Seven Stories Up Read Online Free PDF Page A

might have worn in kindergarten for the school Easter parade. “Our clothes aren’t so different, just stretchier, and girls wear pants a lot.”
    “Pants?” Molly’s voice was shocked. “In
what
year?”
    “In 1987,” I said. “Am I done?” I turned to face her. “How do I look?”
    Molly shook her head, amazed. “Pants … 1987,” she repeated. Then, for no clear reason, she reached out and tickled me. “Got you!”
    “Hey!” I yelped. “Stop!” I jumped away from her andnearly fell over. “Cut that out! I hate it. The last person who tickled me was a kid named Reuben Meyer. I punched
him
in the gut.”
    “Oh,” said Molly. She put her hands behind her back. “I thought it would be funny.”
    I straightened my dress. “It’s not, but I’ll forgive you. Just don’t do it again. Okay?”
    Molly nodded. “I’m sorry. It’s just … my sisters have been gone for quite some time now.”
    “How is
that
an excuse for tickling someone you barely know?” I asked.
    “I only meant … I’m not used to having actual people about, and it’s very hard to upset imaginary friends. Would you
really
punch me?”
    “
Probably
not,” I admitted. “But why are you alone so much of the time?”
    Molly sat down on the bed. “Mother took Ginny and Maggie away. To Pittsburgh, for a wedding, for the whole summer. I couldn’t go because I’ve been ill, and Papa is busy, so I’m alone.”
    “Still, you can go out, can’t you? To see friends? Now that you’re better?”
    Molly squirmed. “My parents worry. They like for me to be
careful
.”
    “Well, sure. That’s what parents do. They’re alwaystrying to protect you. They want to know where you’re going, and they make you wear dumb raincoats and carry money for the pay phone, just in case. It’s so annoying.”
    Molly shook her head. “You don’t understand. It’s not raincoats. Not for me. I was very sick.” She paused theatrically and whispered, “I could
die
.”
    “Well, sure,” I said. “Everyone could die.”
    “No. That’s not what I mean,” she said, shaking her head. “Or it is, but—oh, I don’t know. It’s different for me.”
    “What do you mean? Different how?”
    “I mean … my parents are
very
careful. They don’t like for me to leave.”
    “Don’t like for you to leave where?”
    “Here.” She looked around the room.
    “Here? You mean, you stay in this room all the time? Alone?”
    “I have a sitting room,” Molly said, gesturing at the door, “and a bathroom. But yes, this is my—my Lonely Room.” She said this like a Lonely Room was a dining room. Like it was a normal thing.
    “Lonely Room?” I asked.
    Molly sat up higher on her knees. “My sister Ginny named it that. She and Maggie visit every day, when they’re home. You see, I have asthma, and it’s been muchworse since I caught influenza. That’s why I couldn’t go to the wedding.”
    “Still, they went off and
left
you? Your whole family? For the
entire
summer?”
    Molly shrugged.
    “Well, you don’t seem sick now,” I said.
    “I
am
better … that’s true. The asthma comes and goes.”
    I nodded. “I know. I have asthma too. Of course, we have medicine, in the future, for stuff like that. But I know how it feels. Ugh. It’s the worst.”
    “Medicine, for asthma?” Molly looked amazed. “That’s better than silver flying suits.”
    “I guess so,” I said. I glanced out the window. “I wonder, what do you do all day, sitting in here with nobody to talk to?”
    “I have a radio!” Molly said. “It talks to me. I have loads of books. And Nora comes with my meals. Speaking of which, she could be here any minute. Let’s go wash our teeth.”
    As I walked from the room, the thin white socks Molly had given me slid down into my Mary Janes. I stopped to tug them up, then looked around. Everything in the sitting room was different. There were walls in different places and the kitchen was missing. At the center of theroom