Susan Pfeffer - Shade of the Moon

“I’ll call Sarah,” Jon said. “She takes a car into White Birch in the afternoon. She could give you a lift to the clinic. You can walk home from there.”

“I’d like that,” Miranda said. “The school’s just a few blocks from the clinic. It’s like Mom’s buried there. I know it’s not the same, but I need to say good-bye to her, and that’s as close as I can get.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Lisa said. “I still ache because I couldn’t say good-bye to my parents. Jon, call Sarah and see if she can give Miranda a lift. Maybe she’ll be lucky and Alex will be the driver.”

“Alex,” Miranda said, and for the first time in days she looked almost happy. “At least I’ll be with Alex again.”

“Ready for the match Sunday, Evans?” Ryan asked at lunch.

“As ready as you are,” Jon said. “Not much.”

“Me, either,” Luke said. “It’s not as much fun without Tyler and Zachary.”

“Plus, it’s a two-hour drive,” Ryan said. “Two hours of Coach screaming at us on the way there and two hours of him screaming on the way back.”

“Why don’t you quit?” Sarah asked. “Find a different afterschool to do.”

“Like what?” Ryan asked. “Giving the grubs milk and cookies like you do, Goldman?”

“Milk and cookies,” Luke said. “I haven’t thought of them in years. Remember Halloween? Trick-or-treat? I’d eat all the candy right away. Boy, did I get sick.”

Sarah didn’t seem to care about Halloween. “We do real work at the clinic,” she said. “Not that you know what real work is.”

Ryan shuddered. “I hope I never find out,” he said. “What’s the point of being a claver if you have to work like a grub?”

Jon and Luke laughed. Sarah scowled.

“Someday, Goldman, I’d like to see you smile,” Ryan said. “Does she smile for you, Evans?”

“Not very often,” Jon said. Sarah reached across the table and swatted him. “It’s true, Sarah. We fight more than we smile.”

“He’s a challenge,” Sarah said to Ryan and Luke. “But I’ll whip him into shape.”

Jon wished that were true. But with Sarah leaving in a week, he knew she wouldn’t have the chance.

“Are you going to spend August bandaging the grubs?” Ryan asked. “Or are you taking the month off like the rest of us?”

“I don’t know yet,” Sarah said. “I’d like to keep working, but my father has other ideas. I know you think the people in White Birch don’t deserve anything, but they’re human, Ryan. The same as you and me.”

Luke shook his head. “They’re not, Sarah. I used to think like you, but I’ve seen too much, heard too many stories. Like the one Dad told Mom and me Saturday night.”

“I don’t care what your father told you,” Sarah said.

“I do,” Ryan declared. “What happened, Luke?”

Luke looked like he didn’t need much encouragement. “Dad said there was a grubber girl at the hospital here,” he began. “She was pregnant and they decided to let her stay until she had the baby. She was treated as good as a claver. Even after the riots. Food, nurses, everything.”

Sarah glanced at Jon, who shook his head almost imperceptibly.

“She has the baby,” Luke continued. “They tell her it’s a healthy baby girl, and she gets hysterical. She says if she doesn’t bring home a son, her husband will beat her. She actually begged them to kill the baby. She got so hysterical they had to sedate her. She never did see the baby. She left the hospital refusing to. I guess she went back to White Birch and told her husband it died.”

“What happened to the baby?” Jon asked, trying to sound as though he didn’t really care.

Luke smiled. “There’s a happy ending,” he said. “The baby’s being adopted by a claver family. She’ll never know where she came from.”

“Is she still in the hospital?” Sarah asked. “The baby?”

“I don’t think so,” Luke said. “I think the family took the baby home that day. I can ask my dad if you want.”

Sarah shook her head. “Don’t bother,” she said.

Ryan laughed. “Admit it, Goldman,” he said. “No decent human being would act that way. Grubs are animals, just like I’ve been telling you.”

“It takes one to know one,” Sarah said, looking at her watch. “I’ve got to go. I don’t want to keep the driver waiting.”

“I’ll walk you outside,” Jon said. He’d been doing that since school had reopened, so he knew Ryan and Luke wouldn’t think anything of it.

“See you tomorrow,” Sarah said. “Maybe by then you’ll have some manners.”

“Don’t count on it, Goldman,” Ryan said.

“See you in the gym,” Jon said. “Come on, Sarah.”

They walked out of the lunchroom without speaking. Even when they were outside, Jon spoke so softly only Sarah could hear him.

“Miranda was right,” he whispered. “Her baby’s alive.”

“They stole it,” Sarah said. “Jon, we’ve got to get the baby back.”

Jon nodded. “We have to be quiet about it,” he told her. “Don’t say anything to Miranda. It’s better if she thinks the baby’s dead until we can figure out what to do.”

“It’ll be so hard,” Sarah replied, “driving in to White Birch with her and not saying anything.”

“Distract her,” Jon said. “Distract yourself. Talk to her about me. Ask her what I was like as a kid. Ask her about Alex. She’ll expect you to distract her anyway, to keep from thinking about everything that’s happened. Just relax, as much as you can.”

“I’ll talk to Daddy,” Sarah said. “We have to make sure no one else had a baby recently.”

“Be careful,” Jon said. “It’s safer for him not to know.”

Sarah stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. “Love you,” she said. “I’ll talk to you tonight.”

“Love you, too,” Jon said. He watched as she walked to the car. Alex wasn’t driving. That was a relief. The drive to White Birch was going to be hard enough for Sarah. At least she was spared having Alex in the car.

For once Jon was grateful for four hours of workouts and practices. He focused on the work, not minding when Coach shouted at all of them for being fat, lazy bums. The more noise Coach made, the less Jon had to think.

When he got home, he played with Gabe. They stopped only when Sarah called to say Miranda had been the only grub at the hospital for the past week.

“You didn’t tell your father why you asked?” Jon said.

“No, I was careful,” Sarah said. “I told him we’d been talking at lunch about whether laborers could stay at the Sexton hospital. I said I thought they all could. Daddy set me straight. What are we going to do, Jon?”

“I don’t know yet,” he admitted.

“Mr. Jon, dinner’s ready!” Ruby called.

“Go have your dinner, Mr. Jon,” Sarah said. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Jon played with Gabe after supper until Lisa got home and put him to bed. Jon peeked in and wished Gabe a good night. “I have to talk to you,” he said to Lisa. “Privately.”

“All right,” Lisa said. They went downstairs and found Ruby in the kitchen washing the dishes. “Ruby, did you clean the living room today?”

“Yes ma’am,” Ruby said. “Little Gaby helped me.”

“Little Gaby could’ve done a better job than you did,” Lisa said. “I want you to clean that entire room, Ruby. Finish the dishes and then dust everything in the living room and scrub that floor until it’s spotless.”

“Lisa,” Jon said. “It’s eight o’clock. Ruby’s been working since six o’clock this morning.”

“If she did the work right the first time, she could go to bed now,” Lisa said. “And if you insist on talking to me about how I should treat my domestics, then do it in private.”