Mockingbird

CHAPTER 26 EAGLE SCOUT

I GET A SPECIAL PHONE CALL AT school. It’s from Mrs. Brook. I get to go all the way to the office and talk on the phone at the front desk. Mrs. Brook says she just wants to talk to me personally and see how I’m doing because she can’t come back to school for a few more days.

I tell her all about how I finally found Closure but Dad won’t cooperate even though I know how to get us there.

She says I have to be patient and keep trying. Sometimes things don’t work the first time but then eventually they do.

Like finesse?

Exactly.

And making friends?

Yes.

Even for me?

Absolutely. I have confidence in you. You just have to keep trying.

Josh is walking into the principal’s office when I get off the phone.

He turns his head to me and whispers, Loser.

I know, I tell him, but I’m going to keep trying.

He shakes his head and snorts.

I guess he doesn’t believe I will Get It and sometimes I’m not so sure either but Mrs. Brook is confident so I’m going to keep working on my finesse.

Later that day I see Michael in the hall. I won’t see him at recess because while Mrs. Brook is away my schedule is back to first recess only. Even though he is not my friend anymore I do say, I found Closure but I still have to Work At It.

I had to tell him. I promised. Scout’s honor.

He looks at me funny so I decide he doesn’t want to be my friend anyway.

I find a white T-shirt in my closet and I draw an eagle on it with a permanent marker. I’m hoping that Dad will remember that Devon called me Scout and he’ll put the two together like this:

and he will think of Devon’s Eagle Scout project and we can work on it together.

Except he doesn’t notice.

I keep walking back and forth in front of the sofa.

Finally he says, Do you have to go to the bathroom?

No, I say. Do you like my T-shirt?

Mmm-hmmm.

I sigh. It’s EAGLE SCOUT. Get It?

Dad tilts his head.

It’s a picture of an eagle and I’m Scout.

Oh.

So are you ready to work on the chest yet?

He shakes his head.

Dad. We need to finish the chest.

He shakes his head again.

Why not?

We don’t even have all the wood.

We can buy some.

It’s special wood.

How special?

It’s a Mission chest.

What does that mean?

It’s a style of furniture that requires quarter-cut oak. The wood is expensive and it’s difficult to work with.

But I can help. It can be a group project. Mrs. Brook says I need to practice working on group projects so this will be perfect.

Dad leaves the living room.

I think about quarter-cut oak and how I still don’t actually know what that means. I know what an oak is. We have an oak tree in the backyard. I know what a quarter is. I have forty-seven in my State Quarters Map because Illinois and Florida and Iowa fell out and are under my bed somewhere I think. And I know what it means to cut something. I look up quarter-cut in my Dictionary but there’s no definition. I guess I have to put it together myself so quarter-cut oak is oak you cut with a quarter.

I have forty-six quarters in my State Quarters Map now because Virginia is coming out to cut the oak tree.