Part 4 (1/2)

”Is it Rolex?” his mother asked. She was still thinking about the sneakers. ”I think that's it. I'll get you sneakers with Rolex fasteners, so that when you're in nursery schoola”no, darn it. Rolex isn't right.”

Nursery school. Sam thought about it some more. Sam knew about nurses. Every time he went to the doctor, there was a nurse there. She was a pretty nice nurse, and Sam liked her just fine, and sometimes she gave him a lollipop before he went home.

”Spandex?” his mother said. ”Lastex?”

Sam wondered if he would wear a uniform at nursery school. He didn't want to wear a white dress, the way the nurse in the doctor's office did. But he liked the idea of a uniform. He would like an army uniform, maybe. Or a Red Sox uniform.

”Lego? No, Lego is that toy,” Sam's mom said. ”What the heck is that sticky stuff called?”

Sam ignored his mother and continued thinking about the nurse. She did give lollipops, that was true. But she did something else, something Sam didn't like to think about very much.

She gave shots.

Sam hated shots.

But now that he thought about it, he liked the idea of being the guy who gave shots to other people. And after he went to nursery school and learned how, he would be able to do that.

He wasn't sure that he wanted to be a nurse because he still thought he would like to be a mover. And lately he'd been thinking about airplane pilot. But he would go to nursery school anyway, he decided, to learn to give shots.

”Okay,” he said to his mom. ”Let's go have a look at nursery school.”

”Velcro!” his mother said.

Mrs. Krupnik pushed Sam in his stroller to the school. He carried his newest favorite book on his lapa”the one with airplane pictures in it. Anastasia had told him that there would be lots of books at nursery school, but he was afraid that there might not be one with airplane pictures.

”I'm not going to do anything at the school,” he told his mother before they left home. ”I'm only going to sit and look at my airplane book.”

”Well,” said his mom, ”that would be okay, I guess. But I'm sure they'll have toys there. I would think you'd like to play with the toys.”

”No,” said Sam. ”I wouldn't.”

”And there will be other children, too. Maybe you'd like to play with them.”

Sam s.h.i.+vered. He was accustomed to playing by himself at home. He didn't want to play with other children. They always grabbed things. And here at nursery school, probably all the children were learning to be nurses, and that meanta”oh, no...

They would have to practice giving shots. They would want to give shots to him.

”NO,” he said loudly to his mother. ”I AM NOT GOING TO GO NEAR THE OTHER CHILDREN.”

His mom sighed. ”Okay,” she said.

Now, as they approached the school, Sam held on very tightly to his airplane book. He could see stuff in the fenced yard. Interesting-looking stuff. A big swing made out of a truck tire. A whole climbing thing painted different colors. A slide shaped like a giraffe. Sam could see that you climbed up the giraffe and slid down its long neck, and that it would probably be a whole lot of fun.

”I'm not going to do that giraffe slide,” Sam said to his mother. ”I'm only going to do my airplane book.”

”Okay,” said his mom.

”Even if they make me,” Sam said. ”Even if they tell me I have to do the giraffe slide, I'm not going to do it.”

”They won't make you. No one will make you do anything.”

”Even,” Sam said, ”if they tell me that they'll hold my airplane book very carefully for me while I do the giraffe slide, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to say, 'You can't make me.'”

His mom lifted him out of the stroller. She folded it into its umbrella shape. ”Sam,” she said, ”I promise you that no one will make you go down that slide.”

”Well,” said Sam, looking back at the playground as they went through the door, ”I might go down the giraffe slide just one time to be polite.”

”It's better than junior high, and it's better than Harvarduniversity,” Sam announced at dinner, ”and it's the best school in the whole world, my school is. There is a slide like a giraffe, and there are a million books, and some of them have airplane pictures, and there are paints that you can moosh around, but you have to put on a smock first. And I'm going to have lots of new friends, and one of them is named Adam.”

”That's nice, Sam,” said his dad. ”Katherine, would you pa.s.s the salad?”

”Adam plays rough,” Sam said, ”and the teacher has to say 'Time Out, Adam!'”

”Go ahead and finish the salad, Myron,” Mrs. Krupnik said. ”Otherwise, I'll just have to throw it away. Eat your veggies, Sam.”

Sam took a bite of string beans. ”No uniforms,” he announced with his mouth full. ”But everybody wears OshKosh, same as me. And there's a dress-up corner,” he continued, ”with a big box of clothes you can put on. And hats. There's a policeman's hat, but if a girl puts it on, then it's a policewoman's hat, and there's an army helmet, anda””

”Great, Sam,” Anastasia said. ”Mom, you know what I did today? Ia””

”And there's a big Mexican hat, called a somberro,” Sam went on.

”Sombrero,” his mother corrected.

”Right. Somberro. That's what I said. And my friend Adam put on the somberroa””

”Sombrero,” his father said.

”Does anybody want to hear what I did today?” Anastasia asked. ”We had an English test, and Ia””

”So my friend Adam put on the somberro,” Sam continued, ”and he took a block from the block area and pretended the block was a gun, and he was aiming it and shooting it, but the teacher took it away and said 'Time Out, Adam.' So then Adama””

”Sam,” said his mother. ”Eat.”

Sam put a forkful of potato into his mouth. He swallowed it hastily without chewing. ”So then Adam took a toy airplane, and he was zooming it around, and he pretended that it was dropping bombs on the cooking corner. That's where the little sink is and the stove, and you can run real watera”they let you do thata”and you can use an eggbeater in the water and make soapsuds if you want. These other guys, Jeremy and Skipper, they were making soapsuds, and Adam came by and bombed their soapsuds. But the teacher took the airplane away and said to Adam, 'No bombs,' so then Adama””

”Sam,” Anastasia said, ”could you be quiet, please?”

”That's what my teacher said,” Sam told her, ”when it was Quiet Time. We all had to do this.” Sam put his fingers to his lips and said ”Ziippppp.” After demonstrating, he added, ”And then our lips were zippered and it was Quiet Time. When it's Quiet Time you can color or look at books, but you can't talk or sing or yell for a little while. That's the rules. My friend Adama””

Anastasia put her fingers to her lips.

Dr. Krupnik put his fingers to his lips.

Mrs. Krupnik put her fingers to her lips.

”Zzzziiippppp,” they all said together.