Formerly Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham Read Free Book Online Page B

is great at science.
    I’ll check with him.”
    Of
course.
    It’s like a switch flips on in my head,
    shedding God’s first light on a gaping canyon.
    “That’s a great idea.
    Check with him, and thanks!”
    A tutor. Maybe that’s the key.
    Someone to translate
    all those periodic table numbers
    and signs and facts
    into plain English for me.
    Why didn’t I think of it before now?
    Beneath the lunch table,
    I cross my fingers,
    hoping that this is just the thing
    I need.

That night, as another flare-up
    of burning arm pain finally ebbs away,
    Elizabeth calls.
    “I asked my brother
    about tutoring you. He can’t.
    He got a job after school and doesn’t have time.”
    I sigh as Mabel nudges me with her wet nose.
    “That’s okay. Thanks for checking.”
    “He said to try the community college,” Elizabeth adds.
    “Go to the cafeteria or the main office.
    Kids put signs up on the bulletin boards there.
    There’s usually someone advertising tutoring.”
    “Okay, I’ll check it out. And thanks!”
    I hang up and give Mabel a kiss.
    “Who was that?” Mom asks.
    I tell her about Elizabeth’s idea
    of a tutor.
    Mom listens. She doesn’t say,
    “You have always been bad in science”
    or
“What matters is that you try your very best.”
    She just picks up her knitting bag.
    “Tutoring is a great idea. Why didn’t I think of it?
    If you can’t find anyone at Sequoyah, I’ll check at my school.”
    I realize I never asked if she’d mind paying
    for this imaginary tutor. Now I don’t have to.
    She’s already said yes.
    And that’s one of the great things about Mom.
    I watch her sink into the couch
    and flip on the TV, pulling out a ball of yellow yarn
    and heavy knitting needles.
    I think of
    NEED A FOOT MASSAGE?
    and a wave of something —
    pity . . . anger? —
    passes through me.
    I think about her mystery dinner date,
    her supposed nights “working late,”
    and I hope that the person she was with
    made her laugh and treated her right.
    All these years my dad has been gone.
    Mom’s a good person.
    She deserves someone
    who’s not a creep.
    She deserves to be loved.

Dear Jane,
    I remember hearing about your story last year, and I’ve always wondered how you are. I was so relieved to see the follow-up article on you. Good for you for getting back to school and moving on. I have talked about you with my students, both last year and this year. I am an elementary-school teacher and often talk to my students about people with disabilities, and how we view them, and how we can so easily be insensitive to them. We talk about how we’d feel if we were in another person’s shoes — a person like you.
    It is a testament to your courage that you continue to live a normal life and be a role model to everyone with your determination. I hope you continue to heal and that you have no bad memories of that day. I hope you look
forward, and not back.
    If you are ever willing, it would be remarkable to have you come talk to the kids at my school. I think you’d make an incredible impression, and drive home what we talk about when we discuss people with differences, and how really, we are all just alike. I will enclose my contact information — please think about it.
    Best wishes,
    Paula

I’m buying a soda from the vending machine
    in the hospital hallway when suddenly
    sirens go off and someone on the intercom
    cries, “Code blue! Third floor, code blue!”
    In a flash, a barrage of people in scrubs
    rush past. I don’t even know where they came from.
    Someone crashes into me and sends me smack
    into the vending machine. My soda can falls to the floor,
    goes spinning wildly among scrambling shoes,
    and my elbow throbs crazily from where it got hit.
    They’re gone and I pick up the can.
    Code blue is serious, in case you didn’t know.
    Code blue means someone has gone into cardiac arrest.
    Someone is dying right now,
    and everyone is doing everything they can to prevent that.
    I think I saw Lindsey in the