Free Wide Blue Yonder by Jean Thompson

Angeles. Tall buildings going down like sand castles. Now cut that out. It was scairdy talk. You could get in trouble. Crying I’ll give you something to cry about.
    His head hurt. When you stayed in the tub too long, your brain wrinkled up. Daddy was dead. Mamma was dead. Frank was dead. Sometimes he missed them but not really. They were in Heaven. Heaven was like a football game they had the best tickets to. Daddy slept the sleep of the just. Sometimes he snored. You could creep right up to him and look into his mouth, the black place the snores came out of. His tongue was sticky. The corners of his mouth were sticky. The snores blew little sticky pieces back and forth like curtains in a window. There was a smell too. It was amazing that such a smell came out of Daddy, a purely evil smell. It started down where the snores were. Like there was something bad black inside that only came out when Daddy slept. It spoke in the language of snores. Very carefully he leaned close in so he could feel the rumble all through his head. He listened hard. It was saying all the words you weren’t supposed to say. It was pleased with itself for getting away with such a trick. Daddy’s eyes opened no no no 30 percent chance of showers late, then clearing and continued warm.
    He was still in the tub when Yoo Hoo came. He didn’t hear her until she walked right up to the bathroom door. “Harvey? You in there?”
    He gave a little yelp and knocked the water this way and that. He was embarrassed not to have his clothes on. “It’s all right, Harvey, it’s only me. I’ll go wait on the front porch. I have a surprise for you, OK?”
    Local Forecast let the stopper out of the tub until there was only him left in it. He didn’t feel clean, just naked. He ran to his closet and got dressed as fast as he could. Then he could relax. There was only one Yoo Hoo today. She sat on the glider next to a big gray box. “Whew. I just don’t think it can get any hotter. I brought you an air conditioner, Harvey. What do you think about that?”
    Local Forecast had forgotten shoes and socks. He felt bad about his feet. They were so long and white and fish-shaped. He tried to walk them back under his pants legs. “An air conditioner. Do you know what that is?”
    He reached out a finger to touch it. It felt cool. Yoo Hoo said you plugged it in. “We could put it right next to the television. I honestly don’t know how you’ve gotten by without one all this time. Can you help me lift it?”
    He wasn’t much help on account of still being mortified about his feet. He bent down close to try and see them better. They looked like something that had grown moldy in the ground, big pale moldy roots. She said never mind, she could do it herself. She kept talking to show him how easy it was and how much fun. He liked her. She smelled good. “We just need to—prop it up right here—get it more … unnhh. When’s the last time you had this window open? All right. Ready?”
    It started up loud. The window rattled and shook. Then it kicked out a little cold air. Yoo Hoo got all excited. She said forhim to get his shoes on. “We’ll go for a drive, and when we get back it’ll be all cool. How about that?”
    It was a wonderful thing. It was cold-in-a-box. Instant October. “Harvey, I promise you nobody’s going to take it away. It’ll be right here when you get back. Now where are your shoes?”
    She talked so much she got him out the door. His eyes hurt. The hot was too yellow. He stopped his feet and tried to get his mouth moving. “Daddy said.”
    “What’s that, Harvey?” She leaned in close to him. She had a face that asked questions even when she didn’t talk. “You know what would be a good idea for you? Sunglasses. Here. That better?”
    “Daddy said the world shall be destroyed by fire.”
    “Slow down, I can’t understand you. Are you worried about the car? The car has air-conditioning too. I promise I’ll drive extra careful.”
    The