Confusion Is Nothing New by Paul Acampora

Author:Paul Acampora [Acampora, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

When I get home, I find Dad in the kitchen stabbing a hole in a wall with an old chef’s knife. “What are you doing?” I ask.

“I’m looking for the wooden part behind the plaster.”

“The stud?”

“Whatever. It needs to hold up a shelf.”

“You’re making a shelf?” Despite his ability to make magic with saucepots and frying pans, Dad is not handy when it comes to home repair.

He finds a pencil and makes a little mark on the wall. “It’s not going to make itself.”

“Wait till tomorrow,” I say. “We can work on it together.”

“Now you want to do something together?”

It’s possible Dad is still angry that I left him alone for Halloween.

“You’re the cook, not the carpenter.” Thanks to several million how-to videos on YouTube, I’m usually the one in charge of fix-it projects and repair jobs. “Let me help.”

Dad grabs a hammer off the kitchen table. “Carpenters make things. Cooks make things. I’ve got this, Ellie.”

I take the hammer out of Dad’s hands. “Birds make eggs, but you wouldn’t ask a parakeet to cook an omelet.”

“I bet I could teach a crow to grill a burger,” he tells me.

“I’ll grill you a burger if you let me do the shelf.”

“I don’t need a burger,” Dad says. “I need pizza. Actually, I need a pizza truck. I found out yesterday that Trinity College is going to offer pizza on wheels in the spring.”

I don’t understand at first. “Did they steal your idea?”

Dad shakes his head. “I told my boss about Pizza Alato! about a year ago. He liked it a lot. We’ve been working to make it part of Trinity’s food service program. We learned yesterday that everything’s been approved. Starting next year, Pizza Alato! is going to be at Trinity football games, reunion weekends, homecoming, and special events all over campus.”

“Wow!” I drop into a kitchen chair. “That’s amazing!”

Dad takes a seat across from me. “Not only that, I can suggest that they sell the business to me in a few years. I was hoping to tell you all about it when we handed out trick-or-treat candy together.”

“Oh.”

He points at the wall where the shelf will go. “I want to make some storage space for the pizza stuff.”

“Please let me help you with that,” I say again.

Dad stares at the wall, then turns back to me. “Okay.”

“Thank you.”

Dad points at my Good Witch costume. “Glinda?”

“Locasta.”

“Very nice.”

“We went to Mr. Leary’s house.”

“Billy Leary?” asks Dad.

“He’s Sister Stephanie’s brother.”

“I know that.”

“He’s our music teacher now.”

“He used to be a big rock and roll star,” says Dad.

“He says not so big.” I reach into the trick-or-treat bag I left on the floor. I pull out the CD from Mr. Leary and hand it to my father. “He gave me this.”

Dad takes it.

“Wilma Korkenderfer’s name is on it,” I tell him.

Dad examines the disc, then slides it back across the table. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

Dad shrugs. “Okay.”

“That’s all you have to say about it?”

“What do you want me to say, Ellie?”

“I—” I stop. “I have no idea.

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