Read Just as Long as We're Together for Free Online

"Hi,"
    I said. Maizie was on the bed. She barked at me.
    "Hello, Maizie." As soon as I spoke she turned
    her back. I guess she wasn't interested in having
    a conversation.
    "Your mother looks a lot like Gena Farrell," I told Alison.
    "I know," Alison said.
    "I guess everybody tells her that." "Yes. Especially since she is Gena Farrell." "Your mother is Gena Farrell, the TV star?" "She's an actress," Alison said, "not a TV star."
    She held a poster of Bruce Springsteen against the wall. "What do you think?"
    "I can't believe this!" I said. "Your mother is Gena Farrell and you never said anything?"
    "What should I have said?" Alison asked, holding up a second poster. This one showed a gorilla lying on a sofa. "Do you like it here or do you think I should hang it over my desk?"
    "Over your desk," I said. "I just can't believe that you didn't tell us!"
    "Would it have made a difference?" Alison put the posters on her bed.
    "No," I said, "but . . ."
    "But what?" Now she looked directly at me, waiting for me to say something.
    "Nothing..
    "Get down, Maizie!" Alison shooed her off the bed.
    Maizie growled.
    "She can't stand it when people gush over my mother," Alison said. "She'll try to bite anyone who does. You wouldn't believe how many times she's tried to bite reporters."
    "Really?"
    "Yes," Alison said, taking the comforter out of its plastic bag. "Give me a hand getting this on the bed."
    The comforter had tiny rosebuds all over it. And the lamp shades, which had been my idea, were made of the same fabric. Rachel said the lamp shades were unnecessary and too expensive, but Alison bought them anyway. At the time I thought it was to please me, since everything else had been Rachel's idea. But now that I knew Alison's mother was Gena Farrell I wasn't so sure. I mean, Gena Farrell is famous! She must be very rich.
    I helped Alison hang her posters. I wished I had thought of push pins when I was hanging mine. They don't take the paint off the wall and they make such tiny holes that no one would ever notice them.
    When we'd finished Alison said, "Do you know how to play Spit?"
    "Spit as in saliva?" I asked.
    Alison laughed. "Spit as in the card game."
    "There's a card game called Spit?"
    "Yes." Alison opened her desk drawer and took out a deck of cards. She shuffled, divided them into two piles, then explained the rules of the game.
    By the time Rachel got there Alison and I were in the middle of a really fast hand and couldn't
    stop laughing. "We're playing Spit," I told Rachel.
    "What?" Rachel said.
    "It's a card game."
    "You want me to teach you?" Alison asked Rachel.
    "No . . ." Rachel said. "I came over to help with your room but I see it's all done."
    Alison collected the cards and wrapped a rubber band around them.
    "Doesn't it look great?" I asked Rachel. "Actually, it does," Rachel said. "It looks just like a flower garden. Maybe I should be an interior designer."
    "Did you recognize Alison's mother?" I asked Rachel.
    "No, should I have?" Rachel asked.
    "She's Gena Farrell," I said.
    Maizie began to bark.
    "Who's Gena Farrell?"
    "Alison's mother!"
    "I got that part," Rachel said. "The part I didn't get is who is Gena Farrell?"
    "The TV star," I said.
    "Actress," Alison said, correcting me. "The actress," I repeated. "You know. . . she's on Canyon Crossing."
    Maizie jumped off the bed and began nipping at my feet.
    "Quit that," I told her.
    "I warned you," Alison said.
    "I've never seen Canyon Crossing," Rachel said.
    "Yes, you have . . •" I told her. "Last year we watched it at my house. . . more than once."
    "I don't remember," Rachel said.
    "It's been cancelled," Alison said. "Mom's doing a new series. It's called Franny on Her Own. It won't be on until February. They're shooting in New York now. That's why we moved east. Leon's the head writer. He gets to decide what happens to all the characters."
    "That's so exciting!" I said. "What's it like having Gena Farrell for a mother?"
    "She's the only mother I've ever known."