Home Free by Sharon Jennings Page B

up,” I said.
    She rolled over.
    â€œSee? Look at all the stars. I call it my star window. And no one can see us. Nobody ever knows I’m here. I can just look up at the stars and think.” And I told her all about the word
sanctuary
and about being home free.
    Cassandra didn’t say anything, and I was afraid to ask a question. So I watched the stars and I listened to the sounds of bugs and I could smell the damp earth and the dead leaves and the mint from Mrs. Carol’s garden and the perfume from the roses. And it happened again, just like always. I felt shivery and happy and safe.
    Then I told Cassandra all about L.M. Montgomery in my church. I thought she’d be thrilled for me. I waited for her to say so.
    â€œShe called my mother names,” said Cassandra. “She said she was a terrible girl and … and … lots of other things, and she said I’d probably grow up just like her and … ”
    I pushed myself up. “Mrs. Fergus? Why? Why would she say such things? Your mother is dead. That’s terrible.”
    â€œYou don’t understand. You don’t understand anything.”
    And I could hear the hate in her voice. But I didn’t think the hate was for me.
    â€œTell me. Please tell me. Then I can understand.”
    Cassandra turned away from me. “I can’t. I’m not allowed.”
    I didn’t understand any of this. So I tried to figure it out. “Did your mother and father do something awful? Is that how they died? Was it their fault? Or … or did they have a big fight with everyone just before they died? Is that it? And no one will forgive them?”
    Nothing.
    â€œOr maybe it was just fever, like Anne Shirley’s parents. And maybe your family thought it was disgraceful and so they –”
    â€œShut up!”
    â€œBut why can’t you talk about it? Why can’t you talk about your parents? Don’t you miss them? Didn’t you love them?”
    â€œNo!” Cassandra spit.
    So I said nothing.
    â€œI didn’t do my chores the right way for good old Cousin Doris. So she told me off, and I talked back. Then she said some really nice things about me and about my mom.”
    â€œAnd about your dad?” I prodded.
    Silence.
    And then, “And so I yelled back and got sent to my room. And that’s all I want to tell you.” And she lay back down on the dead leaves.
    â€œBut–”
    â€œShut up.”
    â€œBut–”
    â€œI said shut up!”
    So I shut up.
    â€œI know,” Cassandra said. “Let’s talk about you.”
    â€œMe?”
    â€œYeah. Let’s talk about your little secret with Kathy.”
    So this was it. We would exchange secrets. I’d tell her mine and she’d tell me hers. Fine.
    But not in here. Not in my Sanctuary. I didn’t want to sully it.
(Sully
means “to destroy the purity of something.”)
    I got up and pushed aside the branches and leaves. Cassandra followed me and we went back to her yard.
    â€œThis is what happened,” I said.

Chapter 15
    As everybody knows, Kathy and I have been best friends or arch enemies since grade two. We had fights every day, but we always made up.
    But not the last time.
    Whenever we had money or could earn some money, like taking somebody’s baby for a walk around the block, Kathy and I would run to Sid’s Variety Store and buy candy, Popsicles, and chocolate bars, usually.
    So one day I found three pop bottles in the park. That was six cents! I could buy us a Popsicle. Kathy didn’t come with me because she had curlers in her hair. So I ran to Sid’s and went up to the counter with my three pop bottles.
    Someone had been there before me and left a case ofbottles on the counter. Six more bottles. Twelve more cents. I could buy us each a Popsicle and some licorice too! No one was at the counter and when Sid came out from the back, he said, “What do I owe you?” I