8 Flamingos, Comic Books, and Bungee Cords

CHAPTER EIGHT FLAMINGOS, COMIC BOOKS, AND BUNGEE CORDS THE GARAGE WAS totally full of stuff. "Where should we start?" Simon asked. "Let's just pull everything out," Rosie suggested. "We'll put it all in the driveway. We should knock down the cobwebs and sweep the garage out anyway, right? Then we can clean stuff and bring it all back in." Here is some of the stuff we moved out to the driveway:

Hammers, wrenches, and screwdrivers Five old paint cans Lots of gardening gloves Empty flowerpots A bucket of nails and screws Three basketballs, two baseballs, a soccer ball, and seven tennis balls Two stepladders A stack of old newspapers one big adult bike Three brooms Dozens of simon's old comic books in plastic box Some cans of motor oil Two rubber bins of simon's old homework assignments and report cards Three rakes Eight plastic pink flamingos Two shovels An old Easter basket Two bags of old clothes

A big plastic snowman Three tables with legs that fold one red wagon Two scooters One skateboard Simon's broken bike Two hoses A lawn mower A bucket of paintbrushes Bungee cords Jumper cables A bunch of other stuff It took almost an hour to get everything out of the garage. Simon went to check with his mom. His dad was way closer. He was past Lafayette. Simon and Rosie let me do the organizing. I like to organize things. My brain is good at it. I put everything together in categories. Some of them made perfect sense to Rosie and Simon. A bunch of outside stuff—two of the rakes, the hoses, and gardening things—were grouped together. And I grouped Simon's stuff—the balls, skateboard, and his broken bike—all together.

But some of the groups didn't make as much sense to them. Here's an example: the motor oil, the Easter basket, a broom, a rake, and the adult bike. Rosie asked, "Why are these things grouped together?" I thought it was kind of funny that they couldn't tell why. I mean, it was obvious to me. "It's The Wizard of Oz group," I answered. "The Wizard of Oz?" Simon asked. "How?" "Well, the Tin Man needed to be oiled all the time, so that's the motor oil," I explained and pointed at each item. "Dorothy rode around on her bike and carried Toto in a basket. The Wicked Witch of the

West rode around on a broom. And you could use a rake for sweeping up straw. That's the Scarecrow." Simon and Rosie nodded and smiled at me. They really understand how my brain works. It made sense to them now.

We put a lot of stuff on the three tables after we unfolded the legs. The rest we just put on the driveway. Once everything was organized, we each took a broom and knocked a bunch of cobwebs and dust off the garage walls, corners, and ceiling. It took a while. We didn't see any actual spiders. When that was done, we swept the floor. We built up a big cloud of dust and whooooshed it out the door—and away from the newly washed car. The dust cloud was so thick that we could barely see through it.