by Geof Johnson
He started to walk toward the open door and said, “I’m going to see how they’re doing.”
“Wait,” Tina said. “Are you going to start cleaning the lab today?”
“Soon as they’re done with the flyer.”
“Then make sure Shelby has her inhaler if it’s still dusty down there. Though she told me she hasn’t used it in a while. Maybe she’s growing out of her asthma.” She crossed the fingers of both hands and shook them. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Liz gestured toward the basement. “Dad, I put all the cleaning stuff that you’ll need down there at the foot of the stairs, the broom and paper towels and a bucket and some rags. I put the vacuum cleaner down there, too, even though there’s no carpet. You can use the wand attachment to get under the benches and in the corners.”
“Thanks, Liz. You’re organized, as usual.” He waved over his shoulder and they watched him vanish into the family room.
Tina turned back to face Liz and said, “Speaking of making money, have you given any more thought to selling those antiques you stashed in your garage?”
“No, but I really should. I want to replace all these old windows in this house because winter will be here before you know it, and I don’t have enough money to pay for new ones without getting a loan.”
“You have a lot of nice pieces in that garage. I can help you sell them. I have an aunt who has an antique shop in Bells Gap. I used to work there during the summer when I was in high school, and she taught me a lot about that stuff.”
“Do you think she’d like to buy any of what I have?”
“You don’t want to sell to a shop. They won’t pay you what you can get selling it on your own, because they have to make a profit on it. Sell it on online instead. You should try Craigslist. I can help you with the pricing and all. You got a camera?”
“Yes, or I could use my phone.”
“Let’s do it now. Are you busy?”
“Obviously not, but gosh, Tina, it’s your only day off. I don’t want to make you do a bunch of work just to help me. We’d have to drag all of it out of the garage to photograph it, and then put it all back. That’s going to be hard.”
“Nah, it’ll be fun.” Tina grinned, the way Jason and Justin often did, impishly. “Come on, let’s do it.”
“Right now?”
“Right now. Your father and the kids are going to be cleaning the lab all afternoon anyway. I’d rather be outside in the sunshine, foolin’ with your antiques, than helping them, because they might ask us to clean, too.”
“Yes, they might, at that.”
* * *
Liz and Tina carried the last piece of old furniture, a mahogany washstand, back into the garage and Liz closed the door and locked it. “Whew.” She brushed her hands together and smiled weakly at Tina. “That’s about all of it.”
Tina gestured at Liz’s front pants pocket, where Liz had put her little point-and-shoot camera. “Print those pictures out for me, and I’ll come up with prices for everything.”
“I really appreciate you doing this for me.”
“You’ve done more for me and my family than I can ever possibly repay you for.”
“Are we keeping score now? Because I’m not. You and your kids are our friends, and friends help friends. That’s just the way it’s done.”
“Speaking of kids,” —Tina nodded toward the back door of the house— “we’d better check on ours and see how they’re doin’ in the lab.”
Liz and Tina went back inside and took the stairs to the basement, where they found everyone in the process of cleaning. Zach had a broom, sweeping cobwebs from the corners of the ceiling. The ones that had hung from the light fixtures were already gone. Jason and Justin were wiping down equipment while Shelby held the hose from the vacuum cleaner under one of the work benches, sucking up dust.
Liz’s father stood at the control station between the tall cylinders with one hand pressed to his chin and his brow furrowed deeply, as if he were studying the mysterious device. He looked over at Liz and Tina, who were waiting in the doorway, and he motioned to Shelby to turn off the vacuum cleaner.
“Looks better already, Dad,” Liz said when the noise from the machine subsided.
“We’re getting there. We won’t get it all done today, though.”
“Mom?” Zach said, still holding the broom. “We finished designing the flyer. Can you take us to the printer so we can make copies?”
“The print shop is probably closed, honey. It’s Sunday and it’s almost dinnertime. Maybe we can do it on the way home from school tomorrow.”
“Then can we pass them out?”
“Not if you have homework.”
“But we need to get them out as soon as possible. We don’t want anybody else getting the jobs.”
Jason pointed his thumb toward himself. “Then we’ll pass them out instead. Me and Justin and Shelby.”
Tina frowned at her son. “Oh, no you won’t, not if you have homework, too. School comes first.”
“But we want to make some money now!” Jason’s jaw tightened and he glared at his mother.
“It’s okay,” Liz said calmly. “It can wait until Wednesday. You only have a half day of school then. That’ll give you plenty of time to do homework and pass the flyers out.”
* * *
The flyer read:
Rent-A-Kid (Up to 4 at a time)
All types of yard work and cleanup
Mowing, raking, car washing, etc.
Babysitting services
At Jason’s suggestion, they had put Zach’s name and number on the flyer in case anyone had misgivings about calling the children of a convicted felon.
They formatted it four to a page to save money, since 50 printed pages yielded 200 flyers, and that seemed like plenty. When it was time to distribute them, they decided to work in pairs, Jason and Justin passing them out in one part of the neighborhood while Zach and Shelby took care of another.
They split up while they worked. Zach walked down one side of the street, folding the flyers in half and wedging them under the little red flags on the mailboxes, and Shelby walked down the other side. By the end of the afternoon, they’d passed all of them out.
They rendezvoused back at Zach’s front yard with Jason and Justin and discussed how it went.
“That ought to drum up some business,” Jason said, “don’t you think?”
“I hope so, Zach said, “because if it doesn’t, I don’t know what we’ll do.”
Shelby nodded confidently. “We’ll get some work out of this. You wait and see.”
* * *
Zach picked up the phone for the fifth time and checked to see if it was working. It was. That only made him more frustrated. “Why isn’t anybody calling?”
“Give them time.” His mother stood next to the stove with a knife in one hand. A cutting board full of diced potatoes was beside her on the counter. “It’s only been one day.”
“But that’s long enough, isn’t it? Maybe the flyers blew off the mailboxes and nobody got them.”
“Try to be a little patient. It could be that nobody has had a chance to think about what yard work they might want done. And the leaves haven’t really started falling yet. We’re still a couple of weeks away from that.”
“A couple of weeks! That’s too long. Is there something me and my friends can do around here for some money?”
“Not really. You’ve already done most everything I had planned.” She lifted the cutting board and dumped the potatoes into a pot of steaming water on the stove. “Except for cleaning up the lab, and I don’t want to pay for that. That’s between you and your grandfather.”
* * *
It was Shelby who got the first job from their flyer, and it was for babysitting. Zach still had the phone in his hand after calling her and telling her about it.
His mother was watching him from the other side of the kitchen, leaning against the cabinet with her arms crossed at her waist and her he
ad angled slightly to one side. “Why are you frowning at the phone?”
“Because she got a call and we didn’t.”
“Do you want to babysit instead of her? It’s not unheard of for boys to do that, you know.”
“I’m not babysitting. That’s a girl’s job.”
“Is Shelby going to help rake and do other yard work when you get calls for that?”
“Probably.”
“And that’s not specifically boy’s work?”
“Well…no.”
“But babysitting is girl’s work?”
He had no answer, only a scowl, which he carried with him as he stomped out of the kitchen.
Chapter 30
“I’m gone whup yer ass,” Bo said.
Jason looked at him for a moment with his lips tight. “That’s pretty good.” He turned to his brother, who was standing with him in the forest meadow. “What do you think?”
Justin rubbed his scar with the knuckle of one finger and narrowed one eye. “Still sounds like he’s sayin’ whoop instead of whup. Try it again, and shorten up that whup.”
Bo did, and it was nearly perfect. Jason clapped softly. “Now you got it. You sound like real redneck.”
The twins were helping Bo work on his southern dialect on Saturday afternoon, and the giant was quickly improving. Zach and Shelby were still practicing archery, but it was Shelby’s turn to shoot so Zach watched the language lesson, instead.
“Now say I done seen it up yonder,” Justin said to Bo.
“That makes no grammatical sense. I do not even understand what that means.”
“It means I saw it over there,” Jason said. “And grammar has nothing to do with it. It’s redneck talk.”
“What is a redneck, exactly?”
“Somebody who’s really Southern, like us, but not white trash.”
“What is white trash?”
“They’re one or two steps below rednecks. People who live like dirtbags and marry their cousins or whatever.” He made a rolling motion with one finger. “Now go ahead and say it. I done seen it up yonder.”
Bo repeated the phrase and once again, his mimicry was amazing.
“Awesome.” Jason held both thumbs up. “What else, Justin? What’s a good one for him to learn?”
Shelby waved one hand at him and said, “Wait. What time is it?”
Zach checked his watch. “Almost four.”
“We need to go home. I have to get ready to babysit tonight.”
“You don’t need that much time, do you?” Justin said. “When you gotta be there?”
“Six o’clock, and Mama said to make sure I look nice so I’ll make a good impression.”
“Shelby, what is babysitting?” Bo asked. She explained and he wrinkled his brow. “And you get rewarded for doing that? The community does not perform that service voluntarily?”
“Fortunately for me, no. It’s pretty easy money, but I’ve never done it before, so I’m kinda nervous.” She turned to her brothers and said, “Mama said one of you has to walk me home when I’m done.”
Jason’s mouth twisted into a disapproving curve. “Why can’t you walk by yourself? It ain’t but six or seven hundred yards, probably. It’s at that house where that new family moved in, ain’t it?”
“Because it’ll be 9:30 and it’ll be dark, and it’s not safe for girls to walk alone at night, even in our neighborhood.”
“Why can’t one of those parents drive you home, then?”
“Mama doesn’t want them to.”
Zach knew why. She didn’t want them to see their house and figure out who they were — the family whose father was in prison.
“Well, I don’t want to do it.” Jason looked at his brother. “How ’bout you?”
“I don’t want to do it, either.”
Zach was surprised. They normally were fiercely protective of her, when they weren’t picking on her. They’re probably jealous because she has a job and they don’t.
Shelby stamped her foot. “One of you has to! I can’t go if you don’t. Mama won’t let me.”
“Get her to drive you home,” Justin said.
“She’s working late at the grocery store. You knew that.”
Bo extended one hand and said, “I would walk you home, but I am afraid I would be seen.”
“No, you can’t do it, though I’d love to see the faces of those parents when you knocked on their door.”
There was a tense moment of silence in the broad meadow, not even the sound of a bird chirping or the breeze rustling the leaves of the nearby trees, while the Ross kids glared at each other. It was obvious the twins weren’t going to give in. Zach decided to break the impasse. “I’ll do it. I’ll walk you home.”
Shelby let out a relieved breath and rolled her eyes. “Thank you. At least one of you guys is a gentleman.” She gestured for her brothers to get moving. “Come on. I gotta go now.”
“Wait,” Bo said. “Zach, before you leave, show me the photographs again of the bows you are considering for your birthday gift. I have been contemplating it, but wish to see the choices once more before I offer my advice.”
Zach reached into his back pocket and pulled out the folded pictures he had printed out earlier that day, of two dozen bows that were available online. He handed them to the giant, who studied them closely.
“These were the ones I liked,” Zach said. “They’re all in my mom’s price range and they got good reviews. I picked ones that didn’t have too heavy of a draw. These were all recommended for older kids, and some of them are for small-framed men.
After about a minute of scrutiny, Bo tapped a picture on the page. “I suggest this one. It has a simple design, similar to the one I made for you, so you won’t have to make a big adjustment to use it, and it is for small men. You would outgrow the other bows too soon. You need one that you can use for a long time.” He handed the photos back and added, “If you would like, you can take the one I made for you, instead of buying another. Any of you can take it.”
“Thanks,” Jason said, “but it would be hard to explain to our moms how we got it. Besides, if we leave it with you, we won’t have to lug it out here every time we want to shoot it.”
“Before we leave,” Zach said to Bo, “We need to give you some books. I finished mine, and so did Jason and Justin.”
Justin grunted and said, “Finally. Took forever.”
“So we brought them for you. They’re in my backpack.” Zach pointed to where it lay on the ground nearby.
Bo seemed pleased. “I shall read them immediately so that we may discuss them on your next visit. When will that be?”
“We can’t come tomorrow because we’re going to clean the lab. We couldn’t work on it today because Grandpa had a job.”
Bo dipped his head once, deeply. “I am grateful to him, and to all of you, for doing this on my behalf. Even if your endeavor is unsuccessful, I appreciate the tremendous effort you are putting into this project.”
Jason flashed a cocky grin. “Think nothing of it, big guy. We gotta go now, but you keep working on your Southern speak. You’ll sound like a local in no time.”
“I still do not understand why you think it is important for me to master this slang.”
“If you ever get captured or something, you can just lay some redneck on ’em and they’ll think you’re one of us.”
“Am I not one of us, now?”
Jason’s grin collapsed into a wistful smile. “Yeah, Bo. You’re one of us.”
* * *
Zach was flipping through channels on the television in the family room when his mother came in and said, “It’s almost 9:30. Shelby will be finished babysitting soon. Aren’t you going to walk her home?”
“Oh, crud.” Zach jumped to his feet and headed for the front door. “I forgot.”
“Do you know where the house is?”
“She gave me the address and I mapped it on my phone,” he patted the back pocket of his jeans, “but I know where
it is, anyway.”
“It’s gotten chillier since the sun went down, so you ought to wear a jacket. Do you want to take the flashlight?”
“There’s one on my phone if I need it.”
Zach stopped in the foyer and got his zippered hoodie from the closet. He pulled it on, opened the door, and hopped down the porch steps and went to the sidewalk.
It was colder than he expected, the first cold night of the season, and he put his hands deep into his coat pockets as he hustled up the street to the corner, then turned and hurried toward the house where Shelby waited for him.
He found it with no difficulty, knocked on the front door and waited, his breath forming misty clouds in front of his face. Hurry please, he thought, jiggling in place to stay warm.
He heard a couple of adult voices inside, and soon someone answered. A man, younger-looking than Zach expected, stood there and smiled briefly. “You must be here for Shelby.” He called over his shoulder into the room behind him, “Shelby, your boyfriend is here.”
“I’m not her boyfriend!” Zach said.
The man turned to face Zach and chuckled. “I know, she told me. I’m just joshin’ you.”
Shelby came right away. “Thank you,” she said to the man and waved as she stepped past him and joined Zach. She folded some money into the pocket of her jeans and she and Zach headed down the driveway, away from the house. “I really appreciate you walking me home.”
Zach shrugged stiffly. “How did it go?”
“It was fine. I made twenty-five dollars!” Her smile was so broad that her teeth flashed in the glow from the streetlight overhead.
“What did you do the whole time? Was it hard to entertain those kids? Weren’t they young?”
“We played some games they liked and watched a little TV, and then I put them to bed and had the living room to myself for the last thirty minutes. It was easy.” She rubbed her bare arms with her hands and shivered. “Wish I’d worn a jacket.”
“A front is coming through, according to my mom, and the temperature’s dropping. It’s supposed to be unseasonably cool tomorrow.”
She wrapped her arms around her slim body and shivered harder, and Zach felt guilty, being the only one with a coat. He pulled off his hoodie and offered it to her. “Wear this. You’ll be warmer.”