Jasper John Dooley, Left Behind

by Caroline Adderson

  “Jasper John! We’re going now!”

  “We’ll have to work really hard tomorrow,” Jasper told Ori.

  “Harder and faster!” Ori said.

  Chapter 6

  Jasper and Mom walked over to Nan’s apartment to water the plants. On the way, Jasper said, “I have a feeling Nan is back.”

  “You’d like her to be back, I know,” Mom said. “But she’s not. She’ll be gone the whole week.”

  “Maybe she never really went away.”

  “You saw her get on the ship,” Mom said.

  “Maybe she went out the back door and came home when we weren’t looking.” “I don’t think there is a back door on a ship.”

  “Ori and I are going to have one on the cruise ship we’re making,” Jasper decided.

  Mom used Nan’s key to get in the jungley lobby of the apartment building.

  “Maybe she came home early,” Jasper said, “because she missed me and doesn’t want Annie with the jujube eyes to baby-sit me.”

  “I’m sure she misses you,” Mom said. “But if she came back early, I think she would have called us.”

  “She wanted it to be a surprise,” Jasper said.

  Mom pressed the button for the elevator. “Hey!” Jasper said. “That’s my job!”

  The elevator came, and Jasper and Mom got in. Jasper pressed the button for Nan’s floor. As soon as the doors closed again, he made a horrible face in the mirrored wall of the elevator. He and Nan always made horrible faces when they rode up to her apartment. They had contests to see who made the most horriblest face. Jasper always won except when Nan used her glasses. She pushed the frames of her glasses into her eye sockets. It made her eyes stretch down. She looked so so so so so so ugly! Jasper couldn’t even tell it was Nan anymore. She looked more like Annie!

  “Let’s make horrible faces in the mirror,” Jasper said.

  Mom stuck out her tongue. It wasn’t horrible at all.

  “Never mind,” Jasper said.

  When the elevator arrived on the twenty-third floor, even before it opened, Jasper pressed the lobby button. “Let’s go again.”

  “Why?” Mom asked.

  “Because that’s what I do with Nan. We ride up and down.”

  “Only once,” Mom said as the elevator began to go down again.

  “Also,” Jasper said, “it will give Nan more time to hide.”

  “To hide?” Mom asked.

  “So she can jump out and surprise us. Because she came home early.”

  They went down and up, down and up. Then Mom said, “That’s enough, Jasper.”

  “I go up and down a lot more times than that with Nan.”

  “I’m starting to feel sick. Also, Dad and I are going out tonight, remember?”

  “Jujube Annie!” Jasper cried. “Yuck!”

  Outside Nan’s apartment, Jasper clacked the lion’s jaw against the door. Clack! Clack! Clack! “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” he called.

  Mom unlocked the door. It smelled funny inside. Usually, the apartment smelled of cooking and Nan’s perfume. Now it smelled like stale socks. Jasper called out, “Hello, Nan!” He slipped off his shoes and ran around the apartment looking for Nan in the closets and under the beds. In the spare bedroom was a trunk of old clothes that Jasper and Nan used for playing Dress Up Nan. That’s where she was! Jasper crept over to the trunk and flung it open.

  She wasn’t in the trunk. So Nan really was still in Alaska.

  Jasper started to pththth. Quickly, he stuck his nose right down into the trunk. Smelling the nice old clothes smell made him feel a little better. He felt even better when he climbed into the trunk and shut the lid.

  After a minute, Jasper got the idea to scare Mom. He called, “Mom! Mom!” He waited a bit before calling again, louder. “MOM!”

  The nice smell in the trunk got stronger. Soon it wasn’t so nice because it was hard to breathe. Gasping, Jasper pushed the lid open and sat up.

  Mom was standing in the bedroom door holding a watering can.

  “Why didn’t you help me?” Jasper asked.

  “I only just heard you,” Mom said. “What are you doing?”

  “I was suffocating.”

  “Oh, Jasper,” Mom said. “I’m just going to water the plants. Then we’re going.”

  “Nan would never let me suffocate,” Jasper told her.

  Jasper climbed out of the trunk. The clothes in it were from when Nan was young. Though a lot of them didn’t fit her anymore, she could still wear the fancy dressing gowns and the gold shoes and jewelry. On Wednesdays, after she put on the things Jasper chose for her, they went to Nan’s bedroom where she had a table with a special mirror with lights all around it. Jasper combed Nan’s hair and pinked her lips and cheeks with pink stuff. He sprayed her with lots and lots and lots of perfume. Then Nan and Jasper went to the living room to play Go Fish for jujubes.

  But not this Wednesday.

  Mom was in the living room watering the plants on the windowsill when Jasper came in wearing Nan’s gold dress and fur shawl with little paws hanging off it and many, many plastic necklaces.

  “Oh!” Mom said. “Is this what you do on Wednesdays with Nan?”

  “No. Usually Nan dresses up. But she’s not here. She left me behind.”

  “Well, you look very nice.” She went to water the African violet on the bookshelf. Jasper teetered on Nan’s high-heeled shoes over to the coffee table where the cards and the jujubes were. He took the cards out of the box and shuffled them, which he did by spreading them out on the table and smearing them around. When Mom saw him, she said, “Do you want to play a hand before we go?”

  “Okay,” Jasper said.

  Mom didn’t know how! He tried to explain the rules to her, but she didn’t seem to understand. “You say, ‘Give me your aces!’ But you have to say it that way. Like you’re so so mad. And if I don’t have any aces, I’ll shout, ‘Go fish, HA HA HA!’ And you have to scream.”

  “I have to?”

  “Yes. That’s how you play Go Fish,” Jasper said. He dealt out the cards. It was hard to do wearing all the plastic necklaces. His hand kept getting tangled up. Also, the fur shawl was itching his neck. While he was dealing and scratching and untangling his hand, Mom took the lid off the crystal bowl and popped a yellow jujube into her mouth.

  “No!” Jasper shouted, too late.

  “What?” Mom said.

  “You only get the jujubes when you win the hand! And I always get the colored ones!”

  “Fine. I’ll take a black one.”

  She popped another one in her mouth!

  “No!” Jasper shouted, lunging and clapping his hand over the bowl. It flew off the coffee table and landed on the carpet. Jujubes scattered everywhere.

  “Jasper John Dooley,” Mom said. “What is the matter with you?”

  “I’m saving those for when Nan gets back. Nan gets the black ones. Because we are perfect companions. A companion is a friend.”

  “I know that, sweetheart,” Mom said.

  “Do you know why we’re perfect companions?”

  “Because she’s your Nan and you’re her favorite and only grandson?” Mom said.

  “No! Because, together, we eat all the jujubes in the bowl!”

  Then Mom made him get down on his hands and knees and pick all the jujubes off the floor.

  That night Jasper was the only one eating because Mom and Dad were going to a restaurant. He sat in the kitchen all by himself with his macaroni while Dad showered and Mom dressed. After a few minutes, Jasper started to feel like that little iceberg in the story he had ripped up. He started to pththth, so he went to his mom and dad’s room. Mom was sitting at her desk painting her fingernails.

  “Can I do that?” Jasper asked.

  “That’s nice of yo
u to offer, Jasper,” Mom said. “But painting nails isn’t for little boys.”

  “Nan lets me help her with her makeup,” Jasper said.

  “Really?” Mom said. “I’d rather you didn’t help with my nails. It’s sort of important to stay in the lines.”

  “Can I comb your hair?”

  Mom blinked at Jasper. “Okay.”

  Jasper ran to the bathroom to get Mom’s comb. It was hard to find in the big steam cloud that filled the whole room. “Gail! Is there any dandruff shampoo?” Dad asked from behind the shower curtain.

  Mom was blowing on her nails when Jasper came up behind her and started combing. “Ow!” she said, bringing her hand up to her head. “Jasper John! What are you doing?”

  Jasper said, “Combing your hair.”

  “You snuck up. You startled me. Now I’ve got hair marks on my nails. I’ll have to put on another coat.”

  “I can do that for you,” Jasper said.

  She didn’t even answer. Dad came in the room with a towel wrapped around his waist. Mom said, “David, do I have nail polish in my hair?”

  So Jasper went back to the kitchen. He got an idea right away. He could eat his macaroni with the comb instead of the fork! But just as he was about to scoop some up, he thought, “I better not.”

  Instead he went outside on the deck and checked the yogurt containers he had left out for Nan. A little bit of rain filled the bottom of each one. He snapped the lids on and brought them into the kitchen and put them in the fridge where they would stay fresh. Then he got some more empty containers from the cupboard and set them out on the deck railing in case it rained again. Even if it didn’t rain, Nan wouldn’t want to miss all the nice air Jasper was breathing.

  A little while later the doorbell rang. Mom called, “Jasper, can you get that?” Only then did Jasper remember that Jujube-Eye Annie was coming. He ran to Mom and Dad’s bedroom where Mom was pulling her dress over her head and Dad was tying his tie.

  “Please take me with you! Please don’t leave me behind with Annie!”

  Chapter 7

  Jasper opened the front door wearing his best, unfriendliest frown. It was Annie. She wasn’t old, and her eyes looked normal, just like Mom said. But there was something different about her. Jasper noticed right away.

  “Oh!” he said.

  Mom came to the door zippering her dress. She said, “Hello. You must be — Oh!”

  Then Dad came with his best, friendliest smile. “Hel — Oh!”

  Jasper said to Annie, “You have a ring in your nose.”

  Mom had told Jasper that Annie baby-sat lots of the kids in the neighborhood. She had told Jasper that all the mothers loved Annie. One of them had given Jasper’s mom Annie’s phone number. But Mom hadn’t said anything to Jasper about the ring in Annie’s nose. From the look on Mom’s face, Jasper knew no one had told Mom either.

  Annie smiled and shook Mom and Dad’s hands. She shook Jasper’s hand, too. “Nice to meet you. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun, Jasper,” she said.

  “Don’t worry about anything,” she told Mom and Dad.

  Mom already looked worried. She looked so so worried, but Dad made her put on her coat and go.

  After Mom and Dad left, Jasper told Annie, “Usually my Nan baby-sits me. She doesn’t have a ring in her nose.”

  “Where is she tonight?” Annie asked.

  “On a cruise.”

  Jasper told Annie about the ship. He told her about the swimming pool and the ballroom and the ten restaurants. “Nan wants to see icebergs,” he said. “She’s never left me behind before.”

  “You must miss her,” Annie said.

  “I do!” Jasper said.

  “So, how about we go on a cruise, too?” said Annie. “Then you won’t miss her so much.”

  Jasper said, “I had exactly the same idea! I’m building a cruise ship in my friend Ori’s backyard, across the alley and one house down.”

  “It will take quite a while to build a huge cruise ship,” Annie said. “I was thinking about going tonight.”

  “Tonight?” Jasper asked. “How?”

  “First we have to set up the restaurants. How many did you say?”

  “Ten.”

  “How about four?”

  Jasper said, “Okay.”

  They put cookies in the living room, grapes in Mom and Dad’s room, milk in the kitchen, and ice cream in the dining room. Jasper told her that one of the restaurants in his and Ori’s cruise ship was only going to sell popcorn.

  “Do you have any popcorn?” Annie asked.

  They checked the cupboard. They didn’t.

  “Then why don’t we start with ice cream?” Annie said.

  “Aren’t you going to make me eat my fruit first?” Jasper asked.

  “Do you want the ice cream to melt?”

  “No!” Jasper said and sped ahead.

  After they finished the ice cream, Annie said she felt like a swim in the pool. “How about you, Jasper?”

  Jasper felt like swimming, too. On the way to the pool, they stopped off in the living room to eat the cookies.

  Annie filled the tub, and Jasper started to undress. As soon as he pulled his shirt over his head, Annie gasped. “Nobody told me you had your appendix out!”

  “What’s a pendix?” Jasper asked.

  “It’s inside you.” Annie pointed to his Band-Aids. “Did you have an operation?”

  “No. That’s where I stapled my story to myself.”

  “Say that again.”

  “It’s a long story,” Jasper said.

  He told Annie about the snake. He told her how nice the first Band-Aid was and how Mom had put two more Band-Aids over it the next day but still he pthththed at school and needed more Band-Aids over those ones.

  “How many does that make?” Annie asked.

  “Twelve,” Jasper told her. “But that first one was so nice.”

  “And how does the snake fit in?” she asked.

  “That was the story. He was so long people kept stepping on his tail,” Jasper said. “Most people don’t know where a snake’s body ends and its tail starts.”

  “I guess I don’t, either,” Annie said.

  “It starts at the end!”

  “You’re kidding,” Annie said.

  “No. And I think I need more Band-Aids before I go in the pool.”

  “Okey-dokey,” Annie said.

  Jasper showed her the cupboard where they kept the Band-Aids. It was a new, full box, so Annie put a lot more on. When he was all bandaged up, Jasper dove in the pool. He showed Annie the front glide that he had learned in swimming lessons. He showed her his back float and his roll-over.

  Annie lay on the bathmat and pretended to be sun tanning.

  Afterward, while Jasper was putting on his pajamas, the phone rang. He heard Annie say, “It’s going great!” She called, “Jasper! Your mom wants to talk to you!”

  Jasper came to the phone. “Are you all right?” Mom asked. She sounded worried.

  “Yes!” Jasper said.

  He was just a little bit hungry after all that swimming. Also, a big wet circle had appeared in the middle of his pajama top. After he got off the phone, he took off his top and pressed a towel against his Band-Aids while he and Annie ate grapes in Mom and Dad’s room.

  Then Jasper went around the house looking for balls. He found a baseball and a foam ball. He found his leaky beach ball. He put them on his bed. “This is the ballroom,” he said, pulling a new pajama top over his head.

  Annie laughed. “A ballroom is for dancing. But I like your idea better.”

  They played with all the balls. Jasper balanced on one, then stuck it up his top. “I ate so so so so much in all those restaurants,” he said.

  Annie knew how to juggle. She could jug
gle three different kinds of balls at once. Afterward, they went back to the first restaurant where Annie pretended to be a waitress serving him more ice cream. While they were eating, she asked if he wanted to dance, too.

  “Does this ship have two ballrooms?” Jasper asked.

  Annie said, “It could.”

  They went to the living room. Annie turned on the stereo and twiddled the dial until she found a station Mom and Dad never listened to. She turned it up LOUD. When she danced, her arms made circles in the air and her bottom wiggled as if her underpants were too tight. Jasper gave it a try. “This is fun!” he yelled.

  He got an idea. “Hold on a sec.”

  Jasper ran to the kitchen and came back with a twist tie from the bread bag. He bent it into a ring and hung it from his nose. Annie laughed and laughed.

  After dancing, they dropped into another restaurant for a drink of milk. Then Jasper brushed his teeth and went to bed.

  “I think I need more Band-Aids,” he told Annie. “These ones are still wet. They might come off in the night.”

  Annie put on more Band-Aids. Jasper fell asleep right away, even before Mom and Dad got home. “Oh, no,” he thought as he was drifting off. “We forgot to look for icebergs!”

  Chapter 8

  The next morning at breakfast Mom asked about Annie. “Did you have fun?”

  “Yes,” Jasper said.

  “What did you do?”

  “Nothing.” He got up from the table and started opening the kitchen drawers.

  “What are you looking for?” Mom asked.

  “Twist ties,” Jasper said.

  Dad checked the time. “Hurry, Jasper. Go get dressed or you’ll get the lates.”

  And that’s what happened. Jasper got the lates again, but not because he was looking for twist ties. He got the lates because of Dad.

  While Jasper was dressing, Dad came into his room to hurry him up again. “Jasper!” he said. “Look at all those Band-Aids!”