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the ceremony, but we’ve still got an hour to go.” She looked at Mama, then at Daddy. “Can we swirl him in plastic wrap until it’s time?”
    “I tried to get him to wait.” Mama fingered Razi’shair and rubbed behind his ears. “He wanted to get dressed an hour ago.”
    “Well, speaking of stomachs,” Grandma said, tickling Paulo’s tummy. “We’ve got laundry to fold, animal pens to clean, a baby to bathe and tummies to fill, though we can’t call it lunch. It’s too late for that. Maybe
linner
or
dunch
. And if anyone’s going to get some R&R, it’s going to be me. I have to rest my beauty, after all.”
    “Dunch!” Razi said. “I vote for dunch!”
    “I will get the dunch,” Mama said.
    “I’ll take the laundry off the line,” Keisha offered.
    “And
we
, my friend,” Daddy said to the baby as he took Paulo from Grandma, “have a date with some soap bubbles and a tub filled with water. And because your older brother is an almost-official member of Wild 4-Ever, I am going to let him be my bath master apprentice today.”
    Daddy loved bath time because he liked making up stories and he always said bath time was the best time for imagining.
    Paulo, who didn’t mind being fed by anyone who was available, would sit in the tub with a little frown on his face and his fists closed tight if Mama or Keisha ran the bathwater. For some reason, Daddy got in a habit of wearing a fake mustache while he started thebathwater. Then he would give an elaborate sneeze and the mustache would stick to the wet tile. Paulo laughed and laughed.
    “What does an ‘apprentice’ mean, Daddy?” Razi asked, jumping up and down and tugging on Daddy’s T-shirt. “What does an apprentice do?”
    “It’s the junior version of something.”
    “It’s settled.” Grandma planted a kiss on Paulo’s head. “Just don’t let Razi immerse himself in his field of study, Fred. I ironed that shirt.”
    And then—snip, snap, clip clap, as Grandma Alice liked to say—it was time for Grandma, Razi and Keisha to hold hands and walk to the Baxter Community Center for the Wild 4-Ever Club meeting. Mama and Daddy would wait for Mr. Sanders and wheel Paulo over in the stroller. Then they would sit in the back and be the
proud
parents, Mama told Razi.
    “When will Mama and Daddy come? What if the baby cries?” Razi asked as they walked. He was getting all his worrying done ahead of time.
    “Carmelo’s coming,” Keisha told him, “so they won’t cry. They will goo-goo and ga-ga at each other.”
    “It’s easy to have fun when you’re a baby,” Razi said. “Keisha, will you say the pledge with me?”
    Grandma, Razi and Keisha stopped for the light at James Street. Keisha waited until they had crossed to say, “You know it, Razi! I know you do. Tell it to me right now.”
    Razi took a big breath. He stopped walking. He put his hand over his heart. “I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyal—”
    Grandma elbowed Keisha. “Don’t mouth the words,” she whispered. “It’s so amateur.” Keisha had practiced with Razi
so
many times, she couldn’t help it.
    Razi blew the air out through his nose. He didn’t like to be interrupted. “My hands to larger service and my health to better living for my …” Razi put up three fingers on one hand and one on the other. He studied his hands, waiting for the answer to come to him. “Three
C
s and a
W
. Key?”
    Brrrng, brrrng
. A bicyclist swung around them and called out, “Passing on your right.”
    “My club, my community, my country and my world.”
    “Razi, that’s perfect!” Keisha hugged him. “Say it just like that, okay?”
    Razi bowed to the east and bowed to the west. “Okay, Key. I will.”
    They took each other’s hands again and kept walking.
    “Do you think Bob will wear his blue shirt tonight?” Grandma wondered out loud.
    “Yes!” Razi shouted. He was still excited that he’d gotten the pledge right.
    Grandma had a special