS OK, it said. HE'S COMING.
    Later, in the hall on their way to gym class, Meredith said, "All four of them are coming together: Steve, Kirby, Eddie, and Norman. They're all going to wear turtlenecks except Norman." Meredith giggled. "Norman Berkowitz
likes
wearing neckties!"
    ***
    Sam appeared, wearing his pajamas, in the doorway of Anastasia's bedroom that evening.
    "I had a very terrible bath just a few minutes ago," he announced in a disconsolate voice.
    "How come?"
    "No