Perfect Girl - Weebly

of the talking.” Then she added, “And if you had fewer
items than he had, he always let you go ahead in the checkout
line at Pathmark.”
In unison, the group nods.
Mrs. Serrano walks up to the front to say, “I never knew
Mr. Arthur, but my daughter, Celeste, always came home
with some interesting fact about Delaware whenever she
spent time at the Bayers’.”
Celeste bobs her head up and down. Perry stands up
and says, “Yeah, he was cool.” Then he falls back into his
seat and stares at the grass.
I’m stunned that so many people have nice things to say
about a man I’d lived with almost all of my life but barely
knew.
As the stream of neighbors continues, my mother stares
straight ahead. I stare at Mr. Arthur’s blown-up photograph.
I remember him asking me, “Did you know that the word
‘loss’ comes from the same root as the words ‘to set free’?”
“No, I didn’t,” I’d said absentmindedly, planning an
escape route.
“Yep,” he’d said. “When one door shuts, another opens.”
Suddenly, I become aware that Aunt Marty is looking at
me again. The podium is empty. Flute music fills the air. It’s
time.
Heart thumping, I stand up. My black loafers feel like
clown shoes as I attempt a graceful approach to the podium,
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