“Anyway,” she’s saying, “I don’t have a thousand dollars for a used beaker. Maybe I’ll see you in school tomorrow.” She leaves through the front door and I stand at the table for a good ten seconds before I feel sick for real. My stomach lurches and the room spins.
I wipe my nose, then grab the burned-out beaker and hold it to my chest, expecting to smell the lab in it. But it only smells like melted plastic and char. And then I grab three more beakers, the crucible, a Bunsen burner with a frayed gas line, two funnels, and a pack of unused petri dishes. I sit in my chair, my arms so full I can barely see over my loot, until Dad comes, feeling my forehead and peeling my hands apart, making me put everything back on the table.
“How about a break? You don’t want to overdo it. Come on,” he says, and tries to smile.
I follow Dad, who gets me a glass of ice water from the kitchen and then heads up the stairs. Everything’s feeling wrong and backward somehow. There’s a painting propped up against the wall, and I hang it back up where it belongs. In the bedrooms there are more shoppers circling Grandpa’s treasures.
I wish more than anything that there was an SOP for all of this. A simple three-step procedure that would fix everything. Grandpa would know how to write it. But now that he’s gone, it’s up to me.
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About the Author
CYNTHIA PLATT edits books for children as well as writing them. Parker Bell and the Science of Friendship is her middle grade debut. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, a middle school science teacher; their daughter, who loves engineering; and a guinea pig, who is very unscientific.
Visit her online at cynthiaplattbooks.com
About the Illustrator
REA ZHAI is an illustrator based in Beijing, China, where she lives with her husband and their three cats. When not working, Rea is a bass player in a small blues band. Parker Bell and the Science of Friendship is her first book for children.
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Parker Bell and the Science of Friendship Page 8