CHAPTER 2

Dinner Conversation

Setting the table for dinner was one of Bat’s jobs, but that evening, placing three plates, three cups, and three forks on three placemats, he felt very certain that his sister, Janie, should have this job instead.

For one thing, she refused to let Bat carry Thor while he set the table.

“He’s tucked into his sling, Janie,” Bat argued. Laurence, the veterinary technician who worked with Mom, had made the sling so that Bat could safely carry Thor around. “He’s not anywhere near your plate and fork and cup!”

Janie just shook her head and crossed her arms. “It’s not sanitary,” she said. “You’d be violating like three different health code regulations.”

Her logic wasn’t logical, but Bat screwed his mouth up tight and breathed in deeply through his nose. One of Mom’s conditions for raising the skunk kit was “No family disharmony.” Which meant that Bat wasn’t supposed to be stubborn about skunk stuff like setting the table with the skunk in his sling. So he turned around and headed back to his room, where he lifted the sling from where it hung around his neck and tucked it, sleeping Thor still inside, into the enclosure, a repurposed dog crate. At least Mom had finally agreed to let Thor sleep in Bat’s room. That was something.

He didn’t mean to slam the dishes down on the table. Not really. And probably Janie wouldn’t even notice that he put her fork upside down instead of right side up.

But she did notice, a few minutes later, when Bat filled Mom’s cup and his own cup with lemonade and Janie’s cup with plain water.

“Thank you, Bat,” she said with a big smile. “Sugar isn’t good for my voice before an important audition.” And then she took a big gulp of the water like it was the best thing she had ever tasted.

“Are you nervous?” Mom asked, spooning enchiladas onto each of the three plates. The hot melted cheese stretched into long strings as the enchiladas traveled from the serving dish to the plates.

“No,” said Janie. “Well, maybe a little.”

Bat waited for Mom to cut his enchilada into pieces. He liked the taste of enchiladas, but the texture of the cheese sometimes grossed him out a little. It was better if Mom cut it into little cubes for him.

“Bat, aren’t you old enough to cut your own food?” Janie asked.

“Yes,” Bat answered. “But Mom does it better.”

“Well, you’ll never get good at it unless you practice,” Janie said. Bat didn’t like the tone of her voice—kind of like a know-it-all.

“Sometimes even practicing at something doesn’t mean you’ll ever get good at it,” he said. “Like you and singing.”

“Bat,” Mom said, in her low warning voice.

Bat shrugged. If Janie was going to be mean, he could be mean, too, even though he secretly thought that Janie had a beautiful singing voice.

They were quiet for a few minutes, just their forks scraping plates and the clink of their cups being set back down.

“So you’re set on auditioning for the queen?” Mom asked.

Janie nodded. “It’s the best part,” she said. “There’s the most room for artistic creativity.”

Janie had been talking about auditioning for her school’s spring play for weeks now. They were going to perform Alice in Wonderland during the last week of school, and the audition was in just a few days.

“I’m glad the audition is on Monday,” Bat said, stabbing an enchilada cube with his fork.

Mom smiled. “That’s nice of you, Bat.”

“Then Janie can stop talking about it all the time.” Bat popped the enchilada cube into his mouth. Delicious.

“I don’t talk about the audition nearly as much as you talk about Thor,” Janie said.

“How much can anyone say about an audition?” Bat said.

“How much can anyone say about a skunk?” Janie said.

“Well,” said Bat, “did you know that skunks sometimes attack beehives because they like to eat honeybees? And that a wild skunk usually only lives about three years, but pet skunks can live up to ten? Or how about this—skunks can survive a snakebite! And skunks aren’t fast. And they have bad eyesight. And—”

Bat had a lot more he could have said, but Mom interrupted. “How about this,” she said. “What do the two of you have to say about dessert?”

Dessert was something that was easy to agree on, Bat thought happily as Mom served him one of the still-warm brownies that Janie had made that afternoon.