Bluish Read Online Free

face, all skinny trails. Picture this, Mommy. She’s got no hair. Kids say she’s way bald! So she wears these funny caps or hats down over her head.”
    Her mom looked thoughtfully at her. “Well, then, she’s sick, Dreenie. I mean, bald, her hair is falling out, or already fell out.”
    Bluish?
    “Maybe a childhood leukemia. You know? It happens,” her mom said. “She’s in school, so she must be better,” her mom said. “She lost her hair from the strong chemotherapy, I suspect. Likely, her hair will grow back.”
    Dreenie sat for a long time, looking at her mom. “What if it won’t grow back?” she finally thought to say. “Wow, wouldn’t that be so gross.” And thought, Bluish wanted me to go home with her!
    “It probably will grow back,” her mom assured her.
    “I don’t want to talk about her anymore,” Dreenie said. A kid with—cancer!
    “Being really sick is no fun for any child, Dreen-boat. And you mustn’t be afraid of her because she looks different. You could be nice to her—what’s her name? I mean, treat her like you would treat any other school friend.”
    Smirking, Dreenie said, “I saw this little third-grade kid, just like Willie? Going down the hall. And he ups and bites another kid. No kidding! Mr. Darcy saw what happened. The bitten kid was screaming and crying. Man, did that biter kid get it!”
    “Okay,” her mom said. “You don’t want to talk about the girl anymore.”
    “I don’t care anything about her. Why should I?”
    “Dreen …”
    Scary Bluish.
    “Just because she’s in a wheelchair—Dreenie, don’t single her out because of it.”
    “I didn’t!” Dreenie said. She was already on to something else. “Mommy, Tuli always wants to stay for supper.”
    “Well, let her.”
    “No! It means that her granmom Gilla won’t get to eat until later. Tuli has to fix food for her granmom! She gets on my nerves sometimes. I get tired of worrying about her.”
    “Oh, Dreenie. You sound so old. She just wants to be around a family.”
    “But it’s my family. And I want it to myself!” She pouted until she had to laugh at herself.
    Her mom laughed, too. “Set the table for me, babe,” her mom said.
    “Can I go down and wait for Dad?”
    Her mom looked at the clock. “It’s dark out.”
    “It’s not dark in the lobby. And Mr. Palmer is there.”
    “Then stay inside the locked doors with Mr. Palmer. Don’t go out in the street.”
    “I won’t. It’s too cold.”
    “Set the table, then go down.”
    “Where’s she going?” Willie yelled, coming into the kitchen.
    “To the moon, baby chile,” Dreenie said. “You can’t come. Set the table.”
    “Dreenie,” her mom said.
    “I’ll be glad when she grows up,” Willie told her mom.
    “I’ll be glad when you grow up!” Dreenie said back.
    “You two! Not another word, either of you,” her mom warned.
    They stayed quiet. Willie took Dreenie’s place when she got up to set the table. Dreenie set it in fast time. And as she left the apartment, finally, she heard her little sister tell about the nerdy stock market class, and how she loved the shapes of things, and how they changed all the time. The things that kid could think up!
    Downstairs, Dreenie told Mr. Palmer, “I’m waiting on my dad again. He’s always later when it’s zero-cold and icy. He has to come all the way up from downtown.”
    Mr. Palmer nodded, didn’t say anything. He looked sleepy, sitting in his chair by the locked lobby doors.
    “I got my key,” she told him. “I’m just going out to the front.”
    Mr. Palmer kept quiet. She knew it wasn’t his job to look out for her.
    Dreenie peered through the outer doors, up and down the street. But Mr. Palmer was to her back, and that made her feel safe. From what? From anybody, she thought. Anybody with bad plans.
    People rushed by in the cold. Huddled in their coats. Newspapers, grocery bags. Getting home faster so the cold couldn’t get them. She peered around and saw the