Page 74 of Instant Karma

Ellie squeals and dashes down the stairs, which must mean that Dad and Jude were going out to get something good, because usually it’s nothing but griping when she gets called to the dinner table. Penny, Lucy, and I follow with less enthusiasm. Lucy is still scowling.

Penny seems oblivious that there’s been any conflict at all. “Ooh, Blue’s Burgers!” she says when we reach the kitchen. “Yes!”

Mom and Dad are at the counter, gathering napkins and pouring drinks. Jude is pulling baskets of french fries and cheeseburgers from a collection of white paper bags and setting them out on the table. “Wow, Ellie,” he says, with a genuine Jude smile. “You look like a movie star.”

She beams, showing off the streaks of sparkly purple eyeshadow around her eyes and cheeks. She actually looks like she’s been in a bar fight with a fairy godmother, but she seems so pleased with herself I can’t bring myself to say so.

“Thought we should do our part to support one of our community staples,” says Dad, sitting down and taking one of the burgers from Jude. “They sure have been getting a lot of bad press lately, with all those billboards getting tagged.”

My eyebrows rise as I take my seat. “More than one?”

Dad nods. “Five or six, I think. Someone wroteLieson a bunch of them and drew sad faces on the cows. I guess there’ve been rumors going around that Blue’s is getting their meat from some awful farms where the cows are all crammed together and fed slop or what have you. All I know is that Blue’s Burgers has been around since the sixties, and they are just as delicious now as when I was a kid. Don’t know why anyone would go after them, of all places. It’s hard enough for a little family-owned place to stay in business without people trying to tear them down.”

“Honestly. What’s wrong with some people?” Mom asks as she hands out paper towels.

I unwrap my burger, overflowing with tomato and pickles and Blue’s mind-blowing secret sauce. My mouth is already watering. But something gives me pause. I think about what Quint said, how Morgan was petitioning to have the government look into a factory farm, something about inhumane treatment of the animals. But that can’t have anything to do with Blue’s Burgers. Their cattle come from organic, grass-fed… something-something… I don’t know, whatever their ads say.

Don’t they?

And even if they don’t, does it really matter to me? I’m not vegetarian. It’s never even crossed my mind to be anything other than a content omnivore. I figure, humans are at the top of the food chain for a reason. And it isn’t like my parents can afford the expensive meat out of the butcher case, so probably lots of the meat I’ve consumed over the years has come from those farms that feed them slop or what have you, as Dad so succinctly suggested.

This isn’t a cause that means anything to me. They’re just cows.

They’re just food.

But Morgan. Regardless of how I feel, this cause clearly means something toher.So much that she was willing to climb to the top of a rickety ladder to tell people about it.

A choice she’s paid the price for.

“Everything okay, Pru?” asks Mom.

I blink up at her. Smile. “Yeah, yeah.” I try to shake the thoughts from my head. My family is staring at me. I clear my throat. “I was just thinking about… um… this project I’ve been working on. Did you know that sea otters play a vital role in balancing the health of kelp forests?”

“What’s a kelp forest?” asks Penny.

I sigh. “It’s a forest. Of kelp. Underwater.”

Ellie’s eyes go wide. “There are forests underwater?”

“Yeah, sort of,” I say.

Mom dips a fry into her ketchup. “Did you learn that at your new volunteer job?”

“Um. Yeah,” I say, because I’m not about to bring up how I spent the afternoon snorkeling with Quint Erickson. Jude is already giving me a suspicious look.

“I must say, I was pretty bummed when you decided not to come work at the record store,” says Dad. “But it sounds like things at this rescue center are going well so far?”

I shrug. “It hasn’t been so bad.”

“And Ari has been great, hasn’t she?” says Mom. “I’ve heard nothing but good things.”

“Oh yeah. That girl!” says Dad, picking up a pickle that’s fallen out of his burger. “I think she might know more about music than I do! And, of course, I’m happy to have Jude there.”

Jude smiles, but his mouth is full, so he doesn’t say anything.

“That reminds me,” I say, setting down the burger, unbitten, and wiping my hands on a paper towel. “I told Ari I’d give her my old keyboard. You don’t mind, do you?”

Mom and Dad both stop chewing and exchange looks.

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