Sunny Sweet Is So Not Sorry (11 page)

“She did not do that!” Alice yelled.

“She did.”

I loved it that Alice was laughing. For the first time, it made me laugh at the stuff that Sunny did.

“My older brother is awful too,” Alice said. “Not because he's the devil, but because he's an angel. He never does
anything
wrong. He's so good all the time so I can be the bad one if I want.”

“Wow, that's the strangest thing I ever heard. So you can be bad?”

“Yeah, because of this,” she said, motioning to the wheelchair. “But it's no fun to be bad when someone's letting you. My brother lets me. My parents let me. They let me get my ear pierced up here,” she said, pointing to a diamond stud in the top of her ear that I hadn't really noticed before. “They let me get a D in
math. And when I stole a hat from a store last winter they just paid for it. They never even yelled or told me not to do it again or anything.”

“You got a D in math.” I gasped.

Alice laughed. “You're so funny, Masha. Most kids I know would think the hat was worse, not the bad grade. And just so you know, I got an F in gym too.”

“Really?”

“No, Masha, not really! I can't play gym.” She giggled.

“Oh yeah,” I said. And then I stopped and looked at her. She instantly knew my thoughts.

“What?” she asked.

“Are you … dying, Alice?” I asked her.

“No, Marsha, I'm not dying. Are you dying?” Alice shot back.

“Uh,” I said.

Alice laughed. “We're all dying, Masha! One day.”

I thought about it a second, and she was right. “Hey, Alice, do you think your hair keeps growing after you die, you know, like your fingernails?”

“You're sick.” Alice giggled.

We started laughing again, and I kicked the stack of junk on the chair by accident and the whole mess slid to the floor, which just made us laugh harder.

“I wish you could stay here,” Alice said. And then she blurted, “I like it that you complain, and freak out, and knock stuff over, and talk about stuff like dying. I think it's so cool.”

“Really?” I asked. “Because I can complain and freak out all the time if you want.”

We laughed.

“So do you know the kid with the egg on his head?” I asked.

“Michael Capezzi,” she said.

“I think he's cute.”

“Me too,” she answered. Then she added, “I know that you're really mad at your sister right now, but I'm kind of glad that she glued flowers to your head, because I got to meet you.” Her dark eyes looked down at the mess on her floor, and her eyelashes made feathery shadows run down her cheeks.

“Marsha!” Nurse Sue called from the hall.

Alice and I looked at each other and then fell apart laughing.

“Coming,” I managed to shout back.

* * *

By the time I got to the front desk, Nurse Sue had already called my school and was dialing my mother's work number.

“Finally, Marsha,” she said, “we'll be able to get you your mother.”

“But I don't want to go home,” I whispered as I ran my hand across the top of my empty head. She hadn't heard me—not that I had actually meant her to—and I just watched her finish dialing the telephone and then listened to the quiet ring coming from under her ear.

I heard the second ring.

My mother always takes forever to pick up her phone. It's as if she doesn't really hear it until the third ring.

There was a loud beeping from a panel on the desk in front of Nurse Sue that seemed to display all of the room numbers on it, and a light lit up room number 216. Nurse Sue looked down the hallway and then she hopped up and handed me the phone.

“I'll be right back,” she said, taking off toward room 216.

I heard the third ring and knew my mother would pick up in the next second. But that was all the time I needed to form my plan. I couldn't believe what I was about to do. Being nearly bald had somehow also made me want to be brave.

“Jane Sweet.”

“Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, Masha sweetie, how's it going? How do you feel?”

My eyes started watering, and I had the most awful urge to sniff. But I didn't want her to know I was crying, so I just wiped my nose with the back of my wrist and told her I felt fine. What I really wanted to tell her was everything … about Mrs. Song, and Calvin's disease, and my cast, and meeting Alice, and how I was nearly bald, and, weirdly, even about that cute kid with the egg head. But most of all I wanted to tell her how I knew I hadn't been acting the nicest toward Sunny and that I loved her, and that I wasn't mad about the move anymore. But I didn't.

“What time are you going to be home?” I said, trying to sound normal, but instead my words came
out faint and filled with air. My mom didn't seem to notice.

“I'm going to pick up Sunny after school in about a half hour and then I'll be home,” she said.

I forgot about Sunny and school! “No, no, Mom, I'll get her. I can walk right over.”

“But your hair, Masha,” she said.

“I'll wear a hat. No problem,” I told her.

She was quiet for a moment. Then she said softly, “Hey, a few of the people in the office gave me some good ideas about how to get the plastic flowers off.”

“Really?” I gulped. “Cool, Mom. Okay, I'll see you after work.” I had to push the words from deep inside my chest. I could tell by the way she said goodbye and hung up that I had made her happy. I knew that she'd be upset when she saw my head … and everything else, but since I didn't have Calvin's disease, the cast was already dried on my arm, my hair would grow back, my eye would heal, and there was a bus outside that would take us close to home, I knew that I could leave her to finish her day and tell her all about it later (or at least,
mostly
all about it, leaving
out the parts that might get me in trouble). If I could get my head shaved, I could get my little sister and me home on the bus alone.

Even as I was having these brave thoughts about standing up out of this chair and walking out of the hospital, my heart wasn't totally convinced. In fact, it was kind of bobbing about in my chest, feeling a little alone.

I looked up and down the halls, but they were empty except for some carts filled with blankets and towels and stuff. I could hear activity going on inside the rooms, but none of it had anything to do with me. Nurse Sue was nowhere in sight.

I ran my hand over the top of my bald head, and then in some kind of panic reflex, like someone had just hit my knee with a tiny hammer, I picked up the phone to call my mother back. My fingers hovered over the buttons. Argh! I didn't know the number! Without my dumb cell phone, I didn't know
anybody's
telephone number.

Except I did.

I knew Sunny's.

I dialed those ten digits. The phone rang.

“Hello,” she said.

“Uh, hi, Sunny, it's me.”

“Masha, you're calling me!” she shouted into the phone, making my heart ache. “Where are you? Are you still up in pediatrics?”

“Yes. Listen,” I told her, “I think we should bust out of here.”

“Really?” she breathed. “When?”

“I think … now,” I told her, looking around the hospital corridor and having the feeling of no longer belonging here.

“I'll meet you out front,” she said, out of breath from excitement. “And Masha,” she added, “I promise I'm going to get those flowers off your head. And I'm going to fix your hair too, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, rubbing my hand over my baldness.

She hung up.

We were going home.

Two minutes later, Nurse Sue came hurrying back down the hall.

“My mom said she'll be here as soon as she can,” I told her.

But Nurse Sue didn't hear me. Instead, she picked up the phone I had just set down and dialed.

“Security?” she asked. “I need to report a missing patient. Yes. Pediatrics. Yes, Michael Capezzi. Yes, I'll hold.”

Hey, the boy with the egg on his head just stole my idea!

“Nurse Sue?”

“Yes,” she said, still staring at the spot on her desk that she had been staring at since security asked her to hold—I guess she didn't want to risk not being in the same position when they came back to the phone. A clump of her dark hair was out of her bun and hanging down over her ear, and she chewed on her lip as she waited. She looked younger than I first thought.

“I'm all itchy from getting my hair cut,” I told her. “I'm going to go to the bathroom and clean up. I may be in there for a little while.”

She took a quick breath in and looked up at me, and I was sure that she absolutely knew my entire plan.

“Sure, honey,” she said. “Down the hall and on your right-hand side, you'll find a linen closet with towels and washcloths and scrubs. The bathroom will be across the hall from the closet.” She pointed and gave me a tight smile, and then she went back to staring at her desk.

“Thanks,” I said, taking a quiet, deep breath and getting up.

Another nurse came rushing to the desk. I was sure that this nurse was completely on to me. I stopped and stood by my chair, waiting to be caught.

“Sue?” she said, not even noticing me standing there.

“I know,” Nurse Sue said. “Again! I don't know why he does this.”

They seemed distracted, and I used the moment to sneak back down the hall to Alice's room.

“I came to say good-bye,” I said.

Alice didn't say anything. She just looked at me
with those round, dark eyes. I could tell that she was struggling to keep her mouth in the shape of her curvy smile.

My eyes scanned the messy hospital room for her cell phone, and I spotted it lying almost under the bed. I got down on my knees, grabbed it, handed it to her, and told her my cell phone number.

Her smile was real. “I'll call you later,” she said. And then she peeked behind me. “Is your mom here?”

“Uh, no,” I told her. I guess I must have looked sneaky, because she dipped her head toward me and asked, “How are you getting home, Masha?”

“Getting home, hmm,” I said.

“What is it?” Alice asked.

“Well, I'm breaking out. I'm meeting my little sister out front, and we're taking the bus home.”

I must have looked just like I felt, because she said, “You can do it, Masha.”

“I can.” I smiled. “And if I make it home on the bus, then I can make it back on the bus. How about I come visit you after school tomorrow?” The thought of school sent a whirl of fear flying around my
stomach. My hand went up to my head and rubbed the place where my hair had been. “If I survive school, that is.”

“You'll survive,” Alice said.

And I knew that I would survive, because now I had someone who was going to listen to every horrible detail of how hard it was.

I nodded my head. And then I bent down and hugged her ponytailed head, clunking my giant cast into her shoulder blade. She smelled like a warm sweatshirt that had just come out of the dryer.