While the others went out, she was forced to stay inside. It snowed all day: a light, friendly snow, the kind you turned your face up into and held out your tongue to collect a flake from the sky. Mr. Shevvington went to the school, where he said he would be all day. He took his briefcase, waving it at Christina as he got into his car. Mrs. Shevvington went to get groceries. Dolly went with her. Dolly said she loved doing errands. How strange, thought Christina. Why doesn’t Dolly go out with her friends in the sixth grade? Dolly has no friends. She had not asked a single sixth-grade girl over to the Inne. Nor telephoned one. Nor talked about one. She was alone every day when she met Christina after school. Am I Dolly’s only friend? thought Christina. It was frightening. Christina’s dream of coming to the mainland had been to have rafts of friends — crowds — rooms full. At times she did. At this time she did not. But Dolly had never even used the word “friend.” Christina sat alone in the house.
