Going To The Garbage Can To Eat Some Worms

"big worms, fat worms, skinny worms, curly worms -- worms, worms, worms, worms, worms"

it's my first time on my own in Canada. my mom is getting bigger and i need to get "show-shell-eyes" before i go to school after the summer. we came to Canada too late for me to go to school so i am going to daycamp.

i was happy to get out of the house and have my own life away from my boring tattletale sister. she's okay, she just started talking -- a lot; about what i do, what i say, what i eat, why she watches me all the time? especially since my mom tells me to watch her, but she doesn't ever do anything but look at me.

well, i'm free today. it will be fun to meet other people. i hope they are nice.

"be nice," my mom said to me after walking with my sister in her stroller and me to a big brick house with lots of cement stairs up to a porch with church glass above the door and window. "listen to mrs. marshall and don't play on the furniture. i will pick you up right here at 2 o'clock."

"today at 2?"

"have fun," my mom nodded as she handed me my lunch bag. "i love you."

a big white lady wearing a big red t-shirt and big red hair, bouncing down the steps towards us. she's nice. she smiles and laughs with my mom who shakes her hand. "you must be our new student?" she says to me as she puts her hand with red spots on my head.

"uh-huh."

"yes, mrs. marshall," my mom corrects for us. "thank you again for letting her come in so late notice."

"how far along are you?"

"five months. this one will be three next month."

"wow, you're tiny. you look like your first tricycle. and this is your daughter, too?"

my mom is so pretty. i look more like my mom than my sister does. and the lady reads my mind because she smiled at me when i thought that.

the lady holds my hand as we walk up the steps and inside the house.

it was full. so many fighting, smelly like rain and b.o., poo smell, crying, music playing and the tv on loud. i took off my jacket and put it on top of another jacket on the wall where the lady pointed. i saw all the shoes lined up along the wall so i took off my wet sneakers. i should have listened to my mom when she told me not to walk through the puddles. my socks were squishy and green from my sneakers. i sat on the end of the couch and waved at the kids.

"hey," they said as we made eye contact, waved back and we all watched tv. i opened the lunch bag and saw it was an albondigas sandwich and apple juice.

"why do you have a paper bag?" an old boy asked me. he was the biggest in the room with wet hair and a jeans jacket and skinny legs. he looked like he was ten years old!

"it's my lunch. am i allowed to eat here?"

"you have to share with everyone if you eat in the front room. or you can eat in the kitchen but only when they are not cooking, so you have to wait until lunch. so, are you going to share?"

i hand him my sandwich without opening the saran wrap.

"what is that smell? what kind of sandwich is that?"

"pork."

"gross. you're eating a pork sandwich for breakfast? i don't want any of that. anybody here want a pork sandwich?" we look around and the other kids are making faces at me and sticking their tongue out. "what else do you have?"

"apple juice."

"i'll take the apple juice."

i give him my paper bag with the apple juice in it. he takes the straw off the box with his mouth and stabs the box with it. after, he blows up the paper bag and then punches it, scaring everyone. the lady runs into the room, and the whole house is bouncing, and yells at my friend to go outside.

"she gave me the juice." he said to the lady when she made him give it to her.

"i gave him the juice. i didn't want it." i said.

he smiled at me and i smiled back, then he went outside and down the stairs with a bunch of younger boys. i watched them go outside the gate. i looked at the lady but she wasn't in the room anymore. when i looked back out the window from the couch, the boys were no longer in front of the house. i put my sandwich in my jacket pocket and put on my shoes and went down the stairs and out the gate.

i walked up the street until i reached an alley and heard the boys laugh, then i saw my friend as he stepped back from behind the garbage bin. he threw a cigeratte from his mouth and hit a box that was thrown away. he saw me looking at him and walked behind the garbage can again.

i went into the alley and held my nose as i smelled poo.

when i saw them, my friend had another cigarette and was passing it to his friends -- they were like my age, all boys.

"hi," i said and told them my name. my friend told me his name and the names of his friends who said hi. "can i play with you?"

"it depends. do you have a worm? we only play with kids who have worms?"

"worms?"

my friend opened up his jeans and showed me his worm. "do you have one?"

"no," i said.

"are you sure? let me see, sometimes it's small at your age and you can't see it but i know how to look for it." he points to one of his friends and says he has a small worm that's hard to see unless you really look. all the boys showed me their worms and i could see how some looked liked they didnt have worms at all.

"you know how you get a worm?" my friend asked.

i shrugged my shoulders.

"you have to eat another worm. when you eat enough worms, you grow your own worm. right guys?" they all agreed that is how you get a worm.

so i started to eat worms. and they were squishy and stinky and slimy and moved around in my mouth and made me cry a bit and snot a lot. afterwards, we checked to see if i grew a worm and i hadn't.

"i guess not today, but maybe tomorrow you can play with us. you can eat more worms later if you like."

"okay, thanks. bye." i said and went back to the house before someone tattletaled on us. i am so happy i saved my sandwich because i was so hungry. after eating all those worms, i just wanted to eat more!

later, we learned a song from a tv show that the lady put on and it made me laugh so much!

"nobody likes me, everybody hates me, going to the garbage can to eat some worms. big worms, fat worms, skinny worms, curly worms, worms, worms, worms, worms, worms."

we all laughed.