My sister and dad were all business as usual, though. Lynette ate about two raisins out of her carrot salad,  then peeled the skin and meat off her chicken wing and nibbled gristle off the bone, while my father filled up airspace talking about office politics and the need for a shakedown in upper management.

    No one was listening to him- no one ever does when he gets on one of his if-I-ran-the -circus jags-but for once Mom wasn't even pretending. And for once she wasn't trying to convince Lynette that dinner was delicious either. She just kept eyeing me and Granddad, trying to pick up on why we were miffed at each other. 

    Not that he had anything to be miffed at me about what had I done to him, anyway? Nothing, Nada. But he was, I could tell. And I completely avoided looking at him until about halfway through dinner, when I sneaked a peek.

    He was studying me, all right , And even though it wasn't a mean stare, or a hard stare, it was, you know, firm. Steady, And it weirded me out. What was his deal?

    I didn't look at him again. Or at my mother. I just went back to eating and pretended to listen to my dad. And the first chance I got, I excused myself and holed up in my room.

   I was planning to call my friend Garrett like I usually do when I'm bent about something. I even punched in his number, but I don't know. I just hung up.

    And later when my mom came in, I faked like I was sleeping. I haven't done that in years. The whole night was weird like that. I just wanted to be left alone. 

    Juli wasn't at the bus stop the next morning. Or Friday morning. She was at school, but you'd never know it if you didn't actually look. She didn't whip her hand through the air trying to get the teacher to call on her or charge through the halls getting to class. She didn't make unsolicited comments for the teacher's edification or challenge the kids who took cuts in the milk line. She just sat. Quiet.

    I told myself I should be glad about it - it was like she wasn't even there, and isn't that what I'd always wanted? But still, I felt bad. About her tree, about how she hurried off to eat by herself in the library at lunch, about how her eyes were red around the edges. I wanted the tell her, Man, I'm sorry about your sycamore tree, but the words never seemed to come out.

    By the middle of the next week, they'd finished taking down the tree, They cleared the lot and even tried to pull up the stump, but that sucker would not budge, so they wound up grinding it down into the dirt.

    Juli still didn't show at the bus stop, and by the end of the week I learned from Garrett that she was riding a bike, He said he'd seen her on the side of the road twice that week, putting the chain back on the derailleur of a rusty old ten-speed.

    I figured she'd be back. It was a long ride out to Mayfield Junior High, and once she got over the tree, she'd start riding the bus again. I even caught myself looking for her. Not on the lookout, just looking