Jump the Cracks by Stacy DeKeyser

Author:Stacy DeKeyser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: flux, young adult, youth, fiction
Publisher: North Star Editions
Published: 2012-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

thirteen

We split a ham and cheese omelet, fruit salad, chocolate milk, sausage links, hot biscuits, orange juice, and grits. William’s favorite was the grits. Not for eating. For squishing. After I tasted them, I could see why.

By the time we finished, Wills was a complete mess. There was egg in his ear, bits of biscuit down his overalls, and grits everywhere. I couldn’t help giggling at him.

“Hey,” I said. “I know what we can do. Come on.”

We stepped out into the hot sunshine. I scanned the stores around the square, until I spotted what I was looking for.

I took William’s hand and we walked across the square.

The laundromat was bright and clean and smelled like fabric softener. It had a change machine, and a vending machine with packets of detergent and bleach and other laundry stuff. A line of plastic chairs stood by the front windows, and there was a bathroom in the back. Thank goodness. I could change clothes and wash the ones I was wearing. And in the bathroom, I discovered something even better.

“A sink!”

It was one of those big, deep wash basins like the one my grandma had in her basement. I turned on the faucet and waited. Sure enough, warm water.

“Oh, Wills … ” I sang. “Guess what?”

“What?” he said, pushing the buttons on the vending machine just outside the bathroom door.

“How’d you like a bath?”

“Bath?” he said, poking his finger into the change return slot.

“Wouldn’t that feel so good?” I said to him. “I wish I could join you, but we’d better not take public nakedness too far. Hey—what could we wash you with?”

The vending machine only had laundry supplies. It probably wasn’t a good idea to give him a bath in laundry detergent, and end up stinging his eyes or giving him a rash or something.

“And yet,” I said, bending down and rubbing noses with him, “it’s probably just the industrial-strength cleaner we need to clean up your stink.”

“Stink!” said Wills, hopping again.

“I wonder if the drugstore is open yet.”

We took another walk. In the drugstore, we headed for the aisle with the travel sizes.

“Ha! Baby shampoo,” I said. “We could wash your whole little bod with this. And look: ‘no more tears’!”

“No no no tears!” said William, doing his hopping thing again. For a second I almost believed he knew what he was talking about.

“Let’s go!” I cheered.

“Let go go!” he cheered back.

“Hold on now, Handful-and-a-Half. What else do we need while we’re here? What about a washcloth? And a towel? Did you ever think of that, your highness?”

“Go go go!”

“You exhaust me.”

“What?”

“Never mind. Come on.”

We cruised the aisles and I considered the possibilities. Paper towels … more baby wipes … toilet paper?

“Ball?” he said as we passed the toy aisle.

“You want a ball?” I asked him. “Okay. Every kid needs a toy, right?” I tossed a little plastic football into our basket.

“Book?” said Wills.

“How can I turn that down?” I let him choose two little cardboard books.

“Truck?”

“Sure, why not? It’s all on You-Know-Who.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.