Chapter One E ven I could see that Tooter was no Seeing Eye dog The ancient Shih Tzu was about the size of a loaf of bread His bottom teeth poked out of his mouth all the time His eyes were once brown but now they were sort of gray Tooter’s favorite thing in the world to do was to rub his butt against the ground Or the table Or someone’s leg And to fart And that’s the story behind the name Tooter After Mom finally agreed that my brother James could walk me to the library instead of making me spend another summer day alone at home I mean I guess technically it’s home even though it doesn’t feel like it yet he grabbed Tooter’s leash from a hook by the door Come on Alice Might as well take care of two needy pains-in-the-butt he muttered We moved to Sinkville South Carolina about three months ago Sinkville is the official name but everyone calls it Stinkville 1
Home I mean real home is Seattle Washington We lived there right along the shore all twelve years of my life There was always a wonderful blanket of soft gray in the sky so I only had to put on sunscreen once in the morning and my milk-white skin stayed perfectly pale The air smelled salty and like rain Mom would walk me to school during the school year and I’d spend the summer hanging out with my best friend Eliza who lived a block from us Her mom let her walk over to our house by herself in the morning but of course it was impossible for me to head out on my own So we’d always hang out at my home Mom would bake us cook ies and tell us stories about her life B A before Alice when she was a travel writer She made every day feel like an adventure Sometimes when Dad came home from work he’d say Where’d ya go today Alice And I’d say anything from Argentina to Zaire wherever Mom had talked about that day Here in Stinkville life is pretty much the opposite of before We live in a little house in the middle of the woods Even with all the trees the sky is blazing blue I have to put on sunscreen every other hour For real And the air in Stinkville It smells like rotting eggs That’s because the whole town is centered on M H Bartel Paper Mill where almost everyone including the new plant manager a k a my dad in town works 2
Do you know how paper is made I don’t either But I do know it involves purposefully rotting wood Rotting wood emits incredibly horrible smells The scariest part no one in town even smells it anymore For real So if we live in Stinkville long enough we’ll get used to the stink and we won’t even know how horrible it is to new people And if that wasn’t stinktastic enough Mom doesn’t walk me to school or anywhere for that matter Mostly that’s because we moved in the summer so there is no school But also because the longer we live here the less Mom does anything Momish She took me to the library the first week we were here but has been too tired feeling a little overwhelmed or grrrmmlll the approximate sound she makes when I nudge her awake since She doesn’t even tell me to brush my teeth any more let alone explain what happened when she went diamond mining in Tanzania years ago But what about hanging out all day with my BFF Well she’s literally across the country And I’m here With no friends No life My only excitement now is going to M H Bartel Public Library yup even the library was named after the paper mill When James Tooter and I got to the library doors I stomped and refused to go inside without my brother What is your deal he hissed I said I’d take you to the library not hold your books for you 3
