Girl Unmoored Read Online Free PDF Page B

sitting on the wagon braiding a piece of thick black hair straight down the middle of her face. She let it drop flat on her nose when she saw me. “Can we please go now?” she said. “I’m dying.” She stuck her tongue out and fanned it.
    “Yes.”
    Rennie jumped up so quickly the wagon almost tipped over. “Your house?”
    “Fine.”
    A peep sound came out of her after that. The wagon was going to be hard to turn, but I didn’t feel like helping, so I just kept walking.
    “Hey, Apron?” someone said.
    I turned around and there he was in the doorway.
    Rennie’s eyes went from me to the door, the one long braid still hanging down the middle of her face. “Look!” she said whipping her head back again so fast the braid made a thump. “It’s Jesus!”
    Part of a crooked smile happened on his mouth. “You guys saw the play?”
    “The other night, didn’t we, Apron?”
    “Far out,” he said. “I didn’t know kids came to the show.”
    “It was great, wasn’t it great, Apron?” Rennie gushed, with a big goofy smile.
    “Did you guys come on a field trip or something?”
    “A field trip at night ?” Rennie asked him, like he was the one with the unicorn braid hanging down the middle of his face.
    “Right,” he said nodding to himself.
    He was going to say something else when Mrs. Weller pushed by him with a new torpedo up her nose.
    “Don’t you girls go anywhere,” she said shuffling up to the wagon.
    “Whatcha got in there?” he asked Rennie.
    “Beauty supplies,” she said trying to tuck that braid back behind her ear. “Do you need some stage make-up?”
    “Too bad we don’t have any then,” I said before he could answer.
    “We have some rouge ,” Rennie said ignoring me. “And some movie star sunglasses.”
    “Back off!” Mrs. Weller waved her arms around like a seagull deflector. “I was here first!”
    We all fell silent. But when she started opening up little bottles and sniffing them through her torpedo nose again, a smile snuck over Mike’s mouth. He coughed a little and used his hand to cover it up, but Rennie had seen it too, so the same kind of smile started happening on her face. Mrs. Weller kept grumbling things like “uch, Pine Sol,” before throwing another mini bottle back into the wagon.
    “What do you think, Mike?” she asked straightening up this time with the oversized sunglasses on, the tag hanging down one cheek.
    “Gorgeous,” he said. “Audrey Hepburn all the way.”
    Even under those bug eyes you could tell Mrs. Weller was embarrassed about a boy telling her that. “How much?” she asked with the tag and the torpedo swinging toward me.
    I couldn’t look at Rennie. “$10.99.”
    We had never made that much money in one whole day of being Avon ladies.
    Mrs. Weller looked back up at Mike, who whistled at her like she was a famous actress, not a George Washington look-alike with bug eyes. Then she turned and walked in through her front door again.
    “Is she kidding?” Rennie asked.
    “I don’t think so,” Mike said. “She’s not really a kidder.” He looked over at me when he said that, like he had been meaning to tell me that all along. I turned away. People who looked that much like Jesus shouldn’t lie. Ever. And especially not to little old lady George Washingtons, even if it did mean our best sale.
    “Are you a movie star, too?” Rennie asked with her eyelashes flapping all over the place.
    For a second he had no idea what Rennie was talking about. But then he tapped his chest and said, “No, um. I own Scent Appeal, the flower store? But my partner, he owns the flower store with me, was the choreographer for the play, so …”—and with that, he flapped his arms down. Then he looked at me with his blueberry eyes and a sad ping happened in my heart. Maybe he couldn’t help it that he looked exactly like Jesus.
    Still, he could have dyed his hair at least.
    Mrs. Weller walked back out with the sunglasses.
    “Here, Apron,” she said