Trying to find his new home in the pouring rain, Bobby winds up falling into a mud puddle and is soaked from head to toe. A neighbor girl offers to takes Bobby home, where his rainy day adventure begins.

Bobby's Rainy Day Adventure

Copyright 2005 by Heather Rose Brown

CHAPTER II

Startled awake by someone rapping on the bathroom door, bubbles went flying everywhere as I flailed around in the warm bath water.

"Bobby, you okay in there?" It took a minute for my sleepy brain to recognize who was asking, and another to remember what I was doing in the bathtub of an unfamiliar house. Before I could answer, the bathroom door opened and a face that matched the voice peeked in.

"Aunt Joooan!" I squealed. I felt my cheeks burning with embarrassment, probably as much from being seen in the tub as from hearing my voice squeak.

Aunt Joan quickly pulled her head back and closed the door. "I'm so sorry, sweetie. You'd been quiet in there for so long, I was starting to worry. Cori is usually a lot more noisy."

I thought about asking my new aunt why she expected me to be like her daughter, but then decided I might not like the answer. "I'm okay, Aunt Joan. I just kinda dozed off in the tub."

"So long as you're okay. Well, I have some towels and clean clothes for you to change into once your done with your bath. Do you mind if I bring them in? I promise I won't look, and you can pull the shower curtain closed if you like."

While I was looking forward to having my clothes back, I was also determined not to be embarrassed again. So I pulled the curtain closed before telling her it was okay to come in.

I heard the door swing open and saw Aunt Joan's tall shadow move across the shower curtain. "I put everything on the toilet seat. I've got to go back to check on dinner. When you finish your bath and get dressed, just head left when you come out of the bathroom and follow your nose to the kitchen. If you get lost or if anything doesn't fit, just holler."

The scent of bubblegum filled the air as I quickly scrubbed at what mud hadn't already soaked off. The towel Aunt Joan had wrapped around my head after she had washed my hair felt a little funny, but not in a bad way. As I dried off with the warm, fluffy white towel left on top of the pile of clothes, I was surprised how soft and silky my skin felt and wondered what else had been added to the water besides bubblebath.

Once I was dry, I tried wrapping the towel around my waist. It was as big as the towel I had worn earlier and wound up dragging on the floor. I sighed, wondering when I'd get that growth spurt every one said would eventually hit me.

Of course, I knew feeling sorry for myself wasn't going to make anything better. What I needed was a practical solution, not some miracle that would suddenly make me as tall as the other boys. I tried moving the towel up under my arms like Aunt Joan had shown me. The new position felt odd, but at least the towel wasn't dragging any more.

I stood on tiptoe for a moment to reach the mirror over the bathroom sink so I could wipe off the foggy glass. I did a double take when I saw my reflection. For a second, I thought I had seen my mom! I had the same hazel eyes, the same pug nose (though mine was sprinkled with way too many freckles), the same thin lips. Although my face was roundish like hers, mine looked a little like an apple because of my pointy chin.

When I pulled the towel off my head, the spell broke. Mom had short black hair in loose curls and mine was shaggy, straight and reddish-brown. My hair had gotten long over the summer. It was mostly grown out to spite my father, who had always insisted I get a buzz-cut every year for as long as I could remember. But this summer he had left, and skipping the annual ritual was my way of defying him.

He never explained why he left. I'd been sent to bed that last night. My parents had argued until early in the morning. I remember hearing the door slam and Dad's truck starting. The last I saw was just a glimpse of him through my bedroom window as he drove down the twilit road.

The memory seemed to open up something inside. The aching and pain I'd been trying to keep under control over the summer started to boil over. Just as I was getting good and angry, squeezing my eyes against the tears, the bathroom door swung open.

"ACK!" I screeched, grabbing the towel I'd wrapped around myself to make sure it was closed.

"Woops," said the invader, looking just as surprised as I felt. She seemed to recover quickly, a playful smile curling on her face as she folded her arms across her chest and casually leaned on the doorframe. "Hey Cori," she shouted over her shoulder, "do you know anything about someone sneaking into our bathroom and stealing our towels?"

"Oh, Terri!" Corina shouted from a distance. "I didn't even hear you come in. That's my friend, Bobby."

"Hello, Bobby." Terri pulled away from the doorframe and walked into the bathroom. "I thought I recognized you from somewhere. So you having a sleep-over with my sister?"

"Ummm...I dunno if I'll be sleeping over. My mom had to take care of something and asked Aunt Joan if I could stay here while she's gone. So I guess I'm kinda here 'til then."

Terri stood there for a few seconds. Her smile faded as she looked at me with an unreadable expression. Then she closed the bathroom door behind her back, walked over to me and bent over until we were eye to eye. Very softly, in almost a whisper, she asked, "Are you doing okay, Bobby?"

"Uh, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I couldn't help noticing you looked like you'd been crying. I realize you don't really know me, but if ever need friend or a big sister to talk to, feel free to ask."

I'm not sure how long I looked into her golden-brown eyes, but I knew I could tell her anything, and almost did. "Thank you, but..."

"But not right now?"

I stared down at my bare toes, wriggling them in the thick pile of the pale-violet bathroom rug. Hearing Terri finish my thoughts was a little scary. The only other person who'd known me well enough to do that was my mom.

Terri lifted my chin until we were eye to eye again. "Don't worry, Bobby." Her warm smile made me feel silly for feeling scared. "Whatever is going on, I'm sure it'll work out somehow. In the meantime, you better hurry up getting ready or you'll miss dinner. I'll give you hand brushing out your hair."

Before I could even decide whether I wanted someone I barely just met to touch my hair, let alone brush it, I found myself facing the bathroom mirror again, but this time with Terri standing behind me.

"Ouch," I yelped as my head was yanked back when the brush snagged on something.

"I'm so sorry, Bobby. I didn't see that knot there. Your hair is pretty tangled. Did you use any conditioner?"

"Ermmm...no." I wasn't actually sure, since Aunt Joan had asked me to close my eyes when she had washed my hair.

"Ahhh." Terri nodding knowingly to me in the mirror. "No wonder it's so tangled. Let me see if I can do something about that." She reached over my shoulder, opened the mirrored door to the medicine cabinet, pulled out a tall black bottle and began spritzing something onto my hair.

I was surprised when the brush easily glided through my hair. It was quite a change from the struggles I was used to. "What is that stuff?"

"Just some leave-in conditioner. By the way I love the highlights in your hair."

"Thanks, I think."

Terri grinned at me in the mirror. "Your welcome. Okay, looks like we've got all the tangles out of the back and sides, so let's take care of the top."

I almost protested when she parted my hair down the middle, but it really felt nice having someone brushing my hair, so I decided not to make a fuss. Once she was done with the top, Terri gently turned me around until I was facing her and began blowing warm air through my hair with a blowdryer. When she was done, she turned me back to the mirror. "How's that?"

I stared at my hair in the mirror as tried to think of a reply. It wasn't that it looked bad. It actually looked very nice. But it also looked like, well...a girl's hair-style.

Terri giggled. "Don't look so shocked, Bobby. You'd think I did a complete makeover or something. All I did was fluff out your hair a bit and give it a little style. Now hurry up and finish getting dressed before Cori eats both her dinner and yours." Terri winked at me, and then left, closing the door behind her.

I looked in the mirror again and smiled. Someone who looked kind of like me, but also kind of like a girl, smiled back. I couldn't decide whether I liked that or not. I almost decided to comb my hair out until it looked normal again, but I also worried I might hurt Terri's feelings. So instead I turned to my clothes to get dressed.

Only they weren't my clothes. At least, the underpants on top of the clothes pile definitely weren't mine. They were white and cotton like mine. But these were missing the fly opening, and had tiny pink hearts and smiling yellow stars on the waistband.

"Hurry up Bobby." Aunt Joan sounded like she was yelling from the other end of the house. "I'll be putting dinner on the table in a few minutes."

"Okay," I thought to myself, "so they weren't able to wash my clothes and dry them in time for dinner. This is only temporary, and I should be grateful they gave me something to borrow. So lets get dressed and get some dinner." My stomach gurgled in agreement.

When I first tried on the underpants, they felt odd. It took me a moment to realize I had them on backwards. I found myself wondering how girls knew which end was which without a fly opening. When I tried them on again the other way around, they felt better. They felt a little tight, but weren't really uncomfortable. They just seemed to fit me differently than my boy underpants.

Next on the pile of clothes was a tank-top style undershirt and a pair of plain white tube socks. The undershirt was made of thin white cotton like the underpants. There was a bit of lacy trim around the neck and armholes, making it impossible to mistake it for a boy's undershirt. It seemed a little silly to balk at the lace when I was already wearing girls underpants, so I pulled the undershirt over my head. The socks didn't really look like there were especially for a girl or a boy, but they were a couple of sizes too big for me and went up to my knees. Still, they were keeping my feet warm, which was the important part.

I smiled with relief when I saw the pale-yellow t-shirt on top of the pile didn't have any lace or frills. The relief faded when I unfolded it and found a fuzzy pink teddybear on the front. Its fur was very soft, reminding me a bit of a kitten. A little white satin bow was attached in a way that made it look like it was tied around the bear's neck. I sighed and put on the t-shirt. Next came a fairly unisex pair of blue jeans. They seemed to fit a bit different and were made of a thinner material than I was used to. I had to roll up the cuffs, but besides that they were a pretty good fit.

Then came the sneakers. But not any old grungy greyish-something-color-because-they-were-run-through-the-mud-and-god-knows-what-else, as my mom would usually say. No, these were pink...bright pink. Not exactly neon, but more the brightness of something that had never been worn before. The laces were white with tiny yellow smiley faces. On the sides of the sneakers was a little white kitten in a short yellow dress with a big yellow bow over one ear.

"Bobby," Corina called through the bathroom door, "Mom asked me to tell you your dinners gonna get cold and asked me to give you a hand if you need any help. Are you decent?"

"Ummm, I guess so," I answered.

The door swung open and Corina stepped in. "You ain't got your shoes on yet? Okay, go ahead and sit on the toilet seat and I'll help lace you up," She took the shoes from me and then stood there, smiling and waiting. I planned to argue with her that I knew how to do my own shoes when the smell of lasagna attacked my gurgling stomach made a strong argument against any type of delay.

I sat down on the fuzzy lavender seat cover; Corina crouched down in front of me and wriggled my feet into the sneakers. Then she pulled the laces tight and tied them into what looked like a double bow.

"What kinda bow is that?" I asked.

Corina looked up and grinned. "It's a butterfly bow. See how the loops look like wings, and the ends of the laces look like antennae? My dad used to tie my laces for me like that when I was little." She fussed with the bows for a moment, and looked up with a distant wistfulness.

"Why'd he stop?"

Corina blinked her eyes as if she were waking from a daydream. "Well, after my parents broke up, I didn't see him for a long while. It's hard tying bows from another state."

"Do you miss him?" I was a little surprised hearing such a personal question coming out of my own mouth.

But instead of getting angry at my prying, she just smiled. "Yeah, I do. But I get to visit him sometimes now and I talk to him on the phone. It ain't perfect, but it helps." Corina gave the bows a final tug. "Okay Bobby, let's go eat!"