Mrs. MacGregor suggests that I wait while she fetches Andrew. I pick up the rake she’s left leaning against the maple tree and begin rasp rasp rasping another pile. Would my mom like the whole idea? Would Uncle Ted throw Andrew out on his ear? I am playing a game of twenty questions when Andrew comes around the corner of the church with Mrs. MacGregor. His head, covered in black curlicues and absorbed in her every word, leans down toward Mrs. MacGregor’s snow-white one. He moves like a dancer, lightly on the balls of his feet. I don’t realize how big he is until he stands in front of me.

“This is Carolyn, lad, the girl I’ve been telling you about.”

Andrew turns gray eyes on me and I have a flash of what it might be like to oppose him in the ring. He scares me, but then a great chuckle forms in his chest and rises up to make crinkles around his eyes.

“Nice to meet you, Carolyn. I hear you’ve got a job for me to do.”

His smile knocks my breath clean away. I can’t talk for the longest time until he taps my shoulder.

“Oh. A job. Yes. Well, it’s more like babysitting, except Jimmy isn’t a baby. And it’s not up to me, really. You’ll have to talk to … well … I guess Jimmy’s Uncle. Uncle Ted.”

“Anything I should know about this Uncle Ted?” Andrew has his hands in his front pockets and is rolling up on his toes. I glance at Mrs. MacGregor.

“No-o-o. Not really. Ted is just a … well, Ted.”

Mrs. MacGregor takes the rake out of my hands. Andrew shifts a canvas pack from one shoulder to the other like he’s flicking a fly off his back. “Well, then. Why don’t we just go and see the man about a job? Thanks, Mrs. MacGregor. I’ll call you and tell you how I make out.”

I’m so dithered, I forget to say good-bye to Mrs. MacGregor. “Well, uhmm, well, I don’t think Ted’s home yet. Ted’s in plumbing supplies, you know, for homes and buildings and such. With all the new subdivisions being built, he’s doing pretty well. I mean he drives a Thunderbird. Everybody calls him Uncle Ted.” I’m babbling again.

“Wow. A Thunderbird. Neat-o…. So, what’s your friend Jimmy like?”

I have to look away. I can feel my throat begin to close up because of his kindness. It has been a long time since anyone showed any interest in meeting our Jimmy. I can’t speak. I keep my head turned away from Andrew and motion him to follow me. I feel like the pied piper leading the way to Aunt Jean’s front door.

“This is it!” I shove it open.

Mom is in the kitchen peeling apples, and Jimmy is lying on the braided rug at her feet. He has his hand over his eyes and is watching the light from the ceiling fixture between the slits of his fingers.

“MMM — NN-NNN,” he bellows.

“What’s that, honey?” Mom tickles him with the toe of her slipper.

Andrew slips the bag off his shoulder and to the floor. He walks toward Jimmy and kneels down beside him.

“Hi, there, Jimmy. Are you looking at the moon?”

“MMMMM-NN-NNNN!” Jimmy is excited because Andrew has understood what he’s been saying.

The paring knife falls from my mother’s hand and clatters in the sink.

“Gracious! You scared me to death. And who might you be?”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you, Mrs. Jamieson Mrs. MacGregor sent me over to help watch Jimmy.” Andrew shakes my mother’s hand, but his eyes are for Jimmy. It’s as if Jimmy is the only person that matters in the room, and it is left to me to whisper the details of the plan to my mom. Andrew puts his hands over his own eyes and peeks through his fingers at the ceiling fixture.

“Yes, Jimmy, I think that’s the moon. A full moon. A real beaut.”

My mom steps away and Andrew lies down on the kitchen floor. Jimmy scrunches closer to him and puts his head on Andrew’s shoulder.

“My, goodness. I’ve never seen Jimmy take to anybody so quickly have you, Carolyn?”

I stand there like a guppy Not since his accident or even before, has Jimmy taken to someone like this. For a second, I feel jealous of Andrew and how he has touched Jimmy’s heart so quickly. I’m prideful, as I said. And then Andrew motions me over and there we are, the three of us, lying on the kitchen floor, looking at the moon. Mooning over the moon, in Aunt Jean’s kitchen.

I can tell my mom likes Andrew. We carry on madly as we lug his stuff up to my old room at Aunt Jean’s place.

Jimmy tries to help as we change the sheets on my bed. We all land on the bed laughing, laughing, laughing so hard, I think my stomach will burst, or I’ll wet my pants. We are laughing so hard, we don’t hear Uncle Ted creep up the stairs. We don’t notice him standing at the entrance of the bedroom. Not until Jimmy starts wailing and trying to hide himself under the bed.

“And what the hell is going on in here?”

I almost choke. It’s what I said to Ted yesterday, almost exactly, minus “the hell” part.

Mom straightens her skirt.

“I said, what the hell is going on in here?”

“Gracious, Ted. I don’t think there’s any call for that kind of language. The kids were having so much fun we didn’t hear you. Many hands make light work, you know. They are helping make up Andrew’s bed. Oh. You don’t know anything about this, do you now, Ted? Meet Andrew Granger. He comes well recommended by Mr. MacGregor at St. Olave’s. Isn’t it wonderful? He’s looking for a place to rent and has volunteered to look after Jimmy until Jean is on her feet.” Mom smiles brightly. “Now Jimmy won’t have to put you out at all. So, say hello. And will you stay to dinner? The minister and his wife are coming.” I think Mom will never take a breath.

If looks could kill. Gas fumes seem to be coming from Ted’s nose. Andrew holds out his hand first, and Ted swats it away.

“Jean doesn’t need any Christian charity from you or the church. I, for one, know my family obligations.”

My mother steps forward. “It’s nothing like that, Ted. This opportunity just fell from heaven and I couldn’t pass it up. It’s all settled. Andrew is moving into Carolyn’s room, here. And Carolyn and I will take over Jean’s room. It’s all been arranged. Jean is so happy to have the rent money from Andrew’s lodging….”

I can’t believe what is coming from my mother’s mouth. Did she just decide on the spot that we’d take over Aunt Jean’s bedroom? Aunt Jean can’t possibly know anything about Andrew.

“And I’m very glad to get room and board, sir….”

“I bet you are, you interfering son-of-a—”

I know what is coming next. The purplish veins on Ted’s nose look fit to burst, but he doesn’t actually get to say a swear. Jimmy saves the day. He lets go a long and noisy fluff, which would have sent Jimmy and I into hysterics in the olden days before the accident. A black look of disgust passes over Ted’s face to be replaced by a look that says as much as you’re welcome to the little so-and-so. Ted turns on his heel and stomps down the stairs like he might snap each riser. The door slams so hard, the windows rattle.

“Do it again, Jimmy! Make a stinker!” Andrew tickles Jimmy’s tummy. Another fluff, and we all fall on the newly made double bed. Even Mom.

It is all made funnier by the relief of it all.

Andrew can stay.

It turns out that the minister and Mrs. MacGregor aren’t really coming for dinner at all. Mom says she made a little white lie to get Ted out of the house, and that she didn’t really think Mr. MacGregor would mind. But as it turns out, it isn’t quite a lie, after all, because Mr. MacGregor drops by for tea and cookies before he goes back home, just to see how we are all getting along. He even brings the cookies.

I could have hugged and kissed him, but I’m not the touching type. Partway through his visit, I notice that the knot of fear that has been growing in my stomach like a fur ball is gone.

For the moment, the clenching is gone. And now, as I look back, I wonder. If I hadn’t let go of that clenching, would I have been better prepared for the next blow?

The jury’s out. Maybe yes. Maybe no.