名稱：the cupboard
內容簡介：
By Georgia A. Greeley
Art by Connie McLennan

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Rupert Jackson Wilkey stood next to his tall silent grandmother and watched his parents drive off, leaving him behind. The old station wagon disappeared down the dark gravel road. The road vanished into a mass of trees, mostly pines.

Those pine trees, with their pointy tops, looked like huge green teeth poking into the blue sky. Rupert felt as if the city home he loved had been swallowed up by the toothy trees standing prickly and tall all about him. Everything felt big and strange.

Rupert looked up at his grandmother. She looked down at him. Her skin was the color of pecan shells, just a little lighter than his own. Her hair was black and white, as if it couldn’t decide which color it wanted to be. Curls hugged her head like a tightly knit winter hat.

“You don’t talk much, Nanna,” Rupert said.

“You don’t visit much, Rupert,” his grandmother replied.

They stood staring at each other. No one else called him anything but Jackson, even though Rupert was his real first name.

“Come with me, Rupert,” said Nanna. She started walking without looking back.

Rupert followed her to a large shed behind her home. The shed had a roof that extended past the end of the building to keep the firewood dry.

Rupert remembered his last visit to Nanna’s. He had sat with his sister under that roof on a pile of stacked wood. Together they had watched as rain and hail beat up the ground, turning the whole yard into a puzzle of tiny puddles.

But now Sissy needed an operation, and Rupert had to stay here alone for a few days.

“You coming?” Nanna’s voice sounded muffled. Her words were coming from inside the shed.

Rupert went inside. The shed was filled with all sorts of odds and ends. He could see his grandmother in the far corner. Rupert walked over and stood next to her. She pointed to a small wooden cupboard with “Rupert” painted on it in bright-green letters.

“Yours,” she said.

Rupert knelt down and opened the two drawers. Empty. He opened the two doors and saw two empty shelves. The whole cupboard was empty. He looked up at Nanna, not understanding.

“It’s yours to fill,” she said. “The cupboard stays here, but it belongs to you. No one else. Come along, now.”

Rupert closed the cupboard doors and followed Nanna, wondering what would happen next. She took him down a path that meandered through the woods. The path led to a clearing by a small pond. His grandmother kind of folded up her tallness and sat on a log. She looked at Rupert.

“Look and listen” was all she said.

Then she closed her eyes and smiled. Her smile reminded Rupert of his mother.

Rupert walked around slowly, looking and listening. A whiff of something sweet tickled his nose, and he started sniffing, too. He walked up to a pine tree just his height and stuck his face into its branches. He sniffed. It smelled like the bathroom cleanser his mom used, but fresher.

Rupert started picking up pinecones and putting them in his pockets. He found five oddly shaped rocks. His pockets became heavy. Near the pond’s edge, Rupert saw tinyVshapes in the wet sand and wondered about them. He found a bright blue feather and took it over to Nanna. She opened her eyes.

“Blue jay,” she said.

He held out a pinecone.

“Jack pine.”

He pulled a different pinecone out of his pocket.

“White pine.”

Nanna looked at his bulging pockets. “Rupert, maybe it’s time to start filling your cupboard?”

Rupert felt his face stretch into a smile. He twirled around, looking at the big wild world he could explore. The pine trees no longer looked like dark-green teeth. Nanna no longer seemed strange and silent.

“I may be so predisposed,” Rupert answered, carefully pronouncing the familiar phrase.

Nanna laughed out loud. “How did that eight-year-old brain of yours find its way around a big word like ‘predisposed’?”

“It’s my dad’s favorite word,” Rupert replied.

“Mmmm” was all Nanna said.

The two of them began walking back toward the shed.

“Why do you call me Rupert, Nanna?”

“It’s your name. It was my husband’s name. I like the way it feels on my tongue.”

“Mmmm,” Rupert said, shyly imitating his grandmother’s hum.

Nanna looked down at him and smiled. Her smile again reminded Rupert of his mother. Without thinking, he reached up and took Nanna’s hand as they walked. Rupert’s hand felt small and safe inside his grandmother’s.

“I expect,” Rupert said, “you might be predisposed to like someone who has the same name as your husband?”

“I expect,” Nanna said.

“Nanna, I might need more than one visit to fill my cupboard.”

“I expect,” Nanna said again.

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