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Show Peppermint Monday how to talk to kids and treat them like grown-ups. It was surprising that she did because Grandma Ruby was an old spinster. She'd never had any kids or her own, so she claimed all the kids in town, and they all claimed her. Everybody called her Grandma Ruby, even pa. Both of my grandmas--were dead, so she was extra special to me. She never pushed things too far, like mushy stuff for instance. She mew how to pat you on the shoulder or ruffle your hair to make you feel special. She didn't have to hug you tight and smother you with kisses like some grandmas did. I didn't mind a kiss now and then, but Jason thought they were disgusting. I guess Grandma Ruby knew all about how boys feel on the subject, because she never kissed the boys, just ruffled their hair. I thought about what she said all that week and clear until Wednesday of the next week. That was the dreaded day of Barton's arrival. I wore black to school. "Isn't your cousin coming today?" Andrea had a small mirror out of her purse and was trying to comb her hair while the bus bumped along. She had got it cut a few days earlier, and was still trying to train it to a style. I'd liked it better long, but didn't tell her because she had saved all of her baby-sitting money just to pay for the -cut. That was a lot of hours with her twin brothers. I hadn't been around babies a whole lot, but I'd been around enough to know her brothers were worse than most. They cried more, wet their diapers more, ate more, and slept less. Andrea had certainly earned her unattractive haircut. "Yeah, he's coming. You won't like him, though." "How do you know? I might find him terribly irrestible." "Anything could happen, but I wouldn't count on it. He's a lot different |
