The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t break. “Now which of these is the good-smelling one?”
    Rebecca grinned.
    “Ah, you want me to smell them.” He brought a plain white bar to his nose, then a yellow bar of Dial, and then a pink bar thatsmelled of strawberries and chemicals.
    “Don’t mistake it for an ice cream,” he said, handing her the pink one.
    She watched him from under her dark eyebrows and brought the bar close to her lips.
    “How was your day?” he said, easing himself onto the closed toilet seat.
    She dipped the soap in the water and rubbed it between her palms. She thought of telling him about not getting to help, but she didn’t want to make him sad. She rubbed the soap harder, but it didn’t get sudsy; there was only a little foam, large-bubbled and unsatisfying. She was a bit sorry she’d asked for the strawberry, which wouldn’t be the most mature thing for her to smell like. She didn’t like it when adults spoke to her as if she were a little girl. Or a little girl —she hated it when people were talking to the boys and then changed their voices when they started talking to her. She brought one foot up out of the water and rubbed it with the soap.
    “Hot,” she said at last.
    “A hot day. That could be a good day, I suppose.”
    “It wasn’t.”
    “You aren’t a heat-loving girl.”
    “I’m a comfort-loving girl,” she said, “who tolerates heat.”
    “Rebeck, it’s good to be home.” Leaning against the toilet tank, Bill felt the hours of work drain from his body.
    “How many people are coming?” Rebecca asked, setting the soap in the soap holder.
    “Looks like about sixty.”
    “Good thing it won’t rain!”
    “That’s right.”
    “No, that’s what you always say! You say, ‘Good thing it won’t rain,’ and Mom says, ‘You don’t know it won’t,’ and you say it’s neverrained in late July since you came to California.”
    “I believe you,” he said with a smile. “You are one of the most reliable people I know.”
    Rebecca looked away. “Dad?”
    “Sweetie?”
    “I tried to keep James occupied.”
    He smiled. “Of course you did. I would never have thought otherwise.”
    Ryan had tried, too, and he was trying again, lying with James on their bedroom floor, playing animals. He had a number of props for this, and he’d brought them out of the closet: old washcloths for blankets, a collection of bottle caps that Badger and Dog could use when they were ready to eat.
    “Dog sayin’ arf arf arf,” James cried, making his dog lunge at Ryan’s badger.
    “No, James,” Ryan said. “Dog is gentle. You love him, right?”
    James didn’t answer.
    “Maybe we should give him a bath before the party. Then he can put his new collar on.” Ryan went to the closet for a shallow plastic basin. “Let’s give them a bath together.” He set the basin between them and walked Badger over to it. “One, two, three,” he said, and he jumped Badger into the imaginary water, where Badger bounced up and down, splashing vigorously. “Alley-oop,” Ryan said, and he jumped Dog in, too. “Look, they’re splashing.”
    “Alley-oop,” James said. “Alley-oop, alley-oop, ALLEY-OOP!” He scrambled onto his bed and jumped, shouting, “NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPIN’ ON THE BED.”
    Their father appeared in the doorway. He had the rumpled look of late evening, his tie pulled loose, shirtsleeves rolled. “Time for your bath now, James,” he said quietly, and James slid off the bed and ran to him.
    In her room Rebecca considered what to wear. Her colorful dresses were on one side of her closet and her plain dresses were on the other, and though she loved getting a bright new dress like the purple-striped one she’d picked out a couple weeks earlier, she generally ended up with something darker and less adorned. She had a navy dress with a small white collar that she had worn at least once a week this school year, and she was reaching for it when she saw, hanging way off to the side, a sleeveless white