All About Sam (8 page)

Anastasia nudged Sam over to the empty card table with the 17 taped to it. They placed the little box on the center of the table and removed the lid.

Sam poked gently in the fresh dirt until he found King of Worms. "Stick your head out," he whispered, "and look beautiful when the judges come around."

"Hey, look, Sam," Anastasia said, "somebody
did
bring a goldfish. See over there?"

They checked to make certain that Sam's worm box was safely situated on its table, and then wandered over to look at the goldfish in a bowl nearby.

"Not as good as Frank the Second," Anastasia whispered to Sam, and Sam nodded in agreement. "Not as bright-colored, not as big. And Frank's face is more intelligent."

Sam tugged suddenly on Anastasia's jeans. He pointed. "That's Nicky from my school," he whispered. "Remember Nicky the biter?"

"Well, Nicky wouldn't dare bite anyone at a pet show," Anastasia reassured Sam. They strolled over and looked into the huge box beside Nicky.

"Forty-seven gerbils," Nicky said in a loud voice.

"Nice," Anastasia said politely, and she and Sam moved away.

"And there's my friend Adam with his cat." Sam pointed. "Adam's cat is named Squeaky."

"Shhh," Anastasia said. "Look. There are the judges!"

The three men and one woman were stopping in front of the first pet, a rabbit in a cage, and discussing it. Sam could see them talking quietly to each other. One man was carrying a shopping bag. He reached into it and took out a bright blue ribbon with a badge attached to it. He wrote something on the badge and attached it to the rabbit's cage. The girl standing beside the cage grinned proudly.

"No fair!" wailed Sam. "They're giving the prize and they didn't even look at King of Worms!"

The judges had moved on to the next pet. Anastasia grabbed Sam's hand, and they ran over to the rabbit cage.

"I won!" the girl was saying happily. "My rabbit won!"

Anastasia read the words on the blue ribbon. "First Prize," she read aloud, "for Nose-wiggling."

Sam brightened. "King of Worms couldn't win that," he said, "because he doesn't have a nose."

"Look, Sam," Anastasia said. She had moved to the next pet. The judges had gone on ahead, moving from table to table, cage to cage.

"First Prize for Yellowest Pet," Anastasia read, leaning over a canary cage.

"First Prize for Largest Sleeper," she read, almost tripping over a snoring Newfoundland dog.

"First Prize for Wettest Pet," she read on the goldfish bowl.

"First Prize for Best Climber," she read on the ribbon attached to a tree trunk. From a limb above, the cat still looked down.

"First Prize for Most Pets," said the award on Nicky's huge box of gerbils.

Sam and Anastasia stood and watched quietly from a distance as the judges came to the table with the 17 on it. They saw the judges lean over the worm box.

"Maybe he'll be roundest pet," Anastasia suggested.

"I bet he'll be dirtiest," Sam said cheerfully.

They could see the judges poke gently in the dirt. One of them lifted the box. They talked some more.

"They can't decide," Anastasia whispered to Sam. "It must be a truly tough decision."

"They probably never had to do a worm before," Sam whispered back.

Finally, while they watched, the judge with the marking pen wrote on one of the blue ribbons and attached it to the worm box. Then the judges moved on.

Sam and Anastasia dashed to their table.

"Read it to me," Sam begged. "I can't read fast enough because I have to sound out all the words."

Anastasia had the ribbon in her hand and a horrified look on her face.

"First Prize," she read slowly, "for Most Invisible Pet."

And it was true. King of Worms was gone.

"He's bait!" Sam yowled. "I know he's bait!"

"What on earth are you talking about, Sam?" Anastasia asked. They were walking home from the pet show.

Sam couldn't stop crying. "King of Worms! I know there must have been someone there who wanted to go fishing tomorrow! And was looking for bait! And they saw King of Worms and
took
him!"

Anastasia leaned over and held a crumpled Kleenex to Sam's nose. "Here," she said. "Blow."

Sam blew his nose. "They'll put a
hook
through him," he wailed.

Anastasia shook her head. "I don't think so, Sam. I think he ran away. He just didn't want to be in a pet show."

"Worms can't run," Sam muttered. "They only crawl."

"Well, that's true. They crawl and slither. But that makes them very good at escaping."

"Why?" Sam asked.

"Because they go underground, and no one can see them. Hey, Sam, you know what? I bet King of Worms is underground right now, maybe right under our feet."

Sam sniffled, and his face brightened. "You think so? Under the sidewalk?"

"Sure," Anastasia said. "Probably slithering along down there, faster than a speeding bullet. Heading home."

Sam looked down the street, toward their house. "Probably he did want to go home, so he wouldn't have to be in a dumb pet show," he said. "Would he know the way home? Because I took him in the box, and he couldn't see anything."

"Oh, sure," his sister told him. "Worms have an excellent sense of direction. They're used to finding their way underground, where they can't see."

"Yeah," said Sam, starting to smile. "I bet he's slithering under the street right now. He doesn't even have to stop at the corner and look both ways for cars."

"He'll probably beat us home," Anastasia said.

At the corner, they stopped. Sam looked down at the drain that caught the rainwater. He knelt beside it and cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Hey, King of Worms!" he called. "I know you're down there!"

He listened for a moment. "I think I hear him," he said to Anastasia. "I hear slithering noises."

When they got to their yard, they went directly to the sandbox where Sam's big tin shovel was lying beside a dented kitchen pot.

"Where do you think he might be, Sam?" asked Anastasia.

Sam thought and then pointed. "Right here," he said. "By this bush."

Anastasia dug very carefully with Sam's shovel. Sure enough, just a few inches below the surface, they found King of Worms.

"He beat us home," Sam said happily. "He should have won First Prize for Fastest Slitherer."

"It's Monday, Sam," Mrs. Krupnik said at breakfast. "Show-and-Tell day at nursery school. Are you going to take your blue ribbon from the pet show?"

"Nope," Sam said, dragging his spoon through his oatmeal. He liked the way he could open up a ditch and then watch it fill gradually with milk. Sometimes he made Drowning Men out of raisins.

"Why not?" Anastasia asked.

"
Because,
" Sam explained impatiently, "Nicky will be there with a dumb blue ribbon for Most Pets. And Adam will bring his First Prize for Cat with Fattest Tail.
Everybody
will be doing pet show stuff at Show-and-Tell today."

"Oh," said his mother. "I hadn't thought of that. But you're absolutely right."

"What
are
you going to take?" Anastasia asked.

"Secret," said Sam.

But he was fibbing. It wasn't a secret at all. The truth was, Sam couldn't think of anything to take to school for Show-and-Tell. He had this problem almost every single Monday morning.

Sam was good at a lot of stuff. He could count higher and recognize more words than any other kid at nursery school. He knew more songs than almost anybody; he even knew all the words to the songs on his father's Billie Holiday records. (Sam especially liked the part that went, "I get no kick from champagne, Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all"; he always sang that part very loud, even though his parents said, "What will the neighbors think?")

And he was good at somersaults, and coloring, and building very tall castles out of blocks, and bashing the castles to the ground afterward.

But he just wasn't any good at all at Show-and-Tell.

Other kids were. A girl named Rosie had brought, one Monday, her new baby brother to Show-and-Tell. Of course her mother had to come along; but Rosie got to hold the baby all by herself, in front of the other kids. She got to tell the baby's name—Henry—and when Henry cried, she let all the other kids look into his mouth, so they could see how he had no teeth.

A kid named Kevin had brought things back from a trip to Disney World and took up almost the whole Show-and-Tell time, wearing his Donald Duck hat and telling about the rides and stuff. Kevin had official pilot wings that he got on the airplane; he had them pinned to his sweater, and he wouldn't let the other kids wear them, not even for one minute.

Every Monday, Sam worried about what the other kids would bring to Show-and-Tell. And what he would bring. Nothing he had ever brought seemed to be very good.

Today, after he had finished his oatmeal, he went back up to his bedroom to look around.

There was nothing there but the same old stuff: same old toys, same old books, same old clothes. He didn't even have his pet worm anymore. He and Anastasia had decided that King of Worms probably liked living outdoors, underground, better than in a box in Sam's closet.

Sam wandered down the hall into his parents' bedroom. Maybe
they
had something that would be interesting at Show-and-Tell.

"Sam!" his mother called from downstairs. "Do you have your jacket on? Your carpool will be here in a few minutes!"

"Yes," Sam called back. "I'm coming!"

He looked around. His father's pajamas were on the floor.

Sam imagined himself standing in front of the circle of children at nursery school, holding up big striped pants with a drawstring at the waist. "These are my daddy's pajamas," he imagined himself saying.

No. That was no good. Probably
everybody's
daddy had big striped pajamas.

He looked around some more. On the table beside the bed was something that belonged to his father. Sam picked it up.

"Sam!" his mother called from downstairs. "Time to go! Your ride is here!"

Sam put his Show-and-Tell surprise into the pocket of his jacket. He headed for the stairs. Then he turned back, grabbed something else that was on the table, and put that into his other pocket.

He ran downstairs, kissed his mother good-bye, and headed off to the waiting station wagon.

***

It was Circle Time. Skipper had pasted a fat smiling yellow sun on the calendar's Monday, and Mrs. Bennett had played "You Are My Sunshine" on the piano while all the children sang. Altogether, they had stood in the circle and said the Pled Jelly-juntz. "I pled jelly-juntz to the flag," Sam had said in his most grown-up voice, with his hand over his heart. His other hand was in the pocket of his jeans, holding on to his secret for Show-and-Tell.

Everyone called "Me! Me!" when Mrs. Bennett said, "Who has something for Show-and-Tell today?"

Mrs. Bennett looked around the circle and said, "Let's let Amy go first. Amy?"

Sam made a face. He didn't like Amy much. She had a long ponytail, which was perfect for pulling, especially if she flipped it around right in front of your face. But if you pulled it, Amy cried and told on you.

Amy stood, flipped her long ponytail, and held up a postcard. "My grandma sent me this," she said. "From Florida."

Everybody stared politely at the picture of a palm tree. "
My
grandma sent
me
a postcard from Florida," Rosie said, "and it had an
alligator
on it."

"I saw a real alligator at the zoo!" Adam yelled. "
Two
alligators I saw!"

All the children began making alligators out of their hands, snapping them like big jaws, grabbing each other's sleeves and pulling fiercely, the way they imagined real alligators would.

Sam didn't. Sam was still holding his surprise inside his pocket.

"Thank you, Amy," Mrs. Bennett said. "That's a lovely postcard. Quiet, children! No more alligators, please! Who's next? Leah? How about you? Do you and Rollie have something to show us today?"

Leah nodded her head shyly, and Mrs. Bennett pushed her to the center of the circle. Rollie was Leah's wheelchair. Once, when Leah first started school, her mother had been there with her. Her mother had lifted Leah out of the wheelchair and held her on her lap, so that each of the other children could have a turn in Rollie.

Sam hoped that Leah's Show-and-Tell would be that everybody could try Rollie again.

But Leah put her finger to her lips and said, "Shhh. Everybody be quiet so you can hear what I learned to do. Zip your lips."

Everybody zipped their lips, even Sam. He had to let go of his secret in order to zip his lips.

When they were all very still, Leah took a deep breath and swallowed. Then she gave an enormous burp. She grinned.

"Fake burp," Leah said. "My daddy taught me."

All of the children forgot that their lips were zipped. They shrieked with laughter.

"Do it again!" Sam called, and Leah did it again, very loudly.

"Show us how! Show us how!" The kids were calling all together.