Sardines by Sashi Kaufman

Author:Sashi Kaufman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

SATURDAY WAS LAUNDRY DAY, AND DAD’S PATIENCE WITH me being sick was over. He woke me up with a loud rapping on my door and told me to get my clothes together and meet him out by the truck. I stuffed everything I had into an olive-green duffel bag. I pulled on my last clean pair of boxers and a not-so-clean pair of jeans, brushed my teeth, and headed out to the truck.

“You’re feeling better,” Dad said.

I just nodded. It wasn’t like he even said it like a real question.

Across from the Laundromat was a bar that stayed open at weird hours. Dad put in the wash and then left me there while he went across the street. I wandered around the Laundromat, picking up any reading material that might be remotely interesting. The town weekly took only about seven minutes to read, even with all the boring classifieds.

After that there was half a ripped People magazine and the Boston Globe sports section. I played on my DS for a while until the batteries died, which they always did because it was so old. It had actually been Charlie’s. Then I just lay down across a bunch of the plastic seats, let my head dangle backward over the end, and watched the soapy laundry swish back and forth inside the metal cylinder. There was only one other person sitting in the Laundromat that morning: an older woman knitting something maroon and shapeless. I could feel her glaring at me when I put my feet up on the seats, but I didn’t really care.

I swished my head back and forth with the rhythm of the sudsy water. I was almost getting sleepy when I heard familiar voices. I shot up and then just as quickly ducked back down. Anna Perkins and her mother were walking quickly down the sidewalk. Their voices were loud and angry. I slid up to the window nearest to where they were standing, but I still couldn’t make out any full sentences, just something about friends and reputations. The knitting lady scowled at me as if she knew what I was trying to do.

I waited a minute or so after their voices faded and then scooted out the door and down the sidewalk in the same direction. Anna was walking slowly behind her mother, her head down. Her mother grabbed a cart from in front of the supermarket and pushed it through the automatic door, which swung open just a split second before she would have crashed through it. The whole time, she had her phone pinned between her shoulder and her ear.

I followed them into the store and stood at the end of the aisle and watched as Anna tossed things into the cart only to have her mother discard half of them without even looking to see what they were. A few times she picked up an item, appeared to read the label, and then put it back on the shelf. Anna just kept adding things and her mother kept taking them out.

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