The Truth According to Ginny Moon Benjamin Ludwig (books to read in your 30s .txt) 📖

need to ask some questions. I need to figure out what’s going on. First, does anyone know where you are?”

“No.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m walking down the road.”

“You mean Cedar Lane?”

“Yes.”

“So you’re out by yourself and no one knows it. Whose cell phone are you using?”

“Kayla Zadambidge’s,” I say.

“She’s someone from school?”

“Yes.”

“All right,” says Gloria. “Wait. Does that mean you ran away?”

“No,” I say.

“You just took your friend’s phone home and then sneaked outside to call me?”

“Right,” I say.

Gloria laughs. “Leave it to my kid to know how to get the job done,” she says. “Okay. So you probably don’t have a lot of time to talk before someone finds out you’re missing. We have to figure out what to do. But first, I want to tell you what I didn’t get to tell you online before those assholes shut me down.”

She takes another breath.

“I want you to know that I’ve been looking for you nonstop ever since you left. For four whole years. No one would tell me where you were. Not even the social worker or the therapist. You know what therapist spells if you divide the word up, right? Anyway, I’ve been looking and looking for you, and then you found me on Facebook. It was the best day I had since Donald got arrested. And—”

“Wait,” I say. “Donald got arrested?”

“Yep,” says Gloria. “And then Crystal got involved without me even knowing it. If she’d just told me what she was up to, I could have helped. Man, I have a lot to say to her. She’ll be allowed to send emails when the trial is over, but I haven’t been in touch with her yet. But you belong with us, Gin. With me and your sister, I mean. You know that, right? And did you get the Christmas present I sent? What about the pizza?”

But that is three questions at once and my brain is thinking Donald got arrested, Donald got arrested so I don’t say anything even though the answers are yes, yes and yes.

“Ginny?”

“What?”

“Remember, I said we need to focus. Now, tell me what you want. Because I know what my plan is, and I want to make sure yours and mine are the same thing. I need to hear you say the words.”

“I want to go up to Canada to live with you,” I say. “We can disappear in Quebec and I can take care of my Baby Doll again. But you can’t come kidnap me or you’ll get arrested. So I’ll need a ride.”

I want to also say I need to make sure you’re feeding my Baby Doll and that you don’t hit it but I don’t.

Gloria waits a few seconds before talking and when she talks again her voice is shaky. “That’s great to hear, Ginny. Shit, that’s great. That’s exactly what I want, too. And you’re right that if I try to come get you at home or school I’ll get arrested.”

“Who will come pick me up?” I say.

“That’s the tricky part. I’m not supposed to see you. The people you live with got really pissy when I came to your house and school. Venomous, you might say.”

“Why might I say that?”

“What, venomous? It’s just an expression. You really haven’t changed at all, have you?”

“I still have the same head,” I say. “Plus my eyes are still green.”

Then Gloria says, “All right. Let’s think this through. Just because it sounds impossible for me to come pick you up doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try. I mean, where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?”

She is talking really fast now. So fast I almost don’t understand her. It is like we have the same head. Only I’m not so good at sharing.

“But I really don’t want to end up in jail. That wouldn’t be good at all. So we’re going to have to make some adjustments, Gin. Some big adjustments.”

I’m guessing that adjustments are like modifications at school which means someone makes my homework a lot easier. I keep listening and walking down the cold sandy road. The back of my pant legs are getting wet and stiff and I am shivering but I don’t care. Because I am talking with Gloria and Donald is in jail. My secret plan is going to work.

“Let’s see, let’s see,” says Gloria. “Who can I get to pick you up? I obviously can’t do it. Not at the house. The cops would be onto us in two seconds flat.”

So I say, “My Old Dad Rick can give me a ride.”

“Rick? No. We can’t trust him. I know he gave you my phone number, but he also got my sister thrown in jail. Besides, I don’t think he’d do it.”

I am shocked. Rick was going to bring me to Canada. He is my Birth Dad and I know he loves me so that means Gloria is wrong. But I don’t want to contradict her because if I do I’ll make her angry. And I can’t, can’t, can’t make Gloria angry.

So I say, “Who else can bring me? I’m not allowed to drive. Plus I don’t have a car.”

“I know you can’t drive, honey. Just give me a minute to think.”

I wait for her to finish thinking but Gloria thinks out loud which is not how I think at all and it hurts my head. She keeps talking and talking.

“If you didn’t live so far away from town, you could just run away again, and I could pick you up at a meeting place,” she says. “You know, a little rendezvous. That’s what my old Frenchy mom used to say. You’re going to love her! Now, what would be a good meeting place?”

“People sometimes meet at the mall,” I say.

“Right, but you’d have to get someone to bring you there, and it would be hard for us to find each other with so many people around. Where else do people meet?”

“We met Rick at the park,” I say. We are thinking our thoughts together with our mouths instead of