AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah. Excited and nervous.”
“Totally understandable.”
“I just don’t want to deal with a whole new bullying situation.”
I take my hand and lift her face up below her chin. “You won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the girls at your old school were from wealthy, snooty families. The kids around here all grew up on farms. So, they understand hard work and are probably much less interested in picking people apart and more focused on doing well in school and getting back home to help their parents.”
“I guess.”
“Trust me.” With that, I know we can’t leave. Not yet, at least. I want to give Mina the opportunity to try out the new school. And I hope I’m right about her fellow students.
That gives me the idea that we should bake cookies and hand them out to all of the neighbors and introduce ourselves. That way, she might get the chance to meet some of the kids before the first day.
Surprisingly, she agrees with me. So, we go into the kitchen and get to work.
“What do you think the other kids’ names will be? Like Hezekiah and Ezekiel?” Mina asks me while rolling out the dough.
I laugh and blow some of the flour all over her.
“Hey, mom!”
“I’m sorry. That was just really funny. They’re farm kids, babe. Not Amish.”
She giggles back. “Oh, yeah. I suppose there is a difference.”
“A pretty big one, I’d imagine. With the whole use of technology thing and all.”
I take a spoon of icing and wipe it on her nose.
“Mom!”
Before we can say something else, Boris comes barreling down the hallway.
“Hey, buddy!”
“Listen. The thunder stopped.”
He promptly approaches Mina and licks all of the icing off of her face. She just laughs, and I want to puke thinking of all the things his tongue has been on throughout the day. But it is an adorable scene. Even I have to admit that.
“What’s all the chortling about?” Grandpa Bob comes into the kitchen and asks.
“Chortling?”
“It’s an old-timey way to say laughing,” I explain.
“Who are you calling old?”
“You, old man! I’m calling you old!” I point at him with the spatula in my hand.
“Me? Why I’m not a day over the spry age of thirty-eight.”
“…You were older than that when my father was born.”
He thinks back and has to “chortle” when he realizes that I’m right.
