Jasper John Dooley, Left Behind (3 page)

After school, it was still raining. Instead of going home, Jasper went to Ori's, across the alley and one house down. Ori showed him the mountain of wet wood in the backyard left over from the renovation. Jasper sniffed it. It smelled nice and woody. “Let's get started,” he said.

“The thing is,” Ori said, “my mom said we couldn't play outside if it's raining.”

“Can we build inside?”

“That's the other thing,” Ori said. “No. But anyway, before we build, we need to make a plan. Never build anything without a plan. We didn't have one for our renovation. Then we had to pay somebody to come and do it right.”

They went inside to eat a snack and make a plan. Ori's mom gave them celery sticks and cheese. Jasper ate the cheese but put his celery sticks behind his ears, like pencils. “Why are you putting celery behind your ears?” Ori asked.

“It helps me think,” Jasper said, but really it was because he hated celery. Jasper adjusted the celery sticks. “That's better. Now I'll be able to make a plan.”

“Let's build a fort,” Ori said.

“Everybody builds a fort,” Jasper said, and Ori agreed that a fort wasn't very original.

Jasper twiddled the sticks, thinking, until Ori finished crunching his celery. Then Jasper took the sticks out from behind his ears and asked, “Can I see the renovation?”

They went down to the basement. There was a new wall with a white door in it where there hadn't been a door or a wall before. Ori opened the door. Inside was an empty room. The walls were white and so clean and bright the boys had to shield their eyes. “Can we go in?” Jasper asked.

“Just don't touch the walls,” Ori said.

Standing in the middle of the room was like standing inside an iceberg. Or a — “Cruise ship,” Jasper said.

“What?”

“Let's build a cruise ship.”

By the time Jasper's mom came to pick him up, Ori and Jasper had finished their plan, which turned out to be a drawing. They showed it to Jasper's mom. It was a drawing of a ship as big as an apartment building lying on its side. It was so big it had a swimming pool and a ballroom. It had ten different restaurants. You couldn't see the pool or the ballroom or the restaurants because they were inside the ship. “There's a Ping-Pong room, too,” Jasper said. “And you can ride your bike inside. One of the restaurants only sells popcorn. We're going to drive our ship out into the ocean and meet Nan there and bring her back with us.”

“That's terrific,” Jasper's mom said. “I can't wait until it's finished.”

“The thing is,” Ori said, “you won't be able to go on it.”

“Only people who are old or young will be allowed on this ship,” Jasper told her. “It's an Older–Younger cruise ship. No Middle people. Sorry.”

Ori said, “We're going to start building tomorrow. If it isn't raining. Jasper will have to come back. He'll have to come back every day.”

“I have to,” Jasper told Mom. “I never got to hammer.”

“That's fine,” Mom said.

They headed home across the alley.

“Is it going to rain tomorrow?” Jasper asked on the way.

“I don't know,” Mom said.

“I hope not,” Jasper said. “I want to start building.” Then he asked, “Do you think it's raining on the cruise?”

“It might be.”

“Is it the same rain?” Jasper asked.

“It's very similar,” Mom said.

Jasper said, “Nan went all the way to Alaska to see icebergs. If it's raining, she won't see any. And there was an iceberg around here today. She didn't have to go away at all.”

“I've never seen an iceberg around here.”

“You're probably not looking for one.”

They went up the steps to the porch. Mom shook out her wet umbrella and left it outside. “Let's hope it's not raining where she is,” she said.

“But then she'll be missing all this nice rain!” Jasper said.

“Like you said, it might be raining in Alaska, too.”

“But it's not the
same
rain,” Jasper said. “It's only
similar
.”

Jasper got an idea. “I'm going to put out some containers to catch the rain. So Nan will have some when she gets back. And! I almost forgot! I need more Band-Aids.”

“You have three on already,” Mom said.

“I need more. Today at school? In the middle of What Am I? I started to
pththth
.”

Mom sighed loudly and went and got the box. Jasper lifted his shirt for her to put more Band-Aids around the edges of the other three Band-Aids. Four more Band-Aids. Then the box was empty. “Oh, no!” Jasper cried.

“We'll get more tomorrow. On our way back from Nan's.”

“Is Nan coming home tomorrow?” Jasper asked.

“No. We have to water her plants. Tomorrow is only Wednesday.”

“Wednesday?” Jasper took off, running through the house, waving his arms and yelling, “Not Wednesday! Not Annie! No jujube eyes! No!”

As soon as Jasper woke on Wednesday morning, he checked his Band-Aids to make sure they hadn't come off in the night. All seven Band-Aids were still there. Too bad the nicest one was under all the others.

Nothing happened at school except that Jasper traded his cookie at lunch for two of Ori's celery sticks and put them behind his ears during math. When Ms. Tosh asked him what he was doing with celery behind his ears, he showed her how twiddling the sticks helped him think of the right answer. Ms. Tosh made him throw the celery in the garbage. On the way to the garbage can, Jasper passed her desk and stopped to sharpen one of the celery sticks in the electric pencil sharpener with the window.

“Stop that right now, Jasper John!” Ms. Tosh said.

Other than that, nothing happened.

It wasn't raining, so after school Jasper went across the alley and one house down to Ori's to start work on the cruise ship.

Ori taped the plan on the side of the garage above the mountain of wood. The boys stood with their hands on their hips, studying it. That was how you were supposed to stand when you looked at plans, Ori said. They decided to start by laying out the wood in the outline of the cruise ship. Each took one end of a piece of wood and laid it in the grass. First they laid out a huge rectangle. Then they added a triangle at the top. They stood inside the outline to make sure it was big enough. They lay down in it.

“Nice,” Jasper said.

Ori sneezed. “The thing is, I'm allergic to grass.”

“That won't be a problem once the ship is in the water,” Jasper said. He hopped up. “Okay. Let's hammer.”

The tools were in the garage. Ori brought out a hammer and a coffee can full of nails. “Is there only one hammer?” Jasper asked.

“No,” Ori said. “There's more than one hammer.”

Jasper looked at Ori. The sun was shining red through his ears where they stuck out. “Aren't you going to hammer?” Jasper asked him.

“No,” Ori said. “The thing is? When my dad was working on the renovation? Before we had to pay somebody to come and do it right? He hit his thumb with the hammer. It turned black and fell off.”

“His thumb fell off?”

“It could have,” Ori said.

Jasper grabbed the hammer. “I'm not scared.”

So Ori climbed on top of the mountain of wood and watched Jasper hammer the outline of the cruise ship together. “I know! I can be the boss!” Ori said. He started calling, “Faster! Faster!”

“Did you know,” Jasper asked, “that a snake's tail actually starts at the end?”

“Faster!” Ori shouted.

Jasper didn't hit himself with the hammer. He didn't hit many nails, either. For some reason he kept missing them. The nails were probably scooting out of the way when they saw the hammer coming down on their heads, scooting so fast Jasper couldn't even see them move. When Mom called from across the alley and one house down, the cruise ship wasn't even close to being done.

“Jasper John! We're going now!”

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

“Harder and
faster
!” Ori said.

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 you 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!”