| OCR Text |
Show Peppermint Monday s t i f f l y. "Attract." "Huh?" Barton didn't grasp what I was talking about. "Attract." I repeated. "A seven letter word meaning 'to cause to approach or adhere'." Barton didn't say anything as I disappeared into the kitchen, but I knew he was surprised. I did well with vocabulary words. It was important in debate. I made myself a peanut butter sandwich and tried to decide how soon Renae would approach or adhere. Ma joined me a few minutes later, flushed and smiling. Ma was pretty when she smiled. I wish she could do it more, but I knew ma had a heavy load to bear, heavier than most. "Oh, hi Carly. How was school?" "Fine," I said watching ma intently. Something was different. Surely Barton wasn't totally responsible for her pleasantness. Not that ma wasn't usually pleasant, but today something was different. Ma caught me eyeballing her, and smiled kind of sheepishly, I felt like the mother who had caught her kid's hand in the cookie jar. "Jake's here," she said in explanation, as if that explained anything. "We were wrong about Jake, Carly. Really we were. He's the best medicine Russ could have." Jake being the reason for ma's pleasantness was not what I had expected. Jake had been responsible for my rage, fear, embarrassment, and tears, but never my pleasantness. Ma was overestimating his ability. Everybody had been extra good to Russ lately, and Jake was getting all of the credit. I didn't like it. I didn't like it at all. |
