Read Online What We've Lost Is Nothing by Rachel Louise Snyder - Free Book Online Page B

floor, the three of them sitting in a triangle, while Sofia tried to explain why she had skipped school with Mary Elizabeth. She knew one immediate consequence would be a complete and abrupt cutting of her ties with Mary Elizabeth, though they both were on the cheerleading squad and walked the same route to school and had study period together and shared a lunch period.
    â€œPlease,” said her father, “please explain it once more.”
    Sofia was exasperated. Her parents had asked her to go over the concept of skipping school, and she had no real answer. As if, in the telling, she could build an acceptable framework for her misdeed.
    â€œLots of kids do it,” she said. “Skip school from time to time. It’s just . . . you know . . . something kids do. It’s just fun.”
    â€œFun?”
    â€œFun.”
    â€œYou went to the McPherson house?”
    â€œYes. With Mary Elizabeth. She was skipping school, too.” (There was a convenient leaving-out-part about the ecstasy. Sofia did not consider this a lie to her parents. Simply an omission in the service of not overcomplicating the matter.)
    Her mother leaned forward. Generally, she allowed Dara to take the lead in such discussions, but she was as lost as her husband in this case. “You have gone to the McPherson house many times,” she said.
    Sofia nodded.
    â€œThis is what I don’t understand,” said Sary. “If you skip school and then go to a place you always go anyway, how is this fun? You could have waited two hours, followed the rules, and then had the exact same fun. No?”
    This was the sticking point, alas. Sofia was backed into a corner.
    Luckily, her father provided an out. “There will be consequences at school, then?”
    â€œYes. Probably. I’ll be suspended for a day.”
    A moment of silence descended on the room while the three of them looked back and forth.
    â€œSuspension,” Sofia explained. “It means I’ll have to stay home from school for a day. It’s kind of like a punishment. From the dean.”
    Dara shook his head. “The punishment for not going to school is to not go to school?”
    â€œWhat an odd system,” Sary said.
    Dara laughed quietly for a moment along with his wife and daughter. “But they have captured the moon,” Dara said. It was a common refrain for him, a catchall phrase for anything he didn’t quite understand about this adopted home of his. It meant, well, Americans were the first to land on the moon, so they must be doing something right. But they have captured the moon. He’d said it the first time when he and Sary had finally decided to leave Cambodia and live in America.
    â€œBut they have captured the moon,” Sofia repeated.
    â€œOf course, you must not see Mary Elizabeth again,” Dara told her.
    â€œI know.”
    â€œBut do not be unkind to her. She deserves our sympathy.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œWe can’t know what goes on behind the walls of their home.”
    â€œYes, Dad. I know.”
    The funny thing was, even before this conversation with her parents, even before this “punishment” during the time she was crouching in the bushes listening to her parents misunderstand nearly everything the police were saying, as she felt herself coming down from the ecstasy, she began to feel distant from Mary Elizabeth. Sofia recognized the difference between them in those moments when she pushed the dirt around and thought about how light our tread is on the earth. For Sofia, this afternoon was a onetime experience, an attempt to see what all the fuss was about. But for Mary Elizabeth, this afternoon was, quite possibly, the entrance ramp that led into a whole new glimmering city.

Chapter 9
    4:13 p.m.
    D an Kowalski watched his wife carefully. She appeared to be holding it together, but he knew appearances could be deceiving, especially in her case. She wore a yellow-flowered