All Alone in the Universe (13 page)
But how could you know who was a good person, just under a spell?
“No one can know that,” Mr. Tovelli had said. “Maybe nobody ever asked him.”
“He was no good, a bum.”
“Did anyone ever ask him?”
I wondered what would happen to Marie, whether I would ever see her again. And Bobby. It seemed to me that the hero was often someone outside the monster/good person‧s immediate family. And that maybe family boundaries are made-up lines, like state borders. And that we all need to take care of one another, somehow. One big safety net. I tried to picture a safety net that you could help hold and be caught by at the same time. Then I decided it would be a bunch of different safety nets, maybe arranged in a circle so there would always be one underneath you. In my mind, this looked like a drawing by Dr. Seuss, and it wouldn‧t actually work unless the laws of gravity were changed. So maybe a safety net wasn‧t the best way to think about this idea. Then I thought about how the kind act can be big and dramatic or so small that only one person notices, like a smile at a hard moment. A bowl of berries.
Before I fell asleep, my mind wandered a little way into the future. It was unclear what I was doing exactly, but I was dressed like Miss Epler and I was Making My Own Life Happen. I tried to see what that meant, but besides dressing in an interesting way, it mostly seemed to mean eating pie. Oh, well, it‧s a start.
Patty called this afternoon, before we went to Fran and Danny‧s. Just to talk. She does that It‧s only one of the things I really like about her. I call her, too. She comes here, I go there. I have a friend again.
I have friends.
is the author of Criss
Cross,
winner of the 2006 Newbery Medal. Her first novel,
All Alone in the Universe,
was named an ALA Notable Book, an ALA
Booklist
Editors’ Choice, a
Bulletin
Blue Ribbon, and a
Smithsonian
Notable Book for Children. She is also the author of several picture books, including
The Broken Cat
and Snow
Music,
a
Boston Globe-Horn Book
Honor Book and a Book Sense Top Ten Pick. Lynne Rae Perkins lives with her family in northern Michigan.
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“You know,” said Miss Epler, “maybe this person didn’t take your friend away from you.”
“Yes, she did,” I shot back.
“Maybe partly,” she said carefully. “But at least partly it was your friend who left. All by herself. I just think that if you‧re going to be angry, you should be angry at the right person.”
It was my friend who left.
All by herself.
A black pit opened inside of me, and I fell in.
I fell and I fell.
Awards for
ALL ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE
ALA Notable Children‧s Books
The Horn Book
Fanfare Honor ListBooklist
Children‧s Editors’ ChoicesBulletin
Blue RibbonRiverbank Review
Children‧s Books of Distinction
Harper Trophy
®
is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
All Alone in the Universe.
Text and illustrations copyright © 1999 by Lynne Rae Perkins.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.
Perkins, lynne Rae.
All alone in the universe / by Lynne Rae Perkins,
p. cm.
“Greenwillow Books.”
Summary: Debbie is dismayed when her best friend, Maureen, starts spending time with ordinary, boring Glenna.
ISBN 0-688-16881-7 — ISBN 0-380-73302-1 (pbk.)
[1. Best friends—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.P4313De 1999 98-50093
[Fic]—dc21 CIP
AC
First Harper Trophy edition, 2001
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EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2010 ISBN:978-0-062-06288-8
