Scorpions Novel by Walter Dean Myers

Author:Walter Dean Myers
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2008-11-07T14:50:50+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Jamal’s first day was Saturday. He had to deliver packages and help in the store from ten in the morning until one in the afternoon.

“I’ll give you fifteen dollars,” Mr. Gonzalez had said. “And you can make some money on tips. But you got to be nice to people. Don’t have a fresh mouth.”

Jamal divided fifteen into two thousand. It came to a hundred and thirty-three. If he only worked on Saturdays, it would take him over two years to get the money to get Randy out.

“Suppose you work every day,” Sassy said. “How long would it take you?”

“Mr. Gonzalez don’t need nobody every day,”

Mama said. “Jamal be doing okay if he just help us out some.”

Jamal thought about other things he could do with two thousand dollars. One thing he could do was buy a car. He couldn’t get a new car, but he could get a used car.

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“Mama, can you drive?”

“Sure I can drive,” Mama said.

“If I got the whole two thousand dollars, we could buy a car,” Jamal said.

“What we need a car for?” Mama asked.

Jamal shrugged. The thought of having a car made him smile. Maybe he couldn’t get a new car, but he could get a nearly new car. He imagined himself driving it. In two years he would be fourteen and still couldn’t get a license, but he could let Mama drive it and he could sit up front with her and let Sassy sit in the back. Maybe they could go upstate in the car to see Randy. Randy would look out the window and see him sitting in the car. He would be sitting in the driver’s seat too.

He carried two boxes of groceries between ten and ten thirty. The first lady gave him a quarter, and the man, an old man who was thin and walked with a cane, gave him a dollar. When he wasn’t carrying groceries, Mr. Gonzalez had him bring boxes of canned foods from the basement and put them on the shelves.

It felt good having a job. When people came into the store, they asked him questions. Things like where the bread was, or how much a package of franks cost.

He didn’t know all the answers, but he knew some of them, and it made him feel good to be the one people asked.

Not too many people wanted their groceries de-124

livered. One woman had bought a whole box of heavy stuff that she wanted carried home with her, and Jamal thought he was going to drop it before he got it to her house.

He had tried to carry the box on his shoulder, but it hurt his shoulder. Then he tried to carry it on his head like he had seen some African dudes do on television, but that was even worse. It hurt his head something terrible, and his arms got tired from just holding the package up. He didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to lose the job.

“You’re the weakest boy I have ever seen in my life.

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