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“It’s not fair,” Alex said, slamming his album down on the table. “Luke’s a monster.” It was a comment that caused the three-year-old to chuckle with delight.
“It’s just a stage he’s in,” Frannie said consolingly. “It won’t be long before you’re the best of friends.”
Alex made a sound of disbelief.
“You should read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, ” Emma suggested. “Peter has the same problem with his brother Fudge that you have with Luke.”
“I don’t want to read a book. I want my cards,” Alex demanded.
“Luke, did you take your brother’s baseball cards?” Frannie asked.
Luke giggled again, then ran from the room. When he returned, he clutched two trading cards in his fists. Alex grabbed them from him.
“Books are make-believe,” Alex said to Emma. “This isn’t.” He held up two dog-eared cards for their inspection. “Look! Chuck Knoblauch and Derek Jeter ruined!”
He grabbed his album and was about to stamp out of the kitchen, when Frannie said, “Alex, I’d like to talk to you after you’ve had breakfast.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Well, when you are hungry, let me know. I’ll make you some pancakes and you and I will have a heart-to-heart.”
Alex grunted, then slipped out of the kitchen. As he left, Emma called out, “If you want my Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, I’ll loan it to you.”
Frannie didn’t think Alex wanted anything but to be left alone. When Luke would have followed him, she grabbed him by the waist and set him on a chair. “Time to eat.”
“He’s mad, you know,” Emma commented.
“He just needs some time alone,” she told her daughter, but she knew that as soon as she’d fed Luke, she’d see if there wasn’t something else she could do for Alex.
ALEX HEARD HIS SISTER’S VOICE echo through the hallway as he headed for his room. He didn’t care if Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing was the best book in the whole wide world. He didn’t want to read about some kid named Peter who had a little brother who messed with his things.
It was bad enough that he had a little brother who messed with his things. And the title of his sister’s favorite book was enough to make him want to bury it at the bottom of his closet. Why would anyone want to read about a kid who thought he was a nothing?
If the title was Tales of a Fourth Grade Somebody, he might read the book, but a fourth grade nothing? No way. He already felt like a big fat nothing when he thought about his dad.
There was knock on his door, and then Alex heard his mother’s voice: “Can I come in?”
He knew she wouldn’t go away until he said yes. Mothers never did. “All right,” he mumbled.
She came in and closed the door behind her, then sat down next to him on the bed. “I’m sorry Luke ruined your cards. Can I buy you new ones?”
He shrugged. “If you can find them.”
“I saw in the paper there’s a trading card show next weekend at the junior high. Would you like to go?”
“You’ll take me?”
“If you want. And you could bring Josh, too.”
“All right.”
“Alex, there’s something else I want to talk about with you.” He could tell by the look on her face that it was serious. “Lois told me you’ve made up the posters you hope will help you find your father.”
He’d figured his aunt would tell her, so he went over to his desk and pulled open a drawer. He removed a single sheet of paper and showed it to her. “Are you mad?”
He thought it was probably a dumb question. She’d already told him a while back that she didn’t think the poster was a good idea.
“You call him a deadbeat.” Her voice was quiet, not angry.
“Because he is. You don’t need to pretend with me, Mom. I heard you and Auntie Lois talking. I know he’s a deadbeat.”
“Then, why look for him?”
“To make him pay. He owes you money. It’s not right that you have to work so much just to pay the bills he should be looking after.”
She slid her arm around his shoulder and squeezed him. “It’s sweet of you to worry about me, but I can take care of the four of us just fine. Are you sure there isn’t another reason why you want to find him?”
“Like what?”
“Maybe you think there’s a possibility that when you find him, things will be different. That your father will want to be a father again.”
“No! That’s not it. I’m not doing this for me, Mom. I told you that. It’s for you and Emma and Luke.”
She gave him another squeeze and said, “Oh, Alex. You really are a very special boy.”
He wanted to believe her. And most of the time he did, but there were those times when he had his doubts. “If I’m so special, why did dad leave?”
As soon as he’d asked the question, he wished he hadn’t, because his mom’s eyes got all watery.
Then she pulled him even closer to her, resting her chin on his head as she said, “It’s nothing you or Emma or Luke did. Your father left because he was missing something inside himself. And it was a big something. It was what tells us that the greatest treasure anyone can ever have is a family to love. So don’t ever think you aren’t special. You were just unfortunate to have a father who wasn’t smart enough to recognize what special is.”
This time she didn’t just give him a hug, but a kiss, too. Right on his forehead. Then she said, “Now how about coming out and letting me make you some pancakes?”
He was hungry. “Oh, all right.” He tried to make it sound as if he really didn’t care about breakfast.
Before they could cross the living room into the kitchen, the doorbell rang. Emma raced to the front window to push aside the curtains so she could see who was standing on the step.
With a screech she cried out, “Oh, my gosh! It’s Gramma!”
CHAPTER TWO
WHAT FRANNIE DIDN’T NEED today of all days was to have her former mother-in-law drop in. “This is a surprise,” she said, although it really shouldn’t have caught her off guard. After all, Arlene Harper had a way of showing up when she was least expected. If there was one word Frannie would use to describe Arlene, it was unpredictable.
“Did you take a taxi from the airport?”
“Oh, I didn’t fly,” Arlene answered. “I drove.”
“By yourself? Where’s Harry?”
Harry was Arlene’s fiancé—or at least he was the last time Frannie had seen her. She glanced at Arlene’s left hand and saw the ring finger was bare. It looked as if Harry had gone the way of the rest of the men in Arlene’s life.
“I’m afraid that didn’t work out.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Frannie said, although she really should have told Arlene how lucky she was to be rid of the moocher. From the very first time Frannie had met Harry she’d had her suspicions that he was all charm and no substance. But then, in the eleven years she’d known Arlene, that’s all there had been in her mother-in-law’s life—men with charm but little substance.
Arlene’s next words indicated that she’d finally figured out Harry, too. “It’s for the best. He wasn’t the man for me,” Arlene said without any bitterness. “He thought work was for other people. But let’s not waste our time talking about me. I want to hear what’s been happening to my beautiful grandchildren,” she said, wrapping her arms around Luke and Emma.
“As you can see, they’re fine,” Frannie answered.
“We only have one more week of school and then we’re on summer vacation,” Emma stated joyfully.
“I know. That’s why I came. I want to spend lots of time with you this summer.”
Frannie gulped. “You’re staying for the summer?”
“This is going to be so cool,” Emma gushed, giving her grandmother another hug.
“Yes, it is,” Arlene agreed with a smile. “You won’t have to have a baby-sitter while your mother’s at work.”
As much as she appreciated Arlene’s offer, the thought of her mother-in-law staying with them in a house that was already too small did not put the glee in her eyes that it did in her children’s.
“It’s very generous of you to offer, but I’ve already contracted for day care,” she said, trying not to sound ungracious.
Alex, who’d been standing in the background, stepped forward. “We hate going to day care. It’s all little kids. Why can’t Gramma take care of us?”
“Because it’ll cost me money if we back out now,” Frannie explained.
“But it’s going to cost you money anyway, right?” Arlene asked.
“Can’t we please stay home with Gramma?” Emma begged, giving her mother a look that was just as dramatic as her plea.
“What about summer camp? The bus is supposed to pick you up at the day care center,” Frannie reminded them.
“That’s not until August,” Alex answered.
“Oh, by then I’ll be gone,” Arlene told them.
Frannie hoped no one heard her sigh of relief.
Emma’s face dropped. “I thought you said you were staying the whole summer.”
“Just for part of the summer, dear. But I will be here all of June and part of July.”
“What about your job?” Frannie asked.
“Oh, I quit,” she said with a flap of her hand.
“You quit?”
“Yes. Don’t look so alarmed, Frannie. I’ll find another,” she said nonchalantly, then turned to the twins and said, “Wait until you see what I brought for you.”
“Did you bring us cards with the holes in them?” Alex asked, moving closer to the couch.
“I most certainly did,” Arlene said proudly. “Two decks for each of you.”
“And the teeny bottles of shampoo and lotion?” Emma wanted to know.
Arlene nodded. “They smell just heavenly. Wait until you see.”
Because she worked as a cashier at a hotel casino in Atlantic City, Arlene often brought playing cards as well as complimentary bottles of lotion and shampoo.
Her glance moved between Emma and Alex. “Now, what should we do today? Gramma wants to take you someplace fun.” Arlene looked at Frannie and asked, “You don’t have plans for today, do you?”
“Actually, I do.” She was assigned to cover a charity walk-a-thon. She’d planned to put Luke in the stroller and let Emma and Alex push him, as they walked with the rest of the participants and she took photos.
Alex groaned. “We don’t have to go to that, do we?”
“Go where?” Emma asked.
“Some stupid walk-a-thon,” Alex answered.
“It’s not stupid. It’s for a good cause,” Frannie chastised him.
“We can always do something tomorrow,” Arlene suggested, which provoked groans from the twins. Then she looked at Frannie and said, “Or I could take the children today and then you’d be free to concentrate on your work.”
It was a tempting offer. The children would be a distraction while she tried to work. On the other hand, Frannie knew her children could be a handful, especially Luke. The memory of her son throwing a temper tantrum the last time she’d had him at the mall made her hesitate. As much as Frannie wanted to say yes, she wasn’t sure she could do so with a clear conscience.
Finally, after much cajoling by the twins, she agreed to let them stay with their grandmother, but extracted the promise that they would help their grandmother with Luke. They also needed to complete their Saturday chores, which would give Arlene a chance to rest before their adventure.
Alex didn’t protest the later start. “That means I can go over to Josh’s and get my posters done.”
That raised his grandmother’s curiosity. “What posters are those?”
“I’ll show you,” he answered, then disappeared into his room.
Frannie thought about stopping him, but knew it would only be a matter of time until Arlene found out about his campaign to find his father. When Alex returned with the flyer, he held it up for his grand-mother’s inspection.
“I’m trying to find my dad. Me and my friend Josh made this, but I have to change the phone number. That’s why I have to go to his house. He has a computer,” he explained.
Arlene looked first at the poster, then at Frannie, her eyes filled with questions. Frannie didn’t know how to answer them, so she simply lifted her brows and shrugged.
“I’m going to put them up all over Minneapolis, and some of my friends are going to take them when they go on vacation this summer,” Alex continued. “Will you take some back to Atlantic City with you, Gramma?” He looked at his grandmother expectantly.
Arlene placed her hand on his shoulder. “If it’s important to you, of course I will, but I don’t know if it will do any good. I doubt he’s anywhere close. If your father were living near me, he’d call.”
“But there are lots of people who come to the casinos and hotels. Maybe a tourist will see the poster and recognize his picture,” Alex argued.
Frannie could see how unsettling it was for Arlene to have such a discussion with her grandson, and decided to change the subject. “Okay, kids, get your chores done.”
