The Experience of Being Alive

Chapter Seven

Binny hadn't quite eaten as much as Arya, but she had come close. And now, lying in bed, snug under the heavy covers, Binny regretted it. She assumed she'd feel better in the morning once her body had processed the mammoth amount of sugar and chocolate she'd consumed.

It came slowly and fitfully, but sleep did finally come. And then, so did Madrona.

Binny picked up her skateboard and trotted back to the start of the little course she'd made for herself. Penny, the strange girl from across the street was perched watching Binny. But for some reason Binny wasn't bothered by Penny's presence.

Instead of trying to do jumps on her skateboard, in the dream, Binny was trying to do a handstand on her skateboard as it rolled down the sidewalk. Binny had never done a handstand on firm ground much less her skateboard in her life (not in her book and not in the Stacks) but for now it seemed like a perfectly rational thing to attempt. Besides, Dream-Binny was pretty close to making it happen.

One more try, and... boom. Binny was doing a handstand on her skateboard. It was easier than she expected. Like hanging from the monkey bars, swaying gently in the breeze. Binny rolled to a stop, and Penny gave her the thumbs down signal. It took Binny a moment to remind herself that Penny was right-side-up so it was actually a thumbs up.

And then suddenly, though Binny was still hanging upside down from her skateboard with her hyper-local flipped gravity, her skateboard was no longer on the sidewalk. It was on the kitchen table at her house, in Madrona. Her older brother Zach, her younger sister Cassie, and her parents, Jay and Julie, were all sitting around the table eating dinner. Binny was still standing upside down, hands gripping her skateboard in the exact center of the table. She was like a strange vase of flowers.

"Please pass the fish sticks," Cassie said with a mouthful of the fish sticks that had just recently been on her plate. It sounded more like feeze fass da pfish shticksh.

"Gross. Don't talk with your mouth full," Binny said.

Binny's father parceled out more fish onto Cassie's plate.

"Binny, you're not her parent," Julie said to her eldest daughter. And then to her youngest, "And don't talk with your mouth full please."

"Can I have another one?" Zach stared at the now empty serving dish.

"Don't worry, I have more in the oven. They're almost ready," Jay said.

Binny spun gently on her back wheels to face whoever was talking at any given moment. It seemed like the obvious thing to do. Everyone was recognizable despite being upside down. The whole scene felt more normal than Binny thought it should.

"What did you do today Zach?" Julie asked her son. "Did you get a chance to start that book I gave you?"

Zach hesitated before he spoke, looking uncomfortable for a moment. "Yeah."

"And?" Zach's mother looked hopeful and expectant. "It was one of my absolute favorites at your age."

"I'm just not that into it," Zach said.

"Did you give it a try?" Julie pushed.

"Yes. I told you."

"Did you get to Marvin the depressed robot? I love him." Julie chuckled as she spoke.

"It's paranoid android you know, not depressed robot," Jay offered. Nobody seemed interested in his clarification.

"Yeah. It's just not that funny," Zach said.