âNell is hungry, thatâs all.â She smiled at me. âEat up, kiddo,â she said.
Somehow, I wasnât hungry any more. My appetite had been squelched.
I was practically a failure at school, and now I couldnât even eat spaghetti properly, according to Mr.Pain-in-the-butt-perfect Tom Okada. I glared at him and picked at a meatball.
He pissed me off sometimes. Heâs so smart, straight-A student, math guru, physics genius. Iâd heard him at school debating with his nerdy friends about something called string theory, not to mention particle theory, black hole theory, and quacks and quinks theory. Pain-in-the-butt theory is what heâs best at if you ask me.
When supper was over there was nothing left of the spaghetti and meatballs. As I cleared the table, I covered my plate with the salad bowl so Janice wouldnât notice Iâd eaten practically nothing.
Lisa took Pumpkin into bed with her.
I told her, âPumpkin sleeps in his box on the floor.â
âBut why canât he sleep with me? Heâs so tiny. What if he gets cold during the night?â
âThereâs a warm blanket in his box, remember? Heâll be fine.â
âBut what if heâs lonely all by himself?â
âHe wonât be lonely. Weâre right here if he needs us.â
âButâ¦â
âSweetie, a kitten needs to be trained. Janice says the way you start him off in life is important.â
âIs it okay if I just hold him while you read to me? Iâm sure heâll like the story of the Golden Fleece.â
âYes, but when weâre finished he goes right back into his own bed, okay?â
I often read to Lisa at bedtime. We were working our way through a book of ancient gods and heroes. She liked reading on her own, but she liked it more if I read to her.
She was slated for an operation in a month or so. Sheâd had a lot of really bad sore throats all winter, so the doctor said her tonsils should come out.
She was worried. It was the idea of going to hospital. She had never stayed in a hospital before. I didnât blame her for being worried. Hospitals can be scary.
She had been with the Hardys the longest of all of us, at least three years. After her parents died in a boating accident when she was four, she was sent to live with a foster family who made her sleep in a dark scary basement all by herself. That was probably why she hated sleeping alone. Also they had an older daughter who was mean to her. After a couple of years, the mother in the family got sick, so Lisa ended up at the Hardysâ.
Janice told me that Lisaâs mom and dad had come from El Salvador as refugees. Lisa probably inherited her beautiful black curly hair from her mom. Janice said that Lisaâs grandfather in El Salvador was really old and there was no one else to look after Lisa, so she became a foster kid.
âDo you remember your mom and dad at all?â I asked her.
âNot much.â She started to shake her head, but stopped and held her head really still like she didnât want to disturb a memory. âSometimes in the night, I wake up and I can remember a nice warm feeling, like Iâm sitting in my momâs lap. Itâs so warm and soft and sheâs hugging and kissing me and Iâm snuggling right in. Sometimes when I smell a certain kind of flower, I get that cozy warm feeling too. Maybe thatâs how she smelled. Real sweet, like that flower maybe?â
âWhat about your dad? What do you remember about him?â
âHe used to give me rides on his shoulders, and it felt so safe up there with him holding my legs tight. I could see everything, like I was the boss of the world, or the queen of England, or somethingâ¦â Her voice trailed off and she buried her face in the kittenâs fur.
She looked so sad. I wanted to cheer her up.
âLetâs see if Jason will ever find that golden fleece,â I said,