Jasper John Dooley, Left Behind

by Caroline Adderson

  “Can Jasper come over?” Ori asked.

  “I can’t,” Jasper said. “I’m wounded.”

  “The thing is,” Ori said, “we have a whole bunch of wood left over from our renovation. My dad said I could build something.”

  “With a hammer?” Jasper asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I didn’t know you were renovating,” Mom said.

  “What is renovating?” Jasper asked.

  “It’s a new room in the basement,” Ori told him.

  “I’ll be better tomorrow for sure,” Jasper said, and Ori waved and went off down the alley to his own house.

  At home, Jasper flopped down on the sofa and lifted his shirt for Mom. “Wow,” she said. “I’ve never seen such a nice Band-Aid.”

  “I love it,” Jasper told her. “I’m going to wear it for the rest of my life.”

  When Dad got home, Jasper told him the whole long story about why he was lying on the sofa. He told him about the iceberg, the stapler and the snake.

  “Hold on, Jasper John,” Dad said, and he sat on the sofa and put Jasper’s head in his lap. “I’d like to hear more about that snake.”

  “Nan doesn’t like snakes. This one was six miles long. His tail kept getting hurt. Cars ran over it. People stepped on it. Doors slammed on it.”

  “Ouch,” Dad said. “Maybe you can answer this question. It’s something I’ve wondered all my life. Where does the snake’s body end and its tail start?”

  “That’s a good question,” Jasper said.

  “It’s a hard question,” Dad said.

  Jasper thought a little, and then he smiled. “I know the answer.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes,” Jasper said. “A snake’s tail actually starts at the end.”

  “Jasper John Dooley,” Dad said. “You astound me.”

  “It hurt so much when the staple went in,” Jasper said. “I have three holes now.”

  “Three holes?”

  “Yes. One from Nan leaving. Two from when the staple went in.”

  “Ouch, ouch, ouch,” Dad said.

  Because of the three holes, Jasper got to lie on the sofa and watch cartoons until supper. He got to eat supper on the sofa, too.

  At bedtime, Mom and Dad said, “We’re quite sure you’ll feel better in the morning, Jasper.”

  “What day is tomorrow?” Jasper asked.

  “Tuesday.”

  “Good. I just don’t want it to be Wednesday.”

  “David?” Jasper’s mom said to his dad. “Did you tell him about Wednesday?”

  “Not a word,” Dad said.

  “Wednesday is when I won’t be able to play Go Fish for jujubes with Nan because she left me behind,” Jasper said.

  “Maybe you can play Go Fish for jujubes with the new baby-sitter,” Dad said.

  “David!” Mom said. She punched Dad on the arm.

  “Ouch!”

  Jasper sat up. “What baby-sitter? What baby-sitter are you talking about? Nan baby-sits me.”

  “Her name is Annie,” Mom said.

  “Annie? No! Yuck!”

  Chapter 3

  When Jasper woke the next day, it seemed as if Nan had been gone a long time. Jasper didn’t know exactly how long. He wondered if she’d seen an iceberg yet. Then he remembered his holes and lifted his pajama top to look at the Band-Aid. Wounded! He lay back down.

  Finally, Mom came to his room to find out why Jasper wasn’t getting out of bed.

  “I think I should stay home from school and work on my lint collection,” Jasper said.

  “Why?” Mom asked.

  “I had a bad dream last night.”

  “Really?” Mom crossed her arms. She crossed her arms whenever she didn’t believe what Jasper was saying. But Jasper really had had a scary dream last night after lying awake for a long time thinking so so so scary thoughts about Annie the baby-sitter.

  “It was about the baby-sitter! She was so so so so old and instead of eyes — Mom? Instead of eyes?”

  “What?”

  “She had jujubes! One was green and one was yellow!”

  Mom shivered. “That does sound horrible. But Annie isn’t old at all. She’s sixteen and probably has normal eyes.”

  Jasper crossed his arms. He didn’t believe her.

  “Listen, Jasper,” Mom said. “I got an idea last night. Since you like writing so much, why don’t you write down everything that happens to you this week? Write down what happens while Nan is gone. You can read it to her when she gets back. She’ll want to know what she’s missed.”

  “Nothing’s happened,” Jasper said.

  “What are you talking about?” Mom said. “Yesterday you stapled your story to yourself.”

  “That’s the other reason I should stay home and work on my lint collection,” Jasper said, putting his hands over his Band-Aid.

  “Okay. Fine. But if you stay home, you won’t be able to go to Ori’s after school and build.”

  Jasper got up right away because he really wanted to hammer.

  As he was undressing, Jasper stopped to admire his caterpillar-colored Band-Aid again. Then he thought of something. “Mom!” he called. “Mom! What if my Band-Aid comes off while I’m at school? I’ll start to pththth.”

  Mom came over and checked the Band-Aid. “It’s on good and tight.”

  “I want another one. On top of this one. Just in case.”

  Mom went to the cupboard and came back with another Band-Aid, a plain one. “Are you sure you want to cover it? You like it so much.”

  “I don’t want to,” Jasper said. “I have to.”

  So she put a plain Band-Aid over the special one, which was too bad.

  Jasper said, “Better make it two.”

  That day at school, after calendar and Star of the Week, they played What Am I? Jasper loved What Am I? Ms. Tosh waited for all the kids to settle at their tables, which took a long time, then she picked somebody to come to the front of the room. The person who was picked had to pretend to be something they were learning about. Everybody else had to guess what it was. They could be somebody in a story they were reading. They could be something from science or math. Jasper put up his hand for a turn, but Ms. Tosh picked Ori.

  Ori went to the front of the room and curled up into a tiny ball.

  “You’re a baby!” Leon called.

  Ori didn’t move. He stayed curled up.

  “You’re a rock!” Jasper shouted.

  Slowly, Ori began to uncurl and rise on his knees. Slowly, he spread his arms. Slowly, he lifted his smile to the ceiling.

  “You’re a seed!” Zoë screamed. “You’re a seed growing into a plant!”

  Last week all the kids had planted beans in little pots.

  “Yes,” Ori said, and he went back to his table.

  “Very good, Ori,” Ms. Tosh said.

  Jasper put up his hand to go next. He waved it so hard his arm almost fell off. But the person who guessed right always got the next turn, so Ms. Tosh picked Zoë. As soon as Zoë put her feet together and her arms straight out at her sides, everybody shouted out at the same time. Everybody knew she was the plus sign. Because everybody had shouted out at once, Ms. Tosh didn’t know who should take a turn. Jasper waved his hand again. Then he remembered he had a tissue in his pocket, the tissue he had waved to Nan with when she was going up the ramp of the ship. He took it out and fluttered it.

  “Jasper,” Ms. Tosh said.

  Jasper was going to be Hammy. He was going to wriggle his nose and pretend to run on his wheel making the Whirr! Whirr! Whirr! sound. But as he marched up to the front of the class stuffing the tissue back in his pocket, he remembered Nan going up the ramp of the ship and stopping to blow him kisses. He had caught them in the tissue, but now Nan’s kisses had f
allen out all over the floor. All day kids would walk on them with their dirty shoes. When a reading group met on the carpet, everybody would plop their bums right down on Nan’s kisses.

  “Jasper,” Ms. Tosh said. “We’re waiting.”

  Jasper stuck his hand under his shirt, over his three Band-Aids. Three Band-Aids weren’t enough if Nan wasn’t coming back by Wednesday to save him from Annie with the jujube eyes.

  Through the window, he saw that it was raining. On the way to school, Dad had told Jasper that if it was raining on the cruise, Nan might not be able to see any icebergs. Then why had she even gone away? Why?

  “Jasper?”

  Jasper got down on his knees and curled up like Ori had, but not so tight.

  “He’s a seed, too,” Isabel guessed.

  “He’s an egg.”

  “He’s a ball.”

  “He’s moving!”

  Slowly, Jasper started to float across the carpet. He floated so slowly it was hard to see that he was moving at all.

  “He’s a bug!”

  “Give us a hint,” somebody asked, but Jasper didn’t answer because icebergs can’t talk.

  “Jasper,” Ms. Tosh said. “Can you give us a hint?”

  “I’m white,” Jasper said.

  “He’s a snowball!”

  “He’s a dirty tissue in a ball!”

  Everybody laughed.

  “Another hint!”

  “I’m really big,” Jasper said. “I’m really big, and I can’t talk.”

  That was all Jasper would say. For a long time the kids kept trying to guess what Jasper was, but they were never right. Then Ms. Tosh asked everybody to take out their spelling books and copy the words for the week off the board. After everybody got busy, Ms. Tosh came over to the iceberg and crouched down with her warm hand on the iceberg’s back. She whispered in the iceberg’s ear, “Jasper? Is everything all right?” She rubbed his back and soon the iceberg didn’t feel so cold anymore. He could stand up and go back to his table and spell.

  Chapter 4

  After school, it was still raining. Instead of going home, Jasper went to Ori’s, across the alley and one house down. Ori showed him the mountain of wet wood in the backyard left over from the renovation. Jasper sniffed it. It smelled nice and woody. “Let’s get started,” he said.

  “The thing is,” Ori said, “my mom said we couldn’t play outside if it’s raining.”

  “Can we build inside?”

  “That’s the other thing,” Ori said. “No. But anyway, before we build, we need to make a plan. Never build anything without a plan. We didn’t have one for our renovation. Then we had to pay somebody to come and do it right.”

  They went inside to eat a snack and make a plan. Ori’s mom gave them celery sticks and cheese. Jasper ate the cheese but put his celery sticks behind his ears, like pencils. “Why are you putting celery behind your ears?” Ori asked.

  “It helps me think,” Jasper said, but really it was because he hated celery. Jasper adjusted the celery sticks. “That’s better. Now I’ll be able to make a plan.”

  “Let’s build a fort,” Ori said.

  “Everybody builds a fort,” Jasper said, and Ori agreed that a fort wasn’t very original.

  Jasper twiddled the sticks, thinking, until Ori finished crunching his celery. Then Jasper took the sticks out from behind his ears and asked, “Can I see the renovation?”

  They went down to the basement. There was a new wall with a white door in it where there hadn’t been a door or a wall before. Ori opened the door. Inside was an empty room. The walls were white and so clean and bright the boys had to shield their eyes. “Can we go in?” Jasper asked.

  “Just don’t touch the walls,” Ori said.

  Standing in the middle of the room was like standing inside an iceberg. Or a — “Cruise ship,” Jasper said.

  “What?”

  “Let’s build a cruise ship.”

  By the time Jasper’s mom came to pick him up, Ori and Jasper had finished their plan, which turned out to be a drawing. They showed it to Jasper’s mom. It was a drawing of a ship as big as an apartment building lying on its side. It was so big it had a swimming pool and a ballroom. It had ten different restaurants. You couldn’t see the pool or the ballroom or the restaurants because they were inside the ship. “There’s a Ping-Pong room, too,” Jasper said. “And you can ride your bike inside. One of the restaurants only sells popcorn. We’re going to drive our ship out into the ocean and meet Nan there and bring her back with us.”

  “That’s terrific,” Jasper’s mom said. “I can’t wait until it’s finished.”

  “The thing is,” Ori said, “you won’t be able to go on it.”

  “Only people who are old or young will be allowed on this ship,” Jasper told her. “It’s an Older–Younger cruise ship. No Middle people. Sorry.”

  Ori said, “We’re going to start building tomorrow. If it isn’t raining. Jasper will have to come back. He’ll have to come back every day.”

  “I have to,” Jasper told Mom. “I never got to hammer.”

  “That’s fine,” Mom said.

  They headed home across the alley.

  “Is it going to rain tomorrow?” Jasper asked on the way.

  “I don’t know,” Mom said.

  “I hope not,” Jasper said. “I want to start building.” Then he asked, “Do you think it’s raining on the cruise?”

  “It might be.”

  “Is it the same rain?” Jasper asked.

  “It’s very similar,” Mom said.

  Jasper said, “Nan went all the way to Alaska to see icebergs. If it’s raining, she won’t see any. And there was an iceberg around here today. She didn’t have to go away at all.”

  “I’ve never seen an iceberg around here.”

  “You’re probably not looking for one.”

  They went up the steps to the porch. Mom shook out her wet umbrella and left it outside. “Let’s hope it’s not raining where she is,” she said.

  “But then she’ll be missing all this nice rain!” Jasper said.

  “Like you said, it might be raining in Alaska, too.”

  “But it’s not the same rain,” Jasper said. “It’s only similar.”

  Jasper got an idea. “I’m going to put out some containers to catch the rain. So Nan will have some when she gets back. And! I almost forgot! I need more Band-Aids.”

  “You have three on already,” Mom said.

  “I need more. Today at school? In the middle of What Am I? I started to pththth.”

  Mom sighed loudly and went and got the box. Jasper lifted his shirt for her to put more Band-Aids around the edges of the other three Band-Aids. Four more Band-Aids. Then the box was empty. “Oh, no!” Jasper cried.

  “We’ll get more tomorrow. On our way back from Nan’s.”

  “Is Nan coming home tomorrow?” Jasper asked.

  “No. We have to water her plants. Tomorrow is only Wednesday.”

  “Wednesday?” Jasper took off, running through the house, waving his arms and yelling, “Not Wednesday! Not Annie! No jujube eyes! No!”

  Chapter 5

  As soon as Jasper woke on Wednesday morning, he checked his Band-Aids to make sure they hadn’t come off in the night. All seven Band-Aids were still there. Too bad the nicest one was under all the others.

  Nothing happened at school except that Jasper traded his cookie at lunch for two of Ori’s celery sticks and put them behind his ears during math. When Ms. Tosh asked him what he was doing with celery behind his ears, he showed her how twiddling the sticks helped him think of the right answer. Ms. Tosh made him throw the celery in the garbage. On the way to the garbage can, Jasper passed her desk and stopped to sharpen one of the celery sticks in the electric pencil sharpener with the window.

 
“Stop that right now, Jasper John!” Ms. Tosh said.

  Other than that, nothing happened.

  It wasn’t raining, so after school Jasper went across the alley and one house down to Ori’s to start work on the cruise ship.

  Ori taped the plan on the side of the garage above the mountain of wood. The boys stood with their hands on their hips, studying it. That was how you were supposed to stand when you looked at plans, Ori said. They decided to start by laying out the wood in the outline of the cruise ship. Each took one end of a piece of wood and laid it in the grass. First they laid out a huge rectangle. Then they added a triangle at the top. They stood inside the outline to make sure it was big enough. They lay down in it.

  “Nice,” Jasper said.

  Ori sneezed. “The thing is, I’m allergic to grass.”

  “That won’t be a problem once the ship is in the water,” Jasper said. He hopped up. “Okay. Let’s hammer.”

  The tools were in the garage. Ori brought out a hammer and a coffee can full of nails. “Is there only one hammer?” Jasper asked.

  “No,” Ori said. “There’s more than one hammer.”

  Jasper looked at Ori. The sun was shining red through his ears where they stuck out. “Aren’t you going to hammer?” Jasper asked him.

  “No,” Ori said. “The thing is? When my dad was working on the renovation? Before we had to pay somebody to come and do it right? He hit his thumb with the hammer. It turned black and fell off.”

  “His thumb fell off?”

  “It could have,” Ori said.

  Jasper grabbed the hammer. “I’m not scared.”

  So Ori climbed on top of the mountain of wood and watched Jasper hammer the outline of the cruise ship together. “I know! I can be the boss!” Ori said. He started calling, “Faster! Faster!”

  “Did you know,” Jasper asked, “that a snake’s tail actually starts at the end?”

  “Faster!” Ori shouted.

  Jasper didn’t hit himself with the hammer. He didn’t hit many nails, either. For some reason he kept missing them. The nails were probably scooting out of the way when they saw the hammer coming down on their heads, scooting so fast Jasper couldn’t even see them move. When Mom called from across the alley and one house down, the cruise ship wasn’t even close to being done.