Read Online Operation Oleander (9780547534213) by Valerie O. Patterson - Free Book Online Page B

block. It looks marked. Like Meriwether’s house.
    â€œThere you are,” Mrs. Johnson says when I squish into the kitchen. She’s holding the lid of a casserole dish, and steam billows out into the air like a cloud from a genie’s lamp. Steam fogs the window and her glasses. She sets the lid down. “You didn’t drown—that’s obvious. What did you do?”
    At least she didn’t ream me out the way Dad would have.
    â€œI went to Meriwether’s house.”
    Her eyebrows wrinkle. “She doesn’t have a pool.”
    â€œI went to the beach. After.” I take a deep breath. “I had to take a walk.” I hold in my stomach as if she might scold me. Or drill me like a master sergeant for details about what happened with Meriwether.
    She just nods.
    â€œLook. Some women from the auxiliary dropped by with food for dinner. People are starting to hear about your dad, and your mom over in Germany. This is beef stroganoff. Enough sour cream to clog my arteries, but it sure smells good.”
    I breathe in, but the baked noodles don’t smell like anything. My nose still holds the sea and the scent of gardenias.
    â€œIsn’t that nice of them?” Mrs. Johnson asks.
    â€œI’m not hungry.” I don’t understand why people bring food when bad things happen. I don’t want to eat.
    Mrs. Johnson cocks her head to one side.
    â€œIt’s nice of people to reach out in ways they can. And I’m not going to let you starve. What do you think your mom would do if she comes home and you’re thin as a rail? You’re practically that now.”
    Meriwether told me I was cheerleader thin. She meant it as a compliment. Back before deployment, I’d gone shopping for bathing suits with her and her mom. Mrs. Scott wanted to do everything to get Meriwether ready for the months she wouldn’t be here. I found two suits—I only had money for one, and I had to turn over every single wrinkled dollar bill I had—but Meriwether hadn’t found one that flattered her body.
    She isn’t fat, but she has high school girl curves already. Boys from high school are already following her with their gazes at the pool or the beach. If a car drives by with a teenage boy at the wheel, it slows down and slinks by when I’m with Meriwether. Never when I’m by myself, which is okay with me.
    Mrs. Johnson’s standing there waiting for an answer.
    What was the question?
    â€œI’ll eat later,” I say, hoping that’s what she wants to hear.
    â€œDeal.” She reaches for a serving spoon. “Cara’s playing in your bedroom. Have you written your dad a note?”
    My hand grasps the back of the spindle chair at the kitchen table. “No. Not yet.” What do I tell him? “I will later.”
    Her look says it all. That I should do it now.
    â€œI think I’ll go set up the table,” I say. “At the PX.” I want to say
we,
but I know there is no we. Meriwether blames Operation Oleander for interfering with her summer plans to get Caden’s attention. And now this. As for Sam, well, I can guess what he thinks.
    â€œYou think you ought to be doing that? Earth to Jess, didn’t you hear what happened? They bombed our troops,” Mrs. Johnson says. She says it as if I’m deaf from the explosion.
    But I do hear. I don’t know the answer. I’ve never thought about what we would do if the orphanage were damaged, or how we’d get supplies there. But I can’t think about that now. I have to keep going until I know what happened for sure.
    â€œI know what happened. But they bombed the orphanage, too. That’s what the Taliban want us to do. They want us to quit and let things go back the way they were. When girls couldn’t go to school. They want us to give up.”
    I can’t do that.
    â€œYes, they want us to give up. Two of our own dead, and one wounded. Sounds like