Free Special Delivery! by Sue Stauffacher Page A

cheese with pineapple.”
    Ick. Cottage cheese. Keisha was listening, but she stayed near the window and kept her eyes trained on the covered metal cage. Twice, she’d seen a little pointed snout peek out and sniff the air. She was sending mental messages to the skunk that it was okay to move from the cage with its uncomfortable metal bars along the bottom to the dirt floor of the pen to the nice dark cozy box.
    “You could have s’mores,” Zeke suggested. “They’re a good side dish.”
    “Let’s have dessert for dinner,” Razi agreed. “And lemonade for dessert!”
    “I don’t think so, hummingbird.” Keisha wiped some Nilla wafer crumbs from Razi’s chin. “You’ve had enough sweets.”
    “Wen and Aaliyah are here.” Zeke pressed his finger to the window, making a fresh print.
    The children watched as Wen and Aaliyah stashed their bikes against the side of the garage and kneeleddown to pull something out of Wen’s backpack. Aaliyah wanted to tug it out, but Wen pushed her away. Wen almost never pushed.
    “What’s that?” Razi’s attention and everyone else’s were now on what was in Wen’s backpack, but Keisha had not forgotten about the little skunk. She could see half his body now, turning in one direction and then another, trying to figure out what to do.
    “What are they doing?” Zeke asked.
    “It’s the kite!” Razi shivered with happiness. “Wen’s grandpa’s family sent her a kite from China. He made a box with no bottom. She’s gonna show me how to fly it.” Sure enough, when the girls stood up, Wen had a roll of string and Aaliyah was holding what looked like a poster glued to sticks. She pointed to a spot over bythe garage and Aaliyah took off running. The string unwound off the spool. Aaliyah loved an excuse to run. She was the Langston Hughes Elementary School record holder in the 100-yard dash.

    “Doesn’t look like much to me,” Zack said. “It’s not even pointy.”
    “It’s a box with no bottom, like Razi said. That’s how it catches the air. Wen told me about it, too.” Zeke pushed his brother with his shoulder to get a better look.
    “But that’s not a box. That’s flat,” Zack replied.
    Keisha worried that if Aaliyah ran too close to the pen, she might get the same result as a bunch of pan-banging boys. The little skunk must have run into the box or back into the cage because he was nowhere to be seen.
    Aaliyah put her arm between the two layers of the kite and popped it open. All of a sudden it looked like a long tall box with no bottom. Red and green streamers fluttered in the breeze.
    “See, I told you it was a box,” Zeke said.
    Just as Aaliyah held up the kite to look inside, Wen must have reached the end of the string because the kite jumped out of Aaliyah’s hand and shot up to the sky. The kite was in the air, but where had Aaliyah gone? She must have run all the way around to the front yard.
    “Wait for me, Aaliyah,” Razi shouted. Before Mama could catch the tail of his shirt, he ran out the back door and disappeared around the side of the house.
    “That poor little skunk,” Mama said. “In all this commotion I wonder where he went.”
    “I think he’s behind the box,” Keisha said. “No! There he is!” The skunk must have been scared stiff because he was standing frozen in the middle of the pen.
    “Uh-oh.” Grandma Alice had left off preparing the side dish and come over to the window. She leaned in, resting her chin on Keisha’s shoulder. “He’s stomping his feet.”
    “What’s that mean?” Zeke asked.
    “It’s what skunks do when they are trying to warn an attacker,” Keisha said. But who was the attacker? It couldn’t be Aaliyah or Razi. They were on the otherside of the house. Wen was far enough away from the pen and she wasn’t moving, either, just watching the kite as it traveled across the sky.
    “Now he looks like he’s growling,” Zack said. “His butt’s going up! His butt’s going up! He’s getting