Paper Things by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

Author:Jennifer Richard Jacobson [Jacobson, Jennifer Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7045-0
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2015-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

We follow Reggie across town to the storage units. First Reggie has to tap a code on a keypad clipped to a tall metal fence. After we go through the gate in the fence, he has to type the code into a box outside the door of a très big brick building, which looks kind of like a garage. Once we’re inside, he leads us down a brightly lit hall of shed doors until we arrive at number 26. Then he taps in another code, and the door opens to reveal . . . boxes. All I can see is a wall of boxes. Boxes that seem to go all the way up to the tall ceiling.

I try to hide my disappointment, because I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but I think Reggie was stretching the truth quite a bit to describe this place as apartment-like. To me it just looks like a storage shed. A very crowded storage shed.

But then Amelia leads us on a small path through the boxes — a path I hadn’t even seen. Reggie motions for us to follow her, and so we do, and lo and behold, we come out into a long, skinny room set up just like an apartment!

Along the wall to the left is a camp cot. Next to the cot is a nightstand with a big flashlight on it, and beside that, a camouflage-print dog bed. Along the wall to the right is a long, narrow table. On the table is a plastic jug of water, a small coffeemaker, a cooking burner, and a toaster oven. Next to the table is a little refrigerator, the kind you see in back-to-school flyers advertising stuff for dorm rooms. On top of the refrigerator is a cooking pot, a cup and plate, and a pitcher full of cooking utensils. In the middle of the room sits a handsome coffee table. Right now, there’s a model airplane being built on the coffee table — a plastic one, not a paper one. Reggie sure has a thing for planes.

A camping porta potty sits in the corner at the foot of the bed. “Like I said, it’s pretty modest.” Reggie sounds almost embarrassed.

“It’s wonderful!” I say. Amelia wags her tail in agreement.

Reggie blushes and takes a mattress pad from a box and places it on the floor. He also retrieves a rolled-up sleeping bag and a few quilts, which he tosses onto the cot. “You guys hungry? I’ve got corned-beef hash or tuna noodles.”

I nod, eager to see Reggie prepare a meal in this secret house. But Gage bristles.

“Hey, man,” Gage says. “You don’t have to feed us, too.”

“It’s my pleasure,” says Reggie. “I’d rather eat with the two of you than some of the slobs at the shelter.” He winks at me, and I smile in return.

While Reggie mixes up the Tuna Helper, he tells me where to dig for more dishes and cups. Mixed in among the boxes are a bicycle tire and pump, a pair of ski boots, and a plastic sled.

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