Serendipity and Me (9781101602805) by Judith Roth Read Free Book Online Page B

story.
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    In my chosen picture
    my parents sit on a piano bench
    with little me on Mom’s lap.
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    It looks like Easter.
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    We’re all dressed up
    and I’m holding a basket.
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    One of my legs
    is flung off to the side
    like I can’t wait to get down
    and find those hidden eggs.
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    Mom’s arms surround me
    like she’s holding
    something precious.
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    Dad’s face shines with twinkling eyes
    and a crooked grin.
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    I glance over at my picture
    from across the room.
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    It seems to glow with the promise
    of a story
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    but I’m not looking for a story prompt
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    I’m looking for something else
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    and I’m not sure what it is.
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    After we’ve walked around the room
    we head back to our desks
    to begin working.
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    I see Garrett stop at Kelli’s desk
    and hear them laughing
    about a bulldog in Kelli’s picture
    dressed up like a pirate.
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    Something in me sinks.
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    I wonder if Garrett knows the dog.
    I wonder if Garrett has been to Kelli’s house
    like he’s been to mine
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    only not just there
    to drop off something
    from the teacher.
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    There because he wanted to be.
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    Maybe Garrett feels me watching him
    because he looks over at me
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    and smiles.
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    Oh.
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    Does he know I like him?
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    Is he throwing me a crumb?
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    I look down at my happy picture
    but it makes me sad.
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    I begin writing without thinking.
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    Once upon a time there was a family.
    Then there was none.
    Once upon a time there was a mom
    who lived and breathed and danced and sang
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    who loved and dreamed and wished on stars.
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    Then there was a car.
    Then there was a fog.
    Then there was the sound of metal
    and it was not the sound
    of swords and armor
    in a story about Joan of Arc
    but the crash of a car
    as the fog stole the mother’s sight
    and the headlights of eighty other cars
    that piled up like broken sticks
    beneath a burning stake.
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    Once upon a time there was a family.
    Then there was none.
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    I didn’t realize a picture
    of a bright Easter morning
    could prompt such dark writing.
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    I feel like I just burped
    a cloud of smoke.
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    A hand appears near my picture.
    A finger points to Mom.
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    Garrett on his way to the front.
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    He lifts a strand of my hair
    that’s close to my cheek.
    Two blondies, he says.
    You look just like her.
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    I stop breathing a moment
    as the sun comes out
    from behind a thick cloud.
    Wondering how I should react
    to his touch
    and his words.
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    She looks beautiful in the picture
    to me.
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    Is that how I look
    to him?
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    Walking home from school
    I pass Mom’s dorm.
    The kittens are in the window again.
    On an impulse, I climb over bushes
    to tap-play with them
    on the glass.
    But the kittens startle at me coming so close
    and one falls into the room.
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    The curtain moves and reveals Jocelyn
    who widens her dark-fringed eyes.
    She pulls open the window.
    Sara! How are you?
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    Good. I motion through the window opening.
    I was just gonna look at the kittens.
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    I figured.           How’s your new kitty?
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    I blink.           I guess she’s not keeping secrets.
    Great—well—I don’t know
    if I’ll be able to keep her.
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    She makes an exaggerated frowny face.
    Fingers crossed, right?
    Â 
    Right.
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    Jocelyn looks back into the room
    then says             As long as you’re here . . .
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    Why don’t you stay and talk awhile, she says.
    Climb on in.
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    I don’t know what my dad
    would think about this
    but I climb in anyway
    twisting past a scrambled desktop
    trying not to disturb a long-legged girl
    sprawled on the opposite bed.
    The kittens scatter when I land.
    Where’d you get these kittens?
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    Their mom was a