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

in our brains. I have never done this before and it is just too fast. It makes me anxious but I don’t tell her that because she’ll get angry and making Gloria angry can be scary. I pick hard at my fingers.

“I’m afraid that won’t work, either,” says Gloria. “Remember, you’d have to get a ride there, too. We have to think of a place that you can get to without anyone driving you. Okay? What about a grocery store? Or a church or something?”

“I could ask Maura to bring me.”

“Who’s Maura?”

“She was my Forever Mom but I don’t call her that anymore.”

Gloria stops talking for a second. Then she says, “Your what?”

“My Forever Mom,” I say.

“You mean the woman you live with? Is that what they make you call her?”

I don’t know what to say. I called Maura my Forever Mom because all the social workers said I was going to stay with her forever. That was what they called her too.

“And I suppose her husband is your Forever Dad,” says Gloria.

I nod my head yes.

“Ginny?”

“What?”

“I asked if they make you call them that.”

I want to say no but I know Gloria wants me to say yes. So I don’t say anything. I don’t want her to get mad and she’s going to get mad either way. I really hope she doesn’t ask about my new name.

“Ginny, I am your Forever Mom. Got that? You know that, don’t you?”

I think. “I thought you were my Birth Mom,” I say.

“I am. But I’m your Birth Mom forever, right? Don’t you see that?”

That was two questions so I don’t say anything.

“All right, let’s just start over. I can’t come get you at the house, and I can’t come get you at school. By the way, it was great to see you when I came there in September. But I can’t believe how fast those bastards called the police.”

I nod. “Yes,” I say. “There was a lot of drama. I saw you standing next to the Green Car. I stood at the window and slapped the glass. Then I had to go see Patrice.”

“Patrice? That’s that therapist lady, right? I’m surprised she’s still in the picture.”

In my brain I see my picture of Michael Jackson. He is dancing on the stage and holding his hat and standing on his tippy-toes. “She’s not,” I say.

“But you just said you went to see her.”

“I did go to see her,” I say.

“All right, listen,” says Gloria. “We need to focus. We need to find a way to get you the hell out of there. And I think we’re thinking way too hard about it. It needs to be smoother. Simpler. So here’s what we’ll do. Go home. Just go back, I mean. Then on Monday when you get off the bus at school, don’t go inside. Just walk down the sidewalk as fast as you can, and when you get to the corner, cross the street. I’ll meet you right there at Cumberland Farms. Then we’ll make a run for it.”

“A run for what?” I say.

“For the border.”

“On Monday, January 24th?”

“Yes. I think so. Today is Tuesday, so that’s just six days from now, right? I know that seems like an awfully long time to wait, but I need some time to get things in order. The hard part will be giving the social workers the slip. They won’t leave me alone.”

“I can’t go on Monday, January 24th,” I say. “That’s when I’m going to Saint Genevieve’s Home for Girls Who Aren’t Safe.”

“Saint Genevieve’s Home for—what?” says Gloria. “What do you mean?”

“Brian and Maura are bringing me down to Connecticut on Monday,” I say. “To visit Saint Genevieve’s Home for Girls Who Aren’t Safe.”

“Are you going to school at all that day?”

“No.”

“It won’t work, then. We need to do it on a day when you’re at school. What about Tuesday?”

I nod my head yes and now I am even more excited. I feel like my brain isn’t in my head anymore. I feel like it is floating around in the air. “Yes,” I say. “On Tuesday, January 25th, I will go to school. The day after I get back from Saint Genevieve’s. Two days after the Special Olympics basketball tournament. Will you have my Baby Doll in the car?” Then my brain makes me remember that she wants me to go to Cumberland Farms. Which is at the end of the road that goes to school on the other side of the street. “But I’m not allowed to cross the street by myself.”

“Oh, come on,” says Gloria. “You can figure out how to cross the street. You won’t have to do what those people say anymore, so you can just wait for all the cars to stop and then run across. Don’t you want to come home with me and Krystal with a K?”

“I want to pick it up and let it chew on my finger and get it something to eat,” I say.

Gloria starts to laugh. Then she stops. “Wait. You want to—”

“Pick it up and let it chew on my finger,” I say, “and get it something to eat.”

“Okay,” she says. Very slowly. “We’ll talk about that some other time. But right now I think we really need to stop talking so you can go back and get ready. For our little rendezvous. With a little luck, no one will even know you were gone. Sneak back in, if you have to. And then this week make sure no one sees what you’re packing. Get all your money together, if you have any. Put some clothes and all your favorite things in your backpack or whatever you carry to school, and be sure to hide the cell phone. Actually, no—it would be better if you got rid of the phone completely. Turn it off and throw it in the woods. And then if you could get a few new phones, that would be great, too. You can never have enough phones when you’re