on his hands to helpbreak the picking cycle, and the bags were supposed to keep it from getting all over everything. He fell asleep on the couch and the bags broke open. I was in the kitchen frosting a cake, and by the time I checked on him heâd somehow managed to get himself covered pretty much head to toe with the stuff. My couch will never be the same.â
âWhat were you doing with that knife, Mom?â
âI was cutting the cake when I heard something outside the window. I thought it might be Sammy and Valâs cat making a mess in the bushes. Apparently itâs tired of your old sandbox and has taken a shine to my lilac bushes, the little poot.â
âWere you going to stab it?â
âOf course not. I forgot I even had the knife in my hand. I just ran outside when I heard the commotion in the bushes.â
âI thought you were going to kill me,â I said, and I was surprised by the flood of emotion I felt as I said it.
My mother put the book down next to her and put her arms around me.
âApparently a vivid imagination is one of the many genetic traits you failed to notice you had inherited from your parents, you nut,â she said.
âOh, yeah? Name another.â
âEver noticed your fatherâs earlobes?â
âNo,â I said.
âWell, come take a look. Theyâre notched, and so are yours.â
I held the screen door open for my mom, and we went inside to examine those wonderful lobes.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
T he next morning I woke up feeling lighter than Iâd felt in a long time. I knew I was where I belonged. I lay in bed, running my fingers over the notches at the tops of my earlobes and listening to the sounds in my house. I could hear my parents laughing in the kitchen. My motherâs heels clicked across the floor as she went to turn on the radio. She tuned it in to something jazzy, and I knew when I went down there that she and my dad would probably be dancing.
I got up and opened my top drawer. It was full of brand-new white underwear. Iopened the sock drawerâthe pairs were still unmatched, but somehow it didnât bother me. I pulled on my clothes and went down to the kitchen. Just as Iâd predicted, my mom and dad were doing a tango. Momâs head was thrown back and her eyes were closed. Instead of a red rose between her teeth, she gripped a plastic spatula. Everything was back to normal.
âGood morning!â I called as I grabbed a pancake off the plate, folded it, and shoved it into my mouth.
My parents stopped dancing and watched as I downed another pancake and then gulped some orange juice.
âYou feeling all right, son?â my father asked.
âYeah, Dad, I feel fine.â
âWe were worried about you yesterday, Guy,â he said.
âI know, I was worried about me too. But Iâm fine now. Really.â
My father reached into his pocket andhanded me a stack of baseball cards.
âIâm still looking for a couple of them.â
âForget about it, Dad. This is fine. Really. Thanks.â
I slipped the cards into my back pocket and left my parents standing in the kitchen hand in hand as I headed off to the fort to meet Buzz.
Â
âSo, what did I look like when I fainted?â Buzz asked.
âLike sleeping beauty, only ugly.â I laughed.
âIâm rubber, youâre glueââ he started, but he stopped mid-sentence when Bob-o stuck his head in the door. Buzz and I looked at each other.
âUh, come on in, Bob-o,â I said.
Bob-o stepped inside. He looked different. It took me a minute to figure out that he was wearing new pantsâlong enough to cover his socks. His hair was also slicked back. He still looked weird, but somehow it was a little better.
âWhatâs up, Bob-o?â Buzz asked.
Bob-o did his shrug thing and stuck his hands in his pockets. Then he looked at me. He said something, but I couldnât hear
Julie Gerstenblatt
Neneh J. Gordon
Keri Arthur
April Henry
Ella Dominguez
Dana Bate
Ian M. Dudley
Ruth Hamilton
Linda Westphal
Leslie Glass