Notebooks and Boxes

Del, Roe, and Mac sat outside the convenience store holding a shoe box, while Cheese went back and forth nuzzling them for pats on the head, and running into the weeds chasing crickets. Del held a slightly crumpled and dented flier they had found taped to a light pole: “Rummage Sale, Saturday, 2pm, Community Center”. Roe had a small notebook, spiralbound at the top, that he had taken to carrying in his pocket with a pencil he won at the library for reading all the books in his favorite science fiction series. He got the notebook there too, and Mac had a matching one, because Roe had asked the librarian if reading your friends comics counted in the reading program where you could win prizes for reading a certain number of hours, or books. He had asked Mac first if Mac thought it counted, and overhearing, Del said they thought it kind of wouldn’t be fair, because then you could just make every book you ever wanted and read it, but Roe said, that’s just what’s at the library anyway, which made sence to Mac, so he said he thought they probably counted comics your friends made, and they all decided to ask. When the librarian said they did, in fact, count comics your friend made as part of the reading contest, and they totaled up all the things they had read, they each got their prizes for comic book reading: Roe got his notebook and pencil, Mac got a notebook and a small pack of gel pens, and Del got a pack of temporary tattoos that had UFOs on them and some reflective slap bracelets to wear playing outside in the evening. They currently were sporting a UFO on each arm.