Georgie's Moon

by Chris Woodworth

  Lisa slid close to Sophia and held her hand. Georgie wanted to puke. Sophia and Lisa were both such prissy bores.

  “I didn’t know you liked backgammon, Sophia,” Lisa said.

  “Oh, I love it! And what a treat to have Georgie offer to play with me. I must confess, I was beginning to think she only came to see Aggy.” Sophia winked.

  “Aggy’s neat. But I want to visit you, too.” Georgie gave her fake smile.

  “So, what have you two girls been up to this week?” Sophia asked.

  Georgie waited to see what Lisa would say. When she didn’t answer, Georgie said, “I got a letter from my dad. I thought you might like to hear it.”

  “I would love to, Georgie! What a nice thing to share it with us, isn’t it, Lisa?”

  Lisa nodded but looked sick.

  Georgie took a piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it. “‘Dear Captain,’” she began.

  “Wait, who’s this captain?” Sophia asked.

  “It’s me,” Georgie said. “Ever since I was little, my dad has always given me a rank, just one below his. When he was captain, I was first lieutenant; now that he’s a major, I’m captain. He says that means I’m in charge when he’s away.”

  “How delightful!” Sophia said. “Please read on.”

  Georgie read aloud:

  “Dear Captain,

  “Mom told me you’re not too excited about this move. I wish you’d told me when I was there. Guess you were being a good soldier and not complaining. I don’t blame you, kiddo. I’m not too excited about the places they keep moving me, either. Just remember my promise. The last time we re-upped was the last time. Soon I’ll be home and you’ll be so tired of me and bored with living in the same spot, you’ll be ready to ship me back over here.

  “Don’t forget your promise, Captain. You keep things running smoothly on that end, and I’ll do my job here. Soon we’ll be together. I’ll send my love to you tonight. Don’t forget to look for it.

  Dad”

  “Oh, dear.” Sophia sniffed into her handkerchief. “That was lovely, Georgie. Wasn’t it, Lisa?”

  Lisa plucked at the frayed hem of her bell bottoms and murmured, “Yes, it was.”

  “What did he mean by sending you his love tonight?” Sophia said.

  “It’s just a little thing. Something between the two of us.” Georgie hoped her tone let them know she wouldn’t answer any more questions. Some things were meant to be private.

  “Well, it’s a double blessing because a letter means he’s safe as well as letting you hear from him,” Sophia said.

  “Yeah,” Georgie said. “You can almost forget that he’s in a jungle, going on missions, getting shot at every day. You can almost forget he’s there to protect us, can’t you, Lisa?”

  It was the first time Georgie had said something directly to her in days.

  Lisa took a deep breath and said, “He sounds like a nice man.”

  Georgie’s eyes flickered, but just for an instant. Then she snorted.

  “I … never mind,” Lisa said.

  “What, dear?” Sophia asked.

  “I must have misunderstood. I thought Georgie said she just got that letter.”

  “She did. Right, Georgie?”

  “Yeah,” Georgie said. “So?”

  “So you moved here in May. I wonder why he would write about something that happened months ago, that’s all,” Lisa said.

  “Have you ever seen Vietnam? Have you ever bothered to even watch it on the news? Do you think there’s a mailbox on every corner?” Georgie shouted.

  “I’ve watched the news.” Lisa’s face was all splotchy. “I know it’s awful for your dad. I don’t know why you’re so mad at me.”

  Georgie jumped up, but Sophia pushed her wheelchair between them. “Girls, please! You don’t want to fight over this. Goodness, there’s already enough fighting over the war. Are you two having problems of some sort?”

  “No, Soph. Of course not. Lisa and I are close. We’re just like this.” Georgie wrapped two fingers together.

  15

  Mrs. Donovan didn’t have to track her down anymore. Georgie gladly went to her office on Tuesday afternoons to get out of home ec.

  “Hello, Georgie,” Mrs. Donovan called from the table in the corner.

  “Hi, Mrs. D.” Georgie sat at the desk and opened her red book. She wrote, “Jingle bells, shotgun shells, Halloween is here. Easter Bunny came last night and brought a case of root beer.”

  She smiled as she closed the book. She wrote something bizarre every week, since Mrs. Donovan never looked at it.

  “You’re smiling. You must have written good thoughts of your dad.”

  “Yeah,” Georgie answered. “Really good thoughts of Dad.”

  “That’s great.” She turned to the worktable. “Well, I must say, we’re finally getting cooperation from the community. I think everyone on the list mailed in their forms this week.”

  “Groovy,” Georgie said, and began checking off students’ names. When she came to Lisa’s, she said, “Mrs. D., we don’t have to do our project together, do we? Just as long as we do it?”

  “Are you asking if you have to do it with your partner?”

  “Yeah.” Georgie ran the pencil inside the bandana she’d tied around her hair and scratched her head with it.

  “Are you and Lisa having problems?” Mrs. Donovan asked.

  “That’s not an answer to my question. I just want to know if I can go to the Sunset asylum by myself, as long as I put in my two hours.”

  “Well, no, Georgie,” Mrs. Donovan said. “The whole point is that you work together with a student you didn’t know before.”

  “Even if she’s a liar? And conniving?” Georgie asked. “Even then?”

  Mrs. Donovan sat back in her chair. “I don’t know Lisa well, but I’ve heard excellent reports from her teachers.”

  “She’s good at hiding things. They wouldn’t know.”

  “You need to remember that part of this experiment is to determine if the project brings you closer to your partner,” Mrs. Donovan said. “Your report should be honest. If you and Lisa don’t get along, or if the project has hurt your relationship, you can write about that.”

  “So I can write that she’s a low-down, lying traitor and it won’t affect my grade?”

  “Not if that’s what you think she is.” Mrs. Donovan looked as if she didn’t really believe Lisa could be such a thing, but she didn’t argue. She went back to her forms.

  Georgie didn’t feel like working. She doodled on the bottom of the form, making squares and filling them in with black lead. She wished she could tell Mrs. Donovan about Lisa keeping her brother a secret. She wanted to tell her how much she hated Lisa now, how much she wanted to hurt Lisa, to lessen the pain she felt. Georgie wished she hadn’t closed the door between herself and Mrs. Donovan. But she knew that if she opened it, Mrs. Donovan would want Georgie to talk about her dad and she just couldn’t.

  Georgie colored so hard with the pencil that the lead broke. She got up to sharpen it and noticed the empty spot on the shelf. Mrs. Donovan had turned off the spotlight and, for some reason, that made Georgie feel worse instead of better. Mrs. Donovan probably loved her dad as much as Georgie loved hers.

  She sharpened the pencil and sat back down. “Mrs. D.?”

  “Yes, Georgie?”

  “About your dad’s ship … I … Do you have another one that he made?”

  “No.” She looked up, but her eyes weren’t sad.

  “I probably shouldn’t have broken it,” Georgie admitted.

  Mrs. Donovan put down her pen. “Well, I had my dad for a while and he’s gone. I had that ship for a while and it’s gone. Things change. But I’ll always love him and that won’t change.” She patted Georgie’s hand and turned her attention back to the forms.

  Georgie tried to get busy, too, but it was hard because everything looked blurry.

  16

  Georgie wasn’t too thril
led about being part of Kathy’s entourage, but it seemed impossible to get Kathy alone. Angel grated on Georgie’s nerves something fierce.

  As they walked down the hall, Angel would call out, “Let Kathy through!” and at lunch, “Let Kathy be first in line!” Georgie didn’t know how Kathy stood it. Surely she was so shook up over her brother that she didn’t notice how annoying Angel was.

  At lunch, Kathy turned to Georgie and said, “Why don’t you sit beside me?”

  “Thanks!” Finally, she’d get to talk to her. Angel looked so jealous, it was almost worth the wait.

  Georgie sat down. “I’m really sorry about your brother.”

  Kathy’s eyes teared up and Georgie quickly added, “But we don’t have to talk about it! I just wanted you to know.”

  “Thanks,” Kathy said as she picked at her food. “I knew your dad was in Nam. I always wondered why you hung out with Lisa.”

  “She never told me about Alan,” Georgie said.

  “Hah! I’m not surprised.” Kathy let her fork clatter against the tray. “Brian and Alan were friends. So were our parents. We were like one big, happy family. But living so close to Grissom, Brian was always anxious to enlist in the Air Force. Alan tried to talk him out of it. They got into a fight over it.”

  “So your brother enlisted and Lisa’s went to college,” Georgie said.

  “Right. The funny part is, Brian made straight A’s in high school. He could have breezed through college, but not Alan,” Kathy said. “When Brian got his orders to ship out, Alan had just flunked out of college and run off to Canada so he wouldn’t get drafted.” Kathy’s voice shook. “He didn’t have the guts to tell his family in person. He wrote that he wasn’t going to be killed in a war, like Brian probably would. After that, Lisa thought things should just stay the same between us. But I hated Alan, and I hated Lisa for thinking that I could ever be around her again.”

  “That’s how I feel,” Georgie said.

  “Look at her over there,” Kathy said. “She’s been with Craig Evans all day.”

  Lisa and Craig sat two tables over, their heads bent close together as they talked.

  Georgie said, “Lisa told me you like him, too.”

  “Like him? I hate him. He’s another coward. I only flirted with him to make her mad,” Kathy said.

  Georgie lowered her sandwich to her plate. Suddenly she remembered Lisa’s poem. “I know how to make her really mad. Meet me outside in five minutes and I’ll show you.”

  She picked up her tray, and Angel quickly scooted to her spot. “Uh, make sure you meet me outside alone,” Georgie said.

  She ran to her locker. She kept it pretty messy. She’d always been in such a rush to walk Lisa to her locker that she hadn’t kept hers clean, so it took a few minutes to find the notebook containing the poem. But there it was, on the very bottom. She pulled the poem from the notebook and ran to the picnic area outside.

  She grinned when she found Kathy by herself. “You know how weird Lisa is about people reading her stuff,” Georgie said.

  “No,” Kathy said.

  “Back when you and Lisa were friends,” Georgie said, “she told you about her poetry, right?”

  Kathy seemed confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Georgie looked at the poem and an uneasy feeling settled in. It was so important to Lisa, yet she’d never told Kathy, who was her best friend. Lisa had barely known Georgie when she told her.

  Georgie shook her head to clear it. “Look, it doesn’t matter. What matters is she wrote this poem and doesn’t want anyone else to read it.”

  Kathy’s eyes lit up.

  “Here.” Georgie thrust it into Kathy’s hands. “Read it. That’ll drive her crazy.”

  “Thank you!”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve gotta split.” Georgie had just found a way to get back at Lisa. Why didn’t she feel good about it?

  * * *

  Georgie went straight to Kathy’s locker the next morning so they could hang out together before the bell rang, but Kathy wasn’t there. On her way to class, she found Kathy at Angel’s locker, deep in conversation. Then, as Thursday wore on, Georgie noticed that Angel went out of her way to stand by Kathy’s side, always between her and Georgie.

  Georgie thought she’d never get to talk to Kathy, but lunchtime came and Angel couldn’t sit on both sides of her. “Boy, you’re hard to get close to!” Georgie said as she slid next to Kathy.

  “Angel is just taking care of me,” Kathy said.

  “I guess I forget how hard this is, with your brother’s death and all.”

  “Oh, yes. She helps with that, too.” Kathy frowned. “But I meant she’s helping me plan a surprise.”

  “Oh!” Georgie said. “What kind of surprise?”

  “If I told you, it wouldn’t be one, would it?” Kathy said in a teasing tone.

  Georgie bit into her sandwich. She felt bad about Kathy’s brother and she knew that having a dad in Vietnam should make them close. But as lunch passed, she felt that was really the only thing they had in common.

  The bell sounded, ending lunch period, and Georgie walked with Kathy and Angel to their lockers. Kathy opened hers and, for the first time, Georgie was close enough to see inside. Taped to the door was some teen magazine picture of Donny Osmond. That cinched it for Georgie.

  “I’ll catch up with you guys later,” she said. The next time it snows in August, she thought.

  Georgie kept to herself on Friday. She didn’t seek out Kathy and her crowd, and she was relieved when they didn’t look for her, either. Georgie’s dad had been right: it wasn’t a good idea to make friends with a group. Georgie just wouldn’t have a friend at this school. It was no big deal. She felt a pang when she thought of Lisa, but shrugged it off.

  She met Lisa and Craig in the hall, two yellow-bellied traitors spending time together because no one else wanted to be with them. She caught Lisa’s eye and glared. Lisa turned pale and looked away.

  Georgie walked into fifth period PE. The other girls always complained about their one-piece gym suit, which was about as ugly as prison garb, but Georgie couldn’t care less what she wore. PE gave her a chance to burn off some of the hatred that seemed to fill her lately. She was really looking forward to working off some bad feelings today.

  The construction at the school wasn’t completely finished, so the girls’ locker room didn’t have lockers yet. Instead, there were sections with wire baskets, like the public swimming pool used, for gym clothes.

  Georgie yanked out her basket, grabbing her ugly blue suit and gym shoes. Lisa hung back until Georgie moved away, then hurried over to her basket and slid it out. Lisa picked up her gym suit and reached for her shoes at the bottom of the basket.

  Then she let out a scream.

  Georgie tried to ignore what was happening, but curiosity propelled her toward the girls gathered around Lisa’s basket. In one of Lisa’s sneakers was a dead bird, its wings spread wide. In the other shoe was a scrap of paper.

  “What’s wrong?” a girl at the back of the crowd asked.

  Lisa didn’t answer. She headed for the toilet but got only as far as the trash can. She retched, losing her lunch. Lisa wrapped her arms around her middle. Her teeth chattered and her whole body shook.

  Someone yelled, “Get Coach, quick! Lisa’s sick.”

  While everyone was paying attention to Lisa, Georgie reached for the paper in Lisa’s sneaker.

  GYM CLASS

  I wish I could put wings on my sneakers

  to soar through the air

  and make the volleyball

  become a blur.

  “Wings on my sneakers,” she whispered, and looked at the poor bird, one broken wing hanging over the side of the shoe. Georgie looked around. Kathy and Angel were the only two, besides her, who weren’t hovering around Lisa. They were giggling and whispering to each other as they pulled on their blue suits.

  The PE teacher ran in and wiped Lisa’s mouth with pape
r towels, then wet a rag with cool water and put it on the back of Lisa’s neck. “Come on, hon. Let’s get you to the nurse.” She gently led her toward the nurse’s office. “The rest of you, get dressed and run laps until I get back!”

  Georgie walked toward Kathy.

  “Did you like that, Georgie?” Kathy asked. “Angel came up with the idea.”

  “To kill a bird?” Georgie said. She felt sick to her stomach.

  “We didn’t have to go that far,” Angel said. “I live on a farm. The cats and dogs are always dragging up something dead.”

  The other students fled past Georgie and Kathy to the gym. Kathy turned to Angel and said, “Hurry!”

  Before Georgie could react, Angel grabbed the poem from Georgie’s hand, then threw some sheets of paper towel over the bird and scooped it into a sack. She quickly disappeared out the rear exit.

  Kathy said, “She has to get rid of it before we get caught.”

  “So this is the big surprise you were working on.” Georgie felt anger flaring up inside her. No wonder Lisa hadn’t told Kathy she wrote poetry.

  “What’s the matter? You seem angry,” Kathy said.

  “I am!” Georgie said. “Look, I just gave you that poem to read. I mean, if you’re mad at Alan, that’s one thing. But Lisa didn’t skip out on the war.”

  “I don’t believe this!” Kathy put her hand on her hip. “You should thank us! She lied to you about Alan.”

  Georgie felt confused by her feelings, but one thing she was clear on: at least Lisa wasn’t cruel. Right now Georgie was angrier with Kathy than she’d ever been with Lisa.

  “Whatever Lisa did to me is between me and her. I don’t need you or your sicko friend to help me.” Georgie turned to leave.

  Kathy’s words caught her as she reached the door. “If you turn us in for doing this, I’ll tell them you gave me the poem!”

  “Kathy, I don’t have to tell to get even,” Georgie shot back. “Your best friend is Angel. That’s enough revenge for me.”

  17

  Because of her fight with Lisa, then Kathy, Georgie forgot about the open house at the Sunset Home until she saw the WELCOME banner stretched across the front porch. Balloons were tied to the pillars and, inside, the home looked festive.