-----Linnette Birdie-----
The Light Never Stays, Yet Life Moves On
When Ginger began
playing in the band, she told us about how her teacher told them that when you
get lost in a piece of music, the rest of the ensemble isn’t going to go back
for you. You have to learn to find where your peers are and join them in the
music. And my popularity was like that, but I wasn’t able to catch up in fourth
grade, when I sort of melted into the background. I was ‘that girl’ who was
always reading, who never raised her hand in class even though she knew all of
the answers. I was the ‘know it all of third grade,’ and now Skyler was
the know it all.
Life continued. Fourth grade was a good year. In class I would listen to the
lectures- the worst lectures that we would get were 10 minutes- do the
worksheets, and pull out Lois Lensky’s Strawberry Girl. Skyler sat on
the opposite side of the room, and she would try listening to the lectures but
often her gaze shifted in my direction. It wasn’t because she was trying to
look at me- She was looking at Lusis Karmackle.
Though Skyler would never admit it, we all knew that she loved Lusis and was
awful at hiding it. She would bring him up in the weirdest ways possible- when
someone said their favorite color was green, she would smile and say, ‘Lusis’
favorite color is green.’ I would look at Roslyn, who would turn to Ginger, who
would turn to me, and then we would all look Skyler dead in the eye just in
time for Roslyn to say, “You’re in love, Skyler.”
Skyler would suddenly begin to whistle, and we’d all roll our eyes, and drop
the conversation for another time.
I hated the conversation. We were in fourth grade! It didn’t seem right for
Skyler to be in love, yet she was. She just didn’t want to say so. Maybe her
thoughts were the same as mine, maybe she was just embarrassed to like someone
who hardly knew her. And at the same time, I felt bad for her. Lusis hardly
recognized her existence, Roslyn, Ginger, and I got all over her for it, and
her parents had no idea about anything that was going on. But Skyler was
still Skyler, and she had poetry now.
Though Ginger wasn’t in our class, at recess, she would be the Ginger she’d
always been- swinging upside down on the monkey bars, swinging on her front
side, going down the slide head first- until the recess monitors would catch
her. Then, Roslyn, Skyler, and I would wander away so we wouldn’t get in
trouble, too. After being released from the wall, Ginger would run to
play soccer with the boys.
Roslyn was just Roslyn. She drew all of the time- during class, too, I think-
and didn’t care what anyone thought. She dared to be different. It didn’t
matter. I was pretty sure she didn’t take up Skyler and my request to for a
crime trio and break into those pastels, but she still made artwork beautiful
with the pencils, watercolors, and crayons. It was crazy how a fourth grader
could have so much talent.
On our birthdays that year, we really could all expect what type of card
we would get- From Skyler, a poem, from Roslyn, a painting, from Ginger, a gift
card, and from me, a Hallmark or Dayspring. It was the peak of our
friendship, if you graphed grades 1-12. Not a care in the world, except for the
Skyler Situation (we called it the SS), and what was that but foolishness?
We had yet to discover.
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