Free Anastasia Again! by Lois Lowry Page B

or ever will. Now don't feel bad about this, Mom, because it isn't your fault, but I
am
a sort of freak. In fifth grade I was the tallest girl in the class, but the boys were taller, most of them. But in sixth grade I was the tallest
person
in the class. There weren't any boys as tall as me, and I was even taller than the teacher. By the time I finish high school, I will probably be one of the world's tallest human beings. I also have the world's most hideous hair, in case you haven't noticed.
    "Now for some reason Robert Giannini doesn't seem to mind what I look like. He's the only male in the world who will ever feel that way, so probably I'm lucky to have found him. The trouble is, I think
he's
revolting. I hate his squeaky voice. And I hate it that he carries a dumb briefcase everywhere. I can't
stand
it that he wears a SeaWorld tee shirt. But I have to figure out how to adjust to those things if I'm going to marry him, because I certainly don't want to have a Brief and Unfortunate Marriage, for pete's sake..."
    "Whoa. You're going much too fast for me, Anastasia. Wait a minute." Her mother sipped at the beer and looked puzzled. "First of all, what makes you so sure you want to get married at all? Lots of women never do and are perfectly happy."
    "Would you be?"
    "No, I like being married. But that doesn't mean that
you
have to."
    Anastasia sucked on her Popsicle and thought for a long time. She thought about the time that her mother had had the flu and her father had taken cups of tea to
her and sat beside her bed, not minding that he might catch the flu, too.
    Then she thought about what it would be like to be in bed with the flu if there were no one to bring cups of tea and sit beside your bed. It made her feel lonely, just thinking about it.
    Then she thought about the day that Sam was born, and her father took her mother to the hospital and stayed there with her while Sam was being born, and when he came home, he was so excited that he couldn't remember if the baby weighed eight pounds and four ounces or four pounds and eight ounces; and she and her father smoked cigars to celebrate, only hers was a chocolate cigar.
    She thought about what it would be like to have a baby if you weren't married, and nobody stayed with you while the baby was being born and smoked a cigar afterward to celebrate. It made her feel lonely.
    She thought about not ever having a baby at all. That made her feel even lonelier.
    "I really do want to get married someday," she said, finally.
    "Okay," said her mother. "First of all, then, about Robert. I've never met him, but I'll take your word for it that some things about him right now are revolting. But he's how old? Twelve?"
    "Yeah."
    "Well, I didn't know your dad when he was twelve. But I'll bet you anything he had a squeaky voice. Robert's voice will change. He'll grow taller. And I can guarantee
you that within the next year, his mother will be using the Sea World tee shirt as a cleaning rag. Do you know what I was using as a cleaning rag just this very morning?"
    "What?"
    "A pink tee shirt with ruffles on the neck and daisies embroidered on the sleeves."
    "Oh,
gross.
I'd forgotten that shirt."
    "Well, you loved it when you were eight or nine. People's tastes change. Robert's will, too."
    "Yeah, probably he won't even like
me
after a while." Anastasia caught the last piece of green Popsicle just before it slid off the stick. She fired the empty stick into the wastebasket with a long, arching basketball shot.
    Her mother laughed. "Well, maybe not. But other boys will."
    "Hah," said Anastasia gloomily.
    "Hah. Trust me. I promise you that will be true. Did you just hear something? I thought I heard a buzzer."
    "The doorbell. It's the first time anyone has rung the doorbell since we moved in! I'll get it."
    The boy at the front door was the same boy that Anastasia had seen mowing a lawn down the street. She had walked past him twice, trying to get up the nerve to say hi. Now he was standing