Free Special Delivery! by Sue Stauffacher

the sweater on his head and breathed in. “It smells like flowers.”
    “Well, don’t make an occupation out of it. Bring it here so I can read the washing instructions. Keisha, where are my glasses?”
    “Up in your room.” Keisha took the sweater from Razi.
    “I’ll read the instructions, Grandma. It says ‘dry-clean only.’”
    “I will not.”
    Keisha thought to remind Grandma that you couldn’t talk back to a label.
    “Read it again. I think it says ‘hand-wash in cold water and line-dry.’”
    “Mama’s moving the skunk!” Razi was hopping up and down.
    “I can’t see a thing!” Zeke protested. Grandma’s steam had fogged up the window and Zeke was using his tummy to wipe a clear circle on the pane of glass.
    “Quick, everybody, let’s practice in case we get sprayed.” Zack shouted to be heard over Zeke’s shouting. The boys all grabbed pot lids and started to fight over which was the biggest.
    Grandma covered her ears. “You could have warned me,” she called out. “I’ve got the amplifiers in.”
    “If he sticks his butt in your face, do this.” Zeke demonstrated by turning his face to the side and holding the pot lid in front of it.
    While the boys wrestled with the pot lids, Keisha held Paulo tight to her shoulder—Grandma always said he could sleep through the Battle of Burgundy—and watched her mother pull the metal cage covered in black fabric to the edge of the truck and lift it. Wild animals had no experience with being moved around in cages. Keisha could see Mama crooning to the skunk as she set the cage down in the enclosure. Slowly, Mama lifted the metal bar and let the cage door swing open so the skunk was free to leave the cage and go into the pen.
    “I’m getting the trash can lid.” Razi ran to the garage door.
    “I’ll get the snow dish!” Zack ran after him.
    This had to stop! Keisha whistled through her teeth—high and shrill—just like Daddy taught her and Grandpa Wally Pops taught him. Worked every time. The boys froze. Paulo opened his eyes and looked at Keisha, startled, then he closed his eyes again.
    “Listen, you crazy boys. You start clanging those pot lids together and you’ll definitely get sprayed. The two things that really upset skunks are loud noises and—”
    “Rap music,” Razi called out. “Especially the kind with the bad words.”
    “No, Razi, that’s Mama. Great horned owls.”
    “Okay, okay.” Zeke put his pot lid on the table. “Can we go out if we promise no banging?”
    “No!”
    But Razi wasn’t listening. He was too excited. He skipped outside with his hands covering his mouth. Keisha couldn’t accomplish much with Paulo in her arms, so she took a moment to dash upstairs and lay him in his crib. When she came back down, she used her fist to swipe a peephole in the window. Razi had gotten down on his hands and knees so he could see into the darkened cage. Mama scooped him up and brought him back inside.
    “Now the little one gets settled,” she said. “He’s frightened and he can smell us nearby. Speaking of little ones—” Mama looked around.
    “He’s in his crib,” Keisha said.
    “Well, normal life has to resume at some point,” Grandma said, pushing past them, out the back door and down the stairs, and marching toward the laundry pole with the damp sweater she’d been washing out in the sink. Grandma didn’t even glance in the direction of the skunk as she clipped her sweater to the line.
    Bustling back inside, she said: “If we froze all operations just because we got a new animal, where would that leave us? Hungry and without fashionable clothes is my bet. Now, if you please, someone’s got to think of dinner around here.”
    “We’re going to have soup, Alice.” Mama held upanother bag of vegetables she’d brought from the garden.
    “Yes, but what about the sides?”
    “Soup doesn’t have sides,” Zeke said. “It’s too slippery.”
    “I’m talking about sides like Texas toast or cottage