Free Shadow Man by Cynthia D. Grant Page B

french. Why do people say that? Its not really french. In french its crapola.
    I don’t have much to say (as you can tell) I just want to say thanks for coming to the concert. Its nice to see a friendly face. Jennie’s folks allways look like they could kill me I guess you can’t blame them they probly wish I’d go away but this boy is here to stay.
    What the hell do you do with these little things ’ ’ ’ ’?? Here’s a few more I have some left over ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’
    SHADOW MAN
    Gabriel :
    You’re right, the concert was wonderful. Hearing that beautiful music brings tears to my eyes .
    I’d love to see a copy of Shadow Man. I’ll probably even want to borrow it !
    As for the apostrophes (’): You don’t quite seem to have the hang of that yet. Drop by my room during lunch or after class someday, and we’ll work on it .
    C.S .

27
    Jennie Harding
    The tide has begun to come back in. The shift is too subtle to see. I feel it turning with my skin, as if someone is watching me.
    If I don’t leave the rock soon, the rock will be gone. The baby will be gone and so will I. The sun has melted my mind; I’m paralyzed. I’m stuck here like this rock, trying not to feel anything.
    My mother always says she wants us to be close, but she’s afraid to hear what I think. Her eyelids flicker when we discuss certain things, as if she’s pulling down the shades. No one’s home. Imagine how she’ll look when she finds out I’m pregnant; as if she’d just heard that I’d died. My daughter is dead; I don’t know this slut.… They’ve never thought Gabriel was good enough for me.
    We argued about him endlessly. My mother would cry and my father would rage. You’re ruining your life! he’d shout. As if his fragile baby could be smashed like a vase.
    They only saw Gabe’s hide, rough as abalone shell. He showed me the other side, the mother-of-pearl. He brought me bouquets of wildflowers. You are so pretty and smart! he’d say. I’m so proud of you, honey girl.
    Recently, after a fight with his dad, Gabe said we should run away. I told him I couldn’t do that to my family. He said he was my family. He was angry.
    He said we should start a brand-new life, just him and me and the baby. Forget about the past; it doesn’t matter, he said. But the past was wrapped around him like seaweed. He was drowning in the past. He couldn’t see that.
    I’d say, Can’t you admit your family’s screwed up? Why won’t you see a counselor?
    Talk to some stranger? he’d say, sneering. That don’t do any good. Anyway, your parents aren’t that great.
    He thought that facing the truth about his family was the same thing as betraying them.
    They’ve never told each other, I love you. Not once in their whole lives. He was starved for love. But the hunger made him mean. He would wound me with words that were hard to forget. I could tell when he’d been with another girl: her smell still on him, tiny bruises on his throat. I never understood if he wanted me to know or if he thought I was too dumb to notice.
    That was why I wanted to break up with Gabe. I didn’t want to be part of some game that he didn’t even know he was playing. I didn’t want to be hurt, or catch some kind of disease.
    Instead, I got pregnant.
    Won’t people be shocked? She was such a good girl. Who would’ve thought? She’s come down in the world. Little Miss Honor Roll, look at her now, with her belly full of Gabe McCloud’s baby.
    The world is such an awful place. I don’t want this child to suffer, to ever feel sadness or despair or pain. Babies die every day. They’re killed, they starve. The old cemetery is full of little children, wiped out by ancient epidemics. We were up there one night. Some of the