Elvis and the Underdogs (10 page)

Of course, when it comes to manners, my mom wants everyone else to have them, but when it comes to her, there are clearly no rules or boundaries. Instead of just shaking her hand like a normal person, my mom pulled Taisy in for a big, warm hug.

“Hi, Taisy, it's so wonderful to meet you. I love meeting all my baby Benji's friends.”

Taisy took the whole hug thing much better than I did. In fact, I was freaking out just watching it. I didn't know what would ruin my life more, my mom hugging her or the fact that my mom had just called me “baby” in front of Taisy McDonald! Before I could say anything, Taisy hugged Elvis.

“Parker Elvis Pembroke IV, what a great name. Aren't you a cutie-wootie? Aren't you the furriest bestest baby in da whole wide world? Who's da baby? You are. You are.”

And again she buried her face in his neck fur. Elvis clearly enjoyed the attention, because his tail wagged so hard it kept whacking me on the leg and created enough of a breeze to make my hair move.

“Look at you. Who's got a big head? Who's got the biggest, cutest head in the whole world? Huh? You are the handsomest doggy ever. You are, yes, you are. Oh you are so lucky, Benj.”

She'd called me Benj again! No one calls me Benj, but when she says it, I always feel like I've had been Benj my whole life. My mom elbowed me and raised her eyebrows. I knew she wanted me to say something back, but I glared at her to stop pushing! In a million years, I never expected to hear Taisy McDonald baby-talking to a dog, let alone calling me Benj. This was a completely different Taisy from the girl I'd talked to two weeks ago.

“So, what brings you to the radiology department?” I said. Okay, so out of everything I could have possibly said, that was probably the stupidest thing I could have said.

“I had to get a scan of my elbow.”

My mom was in there before I could even reply. “Oh no, honey, that's too bad. I'm sure it will be fine soon. I know how scary that must be for you, because you're such an amazing athlete. Benji's older brothers play sports too.”

“Oh, thank you. But don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine. My dad always goes a little overboard about these things.”

“I know it seems that way, but he only does it because he loves you so much.”

I could tell my mom was stressing Taisy out, so I felt like I had to get in there to save her.

“So Taisy, don't you feel like those big MRI machines kinda look like giant bread machines? What's your favorite kind of bread?”

Taisy and my mom gave me a weird look. I shrugged. I don't know why I said it either. I just opened my mouth and it came out. But it is totally true. Those machines look and sound like bread machines. I always feel like a piece of dough going in there.

“Uh, I guess my favorite bread is raisin walnut bread.”

“Mine too. I mean, except for the walnuts. If I ate a walnut, I could die. But raisins and me? We're tight.” I crossed my fingers for emphasis. “Yeah, some of my best friends are raisins.” Whoa, why couldn't I shut up?

“Benji has a nut allergy.” My mom tried to help me out of the hole I was clearly busy digging for myself.

Taisy was totally unfazed. “So how is it that I didn't know you had such a supercool dog?”

“Oh, that's because he's new. I just got him. Like, today. He's my new therapy dog. I got him so I don't have to wear that helmet anymore.”

“Really? That's awesome. He's the best dog I've ever seen. Well, besides my dog, Princess Daisy, but since she's not here, I can tell you right now your dog is just as cute. I love dogs. I wish I could get a second one, but my dad says one is enough. And with all my practicing, I barely get to see my one dog enough as it is.”

“Taisy, hon. We need to go.” Taisy's dad came out from the back, calling her from the other side of the waiting room. He had a really deep voice, kind of like thunder. Taisy stood up, but not before kissing Elvis all over his face.

“Coming, Dad. I was just saying hi to my friend Benj.” Taisy turned to me. “Well, I guess I'll see you at school later this week?”

I didn't even hear what she said, mainly because I was still in shock that she had called me her friend Benj, to her dad. That meant an actual real-life sports hero with two Super Bowl rings knew that his daughter had a friend named Benj. My mom nudged me to answer.

“What? Sorry, what did you say?”

“Will you be at school tomorrow?”

“Probably not tomorrow, but definitely the day after.”

Okay, I really wanted to call her Tais, like how she called me Benj, but by the time I decided to go for it, they were already gone. As soon as the door closed, I whipped around and faced my mom.

“Mom, we need to have a little talk. You know I don't like you calling me ‘baby' period, but you can
never ever ever
call me ‘baby' in front of other people, okay?”

“You're overreacting! I'm sure Taisy's dad calls her ‘baby' too.”

“I don't care what Taisy's dad calls her. I only care what you call me in front of Taisy, okay?”

“Why, do you like Taisy?”

“Mom! Stop! Forget I said anything.”

Talk about being saved by the bell. The nurse called out my name.

“Okay, I'm going to go, but I'm definitely going to come back. I don't want my baby to be alone.”

“I. Am. Not. Your. Baby! I can take care of myself. Well, I mean, for a night I can. You know what I mean. And speaking of that, I wanted to let you know that I've decided I'm old enough to stay overnight here on my own. Like starting tonight.”

“First off, you are, and you will always will be, my baby. Even when you're twenty-five, you're still going to be my baby, and you know it. And if you don't want me to stay overnight, I guess I don't have to.” My mom sounded brave, but I could tell I'd hurt her feelings a little. “And today is your first day with Elvis, and maybe you need help. I mean, do we really know if he's able to care for you properly?”

Elvis answered my mom with a short bark. My mom startled and looked at him.

“How strange. It's as if he understood I was talking about him.”

“Well, you did say his name, and dogs like these can probably read the tone of your voice. Maybe he can tell you're not happy. Mom, I'm sorry if I—”

“Don't say another word. I understand.”

I sighed. She was doing that rapid blinking thing she does when she's trying not to cry. My mom says all emotionally intelligent people are criers, and that it's actually good for you. But when she is trying not to cry in public, she blinks. Then her top lip starts to quiver, and then if she starts fanning her eyes, it's all over. But sometimes she gets it all under control with the blinking. Today, lucky for me, was one of those days. It's not that I didn't want her to stay. I love my mom more than anyone and anything in the entire world. I just wanted a little space. She needed one more nudge, but a gentle one this time.

“C'mon, Mom. Go have fun at your book club talking about Anna Can-ya-pass-me-some-more-cake-'cause-I-didn't-read-the-book.”

She laughed. “It's
Anna Karenina
, and I read the first chapter.”

“Mom, it's nothing personal, but tonight's my tenth punch on my punch card and Dino is going to get me a surprise, and I'm just afraid if you're here he might, you know.”

“What, what do I know?”

“Mom, he might not do anything all that fun, because he'll be too afraid of you. Please, Mom, I want to stay alone. I mean, with Elvis. I'll pretend it's a sleepover.”

My mom made a face when I said this. I'd struck a chord with her, because she always tells me that when she was younger, her favorite thing was slumber parties, and we both knew I'd never been invited to one.

Well, that clinched the deal. She stood up to leave and gave me a huge hug. “Mom, can't breathe. I'll see you tomorrow. It's just one night.”

She nodded and quickly walked to the door. At the doorway, she turned around and blew me a kiss. I smiled and said good-bye. She blew me another kiss, and then another, and then another, until I pretended to catch one in my hand and smush it on my cheek. This is what we used to do a million years ago, when I was a little kid and she had finished tucking me into bed. It felt silly doing that at ten years old. But it made her happy, so I did it.

When Dino works
the night shift, he takes his lunch break around three or four in the morning. I was hoping he'd show up and give me my surprise then. I slept on and off, but it's not so easy to sleep in a hospital. You hear lots of voices and banging from the hallway, and nurses wake you every few hours to take your temperature and blood pressure. So I was half asleep when the first paper airplane sailed into the room. I didn't even see it. But Elvis, who was asleep on the floor next to me, sat up suddenly.

“What was that?” he asked. His tone of voice was very serious.

“What was what?” I mumbled, sitting up.

“I heard something. Shhhhhh.”

“I didn't hear an—”

“Shhhhhhhh!”

Okay, no one likes getting shushed in general. But getting shushed by your own dog? Even more annoying.

And right then, another paper airplane sailed into the room. This time I saw it against the mermaid night-light my mom always puts in my rooms. (Apparently, when I was really small and we were on some beachy vacation, I saw it in a gift shop and pointed at it and said, “Mama.” The mermaid has big blond hair like my mom's. So she bought it and made up stories about how she used to be a mermaid in a past life.) I reached up to grab it when Elvis said, “Stop! Don't touch it!” The tone of his voice was so stern, I pulled my hand back in. Elvis galloped to the other side of my bed to investigate. I flipped on the lamp, and three more paper airplanes sailed into my room, one after the other.

“There's more! Hey! I bet this is the beginning of my surprise from Dino.”

Finally the last plane sailed in, landing perfectly at the foot of my bed. I leaned forward to grab it when a big black paw slapped down on top of it.

“I said don't touch it.”

“Elvis, it's fine. Now lift your big fat paw and let me get it. It's a paper airplane, for Pete's sake. What's the worst thing that can happen? I get a paper cut?” Elvis lifted his paw, and I grabbed the now-crumpled plane. The plane had the number 6 written on one wing. On the other wing it said,
Open me last
.

“Quick, we gotta find all the other planes!” I scrambled out of bed and found all the planes except for number three. I looked everywhere until Elvis finally admitted he had caught one in his mouth and spit it out in the trash can. I pulled out the soggy mess, but I couldn't read it because all the ink had blurred.