Embrace the Chicken

Home > Other > Embrace the Chicken > Page 6
Embrace the Chicken Page 6

by Mahtab Narsimhan


  But not for long. “Cam?” Leah thumps on my door.

  “Buzz off.”

  “Cameron!”

  “Okay, okay. Come in if you must.”

  In the morning my sister always looks much younger than seven. She is fresh and clean, and her tantrums from the day before have washed away.

  I sometimes wish I could get away with her hissy fits. I’d love to dump my cereal bowl on the floor just because we’re out of Shreddies.

  Mom keeps threatening to take Leah to a psychologist. I don’t get to freak out. Too many people telling me, “Your mother and sister depend on you. You’re the man of the house now.”

  Real men don’t throw cereal bowls.

  “Can I come in?” Leah stands in the doorway in her purple jammies.

  “You’re in, aren’t you?”

  “I’m hungry.” She walks to my bed and shoves her face into mine. She runs her finger across my top lip. “You’re getting a mustache!”

  I leap out of bed and peer into my mirror. I tip my head one way, then the other. There is a glimmer of hair above my lip. If I wasn’t so fair, I’d have been shaving months ago, like my best friend DJ.

  “You could have Dad’s razor,” says Leah. “If Mom hadn’t thrown it out.”

  When she starts to snivel, I do the only thing that can stop her. “Snap out if it!” I yell. “Or you’ll make me cry too.”

  “You’re mean. It’s okay to cry.” She rolls her bottom lip up over her top lip and sticks out her tongue to lick the snot creeping toward her mouth.

  “Don’t do that. It’s disgusting. And you don’t have to cry every time someone mentions him.”

  “What’s that noise?” Leah asks. She climbs on my bed and pushes the curtain aside. “It’s snowing!” she screeches. She bounces back down. “Let’s get dressed so we can go out in it.”

  “We’ve got school. Anyway, it won’t last.”

  “I want to stay home and play in the snow.” Leah’s already headed to her bedroom. “If we’re out there when Mom gets home, she can’t stop us.”

  Wanna bet? When Mom gets back from her night shift at the hospital, she expects to find us dressed and eating breakfast, with our lunches packed. Some days she’s so tired, she can hardly say hello before she heads to her room, still in her coat.

  I look outside. Then I lean closer. So close I can feel the cool air on the other side of the window. It can’t have been snowing that long. There’s hardly enough to shovel.

  But someone is out there already. And the driveway being shoveled is ours.

  The shoveler is wearing a green parka with the hood pulled up. It’s not Mr. Lyon from next door. He has emphysema. Our neighbors on the other side are in Disneyland with their four kids.

  I pull on a sweatshirt and drag yesterday’s pants over yesterday’s underwear. I hop across the room, first on one leg, then on the other, as I pull on yesterday’s socks.

  Leah is sitting in the middle of the hallway struggling into her snowsuit. “Hurry up,” she says. She frowns down at her zipper. “I wanna make a snowman.”

  “Idiot. There’s not enough snow. Anyway, you’ve grown out of that.” As I push past her, I hear the muffler on Mom’s car. It’s been growling for six months. I can hear it from a block away. “Mom will be here in a minute. Quick. Get to the table.”

  Leah trails after me into the kitchen with the top half of her snowsuit dragging behind her. “Can we have French toast?” she asks.

  “It’s not Sunday.”

  “If Dad was here, he’d make me French toast if I asked.”

  Oh, sure he would! I think. Just like he’d help you do your homework or fix your bike.

  “I don’t want French toast really,” says Leah. “You make it all sloppy.”

  “Quit jabbering on about it, would you!” I say. Can it be possible that she’s a bigger pest now than ever?

  “I want Mommy,” she whines. She struggles out of the snowsuit and drops it in a pink puddle by her chair.

  “Stuff it, will you.” I set out a box of cereal and a jug of milk in front of my whiny sister.

  “You’re mean,” she wails. “You’re the worstest brother in the world.”

  “It’s worst. Not worstest. Eat your breakfast.” I go into the living room and pull back the curtains.

  Outside, Mom is standing on the driveway. There’s some snow on the ground, but hardly enough to stop traffic—or to need clearing yet.

  She’s yelling at a man who is leaning on a shovel. She’s probably mad because the shovel is making a great gouge in her daffodil bed. As she waves her arms, her purse swings to and fro. When it hits the man’s leg, he moves aside. Then he leans toward Mom, talking right into her face.

  He holds up one hand. He’s keeping Mom back, or calming her down. I can’t tell from here.

  I can only make out a bit of what she’s saying. “You have no business…!” she yells. “I’ll report you. If I catch you…”

  The man steps closer, as if he’s begging.

  Let him go, I think. They’re only flowers, for Pete’s sake.

  Mom turns her back on him and heads for the house. As she flings open the front door and rushes inside, a gust of cold air swirls into the room. The door slams behind her.

  Her face is very pale. Her eyelashes glisten with tears. She’s breathing hard.

  “What was that about?” I ask. “Who is that?

  She takes a deep breath in, then lets it shudder out of her as she stares through me. She opens her mouth, but no words come out. Tears wash down her face.

  She takes another ragged breath. “That…” She waves toward the front door and gulps. “That’s the man who killed your father.”

  I rush back to the window. “What? What do you mean?”

  All I see are exhaust fumes as a blue pickup disappears from sight—and a snow shovel sticking out of my mother’s favorite flower bed.

  Titles in the Series

  121 Express

  Monique Polak

  Ace’s Basement

  Ted Staunton

  Agent Angus

  K.L. Denman

  Alibi

  Kristin Butcher

  Bad Business

  Diane Dakers

  Bear Market

  Michele Martin Bossley

  Benched

  Cristy Watson

  Beyond Repair

  Lois Peterson

  The Big Apple Effect

  Christy Goerzen

  The Big Dip

  Melanie Jackson

  Bio-pirate

  Michele Martin Bossley

  Blob

  Frieda Wishinsky

  Bones

  John Wilson

  Branded

  Eric Walters

  Bullies Rule

  Monique Polak

  Bungee Jump

  Pam Withers

  Cabin Girl

  Kristin Butcher

  Caching In

  Kristin Butcher

  Camp Disaster

  Frieda Wishinsky

  Camped Out

  Daphne Greer

  Camp Wild

  Pam Withers

  Caught in the Act

  Deb Loughead

  Chat Room

  Kristin Butcher

  Cheat

  Kristin Butcher

  Chick: Lister

  Alex Van Tol

  Cracked

  Michele Martin Bossley

  Crossbow

  Dayle Campbell Gaetz

  Daredevil Club

  Pam Withers

  Death by Airship

  Arthur Slade

  Death Drop

  Melanie Jackson

  Destination Human

  K.L. Denman

  Disconnect

  Lois Peterson

  Dog Walker

  Karen Spafford-Fitz

  Embrace the Chicken

  Mahtab Narsimhan

  Explore

  Christy Goerzen

  Eyesor
e

  Melanie Jackson

  FaceSpace

  Adrian Chamberlain

  Farmed Out

  Christy Goerzen

  Fast Slide

  Melanie Jackson

  Finding Elmo

  Monique Polak

  Flower Power

  Ann Walsh

  Food Freak

  Alex Van Tol

  Fraud Squad

  Michele Martin Bossley

  Gold

  John Wilson

  Hate Mail

  Monique Polak

  High Wire

  Melanie Jackson

  Hold the Pickles

  Vicki Grant

  Horse Power

  Ann Walsh

  Hypnotized

  Don Trembath

  In a Flash

  Eric Walters

  In the Buff

  Vicki Grant

  Jungle Jitters

  Lisa Dalrymple

  Junkyard Dog

  Monique Polak

  Laggan Lard Butts

  Eric Walters

  Leggings Revolt

  Monique Polak

  Living Rough

  Cristy Watson

  Lost

  John Wilson

  Manga Touch

  Jacqueline Pearce

  Marked

  Norah McClintock

  Maxed Out

  Daphne Greer

  Medusa’s Scream

  Melanie Jackson

  Mirror Image

  K.L. Denman

  Nine Doors

  Vicki Grant

  On Cue

  Cristy Watson

  Oracle

  Alex Van Tol

  Out of Season

  Kari Jones

  Payback

  Deb Loughead

  Perfect Revenge

  K.L. Denman

  Pigboy

  Vicki Grant

  Power Chord

  Ted Staunton

  Pyro

  Monique Polak

  Queen of the Toilet

  Bowl

  Frieda Wishinsky

  Quiz Queens

  K.L. Denman

  Rebel’s Tag

  K.L. Denman

  Reckless

  Lesley Choyce

  Rise of the Zombie

  Scarecrows

  Deb Loughead

  Room 555

  Cristy Watson

  Running Behind

  Sylvia Taekema

  See No Evil

  Diane Young

  Sewer Rats

  Sigmund Brouwer

  The Shade

  K.L. Denman

  Shadow

  Mere Joyce

  Shatterproof

  Jocelyn Shipley

  Siege

  Jacqueline Pearce

  Skate Freak

  Lesley Choyce

  Slick

  Sara Cassidy

  The Snowball Effect

  Deb Loughead

  Special Edward

  Eric Walters

  Splat!

  Eric Walters

  Spoiled Rotten

  Dayle Campbell Gaetz

  Stolen

  John Wilson

  Storm Tide

  Kari Jones

  Struck

  Deb Loughead

  Stuff We All Get

  K.L. Denman

  Sudden Impact

  Lesley Choyce

  Swiped

  Michele Martin Bossley

  Tampered

  Michele Martin Bossley

  Taz’s Recipe

  Diane Tullson

  Tick Tock Terror

  Melanie Jackson

  Three Good Things

  Lois Peterson

  Unity Club

  Karen Spafford-Fitz

  Vanish

  Karen Spafford-Fitz

  Watch Me

  Norah McClintock

  Wildfire

  Deb Loughead

  Windfall

  Sara Cassidy

  Winter Road

  Kristen Butcher

  Wired

  Sigmund Brouwer

  For more information on all the books in the Orca Currents series, please visit

  orcabook.com.

 

 

 


‹ Prev