Chapter 6
T he first thing we did was talk to Miss Garber about our plans for the orphans, and she
thought it was a marvelous idea. That was her favorite word, by the way—marvelous—
after she’d greeted you with “Hellooooo.” On Monday, when she realized that I knew all
my lines, she said, “Marvelous!” and for the next two hours whenever I’d finish up a
scene, she’d say it again. By the end of the rehearsal, I’d heard it about four zillion times.
But Miss Garber actually went our idea one better. She told the class what we were
doing, and she asked if other members of the cast would be willing to do their parts as
well, so that the orphans could really enjoy the whole thing. The way she asked meant that
they really didn’t have a choice, and she looked around the class, waiting for someone to
nod so she could make it official. No one moved a muscle, except for Eddie. Somehow
he’d inhaled a bug up his nose at that exact moment, and he sneezed violently. The bug
flew out his nose, shot across his desk, and landed on the floor right by Norma Jean’s leg.
She jumped out of her chair and screamed out loud, and the people on either side of her
shouted, “Eww … gross!” The rest of the class started looking around and craning their
necks, trying to see what happened, and for the next ten seconds there was total
pandemonium in the classroom. For Miss Garber, that was as good of an answer as she
needed.
“Marvelous,” she said, closing the discussion.
Jamie, meanwhile, was getting really excited about performing for the orphans.
During a break in rehearsals she pulled me aside and thanked me for thinking of them.
“There’s no way you would know,” she said almost conspiratorially, “but I’ve been
wondering what to do for the orphanage this year. I’ve been praying about it for months
now because I want this Christmas to be the most special one of all.”
“Why is this Christmas so important?” I asked her, and she smiled patiently, as if I’d
asked a question that didn’t really matter.
“It just is,” she said simply.
The next step was to talk it over with Mr. Jenkins, the director of the orphanage. Now
I’d never met Mr. Jenkins before, being that the orphanage was in MoreheadCity, which
was across the bridge from Beaufort, and I’d never had any reason to go there. When
Jamie surprised me with the news the following day that we’d be meeting him later that
evening, I was sort of worried that I wasn’t dressed nice enough. I know it was an
orphanage, but a guy wants to make a good impression. Even though I wasn’t as excited
about it as Jamie was (no one was as excited as Jamie), I didn’t want to be regarded as the
Grinch who ruined Christmas for the orphans, either.
Before we went to the orphanage for our meeting, we had to walk to my house to