The Zippy Fix by Graham Salisbury Read Free Book Online Page A

try?”
    Darci nibbled her thumb. “Which one should I pull?”
    “How about… um … that one.”
    Darci pulled. The weed broke off, just like mine.
    “Fun, huh?”
    “Let’s do more.”
    Together we broke weeds and piled themon the grass. I didn’t mind this work. It was good for thinking. And what I thought of was how much I was earning and how close to eighteen dollars I was getting.

    “Hey, Darce. Do you have any money you don’t want? Like in your bank, or something?”
    “Maybe. Do you want it?”
    “To borrow, yeah. I need to buy Stella a birthday present… but it’s a surprise, so keep it to yourself.”
    “A secret! I won’t tell anyone.” Darci jumped up. “I’ll go look.”
    “Yeah, look,” I said.
    I broke off more weeds. The pile was growing.
    I heard a car pull up and looked over my shoulder.
    It was Ledward.
    Mom’s boyfriend.

22
If It’s Broke, Fix It
    L edward parked his World War II army jeep on the grass. He’d told me it was once an abandoned rusty old hulk covered by weeds and vines up in the jungle. “Still had a good body. The engine needed work, but with some new parts, it could run again. If it’s broke, fix it, ah? That’s all.”
    I went back to weeding.
    Ledward came up and stood over me. He was so big and tall he blocked out the sun and half the sky. “Whatchoo doing down there, boy?”
    “Weeding.” I didn’t look up.
    He squatted next to me. He smelled good, like he’d just shaved or something. “Mind if I try?”
    I looked at him like, Really? “Sure, go ahead.”
    Ledward grabbed a weed in his huge hand. He wiggled it a little, and slowly pulled it up atan angle. The whole thing came out, roots and all. He shook dirt off and laid the weed across his huge palm. “See this? That’s the roots. You don’t get them out, the weed just going be poking its head up again tomorrow.”

    I looked at the army of broken stems I’d left in the dirt. I was going to see a whole new regiment tomorrow.
    “Best thing is if you use a weeder,” Ledward said. “Let me go see what I got in my jeep.”
    I sat back and waited. Ledward did a lot of stuff around our house. He could fix anything. If he had something to make this job easier, I was all for it.
    He came back and handed me a screwdriver. “Try this.”
    I worked the screwdriver into the dirt, angling it under a fresh weed. I pulled, slowly, wiggling it the way Ledward had.
    The weed came out… all of it. “Hey! It works.”
    Ledward tapped my shoulder. “Now you got um.”
    “Thanks.”
    “No problem. Your mama home?”
    “Yeah. Inside.”
    Ledward stood and went into the house. He didn’t knock, just walked right in. He’d been coming around to see Mom for more than a year now.
    Darci came back with her life savings tucked under her arm. It was in a gray box that looked like a bank vault with a combination lock. She plopped down cross-legged on the grass and opened it up. A few coins spilled out.
    “Hmm,” I said, picking them up. “Twenty-seven cents. Can I borrow it?”
    “Uh-huh, you want to borrow the bank, too?”
    “Naah, you can keep that.”
    I stuck the twenty-seven cents in my pocket and pulled weeds until the sun made my backfeel as if Mom was ironing my shirt with me in it.
    “Enough,” I finally said. “Let’s go find Mom.”
    She was on the back patio with Ledward. They were lounging in plastic chairs and sipping tall glasses of iced tea with green mint leaves in them.
    Mom raised her glass as I walked up. “There’s more of this in the kitchen.”
    “How long did I work?”
    Mom looked over her shoulder at the clock hanging on a rusty nail next to the sliding screen door. “Forty minutes.”
    She took a sip of tea.
    Ledward gazed out over the weedy backyard. I was surprised the flimsy chair he was squeezed into could hold him up without collapsing.
    But I was there for my money. “Um … can I get paid?”
    “Well… let’s go see how much work you did.”
    Darci and I