For the next three days, Dad didn't say much and we didn't play any games together. He mostly sat by himself on the sofa and read. One of my favourite foods is Alphagetti. We had that for dinner three nights in a row! Dad doesn't like it and hardly ate any, but I ate lots. There must have been a special on it at the grocery store because when we'd finished three cans in three days, we didn't have any for a long time. Around that time my mom started working at Sadie's beauty parlour.
The first day, she came and woke me up early because she wanted to leave the house at 7:45. Mom was very nervous and excited. But that meant I got to school really early and didn't have anyone to play with for a while. We couldn't go into the school building until 8:45 and most kids didn't arrive until a few minutes before that. I made up a game by drawing a target on the school wall with a snowball and then having to hit the target from different distances. Susan's mother also works, so Susan comes to school early. We played my game that morning until other kids started arriving. At recess everyone seemed to be playing the game, and I heard John Thomas and Rudy Kniver both say they had invented it.
That afternoon when Mom came home she very tired. Of course, Dad and I were already home. He was just starting to say, "I told you so," when Mom gave him one of those looks that means, "Don't you say anything!" Dad and I both know that look.
Mom made an early dinner of the type of sausages my dad really likes. She said she loved working with Sadie and was going back the next day. Dad and I did the dishes while Mom had a bit of a nap on the sofa. She must have been really tired because, just as we'd finished with the dishes, she suddenly got up off the sofa, came and gave my dad and me a kiss on the cheek and said she was going to bed, even before me! Dad also went to bed early. From behind their bedroom door, I could hear mom giggling. Sometimes Dad tickles her.
After that, Mom went to work at the beauty parlour four days a week. Dad and I had to 'take up the slack,' which meant that I was responsible for vacuuming and dusting once a week and Dad and I had to do the dishes. I didn't mind since the vacuuming took less than half an hour and the dusting only a few minutes. I don't know why, but it used to take Mom much longer to vacuum and dust. Since Mom worked on Saturdays, Dad and I did the weekend deli trips together. He usually let me get a wafer bar.
