Free Circles by Marilyn Sachs Page A

everybody in the cast sign it, that would make it unanimous.”
    “I think we should talk to Ms. Drumm first,” Todd Merster said. “It doesn’t seem fair to go behind her back before we really tell her what we think.”
    “I wonder if everybody in the cast would sign a petition anyway,” Rebecca said. “There’s a couple of them who have no principles at all. As long as they get a part in a play, they don’t care what play it is.”
    “You’re right,” Robin Vargas said. “Dorrie Ferguson was telling me yesterday that she hates Romeo and Juliet, and just wished we could do something more modern.”
    “I know,” Rebecca said. “She wanted the part of the nurse, but she’s just not very funny.”
    “Maybe Todd is right,” Jennifer said. “We should talk to Ms. Drumm first, but then, if she says no, then we should go see the principal.”
    “But suppose she just throws you out of the play before you go to see the principal? Suppose she just says if you don’t like it you can lump it?” Wanda said.
    “She wouldn’t throw Jenny out of the play,” Todd said, but he sounded nervous. “She wouldn’t want to throw Jenny out of the play because then Dave would quit, and I guess the rest of us would quit too. She doesn’t want to get rid of all of us, does she?”
    Everybody was speaking at the same time now, and Beebe had to repeat herself before anybody heard her.
    “What did you say, Beebe?” Dave asked finally.
    “I said I’m going to see Mrs. Kronberger. I’m going to tell Mrs. Kronberger what’s happening. She’ll do something.”
     
    Chapter 8
     
    Mark’s mother dropped into a chair, lighted another cigarette, breathed in deeply, slowly exhaled, and said, “Thank God that’s over.”
    Mark watched the smoke mushroom out. “It wasn’t that bad,” he said.
    His mother shook her head, took another deep breath, and said, “It’s a good thing you were here. Twelve nine-year-old boys is not my idea of a good time.”
    There was a loud thump from upstairs.
    “Just you stop that, Jeddy,” his mother shouted up at the ceiling.
    Jeddy came into the room from the kitchen. “I didn’t do that,” he complained. “You’re always yelling at me to stop something, and most of the time it’s Marcy or ... or ...” He looked at Mark. “It used to be Mark.”
    Mark grabbed him and began tickling him. “Poor, little, innocent lamb,” he said. “He never makes any noise, and everybody blames him.”
    Jeddy, yelling and laughing at the same time, tried to butt Mark in the stomach. In a second, both of them were rolling around together on the floor, and Mark’s mother cried, “Stop it! Both of you, stop it! Or go outside.”
    There was another loud thump from upstairs, and this time Mark’s mother shouted up at the ceiling, “Marcy, stop it!”
    Shauna   and   I   are   practicing   our  gymnastics,’’ Marcy yelled down the stairs.
    “Well, go practice in Shauna’s house, and the two of you boys, stop making that racket—watch out, you’re knocking over the lamp! Watch out!”
    It took some time, but Marcy finally did go off to Shauna’s house, Jeddy went to his room with all his new presents, and Mark and his mother remained quietly together in the living room.
    Mark looked anxiously at the ashtray full of cigarette butts and at the new pack of cigarettes his mother was opening. “Mom,” he said, “aren’t you smoking more than you used to?”
    She slowly pulled a cigarette out of the pack, lighted it, took a puff, and smiled at him. “Just look out for yourself, Mark,” she said. “I can look after myself.”
    “I know, Mom, but I also know you’re smoking a lot more than you used to.”
    “You don’t know anything,” she said, not smiling now. “It’s not like you live here anymore, or take an interest in me or the kids. This is the first time you’ve been home in weeks.”
    “Mom ...” he said helplessly.
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t