Blue Plate Special (24 page)

Relax.

Give up the fight.

Let go.

I.

Let.

Go.

I watch my phone drop in slow motion.

When it hits bottom, seconds or minutes or hours later, I kick a clump of dirt over the top.

The battery will probably die out soon. Mom and I will be home by then. My grandmother will be too. Wherever
her
home is. Someday soon, I’ll find out.

The phone rings, muffled by the rich, brown earth. As “Only U” plays to the specks of new-falling snow, I turn and walk toward our car.

When I slide in the front seat, Mom’s studying the strip of arcade photos my grandmother gave me.

“She really
was
young once,” Mom says without looking up.

I roll my eyes. “You’re just now figuring that out?”

Mom tucks the photos in the side pocket of my backpack. Then she smiles and shifts into gear. “Yeah. Maybe I am.”

If you are a victim of sexual crime, you are not alone and help is available. The National Sexual Assault Hotline, at 1-800-656-HOPE, provides free, confidential help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Services for adolescents are also available online on the RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) Web site. Visit them at
www.rainn.org
and click on 24/7 Online Hotline.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone at Chronicle Books—especially my editor, Julie Romeis—for believing in
Blue Plate Special
and honoring it as Chronicle’s first young adult novel. Thanks to Peg Davol for repeated readings and helpful critiques as the novel grew and changed; Steve Blenus for behind-the-scenes support with technological snafus so I could focus on the business of writing; my Tuesday Night Group for insightful suggestions for several chapters; and Barbara Burrows, my rock, for being there from square one and offering encouraging words, iced coffee, and sandwiches, and whatever else the moment called for.
Sei uno spettacolo!

Copyright © 2009 by Michelle D. Kwasney.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-4521-0411-9

Book design by Amy E. Achaibou.

Chronicle Books LLC

680 Second Street,

San Francisco,

California 94107

www.chroniclekids.com