Free Pluto by R. J. Palacio

such a long time since I had seen her. In the picture, her face had gotten completely white, and her eyes were kind of foggy. But her nose was still pink and her tongue was still super long as it hung out of her mouth.
    So cute! Daisy!!!!!!!
I texted.
    DARTH Daisy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Ha ha. Take that, Via!
I wrote.
    Remember those fart darts?
    Hahahahahaha.
I was smiling a lot at this point. It was the happiest part of my day, to be truthful.
That was when we were still into Pluto.
    Were we into Star Wars yet?
    Getting into it. Do you still have all your miniatures?
    Yeah but I put some away too. So anyway, Gleebo, my mom’s telling me I gots to go to bed now. Glad your mom is okay.
    I nodded. There was no way I could ask him for help in math at this point. It would just be too lame. I sat down on the edge of my bed and started responding to his text.
    Before I could finish, he texted:
my mom actually wants to talk to you. she wants to FaceChat. R U free?
    I stood up.
Sure.
    Two seconds later, I got a request to FaceChat. I saw Isabel on the phone.
    “Oh, hey, Isabel,” I said.
    “Hi, Chris!” she answered. I could tell she was in her kitchen. “How are you? I talked to your mom earlier. I wanted to make sure you guys got home okay.”
    “Yeah, we did.”
    “And she’s doing okay? I didn’t want to wake her if she’s sleeping.”
    “Yeah, she’s sleeping,” I answered.
    “Oh good. She needs her rest. That was a big cast!”
    “Dad’s staying here tonight.”
    “Oh, that’s so great!” she answered happily. “I’m so glad. And how are you doing, Chris?”
    “I’m good.”
    “How’s school?”
    “Good.”
    Isabel smiled. “Lisa told me you got her beautiful flowers today.”
    “Yeah,” I answered, smiling and nodding.
    “Okay. Well, I just wanted to check in on you and say hello, Chris. I want you to know we’re thinking about you guys, and if there’s anything we can do—”
    “I’m sorry about Daisy,” I blurted out.
    Isabel nodded. “Oh. Thank you, Chris.”
    “You guys must be so sad.”
    “Yeah, it’s sad. She was such a presence in our house. Well, you know. You were there when we first got her, remember?”
    “She was so skinny!” I said. I was smiling, but suddenly, out of the blue, my voice got a little shaky.
    “With that long tongue of hers!” She laughed.
    I nodded. I felt a lump in my throat, like I was going to cry.
    She looked at me carefully. “Oh, sweetie, it’s okay,” she said quietly.
    Auggie’s mom had always been like a second mom to me. I mean, aside from my parents, and maybe my grandmother, Isabel Pullman knew me better than anyone.
    “I know,” I whispered. I was still smiling, but my chin was trembling.
    “Sweetie, where’s your dad?” she asked. “Can you put him on the phone?”
    I shrugged. “I think…he might be asleep by now.”
    “I’m sure he won’t care if you wake him up,” she answered softly. “Go get him. I’ll wait on the phone.”
    Auggie nudged his way into view on the screen.
    “What’s the matter, Chris?” he asked.
    I shook my head, fighting back tears. I couldn’t talk. I knew if I did, I’d start to cry.
    “Christopher,” Isabel said, coming close to the screen. “Your mom is going to be fine, sweetie.”
    “I know,” I said, my voice cracking, but then it just came out of me. “But she was in the car because of me! Because I forgot my trombone! If I hadn’t forgotten my stuff, she wouldn’t have gotten into an accident! It’s my fault, Isabel! She could have died!”
    This all came pouring out of me in a string of messy crying bursts.

10:52 p.m.
    Isabel put Auggie on the phone while she called Dad’s cell phone to let him know I was crying hysterically in my room. A minute later, Dad came into my room and I hung up on Auggie. Dad put his arms around me and hugged me tightly.
    “Chris,” said Dad.
    “It was my fault, Daddy! It was my fault she was driving.”
    He untangled himself from my hug and put his