Me and Rupert Goody Read Free Page A

flowers and maybe telling one of his corny jokes to make her laugh.
    â€œSo what happened to her?” I said.
    â€œJust up and disappeared,” Uncle Beau said. “Took my heart with her.”
    I never heard Uncle Beau talk such talk before and it was making my head spin. Why didn’t he just hush up and go wait for Howard Harvey to bring the produce?
    â€œI tried to find her.” Uncle Beau stopped rubbing Jake
and scratched the whiskers on his chin. Jake put his head on the floor and sighed a big dog sigh. “I begged her kin to tell me where she went, but they wouldn’t give me the time of day,” he went on. Then he chuckled. “I didn’t have no truck back then, so I drove my John Deere lawn mower clear over to Asheville looking for her. Took me nearly two days.”
    â€œYou find her?” I asked.
    Uncle Beau shook his head. “Never did.”
    â€œSo what makes you think that man out there’s your son?” I jerked my head toward the porch.
    â€œEver since Hattie left, I been waiting,” Uncle Beau said. “Not waiting for Hattie. I knew she wasn’t coming back. Didn’t know what the hell I was waiting for. Just a feeling that left me thinking my life was all vines and no taters. You know what I mean?”
    I squirmed on the bench and bounced my foot real fast. Jake jerked his head up and looked at me, then flopped back over on his side.
    â€œMaybe,” I said.
    â€œWell, anyhow,” Uncle Beau went on, “when Rupert walked in here, that waiting feeling oozed right on out of me and out the door.”
    I looked at Uncle Beau. His bushy eyebrows were drawn together, making him look a little too earnest for my taste at the moment.
    â€œSo you saying that you and me is just the vines and you and Rupert is the taters,” I said.

    Uncle Beau’s eyebrows dropped and his body sort of sank. He put his hand on my knee and jiggled my leg. “You taters, too, Gravel Gertie,” he said.
    â€œThen where’s Hattie?”
    â€œDied.”
    My stomach did a flop. I watched Uncle Beau’s face, hoping like anything he wasn’t going to cry or something. But he just looked kind of dreamy-eyed. Being a curious person, I went on. “How’d she die?”
    â€œI’m not too clear on that,” Uncle Beau said. “Rupert said she must’ve took one look at him and keeled over from the ugly shock.” Uncle Beau chuckled and shook his head. “The boy can make a joke, I’ll give him that.”
    â€œHe don’t look like no boy to me,” I said. “Looks like a full-grown man. Ought to at least know how his own mama died.” I rubbed Jake’s stomach with my foot. I could feel my face sagging with a frown.
    â€œI figure I’ll just take things slow,” Uncle Beau said.
    â€œPlenty of time to fill in the particulars.” He patted my knee and put his face in front of mine. He smelled like Old Spice. “That face of yours gets any longer, it’s gonna hit the floor,” he said.
    I looked away. I knew he was smiling, but I didn’t smile back.
    â€œSo,” I said. “This Rupert person just waltzes in here and takes over the place. That right, Uncle Beau?” My stomach was churning up a storm by now. I kept bouncing my foot and trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

    â€œThat ain’t right at all, Jennalee,” Uncle Beau said. He leaned over and whispered, “You were right about them bottle caps. I should’ve done like I said I would and let you do ’em, cause he flubbed it all up. You take care of that after school, okay?”
    I snatched my backpack off the floor and threw it over my shoulder. On my way out, I stopped and looked down at Rupert Goody washing milk crates on the porch. Dirty water sloshing all over everything. His fly was unzipped and he looked like an idiot.
    â€œBarn door’s open,” I said.
    But he