Free Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead Page A

register.

    Em turned on Tab. “What did you do that for?”
    “Just making conversation. Geez. You’re bright red.”
    “That was seriously stupid, Tab. Now he knows I’ve been talking about his pictures.”
    “Sorry! It was a joke!” Tab smiled.
    Em stared at her. “How do you not see how rude you just were?”
    “I said sorry.” Tab shrugged. “I didn’t realize he meant that much to you.”
    “You don’t sound sorry.”
    “Em, I really am sorry. Okay? Anyway, no fighting allowed. Remember?”
    Emily zipped her sweatshirt up to her chin. “I have to go to soccer practice. Do we have a decision about Halloween?”
    “A decision? We’re still brainstorming!” Tab said.
    “What about superheroes?” Bridge said.
    “Superheroes?” Em looked doubtful.
    “Yeah, you know, like Batgirl, Catgirl—”
    “Notice how the male superheroes are all ‘this-man’ and ‘that-man’? And the females are all ‘girls’? Super man, Super girl. Bat man, Bat girl. ”
    “There’s Wonder Woman,” Bridge said.
    “Okay,” Tab said. “I’ll be Wonder Woman. She has a cape, right? I love capes!” She started zooming around with her arms stuck out in front of her.
    “Okay,” Em said. “You’re Wonder Woman. Obviously Bridge will be Catgirl. So I’ll be Batgirl.”
    “Why is that obvious?” Bridge asked.
    “Are you kidding?” Em pointed at Bridge’s head. “It’ll be the one day of the year that those ears aren’t completely random.”

    Tab stopped zooming. “They are just a tiny bit random, Bridge.”
    “They don’t feel random to me.”
    “What do they feel like to you?” Em asked. “Why are you wearing them? Every. Single. Day.”
    “Because I want to? They feel like me.”
    Tab and Emily looked at each other. “They’re cat ears,” Em said. “Do you feel like a cat?”
    “No,” Bridge said.
    “Guys,” Tab said. “Let’s put a pin in this.” Tab had been saying that lately. As if you could really take a moment, stick a pin in it, and save it for later.
    Tab turned to Bridge. “You coming over to do French?”
    “Yeah,” Bridge said.
    “Anyway,” Tab said as they walked to the register together, “there are four Teletubbies.”

MOON HUNTING
    “You guys want soup?” Celeste stuck her head into the living room, where Bridge and Tab had done what felt like hours of French.
    “Mom called,” Celeste said to Tab. “She’s on her way home, but remember, dinner’s gonna be late.”
    “Oh yeah,” Tab said. “Poor Mom.”
    “Why?” Bridge said.
    “Today is Karva Chauth,” Celeste said. “Good Hindu women fast all day to show their devotion to their husbands.”
    “For real?” Bridge asked.
    “For real,” Tab said. “It brings luck, they say. They can’t eat or drink or anything, not even water, which is a little crazy if you ask me.”
    “Until they glimpse the moon,” Celeste said. “I think it’s kind of romantic.”
    “Romantic to starve yourself all day?” Tab asked. “And is there a day when the husbands fast for their wives? No, of course not!”
    “Oy, the big feminist,” Celeste said. “It’s getting old, Tab. So—two soups?”
    “Two soups,” Bridge said. “Thanks.”

    Ten minutes later, Celeste brought out a tray with three bowls of tomato rice soup and a plate of saltines. “There’s one Karva Chauth story about this young queen,” she said, crossing her legs on the couch. “She fasts to bring her new husband good luck, and by the end of the day she’s really thirsty and weak with hunger but the moon isn’t up yet, and her seven brothers can’t stand to watch her suffer anymore—”
    “So they trick her,” Tab said.
    “I’m telling it, Tab! So they trick her. They put a mirror up in a tree and pretend it’s the moon. She sees it shining through the branches. So she eats.”
    “And then— BOOM —her husband drops dead!” Tab clapped once, on the boom.
    “I said I’m telling it! He doesn’t die, Tab, he gets really sick.