there was no more breath in me.
I came to 1396 Harbert hoping there might be an envelope clothespinned on the door or the letterbox. There was no porch light on. I walked up the steps and rang the bell not knowing if I could get Paperboy out of my mouth if Mrs. Worthington came to the door. I wanted to see her in her green dress even if I couldn’t say anything. I rang the bell again. No answer.
I started for Rat’s house feeling like I do whenever an umpire calls off our ball game because the field is too wet.
Rat’s mother saw that my lip was swollen but she didn’t ask what had happened when I handed her the night’s collection. Rat’s mother was nice but I could tell that she was one of those grown-ups who always was uncomfortable talking to me.
When I got home I could see Mam in the kitchen. I didn’t want Mam or my parents to see my busted lip so instead of going in the kitchen door I went in the outside back door that led to the back stairs.
In my room I looked harder at the corner of the dollar bill. I saw that the word
student
was printed in a careful hand. I guessed that Mr. Spiro had written the word. I wondered if he kept parts of dollar bills lying around his house with words hand-lettered on them. I decided to put the piece of a dollar in my leather billfold that my father had brought me from one of his trips. I kept it in my desk drawer along with my wristwatch that I had stopped wearing after a friend of my mother’s asked me what time it was and I couldn’t say it and the man thought I was an ignoramus who couldn’t tell time. I liked the watch because it had the kind of metal band that slipped over my hand but all it was good for was to put around my billfold.
While I was at my desk my mother called from the hall that she and my father were going out to eat with friends and that Mam was cooking fried chicken for me.
I changed shirts and went down to the kitchen. Mam was putting a big plate of chicken on the table.
Law me, Little Man. How’d you bust that lip?
I told Mam I tripped over a curb trying to get home before dark. I didn’t lie to Mam very often because I knew she would catch me quicker than most grown-ups.
Wants me to cut some chicken off the bone for you?
s-s-s-s-Takes more than s-s-s-s-bus … more than a s-s-s-s-fat lip to s-s-s-s-keep me away from your s-s-s-s-chicken.
Mam smiled because she knew I used up a lot of words to try to pay her a compliment. I ate three pieces.
Mam was working in the kitchen when my parents got back home from eating out. I went to the top of the stairs to try to hear what they were talking about. My mother started telling Mam what to order from the grocery and what to cook for the week. Mam never wrote anything down but she could remember every little thing my mother told her.
I heard Mam open the pantry door to put away her apron and then my father came into the kitchen.
Good night, Nellie.
Mr. V., if you see that junkman Ara T hanging ’round here be sure and lets me know.
Sure, Nellie. Which one is he?
He be the tall one always in a coat and hat and has the most junk fixed to his cart.
What’s the problem?
I knows him a little and I just don’t trust that man to leave stuff alone.
I think I know the one you’re talking about. I’ll keep an eye out. By the way, Nellie, how do you think our boy did on his first night of collecting?
I reckon all right, Mr. V. He ate him a big supper.
Sleep was a hard time coming after what had happened on Mr. Spiro’s porch and I couldn’t figure out why Mam was so down on Ara T.
I watched the shadows on the ceiling that cars made with their headlights when they came down the street. I didn’t much like talking to strangers but I wanted to talk to Mr. Spiro again and to Mrs. Worthington. I thought about the first time I had seen her in her green housecoat with the flaps that she couldn’t keep closed. But the thing that kept me awake the most that night was that I wouldn’t have any
I came to 1396 Harbert hoping there might be an envelope clothespinned on the door or the letterbox. There was no porch light on. I walked up the steps and rang the bell not knowing if I could get Paperboy out of my mouth if Mrs. Worthington came to the door. I wanted to see her in her green dress even if I couldn’t say anything. I rang the bell again. No answer.
I started for Rat’s house feeling like I do whenever an umpire calls off our ball game because the field is too wet.
Rat’s mother saw that my lip was swollen but she didn’t ask what had happened when I handed her the night’s collection. Rat’s mother was nice but I could tell that she was one of those grown-ups who always was uncomfortable talking to me.
When I got home I could see Mam in the kitchen. I didn’t want Mam or my parents to see my busted lip so instead of going in the kitchen door I went in the outside back door that led to the back stairs.
In my room I looked harder at the corner of the dollar bill. I saw that the word
student
was printed in a careful hand. I guessed that Mr. Spiro had written the word. I wondered if he kept parts of dollar bills lying around his house with words hand-lettered on them. I decided to put the piece of a dollar in my leather billfold that my father had brought me from one of his trips. I kept it in my desk drawer along with my wristwatch that I had stopped wearing after a friend of my mother’s asked me what time it was and I couldn’t say it and the man thought I was an ignoramus who couldn’t tell time. I liked the watch because it had the kind of metal band that slipped over my hand but all it was good for was to put around my billfold.
While I was at my desk my mother called from the hall that she and my father were going out to eat with friends and that Mam was cooking fried chicken for me.
I changed shirts and went down to the kitchen. Mam was putting a big plate of chicken on the table.
Law me, Little Man. How’d you bust that lip?
I told Mam I tripped over a curb trying to get home before dark. I didn’t lie to Mam very often because I knew she would catch me quicker than most grown-ups.
Wants me to cut some chicken off the bone for you?
s-s-s-s-Takes more than s-s-s-s-bus … more than a s-s-s-s-fat lip to s-s-s-s-keep me away from your s-s-s-s-chicken.
Mam smiled because she knew I used up a lot of words to try to pay her a compliment. I ate three pieces.
Mam was working in the kitchen when my parents got back home from eating out. I went to the top of the stairs to try to hear what they were talking about. My mother started telling Mam what to order from the grocery and what to cook for the week. Mam never wrote anything down but she could remember every little thing my mother told her.
I heard Mam open the pantry door to put away her apron and then my father came into the kitchen.
Good night, Nellie.
Mr. V., if you see that junkman Ara T hanging ’round here be sure and lets me know.
Sure, Nellie. Which one is he?
He be the tall one always in a coat and hat and has the most junk fixed to his cart.
What’s the problem?
I knows him a little and I just don’t trust that man to leave stuff alone.
I think I know the one you’re talking about. I’ll keep an eye out. By the way, Nellie, how do you think our boy did on his first night of collecting?
I reckon all right, Mr. V. He ate him a big supper.
Sleep was a hard time coming after what had happened on Mr. Spiro’s porch and I couldn’t figure out why Mam was so down on Ara T.
I watched the shadows on the ceiling that cars made with their headlights when they came down the street. I didn’t much like talking to strangers but I wanted to talk to Mr. Spiro again and to Mrs. Worthington. I thought about the first time I had seen her in her green housecoat with the flaps that she couldn’t keep closed. But the thing that kept me awake the most that night was that I wouldn’t have any
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