Chasing the Milky Way Read Free Page A

poem from her pocket and rubbing it between her fingers. We walk inside.
    â€œMama, maybe you should call Dr. Vincent,” I say as I set the dish bin in the sink.
    But she swats my words right out of the air. “No, no, I don’t think so. He won’t want to hear from me. I don’t think so.”
    I flip the water on as Mama takes her glasses off her face. She closes her eyes, but I see them flick around underneath her lids, like she’s searching for something in there. I wonder if she’ll see my birthday.
    â€œAre these cupcakes for me?” I say.
    Mama opens her eyes. “Who do you think they’re for?” she asks.
    I flip the light above the sink on and Mama slaps her hand over her face.
    â€œWay too bright,” Mama says. “Too goddamned bright. How can I get any work done? Much less pack for vacation. It’s impossible to move.” She puts her sunglasses back on and settles into a chair at the table.
    I flip the light off, grab the dish soap, and shake the last bit out of it. I look at Mama out of the corner of my eye. “I can help you pack after school if you don’t get it done by then. I don’t mind.”
    She gives off an exasperated groan. “I’m sure I can pack my own bag, Lucille.” She slumps in her chair. I don’t press it ’cause I can see she’s blasting off. That’s what Gram would say if she were here. The first time this happened we were out on Route 36.
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    My seventh birthday. Mama was going to bring us to the carnival. But instead, halfway there she got an idea in her head that it would be more fun to bring a carnival to us. Two seconds later, she pulled into Best Buy and bought two cell phones.
    â€œOne for home and one for the road,” she said.
    Seconds after that, she had activated an account and was hiring the Ringling Circus to come and do a demonstration at Sunnyside Trailer Park. It was called Circus School. She filled out the paperwork online and a few keystrokes later she had deposited a whole bunch of money into it, and we were ready to be entertained. I couldn’t believe it. The Peeveys, getting lions, tigers, and bears to roam around the trailers? Mama had a flare for making magic happen. Of course, I still had that carnival flyer in my hands. The rides looked awful tempting and it was going to take a while for the circus to get to Sunnyside. One thing I knew was that if you whine a tiny bit, adults get sick of it and do what you want. So I did. But this time, Mama got mad. She said we were ungrateful little brats. Yep, my own mother. She said that. Only it was like it wasn’t her.
    After she told me a thing or two about myself, she sped down the highway to the Camden General Store. Then she got out of the car and leaped into the bed of a pickup truck that was pulling out of the parking lot. And I sat glued to my seat, wondering what she was doing as she sped down the highway, far away from us.
    We waited in the car for an hour. My eyes didn’t leave that spot where the truck disappeared until a big scary trucker knocked on the window. I hunched way down and snuck closer to Izzy in case this guy was some psycho killer. He told us he wouldn’t hurt us, but what type of psycho killer says, “Hey, open your door, I’m going to kill you.” So we just buttoned up and stayed where we were. I wished right then I knew how to drive that car.
    Luckily, a few seconds later something jingle jangled, and when I leaned up to see what the noise was about, I spotted one of Mama’s new phones sitting right there on the seat. I called up Gram and she came and got us.
    We got back to Sunnyside and Gram wrapped us in blankets and she called everyone in the phone book to see if they had seen my lost mama. No one had. No one did, not for a few days.
    The second night without Mama I got to thinking we must have really upset her, to make her run away like that. I