All Alone in the Universe by Lynne Rae Perkins Read Free Book Online

porch, and invited himself on up.
    “Any coffee left in that pot, Mrs. Pelbry?” he said.
    She filled a green mug with milk and splashed some coffee in, for color. After that he came almost every day.
    Mom liked it that he came, in the way that people like it when dogs or cats come right up and nuzzle them and want to be petted. She also liked it in the way that first-grade teachers, one of which she is, like six-year-olds, which Bobby was. But mostly she liked it just because Bobby was Bobby, a skinny little boy with shiny, happy blue eyes. Bobby‧s scrawny legs dangled out of hugely wide, but very short, shorts, and a small shirt stretched around his small chest. His hair was colorless like sand, but in the morning sun each tiny crew-cut hair glowed golden white, his happy eyes sparkled blue, and he was brown with summer. He spoke in an unexpected voice, booming and hoarse, saying words that were unexpectedly polite and grownup-sounding.
    “Looks like another hot one, don‧t it, Mrs. Pelbry?” he would say.
    Or, “I see you‧re painting your gutters. That‧s a very attractive color.”
    Or, “Did you‧re see the fireworks up at Birdvale last night? Spectacular, lust spectacular.”
    “He cracks me up,” my mom would say after he left, but while he was there, she was serious and attentive. Their conversations floated up through my window as I lay in bed, waking up, and I listened. I couldn‧t really help it.
    “How are Mr. Pelbry and the girls?” Bobby started off one morning, as usual.
    “They‧re fine, thank you,” my mother answered. “And how is everyone in your family?”
    “Fine,” said Bobby. “Just fine.”
    He paused.
    “Well, my brother Jerome, he ain‧t fine. He‧s got poison ivy all over his whole body. Even including his eyelids. They‧re swelled shut.”
    “Oh, dear,” said my mom. “Where did he get it?”
    “Down the woods, I guess,” said Bobby. “He don‧t know what poison ivy looks like. I know what it looks like; it has three leaves.”
    “Leaves of three, let it be,” said my mom.
    Bobby laughed. “You must know a lot of poems from being a teacher,” he said.
    “And then my one other brother, Anthony,” he went on, “he was riding his bike yesterday, and he rode off the edge of a loading dock over at that old factory building in Hesmont. He landed on his head and had to get eighteen stitches.”
    “Oh, gracious!” said my mom. “Your poor mother!”
    “My brother‧s the one who had to get the stitches,” Bobby pointed out. “He looks like Frankenstein. But he looks better than Jerome. Jerome looks like the Blob. Anyways, we all got to ride to the hospital in my sister‧s boyfriend‧s car because my mom and my dad was both at work, and my sister‧s boyfriend drives really fast, like a race car driver. And my mom had to meet us there, and she had to leave some lady‧s head in the sink and borrow someone else‧s car, so she was yelling at Marie for not watching Anthony. But Marie can‧t help it if Anthony don‧t look where he‧s going.
    “So then Eileen and James started bawling right in the emergency room. Which turned out really good, because my mom said if we would all just shut up, we could get ice cream after. So everyone did, except for when Anthony got his stitches, and my mom said that don‧t count because anyone would yell who was getting their head sewed up. I even got the kind dipped in chocolate.
    “It was a tremendous day,” he said. “Absolutely tremendous. Except,” he added, “that my mom and dad had a fight since we got home late and there wasn‧t time to cook any dinner. My mom put a bunch of those later Tots in the oven, but my dad said that wasn‧t dinner and he was going down Crystal Bar for a steak sandwich. My mom was steaming. She said, Why didn‧t he get a room there, too?
    “But when my dad come home, him and me listened to the ball game on the radio. Did you hear that game? Did you hear that catch by Roberto