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my table all laughed.
"Yeah, well, that's what I'm doing," I muttered, "living with a snake."
When I got home from school that day, I found her precious blue and white blouse in the hamper. Before I put it into the washing machine, I poked a hole in the shoulder of the blouse with the pointed end of my math compass. After dinner on Tuesdays, Aunt Clara and I folded and ironed clothes. She didn't notice the hole in the blouse, and she brought everything up to Jennifer's room. It wasn't until the next morning, when I was sure she was going to wear it just to show off at school, that we heard her scream.
I had already risen and gotten dressed. Aunt Clara was with me in the kitchen preparing breakfast.
"What in the world . . ." She hurried to the foot of the stairway.
Jennifer was on the landing in her skirt and bra, holding up the blouse.
"Just look at this, Ma. Just look."
"What the hell is it?" Uncle Reuben demanded, coming from his bedroom and buttoning his shirt.
"There's a hole in my favorite blouse, and she did it. She did, Daddy!"
She showed him the blouse. He looked at it and then down the stairs at me.
"Did you do this?"
I shook my head. "I didn't even see it, or I would have told Aunt Clara," I said.
"Why would Raven do such a thing?" Aunt Clara asked.
"Because she's jealous," Jennifer cried.
"I don't even like that blouse. It's too old-fashioned, like something a grandmother might wear," I said dryly.
"It is not! Everyone's wearing these blouses. You don't know anything about style!"
"Please, Jennifer," Aunt Clara said, "stop yelling." William came out and looked at everyone, his face full of surprise. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. "If I knew you put a hole in this . . ." Uncle Reuben threatened. He looked at the blouse again. "I don't know how this kind of a hole would get in there."
"Bugs can do that," I said. He looked up sharply. "We don't have bugs, or at least we didn't before you came," he said. "Clara?"
"Oh, I'll just buy her a new one today, Reuben."
"I'd better not see anything else like this," he warned. He gave Jennifer the blouse back and returned to his bedroom to finish dressing. Aunt Clara went back to the kitchen, and Jennifer and I looked at each other.
"You'll be sorry," she said. "I'm going to wear it anyway and let everyone know what you did."
"Suit yourself," I said. "You'll only make a bigger fool of yourself."
I winked at William.
"What are you laughing at?" she snapped at him, and ran back into her room.
For the first time in a long time, I had a great appetite and ate a big breakfast. Even Uncle Reuben was impressed at how I didn't leave a crumb.

4 A Close Call
    When we boarded the schoolbus on Thursday, I had my arms full. Jennifer had to do a social studies project, and she had chosen to make a large visual chart, but there was a good reason she had made that choice. One of her girlfriends, Paula Gordon, who was talented in art, came over and really did most of it. Jennifer pretended she had done it all, and when she showed it to Uncle Reuben on Thursday morning, he raved about it as if it were something a famous artist like Rembrandt or that artist who cut off his ear for his girlfriend might have done. I thought any one of the birdhouses William made in his wood shop all by him-self was twice the accomplishment, and yet I never once heard Uncle Reuben even mention them, much less praise him about them.
    As usual, Jennifer basked in the compliments her father tossed like wedding rice over her. When we got ready to leave the house, she was very concerned about getting her precious project to school undamaged. She surprised me by pausing at the door, and in the sweetest voice she could manage, she asked me to do her a favor. I saw she had made sure to ask in front of Uncle Reuben.
    "You know how rough the kids are on the bus, Raven. I have to protect my chart. Can you please carry my books, my notebooks, and my lunch bag for me? Please. Someday, I'll do you a favor," she promised,