Anastasia Again! by Lois Lowry Page A

hesitated. "Well, yesterday he came over and we rode our bikes down to the river."
    "That jerk."
    "Yeah, that jerk Giannini. Anyway, we sat by the river for a while because Robert was doing one of his surveys. We were counting joggers. How many old joggers and how many young. How many male and how many female. How many wearing special jogging shoes. How many female joggers wearing bras and how many not. Robert's going to send the results of his survey to
Psychology Today.
"
    "That idiot."
    "Yeah. Anyway, after that we went over to the Brattle Theater and saw
Casablanca.
"
    "J ENNY M ACCAULEY ! Y OU TOLD ME THAT WE WOULD GO SEE THAT TOGETHER. Y OU KNOW I 'VE ONLY EVER SEEN IT ON TV! "
    "Well, you weren't
here,
Anastasia."
    Anastasia glowered. "Funny that you said things were boring in Cambridge, Jenny. It sure doesn't
sound
boring."
    There was a long silence. Finally Jenny changed the subject. "Have you met anyone out there?"
    "Yeah. The woman next door. She takes Sam out for a walk every afternoon."
    "Any boys?"
    "Yes, as a matter of fact. A boy named Steve Harvey. He's going to be in the seventh grade, and he's tall and good-looking. I've played tennis with him three afternoons now."
    Jenny interrupted her. "You're a terrible tennis player. You always hit the ball into the net."
    "That's because I never had a good partner before, Jenny MacCauley, you rat," said Anastasia angrily. "It just so happens that when I play tennis with Steve Harvey, I hit the ball over the net at least fifty per cent of the time. We're playing again today. Probably by the end of the week I'll hit the ball over the net
eighty
per cent of the time, and probably—"
    Jenny interrupted her again. "Anastasia," she said pointedly, "you promised me you'd
call
me if you met any boys."
    "I
did
call you. You were always
out.
You were always out seeing
Casablanca
with Robert Giannini, probably."
    "So? You're always out, playing tennis, it sounds like. Funny that you said things were boring
there.
"
    There was another long and uncomfortable silence.
    "Are people like you expected in the suburbs?" asked Jenny finally. "Do they wear pink curlers and eat TV dinners and have bowls of artificial fruit?"
    Anastasia thought about the past three afternoons, when she had gone to Gertrustein's house after tennis and rolled Gertrustein's ragged gray hair up in pink curlers so that she would look nicer. On one of those days, Gertrustein had put a TV dinner into the oven while Anastasia was there. She had explained how she very seldom did much cooking anymore, because it was so lonely to cook for just one person.
    "Yeah," said Anastasia to Jenny. "The lady next door is just like that. Pink curlers. TV dinners. Artificial fruit. The whole bit."
    "Sick-o," said Jenny.
    "Yeah," said Anastasia vaguely. "I guess."
    "Listen, I gotta go. But Robert and I'll ride out next Saturday, okay?"
    "Okay. Hey, did Robert ask you anything about Sam? Did he say anything about Sam, well, not having any legs, or anything like that?"
    "Good grief. Why would he ask me that? Sam has
legs.
He kicked me once, because I hid his blanket as a joke."
    "Oh," sighed Anastasia, "it's too complicated to explain. I'll see you guys on Saturday."
    "Don't forget to watch TV tonight.
The Maltese Falcon
is on."
    After Anastasia had hung up, she thought, I should have asked her if she was going to watch it on TV. Or if she was going to go see it at the Brattle Theater. With Robert Giannini, that jerk.
    She decided that maybe this afternoon she would get the tennis ball over the net more easily, and
harder,
by pretending that it was Robert Giannini's head. Whammo.
    ***
    One of the things that Anastasia liked about her tower room was that her parents didn't very often come up to it. So it was very private.
    Not that she ever did anything subversive in her room. A lot of kids she knew sometimes smoked cigarettes in
their rooms and then sprayed air freshener around so their parents wouldn't know; but Anastasia thought