Free The Misfits by James Howe Page B

win, so it’s not like I have to worry about actually
doing
anything. Although there is the factor of public humiliation up until the elections, but, hey, I’m used to that.”
    Not the best reason to run for office, but I am willing to bet there have been worse.
    Anyway, when I see Skeezie and Addie with theirheads together at one point during the evening, I find it kind of strange but assume it has to do with the campaign. I am wrong, as I will find out later.
    The way it goes with posters is this: Addie and DuShawn are working together. Joe and Kelsey are working together. And Pam and I are working together. Which explains why for a period of time previously considered humanly impossible, I maintain my life force without benefit of breathing. I am actually relieved not to be working with Kelsey, because then I would have to deal with not breathing
and
coming up with something to say. Kelsey is the quietest person I have ever met. With Joe, it doesn’t matter; he does all the talking. Pam is also chatting away while we work (I figure it must run in the family), telling me all about these paintings she’s just finished and how this friend of hers is trying to get her a job at a gallery in New York City and, as if transitions had never been invented, how great it is that we are all doing this, meaning the Freedom Party, and I just keep going
uh-huh
to everything she says and clamping my arms to my sides so I don’t drip sweat on fresh marker.
    You may have noticed that I have not mentioned what the Skeeze is doing. That is because he is not working on the posters. He has taken it upon himself as secretary of the Freedom Party to lie around on the sofa reading
People
magazine.
    Before we can start on the posters, however, we have to choose a symbol and a slogan. These are the ones we vote on:
    Freedom for One, Freedom for All (dolphin)—Kelsey
Freedom Rocks! (guitar)—Skeezie
Be Strong, Be Cool, Let Freedom Rule! (Madonna)—Joe
Fly Like a Bird, Let Freedom Be Heard (dove)—Addie
    DuShawn and I do not make any suggestions, except for DuShawn’s “Down with Slavery!” (watermelon), which nobody takes seriously, including DuShawn. I am learning he has a wicked sense of humor and think this is an admirable trait. Joe and Skeezie agree, but Addie is not so sure and her lips get a little puckery when she talks about it.
    Anyway, Kelsey’s idea wins and we spend the nexthour copying pictures of dolphins out of wildlife magazines and writing:
    Freedom for One, Freedom for All!
Vote for the FREEDOM PARTY
And your voice will be heard!
    Our candidates care !
President. . . DuShawn Carter
Vice President. . . Addie Carle
Treasurer . . . Bobby Goodspeed
Secretary . . . Skeezie Tookis
Isn’t it time for a change ?
    We are all congratulating ourselves on how brilliant we are and how Brittney and the Republicans and Drew and the Democrats don’t stand a chance against us (not that any of us except Addie believes this, but it is easy to get caught up in campaign fever), when Joe’s mom comes in and tells Addie her mom has just called and she needs to get home. I personally am glad, because I do not think I can stand being so near to Pam any longer, what with her giving off the scent of magnolias the way she does.
    Being so up close and personal with Pam, I have forgotten to think about Kelsey for whole minutes at a time and now I notice out of the corner of my occuli that Joe is still chatting up a regular storm with her and she is listening with both her ears and laughing in a quiet but semihysterical sort of way, and when her dad arrives and she’s saying her goodbyes, she gives Joe the same now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t smile she gave me just last week. And this gets me to wondering, but I am not entirely sure what it is I am wondering about.
    DuShawn leaves when Addie does, but the Skeeze and I do not have to depart immediately, so we retire with Joe to his room,