Assignment 22: Right Now

Right now, somewhere in the UNIVERSE...

A middle school boy with a bush of sandy brown hair bats away his momma as she shakes him awake.  He plops a saggy pillow over his head.  She yanks it off.  He reaches to pull the covers over his head.  Doesn't find them where they lay wasted at the bottom of the bed because the night had been so stuffy and his parents hadn't wanted him to open a window because it was nighttime and Saint Patrick's Day and this neighborhood.

Boy gives in.  Momma stomps away, snagging her knee on the edge of the bed as she walks out the door.  Boy falls out of bed.  Grabs toothbrush and saunters to the bathroom.  Turns around and comes back to his room because his sister? his father? his aunt?  was showering.

Boy surely doesn't want to go to church.  Can't understand why the preacher doesn't talk right.  Why he uses doth and sha'n't instead of ain't.  Doesn't want to stare at the Sunday school lesson page, wondering if he spelled stuff right.  Wondering if he read stuff right.  Having the other kids sneer at him when Ms. Teacher asks him a question that he doesn't know the answer to. 

Considers going back to bed.  But the music in his sisters' room is already blaring.  So he digs his khakis from the hamper.  Fumbles towards the kitchen.  Finds the shopping bag that boldly declares, "Changing jeans into jobs."  Pulls out the sky blue polo and slides it on.

Sits down at the table with his bowl of Circle-O's and waits for his turn in the bathroom.