Blue Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

swatted her head, slapping Billy’s eye in the process. But she let him hold her.
    Billy lifted Josie into his arms. “We’ll be in the car,” he said, leaving the restaurant.
    Cass leaned against the reservations desk, watching them go.
    “Special help, special help is what you need,” Mary said, as if she hadn’t said it too many times already.
    Cass half expected her mother to whip out a brochure for North Point Academy for the Deaf. Mary would get something helpful but meddlesome in mind, then work her point home by beating aggressively around the bush, until you wanted to scream.
    Cass turned her back. She started to walk out, but Bonnie caught her arm and pulled her into the corner.
    “It’s hard,” Bonnie said, her voice older-sister confident, “but you’ll figure it out.”
    “She acts like I don’t know what’s best for my own daughter.” Cass paused. “Not that I do.”
    “Like any of us do.”
    “Billy handles her so easily. Did you see?” Cass asked.
    “He’s not with her all the time. It’s the same with Gavin. They aren’t around half the time, and when they come home they want to be the good guys.”
    “He won’t talk to her,” Cass said. “He’s afraid to. He just hugs her and thinks everything will be fine. You have to make her understand things. He treats her like a doll, not a daughter.”
    “Tell him,” Bonnie said.
    “He knows,” Cass said, looking at Bonnie straight-on. “He’s heard it a hundred times.”
    Cass sat in Mrs. Kaiser’s waiting room, watching Josie walk her Barbie doll along the sofa back. Dolls made Josie feel safe. Lately she carried this naked Barbie wherever she went. Cass couldn’t convince her to put it down, even to take a bath or go to bed.
    Mrs. Kaiser’s door opened. A boy about Josie’s age hurtled into the waiting room, his mother and Mrs. Kaiser close behind him. He stood beside Josie, saying words that sounded like “Row, row, run, row.” He wore two hearing aids. Josie snatched her Barbie, as if she feared he would take it from her. She ran to Cass, and the boy ran crying to his mother.
    “He’s just saying hello,” the boy’s mother said pleasantly, making sure Josie could see her mouth.
    “
My
Barbie!” Josie said, shaking the doll at the boy.
    Cass shrugged at the boy’s mother, and the mother shrugged back as she led her son out of the office.
    Josie didn’t play with children her own age. When she saw a kid, Josie would try to pretend that he wasn’t there. Children her own age, even deaf children, didn’t understand Josie, and they scared her.
    “Hello, Josie,” Mrs. Kaiser said in her melodic, singsong voice, creaking down to Josie’s level. Cass could see that Mrs. Kaiser had not quite managed to zip her dress up all the way. She debated with herself whether or not to mention it, and decided not to.
    “My Barbie,” Josie said, still defensive.
    “She is a bee-you-tee-ful doll,” Mrs. Kaiser said. Cass found something fake in the way Mrs. Kaiser talked to Josie. She sounded like a kindly old grandmother with perfect pronunciation, but her expression was too crisp, vaguely critical. Cass always felt she was being judged by Mrs. Kaiser, coming up slightly short.
    “I know,” Josie said.
    “Mrs. Kaiser, may I talk with you?” Cass asked. Usually she left Josie alone for speech therapy; Josie refused to concentrate when Cass was around.
    “Of course. Please, come into the office,” Mrs. Kaiser said.
    Cass sat opposite Mrs. Kaiser’s desk, Josie in her lap.
    “Josie doesn’t seem to be improving,” Cass said.
    “Speech therapy is a long, difficult process,” Mrs. Kaiser said. “It’s natural to become discouraged, but you can’t give up.”
    “She has the most terrible tantrums. She doesn’t hear clearly, we have a misunderstanding, and she …”
    “I know. She flies into a rage. You’re not the only parent to tell me that. When a child is hard of hearing, every word is a stumbling block. You must