Saving Cicadas by Nicole Seitz Read Free Book Online Page B

her the most. “Let me know when you’re hungry,” my mother said. “I’ll find an Arby’s or something.”
    â€œI could eat,” I said, sitting up straighter in my seat and blinking to adjust to the noonday light.
    â€œAfter lunch, I go work,” said Rainey. “I need put my apron on.”
    â€œOh. Right,” said Mama. “Well, guess what? You’re not going in to work today, honey.”
    I bit my lip, hoping Rainey would handle this well.
    â€œBut I got work,” said Rainey. “Got take groceries to the car. Pack ’em up real good.”
    Mama squeezed the wheel and flipped her face all the way around to look at Rainey. We were speeding seventy miles an hour down I-26.
    â€œMama!” I screamed. “Look out!”
    â€œOh, sweet Mary, hold on!” Poppy was hollering, and Rainey was frozen up.
    I mean it, we almost ran a guy off the road! He was honking and we were swerving. I grabbed the wheel while Mama was screaming, and finally we got it straightened out. I nearly had a heart attack. I was grabbing at my chest, and my mother looked discombobulated like she’d just woken up and happened to be driving a car.
    Mama eased onto an off-ramp and then into the dirt on the side of the road.
    â€œWhat in tarnation are you doing?” Grandma Mona shrieked.
    â€œIt’s all right, she got it,” said Poppy in his soothing kind of way. “Everybody just calm it down, now. Nice and calm.”
    We came to a stop, the hazards blinking, and Mama leaned her head on the steering wheel and banged it a couple times. Then she said calmly, “Rainey, I told Mr. Mooneyham we were going on a little trip, honey. He said it’s perfectly fine and to have fun. Fun, he said. Isn’t this fun? You can go back to work when we get home, all right?”
    This change in routine was not sitting well with Rainey. She was trying to process it all and deal with it. I could tell by how she kept tilting her head to the side and mumbling to herself. She was holding her baby doll and fiddling with its fingertips, counting each finger, trying to stay calm. Trying. She couldn’t hold it in any longer and threw her hands up to her ears, letting the doll roll to the floor. “I want go work! I want help people with the grocery. Let’s go home, Mama. Time go home.”
    I watched as my mother’s pretty face stretched back into a painful grimace and she started crying. And not just a little cry, but a deep, rip-your-heart-out kind. For a woman who was mostly quiet except for occasional bouts of self-talking, these outbursts were becoming right regular.
    â€œGoodness, it’s okay,” said Poppy. “Oh, now. She’ll be fine. Won’t you, Rainey? You’ll be fine, right? We’re going to have fun! The Macy family on the open road!”
    â€œI got go work.” Rainey pleaded. She was really beginning to fret, with the bottom lip shaking and all.
    Mama cried harder. The sound completely filled the car and bounced off my eardrums, pinging from window to window. We weren’t even in our own state anymore. We were hours away from Rainey’s happy place in the hollow of the backyard tree. I looked up at a flashing sign for cigarettes at a Zippy Mart, and that’s when I had one of my smartest ideas ever. “Mama, go find a grocery store,” I told her. “They’re bound to be in every town, right?”
    Mama must have thought it was a good idea, too, because we drove around, and when we found one, Mama went in and explained our situation. She asked if my sister could bag a few groceries. Maybe take them out to a few cars. There just happened to be another developmentally challenged person who worked at this particular store, but he was sick today. Bad for him. Good for us.

Chapter Nine

MOUNTAINS TO MOVE
    {Mona}
    The grocery store manager was more than happy to have some free help. My granddaughter Rainey