Closer To Heaven - Patrick Sean Lee (rosie project .txt) 📗

collection; Lashawna and I had gone into the kitchen to make dinner. It was getting dark outside. The light on the ceiling didn’t work for some reason still, so we found a tall lamp and put it on the floor next to the table and took the lampshade off so that we could see. That was so much better than lighting candles. We would have hot stew from two of the cans we’d gotten at Target, Pepsis, and for desert, Pop Tarts.

“Yes,” I agreed. “Jerrick made us hurry yesterday. He was so snotty, Lawhawna!”

“My father didn’t like shopping with my mom, either. I think that’s just men.”

“Jerrick isn’t a man yet!” I said.

“Not yet, but he’s the same sex. I think all men are just different in stores, no matter how old they are. I don’t know why. My mother and I used to spend hours looking at things before she decided to buy something.”

I thought back. “Yes, me too. It used to make Daddy so angry, and so he wouldn’t go with us. And then, when we got home, he’d ask Momma how much she spent, and she would lie sometimes.

“What else do you want to get?”

Lashawna opened the microwave after it dinged and took out the big bowl of steaming stew. I had set three places at the table. I could think of lots of things to get, especially since we didn’t have to pay for any of them.

“I think a hot plate would be good to have. Flour so that we could make bread—and a bread making machine! More lamps and light bulbs. More videos,” she said.

“Two motor scooters!”

“A Maserati for Jerrick!” she said giggling.

“More extension cords,” Jerrick said. He must have smelled the stew because his nose was so good, and had come into the kitchen. “I know how I can make the ceiling lights work, but I need cords to do it.”

We sat down and began to eat and Jerrick told us how he could punch holes in the walls, connect the new wires to the light switches, and then plug them into the generator outside. I didn’t understand, but if that’s what he wanted to do, it was fine with me.

“We need more books, too,” he said. “Books in Braille so that I can study about practical things that will make our life easier. I don’t suppose Marysville has a Braille library, does it, Amelia?”

“I don’t know. Would it be in a phone book?”

“Yes. After dinner will you look?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“What are practical things?” Lashawna asked her brother, and that was a very good question, I thought.

“How to farm. How to…I’m not sure. We can’t spend our lives eating canned food and watching videos, though. Eventually the food will get bad. Maybe not for a couple of years, but if we could grow corn and wheat and vegetables, we wouldn’t have to worry. If all we do is watch the VCR, we’ll stagnate, too. Become dumb. We need to study, like we did in school. Like they did in college. Learn things.”

“I don’t want to go to school, and besides, there aren’t any teachers anyway,” I said.

“We’ll have to teach one another,” he said.

“Oh, right!” I said. “I can’t teach you or Lashawna. I’m not smart enough!”

“That’s why we need to get books. Books that I can read. I’ll read them and then teach both of you.”

“Hah! Who needs books about how to plant corn and tomatoes?” Lashawna asked.

“Where do we get the seeds? What kinds of fertilizer?” Jerrick said.

“At the STORE!” both Lashawna and I both answered at the same time.

“Which store? Target? Home Depot? Where?”

I looked at Lashawna, but she just shrugged her shoulders.

“We can look in the phone book for that too,” I said. That didn’t satisfy Jerrick, though.

“There’s lots of things about growing vegetables that we probably don’t know anything about, and they won’t be in the phone book. We need books that tell us the best ways to do it. Even so, I don’t want to stay dumb all my life, and the only way to get smart is to read, not watch movies.”

“Didn’t you like the movies?” I said.

“Of course! But I’m not any smarter because of watching them. If we’re going to survive, we need to educate ourselves. Maybe if we read enough we can figure out why those clouds came, too. Wouldn’t you like to know that?”

I said, “No. I just don’t want to have them around anymore. They frighten me.”

“Well,” he answered, “we need to learn new things anyway. That’s the only way we’ll survive.”

“Well, you read and teach us,” Lashawna said. She stood up and began clearing the table. “You become the teacher. Amelia and I will go shopping and get all the books and clothes and everything else while you read.”

“Only if we can find books in Braille,” he said. “Otherwise we’ll have to go to a regular library or a bookstore and get books that you’ll have to read.”

I didn’t like that idea. I couldn’t understand most of the words, so how would I learn anything? If we could find a store that sold seeds, and a book that said the best way to grow them, that’s all we needed—except for new clothes and shoes and…more DVDs.

“Maybe we could figure out how to make gas for the furnace. Get it running. Someone must have made gas,” Jerrick said. He sat back in his chair while Lashawna and I put the dishes in the sink. We put bottled water in a big bowl and then she set it in the microwave to heat so that the dishes would come clean in the sink.

“We need hot water,” I said to him. “How do they make the water in houses hot?”

“Gas. And probably electricity, which we have. But that’s why we need the books! Someone else did it, so can we if we find out how.”

I didn’t really want to know all that. If Jerrick wanted to learn about all those things, that was fine. I didn’t care. He’d take care of me and Lashawna. I left the kitchen to get Father’s phone book while Lashawna dried the dishes and put them away. In the bedroom I sat down and tried to find stores that sold seeds, and also to see if there was a Braille library in Marysville. I couldn’t find a Braille library or a seed store in the yellow pages, but I found a place that fixed sewers, a place that made screens, a lot of restaurants, a pet store. Just everything but what Jerrick needed. I thought it would be so nice to have a puppy, but I knew they were all probably dead. And the birds and kittens.

When Jerrick and Lashawna came in a few minutes later, I told him there was no Braille library or seed store in Marysville, or even one in the phone book, but I knew there was a library for normal people in my city.

“I’m normal,” he said, kind of hurt by what I’d said, I think. “I just can’t see.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” I said.

“That’s okay, I’m used to people talking about me that way. You didn’t hurt my feelings. Anyway, if there’s a library here, they probably have books on tape. I might find something I need. Trust me, though, I’ll find the books WE need. With your eyes, that is.”

I groaned. I did. All of the sudden it sounded like I’d be going back to school! Maybe we could have art class, though. I guessed we’d have to do something besides watch movies and plant corn. I decided I’d have to just learn how to read better, even if it meant reading books that made no sense. Books about electricity and gas and all those boring adult things. Books without any pictures in them, probably.

“Okay. Lashawna and I will take you to the library and let you listen to all the books on tape that you want. We’ll go shopping for more things we need.”

“There’s no electricity at the library, and how would I find anything without you or Lashawna helping me?” Jerrick said. He was staring right over my head when he spoke.

“Ohhhhh! All right, we’ll go get some books for you and then bring you home. THEN we’ll go shopping.”

“Deal,” he finally said.

After that I jumped off the bed and put another DVD in. “Jurassic Park”.

“I’d like for you to read to me,” Jerrick said when he heard me go to the DVD player. “We’ve had enough movies for one night.”

Snotty Jerrick. Now he was acting like my parents! I didn’t want to make Lashawna mad at me too, so I scrunched my mouth up, turned the player off, and went to Father’s bookcase to find something good. I found a naughty magazine behind the books when I pulled one out! I knew Father hadn’t put it there, but I wondered who did, then? I didn’t tell Jerrick or Lashawna what I’d found, I just grabbed the book and went over to the bed. I decided to let Lashawna read it while I turned the DVD back on, but I’d turn the sound way down.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex was really scary!

That’s how that night went.

 

TEN

We ate cereal with evaporated milk on it for breakfast. Momma had used it for baking, but I’d never drunk any. It was so different on cereal than the regular milk we used to have, but it was better than having Wheaties with water, or without anything at all on them. I wanted toast and butter, but there were neither of those things anymore. I daydreamed as we ate that Jerrick got some books on how to make a cow. I was sure I could milk the cow. We would have to grow wheat to make our bread, or maybe grind up Wheaties and bake it. Pop Tarts are okay, but I missed toast. And sandwiches with ham or...what else do they make for meat? Turkey!

“Do you think all the animals are dead, Jerrick?” I asked him during breakfast.

“I wouldn’t know. You said you saw a coyote, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I think it was. Maybe it was a wild dog or something, but it had four legs and a tail, and it looked like a coyote. I thought I saw one, anyway.”

“Well, maybe all the animals aren’t dead then. Have you seen any cats or dogs near us?” he asked.

“Yes. Lots of dead ones, right Lashawna?” I said.

“Yes. I saw a lot of them. Well, not as many as dead humans, but some. Poor kitties.”

“If all the animals aren’t dead, maybe there are cows and pigs and turkeys that are still alive. We should look for some,” I said.

“Are there farms around Marysville?” Jerrick said.

“I’m not sure. Probably.”

“Hey!” Lashawna said, “I know what we’ll do. We’ll get a telescope from Target and then go up inside a tall building like the one you went into, Amelia, and look all over the place for a farm! And maybe if we find one we’ll see a cow or a pig…and maybe even a farmer!”

“I don’t want to go back to the hospital,” I said. “I don’t ever want to go back there. Can we find another building? A tall one? Would that be