Monday

It was the next day, Monday. I'd gone to the hospital the previous night with Claire, Vanessa, Haley, Charlotte and Reba. We'd gotten there by bus. My nurse turned out to be Megan. She told me she knew of an abortion clinic if I wanted an abortion and that everything was fine but the baby might be born a little prematurely. She also told me I needed to ear more because the night time she would see me in the hospital she wanted it to be because a baby was being born and not because I was not eating.

It was night, actually. 7;00. I was at Lucy's house and for once everyone was home. We were all at the dinner table with her parents, Ruthie, her brothers, Matt, the twins Sam and David, and Matt's girlfriend Elizabeth who was very pregnant. She was very pretty with dark brown eyes and brown curly hair that reached to her shoulders. Mary and Simon, Lucy's older siblings, weren't at the dinner table and neither was Julie, Lucy's aunt and Mr. Camden's sister.

Sam and David were 7, Ruthie was 12, Lucy was 14, Simon was 18, Matt was 19 as was Elizabeth and Mary was 21. Mr. and Mrs. Camden were the age of my parents. The Camdens were Christian and several of their children had biblical names; David, Ruthie from Ruth, Mary and matt from Matthew. Ruth was in the story of Job which our school had performed last year. Sam, David, Simon and Mrs. Camden were the only ones who were blonde in the family. Everyone else had brown hair.

Mrs. Camden turned her head towards the stairs.

"Simon, Mary come down please!" she called.

"Mom he can't he's sick!" Mary replied; "and Aunt Julie's locked in her room."

Mrs. Camden sighed.

"Again?" she muttered.

She and her husband stood up.

"I'll take Julie and you take Simon and Mary," he said.

She nodded. They went upstairs. Lucy, Elizabeth, Sam, David, Matt, Ruthie and myself waited to start eating.

"You know," I told Elizabeth, "I'm going to look like that pretty soon."

"Wow…but you're 15."

"Yeah, I know. It wasn't my choice, Elizabeth, believe me."

"Neither was mine. But luckily I have Matt."

"Oh."

Pause.

"My friend Sierra is pregnant," I said.

"Oh?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yeah. She's 17."

"Wow."

The kitchen table was very large and round, with a light wooden tabletop and white legs and feet. On the table was fruit, vegetables, mashed potatoes, pasta and chicken, glasses of milk, fruit punch and water. There was a pitcher of apple cider. The reason people sat at round tables was so that there wasn't anyone at the head of the table; everyone was equal. And it made it easier to see everyone. Our teachers often did this at school for class discussions. The idea of round tables dated back to the days of King Arthur.

"I can see your mom has you eating very well," I told Ruthie.

She nodded.

"So who all is coming to the church tomorrow night?" Lucy asked.

"I know our family is," Matt said.

Sam and David nodded.

"My family is as is Morgan's," I said.

"Great. Then we should have plenty of people there since we've all got large families."

"And Lizzie, Kate, Haley, Charlotte, Reba and their families are coming as well."

"Ok."

I knew that after dinner we would have dessert too. I wasn't sure I wanted any, or dinner. The Camdens respected this but also wanted to help.

"Um, Lucy?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"Is tomorrow night going to be, um, religious-based?"

Lucy smiled.

"Oh no. Just a fun art day and picnic for the community. Whoever wants to come can. It's open to the public. We usually have pretty many people."

"Oh ok."

The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Ruthie said, standing up.

She went to answer the door.

I heard a loud crash from upstairs.

"Julie, you need help!" I heard Mr. Camden say.

Lucy rolled her eyes; "oh no here we go again."

"I don't want it, Eric!" Julie yelled.

Sam and David looked frightened. Even the dog looked frightened.

"But you need it. I will not have you acting like this in my house. You're frightening Sam and David. And I don't want Ruthie and Lucy growing up witnessing this. If you don't get help then I'm going to have to refer you to a counselor. And you'll stay there instead of here."

"Eric!"

"This has gone on for far too long Julie."

Lucy turned to me.

"He's right, it has," she said.

"Ok fine Simon! Go, just go! I'm tired of putting up with this!" I heard Mrs. Camden yell.

Simon ran down the stairs and out the back door.

"We won't see him until possibly tomorrow," Lucy told me.

"Oh I know how that is."

I heard footsteps upstairs.

"Eric's right, Julie. This has gone on for far too long," Mrs. Camden said.

Lucy leaned towards me.

"Now you know why I cut," she whispered.

I nodded.

Ruthie entered the kitchen with a beautiful young lady who was Arabic and looked scared.

"Sit down," Ruthie told her.

She did, right between Matt and Elizabeth. Ruthie went to the kitchen sink to put water into a glass.

"Hi I'm Margo," I said.

"I'm Jasmine," she replied.

"Nice to meet you."

"You too. I'm a friend of Ruthies, from school."

"Oh."

"I know Ashley, Morgan's sister. And your sister, Claire."

"Oh."

She didn't have an accent.

Ruthie brought over the glass and set it in front of Jasmine, then sat down herself. Jasmine looked at Ruthie gratefully. "Thank you," she said.

"Mmhmm."

I heard more yelling upstairs.

"This always happens," Lucy told me.

"Sounds like the nights at my house."

"Oh."

Jasmine took a sip of her water.

"So what happened?" Ruthie asked Jasmine.

"A rock was thrown in my bedroom window. A big one. I'm lucky it didn't hit me. And at my dad's car. Someone put a note under our door."

"What did the note say?"

"It it had racial words on it."

"I just don't want to believe it could happen here," Matt said.

"When my sister Vanessa's friend Reba moved here from Georgia her family had a hard time."

"Oh. What race are they?"

"They're black. Not that that matters to any of us."

"No, it doesn't. We're Arabic."

"Yeah, I know."

"I'm telling Dad," Ruthie proclaimed.

She stood up, pushing her white chair back.

"Ruthie," Lucy said.

Ruthie turned around.

"Be careful up there."

"Ok I will."

Jasmine followed Ruthie upstairs.