Free Jasper John Dooley, Left Behind by Caroline Adderson, Ben Clanton Page A

something else. Jasper liked going to the pool, and he really liked going to restaurants. He loved playing with balls — kicking them or trying to stand on them or balancing them on his head. He loved stuffing them up his shirt and saying, “Boy, I ate so so so so much.”
    â€œCan I go with you on the cruise, Nan?”
    Everybody laughed again.
    â€œWhat’s so funny?” Jasper asked.
    â€œIt’s an Elder Cruise, Jasper,” Nan told him.
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œThat,” Dad said, “is eight hundred old people looking at icebergs.”
    â€œHow old do you have to be to go on the cruise?” Jasper asked.
    â€œAbout seventy-eight,” Nan told him.
    The car was parked out front. Dad put the suitcases in the trunk. When they were all in the car, they drove away from Nan’s apartment, Nan and Jasper together in the backseat. “But you’ll be back on Wednesday, right?” Jasper said.
    â€œShe’ll be gone the whole week, Jasper,” Mom said from the front seat. “She’ll be home next Monday.”
    â€œNan! What about Go Fish? Nothing is as fun as playing Go Fish for jujubes!”
    Nan sighed. “That is true, Jasper. That is true.”
    â€œJasper,” Dad said, “Nan has been planning this trip for a long time. If you keep talking like this, she won’t want to leave.”
    â€œDon’t leave!” Jasper cried. “Don’t leave me behind!”
    He grabbed Nan’s hand and kissed the freckly brown spots on the back of it. Nan laughed and laughed. Then she asked for her purse, which was on the floor at Jasper’s feet. He passed it to her, and she took a tissue out and dried her eyes. Jasper couldn’t tell if they were sad tears or tears from laughing so hard. He took another tissue and pretended to dry his own tears with it. Pretending to cry made him feel all watery inside. For the rest of the drive, he held Nan’s hand and sniffed it. Her perfumey smell was so nice.
    Dad and Mom left Jasper and Nan on the dock while they went to drop off the suitcases and park the car. The ship was huge, just like Nan said. It looked like Nan’s apartment building lying on its side, except it was white and it floated. Nan seemed worried when she saw how big it was. “Maybe you’re right, Jasper. Maybe I’m too old to be taking a trip by myself.”
    Jasper looked around at the other people going up the ramp to the ship. Everybody had white hair except the people with gray hair. Many people walked with canes. Jasper pointed at one of the people with canes. “You’re not so old, Nan. Look at him.”
    Nan smiled. “You always say the right thing, Jasper,” and she kissed him seven times, once for every day of the cruise.
    When Mom and Dad came back, Nan kissed them good-bye, too, and started up the ramp. Jasper waved and called, “Bye, Nan! Bye!” There were lots of people waving and calling good-bye at the same time. Jasper wanted to make sure Nan saw him so he took the tissue from his pocket and waved it. Just before Nan stepped onto the ship, she turned and blew kisses to Jasper.
    They stayed a few more minutes after Nan got on the ship. Jasper waved with the tissue, then put it in his pocket in case any of Nan’s kisses had got caught in it. He kept on waving with his hand, hoping Nan would see him through one of the cruise ship’s tiny windows. He waved so hard his arm almost fell off.
    Then Nan was really, truly gone.

    Back at the car, Jasper looked at himself in the side mirror. He saw four lipstick flowers on one cheek and three lipstick flowers on the other. Usually, lipstick flowers made him yuck. Today they made him sad.
    â€œWhat about that ship, Jasper?” Dad asked.
    Jasper said, “What ship?”

    Later that night, after he went to bed, Jasper thought about his Wednesdays at Nan’s. If Jasper won at Go Fish, which he almost always