half the snacks by the time the trailers ended. But with each trailer and each chomp of popcorn, his excitement only grew. And when the movie finally started, the children erupted into applause.
*
This would forever be their childhood, Christopher’s mother thought.
She remembered the movies she loved when she was a girl. Back when she believed that maybe she was a long-lost princess who belonged to a much nicer family than her own. It wasn’t true, but somehow, she still gave birth to a prince.
“I love you, Christopher,” she said.
“You, too, Mom,” Christopher whispered, distracted by the movie.
She looked up at the screen and smiled when Bad Cat walked up to his crab neighbor, Leonardo di Pinchy, who was halfway through painting his girlfriend, Groan-a Lisa.
Bad Cat said, “Nice painting, Leonardo. Were you going to finish that?”
And all the kids cheered.
When the movie was over, Special Ed’s mother “absolutely insisted to Christ” that she take all four of them to TGI Fridays for dinner. Her treat.
“So, the kids can have wings, and we can have our ‘mommy juice,’” she said with a wink.
All through dinner, Christopher’s mother listened to Special Ed’s mother “for Christ’s sake, call me Betty” as she margarita’d (it’s a verb now) her way through stories of almost finishing college and marrying Special Ed’s father, who just opened his sixth “count ’em. Sixth!” hardware store in the tristate area.
She leaned over and whispered through her boozy breath, “You know that C-U-Next-Tuesday, Mrs. Collins? Well, her husband—the notorious P.I.G.—keeps developing housing plans and people keep borrowing money to fix ’em up nice, so God bless is all I have to say. Suck it, Home Depot! My husband is rich! Waitress, the bottom of my glass is dry, and I can still remember my troubles!”
Christopher’s mother thought that maybe she made something of a friend in Betty Anderson. Some people are born to talk. Others are born to listen. And it’s wonderful when the two meet.
“I like you, Kate,” Betty said as they walked to the parking lot. “You’re a great listener.”
On the drive home, Christopher fell asleep, his belly full of food. His mother carried him up the stairs to their motel room and put him in bed.
“Mom?” he said from his sleep.
“Yeah, honey?”
“Can we see Bad Cat again?”
“Sure, honey. Anytime you want.”
She kissed his forehead and left him to dream. She made a beer on the rocks and savored the night. Because she knew that tomorrow, the bill was due, and she couldn’t possibly pay it.
Chapter 14
When Christopher woke up Monday morning, his “vacation” was over. He was going back to school. Back to Brady Collins and Jenny Hertzog saying “Floods.” But most importantly, he was going back after missing two whole weeks.
Even Special Ed is going to be smarter than me now, he thought. He looked down. One little Froot Loop floated like a life raft in the milk.
“I will be here to pick you up at three,” his mother said as she dropped him off. “Do NOT leave this school.”
“Yes, Mom,” he said.
Christopher’s mother gave him an extra-long hug, then he walked to the entrance. Normally, he was ignored until he reached homeroom, but this morning, he was the “missing” kid. When the pigtail girls saw him, they stopped jumping rope and stared. A couple of the kids said “Hey.” Then, the twin brothers ran up to the school. The minute they saw him, something amazing happened.
“Hey, Christopher. Heads up,” Mike said and tossed him their little plastic football.
Christopher couldn’t believe it. Matt and Mike wanted to play with him. He looked up, and saw the ball sailing down at him. He was so bad at sports, but he prayed with all his heart that he wouldn’t miss the ball. It came down, and right before it almost hit him in the nose…
He caught it!
“Hey, Chris. Hit me deep,” Matt with the lazy-eye patch said. Then, he started to run.
Christopher knew he couldn’t throw, so he thought really quick about how to keep himself in the game.
“Flea flicker,” he said and tossed the ball underhand to Mike.
It worked! Mike grabbed the ball and sailed it twenty yards down the sidewalk to his brother. A perfect spiral.
They spent the next three minutes throwing the ball together. But to Christopher, it was as fun as a whole Saturday. He ended up being pretty good at catching the ball.
Mike and Matt, who liked to be called the M&M’s, actually said he was pretty fast, too. Mike was older than