Alice sat by the window with her face pressed against the glass. She stared out at the street lined with houses and tall trees, and sat up whenever she heard voices. But when she saw that the owners of those voices were adults or children other than Jenny, she slumped back down again.
The jangle of bracelets warned Alice that Grandma was coming. She removed her face from the windowpane. Just as she was about to wipe the smudges left on the glass with her sleeve, Grandma entered the room. Alice vaguely remembered a time when Grandma had been nice to her, when she used to visit Grandma, instead of living with her. Now Grandma was always annoyed.
�I�ve called your name four times, Alice. Lunch is getting cold.� Grandma said.
Her eyes moved to the smudges on the window behind Alice. She frowned.
�I�m sorry,� Alice said. �I was watching for Jenny. What if Jenny comes? Is there lunch for her, too? Shouldn�t I wait for her?�
Grandma pulled her down from the window seat by the arm and led her into the kitchen. Alice ate as Grandma hovered above her. She made sure to eat the green stuff on the plate and drink her glass of milk when Grandma was looking. Good thing Jenny hadn�t come for lunch. She wouldn�t have liked it.
�How would you like to go to the park today, Alice?� Grandma asked afterwards.
What if Jenny came while they were at the park? They wouldn�t be there to open the door for her. She and Jenny couldn�t play together then, because Jenny wouldn�t know that Alice was at the park. Alice explained this to Grandma. Grandma frowned.
�Jenny lives in a different house now, Alice, you know that. Far away.�
Alice nodded. �But not as far away as Mommy and Daddy, right? You said so.�
Grandma turned away and nodded.
Alice and Jenny had always lived in different houses. Jenny had lived three blocks away--that was far. But Jenny had always still come over to play, and sometimes Alice went to Jenny�s. Mommy and Daddy never came to see Alice, but since Jenny hadn�t moved as far away as Mommy and Daddy did, she still could come over.
Grandma had her back turned to Alice for a while. When she showed her face to Alice again, Alice saw that she had been crying. She patted Grandma�s hand, but Grandma jerked it away.
�We�re going,� Grandma said. �We�ll leave Jenny a note on the door.�
�Jenny has trouble reading. She always has to go to the resource room,� Alice said.
�Jenny�s mom always brings her over, doesn�t she? She can read the note.�
At the park Grandma put Alice on a swing and told her to stay there. Alice watched her walk towards the old men who were playing dominoes on a folding table and fluff her hair. The swing stood still because Grandma had forgotten to push it. Jenny wasn�t around to help either. Alice leaned backwards and then kicked her feet forward. That set the swing in motion, but only for a few seconds. She sighed.
Four boys ran towards her and the swings. Three of them took the remaining three empty swings. One boy stood alone. He looked at Alice, smiled, and wiggled his eyebrows. He was bigger. She looked in her Grandma�s direction, but one of the old men at the dominoes table had given Grandma his seat. Her back was now turned towards Alice. Alice hopped down from the swing and ran onto the grass. The boys laughed.
Jenny was brave. On a kindergarten field trip, a boy had thrown up over both Alice and Jenny. Alice had cried. Jenny hadn�t. She looked at her dirty shirt, and then rubbed it off on the boy. She had been leading Alice to the boy so Alice could do the same, when the teacher caught them. Jenny didn�t care about standing in the corner.
Alice plopped down on the lawn and looked back at Grandma. Grandma must have been sad because she missed Mommy and Daddy. Alice missed her parents, too. She once told Jenny. Jenny said she�d take care of Alice. Alice sneezed. She looked around and realized she was sitting among seeding dandelions, which she and Jenny called white pom-pom flowers.
According to Jenny, people were supposed to pick a flower, then make a wish and blow the white pom-pom off the stem. The white pom-pom broke into little pieces and scattered in different directions in the air. Someone would hear the wish and make it come true. Alice got up, and plucked out all the white pom-pom flowers she could find. She held all of them in one hand.
�I wish�� she said in a whisper, so the boys on the swings couldn�t hear her.
Of course, she wanted Jenny to come. But since she had so many white pom-poms, Alice could make more than one wish.
�I wish that I could live with Mommy and Daddy again, and that Jenny could live next door so we could play together everyday. And Grandma can live in the other house next to us.�
She breathed out and out again, until all that was left was a handful of stems.
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