Read The Waffler for Free Online Page B

Monty and Sierra were here they’d gone apple picking, and now all the apples were in a big pot on the stove. Monty would rather have a crunchy apple than mushy applesauce any day, but he decided
not
to complain that all the apples were being turned into baby food mush. Not when he was about to beg for mercy.

“ S o, Mom,” he began.
    â€œHush, little baby, don’t say a word,” murmured his mom, singing and swaying back and forth because Aisha was fussing. Pointing to the Band-Aids on Monty’s arm, she asked, “What happened here?”
    Why did his mom have to notice everything? Especially when she first saw him after he’d been at his dad’s. She checked him out from top to bottom.
    Monty didn’t answer her question because, while she was looking at him, he was looking at her, too. His mom used to have long hair, but when Aisha was born she cut it super-short, saying she didn’t want the baby tugging it. Monty still couldn’t get used to it. It was like every time he saw his mom, it wasn’t
her
. It was some other mom. Once she asked him what was wrong, and he tried to tell her, but she just started talking about
changes
. About Bob and Aisha. But Monty wasn’t mad because of Bob, who was pretty nice, or ’cause of Aisha, who was pretty cute, when she wasn’t crying. Right now she was old enough to sit up but not old enough to crawl, so lots of times she just sat on her blanket and sucked on a set of plastic cups in rainbow colors. His being mad wasn’t about Bob and Aisha. It really was about how his mom just looked . . . wrong. Not like his mom. Like his
not-mom
.
    Monty didn’t know why he said what he said next. He wanted to be asking about his rat. His mom wanted an answer to her question about the Band-Aids. But instead of doing either of those things he blurted out, “Are you gonna grow your hair back?”
    Before his mom could answer, the door opened and in came Sierra in her soccer uniform—red socks, red shorts, and a red shirt with PRONTO PAINTING across the front. Right behind her came Bob, who said in unison with Monty’s mom, “No cleats in the house!” Sierra plunked down on the kitchen floor and tugged off her soccer shoes. Bob took off his jacket—underneath he wore a T-shirt that said GOD BLESS EVERYONE. NO EXCEPTIONS .
    On days when they stayed here, Bob picked Sierra up from soccer on the way home from his job, which was going around to people’s houses fixing their computers. Bob was the kind of guy who, if you were lost and you had to ask somebody for help, you’d ask him. Which actually happened to Monty. He and Sierra and their mom were at the Cumberland Fair, and Monty had spent too long looking at the pigs, which were
gigantic
. Suddenly he realized his mom and Sierra were gone. He went up and down all the livestock barns—more pigs, goats, chickens—and then the boring barns, with skeins of yarn
and jars of golden honey, until finally he knew, he wasn’t going to find them. His mom had always told him,
if you’re lost, find somebody who looks like a grandmother!
But Monty decided to ask for help from the guy standing by the chickens and wearing the NO WORRIES shirt.
    That guy was Bob, who took him to the place where lost people found each other, and waited until Monty’s mom showed up. After that, he came over a couple weeks later for a thank-you supper. And a couple years after that, he and Monty’s mom got married.
    â€œBuh!” squealed Aisha.
    Bob picked up a big wooden spoon and began stirring the applesauce, so the smell of apples floated through the kitchen. “You hear that? She said my name! So, what’s going on around here?”
    â€œMonty still doesn’t like my haircut,” said Monty’s mom, swaying back and forth the way she did whenever she was holding Aisha. “But I was just going to tell him that when this little