charges.
"I'm sorry," I told her. "I don't have enough
money."
"That's okay. Where are you?"
"I'm in Provincetown, on Cape Cod, living with
my uncle and my aunt."
"Living with them? Why?"
"Mommy's gone to New York to get an
opportunity as a model or an actress," I said. "If she
doesn't get a job there, she's going on to Chicago or
Los Angeles, so I had to stay here and enroll in the
school."
"You did? What's it like?"
I told her about the school and about my life at
my uncle's house, Laura's disappearance and death,
and May's handicap.
"It sounds sad."
"It's hard to live with them, especially with my
cousin Cary. He's so bitter about everything, but I
keep telling myself I won't be here long."
"What are the girls like at school?"
"They're different," I told her. "They seem to
know more about things and do more things." "Like what?"
I told her how they had given me a joint of
marijuana in the school cafeteria.
"What did you do? You haven't smoked it, have
you?"
"No. I was scared. Actually, I was terrified
when a teacher came to our table. Afterward, when
the girls weren't looking, I threw it in the garbage." "That's what I would have done," Alice said.