I let the guy wrap the tree up, and he made a kind of cone from newspaper to keep the whole thing safe, before gently lowering it into the plastic bag. My heart beat a little faster as he lowered it in, and the guy started to chuckle and nod, feeling my apprehension. “No, no,” he said, wagging his finger. But this time he wasn’t warning me about how not to kill the plant, but telling me it was all okay, and safely packed. When I left the store, a band of bells tinkled, and the guy waved to me from behind his florist’s table. I stood on the corner where we were all supposed to meet and looked around for Mom and Pete and Shana and Tommy.
I felt unaccountably happy, and wished that I could have gone straight home alone, with just the stupid bonsai. I didn’t even wonder whether Mom and Pete would reappear, still idiotically holding hands. If she had to fall in love again, it didn’t mean I had to watch. I couldn’t do her any good anyway. It was all, for better or worse, up to her and Pete. All I knew was I didn’t want to have to explain to them what was in the bag, and have to listen to everyone’s advice and warnings about how bonsais are a waste of time, impossible to keep alive, that they are just too delicate a thing.
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About the Author
Photo by Lanny Schwartz
CLAIRE NEEDELL is a middle school teacher at a public school in New York City. She is the author of Nothing Real Volumes 1 through 3, three short story collections published digitally under the HarperTeen Impulse imprint. Claire also writes for The New York Times.
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Copyright
NOTHING REAL VOLUME 2: A COLLECTION OF STORIES. Copyright © 2014 by Claire Needell. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © May 2014 ISBN 9780062338242
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