Dear Mr. Henshaw Read Online Free Page A

sometime nextsummer when school is out, and he said he’d see. (I hate answers like that.) Anyway, he said he was sending the support check and he was sorry he forgot and he hoped I liked the jacket.
    I sure wish Dad lived with us again, but he said he would phone in about a week and to keep my nose clean. He had to go to make sure the potatoes were loaded so they wouldn’t shift going around curves.
    This has been a good day. My lunch was safe again.
    Mr. Fridley is so funny. Lots of kids are having their teeth straightened so when they eat lunch, they take out their retainers and wrap them in paper napkins while they eat because nobody wants to look at a spitty retainer. Sometimes they forget and throw the napkin with the retainer into the garbage. Then they have to hunt through the cans of gooey garbage until they find their retainers because retainers cost a lot of money, and parents get mad if they get lost. Mr. Fridley always stands by the garbage cans to make sure kids who buy school lunches put their forks and spoons on a tray and not in the garbage. Whenever someone who wears a retainer scrapes his plate, Mr. Fridley says, “Look out. Don’t lose your false teeth.” This has cut down on lost retainers.
    Mom says I take after Dad in one thing. My teeth are nice and straight which is a big saving right there.
    Tuesday, January 9
    Dear Mr. Pretend Henshaw,
    My little cheesecake was missing at lunchtime which made me mad. I guess somebody noticed Joe Kelly’s lunch was really mine. When I went to throw my lunchbag in the garbage, Mr. Fridley said, “Cheer up, Leigh, or you’ll trip over your lower lip.”
    I said, “How would you feel if somebody was always stealing the good stuff from your lunch?”
    He said, “What you need is a burglar alarm.”A burglar alarm on a lunchbag. I had to laugh at that, but I still wanted my cheesecake.

    Dad should be phoning any day now. When I said that at supper (chili out of a can), Mom said for me not to get my hopes up, but I know Dad will remember this time. Mom never really says much about Dad, and when I ask why she divorced him, all she says is, “It takes two people to get a divorce.” I guess she means the same way it takes two people to have a fight.
    Tomorrow I am going to wrap my lunchbag in a lot of Scotch tape so nobody can sneak anything out of it.

    Wednesday, January 10
    Dear Mr. Pretend Henshaw,
    It’s funny how somebody says something, and you can’t forget it. I keep thinking about Mr. Fridley saying I needed a burglar alarm on my lunchbag. How could anybody put a burglar alarm on a paper bag? Today I used so much Scotch tape on my lunchbag, I had ahard time getting my lunch out. Everybody laughed.
    Dad should phone today or tomorrow. Maybe if he came home he would know how I could make a burglar alarm for my lunchbag. He used to be good about helping me build things, except there wasn’t much room in the mobile home we lived in, and you had to be careful where you pounded because a piece of plastic might break off something.
    I read over the letter you wrote that time answering my questions and thought about your tips on how to write a book. One of the tips was listen . I guess you meant to listen and write down the way people talk, sort of like a play. This is what Mom and I said at supper (frozen chicken pies):
    M E: Mom, how come you don’t get married again?
    M OM: Oh, I don’t know. I guess men aren’t that easy to find when you are out of school.
    M E: But you go out sometimes. You went to dinner with Charlie a couple of times. What happened to him?
    M OM: A couple of times was enough. That’s the end of Charlie.
    M E: How come?
    M OM: (Thinks awhile.) Charlie is divorced and has three children to support. What he really wants is someone to help support Charlie.
    M E: Oh. (Three sudden brothers or sisters was something to think about.) But I see men all around. There are lots