Malcolm and I are hanging out together in the schoolyard. His crush on one of our classmates, Julie, has been taking up a lot of our talking time. She walks by, and I prepare myself for how stupid he's going to be about it. "Hi, Malcolm," she says, and then, as an afterthought, "hi, Mary."
"Hey, Julie," I say, while Malcolm stays quiet.
She walks away, and he finally says, "hey, Jul- where'd she go?"
"She left," I say, with a laugh. "This would all be a lot easier if you just told her you like her."
"But, I, I-"
"Whatever," I say, breaking him free from his loop.
After school, we go to the Lucky Aide. Lois works there and the boys had said they'd stop by, so I join them since we usually walk home together anyway.
"Mom!" Reese shouts, as we enter.
Dewey turns to him, "you're not supposed to yell in the store."
Reese hits him on the head, "you're not supposed to do that either. Life's funny that way."
"Unlike you," I say, rolling my eyes.
Craig, one of the workers, and a guy who's so creepy he makes my skin crawl, sees us and walks over. "Hey, the three musketeers! Athos, Aramis, and you must be Porthos. And who's this?" He says.
"That's Mary, you've met her like a hundred times," Reese says.
"You're creepy," Dewey says, as Craig leans down to his height, and I hide my smile.
Craig's smile falls, "you really shouldn't say hurtful things to grownups."
"I'm sorry," Dewey says, sweet as sugar.
"That's okay, we're still friends!"
A man comes over, "Craig, you've got to redo the nail polish, the crystal pinks are mixed with the frosty pinks, are mixed with the god knows what."
"Right away, Mr Pinter," he says and then pretends to sword fight the man as he walks away. None of us react so he fights the air as he goes over to the nail polish.
"I kinda wanted to buy a new colour, but now he's gonna be over there," I sigh, looking at my blue nails, "I have, like, a hundred different blues but no reds."
"Blue's the best colour," Reese says, like I'm being stupid, "why change it?"
"Okay," I hear Lois say, and we turn to face her. "I'm off work in five minutes. Don't touch the register, don't touch the candy, don't touch the price tags, and don't touch the microphones. And that includes by accident, that includes just looking, that includes hovering with your finger a half inch away from it. Fair warning. Hey, Mary, sweetie." She smiles and then briskly walks back to her work.
The boys all look to the display, which she had not told them to keep away from. A steam blaster, with foaming action. "Dare you," Reese says.
"Go ahead," Malcolm challenges.
"You do it."
Dewey happily offers, "I'll do it."
"Yeah, right," Malcolm says.
He insists, trying to impress his older brothers, "I will."
"This isn't baby stuff, Dewey!"
"Yeah, go ride the horsey out front," Reese adds.
I frown at them both as Dewey leaves, looking a little sad, "don't be mean to him."
"You're not my mom," Reese says, and I stick my tongue out.
I begin to whine as they go closer to the machine, with eager looks on their faces, "Malcolm, please don't."
"She didn't say we couldn't," he argues, as they run over. Reese begins to pump the foam into Malcolm's sweatshirt, and I watch as the foam goes everywhere.
"Boys!" The shout is loud and angry, and I'm almost afraid to look at the source.
They both turn to their mom, and Malcolm tries to play it off, "it's not what it looks like!"
I send him a flabbergasted look, "what else could it possibly be?"
When we get home, I go into my own house, as the boys are immediately given their punishment. The next day, I run into Malcolm, who explains that he and Reese had spent the evening facing the wall, and that Dewey had stolen a $150 bottle of alcohol which led to Lois getting fired. I am not sure how to react to this news, since it seems so unfair.
After more than a week, Lois still doesn't get her job back, and the family are resorting to eating bland food just to be able to afford the next meal. My parents had given the family 'extra' food every day, under the guise of it being a mistake to have made so much. And I had been sharing my lunches with Malcolm, with my mom and dad making sure I had twice as much food in my bag when I left in the morning. I'd also been giving some to Dewey, who didn't really seem to understand, but who appreciated the stuff I snuck into his bag on our walks to school.
Still, as much as we tried to help, we couldn't do much more without it seeming insulting, and when my mom had invited their family round for dinner, Lois had seemed a little less happy then she usually was at our get-togethers. It's a thin line to walk.
Malcolm is annoyed by it all, of course. "So, we can't do laundry, we have to share baths, and yesterday, she had our cable turned off! Our cable!"
"How's your love life," Stevie jokes. Malcolm is unimpressed.
"I'm sorry, Mal," I say, "you can always come and watch tv at my place."
"At least somebody isn't using everything I tell them in confidence, as a friend, to make fun of me," he says, sending a look to Stevie.
"I have nothing else," Stevie defends, and I laugh.
Julie comes over, "hi, Malcolm, wanna split lunches?"
"What?" He smiles, genuinely happy for the first time in a while, "yeah, sure."
He glares at us to leave and so I follow Stevie into the yard, where we watch the exchange.
"I'm glad she made the first move, he never would have," I say.
"He has no guts," Stevie agrees, and we watch as Malcolm runs over, looking upset.
"I can't take this anymore! Everything I want, I can't have. Anything that's nice, I can't do! Everyone in the world gets to do everything except me!"
"Malcolm," Stevie says, while I watch in shock. I also know he's going to be mortified when he realises that Julie is hearing all of this.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know there's other people worse off than me. You know what? I don't care!"
"Malcolm," I say, loudly.
He keeps ranting, "I'm sick of going to school everyday smelling like feet!"
"Malcolm," Stevie says, again.
"I hate being poor, okay? I mean, is that so bad? Why's that, like, some big character flaw. It's not my fault we're poor!"
"Mal!" We both point behind him, and he turns to face Julie.
"You, um, left your backpack." She walks away, and I shake my head at him.
"Maybe you should try taking a really deep breath before you start talking," he tells Stevie, "and maybe, you could not just stand by and watch me ruin my life."
I go over to Malcolm's house, to help count their spare change. I've brought my coin purse with me, and it's filled with spare change from my time in the arcade. A knock comes from the door. "Check the peephole," Lois tells Reese, "if they've got a hand truck, don't open it." He runs to the door and I dump my coins discreetly in the pile while no one is looking, beginning to count. The person at the door shocks me enough that I immediately lose count. "Craig what are you doing here?" Lois asks.
"Lois, I just had a meeting with Mr Pinter. Well, more like an hour begging, really, but the point is, you can have your old job back!"
We all cheer, and Lois grabs Craig's hands in joy and jumping up and down, "Craig, that is such good news!"
"And all you have to do is apologise," he finishes. I immediately feel the relief leave my body. Lois doesn't make mistakes, and Lois doesn't apologise. "And let him dock your pay 150 bucks. And you have to work the graveyard shift for a couple months."
"Oh," she says.
"Sounds good, Mom," Reese says.
"No, thanks," she tells us, and everyone shouts in surprise.
Malcolm reacts first, "what?"
"You're kidding!"
"Why?" Craig asks.
"Because, that's like admitting he's right. I'm not gonna do that."
"Also, it's degrading," I say, "making her work terrible hours to prove a point after asking her to grovel for the job?" Malcolm glares at me. "What? Do you not know your mom, at all?"
"Lois, if this makes any difference, I will work every graveyard shift alongside you. Every single one of them."
Hal comes in, "oh, hi, Craig, what's going on?"
"Nothing," he says, quickly. "Just business. Take it easy, tiger. We're working, well, I am. Hi. Back to the grind." He runs out.
"Nice guy," Hal says.
At school, Malcolm's teacher wants to talk to him, and I wait for him to be done. When he comes over to me, I find out that Julie had arranged a food drive for their family, and Malcolm, Reese and Dewey are completely ashamed of it. The whole school now knows they're poor, and he hates it. The worst part is, I hadn't seen it coming. Julie had told me afterwards that she didn't tell me so the surprise wouldn't be ruined, and I feel a little annoyed by it.
When I see the ambulance pull up outside the Wilkerson house, I'm shocked to see Hal get loaded into it. When the boys come home, I run over with a homemade apple pie.
"Hey," I say, "how's your dad?"
"He ate peaches, but he'll be fine soon," Malcolm says, and I sigh in relief. "But mom went and begged her boss to get her job back."
"Oh, no." I follow them inside. "Well, it isn't much, but we thought that pie could fix at least one of your problems."
"I'll take pie," Reese says, and he takes it from my hands, eating it with a fork, straight from the baking tray. "Your parents are so good at cooking."
"I made it," I say, and he pauses briefly, before shrugging and digging back in.
"Thanks, Mary," Malcolm tells me. "Things should be okay now, if Mom gets her job back."
"That's good."
And things did work out, Lois got her job back, no weird conditions attached, and the boys didn't have to worry about money any more than they were used to. The only thing not figure out were Malcolm's feelings for Julie, which had gotten more complicated since her efforts to help his family. I wait for him at lunch, sat with Stevie at a table, and watch him go over to her.
"Look, we're not poor anymore, so I don't want any more of your stupid pity, okay?" He shouts, before awkwardly coming over to us. Yeah, things are normal, again.