Zoe in Wonderland by Brenda Woods

go.
    Before I knew it, Daddy was parking the car in the hospital’s lot, and a short time later the automatic doorsparted in front of us. After getting our visitor passes, Daddy, Mom, and I walked along the clean gleaming floors of the extraordinarily long hallway toward Kendra’s room.
    Three Things About Hospitals
Hospitals are like toilet paper. We don’t really think about them much until we need them.
Like ice rinks, hospitals are always cold.
And the same way a mechanic can usually fix your car but other times can’t, sometimes being in the hospital fixes people and other times, no matter what, it doesn’t.
    Kendra’s room looked like there’d been an explosion of flowers.
    She was propped up in bed, sleeping. Some tubes were hooked up to her arms and her head was shaved bald.
    Why is her head shaved? I wondered.
    Daddy put his finger to his mouth, whispered, “Shhh,” and we turned to leave.
    But right then, Kendra woke up. “Zoe?”
    I smiled. “Hi.”
    â€œGimme a hug,” she commanded.
    So I did. But I must have hugged her too tight, because she groaned a little.
    â€œSorry!” I told her.
    Kendra reached for my hands and held them. “Sorries aren’t allowed here, Zoe dear.”
    I wanted to inform her that she’d just made a rhyme but didn’t.
    â€œWe won’t stay long,” Mom told her.
    â€œYou need your rest,” Daddy added.
    â€œThank you for the flowers, Doc and Gabby. Never had so many . . . ever.” Kendra glanced out the window, and I could tell she was trying hard not to cry. She won the battle with her tears after a minute, and then she smiled. Remembering how Quincy’s dad had called her a fighter, I pictured Kendra kickboxing, defeating the cancer.
    We were still talking when some of Kendra’s family showed up and stuck their heads in the door. Because the hospital had a limit on the number of visitors a person can have inside their room, we said our good-byes and left.
    â€œWhy’d they shave her hair off?” I asked on the drive home.
    â€œThey didn’t. Kendra did that herself,” Mom replied.“Said the chemo and radiation were going to make her hair fall out, anyway. That’s sometimes hard on a person. So she decided to save herself from that.”
    â€œShe still looks pretty. Even without any hair. Don’t you think?” I told her.
    â€œShe does,” Mom answered.
    From the backseat, I gazed at the city’s scenery and cars as they zoomed by, thought about Kendra, and wondered if there would ever really be a place like the New People Store.

17
    Without Quincy
    Two Things Being Without Quincy Was Like
Being barefoot and stepping in dog poop.
The worst, most boring Zoe days ever.
    If my world with Quincy had been, for instance, the size of Catalina Island, my world without him was now the size of an extremely small iceberg—an iceberg that was only big enough for one person to stand on: me. And my happy feelings, like an iceberg, were frozen. Secretly, I vowed not to smile again until Quincy returned and Kendra got better.
    At school, I spent a lot of time watching the clocks tick the time away. And when the end-of-the-day bell finally rang, I felt the way a prisoner must feel when she gets out of jail on a one-day or weekend pass—unable to feel too good about it because she knows that before very long, she’s going to wind up right back where she doesn’t want to be.
    Almost every other day Quincy called me, and as soon as I’d hear his voice, I couldn’t help but smile, temporarily breaking my vow. And we e-mailed each other almost every day, but it was nowhere even close to having him at school or Kendra and him living right up the street. Plus I really missed our not-a-date Saturdays at the movies.
    At home, I did my best to be alone.
    â€œShe’ll get over it,” I’d heard Daddy tell Mom.
    â€œSoon, I