One True Friend Read Free Page B

are in heaven watching out for you like guardian angels.
    This is what I believe: When parents die while we're still kids and really need them, even though they don't always understand us, they become our guardian angels and look out for us from above. That's a positive thought for you today.
    But I have one question. The raggedy station wagon you mentioned. Was that the car your parents had the terrible accident in?
    I never told you this before because I didn't want you to be angry with me—like I was putting your business in the street—but we had to write an essay
about someone who was determined to succeed. I wrote about you. I didn't use your name, and I kind of changed things around so no one would know it was you.
    I wrote about a little boy (I made him six years old so he could really be small and weak—the teacher thought that was the most ridiculous part of the story). Anyway, just like you, this kid is determined to find his missing brothers and sisters; therefore, he bugs every social worker, counselor, caseworker, and teacher he meets until people get so tired of him bothering them, they help him. You told me that you used to bug every counselor you met about your missing family.
    The point of the story was that the kid never gave up. I got a lousy grade on it. The teacher told me that I was supposed to write about a real hero or heroine. But I think what you did was great. You succeeded because you
made
someone help you. That's heroic. Do you know how hard it is to get good grownup help these days? You never did tell me how you actually ended up living with the Smiths.
    I just thought of something Our graduation speaker, who was a little boring, said one interesting thing—well, maybe more than one, but I wasn't paying strict attention. He said, "We will get back in life what we send out." I have thought a lot about what that means. If you're evil, then evil things will
happen to you. If you're kind, like you are, then good things will happen to you. I think it's time for the world to treat you kind, because you do not have an evil bone in your body.
    Now, here is the Big Event: All of the 163rd Street/Union Avenue crew graduated yesterday. Mickey and Dotty, the unidentical twins, are still sawed off. They haven't grown an inch in their bodies or their minds. Lavinia is still bossy and showing off. She wore the biggest and whitest dress, like it was her wedding day instead of sixth-grade graduation. Big Russell is so wide now, he looks like a man. Yellow Bird won the talent award, and I won the English award and a perfect-attendance award, too; however, my parents should get the perfect-attendance award. If I was too sick to move, they'd drag my sick body to school so I'd be marked present.
    The big graduation surprise was Charlene. You remember her—she's one of the five sisters from Union Avenue you asked about, the Nit Nowns. She's the quiet one. Well, Charlene received the outstanding-student award. Her mother and her sisters were there, and you know how loud those sisters are, especially the older ones. When Charlene walked up on the stage, the sisters stood up and cheered like they were at a football game. Their mother, Miss Connie, pulled them back in their seats. Charlene looked so ashamed when everyone started
laughing at her family. I felt sorry for her and tried to put a muzzle on the twins, who thought it was so funny. "Why don't you be quiet?" I said. "She's embarrassed." The twins kept laughing anyway.
    T.T. was the only one who didn't graduate. I knew he'd never get out of the sixth grade. He's supposed to be going to summer school, but he must be majoring in basketball. Seems like he's either on 163rd Street or in the playground day and night playing ball.
    Graduation was fun, though, and now everyone is getting ready for the next grand event—the annual 163rd Street July 4th Block Party. The block party is big-time now, not the dinky little chip-and-dip affair that it