Chapter 22: Two Blankets

The permission slip for the science museum was due on Wednesday, and I had signed it on Sunday night.

I had also bought a picnic blanket.

Nobody had asked me to.

I had stood in the camping aisle for ten minutes on Monday, comparing a plaid one with a waterproof one.

In the end a salesman told me to buy both.

Jamie found them on the hall bench at seven that morning, folded and tied with a ribbon from the wrapping drawer.

He turned the plaid one over in his hands.

"Is this for the trip?" he asked.

"It's for the trip," I said.

"Last time you didn't have one. This time you can sit down with everybody."

He stood there holding the blanket.

I braced for a speech from a nine-year-old.

"The waterproof one's better," he said at last.

"The plaid one's for the picnic after. Can I take both?"

"You can take both."

"Cool." He started to stuff them in his backpack, and then he stopped and looked at me.

"Thanks, Dad."

I stood in my front hall and felt it in my chest for a good while after he went out to the car.

My mother rode along to school in the front seat, and she gave me a look at the red light.

"You're smiling like a fool," she said.

"I have the right."

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