Free Egg-Drop Blues by Jacqueline Turner Banks Page A

cream sundaes at a place that advertises the "best ice cream this side of the Mississippi." When we got home our mother asked me to move the stationary bike back to her room.

Chapter 11
    The week before the rally was probably my most intense week ever. Jury summed it up pretty well on Friday when he said, "The one week I needed a pom-pom tackle game every day, twice a day, and I've only had time to play once."
    After school on Friday we had a going-away party for Miss Bailey. Her student teacher's term was up and she was going back to teacher's college. She kept apologizing about not being able to be with us on Saturday, but we understood. She'd made reservations to fly back to Michigan during her term break before she knew anything about being our Einstein Rally adviser.
    "I'm glad your mother is doing better," I heard Miss Bailey say to Ms. Hennessey as she was gathering up her junk to leave.
    "Thanks. I hope I wasn't too hard to be
around. Her condition has really been on my mind a lot."
    That explained things. It explained why Miss Hoffer was offering to pray for Ms. Hennessey and it explained why her mind always seemed to be elsewhere and her attitude wasn't the best. If my mother was really sick, I wouldn't be the nicest guy to be around either. I made a mental note to tell the posse.
    Our grandparents Jenkins took us out to dinner on Friday night. We went to a steak house that my grandpa likes. It was okay, but I'm not really a steak person; I'll take a hamburger over it any day. It seemed like my grandmother was gushing over Mama a lot. I guess my mother saw it too because at some point in the evening Mama reached across the table and took Grandma's hand.
    "Ma, I loved you before you were my mother-in-law; I'll always love you. I'm happy for Rus and Lilly. Do you know what I'm saying?"
    Grandma nodded. I kind of wish she hadn't known what my mother was saying because I needed further explanation.
    The grands didn't come in after dinner. We went in and got in our usual positions for television. Within what seemed like seconds after sitting down, my mother was fast asleep.
    "I don't know why she even bothers to sit there," Jury commented when she started snoring.
    "I guess it's not that unusual; Angela and Faye both said their parents fall asleep as soon as they sit down, too."
    "You'll talk to people about anything, won't you?"
    I didn't answer him. Just because he wants to play the strong silent type doesn't mean I shouldn't talk to my friends. I left him in front of the set at eleven when the news came on. Watching television and denying that we had a big day ahead of us wasn't going to make it any easier.
    The next day started off like any school day, which wouldn't be unusual except it was Saturday. Our mother called us at 6:30, only today she didn't leave soon after her wake-up call. And this morning we didn't ignore her call to wait for the alarm. We showered, dressed, ate breakfast, and were ready to go without mentioning the rally and without anybody asking anybody else if they were excited or nervous. I do know when not to talk.
    I was glad the whole posse decided to ride over to the campus with us. My mother was complaining in a playful way about the gas it took to pick up Tommy, Faye, and Angela.
    "Next time we'll just have them meet us at our house," I suggested.
    "No. By the time they walk over here, they might as well walk to the campus," she said.
    The entrance of Southwest Kentucky Teachers College is only about three blocks from our house, but the campus is huge. It's built across two different rolling hills.
    "So what you're saying is you should go pick them up?"
    She swatted at Jury, but he ducked out of her way before she could make contact.
    We picked up everybody and they were all going through a quiet thing, too. After everybody said their good mornings, we all just stared out the windows and rode. We weren't sure if we were supposed to go over to the school first or not, so we did, since we had