it out the door at exactly 7:16 a.m. That would get me to school anywhere between seven and nine minutes before the first bell rang. There were a lot of great astrology columns on there—Alistair Allbright’s “Destiny Awaits You” and Natasha Romanoff’s “The View from Venus,” for instance—but my favorite was one called “The Stars Never Lie” by a little old Irish woman named Wanda McManus. From the picture on her site, Wanda looked to be about seventy-five, and the “About Wanda” page said that she was descended from a long line of astrologers and psychics and had a bit of faerie in her from her mother’s side as well.
The reason I liked Wanda so much was because, likeme and Devon, she was a true romantic. Instead of focusing on money and career stuff, her horoscopes talked only about love and soul mates and the best days of the month for falling in love and meeting your soul mate. For $24.95, she also did personalized compatibility charts. Last year I had used some of my birthday money to get mine and Michael’s done. It had said that we were indeed soul mates, but that “fate would first deal us a myriad of twists and turns and trials and tribulations that would need to be conquered before we could live in eternal bliss.” That seemed fair enough. Except that I then used the rest of my birthday money to get my compatibility chart with Dante done. (I’m not
crazy
—I mean, I know he’s not a real person or anything like that—but Lulu had once written that his birthday was December 5th and I wanted to see how we would have matched up had he actually
existed
.) It ended up saying the same exact thing, except that instead of “twists and turns and trials and tribulations” it said “trials and tribulations and twists and turns.”
I had also noticed that the seventh and the seventeenth seemed to always be listed as the “Best Days for Love This Month,” and the month of April was no different. The seventh was the day that Michael and I were flying to Florida, so I’m not sure how romantic that could be, but it also said that the seventh was a new moon solar eclipse, which I knew from my horoscope research was a
very
dramatic thing as it only happened a few times a year.
What Wanda
didn’t
put in April’s monthly column was, “On the fifth, your entire world as you know it will start to come crashing down.”
The day started with Michael’s mom calling to say that the bugbite he complained about before going to sleep the night before had turned into full-blown chicken pox. Obviously, he wasn’t going to Florida.
“So I guess this means I’ll have to cancel the trip, right?” I asked hopefully after Mom hung up with her.
“Of course not,” she said, as she started to wipe the counter, pour some pomegranate juice for Jeremy, and cut up some cantaloupe for me (Mom: Lots of vitamin A to help with poor eyesight. Me: But I have 20/20 vision. Mom:
Exactly
—because you eat your cantaloupe!). “Why would you have to cancel?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Because I can’t carry both candelabras by myself?”
“Well, Daddy will just have to wrap them up and pack them in a box with peanuts, and you’ll check it,” she replied. She put her hands on her hips. “You’re going. You don’t know how much more quality time you have to spend with your grandmother.”
“But you’re always saying she’s in perfect health!” I cried.
“She is, but you never know. Plus, we decided last night to send Jeremy to your cousin’s for the week, whichmeans it’ll be the first time your father and I will be alone in years—and I am
not
giving that up.”
Little did I know that forty-eight hours later I’d be very grateful to get out of town—even if it was to an old people’s village in Florida.
That night, as I was figuring out what to pack, Michael called.
“We need to talk,” he said. He must have been really sick, because the TV was off.
I put down my bathing suit. Wait a
The reason I liked Wanda so much was because, likeme and Devon, she was a true romantic. Instead of focusing on money and career stuff, her horoscopes talked only about love and soul mates and the best days of the month for falling in love and meeting your soul mate. For $24.95, she also did personalized compatibility charts. Last year I had used some of my birthday money to get mine and Michael’s done. It had said that we were indeed soul mates, but that “fate would first deal us a myriad of twists and turns and trials and tribulations that would need to be conquered before we could live in eternal bliss.” That seemed fair enough. Except that I then used the rest of my birthday money to get my compatibility chart with Dante done. (I’m not
crazy
—I mean, I know he’s not a real person or anything like that—but Lulu had once written that his birthday was December 5th and I wanted to see how we would have matched up had he actually
existed
.) It ended up saying the same exact thing, except that instead of “twists and turns and trials and tribulations” it said “trials and tribulations and twists and turns.”
I had also noticed that the seventh and the seventeenth seemed to always be listed as the “Best Days for Love This Month,” and the month of April was no different. The seventh was the day that Michael and I were flying to Florida, so I’m not sure how romantic that could be, but it also said that the seventh was a new moon solar eclipse, which I knew from my horoscope research was a
very
dramatic thing as it only happened a few times a year.
What Wanda
didn’t
put in April’s monthly column was, “On the fifth, your entire world as you know it will start to come crashing down.”
The day started with Michael’s mom calling to say that the bugbite he complained about before going to sleep the night before had turned into full-blown chicken pox. Obviously, he wasn’t going to Florida.
“So I guess this means I’ll have to cancel the trip, right?” I asked hopefully after Mom hung up with her.
“Of course not,” she said, as she started to wipe the counter, pour some pomegranate juice for Jeremy, and cut up some cantaloupe for me (Mom: Lots of vitamin A to help with poor eyesight. Me: But I have 20/20 vision. Mom:
Exactly
—because you eat your cantaloupe!). “Why would you have to cancel?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Because I can’t carry both candelabras by myself?”
“Well, Daddy will just have to wrap them up and pack them in a box with peanuts, and you’ll check it,” she replied. She put her hands on her hips. “You’re going. You don’t know how much more quality time you have to spend with your grandmother.”
“But you’re always saying she’s in perfect health!” I cried.
“She is, but you never know. Plus, we decided last night to send Jeremy to your cousin’s for the week, whichmeans it’ll be the first time your father and I will be alone in years—and I am
not
giving that up.”
Little did I know that forty-eight hours later I’d be very grateful to get out of town—even if it was to an old people’s village in Florida.
That night, as I was figuring out what to pack, Michael called.
“We need to talk,” he said. He must have been really sick, because the TV was off.
I put down my bathing suit. Wait a
Similar Books
