27

I had four hot dogs for dinner. Four! I had two glasses of root beer. Two! It was great! I was full. Almost too full. I started burping. Every time I burped, I felt a little less full and a little better. Every time I burped, Sam laughed. Then Sam started pretending he was burping, too.

“Bwwwwap!” he said. “Bwwwwap!”

“That’s enough, Sam,” said Poppy. “Big boys don’t burp like that.”

Sam frowned.

Poppy smiled.

“Big boys burp like this,” he said, taking a deep breath and letting rip a loud, long burp. “BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBwwwwaaaaaaaap!”

“Come on, Dad,” said Dad. “You shouldn’t be teaching the kids how to burp!”

Poppy frowned.

“Teaching the kids how to burp is my job,” Dad said, grinning. Then he let rip with a burp that was even louder than Poppy’s. I’ve never heard him burp like that. I had no idea he was so talented. He burped more than half the alphabet!

“AaaabbbbbccccccddddddddeeeeeefffffffffggggghiiiiiijjjjkklllllmmnnnoooooooooP!”

Sam hopped up and down, laughing like crazy.

Rupert started barking.

“Okay, that’s enough, boys,” yelled Poppy. “No more burping. No more barking.”

“Aww,” Dad said. “I’d forgotten I could do the alphabet.”

“You’re pretty good at it,” I said.

“Practice makes perfect,” he said. “It took me a long time to learn.”

“Can we have some marshmallows?” I asked. “I brought some from home.”

“A little later,” said Poppy. “First, I have a surprise. I found something interesting when I was looking for the tent in the basement.”

“What?” I asked.

“My movie projector,” he said.

“Where was it?” I asked. “I’ve never seen a movie projector down there.”

“It was hidden away on one of the shelves that we haven’t sorted through yet,” he said.

“Did you find our old movies?” asked Dad.

“What movies?” I said.

“I have all kinds of movies,” Poppy explained. “I’ve had some of them since your Dad was a boy. Plus, I have a box of movies that I got at a secondhand store a few years ago. They were from a school that was switching from film projectors to video players so they got rid of them. I’ve never watched any of them. I suppose they’re probably educational movies.”

“Educational?” I said, thinking about the last educational movie I’d seen in health and phys ed. “I don’t want to watch anything educational. How about one of the movies from when Dad was little?”

“Yeah!” said Dad.

“That’s my boy!” said Poppy, smiling. “Let’s have a movie night.”

“When I was a kid, Henry, we used to have movie nights out here,” Dad explained. “Poppy would hang a bedsheet on the side of the shed and we’d use that as a movie screen. All the kids from the neighborhood would come over. We’d watch movies under the stars. It was wicked.”

“Wicked?” said Poppy.

“Awesome,” said Dad, winking at me. “It means it was really awesome.”

Poppy sighed “Those were great times. It seemed like the whole neighborhood was out here. People would bring their chairs and popcorn and cookies. Nana would make her famous lemonade. I miss those nights. Isn’t that funny? Sometimes you forget about something, and then when you remember it you realize how much you miss it.”

“I know what you mean, Poppy,” I said.

And I did. Because at that very moment I remembered Mom was in Las Vegas. I missed her. I even missed Max. I wished they were both here with us in Poppy’s backyard.

“Do you still have any of the old cartoons?” asked Dad. “The ones with that crazy dog?”

“Do you mean Rex the Ruff Rider?” said Poppy.

“That’s it!” said Dad. “I loved Rex the Ruff Rider!”

“Wuff widah!” Sam said.

“I’ve got reels of them,” said Poppy. He turned and looked at me. “Henry, come give me a hand with the projector and we’ll bring up some of those movies.”

“Sure, Poppy,” I said.

The projector was way in the back of the basement, on a shelf near the furnace. The projector looked like a big metal suitcase. The movies were in flat, round metal tins, all different sizes, in different boxes. We found the box that was labeled Rex the Ruff Rider. Poppy carried the projector while I carried the box of movies. We made our way upstairs and back outside. It was starting to get dark.

“Henry, look after your brother while your father and I get everything set up,” Poppy said to me. “Keep an eye on Rupert, too, please.”

“Okay,” I said.

Sam started running around the backyard. He wanted me to chase him. It’s a game we play at home. Rupert joined in.

“I’m going to get you!” I called out.

Sam shrieked and toddled away.

“I’m going to catch you!” I said.

Sam shrieked louder and toddled even faster.

Rupert barked and jumped around, excited.

“That’s enough, Rupert!” said Poppy. “Henry, will you please get Rupert to quiet down? His barking makes me crazy.”

“Okay, Poppy,” I said.

I looked at Rupert.

“Sit!” I said, in my most serious voice.

Rupert sat.

“Good boy!” I said, petting him on the head. I looked over to make sure Poppy could see how well Rupert was listening to me. He smiled at me and nodded. I turned back to Rupert and said, “Come!”

I took Sam by the hand and Rupert followed us on a little walk around the backyard. I pointed out the different flowers.

“Isn’t that a nice flower?” I asked Sam.

“Mmm,” said Sam. I think he was trying to sniff the flowers but, instead of sniffing, he was blowing air out of his nose. “Good.”

“And look at that one,” I said.

“Mmm,” he said. “Good.”

The whole time Rupert was walking beside me. Just like he does with Poppy.