The Truth According to Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig (ebook reader with highlighter txt) 📗

like she’s cracking her way out. She’s trying hard, hard, hard. First she made a crack by the Blue House and then she tried to break through the doors at school and now she’s trying to break out of the dark inside the present she left for me on the porch.

I lean back from the window and finish brushing my hair. In the mirror I see my glasses and what I’m wearing. My nice pajamas with the little owls on them. The scrunchie holding up my hair. I have a lot of nice things now. I didn’t have nice things when I was in the apartment. And my body looks different. I’m still really skinny but not as much as I was before. I really hope my Baby Doll remembers me when we all get up to Canada. I hope it won’t see that I’m (-Ginny).

I go downstairs. My Forever Mom is coming out of the other bathroom. From the living room I look out the window.

The porch light is on and I can see that the present is gone.

Where is it? I look and look but I don’t see it anywhere.

“Time to go,” says my Forever Dad. He is carrying a diaper bag. My Forever Mom is holding my Forever Sister in its car seat.

We go to the car. I look for the giant present but still don’t see it. When we get into the car I see that the seat behind me is down and there are lots of bags there. They are filled with presents from Santa and from my Forever Parents. I am anxious because I want to know what Gloria sent me. I want to know what the letter said so I keep moving my knees back and forth and pulling up my socks and talking and being careful not to say the wrong thing. My Forever Sister is next to me in its car seat and the presents are behind me and my Forever Parents are putting on their seat belts. “I want to open my presents as soon as we get to Grammy’s,” I say. “I want to go inside and take my boots off and hang up my coat and then go right to the Christmas tree. I want to open the big present from Gloria first.” It is freezing cold and I can see my breath in the car when I breathe.

“What makes you think the big present is from Gloria?” my Forever Dad says.

Then before I can answer my Forever Mom says, “The big present isn’t coming with us.”

I don’t know if I should answer the question or tell my Forever Mom that I am angry. Because she interrupted me before I even started talking and We do not interrupt. But if I say that I’m angry we’ll get into an argument and then I’ll never figure out where the present is. So I say, “I want to go right to the tree and open all my presents. The ones from Santa and the ones from you.”

“We aren’t going to open presents as soon as we get there,” my Forever Dad says. “It’s really, really early and we’re going to be guests at Grammy’s. We have to remember that we’re not going there just to open gifts. We’re going there because Grammy and Granddad invited us back.”

“Why did they ask us to come back so early?” I ask.

“Don’t you think this is fun?” my Forever Mom says in a funny voice. “I know I just love getting up before the crack of dawn on Christmas Day after we’ve been up all night watching the windows because someone gave out all our personal information on Facebook and now the Queen of White Trash knows where we live. Especially when it’s only ten degrees outside and we have a two-month-old baby. Don’t you think?”

She asked a question but I know I don’t have to answer it. She wants me to say something so she can yell at me. I sit quietly in my seat and push my hands together between my knees and imagine I am in a box.

EXACTLY 4:00 IN THE AFTERNOON,

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25TH—CHRISTMAS DAY

We are still at Grammy and Granddad’s house. We have been here all day. Officer Joel came to visit us here. I tried hard not to hiss at him. He talked with my Forever Parents for a long time in the kitchen while I stayed in the other room and played with my new toys. I got a Michael Jackson Pez dispenser and a Michael Jackson calendar and a Michael Jackson key chain and a book about Michael Jackson. That makes four more Michael Jackson things. And I have a new backpack with two pockets on the sides and a special secret pocket inside that closes with a zipper.

It will come in handy when it’s time to go up to Canada with Rick.

When Officer Joel leaves my Forever Parents come back into the living room. My Forever Mom takes my Forever Sister back from Grammy and gives it a hug. Everyone always says it’s so cute.

My Forever Dad sits down on the couch. He looks at me and I look at him and then I say, “Merry Christmas! Can I open the big present now?”

And he says, “Ginny, the big present isn’t here, remember? Besides, it wasn’t for us. Whoever left it at our house must have made a mistake.”

I don’t say anything back to him. He isn’t telling it straight. He is lying. He never lied to me before. This is the first time. He is trying to keep me safe, I’m guessing, but now I know I can’t believe what he says.

“Can we open some presents then?” I say.

“Yes, of course we can,” he says back. And then he hands me a big box wrapped in blue wrapping paper with white snowflakes and a white ribbon. I put a big smile on my face and open it anyway.

EXACTLY 11:05 IN