Chapter Six: A Change in the Tides

Grammy always had a saying, “Out of every storm comes a rainbow.” She also used to say, “Behind every cloud there is a silver lining.” I guess everyone’s Grammy says that once. In this case the saying was right, well at least half right anyway.

I went back to school the next week, a little wiser, a little more serene, a lot more serious then when I had left it. I wanted to go in and get the days over with and get back to Jess and Stevie. I wanted to keep them closer now somehow. I felt my family dwindling a little every day. Jess went back to school too, but for him it was not the same. It would never be the same again.

The strangest thing happened to me when I walked up the school steps that Monday morning. Some of the groups of girls stopped talking and stared at me, then the stares turned into smiles and the smiles turned into, “Hi Lucy. How are you? Sorry to hear about your loss.”

It was so odd to hear anyone talk to me that I kind of forgot my voice. I didn’t know how to talk to them or what to say. Joe met me at the top of the stairs, as was our custom. He walked the halls with me and he returned every hello that came our way. He got high fives from the jocks and pats on the back from the teachers. Everyone was friendly. Everyone was being nice to me. I didn’t understand.

Joe explained it all at lunchtime that afternoon. It appeared that my father’s untimely passing was more fodder for the rumor mill. It spread like wild fire around the school. Joe took advantage of the rumor by having a very loud and vocal argument with the most popular girl in school over it. He told them that he explained to them that I knew nothing of my father’s past. He told her and the others that they should be ashamed of themselves for making me feel as unwelcome as they did. He emphasized that he had stood by me through everything and that he was my only true friend and that in my time of need they should all stop and ask themselves what they had done to his girl.

It did occur to me during his triumphant tirade that I should stop and ask him what he meant by my father’s past. However, that was before I caught the end of the speech about me being “his” girl. I was really enraged that he would say such a thing, but I never got the chance to tell him that. Our little lunch table for two was fast becoming the most crowded lunch table in school. There were so many people there we barely had room for ourselves. We were riding a wave of popularity and to tell you the truth, I liked it for a little while. For a while, there were people to talk to wherever you went. There was always a party to go to or a dance to attend. There was a crowd to go to the movies with or to hang at the diner with. I was always busy and looking back, I think keeping that busy helped me deal with my loss, for a while at least. Perhaps the hands that fate had dealt me so far in life had taught me to be cynical. It might be that I was just smarter then my young years should have allowed. I wondered though how long this wave of popularity would last.  I was guessing it would last until the next major crisis came along and the pity party would hop on the next train to brighten someone else’s life. I was right of course. The instant there was someone else to pity, the crowd thinned out considerably. It wasn’t all bad. We made a few true friends out of the bunch. Both Joe and I were invited to all the parties and I went to all of the dances without him