The Truth According to Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig (books to read for self improvement txt) 📕

I don’t like unstructured time. That’s what Patrice calls it when there aren’t any bells or schedules.

I want to go out to play in the snow but my Forever Dad can’t take me yet. He has to finish cleaning up because my Forever Mom is upstairs with my Forever Sister. He cleans up all the time now. My Forever Mom will stay upstairs all day. It’s like she lives there.

I am trying to pick out a movie. I’m allowed to watch only one a day because I would watch movies all the time if no one said not to. My Forever Dad wants me to socialize more. He wants me to talk with them so that I can attach even though the only person to attach to now is him. Patrice says I still have a hard time with attachment.

But right now I’m having a hard time picking out a movie. It’s hard to pick one out because I have so many. I watched Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend on Monday. I watched The Princess Bride on Tuesday. I watched Madagascar on Wednesday. I watched Finding Nemo on Thursday.

Then I remember that Rick is gone. He isn’t going to pick me up today at school. Even if school wasn’t cancelled he still wouldn’t be there. My Forever Dad helped me understand. He said we don’t have any plans right now to reschedule the respite. Which means I’m not going up to Canada this weekend and my Baby Doll is all alone with Gloria.

It is too much to think about all at once. I want to scream. But someone will hear me.

I pick at my fingers instead. Then I pick up my quilt from my bed and hold it near my mouth and nose. My brain needs a rest so I turn around fast and grab the first movie I see. Return of the Jedi. It was on my dresser next to my Snoopy pad and my Michael Jackson pocket calendar.

I hold the DVD case and close my eyes. I remember that Samantha and Bill had Return of the Jedi but I’m not in their house right now. When I was there I had a Forever Sister named Morgan who pushed me and pinched me a lot when no one was looking so I pooped on her rug and wrote Please stop hurting me Morgan on the wall in her room and put the rest in her heat register. Dealing with Morgan was really tedious. I was there for only three months before that happened. Then the police came to take me away.

I sit down on my bed and open up Return of the Jedi and take the DVD out. A small piece of paper falls on my bed. Its edges are ripped and it has three blue lines on it which means it’s from a piece of notebook paper. I pick it up and look at it carefully. I don’t see anything on it. I turn it over and on the other side there is some writing.

It is a phone number.

The number is 555-730-9952 and underneath it is the letter G.

I look at it hard. I put it up close to my eyes. Then I understand.

I am holding Gloria’s phone number.

Which means Rick is still helping me even though I didn’t get to talk with him about going up to Canada. Because now I can call Gloria myself. I can tell her that her secret plan isn’t half bad. I can tell her that we can go up to Quebec where it’s pretty easy to disappear. She just has to find someone else to come give me a ride so she won’t get caught because that would ruin everything. And I have to tell her not to send any more presents or pizzas or anything else. And to just hold on a little longer and not hit my Baby Doll. All I need is a phone and a quiet place so I can tell her.

555-730-9952

In my brain I memorize the phone number.

I put the piece of paper in my mouth and chew and swallow. Now no one will ever find it. If I keep my mouth shut no one will know that the number is in my brain or that Rick helped me. He is the best dad I ever had.

EXACTLY 9:08 IN THE MORNING,

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8TH

When I wake up at nine in the morning I sit up and shut off the alarm clock and yawn like Chewbacca. I want to make a list of things to do. On it I will write Find a place to call Gloria but then I decide that writing it down would be a bad idea. Plus I don’t have a phone yet. So I get up and put my glasses on and walk out into the hallway and go to the bathroom. I come out and go to the dining room table and take my pill and sit down to drink my milk. I look closely at the glass of milk and see that there aren’t grapes next to it.

So I say, “There aren’t any grapes.”

And from another room my Forever Mom shouts, “Ginny, the grapes have to wait.”

I wait exactly nine seconds but still no one brings me any grapes so I say, “There were grapes here yesterday.” And then, “There are always grapes here. I’m supposed to have grapes every day to keep me regular.”

But my Forever Mom doesn’t say anything back. So I look up from where my grapes are supposed to be to see where she is. She is in the living room kneeling in front of my Forever Dad who is lying down. My Forever Mom is pushing on his chest and blowing in his mouth and putting her head on his chest like she is listening. Then pushing again and again and blowing some more and pulling her hair and pushing, pushing. My Forever Sister is sitting near the couch in its bouncy