She was probably more worried about getting money to pay for the destroyed items, money they didn’t have. At least they’d gotten Krank outside before he could tear up the house.
His mother closed her eyes and swallowed. Marie wrapped an arm around her leg and clutched Polly Pig in a death grip. “Mama?”
“Marie, leave Mom alone!”
Annie shook her head slightly and pulled in a steadying breath, then dropped down to Marie’s level. “Yes, baby girl?”
Caleb shook his head and sneered. He ignored the whispered conversation between his mother and sister, pretty sure he knew what it was about. Marie wanted to play with the dolls. He didn’t care, she could have them all, but they were somebody else’s like everything else in their lives, except for Krank and the car. Krank was theirs, the car he wasn’t sure about. Cramped up and too small for them his mother said she had bought the car from one of the men she had gone out with, but he wasn’t sure she’d ever paid for it.
His mother stood up. “Everything is back in order, thanks to you. Good job, son. Let’s get cracking so we can get you guys registered in school. It’s early enough in the year you won’t have missed much.”
“School! Mom, you said we wouldn’t be here long!” Caleb wailed.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re here two weeks or two months, you have to get registered; you know that.”
Yeah, he knew that. If you were a couple of kids who should be in school and you weren’t somebody would come nosing around asking questions. His mother didn’t want that.
Marie lit up like a candle at the news. No matter what happened when they were on the road, she thought it was fun. Caleb didn’t think it was fun to start school, be there for little while, and then move on. In fact he hated it. Teachers thought he was dumb because he always had to catch up to what others were doing. He had to do science projects in a day that everyone else had a month to do.
Teachers didn’t much care. They acted like he wasn’t going to be around for long so why bother helping him out? Truth was they were right; he never was around long. He wasn’t worth anybody’s trouble.
He followed his mother and sister out of the garage, the elation over his mother’s praise long gone.
The kitchen sparkled. Mrs. Irish couldn’t have done a better job. The room he shared with Alex was tidied up and their clothes had been neatly folded back into the suitcase, except for the dirty ones. Those were in a trash bag to be washed. The work had been his doing. It wasn’t a comparison he was able to make, but he didn’t like clutter any more than Lilly did.
“We’ll drop the laundry off and get lunch, then find which schools you will be attending,” his mother said.
The old lady had a washing machine and a dryer. Why didn’t they just use them? Soon they’d have to anyway because what little money they had would be gone. He argued his case but wasn’t surprised he couldn’t talk his mother out of going to the laundry.
“We don’t want to be any trouble,” she said.
When he came out of his room with clean clothes on and his hair wet from a quick shower his mother started talking about her list of things to do. “We’ll get Krank’s dog food. I gave him milk toast but that won’t last him.”
Caleb tuned her out. He figured she was talking to avoid having to think. If she started thinking it would scare her, and she would begin to wonder if she’d made a mistake, which she had, but who was he to tell her that?
“Caleb? Did you hear me?”
“Sorry?”
“I filled Krank’s water dish so he should be okay until we get back.” In other words, Krank wasn’t going with them.
It was Marie who voiced an objection before he could.
“Krank don’t like to be by hisself until he gets to like a place.”
“Krank doesn’t run the world, my love.” Her sweet smile kept the rebuke from sounding mean but Marie got the message.
“Yes’m.”
“You were with me when I checked the yard. There’s no way he can get out. He’ll be fine. We won’t be gone that long.”
Marie didn’t look convinced and Caleb certainly wasn’t, but Mom had decided and that was that. Krank would be staying at the old lady’s house while they did laundry and got registered at school.
“Let’s get going.”
Caleb got in the front; Marie and Alex got in the back accompanied by a lot of grumbling.
“Why can’t I ride up there?” Marie whined.
“Me, front,” Alex demanded.
“You know the rules,” Annie said. “Buckle up.”
They’d barely avoided getting a ticket in one town because of the law about children riding in the front seat. His mother wasn’t about to run that risk again. As it was they’d gotten a thirty-minute lecture on seat belts and booster seats. Caleb had been riding shotgun since.
“I’m hungry.”
Caleb grimaced. Alex hungry was not something any of them wanted to deal with.
“McDonald’s, McDonald’s, McDonald’s!” Marie cheered.
“Enough, Marie! Alex, where would you like to eat?”
Caleb contained his moan. One, they didn’t have money to waste on buying restaurant food, and two, asking Alex a question like that was dangerous. He could take longer than anybody just to decide whether he wanted plain bread or toast for breakfast. It was a monumental process requiring much thought.
Alex shrugged his chubby shoulders.
“Sweetie, what would you like to eat? Hamburger? Tacos? I think I saw a Taco Bell when we drove in last night.”
Caleb thought his mom should just decide and get it over with. His little brother’s brain was freezing up with the thought of having to make a choice.
“Tell you what, while I’m driving you decide, and then let me know.”
Marie rolled her eyes.
“Enough of your drama, little miss,” Annie said. “Let’s get moving.”
By the time they were driving away the whining yips from the back yard had turned into full-throated woofs.
“Mom…”
“I’m not riding all over town with Krank in the car, Marie, so don’t start.”
“I’m hungry, I’m hungry!”
“I know, but where we eat is your choice, baby boy. You tell me where you want to go and that’s where we’ll go.”
Caleb wanted to yell. The dumb kid was four years old! What did she think, that he had a list of all the fast food places on the planet in his head? What she should do is smack the little snot and be done with it. Caleb scrunched down in the seat ashamed he’d thought such a thing. He didn’t mean it. He didn’t mean it at all.
Marie, still clutching Polly Pig, tugged on Alex’s shirt and whispered none too softly, “McDonalds!”
Caleb wasn’t keen on Mickey D.’s. That’s where they’d eaten nearly the whole trip. One more burger and fries and he’d barf. He was tempted to put his two cents in and ask for Taco Bell but it was more trouble than it was worth.
“Here we are,” his mom said, pulling to a stop in front of a bleak building with a sign that read Lots of Suds Wash and Wait.
“I’ll load the washers and get them started. We can run get lunch while the clothes are washing.”
“I’m hungry.”
“I