The Goodbye Time Read Online Free PDF Page B

face.” That was weird to think of. I pictured Sam with a long black beard, curled up in bed with his teddy bear.
    “Darla—Katy’s mom—has had to make a very hard decision. To put Sam in a hospital.”
    “She’s doing it, then?”
    “She has to. It’s dangerous to keep him home.”
    “But nothing ever happened before.”
    “Maybe not,” my mother said. “But the doctors at the hospital said it probably will again. What would happen if he really hurt his mother? I mean seriously injured her. Who would take care of Katy and Gem?” Gem? Who on earth was Gem? Then I remembered: Bug Eye. Bug Eye had a real name, and of all things, it was
Gem.
Like a diamond or a ruby or something.
    “Katy doesn’t want her to. Katy wants to keep him home, and it isn’t right that Mrs. Paoli didn’t even talk to her about it. Her mom is mean.”
    “Anna, sweetie, don’t you see? Katy is
why
she’s doing it. For Katy and Gem, not for herself. She’s terrified that one day Sam will hurt the girls.”
    “Katy says he won’t.”
    “Her mother can’t take a chance like that. How would you feel,” my mom went on, “if Katy was badly hurt by Sam?” I didn’t think she really expected an answer to that, so I didn’t say anything. I’d feel bad, I knew. It had been hard enough seeing her that morning with her hair all a wreck and her face not washed.
    “But it isn’t fair. It’s not Sam’s fault!” I felt myself almost starting to cry. It made me think of a girl at school whose parents made her get rid of her dog because it had bitten her little brother, who was poking it with a stick. And the dog was old and had been a good dog for twelve whole years.
    “It’s true,” said my mom, “it isn’t fair. A lot of things in life aren’t fair. Just look at the television news. You see children starving or living with war. The children didn’t cause the war, and yet they have to live with it. Or look around our neighborhood; you see people in wheelchairs, people who are blind or deaf. These are just terrible facts of life.”
    “But why do they have to happen?”
    “I wish I knew the answer to that. Maybe it’s God’s way of making others more like Himself—more compassionate and aware and more creative about finding ways to help the ones who are suffering.”
    She paused for a moment, then looked at me in a serious way. “Here’s where you can play a part.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean here’s your chance to really stand with Katy and show what kind of friend you are. One good thing that happens when terrible tragedies occur is that people realize how lucky they are to have good friends.” She sounded so grim and serious, it was making me sort of scared. I really didn’t know what else I could do to show Katy I was her friend. We had the kind of friendship where we didn’t have to say a whole lot of stuff about loving each other. We both just understood that we did.
    “Katy needs you, Anna. It’s going to be hard for her. She’ll need you when she’s ready—to listen and just be there. To let her vent and show her sadness any way she needs to.” She looked into my eyes and held them. “Do you think you can do that?”
    “Yeah. I guess.” I said the words, but I wasn’t really sure. I mean about what she meant.
    The next time my mom spoke, she had switched to her cheerful, optimistic voice. “It’s the best decision for everyone. It’s been hard, you know, for Katy and Gem. Their mom feels bad that she hasn’t had time to give them much attention. Katy’s strong—thanks in part to having a best friend like you—but Gem’s been having problems.” She probably had no friends, I thought, on account of her being so weird and mean. But I didn’t mention that to my mom.
    “Plus it’s not like they’ll never see Sam again. They can visit him whenever they want. And people with special training will be there to take care of him—twenty-four hours, night and day.”
    “So when are they