SCRAP CITY wight heeyuh All at once the ice chest moved This time it did much more than wobble In one smooth motion it turned around and sort of sat up Jerome fell back on his rear end amazed The ice chest was moving On its own Or was there something even bigger in there like a cat Wait a talking cat And was that a coffee can on top of the ice chest And connecting them the base from a blender Just what was he looking at He studied the thing If he didn’t know any better he’d say the coffee can and blender part looked just like a head and neck And when the whirring voice said I can’t fide my doze Jerome knew it was a head and neck He frowned at the thing Your what My doze I can’t fide my doze it answered turning to him Two gauges with dials in them faced him now Eyes And below that a curved piece of metal that was surely a mouth and jaw Oh your nose he said You can’t find your nose Jerome couldn’t help but stare Mouthpieces from old telephones looked like ears little springs poked out crazily from the top of the coffee can like wild hair sticking out from under a baseball cap arms had been cut from a garden hose and at the end of each garden-hose arm there was a glove Well one arm had a glove and one had a mitten 6
D S THORNTON neither of which were normally found in that part of Texas where it was warm all year long The glove had different colored fingers and the mitten was bright orange Jerome watched as the brightly colored glove and mitten busily rummaged through a wooden crate tossing aside gears and drill bits and beat-up ancient wrenches What do you mean you can’t find your nose Jerome asked still not understanding It was wight here wight on my face the ice-chest thing said And then it was gone It falled right off It touched the empty place on its face and whirred I pwamissed Nanny Lux I’d dever lose it again She’s gonna be upset someding awful Dials in its eye-gauges darted about worriedly as they searched the ground If I can’t find it I have to find someding else Jerome squatted to help He was now on the same level as the little contraption He felt for a second as though he were getting down on the floor with Max his little brother helping him look for a lost action figure or metal car that had disappeared under the couch But it had been a long time since he’d done that He surveyed the ground What am I looking for You doe the ice-chest thing whirred someding dozey Jerome watched as the crazy contraption moved a few feet away Jerome saw now that beneath the ice chest was 7
SCRAP CITY something else that looked familiar the bottom half of a barbeque grill And under that three wheels exactly like the wheels on the chair in his mother’s old sewing room What in the world was he looking at Was it a toy Was it a robot Was it dangerous It didn’t seem dangerous in fact he had a sneaking suspicion it was anything but dangerous But still he was reminded of what his mother used to tell him Pay attention Keep your wits about you He thought about a time he and his mother had been on their way to the laundromat She couldn’t hold his hand because she was pushing the stroller where baby Max was sleeping soundly Jerome was probably four or five years old at the time and as they began to cross the street he clutched the folds of his mother’s dress It was her yellow dress the one with the little white flowers Look left look right look left again she told him before stepping into the crosswalk Pay attention Keep your wits about you Safest town in the world Shoney Flats but you never know Bad things can happen any time Jerome brushed the thought away He didn’t want to think about that about bad things happening Not when he’d just thought about his mom Not when he’d just thought about Max Suddenly the little contraption took off Jerome watched its curious form as it nimbly skittered away through the junkyard its wheels keeping it level even though the path was rocky and uneven 8
D S THORNTON Jerome glanced quickly toward the shack If he rose up on his toes he could just make out the sign on the roof SCRAP CITY in big letters made of rusty old tools and gears He couldn’t see the other sign the one he’d seen when they drove up the handpainted one that read ONE MAN’S TRASH IS ANOTHER MAN’S TREASURE He had but a split second to decide what to do because the ice-chest thing had gone all the way to the end of the path and was just about to turn down another path and out of sight He bit his lip What if his dad and uncle were already out on the porch wondering where Jerome had gone Nah they’re still with that crazy old goat he decided They just have to be Because no way was he going to lose sight of that ice chest He ran after it but already it had disappeared Rounding the corner Jerome found himself in an area where some piles of junk were so high he couldn’t see over them No wonder the junkyard was called Scrap City It really was like a city of junk Rusted-out water heaters and broken windows and craggy sheets of metal were everywhere He spotted the little contraption at the end of the path He could see it was holding something in its gloved hands cocking its coffee-can head turning the item this way and that By the time Jerome caught up he could see from the pile nearby that the ice-chest thing had already gone through quite a few other items Whatever this crazy thing was looking for it sure wasn’t having any luck 9
