Ramona and Howie

by Fahiru

It was not his fault if she exaggerated. It was not his fault if she was not having fun. If the stilts broke, if Willa Jean threw a fit, if a guest was insulted, if Beezus cried for a week; it was not his fault. Because there was always Ramona, and Ramona did everything.

6. Growing Up

"Why is it so important?"

He turned onto his side to watch her. She was sitting in the desk chair next to his bed, watching the rain as it poured down his window, washing away the view of his drowning backyard.

"What?"

"Why is school so important? Why can't we just be grown up already?"

He sat up, making hmm-ing noises as he mulled it over in his mind.

"I suppose..." He furrowed his brow. "I suppose that it's because life isn't the way you expect it to be."

She turned to look at him. "Then how is it?"

"Well...well at the beginning it feels like an adventure. And everything is exciting and new, but very safe at the same time. There are things that scare you, but you never expect to get away from those things with anything more serious than goosebumps.

"But then things change. You break your first bone, or lose your first family member, or someone else is born who is suddenly more important than you. And then you realize that you're not the main character."

She was resting her chin on her palm, listening. It was a bit unnerving when she wasn't interrupting him.

"And you think that maybe you can deal with that, but then things change again."

Eye-contact was getting very uncomfortable. He looked past her and out his window as he kept talking.

"You find out that not everyone is in the Christmas pageants, and not everyone has two parents. You find out that there are little kids who've never had a lollipop and little kids who don't like grape-soda. There are kids who don't have siblings and kids who don't have friends.

"And suddenly, the world is so much bigger that you could have thought, and you don't know what it's about anymore."

He looked back at her.

"I think that that's why we have school. It helps cushion the blow if you know at least a little bit more than you are born with."

She watched him, blinking slowly. Then she cleared her throat and spoke.

"Howie, you make so much sense."

He laughed, then started coughing. Soon afterwards she left to do her homework, and he lay there looking at the chair where she had been sitting. He thought about worms and cars and tin can stilts and tests and word problems. And he thought about life and school and Ramona Quimby.

And he realized that a very long time ago, she had lied to him.

They were growing up.