CHAPTER THREE
HENRY ADJUSTED HIS GLASSES, nudging them away slightly from his bruised cheek. He took a deep breath and picked up his books. Keeping his face turned away from Mrs. Phillips, who was his homeroom teacher as well as his Language Arts teacher, he slipped into his desk. With his elbow on his desk, he leaned on his hand, covering up the bruise casually.
Mrs. Phillips came in and called the class to order to make the morning announcements. She read them out over the low buzz of conversations. Then the class change bell rang, and she called for their summer essays. Everyone passed their assignments forward to the front desks. The class quieted abruptly, and Henry looked up to the front to see what was going on. Mrs. Phillips was gazing at Henry, her eyebrows drawn down in a frown. When his gaze met hers, Mrs. Phillips quirked her mouth in half smile.
“Forget to turn the light on again?” she said lightly.
Henry started to sweat, putting his hand back up to touch the bruise.
“I was messing around with my friend’s skateboard,” he explained, mouth dry. “I sorta hit a tree.”
He looked down, feeling his face burn as he flushed bright pink. She approached his desk, and put her hand on his shoulder as she took a long, close look at his bruised cheek. Finally, she shook her head and laughed.
“You have to be more careful, Henry,” she told him quietly.
“I know. I feel so stupid, I’m always such a klutz,” he said, wiping the sweat on his forehead.
“Were you wearing a helmet and pads?”
Henry shook his head.
“Don’t I look enough like a geek with these glasses?”
Mrs. Phillips smiled.
“Oh, you don’t look like a geek. Just like a kid with glasses.”
“Well, around here, that’s what you call a geek,” Henry explained.
Mrs. Phillips laughed appreciatively. There were a few giggles from the students close by that had overhead the conversation. The students who had been turned around to listen in turned back to the front as Mrs. Phillips returned to her place to continue the class. Henry pulled his shirt away from his armpits, breathing in deeply.
The hallways were crowded and noisy. Henry looked around for any friends. He saw Tony, Andrew’s new friend, talking with some others in the hall. He walked up and joined them. They nodded or grinned and continued their conversation. James, one of the boys in his homeroom, was holding a skateboard. He put it down and kicked it over to Henry.
“Hey, Henry. I hear you got some pretty good moves. Let’s see some tricks.”
Henry felt his ears get hot. The others stopped talking and looked at him for his reaction. Henry kicked the skateboard back with his toe.
“You don’t wanna see my moves,” he countered, “and anyway, there ain’t any trees to run into here!”
The boys laughed. One of them gestured to Henry.
“Is that what happened to your face?”
“Yeah,” Henry chuckled, shaking his head. “Close encounter with a tree. You’d think with these big feet, I’d have some kind of balance.”
He showed of his kicks. They all started comparing shoe sizes to see who had the biggest feet. It was no surprise that halfback Lorne, who’d been held back twice, had the biggest shoe size. But Henry’s were right up there.
“Man, you do have big feet for a little guy,” Lorne admitted, surprised.
Henry nodded proudly, grinning.
“I even have to get new shoes. These ones are pinching.”
“That means you’re gonna be tall, you know,” James pointed out.
“That, or short with really big feet,” Andrew interjected with a laugh.
“What about your folks. How tall are they?” Lorne questioned.
Henry considered the question.
“Ma’s pretty tall for a girl,” he mused. “I dunno about my dad, she’s never said.”
“Is it true what they say?” Tony questioned. “You know, about guys with big feet…”
Henry had just been relaxing and getting to enjoy the conversation. But now his face got hot again, and he turned away from the group, rubbing his forehead to hide his flushed face from them. There were whoops of laughter from the group. He joined in the laughter half-heartedly and looked for a way to change the subject or escape from the group.
It was getting late in the afternoon, and Henry knew that he should be heading home, but he was at the mall, browsing through shoes at the department store. He really did need new ones, like he’d told Lorne. But every time Henry looked at a price tag, he winced. They sure were expensive. He knew what Dorry would say if he told her he had outgrown his shoes again, already. She always complained about how expensive things were. And the shoes that he liked were over a hundred bucks. She’d never even consider it. He’d end up in a ten-dollar pair of tennis shoes or something.
Although he knew that there was no way that he could ever afford them, Henry tried on a pair of the expensive runners and walked up the aisle. They were so comfortable. It was nice not to have shoes that squeezed and pinched his toes for once. And they were a popular brand. Lots of the guys had them. Henry had never gone for the most stylish brands or passing fads, but those shoes… he could really like them. He could picture himself walking to school in them. Hanging out with the other guys in them. They were really nice.
He snapped the plastic string holding the two shoes together so that he could walk with his full stride and get a better feel for them. The price tags came off in his hand, and he stuffed them into his pocket temporarily. Henry walked around the shoe department for a few minutes, thinking about ways to raise the money to get shoes like this. Dorry wouldn’t let him get a route delivery papers or flyers. She needed him to look after Bobby, and was insistent that he get enough sleep himself. Henry had a sneaking suspicion that she would turn down any sort of job that he suggested. It would cut into his babysitting time or schoolwork. And for him to get a job just to get an expensive pair of shoes… she’d think that was stupid.
He started to think about the batteries. It had been incredibly easy to just walk out of the store with them. As long as you looked honest and confident, like you had nothing to hide, no one would look at him twice. Who’d be looking at his shoes when he walked out of the store? Henry stood there for a long time, just thinking about it.
When he finally moved, he moved quickly. He kicked his old shoes underneath a shelf and walked toward the entrance of the store. But he didn’t walk straight out. He selected a chocolate bar from the shelf that he had enough change for, and went through the checkout line. He opened it as he walked out the doors. The greeter at the exit stopped him.
“You have the receipt for that?” she demanded, gesturing at the chocolate bar.
Henry displayed it. She looked Henry over suspiciously.
“You mind showing me what’s in your bag?” she questioned.
Henry shrugged and put his backpack down on the floor in front of his feet, where she could open it. Good thing he hadn’t put his old shoes in it. She would have immediately looked at the new shoes on his feet and known what was going on. The woman took a brief look through Henry’s schoolbooks and supplies.
“Okay. Sorry. Go ahead,” she told him.
Henry picked up his backpack and walked out of the store.
Henry stopped a block away and took a deep breath to calm himself. Had he looked suspicious? Was that why she had stopped him? Or was it just a random thing? He was sweating heavily, his heart pounding, and he was out of breath. And he had that same feeling of exhilaration he had when he took the batteries. Maybe even more so. It was the second time, and he didn’t get caught. The batteries were only a couple of bucks, but the shoes were worth more than anything he owned. The shoes were cool.
Henry laughed out loud, with the relief of getting away with it. He picked up his bag again and headed for home at a quick clip, humming to himself.
He arrived home to an empty house. The car was not parked in front of the house. There wa
s no moms and tots program on a Thursday, so he wasn’t sure where Dorry had gone, but was glad that she had at least taken Bobby with her somewhere. After working through his homework, Henry got up to look for something to eat. The fridge was practically empty. He wasn’t sure what he was going to pull together. They at least had formula that some social program had paid for, so Bobby wouldn’t starve, but Henry was getting pretty hungry. There was nothing for sandwiches the next day, so he might have to break down and use the school lunch program for a day or two after all. There was a lump in his stomach at the thought that had nothing to do with hunger.
The front door opened, and Henry closed the fridge door and watched Dorry come in, Bobby on her hip and a shopping bag in the opposite hand.
“Oh, hi honey. How was school?” she greeted dully.
Henry shrugged.
“Okay. You took Bobby out with you?”
“Just to pick up some beer, yeah.”
He looked down at the contents of her shopping bag and saw that was all that she had. A case of beer and nothing else.
“Did you put him in his car seat?” he questioned.
“I can never do that thing up. He’s getting too big for it, anyway.”
Henry nodded.
“We need to get the next size up.”
“They’re so expensive. He’s okay just down to the store.”
Henry wasn’t even sure how she would transport him to the store without the car seat. Strap him in using the seat belt? Just put him on the floor of the car? He was horrified, thinking of what could happen.
“If you were in an accident—” he started sharply.
“I’m careful.”
“Someone else could hit you,” Henry pointed out.
“No one’s going to hit me, Henry. Quit fussing.”
Her tone closed the conversation. She didn’t want to hear any more arguments from him. Henry took the beer from her bag and put it into the fridge with a clang.
“We need groceries,” he told her flatly.
Dorry took out her wallet. She swept her lanky hair aside from her face and over her shoulder. She pulled a few bills out of the wallet and handed them to Henry.
“Take Bobby with you,” she said.
Henry took Bobby from her. Bobby burbled happily, slapping his hand on Henry’s arm and face. He needed to be changed.
“Anything you want?” he questioned.
“Orange juice.”
Henry nodded.
“Okay.”
“The fresh, not the frozen.”
“I know, Ma.”
Henry got the stroller out of the closet with one hand and pushed it open. He took Bobby back to the bedroom to change him before leaving. Henry talked animatedly to Bobby, keeping him entertained and distracted while he worked.
“Did you go out in the car with Mom? You want to go to the grocery store now? Come on, let’s go get some milk, and juice, and bread. Maybe some macaroni too, huh?”
He made sure there were more diapers in the diaper bag, and prepared a bottle for Bobby. He pushed the stroller down to the grocery store. Henry counted the money Dorry had given him and walked through the aisles and studied prices to see how far he could stretch it.