Read Online Niagara Motel by Ashley Little - Free Book Online Page B

me,” Gina said. Then the ladybug clacked its tiny wings and flew away. We watched it float off in the breeze.
    â€œI’ve got good news and bad news,” I said. “What do you want first?”
    â€œOh, man. Give me the bad. No, the good. No, wait. The bad. Definitely the bad first.”
    â€œOkay. The bad news is, I’m not going to be able to come see you tomorrow during visiting hours.”
    â€œOh.” Her eyes shot icicles through my heart. “How come?”
    â€œNow you’re ready for the good news?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThe good news is I’m going to Marineland.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œYeah, it’s like a field trip thing for kids at the group home.”
    I couldn’t remember ever lying to Gina before, and it felt like a thousand punches in the stomach all at once. But I figured lying was one of those things that gets easier the more you do it. That explains why adults can lie all the time without even feeling bad about it, because they’ve had lots of practice.
    â€œBecause I thought we were going to go to Marineland together,” Gina said.
    â€œWe still can!”
    â€œAll right, you’re right. We’ll go another time.”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œYou know I wanted to take you though, right?”
    â€œI know.” You should have taken me when you had the chance instead of going out to look for a stupid job and getting hit by a stupid mini-van, I thought . But I didn’t say it because I knew it was mean. And the one person you should never be mean to is your mom. Sometimes I screw that up, but I try hard to remember.
    â€œBut, yeah, you go. Have fun. It’ll be fun. Do you need some money?”
    â€œI have some left from what you gave me before.”
    â€œGood. That’s good.” Gina tapped her nails against the arm of her wheelchair. Then she had a coughing fit that was so bad that a nurse who was on her smoke break asked Gina if she was all right. Gina said yes, but the nurse went and got her a little cup of water anyways and eventually Gina quit coughing.
    â€œSorry,” Gina said.
    â€œIt’s okay,” I said. “I think maybe the ice cream was too cold.”
    â€œMaybe,” she said.
    We didn’t say anything for some time. An airplane flew over and left a white scar across the face of the sky. But after a while, the sky healed itself, and the white streak dissolved into the blue.

 
    Â 
    9
    In the morning, Meredith and I walked to the clinic and stopped for Coke Slurpees on the way. As I watched her fill her cup, all I could think was: She’s pregnant . There’s a baby inside her. Right now. Some bad man’s baby that’s going to get vacuumed out and then … and then … I don’t know what happens after that. Meredith wore cut-off jean shorts and a Hypercolor T-shirt that all the colour had drained out of. She knew that we should go around the back of the clinic to avoid the Alice in Wonderland people, and I was glad for it. The woman at the front desk raised her eyebrows when we came in together. She gave Meredith a form to fill out and a pen with yellow holographic happy faces on it. We sat beside each other on the hard white chairs. Meredith chewed her nails as she filled out the form. I swung my legs from the chair and looked around at the other women in the waiting room. One wore huge white sunglasses that made her look like an alien. One blew her face off into a Kleenex. One had her face mashed against the chest of a man with the biggest ears I’d ever seen. Were all the women in the waiting room having an abortion? Had they all been raped? The only way to ever know would be to ask each one of them. And that is what Ms Snyder, my grade-three teacher in Vancouver, would have called an inappropriate question. I tried not to think about the other people in the waiting room and made up a joke instead.
    â€œKnock