By late May, the wild bleeding hearts and the rhododendrons had
bloomed, and the fragrance of honeysuckle drifted down the hillside and
into the house. We had our first hot days before school was out.
Those last couple of weeks, I'd go from feeling excited to nervous to just
plain scared back to excited in a matter of minutes. On the last day of
school, I cleaned out my locker and went to say goodbye to Miss Bivens.
"I've got a feeling about you," she said. "I think you'll do all right up
there. But you've left me with a problem. Who's going to edit the Wave
next year?"
"You'll find someone, I'm sure."
"I've thought of trying to entice your brother into it."
"People might start thinking that the Wallses are building a dynasty."
Miss Bivens smiled. "Maybe you are."
At home that night, Mom cleaned out a suitcase she'd used for her
collection of dancing shoes, and I filled it with my clothes and my bound
copies of The Maroon Wave. I wanted to leave everything from the past
behind, even the good things, so I gave Maureen my geode. It was dusty
and dull, but I told her that if she scrubbed it hard, it would sparkle like a
diamond. As I cleared out the box on the wall next to my bed, Brian said.
"Guess what? In one more day you'll be in New York City." Then he
started impersonating Frank Sinatra, singing. "New York, New York"
off-key and doing his lounge-lizard dance.
"Shut up, you big dummy!" I said and hit him hard on the shoulder.
"You're the dummy!" he said and hit me hard back. We tossed a few
more punches and then looked at each other awkwardly.