Bridge to Terabithia

A wail went up from Ellie and Brenda like two sirens going to a fire. “You can’t make me go to church,” Brenda said. “I ain’t got nothing to wear, and you know it.”

“Just ’cause you’re too fat,” May Belle muttered.

“Did you hear what she said, Momma? I’m gonna kill that kid.”

“Brenda, will you shut your mouth?” his mother said sharply; then more wearily, “We got lot more than Easter clothes to worry about.”

His dad got up noisily and poured himself a cup of black coffee from the pot on the back of the stove.

“Why can’t we charge some things?” Ellie said in her wheedling voice.

Brenda burst in. “Do you know what some people do? They charge something and wear it, and then take it back and say it didn’t fit or something. The stores don’t give ’em no trouble.”

Her father turned in a kind of roar. “I never heard such a fool thing in my life. Didn’t you hear your mother tell you to shut your mouth, girl!”

Brenda stopped talking, but she popped her gum as loudly as she could just to prove she wasn’t going to be put down.

Jess was glad to escape to the shed and the complacent company of Miss Bessie. There was a knock. “Jess?”

“Leslie. Come on in.”

She looked first and then sat on the floor near his stool. “What’s new?”

“Lord, don’t ask.” He tugged the teats rhythmically and listened to the plink, plink, plink, in the bottom of the pail.

“That bad, huh?”

“My dad’s got laid off, and Brenda and Ellie are fit to fry ’cause they can’t have new clothes for Easter.”

“Gee, I’m sorry. About your dad, I mean.”

Jess grinned. “Yeah. I ain’t too worried about these girls. If I know them, they’ll trick new clothes out of somebody. It would make you throw up to see how these girls make a spectacle of themselves in church.”

“I never knew you went to church.”

“Just Easter.” He concentrated on the warm udders. “I guess you think that’s dumb or something.”

She didn’t answer for a minute. “I was thinking I’d like to go.”

He stopped milking. “I don’t understand you sometimes, Leslie.”

“Well, I’ve never been to a church before. It would be a new experience for me.”

He went back to work. “You’d hate it.”

“Why?”

“It’s boring.”

“Well, I’d just like to see for myself. Do you think your parents would let me go with you?”

“You can’t wear pants.”

“I’ve got some dresses, Jess Aarons.” Would wonders never cease?

“Here,” he said. “Open your mouth.”

“Why?”

“Just open your mouth.” For once she obeyed. He sent a stream of warm milk straight into it.

“Jess Aarons!” The name was garbled and the milk dribbled down her chin as she spoke.

“Don’t open your mouth now. You’re wasting good milk.”

Leslie started to giggle, choking and coughing.

“Now if I could just learn to pitch a baseball that straight. Lemme try again.”

Leslie controlled her giggle, closed her eyes, and solemnly opened her mouth.

But now Jess was giggling, so that he couldn’t keep his hand steady.

“You dunce! You got me right in the ear.” Leslie hunched up her shoulder and rubbed her ear with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. She collapsed into giggles again.

“I’d be obliged if you’d finish milking and come on back to the house.” His dad was standing right there at the door.

“I guess I’d better go,” said Leslie quietly. She got up and went to the door. “Excuse me.” His dad moved aside to let her pass. Jess waited for him to say something more, but he just stood there for a few minutes and then turned and went out.

Ellie said she would go to church if Momma would let her wear the see-through blouse, and Brenda would go if she at least got a new skirt. In the end everyone got something new except Jess and his dad, neither of whom cared, but Jess got the idea it might give him a little bargaining power with his mother.

“Since I ain’t getting anything new, could Leslie go to church with us?”

“That girl?” He could see his mother rooting around in her head for a good reason to say no. “She don’t dress right.”

“Momma!”—his voice sounded as prissy as Ellie’s—“Leslie’s got dresses. She got hundreds of ’um.”

His mother’s thin face drooped. She bit the outside of her bottom lip in a way Joyce Ann sometimes did and spoke so softly Jess could hardly hear her. “I don’t want no one poking up their nose at my family.”

Jess wanted to put his arm around her the way he put it around May Belle when she was in need of comfort. “She don’t poke her nose up at you, Momma. Honest.”

His mother sighed. “Well, if she’ll look decent….”

Leslie looked decent. Her hair was kind of slicked down, and she wore a navy-blue jumper over a blouse with tiny old-fashioned-looking flowers. At the bottom of her red knee socks were a pair of shiny brown leather shoes that Jess had never seen before as Leslie always wore sneakers like the rest of the kids in Lark Creek. Even her manner was decent. Her usual sparkle was toned way down, and she said “Yes’m” and “No’m” to his mother just as though she were aware of Mrs. Aaron’s dread of disrespect. Jess knew how hard Leslie must be trying, for Leslie didn’t say “ma’am” naturally.