Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree (3 page)

Then a voice whispered in Colleen’s head:

Oh gosh.

It was true.

Emma-Jean Lazarus was probably the only person in the whole school who wouldn’t go around blabbing about Colleen’s breakdown in the bathroom.

Colleen looked at Emma-Jean. Really looked. Right then Emma-Jean didn’t look weird. She looked kind and wise, a little like the statue of the Virgin Mary at Colleen’s church.

And why hadn’t Colleen ever noticed how pretty Emma-Jean was? Her long brown hair was totally thick and shiny and had way more natural body than Colleen’s. Emma-Jean’s skin was perfectly smooth. And look at her eyes, how pretty, bright green with little sparkles of blue, like Kaitlin’s cat’s.

Colleen studied
Teen Beauty
magazine each and every month, and right then she realized Emma-Jean would be totally perfect for their “Beauty Police” section, where the editors kidnap someone off the street and give her a total makeover. Emma-Jean had natural beauty but no style.

Colleen might have even said this to Emma-Jean, right then and there, but Colleen was pretty sure Emma-Jean didn’t care about things like makeup. And Colleen had to admit that a makeover probably wouldn’t make much difference anyway. There was something a little strange about Emma-Jean, something Colleen couldn’t put her finger on but also couldn’t really ignore, even if she tried. Like the way Emma-Jean was staring at her right now. The weird way she talked. She’d always been a little peculiar. For as long as Colleen could remember, kids had snickered about Emma-Jean behind her back.

But never Colleen!

Colleen would never make fun of someone, no matter how weird they acted. Colleen wasn’t the prettiest girl in the seventh grade, or the smartest. She wasn’t the best artist or the best violin player or the best dresser. But Colleen Pomerantz was nice. Really, really, really, really nice. Maybe even the nicest girl in the seventh grade, though she would never want to brag. Colleen had this idea—a faded, crumpled, smudged idea—that being nice counted for something, even in the seventh grade.

The truth was that Colleen admired Emma-Jean, and not because Emma-Jean was a total genius who got straight A’s.

Emma-Jean was amazing to Colleen because Emma-Jean didn’t seem to care what people thought of her. This not caring made Emma-Jean seem almost superhuman to Colleen. Truly, if Colleen could be a superhero with just one power, she wouldn’t want to fly or see through walls or lift cars with one finger. Colleen would want the power not to care. And her name would be . . .
Super Not-Care Girl
.

Oh, it would be so great to go through one day— one hour!—not worrying that someone was mad at her, or if a joke she told was completely lame. If only she could be more like Emma-Jean. If only Colleen hadn’t cried for three days when she wasn’t invited to Neil Messner’s bar mitzvah. Emma-Jean wasn’t invited (Kaitlin got the whole guest list, so Colleen knew this for sure). And yet Colleen was sure that Emma-Jean didn’t rush home every day praying she’d find a blue and silver envelope in the mailbox.

As far as Colleen knew, the only party that Emma-Jean had ever been invited to had been Colleen’s own fifth-grade Halloween party. Colleen had invited her whole class because unlike some of the girls, Colleen would never not invite someone just because that person was sort of strange and spent recess staring at trees.

Emma-Jean had come dressed as Albert Einstein, with a crazy gray wig and glasses and a T-shirt with some math writing on it, like E + 2 = 5. Emma-Jean’s dad had come with her, Colleen remembered. How could she forget? Mr. Lazarus wasn’t like the other parents, who’d dropped off their kids and then waved good-bye. He had come right in and joined the party. He had bobbed for apples alongside Emma-Jean. When Colleen had put on the song “Monster Mash,” Mr. Lazarus had held Emma-Jean’s hands and danced with her. Emma-Jean had laughed so hard, her Einstein wig had fallen off. At first, Mr. Lazarus had seemed a little, well, sort of odd. Like Emma-Jean. But it turned out he was really, really sweet, the way he’d helped Colleen’s mom cut the cake so that there were exactly twenty-four pieces, all perfect squares, and how he complimented Colleen on her hula girl costume, even though her mom had made her wear a T-shirt under it and she looked pretty dorky. When it was time to leave, Emma-Jean’s dad said good-bye to everyone and remembered every single kid’s name.

Oh gosh! Emma-Jean’s dad!

Colleen suddenly remembered that just a few days after the party, Mr. Lazarus had . . . He was . . .

Poor Emma-Jean!

Colleen actually felt a stab in her heart, like some mini angel was jabbing it, reminding her how selfish she was acting, obsessing over this stupid situation in front of Emma-Jean, who had lost her father! Colleen had to pull herself together!

“You’ve already helped me so much, Emma-Jean, just by listening to me,” Colleen said. “I’m really lucky you were here.”

“Yes,” Emma-Jean said. “It was a fortunate coincidence. ”

Just then, the door of the girls’ room opened and a blond frizzy head peeped inside.

Kaitlin!

“Colleen!” Kaitlin said. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“Oh . . .” Colleen wasn’t sure what to say. Should she tell Kaitlin how hurt she was? That she had almost fainted? Should she be mad at Kaitlin for being kind of a bad friend?

“Coll?” Kaitlin said, pushing her eyebrows together like she did when she was really worried. “Are you okay? Are you sick? What’s wrong?”

No, Colleen shouldn’t be mad. Kaitlin didn’t hurt Colleen on purpose, right? Kaitlin was under Laura’s wicked spell.

Colleen put on her sunniest smile.

“I’m fine!” she said. “Let’s go!”

Kaitlin held the door open for Colleen.

“See you later, Emma-Jean,” Colleen said, waving. “Thanks!”

“You can be confident that your problem will be resolved,” Emma-Jean said.

As the door was swishing shut behind them, Kaitlin leaned into Colleen and whispered, “
What
is wrong with Emma-Jean Lazarus?”

Chapter 3

Emma-Jean had excellent hearing and had heard Kaitlin Vogel’s whispered question. She’d also heard Colleen’s response. “Oh nothing,” Colleen had said. “Emma-Jean’s just a little . . . she’s just different.” Which was precisely what Emma-Jean would have said. For it was quite obvious that Emma-Jean was different from most people. She was more rational, less prone to be carried away by emotion or whim. Emma-Jean considered herself lucky to have been born with an exceptionally steady nature, though there were times when the differences between herself and her peers presented some challenges.

When she was much younger, spending time with other children often left her feeling confused, as though she were visiting with creatures of a different species. In kindergarten, she had spent each recess perched at the top of the monkey bars, watching her buzz-cut and pigtailed peers chasing each other around the playground. It was odd the way they screamed as though they were scared, yet smiled as if they were happy. A group of girls might yell to a boy, “Dylan!” but when Dylan walked over, the girls would run away shrieking and laughing. Emma-Jean would study Dylan, wondering what was frightening about him, or, alternatively, what was funny. Perhaps they suspected he had pinkeye. But then why call him over and risk infection? Or maybe he had been muttering an amusing rhyme that Emma-Jean couldn’t hear. Each new situation was like a puzzle that Emma-Jean had to solve.

Emma-Jean had observed her peers closely over the years. Her painstaking research had given her a much clearer understanding of their complex emotional lives and surprising sensitivities. With steady practice, and help from her father and mother,

Emma-Jean had learned how to interact with her schoolmates in a manner that minimized confusion on all sides.

But of course her peers were unpredictable—this was their nature. And even now, every so often, Emma-Jean would have an experience that pushed her to the limits of her understanding.

For example, there had been an incident that took place just a few weeks before, in the cafeteria. Emma-Jean had been eating her soup, alone as usual, when a boy named Brandon Mahoney approached her. He was holding a pear, which he held out for Emma-Jean. He was grinning so widely that Emma-Jean could see his many fillings. It was not surprising that Brandon Mahoney did not practice good dental hygiene, since his locker was filled with trash and his fingernails were dirty and ragged.

He looked back over his shoulder and said, “This is for you. It’s from Will Keeler.”

Emma-Jean appreciated the pear, which was large and unblemished and would, following a rigorous washing, make a tasty snack for her walk home.

It did strike her as unusual that Will Keeler would want to give the pear to her, since he had never spoken to her, even when they sat across from each other in art class last quarter. Then again, perhaps he, like she, had observed what other students customarily ate for lunch, and thus knew that Emma-Jean always had at least one piece of fruit.

“You may tell Will that I appreciate the pear,” Emma-Jean said.

For some reason Brandon Mahoney seemed to find this statement amusing, since he began to laugh. Emma-Jean couldn’t imagine what was funny, and before she could ask Brandon, Will Keeler appeared. Brandon and Will were friends. But now Will didn’t look the least bit amiable. In fact, he was looking at Brandon with a most disapproving expression, his large blue eyes narrowed, his lips pressed tight together. Emma-Jean wondered if Will regretted that Brandon had given away his pear.

Emma-Jean picked up the pear and handed it to Will. “You may have this back, if you’re still hungry.”

Brandon was now laughing so hard that his entire face had turned the color of Emma-Jean’s tomato soup. “She . . . is . . . so . . . strange!” he gasped.

Will took a step toward Brandon. Will was taller than most of the seventh-grade boys, and he towered over Brandon. “You’re an idiot,” he said. He was gripping the pear so tightly that his knuckles were white. Emma-Jean feared the pear would become bruised.

“Whoa!” Brandon said, breaking into a sprint away from Will and Emma-Jean.

Will hesitated for just a moment before hurling the pear at Brandon. It shot through the air, a green blur. Brandon inopportunely turned and looked at Will at exactly the second of impact. The pear struck him, with tremendous force, squarely in the forehead. Brandon fell, crashing into several metal chairs on his way to the floor. Emma-Jean was so startled by the noise that she nearly knocked over her thermos. Seconds later, Mr. Petrowski appeared, pointing at Will and shouting, “I saw that! I saw the whole thing!” He escorted Will to the office, and Will was sent home for the remainder of the day.

Emma-Jean puzzled over this incident for much of the afternoon. She would have still been wondering about it, had it not been for the astute advice of her mother.

Elizabeth Lazarus was younger than the parents of most of Emma-Jean’s classmates. Yet she possessed the wisdom of an old sage. She always had keen insights into matters of the human mind and spirit. Over the years, Emma-Jean had engaged her in frequent discussions about her peers. Almost all of these discussions took place in Emma-Jean’s mother’s bed, to which Emma-Jean and her mother often retreated in the later hours of the evening to read and discuss the day’s events.

That evening, as was her habit, Emma-Jean had brought into bed the quilt her father had made for her when she was born. It was made of hundreds of tiny squares, arranged in a pattern of startling intricacy. She and her mother liked to warm their feet under the soft cotton, mindful not to get their toes caught in the ragged edges. Emma-Jean knew that she needed to repair the quilt’s border, that it could fall apart if she didn’t. Her mother had brought her many times to the crafts store, but Emma-Jean had yet to find an assortment of fabrics that would fit with her father’s pattern.

Emma-Jean recounted the cafeteria incident, sparing no detail. Her mother listened closely, her coppery eyes intense. When Emma-Jean finished talking, her mother took a few moments to reflect, pursing her lips in concentration. Emma-Jean waited patiently, at one point reaching over to gently remove a piece of lint from one of her mother’s reddish curls.

“I feel sorry for Brandon,” her mother announced.

“Why?” Emma-Jean said.

“Because I can picture him as an adult,” her mother said.

Emma-Jean’s mother would never claim to possess anything as fanciful as psychic powers. But she did have the ability to project into the future with surprising accuracy. For instance, as she had told Emma-Jean many times, she had known instantly that Eugene Lazarus should be her husband. They met when Emma-Jean’s father was opening a checking account at the bank where Emma-Jean’s mother worked. This was before Emma-Jean’s mother began her steady climb through the bank hierarchy, and just weeks after her father had graduated from M.I.T. and moved to town to begin his doctoral work at the university.

“Your father was very shy back then,” her mother had told her. “But I could see what was inside him. It was all written out in those eyes of his, that he was a man who had a gift for life. Like you have, Emma-Jean. It was all right there, waiting for a person who would know how to open that gift. And that person was me.”

Of course her mother had been right.

Emma-Jean tried now to imagine Brandon Mahoney grown up. She frowned as she pictured a man with several missing teeth and bleeding gums, whose ill-advised antics provoked generally good-natured people into acts of violence involving fruit.

Her mother was correct. Life could not turn out well for such a person.

“What about Will Keeler?” Emma-Jean said.

“I like him,” her mother said without hesitation.

“But you’ve never met him,” Emma-Jean said.