Goodbye Stranger

In September of her seventh-grade year, Bridge decides to wear cat ears to school because they feel good on her head. Her mother, a cellist, is at a string quartet performance; her father is opening the coffee shop he owns called the Bean Bar; and her brother, Jamie, has already left for high school. With the house empty, Bridge tries to complete her homework assignment to define love. Bridge’s mother, a musician, once said love is like music, but Bridge is not certain the comparison fits. Bridge thinks love is when a person likes someone so much that it requires a stronger word. At school, Tabitha worries Bridge’s French teacher, Madame Lawrence, will take issue with the cat ears, but when Bridge enters class, Madame Lawrence points and says, “Un chat!” (9) meaning “A cat!” in French.

An unnamed teenage narrator paints her toenails, remembering how Vinny steals nail polish from the manicure salon. The narrator is skipping school to spend the day at the park and bumps into Bridge on the way. While on the swings, the narrator remembers playing at the park as a child with Zoe and Vinny, but the friends are no longer together: “They’re both other people now” (12). The narrator remembers the time the friends found a beer bottle on the playground and pretended to drink from it. Vinny’s father found them and dragged Vinny away. The narrator is full of nostalgia and feels lonely at the park.

Bridge, Tabitha (“Tab”), and Emily (“Em”) form what they call a “set” (14) of friends instead of a group or club. In elementary school, they distinguish their set by adding creature doodles in the corner of their school papers. Their one friendship rule, requested by Em, is no fighting, and they swear the oath on a Twinkie. In sixth grade, Em’s parents divorce, and the friends’ bond is strengthened, but in seventh grade, things shift. Em’s body develops more quickly than the others and their classmates have noticed. Em excels at sports, and Tab perfects her French. Em and Tab stop adding their signature doodle on their papers but never tell Bridge this. Bridge feels betrayed, but Em and Tab remind her of the oath and assure her they are still a set.

Despite her new curves, Em can still run fast on the soccer field. Bridge is still wearing her cat ears a week later, and Tab wonders if something is wrong. Em begins getting texts from an older boy named Patrick who asks her to send him pictures. She sends him a picture of her dirty soccer cleats, and he responds with a picture of his shoes.

The unnamed narrator feels guilty for not speaking up about Vinny sooner. Vinny liked to play a game where she blindfolded someone and made them eat gross things. Once, she made Zoe eat a banana but fed the narrator an entire spoonful of cinnamon. The narrator asked a friend named Gina to hang out, and Vinny made them play the game. Vinny fed the narrator a banana and gave Gina a spoonful of black pepper, which made her sick. Vinny also enjoyed playing “The floor is lava!” (21) game at the narrator’s house since they could not jump on the furniture at Vinny’s home. Middle school, Zoe’s doorman, and the Bean Bar all represent hot lava to the narrator. In the present, the narrator leaves the playground and returns to an empty house. She goes back to bed, feeling like the entire world is lava.

French class is full-immersion, and Bridge struggles to understand her teacher’s instructions. Because she got a good response, Bridge decides to continue wearing the cat ears until Halloween. After attending Em’s soccer game with Tab, Bridge takes a Kit Kat to her father at the Bean Bar. Adrienne, Mark’s replacement, greets her and says her dad is cute. Adrienne says, “What is he, anyway, an Arab?” (24). Bridge corrects her, explaining that he is Armenian American and was born in California.

Jamie is in a daily step-count contest with his friend Alex. Bridge worries Jamie bet his laptop, but he swears he didn’t. Bridge knows he is trying to win back his beloved Rolling Stones t-shirt Alex won from him in a previous bet.

Patrick sends Em a picture of his knee and his ankle. Tab and Bridge think the exchange is weird, but Em says the entire soccer team is in love with Patrick. Bridge notices Em is wearing makeup as Em asks her friends how she should respond to the text message. Tab worries Patrick will ask for more photos and quotes her English teacher, whom they call “the Berperson,” (28) claiming men objectify women. The Berperson is Ms. Berman who replaces the man in her name with person. Tab suggests Em and Patrick speak to each other in person, which Em thinks is absurd.

The narrator tries to comfort herself by snuggling the cat, hiding inside a hoodie with headphones, remembering Gina’s “head hugs,” (30), and playing some of her mother’s French music that reminds her of her childhood. The phone rings with a recorded call from the school about unexcused absences. The school also calls the narrator’s mom and dad. Her cell phone rings, and she knows it’s her parents but doesn’t answer. The neighbor, who has a key to the apartment, knocks on the door and when no one answers, they use their key to enter as the narrator hides in the closet.

Bridge exchanges English papers with Sherm Russo for peer editing. Sherm’s essay is on supermoons, and he explains the concept to Bridge. Though she hardly leaves any comments on his paper, Sherm marks something on every line of hers. At lunch, she complains to Tab and Em, but Tab tells Bridge that she does need help with grammar. Sherm believes the moon landing was faked, and Em says her father believes the same. Bridge quotes Neil Armstrong, and Tab wonders why they said “mankind” instead of “humankind.”

Since it is raining, the seventh graders must stay inside for recess and watch The Magic School Bus. Tab loves the show, but Em says it’s for children. Some students get to skip the show and play a rock-paper-scissors tournament. Bridge remembers the time she got picked to play, and her legs shook while she was on stage, but when Em got picked, she won handily and worked the crowd like a superstar.

Bridge, Em, and Tab attend the clubs fair in the gym where the school requires students to join at least one organization. Em runs off to join her soccer friends, leaving Tab and Bridge to visit the tables, but Bridge does not want to participate. Tab introduces Bridge to the Berperson, who leads the Human Rights Club. The Berperson likes Bridge’s cat ears and tries to persuade her to join, but Bridge walks away alone to look at other options. She passes over the chess club, yearbook club, and Model UN and spots Em commiserating with her soccer friends. At the last table, Bridge meets the tech crew, the group that handles the stagecraft and lighting for school productions. Sherm Russo joins, and when another member tells Bridge it is not a club but a crew, she decides to join.

Sherm composes a letter to Nonno Gio dated October 7. He shares that Bridget joined the tech crew, and he thinks her cat ears are cute. Sherm says he is getting Nonno’s texts but erasing them. The postscript says there are four months and one week until Nonno’s birthday.

The unnamed narrator hides in the closet and remains still and silent while the neighbor loiters in the house. The darkness in the closet reminds her of the sky at summer camp. Vinny was not allowed to attend overnight camp and sent the narrator care packages. In return, the narrator sent her letters, but she left out all the parts of camp she loved the most like swimming in the lake, making new friends, and going on her first date with a boy named Daniel. The narrator did not want to hurt Vinny’s feelings because “when Vinny got hurt, she got mean” (43). As the cat peeks into the closet, the narrator hears a cell phone ringing, and the neighbor answers it.

Bridge’s mother teaches cello lessons in their apartment on Wednesdays and Fridays. Most days, Bridge enjoys listening to her mother practice quietly but on this day, the sounds make her feel heavy. At school, Bridge asks Sherm if he really thinks the moon landing was fake, and he clarifies that he thinks it looks fake because the flag is waving in the wind, and there is no wind on the moon. Bridge asks why the government would fake the story, and Sherm asks if she’s heard of Sputnik. He continues, “[P]eople fake stuff all the time” (46). Bridge’s homeroom plays an aggressive game of dodgeball with girls versus boys.

Bridge’s mom is skeptical that the moon landing is fake, and Jamie thinks Bridge’s theory is preposterous and that she should stay off the internet. Bridge’s dad, Aren, explains that Sputnik was the name of the Russian satellite that kicked off the 1950s Space Race and spurred America to complete a moon mission before Russia. The family goes out for ice cream to celebrate Bridge’s mom getting a job playing for a celebrity wedding. Jamie is careful to monitor his step count and takes big lunging steps to avoid going over his 10,000-step limit. Jamie asks Bridge if her school is having lockdown drills, but Bridge has never heard of them, and Jamie says not to worry. He still refuses to tell Bridge what he bet for the step challenge. A passing car hits a glass bottle, and the loud sound makes Bridge’s legs freeze. Once she regains movement, brother and sister enjoy their ice cream as they reminisce about their favorite childhood movie, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and quote their favorite character Hermey, an elf who wants to become a dentist.

Bridge has a recurring nightmare where she is wrapped up like a mummy. Her mom always comes in and helps her replace the frightening image with a calming one to help her get back to sleep. Em writes a poem about her brother Evan who also has nightmares and sleeps on her bottom bunk when he gets scared, which started when their parents divorced. Bridge thinks Em’s parents are a lot like hers and was surprised when they separated, but Em says they get along better now that they don’t live together. Em joined the Banana Splits club at school for kids of divorced parents, which is sponsored by Mr. Partridge. Em explains that couples often get together because they think they have a lot in common, but they don’t even truly know themselves and realize later they are not a good match. The three friends each have club meetings after school, but Em begs them for an emergency meeting to show them something on her phone.

At the first tech crew meeting, Mr. Partridge makes every member stand on the stage under the lights to experience the vulnerability of performing to a large crowd. He explains that the tech crew’s job is to make sure the actors feel safe and secure while on stage. After the meeting, Sherm walks with Bridge, and they agree Mr. Partridge is intense. At recess, Sherm catches a ball and interrupts Bridge’s kickball game. He yells, “I feel so vulnerable right now!” (57), and they laugh at the shared inside joke. Bridge finds Sherm’s moon landing theory online and learns that the astronauts put wires in the flag to make it look as though it was waving.

While the neighbor is in the bathroom, the unnamed narrator slips silently out of the apartment and runs down the stairs to the lobby.

The school has its first intruder drill during Bridge’s English class, and the teacher walks through all the steps to secure the classroom, making the students quietly line up against the wall. The whole scene is unnerving to Bridge, and she and Sherm trade nervous looks with each other. Sherm asks Bridge in a whisper to go to the Dollar-Eight Diner next Friday after school, and she says yes. Later at the emergency meeting, Em tells Bridge that Sherm likes her, but Bridge denies it. Em shows her friends that Patrick sent her a photo of his “inny” belly button, and she does not know how to respond. Tab is disgusted and tells her to erase the photo from her phone.

After school, Bridge stops by the Bean Bar, and Adrienne is working. Adrienne calls Bridge “Finnegan” because she reminds her of her brother’s friend with the same name back in Canada. Adrienne, who is French Canadian and bilingual, calls her day job at the Bean Bar “a meaningless job that pays” (65) and claims that boxing is her real passion. She teaches Bridge how to throw a punch: At first, Bridge has it all wrong, from her stance to her arm position, but after a few tries she becomes more confident. Throwing the punches makes her feel strong, especially considering the helpless feeling she had during the intruder drill. Adrienne and Bridge share a sticky Armenian pastry filled with a sesame confection called halvah.

In a letter to Nonno Gio, whose birthday is four months away, Sherm shares that he scored a 102 on his math test and that Bridge is still wearing her cat ears. Sherm is angry Nonno Gio is gone and almost wishes he were dead.