Planter Boxes

Mac sat in the yard, with the hose in a bucket, soap on himself, Cheese, and a pile of Cheese’s most prized toys and other favorite things. Del rode up, slightly wobbily, on their roller skates. “Hey! What are you two doing today?” Mac waved a soapy arm. “Hey! I’m cleaning Cheese’s house, and his stuff, and him, and me too.” Mac said laughing, and pointed, to a damp, but scrubbed, Cheese house, now brighter, on the outside, the smell of damp dog and soap wafting over on the breeze. Del leaned on the fence where some of Cheese’s blankets, scrubbed and washed, hung in the sun to dry, and reached down to scratch behind Cheese’s ears. His head was damp, and he wagged his tail at the attention, flicking water with each wag. Del laughed. Mac shook some soapy water off of his arms and dumped out the bucket onto some wildflowers near the road, the dry ground soaking up the water quickly. He turned on the squeaky spigot to fill the bucket back up to rinse some toys off, and went to get a box of things off of the porch. “Want to help me touch up the paint on Cheese’s house?” he held a cardboard box with brushes and jars with paint, a hammer, nails, a saw, and some pieces of wood pulled off from some pallets they had found back on a trail behind the convenience store. “I’m also going to fix some of my aunt’s planter boxes. ” Del peaked inside the box. “Roe gave me some paint from his brother’s workshop that we’re allowed to use, he had some baby food jars from when he watches his cousins, so I didn’t have to take the whole paint cans.” There were a few colors in the box, and now that it was scrubbed off, Cheese’s house had some clean, but bare spots. Del sat on the porch step, and began to untie the doubleknotted, sparkly laces on their skates.

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.

The Art Show

Del, Mac, Cheese, and Roe walked back from the recycling center in the soggy ditch next to the road. Each of them had a small pocket full of money from recycling cans. They had had an exciting trip, a new couple had moved into a trailer down the road from the recycling center, and were volunteering there when they arrived, their yard had been a source of fascination on the way, filled with bright recycled metal sculptures, and whirligigs, and murals and fences and boulders. When the man, Rye, told Mac and Roe that that was actually where he and Io lived, the Del jumped in with lots of questions about their art. Io smiled, “I’m sure you can make some just as wonderful. We taught ourselves how to make our art.”

As Del and Mac placed cans into the correct recycling containers, and Roe played with Cheese and a stick, the three discussed what kinds of things they could try making an art project with. “We should do something special for one of Mac’s zines, like a giant painting or something.” said Roe. Del nodded, maybe we could each make one of the pages something different and then bring them back together. Mac grinned happily, “I’ll choose one of my favorites! You all are great friends!”, and hugged Roe. “Lets surprise eachother and not show eachother the ones we work on until they’re finished!” Del said and they joined the hug with Cheese wiggling over too.