Chapter 21: Sorry

On Monday morning Birdie announced that she owed three people an apology and had made a list.

She held it up at the breakfast table.

It was a piece of paper with three names drawn as three blobs, and one of the blobs had a hat.

"The hat is Officer Cobb," she said.

"I figured."

"The one with the finger is Mrs. Tandy. The one with the wheel is the bus driver."

"Why the bus driver?"

"I said he doesn't want me," Birdie said. "He told me so, but it still wasn't nice to say it to the lady."

I opened my mouth.

I closed it, and I hummed.

"You can't hum at me, you have to drive," Birdie said. "It's rude. I'm sorry in advance."

Our first stop was the police station.

Officer Cobb was at the front desk, eating a granola bar over a paper towel.

Birdie walked up to the counter, which came to her nose, and set a folded drawing on it.

"Hello. I'm sorry I told you my mom kidnapped me, because you came to our house on a census day, and you have lots of other houses."

"That's all right, kiddo."

"I'm not sorry that I said it. It's true that she said it. I'm sorry about the other part."

"What other part?"

"The part where you stopped smiling."

Officer Cobb put down his granola bar.

"That wasn't your fault," he said. "I stopped because the job is hard sometimes."

"Okay. Then I'm sorry the job is hard."

He took the drawing and unfolded it.

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