Stanley was the first one finished. He spat in his hole, then showered and changed into his cleaner set of clothes. It had been three days since the laundry was done, so even his clean set was dirty and smelly. Tomorrow, these would become his work clothes, and his other set would be washed.
He could think of no reason why Zero would dig his hole for him.
Zero didn’t even get any sunflower seeds.
“I guess he likes to dig holes,” Armpit had said. “He’s a mole,” Zigzag had said. “I think he eats dirt.”
“Moles don’t eat dirt,” X-Ray had pointed out. “Worms eat dirt.” “Hey, Zero?” Squid had asked. “Are you a mole or a worm?” Zero had said nothing.
Stanley never even thanked him. But now he sat on his cot and waited for Zero to return from the shower room.
“Thanks,” he said as Zero entered through the tent flap.
Zero glanced at him, then went over to the crates, where he deposited his dirty clothes and towel.
“Why’d you help me?” Stanley asked.
Zero turned around. “You didn’t steal the sunflower seeds,” he said.
“So, neither did you,” said Stanley.
Zero stared at him. His eyes seemed to expand, and it was almost as if Zero were looking right through him. “You didn’t steal the sneakers,” he said.
Stanley said nothing.
He watched Zero walk out of the tent. If anybody had X-ray vision, it was Zero.
“Wait!” he called, then hurried out after him.
Zero had stopped just outside the tent, and Stanley almost ran into him.
“I’ll try to teach you to read if you want,” Stanley offered. “I don’t know if I know how to teach, but I’m not that worn-out today, since you dug a lot of my hole.”
A big smile spread across Zero’s face.
They returned to the tent, where they were less likely to be bothered. Stanley got his box of stationery and a pen out of his crate. They sat on the ground.
“Do you know the alphabet?” Stanley asked.
For a second, he thought he saw a flash of defiance in Zero’s eyes, but then it passed.
“I think I know some of it,” Zero said. “A, B, C, D.” “Keep going,” said Stanley.
Zero’s eyes looked upward. “E…” “F,” said Stanley.
“G,” said Zero. He blew some air out of the side of his mouth. “H…I…K, P.”
“H, I, t, K, L,” Stanley said.
“That’s right,” said Zero. “I’ve heard it before. I just don’t have it memorized exactly.”
“That’s all right,” said Stanley. “Here, I’ll say the whole thing, just to kind of refresh your memory, then you can try it.”
He recited the alphabet for Zero, then Zero repeated it without a single mistake.
Not bad for a kid who had never seen Sesame Street!
“Well, I’ve heard it before, somewhere,” Zero said, trying to act like it was nothing, but his big smile gave him away.
The next step was harder. Stanley had to figure out how to teach him to recognize each letter. He gave Zero a piece of paper, and took a piece for himself. “I guess we’ll start with A.”
He printed a capital A, and then Zero copied it on his sheet of paper. The paper wasn’t lined, which made it more di cult, but
Zero’s A wasn’t bad, just a little big. Stanley told him he needed to write smaller, or else they’d run out of paper real quick. Zero printed it smaller.
“Actually, there are two ways to write each letter,” Stanley said, as he realized this was going to be even harder than he thought. “That’s a capital A. But usually you’ll see a small a. You only have capitals at the beginning of a word, and only if it’s the start of a sentence, or if it’s a proper noun, like a name.”
Zero nodded as if he understand, but Stanley knew he had made very little sense.
He printed a lowercase a, and Zero copied it. “So there are fifty-two,” said Zero.
Stanley didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Instead of twenty-six letters. There are really fifty-two.”
Stanley looked at him, surprised. “I guess that’s right. How’d you figure that out?” he asked.
Zero said nothing. “Did you add?” Zero said nothing. “Did you multiply?”
“That’s just how many there are,” said Zero.
Stanley raised and lowered one shoulder. He didn’t even know how Zero knew there were twenty-six in the first place. Did he count them as he recited them?
He had Zero write a few more upper- and lowercase A’s, and then he moved on to a capital B. This was going to take a long time, he realized.
“You can teach me ten letters a day,” suggested Zero. “Five capitals and five smalls. After five days I’ll know them all. Except on the last day I’ll have to do twelve. Six capitals and six smalls.”
Again Stanley stared at him, amazed that he was able to figure all that out.
Zero must have thought he was staring for a different reason, because he said, “I’ll dig part of your hole every day. I can dig for about an hour, then you can teach me for an hour. And since I’m a
faster digger anyway, our holes will get done about the same time. I won’t have to wait for you.”
“Okay,” Stanley agreed.
As Zero was printing his B’s, Stanley asked him how he figured out it would take five days. “Did you multiply? Did you divide?”
“That’s just what it is,” Zero said. “It’s good math,” said Stanley. “I’m not stupid,” Zero said. “I know everybody thinks I am. I just
don’t like answering their questions.”
Later that night, as he lay on his cot, Stanley reconsidered the deal he had made with Zero. Getting a break every day would be a relief, but he knew X-Ray wouldn’t like it. He wondered if there might be some way Zero would agree to dig part of X-Ray’s hole as well. But then again, why should he? I’m the one teaching Zero. I need the break so I’ll have the energy to teach him. I’m the one who took the blame for the sunflower seeds. I’m the one who Mr. Sir is mad at.
He closed his eyes, and images from the Warden’s cabin floated inside his head: her red fingernails, Mr. Sir writhing on the floor, her flowered makeup kit.
He opened his eyes.
He suddenly realized where he’d seen the gold tube before.
He’d seen it in his mother’s bathroom, and he’d seen it again in the Warden’s cabin. It was half of a lipstick container.
7 B?
 |
7 B?
He felt a jolt of astonishment.
His mouth silently formed the name Kate Barlow, as he wondered if it really could have belonged to the kissin’ outlaw.
