Middle School: Get Me Out of Here! (23 page)

I
t was REEEALLY weird getting off the bus in the middle of Hills Village.

There was the Duper Market, where Mom used to shop. There was the parking meter where I broke my tooth when I was ten. There was… some kid whose name I couldn’t remember.

I felt like that Scrooge guy, who goes back to where he used to live and looks around without anyone knowing he’s there.

“Hey, I’m the invisible one,” Leo said. “If I were you, I wouldn’t stick around downtown too long.”

He was right about that. Hills Village isn’t very big, and it was only a matter of time before I saw someone I didn’t want to see.

I’d spent twenty-nine dollars on my bus ticket,
so that left eleven in my pocket. I used part of it for a bag of flaming barbeque chips and a can of Zoom at the FastMart by the bus station. Then I started walking again.

It was only about a mile to Jeanne Galletta’s house, but by the time I got there, it was already dark.

(Yeah, that’s right.
Jeanne Galletta’s house.
Hey, I never said it was a good plan. It was just a plan.)

For a minute I thought about waiting until morning. But then I thought about everything I’d done to get there.

I wasn’t going to stop now, just because it was night. So I walked right up the Gallettas’ front walk and rang the bell.

Before anyone answered, one of the curtains in the front window was pulled back, and there was Jeanne. She looked like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Then the front door opened, and Mr. Galletta was standing right in front of me.

“Can I help you?” he said.

“Hi,” I said. “Is Jeanne home?”

“Do you know what time it is, young man?” Mr. Galletta said.

I guess I could have been nervous. In fact, I probably
should
have been nervous. But you know when you see those people playing poker on TV, and they push all their chips into the middle of the table?

That was me right now. I was all in.

“Rafe?” Jeanne said. All of a sudden, she was there behind her dad. “Are you okay?”

“Hey, Jeanne,” I said.

“Jeanne, what’s going on here?” her dad asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “What’s going on, Rafe?”

“Not too much,” I said. “I just wanted to come over and tell you… thanks for being so nice to me last year.”

Now both of them were looking at me the same way that lady on the bus had—like I was definitely crazy, and maybe dangerous.

But I didn’t care. I’d done what I came to do. At least I could say I finished
something
that year.

“Anyway, that’s about it. I’ll see you later, Jeanne,” I said, and stepped off their porch.

Mr. Galletta was looking around the street now. “Are you alone?” he said.

“Yeah,” I said. “I mean—not for long. My mom’s just picking up some milk at the Duper Market. I’m supposed to meet her over there on the corner in a minute.”

I could tell Jeanne didn’t believe me, but before she could say anything, her dad was closing the door.

“Okay, then,” he said. “Have a good night, Rafe. And not so late next time, okay?”

“Sure thing,” I said, and started walking away.

I waited until I heard the Gallettas’ door close before I looked back. When I did, Jeanne was at
the window again, watching me. For some reason, that made me feel really good. I waved good-bye and then looked away quickly, before she could do it first.

But I didn’t get very far. I was still on Jeanne’s street when I heard Mr. Galletta again.

“Rafe?” he said.

I turned around, and he was coming after me. For a second I thought about running.

“Why don’t you come back inside?” Mr. Galletta asked.

It wasn’t really a question, though. And, besides, I just didn’t feel like running anymore.

O
nce I was inside the Gallettas’ house, they made me call Mom and let her know I was okay. She was pretty upset, but she didn’t yell at me—not then, anyway.

Then Mrs. Galletta got on the phone and said a bunch of times that I “seemed fine” and that it was totally okay with them if I stayed there. After that, Mom said she was going to come get me first thing in the morning.

Let me tell you something: Of all the things I never, ever expected to happen in my life, I’d say that a sleepover at Jeanne Galletta’s house was somewhere near the top of the list. Staying in their guest room that night was just about the weirdest possible ending to a
really
weird day.

Not that I slept much. Mostly, I just lay there and thought about Mom, and how stupid I was for doing this. Also, how glad I was that I didn’t have to camp out in a dark, cold storage locker that night. (Seriously—what was I thinking?)

And when Mom said she was coming first thing in the morning, she meant it. By six o’clock, Mrs. Galletta was waking me up and asking Mom if we wanted breakfast before we left.

“We’ll go out and get something,” Mom told her. “I think we need to talk.”

I was pretty sure that meant she needed to kill me in private, but I couldn’t exactly say so. I just thanked Mrs. Galletta (Jeanne was still asleep) and walked out to the car.

As soon as we were alone, I started talking.

“Mom, I—”

But that was as far as I got. Mom leaned right across the seat and gave me this big, Grandma-size bear hug. She held on for a long time too.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” I tried again. It didn’t sound like much, since my face was mashed up against her coat, but I think she got it.

“Rafe, I’m the one who’s sorry,” she said.
“Mr. Crawley told me what happened at school yesterday, and I’m so, so sorry about that.”

“You’re not mad about me taking that money? And the bus?” I said.

Mom finally unhugged me and sat back. “Yes, of course I am,” she said. “But there’s something I need to tell you, Rafe. Something I should have already told you. What happened yesterday in your class only confirmed that for me.”

“Mom, what are you talking about?” I said. There was something super serious going on, or I would have been in much bigger trouble by now.

Why wasn’t she acting mad?

“I’m talking about your dad, sweetheart,” she said. “I want to show you something.”

D
id you already figure out we were going to a cemetery? Yeah, that’s where my mom took me next.

And I can’t say I was 100 percent surprised either. I just didn’t know how much I already suspected until we were pulling up to the gate and I saw where we were.

Mom reached over and put her hand on top of mine. Not holding it, just more like covering it.

“Your dad was a soldier,” she said. “He enlisted in the army when you were seven and Georgia was five. Then he went to war.”

Mom looked at me, and her eyes were wet. I think maybe mine were too.

She took a box out of the backseat and showed
me a picture of Dad in his uniform, and a medal that I guess he got while he was overseas.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” I asked Mom. I didn’t understand any of this yet.

“I’m sorry, Rafe,” she said. “It’s complicated for me. Your dad was a hero to his country, in the end. But he wasn’t always a hero to our family. Not when he left us.
It’s been hard finding the right way to talk to you about this. But I absolutely should have.”

I looked at that picture, and that medal, for a long time. Then I looked outside the car and around the cemetery.

“Where is he?” I said.

My mom pointed over toward some trees. “Over there, Rafe. Do you want to go and see?”

I took a really deep breath.

“Yeah,” I said.

And that’s what we did.

My mom took my hand, and we walked over to see my dad.

O
kay, time out again.

I don’t really know what to say about all this. I can’t blame Mom for not telling me this stuff sooner. She was the one who’d been around all my life, not him.

It was sad and really strange finding out that my dad had died as a soldier, but at the same time, it didn’t change much. Like I said before, I was used to everything the way it was.

In a way, the only thing that really changed was how I thought about my dad. Until then he was someone who’d run away and never come back.

But now he was a hero too.

I’m not saying that I wasn’t sad about it and maybe a little confused. I’m just saying that I’m okay.

Okay?

So that’s pretty much it. And just in case you’re starting to think this book is going to have the world’s saddest ending, let me tell you about everything that happened next.

It’s actually pretty cool.