Run, Jonah, Run
Page 14
“Do I have a lot of friends? Interesting question, Jonah Black. No, I do not. I drive most people crazy. Why do you think that is?”
I started laughing. Then Molly looked at me, and laughed, too.
“Because you’re obsessed with whether or not things are bullshit?” I said.
Molly nodded. “Exactly,” she said. “See, I knew you and I were going to get along.”
I like her, I decided. She’s a little bit nuts, but she’s funny. She isn’t like anybody I’ve ever met before. Although I have to admit, she kind of intimidates me.
“But first you have to tell me why you left that party,” Molly insisted. “I went to the Little Girls’ Room and voilà—you were gone.”
“I saw somebody I knew,” I admitted. “I saw someone at the party I didn’t want to see me.”
“And what would her name be?” Molly asked.
“Posie,” I said.
“And you’re in love with her?” Molly said.
“I don’t know,” I said. Molly looked at me, and raised one eyebrow.
“Please, don’t jam the brakes on again, okay? It’s the truth. I don’t know what I think about her anymore. I just didn’t want her to see me right then,” I said.
At that second I caught a glimpse of the ocean, the sun turning it silver, and I had this intense flash, a crystal-clear memory of the night a few months back when Posie and I had gone out in her boat to look at a school of phosphorescent jellyfish. Posie turned off the motor and we just floated on the ocean, listening to the sound of the waves and the wind, and looking at the jellyfish suspended all around us.
“You’re a real daydreamer, aren’t you, Jonah Black?” Molly said.
I was embarrassed. “How can you tell?”
“Well, let’s just say it was a good guess. You think we can be friends, you and me? A chick who only wants people to tell the truth, and a guy who lives in his head most of the time?”
“Who says I live in my head most of the time?” I said.
Molly smirked. “Don’t play games with me. I can read you like the dictionary.”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Stop saying that, you’re getting boring.”
“But I really don’t know if we can be friends,” I said. “You want me to tell the truth, don’t you? I thought that was your big thing.”
“Oh, forget it,” she said. “Why don’t you just make up something nice? Tell me what I want to hear. Be interesting.”
“Okay,” I said. “Yeah. I think we can be friends.”
Molly smiled happily. I noticed her eyeteeth were pretty long, for a girl.
“Good,” she said.
We pulled up in front of Mom’s house. Mom was sitting there on the front steps, reading the mail.
“Home again, home again, jiggety jig,” said Molly.
“Thanks for driving me home,” I said.
“Yeah, well. Sorry about the bike,” she said. “Hey, this is what I propose. The two of us take the afternoon, drive around for a while. Get to know each other better? I’m really not such a bitch, actually. Although I am a pretty bad driver.”
Mom was looking up at the car idling on the curve.
“Yeah,” I heard myself say. “Sure. Let me just say hi to my mom first, all right?”
Molly smiled. “Sure,” she said. “You talk it over with Mom. I’ll dump the flattened, twisted remnants of your bike on the lawn. Sound good?”
I said okay, and climbed out of the Expedition. “Hi, Mom,” I said. Molly opened the back of the SUV.
“Hi, Jonah,” she said. “Here, you have a letter.” She handed it to me.
Molly put the pieces of my bike in the driveway.
“Who’s your little friend, Jonah?” Mom said.
“Oh, Mom, this is Molly.”
“Hello, Molly,” Mom said, standing up to shake hands. “I’m Judith Black.”
I looked at the letter in my hand. It was from Sophie.
“Judith Black? Not the Judith Black on the radio?” said Molly.
“That’s me,” Mom said proudly.
“Oh, dear!” Molly said with a sort of grimace.
“What do you mean by that, Molly? You sound upset,” Mom said.
“Well, Mrs. Black, I genuinely don’t wish to be disrespectful, since you’ve clearly worked hard to get where you are. But I’m afraid your radio show is just totally bogus.” Molly smiled, as if she truly hated having to talk this way. “And your book, Hello Penis, Hello Whatever? It’s just full of misinformation. I’m sorry. I know this must seem rather rude.”
Mom was just standing there. No one had ever talked to her that way before. Hell, no one ever called her “Mrs.” anymore. They just went along with her whack story about being “Dr.” Judith Black.
I opened the letter from Sophie.
“I was wondering,” Molly went on, “—and you should simply tell me if you’re not comfortable answering this question—but I’m really curious whether you actually have any psychological training whatsoever? I mean are you an MSW? Have you done any graduate work in counseling or therapy? Have you ever studied human sexuality? If so, it’s just surprising to me, given—”
“Bup, bup, bup,” said Mom, holding her hand out to indicate that Molly should stop talking now. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to play the Honesty Game with you right now. All right?” She put her fingers to her forehead, as if she was getting a headache.
“The Honesty Game?” Molly said. “Is that what you call it?” She shook her head. “See, I don’t think that honesty is a game. I think that’s a very odd thing to say, Mrs. Black. If you don’t mind my speaking so freely.”
“Bup, bup, bup,” Mom said again.
“Okay,” Molly said. “Well, whatever.” She started walking toward her car. “I’ll meet you in the Expedition, Jonah Black.”
The letter from Sophie was written in this thin spidery writing, like it had taken a lot of energy to write it.
Dear Jonah, it read.
You probably don’t want to hear from me but you’re the only person in the world who can help me. I’m in this place called Maggins, which is basically a mental institution. My father has dumped me here and they won’t let me call or write anybody. My friend Becky is being discharged and she says she’ll try to put this in the mail to you. I’m sorry I was so horrible to you, but I’m all screwed up. I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry. I ought to have told you everything about me but I was afraid if you knew the truth you wouldn’t like me anymore. Please come and see me, Jonah, I am totally desperate. This place is in Pennsylvania, about a mile from Masthead. You saved me once, and now I need you to save me again. I know I said that next time I’d do you a favor but instead it looks like I’ll have to do you two favors when I get the chance. Please come, Jonah. I really do love you. I want to be with you. Maybe if you find out who I really am it won’t be so hard for me. I just don’t have any experience with people actually knowing me. Please come, Jonah, you’re my only hope.
Love always,
Your Sophie
I stood there in Mom’s front yard looking at the letter. I couldn’t believe it, Sophie in Maggins! She didn’t have to tell me where it was, everybody at Masthead knew about it. It was a terrible place, the kind of place they sent you if they didn’t think you’d be coming back out again. When we used to go past it, we’d always look the other way. It was a big old nineteenth-century stone building that looked like the Haunted House in Disney World. Even the outside gave me the creeps.
I imagined myself flying back up to Pennsylvania, going down some long corridor of Maggins with all these rooms with bars on the windows, hearing all these girls crying. Sophie reaches her hand out to grab my shirt and pulls me to her, kissing me hard.
“Get me out of here, Jonah,” she says.
Then I thought about what an idiot Sophie had made of me in Disney World. I’d promised myself I was going to put her behind me. I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life
helping her out.
But that was before I knew how much trouble she was in, or how troubled she was.
I stood there for what seemed like forever, trying to figure out what I was going to do.
Molly honked the horn of her car. Her hair fell from behind her ear.
“Hey, Jonah,” she called. “You coming?”
WILL JONAH AND MOLLY GET IT ON?
WILL JONAH EVER FIGURE OUT WHO NORTHGIRL IS?
WILL JONAH ANSWER SOPHIE’S CALL FOR HELP?
FIND OUT IN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF
JONAH BLACK’S JOURNAL . . .
The Black Book
[DAIRY OF A TEENAGE STUD]
VOL. IV: FASTER, FASTER, FASTER
About the Author
Jonah Black grew up in Pompano Beach, Florida. He attended boarding school in Pennsylvania until recently when, under shrouded circumstances, he was kicked out, and has since been picking up the pieces of his shattered life. His favorite pastimes include hanging out with his best friends, Thorne and Posie, checking out the Florida chicks, daydreaming about the Florida chicks, and writing in his journal. Jonah is not as modest as he first appears. He really is a stud.
Credits
Cover Photograph from Tony Stone
Cover design by Russell Gordon
Cover © 2002 by HarperCollinsPublishers, Inc.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
THE BLACK BOOK [DIARY OF A TEENAGE STUD], VOL. III: RUN, JONAH, RUN. Copyright © 2001 by 17th Street Productions, an Alloy Online, Inc. company. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition. January 2002 ISBN 9780061756276
First Avon edition, 2001
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