Saucy and Bubba by Darcy Pattison

Author:Darcy Pattison [Pattison, Darcy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Children’s Fiction, Preteen, Middle Grade, Fantasy, fairy tale
ISBN: 9781629440101
Publisher: Mims House
Published: 2014-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

13

The Neighbor

After leaving the store, it took Saucy and Bubba thirty minutes to find a new store. Saucy insisted they just buy the groceries and hurry out. It took another thirty minutes to circle back around to Aunt Vivian’s house. By then, it was six o’clock and they were ready to sneak back into the house and settle down to more TV.

But a neighbor was raking fall leaves. He wore jeans and an old T-shirt that stretched too tight over his belly. He’d already finished the front yard and was working on the side yard nearest Aunt Vivian’s house. He had a full view of both the front walk and the back door.

They had to walk past Aunt Vivian’s house and circle back around to the alley. They crawled under some bushes to wait. Bubba whined, and Saucy squirmed. But the neighbor was determined to bag every single leaf in his yard. It was a big yard, empty except for a dog house on the far side of the yard. Bubba counted fourteen trees. Fourteen trees and billions of leaves.

By the time the man filled twelve black bags with leaves his shirt was streaked with sweat, and he was puffing. Saucy thought maybe he would finish and go in soon. Bubba had to count each bag, but he got bored and started counting how many times the man raked.

“Shh,” Saucy warned.

Bubba frowned and was quiet for a minute. Then he started counting the red berries on their hiding bushes. Wearily, Saucy pointed to his calculator. Distracted by the calculator, he was quiet for a few minutes.

When he got tired of that, Saucy pulled out her notebook and found a clean sheet. Together, they wrote out the budget for their trip:

Bubba’s Budget:

Words by Saucy, Numbers by Bubba

Day 1: Start with $100.00

Small notebook, 50 pages $ .63

One Sprite $ .55

One ice cream sandwich $ 1.01

Two bus tickets 2 x $16.69 $33.38

Hot chocolate and advice $2.00

Total food: $ 3.56

Total transport: $33.38

Total bed: Free

Total misilanus: $ 0.63

Grand total: $35.57

Balance: $64.37

Day 2:

Cookies–Chocolate Chip $2.49

White Milk $1.89

Peanut butter (smooth) $2.59

Bread $.89

Tax $.39

Total $8.25

Balance $56.18

Saucy finished the words, and Bubba checked the numbers. In just two days, they had spent over half their money. Saucy wondered how long they could stay here at Aunt Vivian’s.

The neighbor was still working. He piled the twelve bags into a wheelbarrow and pushed them around to the street. It looked like he was done. Saucy hoped he would go inside. Instead, he stretched his arms skyward, sighed, and went to the back yard to finish raking there.

Saucy wanted to cry. She was so tired of keeping Bubba quiet and hidden. She decided to risk crawling through the shrubs to the door. When she explained this to Bubba, he took off crawling, kicking up a cloud of dust.

She closed her eyes against the dust, but suddenly, Saucy sneezed.

From the neighbor’s yard came a bark. A small border collie with a bright red collar charged out of the dog house. It barked at the bushes where Saucy and Bubba hid, then charged closer.

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