Jack Adrift
Page 13
“Tell the truth,” Mom said. “Don’t you envy him?”
“Nope,” Dad replied. “I don’t. I’d rather hang around here and have my blood sucked out by you human mosquitoes than sit around by myself until I go insane.”
“I thought we drove you insane,” I said, taking advantage of his good mood to ask him an honest question.
“You’re too late for that. It’s pretty clear to me that I went insane years ago. How else can I explain how I married your mother and had you three wild things?”
“Let’s go for a walk along the beach tonight,” Mom suggested, and pushed back in her chair.
“What about the mosquitoes?” Betsy asked.
“If you walk along the surf,” Mom explained, “the breeze keeps them away.”
“Can we stop for ice cream?” Pete hollered.
“Sure,” Mom said.
They all stood up and headed for the door.
I stayed in my chair. “Why don’t you all go, and I’ll just put my feet up and enjoy the peace and quiet?” I suggested.
Dad smiled at me. “You are sounding more like me every day,” he said, back-stepping toward me. He reached out and curled his hand around my head and pulled me close to his side. “Keep up the good work and someday you might grow up and realize your old man was a genius.”
“You bet,” I said.
“Now, let’s get this party started,” he said, snapping his fingers and doing a little shuffle dance. “Last one to the beach will be sacrificed to the mosquitoes!”
We all lurched for the door and ran out and across the sandy yard, across the warm tar road, and up over the dunes until we could spot the bright path of the rising moon shine over the sea like a silver lining rolling toward the shore. I walked into the surf as the light shimmered around me. For once we didn’t have to search for a silver lining. It had found us.
BY JACK GANTOS
Heads or Tails: Stories from the Sixth Grade
Jack’s New Power: Stories from a Caribbean Year
Desire Lines
Jack’s Black Book
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
Jack on the Tracks: Four Seasons of Fifth Grade
Joey Pigza Loses Control
Hole in My Life
What Would Joey Do?
Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade without a Clue
Copyright © 2003 by Jack Gantos
All rights reserved
Designed by Nancy Goldenberg
ISBN 978-0-374-39987-0
eISBN 9780374706135
First eBook Edition : April 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gantos, Jack.
Jack Adrift : fourth grade without a clue / Jack Gantos.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: When his father rejoins the Navy and moves the family to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, nine-year-old Jack becomes confused by a crush on his teacher, contradictory advice from his parents, and a very strange neighbor.
[I. Teacher-student relationships—Fiction. 2. Family life—North Carolina—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Moving, Household—Fiction. 5. North Carolina—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.G15334Jaak 2003
[Fic]—dc21