Ben There

Chapter 9
Early April; Rooms and Classrooms

Chapter Description: Spring break is over, but Ben get's some surprises before he has to go back to school.

Early April; Rooms and Classrooms

When Ben’s mom picked him up at Peter’s house Saturday afternoon her first question, "So, did you have a good time?", only got the answer, "It’as OK."

However upon further interrogation Ben revealed: that they had spent some of the time playing soccer in Peter’s yard; that that’s what they did together mostly at school recesses, but that they liked four square too; that Adam, Danielle’s boy friend, lived right next door to Peter, and they had played basketball with him, and that Peter was nearly as good a dribbler as he (Ben, not Adam), but neither of them (Peter nor Ben) had a good jump shot, and that they got to dunk because Adam held them up way above the rim; that Adam was cool; that Adam called Petey’s baby brother his best friend all the time; that Peter had a brand new Lego set for a pirate ship, that it was really neat, and that they had worked on it following the instructions, but some of the instructions were real tricky; and that Peter was ’OK’ for such a little kid.

Ben also told her that the funniest thing had been when Bobby, Peter’s little brother, raced into the room after his nap and knocked over the tower they had built from all the baby’s blocks, and that Peter built one everyday he was home from school, just because three year olds like to knock stuff over so much.

The questioning of Ben was discontinued when they got to Danielle and Monique’s house and picked up Kathy. After that Ben had to endure minutes of talking about dolls and dress-up games until they reached the grocery store.

Kathy immediately climbed into the basket and took a seat. Ben started pushing it like he had two or three years ago, back when he went shopping with his mom more often, but the cart was a lot harder to steer than it used to be. (He knew that was because he was smaller right now, but thought that Kathy must have grown a whole lot, and that it was just a crummy cart too.)

Right on the first aisle in produce Ben was making a turn and the cart bumped into an old lady’s basket and almost an old lady, and he grimaced and said, "Sorry."

The woman smiled at him and said, "No harm done. Are you two two little twins?"

His mom was right there, thumping melons, and before Ben could say anything she said, "Oh, no. Benji is a few years older; he’s just a little bit on the short side right now, but he’s still a few inches taller than Kathy. "

"Oh," the woman said, "I’m sorry, young man, it’s hard to tell with her sitting like that." Then to Kathy she said, "You’re a lucky young lady to have such a nice little chariot driver, aren’t you?"

Kathy mumbled the expected, "Yes, mmm," and as she moved away the lady said, "You sure have some adorable little blond munchkins."

Ben waited until the lady was out of ear shot before he said, "Mom, can I dye my hair black or green or something."

His mom laughed and said, "I don’t think so, honey. Besides, it wouldn’t help you, and when school starts again Monday, and you see Amber and Danielle everyday again, they might convince you that being so cute isn’t such a bad thing. -- But I think you’d better let me take over the driving, OK, sweetie? That’s a wobbly cart."

"Yeah - I gonna go over to the magazines then."

"You better stay where I can keep an eye on you, puppy, just in case you make some more old ladies swoon."

For the next ten aisles Ben stayed with his mom and sister, sometimes walking beside the cart but usually standing on the bottom rack, which didn’t cause his mom any steering problems, and he helped with the tough decisions about breakfast cereals and snack foods, but in soap and hair care he got tired of walking and asked Kathy to change places (he told himself he was just taking advantage of all this shrinking business.), but his mom said no.

"But she’s been in there the whole time."

"Yes, but now there is too much stuff piled on top of her to move her, puppy. If you try to climb in and out of the basket now, something will get squished. When we check out you two can swap, and we’ll bury you under shopping bags for a trip across the parking lot. Next time, you’ll get the first ride. OK?"

And so a while later Ben was literally buried under all the grocery bags and laughing as Kathy tried to arrange the bags to get him even more buried, and more squished. Then his mom saw someone, with a little girl riding in the cart’s real seat, that she knew, and they started talking.

Kathy went to talk to the little girl and asked about the doll she had sitting beside her, all prim and proper, in the baby seat. Ben heard the little girl say, "Her name is Cyndi, and my name is Cyndi too, but it just happened that way, and we can’t do anything about it now. She’s only a baby. Do you want to hold her? You have to be very careful though, because she’s still a baby and might wet."

Ben turned around to look at the little girl, and he thought he recognized her a little bit, just enough to say, "Hey, do you go to Gladton Hall?"

And the little girl said, "Uh-huh. Oh, I know you! You’re that boy, Benji, I used to play at PE with and saw you at the tooth doctor. Hi!"

Benji said, "Yeah, so do you have to take some shots all the time too."

"Uh-huh. Two times a week now. And they hurt too. And I only have them four more times. And I’m glad. Have you ever had to get shots?"

"Yeah," Benji said, and then he had to think and couldn’t talk because his thumb snuck into his mouth, and Cyndi went back to talking to Kathy about her doll.

On the ride home Ben’s mom said, "Is something wrong, puppy? The mirror shows me your thumb is in your mouth, and that means either you are very tired, and that can’t be because it’s Kathy that had the sleepover last night, or you are thinking about a big, big problem."

Ben said, "Na-uh," and quickly wiped his thumb on his pants leg and hid it behind his back, but less than a minute latter it had found its way back to his mouth, and he said, "That lady you were talking to, her little girl is getting shrinking shots too."

"They aren’t really ’shrinking shots’, that’s a side effect, but she might be getting them. You aren’t the only one to ever get those shots, and they’ve had that happen before. I met her mama at your dentist’s office and later found out she’s in a club I belong too, but I don’t know much about Cyndi."

[It was almost five hours later, while Ben was settling into his new bed, when this conversation was continued.

He said, "Am I going to get as small as Cyndi is?"

His mom was sitting on the side of the bed and said, "No one knows exactly what size you will be then, puppy? We just have to wait and see. But we know you will start growing again at once, and we do know you will grow back to the size you were before and even bigger."

Ben sighed and pushed on a tooth with his thumb before he said, "Does sometimes getting the shots make kids act little too? Cyndi acts real little, and she’s in high school I know. "

His mom made Higgins pretend to lick Ben’s face all over, and Ben chuckled and grabbed his stuffed totem and said, "Cut it out, mom."

Then she said, "Maybe it has that effect at times, puppy. Why?"

"But I’m still fifteen and three quarters. And, well, I guess it’s good that the shots give me energy, ’cuz I like doing more fun-er things now, though I hate them making me all small, but am just glad they didn’t turn me into a little kid for really like they did Cyndi, is all."

She took Higgins and had him give Ben two more, gentler, kisses and said, "Well, I’m just glad you are happier and having fun now, baby, so I don’t care about the other stuff. Do you remember you have one more surprise for tonight that only happens when you turn out your light?"

"Oh, yeah!"

They traded kisses and hugs (Ben had to do something like that every night with everyone now because he didn’t want to hurt their feelings because they were his mom and dad and little sisters, right?), and then she said, "OK, let’s turn your race car light on. - Sleep tight, puppy, and here comes today’s last surprise." Then she turned off the over head light and the ceiling was covered with shinning phosphorescent stars.

"Wow! That’s pretty cool, Mom!"

"Sweet dreams, star trooper."]

**********************

When they got home from the grocery store their dad was standing in the garage watching paint dry, and that’s when Ben and Kathy remembered their parents’ projects, and that there were going to be lots of surprises. They jumped out of the car, and Kathy managed to ask the first questions: "What’s that? Are you all done with the surprises?"

Her dad said, "Yep, except for setting up Benny’s bed."

Ben said, "That’s Kathy’s old bed."

His mom said, "Yes, she’s had it since she was two, and wanted one with a canopy, so she’s inheriting Vicky’s."

Ben asked, "Why did you paint it blue?" (And it was a very bright blue too.)

His dad said, "Because that’s my alma mater’s colors, and because I didn’t think you’d like a pink and white one."

"Ya’ mean I don’t get a big bed no more?"

His mom said, "Benji, with all the other things we did, we needed to save a little money, so we’re putting your old mattress on Vicky’s new bed. We thought a smaller bed would be good in your room because you would have a bigger area to build things on the floor."

His dad said, "And when you go off to college, this is the size bed they’re going to give you in the dorm, so you need to get used to it, sport."

Ben thought those were good points so, though he’d miss the full sized bed, he wasn’t angry about the down-sizing.

"What’s these ladder thingies?" Kathy asked.

Her mom said, "You don’t remember those, kitten? When you were real little, we put those on this bed to make sure you wouldn’t roll out. The long one goes on the back, and the short one on the front. But you were so little then, that the short one was longer than you."

Her dad said, "We won’t be using them right now, but I wanted to keep the whole set the same color, so I painted them too."

Ben said, "I could have helped with painting. I wouldn’t have minded." Actually he thought it would have been a lot of fun.

His dad laughed and said, "After the mess you got into yesterday, don’t you think that might have been a bit dangerous?"

His mom said, "Benji, you would have been a big help, we’re sure, but that would have ruined all the surprises. And your daddy did have a lot help. Me. And Maggie’s husband came and helped too, and he’s a painter and handy man."

That was an interesting thought to Ben: Maggie had a husband. And that meant probably a home and a life when she wasn’t at their house too; who would have thought it?

Ben’s dad said, "Yeah, I was just joshing, buddy. But don’t you two want to see all the other surprises inside? They’re all upstairs."

His mom said, "First you can help me put the groceries away though. The frozen things are going to melt soon."

That wasn’t nearly as fun a job as painting would have been but, with Kathy and his mom helping him, Ben made quick work of it, and his mom said, "OK, now for the grand tour! We’ll start at the back and work to the front, so Benji’s old room first."

Ben said, "My old room!?"

"Uh-huh, we’ve played musical-rooms."

When they got to Ben’s old room, there was a giant desk and a fancy chair in the middle of it, and his bed was gone, his dresser was gone, all of his stuff was gone except his old desk, and it had a printer, router, and file boxes on top of it.

His mom was trailing behind, and when she got there she said, "Not very fancy, but this is my new home-office. I took my new job because Mr. Doucet will let me work from home two or three days a week. But that means I need a quiet place to work, and this room is the furthest from the rest of the house. I do want you two to come and visit me when I’m here though, babies. That’s why I want to be here more! But you will have to come in quietly and see if I’m on the phone, OK? Now, next room."

Ben and Kathy headed towards Vicky’s room, but their mom called them back to the room that was always called the guest room but had never had any furniture in it before.

The walls were painted a weird green (that Vicky would tell them was teal and a blue), and Ben’s old dresser was there, only now a weird shade of blue (turquoise, and a green), and there were pink (umm, coral) curtains, and other things were a lot of other light colors that Ben thought only a Vicky would know about. There was a full sized bed with a bookcase where the headboard belonged, and a new desk, and Kathy’s old desk too but now it had a big mirror behind it, plus lots of other Vicky stuff.

Kathy squealed when she opened the next door. Vicky’s old room didn’t look that much different except that it was even pinker now. And there was a new desk and a big bookcase that was crowded with lots of Kathy’s dolls, and Kathy said, "Hooray, now they don’t have to go to sleep in the box all the time, and I got a canopy bed at last."

Her mom said, "Do you like it, kitten? You got so much of Vicky’s old things that we just moved you in here, but you didn’t get as much new stuff as anyone else, including me. Benji wound up making out like a bandit."

"Uh-huh!!" Kathy said, "It’s really great!" and she started jumping up and down on her new bed, trying to touch the top.

"And on to Benji’s new room! You can look for your littler surprises in a little minute, Kath."

For the first time since he’d gotten home, Ben’s thumb found his lips just before he opened the door to Kathy’s old room. And then it lost them as his mouth flew open as wide as his eyes did, and left it sitting there in a great void.

The only thing Ben could think of at first was: Bright. And he didn’t need Vicky to tell him the names of any of the colors in here.

Kathy’s old chest of drawers was here, but it was now bright red. There was a tall, skinny green book case, and a low and wide blue one, both with yellow shelves. His race car lamp sat on a red cube, so he knew that must be a bedside table waiting for a bed to be beside; there was a new bright yellow desk with a blue door instead of drawers. On the wall, just below the ceiling, was a row of red race cars of all different kinds racing around the whole room. And the new curtains had rows of race cars in between red stripes on them too.

His mom said, "Try out your new desk and chair. We can change the height of both of them."

Ben sat in the red, yellow and green chair at the desk. The desk was wider than his old one, but much lower and not as deep, and it had a rail at the back that would keep pencils and junk from rolling off.

Kathy said, "This is real neat, for a boy, and I know why you got lots of cars; it’s ’cuz you talk about driving so much. But my new desk is bigger than yours; that’s ’cuz I work harder at school."

Ben stuck his tongue out at his little sister who always did her homework in the kitchen, so she could get help from Maggie, anyway.

His mom said, "Hush up, Kathy. Ben is doing very, very well in school these days, and I wasn’t that proud of your last spelling test."

Ben said, "But can the desk get big enough for when I’m big again?"

"Probably not, sweetie, but we can put shelves in where your legs go now. Then it’s a cabinet that you can use for lots of things."

Kathy closed the closet door and screamed, "Oh, Benji, look at this." Hiding behind the door she had found a red and gold pirate’s treasure chest that already had some of Ben’s Legos inside of it and had lots of room left over, and she said, "I wish I had one of those!"

His mom said, "I didn’t give you much of a chance to explore your room, Kath. Would a white and gold one do?" And Kathy disappeared to her room.

Ben’s dad yelled from the stairs, "Coming through," and brought the bright blue headboard into the room.

Ben jumped up and said, "I’ll bring some parts up too," and he ran down to the garage, but the only part he could carry now, without banging it, was the short side rail (which was put at the back of his closet to go to the attic sometime latter.).

As he sat on the floor helping his dad assemble the bed, Ben was asked what he thought of it all, and he said, "It’s cool!"

And Ben meant that too, but it had taken him a while to reach that conclusion. He didn’t know what to think at first. A big part of his head said, ’little kidish’, but each piece was neat!

He remembered that Danny, who was going to be twelve soon and was therefore not a little kid, even though he was a lot younger than Ben himself, had red and blue and yellow bookcases, so nothing was too babyish about that. The red dresser was impressive. The blue bed was, well, cool. The treasure chest, great. And the continuous line of cars racing around the room was funny, and neat, and cool too. He decided he’d go ahead and like it, but there was one problem.

"But," he said to his dad, "couldn’t we paint it, like you did Vicky’s room?" The walls were pale yellow, which made all the furniture colors seem brighter, but Ben thought that was a baby color.

"Well, we did think about it, big guy, but this is the only room upstairs we had painted before we moved in at Christmas, so it doesn’t need it, and all these surprises have put a dent in the bank account for right now, but we will get it repainted sometime after school’s out and before you’re real big again, OK? Do you think you can live with those walls for a while?"

"I guess. The other stuff is real neat," Ben said, and to himself he thought, "At least the rest of the room doesn’t look like a baby’s room like it did when Kathy lived here."

**************

While picking up Ben Monday morning, Danielle came inside carrying three huge accordion files and dropped them with a thud onto the breakfast table. She said, "Welcome to the firm of Wilkins, Doucet, and Fine, Mrs. Collins. My father would like a full assessment of these cases and forty interrogatories for each tomorrow morning."

Ben’s mom broke out laughing and said, "He did not say that! I took this job so I could work shorter hours!"

Danielle said, "OK. He said, if you said something like that, I was then to tell you to look them over and pick the one you think you could help with the most and bring the others back when you come in this afternoon. He put a quick synopsis in them, and it includes top secret remarks on the second counsel for each one. You’re supposed to eat those after reading them."

"OK. I’ll take the second option."

Ben was looking through the files and saw lots of different sizes and colors of paper. He said, "What’s ’interrag-things’? You don’t gotta eat them really, right?"

"’Interrogatories’ means ’questions’, honey, but lawyers use it for a special kind of questions, and no, I don’t have to eat the papers; that was a joke. I can just burn them and eat the ashes."

It was Kathy’s turn to display incredulity, and she yelled, "Na-uh!"

Danielle picked up the brush and started to brush Ben’s hair, like she had last time she had come inside at breakfast, and Vicky said, "Hey, you did that the last time you were here, Danielle, let me do it."

"Don’t you get to all the time? I don’t very often."

"No, because Ben will only let someone do it when you’re here," Vicky said, and she grabbed at the brush.

Ben said, "Geeeezzzzzz, I can do it!" and took the brush from the girls. After four stokes he slapped the brush down on the table and said, "There."

Danielle said, "Boys just don’t know how to do things right and enjoy them."

"Yeah, let me do it better, Benji," Vicky said.

Danielle grabbed Ben and pulled him into her lap, where he just fit, and said, "No! Me! Me, Benji!"

Ben slid out of the lap and stared at the two bigger girls unbelievingly and said, "I get to pick!"

The girls stopped arguing and waited. Ben took the brush over to Kathy and said, "Here. You do it for me, OK?"

And the bigger girls pretended to sulk and Kathy continued to brush Ben’s hair until his mom said, "OK, all of you people better get out of here and get to school."

The lower school at Gladton Hall was different from Ben’s old primary school. The most noticeable difference was that there was a door from each classroom to the next, so one could go through all eight groups, from the oldest, who were at fourth grade level, to the tiny little preschoolers without ever going into the hallway. And the pupils used those interconnecting doors too, so some of the largest kids might have certain lessons with a class several rooms lower, and even some of the three year olds moved up to do things with the bigger kids.

Of course, Ben spent most of his time with the oldest group, and he spent most of it helping the young kids with group projects, but sometimes he did move down a room or even two, and a lot of times Peter was told to go to the same room. The very best thing about being over in the junior school though was that in the middle of the morning everyone got to take a break for snacks and recess, and he thought that the big school should do that, but he also thought that, maybe, the reason it was so good was because those shots were giving him too much new energy now.

However, now that he was over in the junior school all day, he did have work of his own to do in those classrooms, and half the day was spent doing assignments and worksheets that, Ben supposed, had been sent over by his teachers in the big building, and he got those things for homework too.

On Wednesday, he had a homework worksheet for math, and he was having a hard time. He went and peeked in at his mom’s office door (his old bedroom), and she wasn’t on the phone, so he said, "Can I use your calculator? I can’t find mine, and my ’puter isn’t set up in my new room."

"Of course, honey. What do you need it for?"

"A problem that I can’t figure out."

"Maybe I can help. Let me see it."

Ben didn’t want to, but he showed his mom the worksheet he had, and at the top of the page, in caps, it said: "Use your head! This page is not a calculator exercise!"

"Benji!!" his mom said.

"But, mom, it’s hard. I don’t get it. Used to, at my old school, calculus was always tough, but I did OK, and it was always about lots of symbols and things. Now I get this stuff, and got to get number answers all the time."

"Well, I never took calculus, but let me see the ones that are giving you trouble, sweetie."

"Mainly this one: 1794 divided by 13."

But there were more like that too, and they went over them together for a while.