Apparently, some boy in ninth grade had seen Faye and Patty meeting up with Pearly, and now, as those things go, the whole school knew about it.

Fat-headed Spencer yelled, “Hey, why you girls hanging out with that flea-ridden cub? Are we not good enough for you anymore?”

Faye warned him, poking him with her finger, “Don’t call her a cub, she’s a girl, just like us!”

“Not quite like you!” Spencer said.

“Shut up, Spence,” Claudette told him. She linked arms with Faye and Patty, and together they walked up to the school’s entrance, while groups of kids looked at them and talked low.

“What’s the girl’s name?” asked Claudette. Pearly, they told her. “Well, I’d like to meet her one of these days. Pay Spence no mind, I never do. You should hang out with whoever the heck you want.”

She seemed genuinely interested in the lemurian girl, while Faye was sure she was about to make some joke and laugh in their faces, any second now. But she didn’t.

Some kids made dumb remarks about Faye’s curious new friend, but no one seriously bugged her about it. By the end of the day most students had moved on to the next order of business (some joker had superglued all Mrs. Perlmutter’s things to her desk: her books, papers, pens, even her reading glasses).

Faye and Patty weren’t completely reassured yet that things would work out. Now that all the kids knew, it wouldn’t take long for all the grown-ups to know. The girls didn’t believe it was forbidden to make friends with a lemurian, but something not being forbidden didn’t make it acceptable to everybody. Some adults were sure to give them grief about it. They could be so huffy.

Next morning Patty told Faye how her parents had warned her never ever to go the shantytown where the lemurians and the Mexicans lived, but they didn’t forbid her to see Pearly again. Faye was relieved, since Patty was that rare kind of girl that listened to her parents.

At the end of the school day Patty came running and told Faye that Mr. Branch, the history teacher—that same history teacher who had looked for books on Lemurian culture for her—had talked to her about Pearly. Mr. Branch had a friend, he had told Patty, who taught in Springfield, Illinois. For a few hours per week this man would teach a small class of lemurians—several states allowed for lemurians to get some form of education. Mr. Branch then asked Patty if her ‘little friend’ would like to join them in class someday. Not officially as a student, of course, but as a visitor. He would have to ask the school principal, but he believed it would be okayed. Patty had thanked him heartily, and said she was sure Pearly would love that. The girl could already read and write, she had said, having been taught by her brother.

Hanging out with Pearly almost every afternoon meant Faye and Patty had been getting behind on their homework a bit. Trying to finish it early in the mornings was a drag, so they started to invite Pearly up to Faye’s room, where they could study. (Patty said her home was maybe a bit too crowded, what with her five siblings, and her room maybe a bit too small to accommodate three girls. This made no sense to Faye, but she said okay. She wondered if maybe Patty hadn’t told the whole truth about how her parents had reacted to her being friends with a lemurian…)

Pearly had worn her oversized sweater and her baseball cap on her way to Faye’s, but she had ridden her bike in the brightness of the afternoon. Most people, she said, hadn’t paid any attention to her, one woman had stared at her, and Pearly had waved, and the stupefied woman had waved back. Pearly had to laugh hard when she told her friends this. She didn’t seem too worried about humans anymore, now that she had met so many nice ones.

That first dinner date at Faye’s had been a success. It had started off quite awkward. Everybody spoke as if they were in a play. Faye’s parents, Pearly, even Faye herself spoke as if they acted the parts written by someone who knew what people were supposed to say, but had never actually talked to anybody. Except the twins, they had no idea how to act like anybody but themselves. (Samuel and Sandy had been diagnosed with the Kanner’s Syndrome at the age of six. The doctor had advised Faye’s parents to have the boys institutionalized. When he also spoke to them about the promising effects of aversion therapy (which sounded like training a dog to do tricks) and of shock therapy, they decided to talk to another doctor. This new doctor spoke of ‘Autistic Disturbances’ and had taken Faye’s father aside, to explain to him the ‘Refrigerator Mother Theory’: it was the lack of maternal warmth that had caused these Autistic Disturbances. They had quite had their fill of doctors after that.)

Faye thought it was pretty funny seeing them sitting next to each other. Her brothers, who were so very common looking but sometimes seemed to come from another planet, while Pearly looked so outlandish, while she acted like a perfectly normal girl without a care in the world.

Pearly enjoyed the quirky questions the twins asked her (“Do you think a duck can swim in a cloud?”), and the twins acted no more peculiar than usual, as if they had lemurians for dinner regularly.

When Pearly left after dinner because she had to work in the factory, Faye’s parents were appalled.

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“Yeah,” Faye had to explain, “people sort of allow young lemurians to work.” (She didn’t say Pearly was only six…) “Adult lemurians, especially males, are seen as too dangerous to be allowed into society. They are really strong, you know, lemurians, much stronger than a human.”

“Like a monkey,” Faye’s father said. “Chimps are—” He stopped short, realizing what he was saying wasn’t very kind.

“And her mother doesn’t work?” Faye’s mother asked. Pearly had told them she had never met her father.

“No, Pearly says she hates humans. She does chores for other lemurians, washing clothes in the lake, stuff like that. But not for pay. Nobody has any money. Since, well, you know, since Pearly’s brother was sent away, the only one of their community allowed to work is Pearly…”

“That girl should go to school…” Faye’s mother had said thoughtfully.

Pearly looked on fascinated while Faye and Patty did their homework. Watching and listening in silence, which was quite out of character.

Faye and Patty hadn’t told her yet about Mr. Branch’s idea of her visiting class someday. She would be too disappointed if the plans would be aborted, so they kept it to themselves for now.

Pearly looked through Faye’s closet, and Faye showed her a flowery summer dress, which she’d grown out of. It was still bit baggy for the dainty Pearly, but she loved it. She wouldn’t be able to wear it out on the street, of course, since her wonderfully fluffy tail poked out, but she would surely wear it at home, and she thanked Faye again and again.

Faye noticed, watching Pearly twirl in her new dress, how she had started to really see the lovely girl she was, instead of thinking of her as a talking animal with a lovely girl trapped inside, like she had earlier.

Patty went home, and Pearly would stay again for dinner. She wore her dress at the table, and this time around everybody acted naturally like themselves.

Pearly invited her two friends for dinner at her home. She said how nice it was to be accepted by others, and how great the world would be if everybody just accepted everybody else. She said her mother should start accepting humans. She always seemed so unhappy, and Pearly thought this was because she was so bitter towards the rest of the world.

“But didn’t you say something bad must have happened in the past? You know, about Johnny being born half human?” said Faye.

“Well, you meet one bad human, that doesn’t mean they are all bad… And shouldn’t she let bygones be bygones? Johnny always says lemurians aren’t interested in the past—he never hears any history lessons from the old lemurians he visits. Lemurians are supposed to look to the future, not to the past like humans. If mother doesn’t like humans, she should quit acting like a human and stop dwelling on the past!”

Faye was terribly nervous. She had really hoped Patty’s parents would permit her to come along. She always knew how to be friendly, and would ask interesting questions. Faye had no idea what she and Pearly’s mother were supposed to talk about. She had decided to bring some more gifts, hoping this would win over the mother. She had brought flowers (in a vase, Pearly had said they had never owned a vase) and brought a rug (which her father had tied to her bike) for the floor, which was just bare floorboard, Pearly had said.

Pearly welcomed her at the edge of the shantytown on a Sunday afternoon. The Mexicans looked curious as they passed. One Mexican boy waved at them, and came running. It was the boy with the missing tooth, Tuto, Johnny’s friend, looking scruffy. He smiled at them.

“Hey Tuto, you want to join us for dinner? I’m making pot-roast!” Pearly said.

“In your shack with your mother? She will throw the food at me! No, thank you so much,” Tuto laughed.

Pearly then said something in Spanish, and Tuto said no, no, thank you so much, again. He said have fun, and smiled at Faye, saying, nice to see you again, Faye, and walked off, shaking his head. Faye liked that boy, and he had even remembered her name!

“You speak Spanish?” Faye asked Pearly.

“Everybody here speaks Spanish.”

They had planned on making dinner before Pearly’s mother came home, surprise her.

Well, if she was surprised, she didn’t show it. And she was definitely not amused.

“We made dinner, mom!” The plates were set out on the table. “This is Faye, mother. She’s my friend,” Pearly said, while the mother, looking tired and angry, glared at them. “She’s the girl that gave us all that food, and look, she brought flowers in a vase, and look,” she said, stomping on the floor, “we have a carpet!”

The mother walked up to Faye, her big orange eyes seemed to look straight into her soul. Faye’s spine tingled. She seemed tall for a lemurian, Faye thought. It was probably because she was used to seeing lemurians walking stooped, looking downcast and never making eye contact. This seemed a very proud woman, and she stood tall. Faye wanted to take a step or two back, but thought it best if she didn’t.

“You think I’m a fool,” the mother said, still looking Faye in the eye, though it wasn’t clear if she was addressing her or her daughter.

“Come on, mom, please be nice! Her parents were so nice to me..!”

“I have to be nice, I have to be grateful for food and flowers, while this girl had Johnny send away?”

Pearly looked shocked.

“You think I’m stupid? Some girl claims Johnny harassed her, and Johnny is taken away, and all of a sudden some girl feels sorry for us, and starts feeding us…”

Faye wanted to disappear. Would it be weird if she just ran for the door?

“Maybe I should…” mumbled Faye, and tried walking past the mad mother, looking eagerly at the door.

“Sit down, girl!” The mother commanded “I want to talk to you. Sit down, eat your food!”

Faye wasn’t very hungry all of a sudden. Oh dear, what a terrible idea this had been, and what a horrible night this turned out to be. Then the door creaked open. Before she could see who entered, she heard Pearly squeal.

“Johnny!” she squealed.

She shot past Faye, and there she was, hugging Johnny in the doorway. There he was. Johnny.