Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth by Sandra Dutton

Author:Sandra Dutton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Children's Books
ISBN: 9780547249667
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2010-06-28T10:00:00+00:00

11. Ranzone's Kitchen

Herschel's doing his report on starfish. Miss Sizemore gives him a book on them, and she finds me a book, too, The Wonder of the Trilobite. It shows trilobites found near the Falls of the Ohio. When the river's low, you can walk way out and see them, she says.

I'm learning all kinds of things from this book:

Trilobites had their stomachs in their heads.

They caught their food with their prickly legs.

Some trilobites carried their babies on their head in something called a bubble sac.

Lots of them had real good eyes, could see all the way around and behind.

When a trilobite molted, it broke the front of its shell, up near the head, and crawled out.

I put all that into my report and then turn it in.

At home me and Granny sing all the verses for our song.

"Trilobite crab, trilobite crab,

He don't need no taxicab.

Critter and a swimmer from another age.

Don't need a tank and he don't need a cage.

"Trilobite crab, trilobite crab,

Little bitty eyes and a nose like a scab.

Rolls in a ball like a little pill bug.

Swims in the water and he sings, 'Glub, glub.'

"Trilobite crab, trilobite crab,

Who's his mom and who's his dad?

Eats up worms, then rolls in a ball

Hides from the squid with the big eyeball.

"Trilobite crab, trilobite crab.

Rolls in the mud and likes to gab.

Cracks his suit, that's how he grows.

Molts his shell from head to toes."

Thursday, Granny says she'll take us all out to dinner. They got an early-bird special at Ranzone's Kitchen. That's Mama and Daddy's favorite restaurant.

There's a line out the door, but I don't mind since they got this big tank outside where you can watch the fish. It's like a playpen, and you can just stand there and look down on all them lobsters. They got a big old rubber band on each claw, I guess to keep them from tearing each other apart.

But there's this little crab a-setting in the corner all by hisself. If you ain't seen a crab, here's what one looks like. He's got a top like a mushroom, only it's hard, and all these little legs that come sprouting out like a spider's, and then under his chin, he's got these two little feelers he's a-rubbing together like he's trying to think of what to do next. But I tell you, that ain't nothing compared with his eyes—he's got eyes that look just like a trilobite's, setting on each side of his head.

This little crab, he's backed off and trying to stay away from them lobsters. You can tell he's scared, just shifting back and forth like a little prizefighter. And I get to thinking about my trilobite, him setting in the water five hundred million years ago, watching out for them squids that might eat him up.

And I know just by watching that crab that my trilobite was alive, whether Mama thinks so or not. I know the Lord loved that trilobite as much as he loves this crab. Trilobite shells wasn't put in the ground to trick us.

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