Lula Bell on Geekdom, Freakdom, & the Challenges of Bad Hair by C. C. Payne

Author:C. C. Payne [Payne, C. C.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Self-Esteem & Self-Respect, Children's eBooks, Bullies, Children's Books, Social Skills & School Life, Growing Up & Facts of Life, Friendship, Friendship; Social Skills & School Life
Amazon: B007TX6JVU
Publisher: Two Lions
Published: 2012-10-02T04:00:00+00:00

What a Mess!

I was relieved to find Mama on the phone when I walked into the kitchen, because that meant she couldn’t ask me any questions—at least not right now. When she saw me, she held up her finger, as in, One minute. Please wait.

I nodded, noticing that our kitchen was a total wreck. There were three bags of groceries on the counter by the back door, waiting to be unpacked. In the kitchen sink, our breakfast dishes waited to be washed. On the other side of the sink was a cutting board, where potatoes waited to be cut. Near the stove sat a package of hamburger that had been defrosted in the microwave—I knew that because the edges had cooked and turned brown while defrosting—Mama hates that. On the other side of the stove, near the phone, the counter was loaded with stacks of bills and papers, Mama’s checkbook, and stamps. On the table was a half-full laundry basket next to a folded stack of clean clothes. Next to the table stood the ironing board, with the iron sitting on top of it, sizzling and spitting.

I looked at Mama. She didn’t look much better than our kitchen. She still had silver hair clips attached to her shirt, which was half tucked in and half hanging out. There were three pencils sticking out of her wild, messy hair—and Mama’s hair was never messy. She looked tired, I decided—not mad-tired but tired-tired.

I felt tired, too. I slipped out of my backpack and let it fall to the floor.

Mama turned at the sound, still holding the phone to her ear. Creases appeared between her eyebrows as she looked from my backpack to me and back to my backpack again.

I couldn’t believe that Mama thought my backpack was the problem here. It was as if she’d pointed out a single piece of trash as the problem at the city dump. How did our kitchen get like this? I wondered.

It couldn’t have been Mama’s fault. Mama is neat and organized. She likes for everything to have a place and for everything to be put in its place, not just left lying around. That’s why we have things like the shoe basket, the glove basket, the mail basket, the key basket, the loose change basket, the remote control basket, the catalog basket, and lots of other baskets. We don’t have a backpack basket though, so I picked up my backpack and carried it upstairs to my room.

When I came back down, Mama was off the phone. “Sometimes the other girls down at the shop just drive me crazy—I mean really crazy, like I’d like to rip out big fistfuls of my own hair, you know?”

Now I would’ve thought Mama was talking to someone else, had there been anyone else in the room. But since there wasn’t, I said, “Yes, ma’am,” as though I completely understood how the other girls down at the beauty shop might make a person barking mad, and I resisted the urge

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.