Run(53)

“Yeah. It does, honey.” She said it real serious, even though I’d mostly been joking.

I’d gotten so used to talking like that with Bo—being honest but also making light of my disability—that I sometimes forgot that not everybody would respond the way she did. Most people in this town, and especially my parents, still saw my being blind as a tragedy. Something to be mourned.

Not Bo, though. She’d never pitied me. Not once. Not even on that day when she’d found me, lost in the woods. She didn’t see me as someone she ought to feel sorry for. She just saw me.

Speaking of Bo …

“Hey, Mama, are you making my birthday dinner tonight?” I asked.

“Of course.” The car made a turn, and I knew we were only a minute or two from school. “I was thinking some mashed potatoes, corn bread, and maybe fried chicken? Sound good?”

“Great. Can Bo come?”

I already knew the answer to this. Despite all my complaints about my parents, they’d really come around to Bo over the past few months. It had taken a while. Mama wasn’t so keen on her after the trip to the river that had got me grounded. But now Bo was at our house almost every weekend, and she ate dinner with us more nights than she didn’t. And if Bo wasn’t around, they wanted to know where she was. Her presence was pretty much expected.

“Of course,” Mama said without even having to think about it. “I just assumed she’d be coming. Do you wanna invite Christy, too?”

“Um … Maybe another time. She and Bo don’t really get along.”

“Oh. All right. Well, that’s a shame.”

“Yeah. But … since Bo’s coming over anyway,” I said, winding up for my real question. “Can I just ride the bus home with her?”

I felt dumb even asking. I’d gone to parties, drank beer, spent the night at a boy’s house—not that Mama knew about those last two. But still. I was seventeen now, and I wasn’t even allowed to ride the bus and walk home alone.

“Hmm.”

Hmm was a better start than an outright no.

“Bo can ride with me. That’s her bus anyway. Then we can walk home together.”

“Well …” Mama paused. “Is she good at guiding you?”

I had to hold back the groan I felt coming on. Mama had been the one to sign me up for mobility lessons as a kid. She’d seen me use my cane for most of my life. I didn’t need to be guided all the time. Especially not in the middle of the afternoon, when my vision was best, on a route I walked every Sunday morning with her and Daddy.

Still, I gave her the answer that would get me what I wanted. “Yeah. Real good. She’s guided me lots of times.”

“Not on a busy road, though,” Mama said. Still, she gave in. “Fine. Just be careful, okay?”

It was a small victory. And the prize was something I’d done before—just without her knowing. But still. Coming from my mama, this was progress. We’d been making it over time—slow, but steady. It was probably crazy, but I was starting to have hope that, one day, she and Daddy would treat me the same as Gracie. That I’d be allowed to do the same things she did, instead of having to sneak around and lie about it.

Maybe Christy and Colt and Bo were right. Maybe I did just need to talk to my parents and make them see my side.

I was looking forward to telling Bo the good news. And I didn’t have to wait as long to see her as I’d expected.

During second period, there was a knock on the classroom door.

“Sorry to interrupt, Mrs. Devore.”

My head jerked up, though I didn’t have to see that halo of red and gold to know who was at the door.

“Do you need something, Bo?” my algebra teacher asked.

“Mr. Martin sent me,” Bo said. “He needs Agnes in the chemistry lab.”

“What for?”

“Ain’t sure, ma’am. Said something about a test she took last week …”

Mrs. Devore sighed. “So he’s gonna cut into my class time? That man drives me crazy. I really ought …” She trailed off, probably remembering she was in a room full of students. “Never mind. Agnes, did you get the homework assignment down?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Then go. But ask Mr. Martin to wait for his own class to talk to you next time.”

I grabbed my books, unfolded my cane, and followed Bo out into the hallway.

“I failed the test, didn’t I?” I asked. “I knew it. How does he expect me to do an essay about our lab experiments when I can’t see half the stuff my partner’s doing or the way the stuff reacts? And I’ve told him so many times—”

“Relax,” Bo said. “Mr. Martin didn’t ask me to come get you.”

“He didn’t?”

“No.”

I frowned at her as she led the way, turning down the hall that would take us to the cafeteria and the building’s back entrance.

“Then what are we doing?”

She looked back at me, and she was close enough that I could see the big grin on her face. “Celebrating.”



It was the first time I’d ever skipped class, and once the nervousness wore off, it was real exciting.

Bo had her mama’s blue car, and we drove out to the river, to that same spot where I’d had my first beer and sang with Bo on the roof of the car. We hadn’t been there in months. It had been too cold. But that day, it was warm enough for us to sit on the hood, our backs against the windshield, listening to the birds that had just returned from somewhere farther south.