Read Mermaid in Chelsea Creek for Free Online

play, and you should not do it again—but sometimes it seems to me that every adolescent girl is playing it.”
    â€œAnd if every adolescent were smoking pot, would you suggest I remain calm about that, too?” Andrea challenged.
    â€œThere are a lot of similarities.” Dr. Chen rubbed her chin, ignoring the question. “They both kill brain cells, get you high, trigger a false euphoria.”
    â€œWhat would produce a real euphoria?” Sophie asked.
    â€œSophie!” Andrea snapped. “Don’t act smart.”
    â€œIt’s a valid question.” The doctor nodded. “Real euphoria. Falling in love, those sort of feelings trigger euphoria. But then, often the love that triggers the euphoria isn’t ‘real’ love, if by real we mean requited, or lasting.” She sighed. “Runners, people who train for marathons, often experience euphoria, as do people whose bodies are enduring the first stages of starvation. Dieters, fasters, anorexics.” The doctor seemed confounded by her own thought process. “Perhaps all euphoria is false. Or, what we understand from euphoria is false. Because it makes us feel happy, we think we are happy, even if something terrible is happening to us. It’s purely chemical.”
    â€œDr. Chen. Is Sophie okay?” Andrea was brimming with impatience.The philosophical, chatty kindness she shared with her patients seemed sweet enough from a distance, but annoying firsthand.
    â€œSophie’s going to be fine!” Dr. Chen crowed, clapping the girl on her leg and standing up from her chair. She stretched her body into the air with a yawn and a groan. “Sophie, be suspicious of anything that gives you a quick rush of good feelings. True good feelings should be earned.”
    â€œBut my brain’s okay?” Sophie asked earnestly.
    â€œBetter than average brain.” The woman winked. “Keep asking questions, even if they drive everyone crazy. Especially if they drive everyone crazy.” She winked again, this time at Andrea. “Now, who do we have out there today? Victor Perez, is that who I saw carrying on in the corner? Victor Perez is the most arthritic man in the whole world,” she told Sophie.
    â€œReally?”
    â€œTo hear him tell it, yes. So I have got to come up with the most powerful arthritis remedy in the whole world.” She shook her head and wrapped her hand around the doorknob. “It’s a tough job, I tell you. Andrea, I hope you take the rest of the day off, spend some time with Sophie here. And Sophie, I’ll see you for your checkup before you start high school in the fall. Where are you off to, hmm? One of those preppy schools in Boston?”
    Dr. Chen could not have known of the tender spot she’d hit with her small talk. Sophie was dying to go to a one of the preparatory high schools across the big green bridge that arched into the city. Thereshe would learn things that were real and true, things like art and psychology, and about all the different kinds of people in the world. Her classmates would have sophisticated hairdos, and her teachers would spend their days off feeding homeless people and protesting wars. Sophie had heard of these schools, but Andrea had shot her down. “Designer schools,” she had snapped. “They’re no better than the public high school. You’re just paying for the name.”
    â€œIt’s better for getting into college,” Sophie had suggested, her voice cracking a bit. It was the first time she’d brought up such a possibility. College. If her fantasies about the prep school were vivid, the story Sophie had told herself about college life were positively wondrous, full of rolling lawns she would lounge upon with her clever, witty, new best friends, girls with shining ponytails and smart skirts. They would share with one another their latest thrilling opinions; they would gossip, have crushes, be moved