Nobody's Perfect (15 page)

Megan got down on the floor and looked under the bed as well. There, pressed against the far wall, was Justin. He was curled up in a ball, almost like the hamster. Alexis shouted, “Justin, come out here!” But Justin didn't obey. He just curled tighter and tighter in the shadows under the bed.

Megan didn't like to watch Alexis yell at her little brother. She didn't like watching Justin so scared either. She pulled herself off the floor and sat on the far edge of Justin's bed, feeling extremely out of place. She could tell from Alexis's behavior that she was shouting at Justin, but he still didn't come out from under the bed. Alexis was on the verge of tears. She stomped about the room and stormed into the hall, presumably in search of her mother.

Megan was left alone in the room with Justin. Only Justin was still hiding under the bed.

Megan noticed a rubber bike horn on the carpet in front of the bureau. Megan knew about bike horns, but she had never played with them much because she couldn't hear a thing. She knew that if you squeezed the red rubber ball on one end of the horn, it made a honking sound. She held the bike horn in her hand and honked it once. Then she did it a couple more times. She even bounced up and down on the mattress a bit, hoping to get Justin's attention.

Nothing happened.

Megan took the bike horn and held it near her heels, dangling over the side of the bed. She reached lower and honked the horn along the bedspread, here and there, like a little surprise.

After a moment Megan saw the tip of Justin's head poke out from underneath the bed. He was peeking between the fringed edges of the bedspread.

The moment she saw Justin, Megan darted across the room and crouched on the floor beside the toy chest, just like a hamster would. When Justin twisted to see where she had gone, Megan scampered across the toy chest to another corner of the room. She cupped her hands like paws and held them at her nose, the same way that Zippity always did. And she pretended to be asleep.

Peeking out of one eye, Megan saw Justin emerge from underneath the bed. He stood on his stocky little legs and took short deliberate steps until he was right beside Megan. Then he crouched beside her and began to pet Megan's head.

Megan opened her eyes slowly because she didn't want to scare the little boy. She sat back on her heels and smiled. Justin seemed to smile back.

“We can't find Zippity,” Megan said. “We can't find the hamster.” Justin kept smiling so Megan had no way of knowing whether he understood her or not. “We're afraid the hamster might have run away. Have you seen him?”

Justin kept smiling. He seemed to be waiting for Megan to dart to another corner of the room. “We have to return Zippity to the school on Monday, or we'll be in big trouble,” Megan said. “Big trouble.”

Justin didn't seem to understand a single word, and Megan knew she was getting nowhere. Then she had an idea.

“Hamster,” she said, brushing her index finger across her nose—as she had earlier that day. “You remember Zippity? Remember hamster?” Megan kept repeating the word and repeating the gesture.

After a moment Justin reached up and brushed his nose with his finger as well.

“That's right!” Megan cheered, clapping her hands. “Hamster, hamster!”

Megan and Justin sat there, signing hamster back and forth, over and over.

After the eighteenth “hamster,” Megan realized that she was still getting nowhere. Justin could do the gesture, but he probably didn't understand what he was saying in sign. Justin was just playing a game.

Megan patted Justin's knee. “I have to go now,” she said.

Justin said “hamster” in sign.

“That's right! Hamster! Bye-bye, now! Bye-bye.” Megan stood at the doorway, waving good-bye.

Justin didn't say good-bye. Instead he said “hamster” again.

Megan chuckled to herself and headed downstairs to find Alexis.

Megan found Alexis in the kitchen with her mother. “Maybe we can replace the hamster,” Alexis's mom was saying. “People replace hamsters all the time. One hamster basically looks the same as another.”

“But kids know Zippity!” cried Alexis. “They'd know it wasn't the same hamster!”

“And he's got a little tuft of white fur under his chin,” said Megan. “Kids talk about that. They know that little tuft of fur. So we couldn't replace him unless we found a hamster with the exact same thing.”

Megan couldn't believe it had come to this. Was she actually discussing substituting a different hamster for Zippity?

“I think he'll turn up,” said Alexis's mother. “Hamsters are notorious for that. They run away and hibernate—and everybody panics—and then they show up in the bread box. So everybody panicked over nothing.”

Alexis looked inside the bread box. “He's not there,” she said.

“Well, not yet, anyway,” said Alexis's mother. “We'll have to keep looking.”

Megan and Alexis exchanged a look. They seemed to agree that the situation was looking pretty grim for poor old Zippity.

At that moment Justin walked into the room. He teetered in the doorway and then he walked directly over to Megan. He brushed his index finger across his nose. Megan did it back. And Justin brushed his finger across his nose again.

Alexis and her mother watched in silence. When Megan returned the gesture a second time, Alexis said, “What does that mean?”

“Hamster,” said Megan. “It's sign language for hamster.”

Alexis and her mother looked at each other, amazed.

“I taught him earlier today and we were just practicing it upstairs,” said Megan. Justin was tugging on Megan's jeans and saying “hamster” in sign at the same time. “Kind of cute, huh?”

“You don't understand,” said Alexis.

“Justin has never said a word before,” said Alexis's mom. Her eyes were welling slightly with tears. “Not a
spoken
word, that is. This is the first word we've ever heard him say. I mean,
seen
him say, not
heard
him say! But sign language counts!”

“His first word is hamster.” Alexis chuckled, sad and happy at the same time. “Teach me,” she said to Megan.

“It's easy,” said Megan, brushing her finger across her nose. “Hamster.”

“Hamster,” repeated Alexis.

Alexis's mom signed it too. “Hamster.”

Justin reached for Megan's hand and took Alexis's hand as well. Tugging both girls, Justin led them into the laundry room. As Alexis's mom watched from the kitchen, Justin got on all fours and crawled toward the back of the dryer, pointing to the vent where the warm air came out. He held himself up on one arm and brushed his nose with his hand.

“What are you trying to tell us, Justin?” said Alexis.

“He's telling us
hamster
,” said Megan.

Megan and Alexis crawled over the dryer to peer into the warm gap beyond. There was Zippity, tucked among the dust bunnies. He was curled happily into a ball, with the hot air from the vent warming him.

“Mom, get the broom,” cried Alexis. “We found the hamster!”

Mrs. Powell arrived with the broom, but the first thing she did was scoop Justin off the ground. “What a breakthrough!” she cheered, hugging her son and smothering his face with kisses. “Who's my talking boy? Who's my talking boy?”

Alexis was kneeling on top of the dryer. She took the broom and poked it into the space beyond. When Zippity came running around the corner of the dryer, Megan was waiting to scoop him into a laundry basket.

Alexis hopped off the dryer and brushed her knees. She and Megan exchanged a victorious smile. Alexis's mom was still dancing about the laundry room with Justin in her arms. Alexis wrapped her arms around her mother's waist and joined the dance, laughing joyfully.

Megan stood to one side with a big smile on her face and cupped Zippity tightly between the palms of her hands. She watched the Powell family do their little dance, and it felt like she had never seen anybody so happy before.

•  •  •

While Mrs. Powell made grilled cheese sandwiches to celebrate Justin's first word and the return of Zippity, Megan and Alexis put Zippity into the maze on top of the kitchen table.

“Please, please, don't let him get out,” said Alexis's mom.

“Don't worry!” said Alexis.

“We won't,” added Megan.

Megan and Alexis let Justin stand on a kitchen chair between them so that he could watch Zippity in action. They each also kept a watchful hand on his waistband to make sure he didn't fall off his chair.

The first time Zippity ran the maze, he reached the red room and refused to budge. Megan and Alexis couldn't mask their disappointment. Alexis was keeping track of the score on a yellow pad and she drew a sad face beside the results of the first run.

“I can't believe he chose red!” Megan protested. “Red is awful!”

However, the second, third, and fourth times that Zippity ran the maze, he chose the purple room—three times in a row!

“Purple's on a winning streak,” Megan crowed.

In the fifth run Zippity chose blue, but he never chose blue again after that. “Zippity must hate blue,” said Alexis.

“Probably true,” Megan agreed.

In the sixth run Zippity chose purple. And although he visited the red room on the eighth or ninth try, the rest of the time he always chose purple. Almost each and every time.

“Proving without a doubt,” said Megan, as Alexis tallied the score, “that purple is by far the greatest color!”

“Indubitably!” said Alexis.

The girls let Justin stroke Zippity with his fingertip a few times before they tucked the hamster back into his cage.

“Zippity has earned his beauty sleep tonight,” said Alexis.

“Definitely,” said Megan.

They called Megan's dad from the kitchen, and—this time it was Alexis who sat with Megan on the front step, waiting for
her
dad's car to show up.

“Look,” said Alexis, pointing at the night sky. “It's purple.”

“The absolute greatest,” said Megan.

“Without a doubt, the best,” said Alexis.

“I think it's some kind of sign,” said Megan. “Because you know, there's still this birthday party happening, and it's still all purple, and you know you're still invited.”

Alexis smiled. But she didn't say a word.

“ ‘CHROMATIC ABERRATION AND ACHROMATIC
Lenses,' ” read Cindy. “I don't even know what that means!”

“Ask Alexis,” said Megan.

“Hey, Alexis,” Cindy shouted down Winners' Alley at the science fair. “What does ‘Chromatic Aberration and Achromatic Lenses' mean?”

“Beats me,” said Alexis. She walked toward them and eyeballed the exhibit. “What did it win?”

“A blue ribbon,” said Megan. “First place.”

The girls shook their heads, mystified by the success. “Go figure,” said Cindy. Megan leaned forward to read the details about the student who had conducted the experiment. “He's in the
seventh
grade,” she announced. The girls groaned as though that information explained everything.

“Seventh graders,” said Alexis. “They think they're so smart.”

The school science fair occupied the gymnasium. Card tables and poster-board exhibits were arranged in eight aisles across what was otherwise the basketball court. Mr. Ryan had labeled the aisles with amusing placards like
WINNERS' ALLEY
and
THE TOP TEN COUNTDOWN.

The science fair judges included Mr. Ryan, Principal Smelter, and Tony Glenn, the weatherman from the local television station. Despite the panel's unquestionable qualifications, Megan, Alexis, and Cindy weren't convinced the judges had made the right decisions. For example, the big Grand Prize winner didn't really deserve it. “ ‘Which Spiders Eat Other Spiders?' ” said Megan. “That's just wrong!”

“If I'd been awarding the Grand Prize,” Alexis declared, “I'd have given it to “ ‘How Skin Heals.' ” The exhibit contained several close-up photographs of scabs in various stages of recovery. Most of the boys flocked around the gruesome examples of “What happens when you ‘pick.' ” The important part of the exhibit was a series of remarkably detailed photographs following a scab through the natural healing process all the way back to healthy skin.

“Not me,” said Cindy, “I'd give it to ‘A Model Swamp in a Tank.' ” A pair of sixth graders had recreated the Okefenokee Swamp in a fish aquarium. At first glance it looked as if the students had simply stopped cleaning the aquarium. However, the exhibit notes indicated the extensive research the students had done in order to authentically recreate a swamp. “It's really fascinating,” said Cindy, “even if it is kind of stinky.”

“My prize goes to ‘Tap Water: Something's Swimming in the Sink,' ” said Megan. The exhibit consisted of an ordinary glass of tap water and a slide show of unbelievably creepy bugs. The girls cooed in mutual appreciation, even though the exhibit was more horror movie than science fair project.

The girls continued down Winners' Alley, taking in top exhibits with less impressive titles like “If the Earth Was a Cube,” “Bridges That Fall Down and Why,” and “Uses of the Wedge.” “Operation of a Doorbell” was interesting at first but got old real fast.

Megan's fourth-grade class claimed a spot on Winners' Alley with a rather ridiculous contribution by two burly boys named Tim and Tom. It was called “Farts: Fact or Fiction.” The red ribbon on the poster meant a second-place prize. Megan said that Tim and Tom had probably been studying farts their entire lives.

“What have these exhibits got that ours hasn't got?” asked Alexis.

“I know, right?” said Megan. “Like ‘Weeds near My Home.' That kid won a green ribbon—third place! And you know he pulled that exhibit together on the way to school. With his bare hands!”