Remember Me Read Free Page A

wanted my whole life to be special. But I just hardly ever thought about God.

    I'm repeating myself. I must be getting emotional. I'll try to watch that. Not everything I have to tell is very pleasant.

    Back to that blasted cake. Mrs. Parish felt it would be a waste to throw it out.

    "Shari, don't you think that your mom might want some tomorrow?" she asked.

    "If it's here, she'll eat it," I said. "And then she'll just complain about ruining her diet." I ran my finger around the edge and tasted the icing. I had already tasted about half a pound of it earlier in the day. "Oh, wow. Try this, Amanda.

    It's disgusting."

    Amanda looked doubtful. "I'm not a big cake person."

    Mrs. Parish suddenly changed her mind about saving it.

    "Maybe we should throw it out."

    "You don't like cake?" I asked Amanda. "That's impossible—everybody likes cake. You can't come to Bern's party with me unless you eat cake. Here, just try it. This little piece."

    I could be so pushy. Amanda had a little piece, along with her mother, and I had a slightly larger little piece. Then I decided that maybe there was room for it in the refrigerator after all. I didn't care if my mother got fat or not.

    Mrs. Parish sent Amanda to check to see if our vacuum cleaner needed a new bag. For a moment die two of us were alone, which was nice. I sat at the table and told her about the party we were going to, while she stacked dishes in the dishwasher.

    "It's for Big Beth," I began. "I've already told you how she's been flirting with Dan at school. It really pisses me off.

    I'll see the two of them together on the other side of the courtyard, and then when I walk over to them, she greets me like she's really glad to see me, like nothing's been going on between them."

    "How do you know something is going on?" Mrs. Parish asked.

    "Because Dan looks so uncomfortable. Yeah, I know, why get mad at her and not at him?" I chuckled. "It's simple—he might leave me and run off with her!"

    I was forever making jokes about things that really mattered to me. I doubted that even Mrs. Parish understood that about me. I may not have been obsessed with Daniel the way Jimmy was with Amanda, but I couldn't stand the thought of losing him. Actually, I honestly believed he cared for me. But I continued to worry. I was never really cool, not inside, not about love.

    "Is Dan taking you and Amanda to the party?" Mrs.

    Parish asked, carefully bending over and filling the dishwasher with detergent. She had an arthritic spine. Often, if we were alone in the house, she would let me help her sweep the floor or scrub the bathrooms. But never if anyone else was present. I'd noticed she particularly disliked Amanda knowing she needed help.

    "Yeah. We're picking Jo up, too. He should be here in a sec." I paused. "Mary, what do you think of Dan?"

    She brightened. "He's very dashing."

    I had to smile. Dashing. Great word. "He is cute, yeah."

    I took another forkful of cake, although I needed it about as much as I needed another two pounds on my hips. "What I mean, though, is do you like him? As a person?"

    She wiped her hands on her apron and scratched her gray head. Unlike her daughter's, her hair was not one of her finer features. It was terribly thin. Her scalp showed a little, particularly on the top, whenever she bent over, and she was only fifty. To be quite frank, she wasn't what anyone would have called a handsome lady. She did, however, have a gentle, lovely smile.

    "He seems nice enough," she said hesitantly.

    "Go on?"

    "How does he treat you?"

    "Fine. But—"

    "Yes?"

    "You were going to say something first?"

    "It was nothing."

    "Tell me."

    She hesitated again. "He's always talking about things."

    "Things?" I asked, even though I knew what she meant.

    Daniel liked things: hot cars, social events, pretty people the usual. Since the universe was composed primarily of things, I had never seen it as a fault. Yet Daniel could be hard to talk to because he seldom