Free Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume Page A

to be the exclusive Los Alamos boys school. In the old days, before Los Alamos became the Atomic City, the boys school was all that was up here. Then, in the 40’s, when Oppenheimer and the other famous scientists gathered to develop the Bomb, the most important ones got to live in these houses, which were the only ones having bathtubs.
    “Your friend must be the daughter of someone high up in the Lab, to live on Bathtub Row,” Bitsy says. “What’s her last name?”
    “I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”
    After dinner Walter wants to see my course schedule. He hits the roof when he finds out that I am not taking a science course. “How could they let you register without insisting on a science course?”
    “I wanted to take typing instead,” I explain. “I can always take Chemistry next year.”
    “Typing,” Walter says, angrily. “Ridiculous. And next year you should be taking Physics I. You’re going to fall behind.”
    I feel like telling him that I have no intention of taking Physics I, not next year, and not ever.
    “You have to think of your future,” Walter tells me. “You want to get into a good college, don’t you?”
    “I don’t know,” I say.
    “Of course you know.”
    “No, I don’t! I don’t even know if I want to go to college.”
    Walter pours himself a glass of brandy, sloshes it around in his glass, then takes a hearty drink. “What do you want to do with your life, Davey?” he asks.
    “How do I know? I’m only fifteen!”
    “It’s never too soon to start planning,” he calls, but I am already storming out of the room, with Minka at my heels.
    I go straight to my mother’s room, to tell her that Walter is a pain and I don’t feel like discussing my life with him and she better do something about it, something to shut him up. But Mom is asleep, her mouth half open. Her breath sounds raspy. There are photos scattered across the bed. I feel so angry I want to shake her.
    I go to my own room and flop down on my bed with a copy of Great Expectations .
    I am on Chapter Two when Jason comes to my room. But I don’t remember anything about Chapter One and I can’t keep any of the characters straight.
    “What’s wrong with Mom?” Jason asks.
    “You know,” I tell him. “She has headaches.”He is wearing his football pajamas and looks very small and sweet. “Don’t worry. She’ll be okay.”
    “Maybe not,” he says. “Maybe she’s going to die.”
    “She’s not going to die,” I say.
    “How do you know?”
    “I just do.”
    “If she does die will we stay here, with Uncle Walter and Aunt Bitsy?”
    “She’s not going to die.”
    “But if she does …”
    “Yes,” I say, closing my book. “I suppose we’d stay here.”
    “That’s all I wanted to know.”
    “Jason …” I say. He has a loose tooth and he wiggles it with his fingers. He is so innocent, I think.
    “Yeah …”
    “Aren’t you going to kiss me goodnight?”
    “Me … kiss you?”
    “Yes. Come on …” I hold my arms out to him. “Pretend I’m not your sister. Pretend I’m some beautiful princess.”
    He comes closer to my bed and I reach out and hug him. “It’s going to be all right,” I whisper into his hair. “It is … it is … it is …”

SIXTEEN
    On Saturday I ride to the canyon. There is a chill in the air and I wear my fisherman’s sweater. When I look up into the mountains I see that the leaves of the aspen trees have turned color, making the whole mountainside a beautiful shade of gold against the deep blue of the sky. Tomorrow Walter and Bitsy are taking us for a drive into the mountains so that we can see the aspen up close.
    I pedal hard and fast, anxious to reach the canyon.
    Wolf is there, waiting for me. “Where’ve you been, Tiger?”
    “School,” I tell him. “They made me go to school.”
    “School,” he repeats, nodding. He doesn’t ask who made me go. He doesn’t ask why I haven’t gone until now.
    We climb down into the canyon. I am