Table of Contents Views and Mechanics Publisher's Note Editor's Note Review of Coventry Review of Virginity Or Death! Review of Imperial Reckoning Poetry Politico By Beth L. Block Peonies By Natasha S. Garnett A Foreigner in the Street By Tony Zurlo Sand Hill Cranes and Other Eccentricities By Jaqueline Powers On Sleepless Nights By Joy Harold Helsing I Don't Want To Be Hughes By Joe Koch Fiction Baseball Games and One-Eared Cats By Pete Laffin Beige By Dawn Merrow Geezer Cage By Scott W. Alten Sandlot By J. Conrad Guest Dinosaurs and Barbie Dolls By Michelle McMahon Burlesque Show By Stanley P. Anderson About the Contributors © 2006, River Walk Journal and respective authors and artists. All rights reserved. Do not use or reproduce without permission. River Walk Journal, Inc. Board of Directors Chairman - Elizabeth Ross Vice Chairman - Joseph Koch Secretary/Treasurer - Geri Stock-Ross Editorial Director - Patti Kurtz, DA Literacy Director - Vacant Policy Director - PA State Rep. Jess Stairs Advisory Board Chairman - Patti Kurtz, DA Asst. Chairman - Dan Lachenman, PhD Samuel Hazo Christopher Leland Edwin Yoder Joseph Bathanti Journal Staff Publisher - Elizabeth Ross Editor-In-Chief - Joseph Koch Sen. Fiction Editor - Patti Kurtz Sen. Poetry Editor - Neeldhara Misra Sen. Creative Nonfiction Editor - Brenda Coxe Contributing Editor - Robert Dittman Blog Contributing Editor - Maggie Koster Publicity Director (PA) - Geri Stock-Ross For information about submissions, visit http://www.riverwalkjournal.org/subs.html. Questions about promotions, subscribers' services, and advertising should be sent to publisher@riverwalkjournal.org. River Walk Journal, Inc. is a non-profit corporation run entirely by volunteers. For information about volunteer opportunities and internships, visit VolunteerMatch.

Dinosaurs and Barbie Dolls By Michelle McMahon Two months after the Columbia Place Estates development was finished in Barrington, Connecticut, the Nelsson family moved into their new house. Sprouts of grass were breaking through the dirt in the front yard, and birch trees in the cul-de-sac still had plastic nursery tags on their skinny white trunks. They were the first family on the block, which meant Tina had no one to play with. She tried to get her baby sister to play Barbies, but she was barely strong enough to sit up, let alone hold a doll. Tina thought she might eat her arm out of boredom by the time third grade started and she finally had someone to play with. One night, Tina sneaked out of bed and tiptoed down the carpeted steps, slid open the glass door to the unfinished porch, and stepped out onto the cool, wet, new summer grass. She lay on her back, her skinny arms and legs spread like an angel. She may have looked like an angel to a bat or a lightning bug in the sky: her gold hair messy from trying to sleep, tossing around in her sheets, her long limbs summer brown and fuzzy, her cheeks flushed pink from the stuffy heat inside the house. She counted bright lights, stars and bugs in the blue-black sky. She wished for a friend, one who could talk and didn’t pull her hair out or mash pea purée in her face. That weekend, Arthur’s family moved in across the street. Tina saw the yellow truck from her upstairs bedroom window and ran outside in her nightgown, an oversized T-shirt from Sea World, to stand barefoot on the front lawn. The sun blinded her as it rose behind his house, and she had to shade her face with her hand to see him. Arthur was carrying a box of toy dinosaurs and walking into the house behind his father when she saw him for the first time, but he didn’t see her until he came back out. Arthur had chocolate colored skin, like his father. His mother had lighter skin, like hot chocolate with lots of milk in it, and his big sister had long, silky black hair like their mom. Arthur wore khaki shorts, a red and white striped T-shirt, and white Keds. Tina thought he looked like a little sailor. His hair was short, black curls close to his scalp. His skin made his teeth look bright white when he smiled. Tina smiled back and ran into the house. “Mom!” She slammed the front door behind her, then shuddered to think she might have woken up her slobbery sister. Tina’s mother, Carina, was drinking coffee over a magazine in the kitchen. Baby sister Maja was wide awake and rubbing her pudgy fingers in mashed bananas and smearing them all over her face. Tina tried to ignore her. Carina looked up from a magazine with a picture of a skinny blonde with teal eye shadow on the cover. “We have neighbors,” Tina puffed. She braced her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. “That’s nice.” Tina’s mother smiled and flipped a page of her magazine. “And they have a boy. A little one. Like me. Can I go play with him?” “Sure.” She sipped her coffee. “Comb your hair.” Tina ran upstairs. She brushed her teeth in a hurry, leaving the bathroom countertop sticky with paste and splashed with water. She slicked her knotted hair back with a headband, left her nightgown on the floor, and threw a sundress over her head. She scurried down the stairs and out the door in seconds. She tried to catch her breath after running across the street while she waited for someone to come out of the house. Arthur’s mother came out onto the patio to find Tina with her hands folded behind her back and a minty smile plastered on her face. “I’m Tina.” “Hello, Tina. I’m Mrs. Phillips.” “Can your son come out and play?” Mrs. Phillips smiled, but tightly and without showing her teeth. She pulled some loose black hairs back into her ponytail. Tina thought she looked pretty in her white shorts and blue tank top, kind of like a big kid. She didn’t wear makeup or jewelry like her mother. She called into the house, and Arthur came out, some sweat beaded on his forehead. He licked his upper lip and looked at Tina. “Hi,” she said, smiling as widely as she could. “I’m Tina.” “I’m Arthur,” he said. “I saw you across the street.” “That’s my house. Wanna come over?” Arthur looked up at his mother, who took a deep breath and bugged her eyes. “Maybe later,” he said. “Okay. That’s my house. Number three. You can come over whenever. We’re going to Disney World at the end of July and then to my grandpa’s house in August, but other than-” “We’ll come over once we get settled in,” his mother said. “It was nice to meet you, Tina.” “Okay,” Tina said and ran back towards her house. “See you later, Arthur!” she yelled over her shoulder. Arthur and Tina played dinosaurs and Barbie dolls on Tuesdays and Fridays from 1:30-3:30 at his house almost every week that summer. Tina rang the doorbell on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, to be reminded that Arthur was either practicing the violin, piano, or his Japanese. Tina continued to look both ways and dart across the street to ring Arthur’s doorbell almost every day, until his mother called her mother and asked her to ask Tina to stop interrupting during unscheduled play time. One Thursday after lunch, which included watching her baby sister try to shove a peanut butter and jelly sandwich crust up her nose, Tina rode her bike up and down the street in front of Arthur’s house for 40 minutes trying to will him out of his house. “Tina,” a little voice whispered. Tina slammed the brakes on her Huffy and turned around to see Arthur standing on the sidewalk. “Arthur! It’s Thursday!” “Sshh.” He put a little finger to his lips. “I know.” He ran down the sidewalk and signaled for Tina to follow him. “Where are we going?” Tina tried to whisper. “You’ll see,” he said over his shoulder. Tina followed Arthur down the sidewalk for what seemed like miles but was really two blocks. Then he turned down a dirt path between two houses that led to a wheat field. “Sometimes I go here to catch fireflies,” Tina said, pedaling beside him. She saw several beads of sweat slide down his shiny forehead. “We’re almost there,” he said. Tina pedaled beside him for another minute before the path ended. “Leave your bike here,” he told her. She propped the kickstand to leave the pink and purple bike on the path and followed Arthur through stalks almost as high as him. Tina was a few inches taller, so her blonde ponytail bobbed above the grain. “Here.” He stopped and parted some stalks, pushing them to the ground so the two of them could sit. Tina sat cross-legged in front of him, their knees almost touching. Arthur reached up into his shirt and pulled out a doughnut wrapped in a blue paper napkin. He broke it in half, red jelly oozing out the middle, and gave the bigger piece to Tina. They giggled and chewed up their sweet treat in seconds. “That was yummy,” Tina said, licking her fingers. They were still sticky. “I stole it from church on Sunday.” “They have doughnuts at church?” “In the hallway. They have doughnuts and coffee for the grown-ups after the service.” “That’s neat,” Tina said. “Maybe I’ll come with you some time.” She pulled a piece of wheat up from the ground, and the dirt in the roots sprayed over their laps. They both giggled. “Why did you save it?” she asked. “I was afraid my mom would find out,” he said. “She doesn’t want me to have them. They’ll give me cavities, and then I’ll have no teeth.” “You can brush your teeth. Then you won’t get cavities,” she said. “My mom still wouldn’t let me have one.” They sat cross-legged in silence and picked at the stalks around them. Tina reached her sticky hands out to Arthur’s and held his hands in her own. They felt warm and slightly sweaty. She wanted to be closer to him, so she scooted her knees up to his until they were touching. Arthur didn’t seem to mind, so they sat like that for several seconds, looking at each other’s knees in the grass, her milky legs pressed up against his smooth, dark ones. Tina broke the silence. “Why do you look like your dad and your big sister looks like your mom?” “I don’t know. Maybe because I’m a boy and they’re girls.” Arthur kept staring at their knees. Tina watched his lips move when he talked. “And why do your parents look different?” Tina asked. “Because my dad is black and my mom is Japanese,” he said. “My parents are both Swedish,” she said. Arthur giggled. “What’s that?” He looked up into her eyes and smiled. “It means they’re from Sweden, where my grandpa lives, and where all the little girls look like me.” Tina looked down at their hands. Arthur was holding hers tighter now. She pulled hers away, stood up and walked back towards her bike. “You can wash your hands at my house,” Tina said. “So your mom won’t know about the doughnut.” “Good idea.” Arthur smiled as he followed her up the dirt path. The Tuesday before third grade started, Arthur’s mother brought him over to play Barbie dolls and dinosaurs with Tina. Tina was flipping through a Cricket magazine on the kitchen floor, looking at the pictures that went along with a story about a panda bear, when Carina answered the door. “Hi, Ann,” Carina said. Arthur was standing beside his mother holding his dinosaur. Tina looked up from her magazine and smiled when she saw him. “Look at this picture of a sunflower really, really close up,” Tina said, waving him over. Arthur looked up at his mother, who nodded, and then he ran into the house and leaned over the magazine next to Tina. Their shoulders touched as he sat on his knees beside her. “Have fun, Arthur,” Ann called into the kitchen. “Please be ready when I come to pick you up.” Carina was still standing at the open door, a kitchen towel she had been using as a receiving blanket over her shoulder. Her messy blonde hair was in a loose knot on the top of her head. “You want to come in for some coffee or something?” Carina asked. “Um,” Ann looked back toward her house. “Yes, sure, some tea would be nice.” “Let’s go upstairs, Arthur,” Tina said. She got up and left her magazine on the floor. “I already set up Barbie’s house.” Arthur followed Tina up the stairs. “So, school’s starting up soon,” Carina said as she set some water to boil on the stove. There were piles of bills and magazines on the kitchen counter, a stack of plates waiting to be washed in the sink. “Yes,” Ann said. “They grow up so fast, don’t they?” Tina stopped at the top of the steps and Arthur slammed into her and giggled. “Sshh,” she said. “Let’s spy on them,” she whispered. Arthur put his hands over his mouth and smiled. Arthur followed Tina down three steps, where they sat with their backs to the wall and their heads turned suspiciously to listen. Arthur laughed and Tina turned to him with a finger over her pink lips. Carina’s voice was only slightly muffled by the distance. “Tina’s really excited to have Arthur in her class. They get along so well. I never hear a peep out of them when they’re up there in her room.” “They do seem to like each other,” Ann said. Tina heard her mother scoot the wooden high chair across the linoleum floor so she could pull over a stool and sit across from Ann. She heard her take the stack of newspapers off the table and drop them on the floor. Then she said, “Poor Tina was so bored this summer without anyone to play with and I’ve been so busy with Maja.” Tina turned to Arthur and smiled. She reached her hand down to his on the carpeted step and left it there, not quite holding his hand, but resting on it, touching it. His mom said, “We were a little nervous about putting Arthur into public school, but the district ranks high in K-12 here. That’s one of the reasons we picked the neighborhood.” “Oh, yeah,” Carina laughed. “And who can afford private school? I mean, come on, it’s third grade, right?” “Yes,” Ann said. “But it’s important to get a good start.” The teakettle started to screech, and Tina heard her mom slide her stool across the floor to get up and pull two cups from the dishwasher. “This is boring,” Tina whispered. “Let’s go play.” Tina and Arthur tiptoed upstairs to Tina’s mostly pink room, where they played dinosaurs and Barbie dolls on the carpeted floor. After going through the motions of their toys’ workdays, Rex the dinosaur as a truck driver and Barbie as a veterinarian, Tina dressed her blonde-haired Barbie in a hot pink dress and green high heels. She walked the doll towards her pink plastic convertible. “It’s time for me to pick Rex up for our date,” Tina said. “RRRRRRR!” Arthur wrapped around the green monster’s neck the piece of blue cloth they used to signify his dinosaur’s fancy outfit and walked him towards Barbie’s car. Since he didn’t fit in the passenger seat, Rex rode on the back of the convertible to the other end of the room, the restaurant where he ate invisible pizza with Barbie before riding back to her house to go in the Jacuzzi. Tina ran to the bathroom to fill the little purple pool with hot water. She came back into the room and closed the door behind her with a bare foot. “Maybe after the Jacuzzi, Rex and Barbie should have sex,” Tina said. “Like dessert?” Arthur dropped Rex into the spa, splashing some water onto the carpet. “No, like they get naked and hug.” Tina smiled. “It’s what grown-ups do when they go on dates.” “How do you know?” Arthur asked. “I saw it on a show my dad let me watch called Miami Vice. Girls show their boobies in tiny bathing suits, and the boys scream and drive really fast cars. And there’s a guy on the show who looks like your dad.” “Sounds kind of gross,” Arthur said. “The sex.” “It is. But I think they should do it because they went on a date.” Tina slid Barbie out of her bathing suit and put her under the pink quilt of her canopy bed in the two-story plastic Dream House. “Okay.” Arthur dried Rex on the carpet. “But Rex doesn’t really have any clothes to take off except for his scarf.” “That’s okay.” Arthur slid Rex under the tiny pink quilt with his moveable plastic arms stretched out to wrap around Barbie. Tina and Arthur sat back and watched the green dinosaur and the blonde doll hug on the Barbie bed. “Okay.” Tina pulled the lovers apart. “That’s enough, I think.” Tina and Arthur were in the same third grade class and sat together on the school bus, even when other boys and girls separated to opposite sides of the bus to avoid cooties. Starting with the second week of school, they added a third weekly play date to study for spelling tests. Tina’s father sat on the screened-in porch smoking Camels while he asked them to spell their words of the week on lined paper. Arthur was allowed to stay for dinner on those Thursday nights, which were also Swedish pancake and split pea soup nights. He couldn’t believe Tina got pancakes for dinner. He gobbled up the filmy sweet wrappings filled with strawberries, whipped cream, and lingonberries. They even got to take their food outside and eat on a picnic blanket while Mom and Dad sat inside, Maja in a high chair between them mashing food all over her chubby body. One Thursday night, after spelling and pancakes, Arthur and Tina took to the swing set and the sandbox in the backyard to scream out their sugar highs. They giggled themselves silly when Arthur dumped a bucket of sand on Tina’s head. Tina had to pee, so she ran out behind the playhouse Dad had built last summer on the farthest corner of the picket fence. Arthur ran after her and decided he would go pee back there, too. Tina pulled her light pink cotton panties down around her bare ankles under her denim skirt and squatted close to the long blades of grass. Arthur heard the tinkle start and giggled. “Come on,” Tina smiled. “Don’t you have to pee, too?” “Yeah,” Arthur said. He pulled down his blue shorts and his Spider Man briefs and held his tiny penis in his hands. He tried to cover it so Tina wouldn’t see it. “Let me see,” Tina laughed. She pulled her panties back up under her skirt and stood in front of Arthur. He moved his fingers and aimed his penis at a spot in the grass. “It’s so small,” she said. “It’s because I’m just a boy,” he said. “My dad’s is bigger. I see it when he takes a shower,” she said. “Mine will grow when I grow up,” he said. The stream of pee stopped and Arthur pulled his briefs and shorts up around his waist. “Like my boobs will grow when I grow up?” Tina lifted her pink flowered shirt to show Arthur her mosquito bite breasts. She pulled it back down quickly before he could get a good look and giggled. Arthur smiled and chased her back to the sandbox. That night, Arthur went home with sticky fingers, sandy pants, and a pee stain on his shoe. About an hour later, his mother called Tina’s house and Tina answered the phone. “Hello, Tina.” “Who is this?” Tina said into the receiver. “It’s Mrs. Phillips. May I please speak with your mother?” “She’s in the shower,” Tina said. That’s what she was supposed to say when her mother wasn’t home. “Well, please have her call me when she gets out.” “Okay,” Tina said and hung up the phone. Tina scribbled a note with a purple crayon on a memo pad for her mom and tacked it to the message board on the refrigerator. Hours later, Tina was in bed tossing under her pink Strawberry Shortcake comforter. It matched the glowing, fruit-shaped nightlight in the corner of her room. Maja had been yelling herself blue in the face for hours after Mom went out shopping, so Tina couldn’t even enjoy her episode of My Little Pony on tape. But the house was quiet now, and Tina tiptoed out of her canopy bed to sit on the pillow-covered bench under her picture window. It looked out over the backyard, into the backyards of other dark houses with white-picket fences, swing sets, and tree houses. A few fireflies swarmed in the yards, their lights slowly blinking yellow and bright, then fading into the dark blue sky. Tina jumped up from the bench, put on a pair of red jellies from her closet, and sneaked down the stairs. Tina stood in Arthur’s backyard with an empty glass jam jar and a handful of pebbles. She threw the pebbles up one by one at Arthur’s window and waited. He finally turned on his light and looked down at Tina. She waved big and smiled. The light turned back off and Tina waited. Arthur came out the back door from the laundry room in his pajamas, blue cotton shorts and a T-shirt with a pterodactyl on it. “My mom’s gonna be mad if she knows you’re here,” he whispered. He was so close Tina could feel his humid breath on her ear. “So don’t tell her,” she whispered back. “We need to catch some fireflies before summer’s over.” Tina took Arthur’s hand, and he followed her out the gate to the front yard, where her bike was resting on its side. “I need to get my bike,” Arthur said. He left Tina alone in the front yard for a minute in silence except for the chirping of grasshoppers and the hum of air conditioners working to cool the hot houses in the neighborhood. Arthur came back with sneakers on and pushing his blue Spiderman bike. He pedaled quietly behind Tina until they rounded the corner of Columbia Place. “Where are we going?” he asked. “To the field where we had that doughnut,” Tina said over her shoulder. Her knotted hair was waving behind her. “That’s where there’s the most fireflies.” Tina and Arthur dropped their bikes on the dirt path and walked out into the field. The wheat hummed with yellow lights flickering on and off like burning stars. Tina trapped several of the bugs in her jar before passing it to Arthur and letting him try. She caught another one in her hands and peeked between her fingers to watch it glow. “It tickles,” she giggled. “I got one!” Arthur slammed the jar lid on top, leaving four flies glowing inside. Tina let hers go and watched it flicker into the sky. Arthur skipped deeper into the field to catch more. Tina sat down on the dirt and picked at some stalks before sprawling out like an angel and staring up through the wheat at the stars and the flies in the sky. Tina woke up hours later to dusky gray air. She itched her nose and looked over to find Arthur sleeping, curled up around the jar of bugs. One was crawling weakly around the bottom of the glass. The others were on their backs or sides, lifeless. She should have poked holes in the top, Tina thought. “Arthur.” She shook her sleeping friend. “We have to go home.” Arthur startled awake. “Where are we?” “In the firefly field. Remember?” “We’re gonna be late for school.” Arthur stood up and ran the wrong way into the wheat. “This way.” Tina grabbed him by the arm and led him toward the path where their bikes were. “My mom is gonna be so mad,” Arthur said, starting to cry. “She’s already mad that we peed behind the playhouse. She said if I got into any more trouble with you, we wouldn’t be allowed to play!” He threw himself onto his bike and started pedaling as hard as he could. “Why didn’t you wake me?” “Arthur! Wait.” Tina picked up the jar he had dropped in the dirt and pedaled quickly behind him. “We still have time before school starts.” Tina knew this because she always got up early, before her mom or dad had a chance to wake her. Sometimes she even had time to sneak downstairs and watch TV before Maja started crying and woke Mom and Dad up. “Stop talking to me! I have to get home!” Arthur screamed and sped ahead. Tina couldn’t keep up. She watched him ride onto Columbia Place. “Arthur!” He didn’t even turn around. Tina stopped, got off her bike, and stood next to it. She watched him pull up to his house, throw his bike down on the driveway, and walk in the side door to the garage. Several hours later, after Tina had eaten a frosted strawberry Pop Tart, brushed her teeth, and put on her pink and blue striped long-sleeved shirt and red stretchy pants, she sat at the kitchen table looking at one of her mom’s catalogs, waiting for Arthur to pick her up so they could walk to the bus stop together. The doorbell ran and Tina jumped up to get her Barbie backpack from the floor. When she opened the door, Arthur was standing next to his mother, staring at his white sneakers. “Hello, Mrs. Phillips,” Tina said and smiled. “Hello, Tina.” Ann did not smile. “Is your mother home?” “Mom!” Tina called into the kitchen. Arthur ran inside, took Tina’s hand, and led her into the living room next to the kitchen. She dropped her backpack on the floor next to the couch. Carina came out of the kitchen to the hallway after Tina and Arthur darted past her. She was holding Maja on her hip. Maja’s hands were covered in banana puree, and she was rubbing them together to watch the sticky strings stretch between her fingers when she pulled them apart. “Hi, Ann.” Tina could hear that her mom was smiling. “Good morning.” “Carina.” Ann stepped into the hallway and let the screen door slam behind her. “I called the house last night.” “Oh, I know.” Carina sighed. “I was going to give you a call this morning once I put this one down for a nap.” She bounced Maja on her hip. In the living room, Arthur pulled a light pink My Little Pony with braided purple hair out from under his shirt. Tina’s name was written in purple marker across the hind. “I got this for you,” he said and handed her the pony. He had stolen it from his sister, who was too old to want to play with them anymore. “Thank you,” she said. “I don’t have this one.” Arthur started to cry. “Why are you crying?” Tina asked. “My mom,” he said and started to sob, “is telling your mom, right now, that we can’t play any m… m… more!” Tina put down her pony, reached out to him and hugged him tight like her father did to her when she fell off her bike. “Don’t cry.” Tina rubbed his back. It was warm and slightly sweaty. “She can’t do that.” “Yes she can,” he said. “She is! She says I can’t come over your house and you can’t come over mine, ever again.” “You can sneak out. And we’ll see each other at school.” “But it won’t be the same,” he cried. Arthur pulled himself out of Tina’s arms, looked up at her and gave her a hot, salty kiss on the lips. Tina kept her eyes wide open and licked her lips afterwards. She pulled away and sat facing Arthur, who was sniffling wet snots back into his nose. “I’ll miss you,” he said. Then Arthur stood and walked back towards the kitchen. Tina sat on the couch, held her pony, and tried not to cry. Arthur was standing with his back to her at the step that separated the kitchen from the living room, where the carpet turned to linoleum. “Why?” Tina yelled. Arthur turned around and looked at her with wet eyes. “It’s not fair!” She stood up and threw her pony on the floor. Carina and Ann came and stood next to Arthur, the three of them lined up and staring at Tina. “It’s not fair,” she cried. Carina put Maja down on the carpet. She sat on her diapered bum and looked up at the grown ups, her head bobbling. She laughed and clapped her hands together, then went back to examining the sticky banana. Carina stooped beside Tina and wiped her wet cheeks. “I know, honey. I know.” She pulled the hair back from Tina’s hot, red cheeks and forehead and hugged her tight. “My mom thinks you’re bad,” Arthur said softly, to the floor more than Tina. “Arthur!” Ann kneeled to grab her son’s arm and shook it sternly. “What did I tell you?” “Tina’s a good kid, Ann,” Carina said. She pressed Tina into her waist. She buried her face in her mother’s coffee-stained, blue, button-down shirt and cried. Her cheeks burned with salt. “She’s just being a kid.” “She’s wild,” Ann said. “She’s in desperate need of some discipline.” “Maybe your kid is in need of some space. How is he ever going to learn when you keep him on such a short leash? Kids need to explore and make mistakes.” “Children need rules,” Ann said. She turned and signaled with her arm for Arthur to follow her out of the house. Tina turned to look at him, but his back was already turned, so she buried her face back in her mother’s shirt. Tina heard Ann’s quick footsteps on the kitchen floor and Arthur’s light feet behind her. The screen door slammed behind them. Carina sat on the couch and put her head in her hands. “Tina,” she said. “Honey, you know you’re not bad, right?” Tina cried. “He’s my best friend, Mom!” “I know, sweetie.” Carina pulled Tina into her lap and ran her fingers through her hair. “You’ll make new best friends, Tina. I know you will.” “I don’t want a new friend.” Tina jumped up from the couch and ran up the step to the kitchen, to the front door. Arthur and his mother had their backs turned to her. They were getting smaller and smaller as they walked down the sidewalk to the bus stop. Tina ran back to the living room, grabbed her backpack, and looked to her mom, who was picking Maja up from the carpeted floor. “I’ll see him at school,” she said, wiping snots from her nose with her fist. “Of course you will.” “I gotta go,” Tina said. “I’m gonna miss the bus.” She waved at her mom and ran toward the door. “Love you,” Carina said from the step that separated the living room from the kitchen, Maja on her hip. “Love you!” Tina yelled. The screen door slammed behind her. She wanted to yell the same thing to Arthur. Instead, she wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands and hurried to the bus stop.