Artie climbed onto the back of the couch and perched there with his bare feet on the windowsill He watched what was happening across the street like it was on TV An ambulance Look They’re coming out of that house The old lady’s house across the street They were carrying her out on a stretcher sliding her into the back of the ambulance slamming the door Artie sang along as the ambulance drove away Wa-wa-wa Wa-wa-wa THE NEXT MORNING I looked out the window again The drapes were closed in the house across the street like it was asleep It was a little house one story and covered with stucco that had bits of broken glass mixed in I felt sorry for it because there were apartments all around it now It was the only house on the block that hadn’t gone extinct But I didn’t really feel sorry for the old lady who lived there who never said hi even though Artie and I walked past her house every single school day One Saturday the old lady was out watering her garden She was the only person in the neighborhood who grew flowers We walked by with Mom and the lady made a sound like a grunt as we passed I don’t know what she was
trying to say but it didn’t sound very nice Today was the last day I thought we could get away with the I-forgot-my-lunch excuse On the way to school I told Artie to use it one more time But I didn’t forget my lunch he said You didn’t make remember anything Suddenly he remembered the night before Is that why the ambulance came Exactly Except when the first-aid guys got to the door I couldn’t remember why I called them so I sent them away me one Tell her I forgot then You didn’t though You’re talking about it now Artie is five and a half and what you’d call literal He didn’t understand that we were running out of food If you forgot your lunch Mrs Gill would ask everybody in the class to contribute something But if it happened too often or more than twice in a row she’d get suspicious and phone to find out if anything was wrong at home I knew this for a fact because Artie’s teacher Mrs Gill was my kindergarten teacher too six years ago Artie I said as we walked past the house of the old lady they took away in the ambulance Let’s pretend Let’s pretend I have amnesia What’s that It’s when you get knocked on the head and you can’t
Tell that to Mrs Gill Because of my amnesia I forgot to make your lunch again I thought that sounded like the crazy sort of thing kindergarten teachers hear every day Okay Artie said And don’t mention Mom’s away We had already discussed this He nodded to show he understood how important it was that we kept this information to ourselves And if you get a lot of stuff don’t eat it all I said Bring some home AT THE END of the day I spread out on the table everything that Artie had brought from school Cheese stick fruit leather four halves of different kinds of sandwiches jam ham and cheese plain cheese and something that looked like butter A butter sandwich The kid probably ate the meat and just handed over the bread A granola bar and an apple I took our last can of tomato soup from the cupboard and heated it with more water than the label said so it would seem like more Then the phone rang and I ran to answer it Mom I said I’m looking for Debbie a man said She’s out
This is Greg from Pay-N-Save Thump thump thump thump thump I put my hand to my chest but it was Artie in Mom’s room throwing a ball against the wall Greg he said again Her boss Maybe she forgot she had one Can you give her a message Sure I said trying to sound casual This time the thump thump thump really was my heart Tell her not to bother coming back Ever She’s blown it Then he said I’m surprised She was a good worker Honest dependable Or so I thought I hung up on him and went back to the kitchen counter still thumping I kept back one of the sandwich halves and the cheese stick for Artie’s lunch the next day even though I was one hundred per cent positive that Mom would turn up by morning She’d go back to Pay-N-Save Gas and Greg would change his mind Then when we woke up she would be home again pouring out cereal for us I divided the rest of the food Artie brought home and splashed the soup into bowls My hands were shaking Supper’s ready AFTER SUPPER I made Artie take a bath I had to wrestle him down to get his shirt off
