Jo was convinced. The real Sharon could never have recalled some of the rides and places at the old shutdown amusement park that were mentioned in her post. It had closed the very year she was born. But Karen would remember it. She had her seventh birthday party there and Jon had been invited.
It was an off the beaten path amusement park not associated with any major chains or franchises. Storyville. Some rollercoasters and waterslides, a funhouse and a petting zoo, mini golf, two merry-go-rounds, a narrow gauge train that took guests on a ride around the park. The theme was as the name suggested, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and so on. Jo briefly smiled. She had fond memories of the place, though she had never set foot on the property according to the timeline of her new life.
Jo had already decided to send "Sharon" a message. It was Karyn, the real Karyn, she had to be! The question was what message to send her? Even if they combined forces what could they really do? If Mikey had actually swapped Karyn and her sister then Karyn was a year younger than Jo now! The only reason their paths would not have crossed was Jo went to Bricksford Middle and "Sharon" went to Farson Middle. Lake Pointe had only one highschool, but two middle schools, one for Jo Morgan and other city kids and one for suburban yuppie families like the Blacks.
None of that mattered, Jo decided. She had to let her friend know she still remembered her and the way things used to be - - and hope that the same went for Karyn. Nervous and embarrassed as she was to have Karyn see her like this Jo knew she needed her friend more than anything! When she had sought help from who she thought was Karyn and been met with disbelief it had crushed her.
Jo checked Sharon's status, online, and then quickly typed, her electric blue fingernails a blur, "I remember Storyville. Want to get together and talk about it?"
After a long two minutes a reply popped up, "K. Where at?"
"The old tire swing behind the Pickerton place," Jo responded almost instantly. It was in the old neighborhood, the one where she had spent her first 16 years as Jon, which made getting there problematic, but she had been saving some things for a rainy day.
"When?"
"Today. Two hours." Jo got up and went to her secret hiding spot in her room. It was much better than the hidey hole from her old life. She was sure that no one except Mikey (who had informed her he had wished to know where it was) knew its location and her older brother had said he didn't really give a shit about what she might have in there.
The young teenager examined her meager resources, a pepper spray she had filched from her mom's purse, a switchblade she had found under the passenger seat of the car, but never told anyone about (she figured her "dad" Damon had lost it and never said anything to anyone), a spare key for sneaking in and out of the house, an unused disposable cell phone and prepaid card she had bought in case she ever needed to do an anonymous call, some sleeping pills she had also stolen from her mom's purse, but had been too scared to try putting into Mikey's food or drink, and about one hundred eighty dollars in assorted bills, the total life savings of her new life, every birthday, Christmas, lost tooth, allowance from chores, etc.
Activating the phone, she called for a cab to pick her up in an hour outside a taco stand several blocks from her house. It was necessary to try to make her voice a little deeper. It had deepened from the voice she had as a little girl of eight, one of the few bright spots of her second puberty along with not being so damn short anymore, but she still sounded like a kid. The walk wouldn't take long and it was the closest a lot of cabbies came to her neighborhood. The cab would take her back to the old neighborhood, specifically the Pickerton place, an old boarded up summer home that had been abandoned a long time ago.
Jo grabbed her purse from the dresser and began putting everything into it. So far that got her a face to face with Karyn or Sharon depending on how you looked at it, however awkward said reunion might be. If she was lucky they could concoct some kind of plan together.
Unluckily, there was something Jo had to do before she could attend her little reunion. Mikey, asshole that he was, had wished she would make out with some guy at least her age and not related to her. There wasn't any sense in trying to avoid it. It was a wish so it was going to be a reality. All she could do was meet it on her own terms.
There was a boy in her grade just two houses down. Ronjay Farmer. Ronjay liked Jo, but she never gave him the time of day, though none of the other girls could understand why. He was on the middle school track and basketball teams and he was kind of cute - - or at least the very confused young woman Jon had become thought he might be. Like Jo, he was mixed, but his skin was even lighter than hers. He had very dark eyebrows and a closely shaved cap of black hair above piercing yellow eyes and nice lips.
Over the space of the last two years, RJ had gone from snapping Jo's training bra to asking her for her phone number or out to school dances. She supposed he would have to do.
