you. No more debt. No more bad men. Just the peace of a life well fought and won. A parent with a job is a hero to someone. Even if that job was cleaning up after old people in a retirement home.
She took her beer on the rocks out on the fire escape. She felt the cool breeze. And she wished it weren’t so late or she’d play her favorite Springsteen and pretend she was a hero.
As she finished her drink and the last cigarette she’d ever light, she was content, watching the smoke curl and disappear into the August night and the beautiful stars behind that big cloud.
That cloud that looked like a smiling face.
Chapter 3
The week after his mom got the job was the best Christopher had in a long time. Every morning, he looked out the window and saw the Laundromat across the street. And the telephone pole. And the streetlight with the little tree.
And the clouds.
They were always there. There was something comforting about them. Like the way that leather baseball gloves smell. Or the time Christopher’s mom made Lipton soup instead of Campbell’s because Christopher liked the little noodles better. The clouds made him feel safe. Whether he and his mom were buying school supplies or clothes, erasers or stationery. The clouds were there. And his mom was happy. And there was no school.
Until Monday.
The minute he woke up Monday, Christopher saw the cloud face was gone. He didn’t know where it went, but he was sad. Because today was the day. The one day he really needed the clouds to comfort him.
The first day of school.
Christopher could never tell his mom the truth. She worked so hard to get him into these great schools that he felt guilty for even thinking it. But the truth was he hated school. He didn’t mind not knowing anyone. He was used to that. But there was this other part that made him nervous about going to a new school. Simply put,
He was dumb.
He might have been a great kid, but he was a terrible student. He would have preferred it if she had yelled at him for being dumb, like Lenny Cordisco’s mom. But she didn’t. Even when he brought home his failed math tests, she always said the same thing.
“Don’t worry. Keep trying. You’ll get it.”
But he did worry. Because he didn’t get it. And he knew he never would. Especially at a hard school like Mill Grove Elementary.
“Hey. We’re going to be late for your first day. Finish your breakfast.”
As Christopher finished his Froot Loops, he tried to practice reading the back of the box. Bad Cat was the cartoon on it. Bad Cat was the most funniest cartoon on Saturday mornings. Even in this cereal box version, he was hilarious. Bad Cat went up to a construction site and stole some hard hat man’s sandwich. He ate it all up. And when they caught him, he said his famous line.
“Sorry. Were you going to finish that?”
But this morning, Christopher was too nervous to laugh at the cartoon. So, he immediately looked for other things to distract himself. His eyes found the carton of milk. There was a picture of a missing girl. She was smiling without her two front teeth. Her name was Emily Bertovich. That’s what Christopher’s mom told him. To him, the name looked like…
Eimyl Bretvocih.
“We’re late. Let’s go, buddy,” Mom said.
Christopher drank the little bit of sugar milk left in the bowl for courage, then zipped up his red hoodie. As they drove to school, Christopher listened to his mother explain how “technically” they didn’t exactly “live” in the school district, so she kind of “lied” that her work address was their residence.
“So, don’t tell anyone we live in the motel, okay?”
“Okay,” he said.
As the car rolled over the hills, Christopher looked at the different sections of town. The cars in the front lawns on blocks. Houses with chipped paint and missing shingles. The pickup truck with the sleepaway camper in the driveway for hunting trips. Kind of like Michigan. Then, they moved to the nicer section. Big stone houses. Manicured lawns. Shiny cars in the driveways. He would have to add that to the graph paper sketch of his mom’s house.
As they drove, Christopher searched the sky for clouds. They were gone, but he did see something he liked. No matter the neighborhood, it was always close by. Big and beautiful with tons of trees. All green and pretty. For