Paperboy Read Free

sorry and I promise to put your paper exactly where you want it for the rest of July. I will also tell your real paperboy where to put it. Please let me know if I can do anything else for you for the next month. Thank you very much
.
         
Your Substitute Paperboy
    Inside my head I said each word over and over. I folded the piece of paper in half and then in half again. On the outside I printed Mrs. Worthington’s address with a sharp pencil.
1396 Harbert
    I ran to the house on Harbert and checked to see that Mrs. Worthington wasn’t still on the porch swing and then clothespinned the note to the black letterbox at the side of her front door.

    The rest of the week stayed hot but by Thursday I had the route down to about two hours.
    At 1396 Harbert I was just getting ready to lay the paper on the porch in the perfect spot when I saw Mrs. Worthington peeking out at me through the glass of her front door. She opened the door and walked out on the porch wearing a bright green dress with a big shiny black belt.
    I didn’t usually pay much attention to dresses that ladies wore but this one looked special the way the wide belt fastened tight around her middle like it was dividing her into two parts.
    That first day Mrs. Worthington had looked about the same age as my mother but she looked younger this time. Almost as young as Rat’s sister who was still in college.
    Mrs. Worthington had on bright red lipstick that made her smile look bigger than it really was. She had figured out a way to make her eyelashes longer and she had a green color on her eyelids that came close to matching her dress. When she talked I watched her red lips move like it was the first time I had ever seen words come out of a person’s mouth.
    Young man, don’t think me rude but you startled me when you came by earlier this week.
    When she said the word
Startled
her voice went higher like she wanted me to pay extra attention to the word but I was already concentrating double hard on everything she said.
    With a lot of Gentle Air coming out of my mouth in front of almost every word I told her that everything was my fault and she sure didn’t owe me an apology. She said she liked the note I had written and that she thought her husband might know my father because they both worked downtown in the same building.
    Doesn’t your father fly his own airplane?
    s-s-s-s-Yes ma’am. s-s-s-s-But only a s-s-s-s-little one.
    Have you flown in it?
    s-s-s-s-Some.
    I thought about saying A Gazillion Times but I didn’t want to try to make the
G
sound and saying
gazillion
to Mrs. Worthington didn’t seem right anyway.
    Would you care to join me for a lemonade?
    s-s-s-s-Need to keep s-s-s-s-going.
    Deep down I was feeling I wanted to stay and talk to her but my talking was working out good compared to my first day with Mrs. Worthington and I didn’t want to take a chance on spoiling things.
    Will you be coming by Friday evening?
    I remembered from Rat’s collection book that 1396 Harbert was scheduled to pay monthly. Stepping around hard words I tried to explain to Mrs. Worthington how collecting was supposed to work.
    You s-s-s-s-pay by the s-s-s-s-month. s-s-s-s-Not each week.
    She smiled and then did something that surprised me. She touched me on the nose with her pointing finger and kept it there and then she pushed on it like she was ringing a doorbell.
    I think I’ll start paying weekly. Easier for me to keep track of, sweetie.
    s-s-s-s-Be happy to s-s-s-s-come by on s-s-s-s-Friday.
    See you tomorrow then, sweetie.
    I had gone from being yelled at to being called Sweetie all in the same week. The way she said Sweetie was nothing like how my mother said it. Mrs. Worthington seemed like a different lady the second time I saw her. A very pretty lady.
    On the way home I started wishing that Mam’s fortune-teller man from Coldwater was around to throw some bones and tell me what Mrs. Worthington was all about and why I wanted so much to see her