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.“As I said before, Sallie Spooner, if you’d had the sense to warn me of what was going on here, all this never would have happened.And if that’s all you think of our friendship, then we might as well throw it into the East River, along with all the other garbage!”She stormed off, her entire body tense with anger.I watched her stalk away, and I could feel myself growing mildly nauseated.Ten minutes before, I’d been feeling bad because I’d just lost a terrific guy.And now, on top of that, I’d just lost my best friend.Both walking and eating seemed useless at that point.I left the park, dragging my feet as though my sneakers had been cast in bronze.I felt as if all I wanted was to be alone— possibly for the rest of my entire life—but when I reached my block and saw Jenny in front of our apartment building putting on her roller skates, I was overjoyed.At last, a friendly face!“Hi, Jen.Got a minute?” I sauntered over to the curb, where she was spinning her wheels to see if they needed oiling.“For you, kid, anytime.By the way, Rachel was here a while ago, looking for you.Mom told her you were at the park.Did you two ever meet up with each other?” She glanced up at me, then gasped, “What happened to you? You look terrible!”“Do I look as if I just lost my best friend? Because I did.”“Oh, Sallie, what happened?” she asked again.I told her our whole conversation, word for word.When I was through, she shook her head sympathetically.“Gee, that’s really tough, Sallie.But you’ve got to keep this in perspective.You haven’t done anything wrong.You’re not to blame for anything.”“I know.”“And Rachel’s the one who’s acting ridiculous.If she wants to act all screwy over this thing with Saul, it has nothing to do with you.”“But she’s my best friend! At least she was.Now she hates me.”“She doesn’t hate you.You wait and see.She’ll come around.She’ll end up missing you as much as you miss her.Separating you guys would be like tearing Siamese twins apart.” I gave Jenny my hand and helped her stand up.“I don’t know.She’s really upset about this.”“Trust me, Sallie.I know you, and I know Rachel.This will pass.In no time at all, you two will be spending hours on the phone giggling every night, just like old times.”“I hope you’re right,” I said doubtfully.I wanted to believe Jenny, but at that point the future was looking very bleak.“Look, I’ve got to run.I mean I’ve got to roll.I’m meeting a couple of my friends over in front of the school.We’re taking a skating tour of the neighborhood.”Unlike her older sister, Jenny Spooner is a terrific skater.She gave me a quick peck on the cheek, then glided away.I stood there on the sidewalk in front of my building, watching her until she turned the corner and disappeared.It was silly, I knew, but as I watched her take off, I felt as if my very last resource in the whole world, my last and only friend, was rolling out of my life.Chapter 7To say that I was depressed as I rode up in the elevator of my apartment building would be an understatement.Actually, I was trying to convince myself that I was merely in a recession, not a full-blown depression.“All things must pass,” I told myself, calling up George Harrison’s lyrics from my favorite golden-oldies station, for a glimmer of hope.“The darkest hour is just before dawn,” I then tried, thinking of The Mamas and The Papas.I even found myself resorting to, “It’s up to you to do the ha-cha-cha.”I was trying to cheer myself up, but all I was doing was reminding myself that it was music that was responsible for this whole mess in the first place.If I hadn’t struck up a friendship with Saul because of my goal of writing a song for the WROX contest, he and Rachel never would have met.Then, I’d be flitting through a beautiful autumn Saturday morning—minus a broken heart and still aligned with my best friend—instead of drooping like an unwatered plant.My sad mood was making me philosophical.I started thinking about the inevitable conflict between art and real life.Now I don’t generally go in much for this sort of deep thinking, especially while riding in elevators, but all of a sudden I could see nothing but complications.I’d always expected to keep the two completely separate: I would have my creative work, and I would have my friends.And now things didn’t seem quite as clear-cut.One was interfering with the other.As I let myself into the living room, I sighed so deeply and so loudly that my mother wandered in from her bedroom to see what was up.“What’s the matter, Sallie?” she said, her voice cheerful but her face taut with concern.“You sound as if you’re carrying all the world’s burdens on your shoulders.”“I feel that way.Why is it that everything always happens at once?”“Maybe you’d like to talk about it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]