Lou

Frazier Thomas was waving goodbye boys and girls and Garfield kept clapping his beak together and his eye stayed on and the music was playing loud and bouncy and I stopped being scared and got down off the couch and went dancing around a little.

I like the Garfield music.

Then I went and picked up all the clothes off the floor in our room and threw them in the closet and shoved the door with both hands, hard, until it shut. Then I spread the blanket over the mattress so it was smooth, and tucked it underneath so it was tight, and put our pillows side by side.

And Ralph still wasn’t back.

So then I went out in the backyard with a big wet heavy towel and washed off the wagon so it was shiny red. On one side it says Ralph + Lou Cavaletto—Daddy painted it on. I even turned it over and washed underneath. Then I brought it out in the front yard, all ready to go.

And he still wasn’t back.

Neither was my mom but Ralph said he’d be back by the end of Garfield Goose, so now he’ll have to pull me in the wagon. That will be his punishment, pulling me all the way to the vacant lot.

Then I’ll get out and we’ll look for empty bottles.

I like looking for bottles, know why? Because it’s not just bottles. You could find anything there. One time I found a hula hoop, just laying there in the weeds. Another time I found a little one-armed plastic doll. I named her Lefty. I still got it somewhere. Ralph once found a quarter.

Today, though? I got a feeling we’re going to find something really good, way better than bottles or a broken doll or even a hula hoop. And a lot of times when I feel like something’s going to happen? It does. Like the other day, Sister stopped in the middle of erasing the chalkboard and I thought, She’s going to sneeze, and she did, twice. And yesterday when I got home from school I turned on the radio hoping for this song I like, “Twistin’ the Night Away,” and it was just starting!