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she uses that talking dog story.”
    â€œBut Maizie
can
talk,” I said. “You heard what Leon said.”
    â€œYou’re so gullible, Steph!” Rachel said. “But I suppose that’s part of your charm.”
    I had no idea what gullible meant and I wasn’t about to ask so I just nodded and said, “It runs in my family.”
    Rachel gave me one of her skeptical looks, then said, “Well … I think we should try to help her get adjusted here. I think we should try to be her friends.”
    â€œI think so, too,” I said.

Bruce
    Bruce’s fifth grade teacher is Mrs. Stein. I also had her. But she taught fourth grade then. “She remembers you, Steph …” Bruce said at breakfast the following Friday. “She said you came in second in the reading contest.” He reached across the table for the box of Cheerios.
    â€œRachel came in first,” I told him, as I buttered my toast. I like my toast very dark. I try to catch it just before it burns and is ruined.
    â€œMrs. Stein says she remembers Rachel, too,” Bruce said.
    â€œRachel’s teachers always remember her,” I said. In fourth grade Rachel started reading the kinds of books her sister, Jessica, was reading foreighth grade English. When we gave book talks in class Rachel never reported on those books, though. She’d choose a book she thought a normal fourth grader would like instead.
    By sixth grade everybody knew Rachel was smart but she didn’t like it if the teacher made a big thing out of it. During math she’d go around helping kids who didn’t understand. Our sixth grade teacher called Rachel his teaching assistant.

    I was still sitting at the kitchen table, finishing my toast and thinking about Rachel, when Mom opened a kitchen drawer and said, “Oh, no!”
    â€œDid you get a mouse?” I asked.
    Mom slammed the drawer. “I give up!” she said. “They ate the peanut butter right off the traps. I’m going to have to call Mr. Kravitz.”
    â€œWho’s he?” Bruce asked.
    â€œThe exterminator,” Mom said. “He’s the one who bought the yellow house from us.”
    â€œI never knew we sold our house to an exterminator,” I said. “I thought Mr. and Mrs. Kravitz owned a shoe store.”
    Mom laughed. “Where did you get that idea?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œWell, Mr. Kravitz is an exterminator,” Mom said.

    That night Aunt Denise asked Mom to go to the movies with her. Besides being sisters, Mom and Aunt Denise are also best friends. I wish I had a sister, even though Rachel says she and Jessica don’t get along that well. Mom has two sisters, Robin and Denise. Mom is the middle one. Her name is Rowena.
    â€œMaybe I should call Mrs. Greco,” Mom said at dinner.
    â€œI’m too old for a sitter,” I told her. Mrs. Greco sat for us when we lived in the yellow house. “I could be a sitter myself.”
    â€œYou’re not too old for companionship,” Mom said.
    â€œI have Bruce.”
    Bruce smiled. “She has me,” he said, as if it were his idea. “And the mice.”
    â€œVery funny.” Mom poured her tea. She took a few sips, then said, “Tell you what … if I’m going to be home by midnight you two can stay by yourselves … that is, if it works out tonight. But if I’m staying out later than that, you’ll have a companion.”
    â€œYou mean someone like Rachel?” I asked. “That kind of companion?”
    â€œWe’ll see,” Mom said.
    We’ll see
is what Mom says when she wants to change the subject.
    As soon as Mom left I took the phone into the pantry and called Rachel. The pantry is small, like a closet, but it’s the only place in this house where I can talk on the phone in private. There’s a light inside and enough room to sit on the floor, as long as I