Eggs

Primrose wakes up to see that her bedroom windows have been egged yet again. This is a regular problem for Primrose, who has recently moved out of her house into a junker van in the yard, which she has converted into a bedroom. In the tiny house, she had to share a room with her mother, but now she has a place of her own. Primrose isn’t bothered by the eggs. She sits and admires all the domestic touches that she has added to convert the van; her upgrades include curtains, a beanbag chair, magazines, and her bedroll. With the help of her collection of House Beautiful magazines, Primrose has made big plans to improve her van’s exterior and make the space as cozy as possible.

Primrose goes inside the house. Although she and her mother have lived here for five years, she is always surprised by how small the house is. There are only four rooms: the bedroom, the reading room, the bathroom, and the kitchen. Now, her mother is asleep in the bedroom, hugging a teddy bear. Primrose reflects that her mother almost looks normal when she is sleeping. Primrose retrieves the items that she needs to scrub the egg off her bedroom window. By the time she finishes, she is hungry.

David keeps a memento of his mother in his pocket and touches it whenever things are bad. Now, he stands at the top of a hill with the other kids, waiting for the cue to rush down to the tall grass and search for eggs. David doesn’t want to be there.

The other kids are rowdy and try to run off before the man with the bullhorn gives the starting signal. One kid slips on the wet grass, reminding David of the fact that his mother died from a slip. Eventually, the man loses control of the crowd, and all of the children charge down the hill toward the eggs, leaving David behind. David is the only one who waits for the man to give the signal. He has always been a rule-follower, but ever since his mom died, he has become even more rigid about never, ever breaking rules. He tries to call the other kids back, but the man with the bullhorn tells David to go ahead.

There are many eggs, but David struggles to grab any of them. When he finally manages to grab an egg, another kid claims to have seen it first and demands that David hand it over. David obliges.

David wanders beyond the tree line, where there won’t be any eggs. Suddenly, he spots an egg sitting on a strange mound of leaves. When he grabs the egg, he notices a pair of lips underneath. Moving the leaves aside, he uncovers the face of a pretty girl. Her eyes are closed, and David assumes that she is dead. She does not respond when he talks to her, but he doesn’t feel afraid. He tells her his name and talks about his dead mother, explaining that he used to live in Minnesota. He also tells her about the memento in his pocket, which no one is allowed to see. He decides to show it to the lifeless girl. He brushes a bug off her face, replaces the egg, and returns to the egg hunt.

That night, David dreams about his mother, eggs, and the body of the girl in the leaves. When he wakes up, he bikes straight to the park. He does not bother to tell his grandmother that he’s leaving because he doesn’t want to spend the day with her.

Returning to the tree line, David sees that the girl’s body and the egg are now gone. He looks deeper in the forest, reasoning that an animal might have dragged her away. He wonders if the police found her.

When David gets home, his grandmother is upset with him for leaving without telling her, but she never yells. David’s father works in Connecticut, over 200 miles away, so he only comes home on the weekends. David’s grandmother says that David’s father is overwhelmed, which is why he is always tired. David feels that his father has no time for him.

David’s grandmother wants David to stay home for the rest of the day. David wants to stay in the house so that he can intercept the newspaper, but he doesn’t want to obey his grandmother. He waits around, hoping that she will become sympathetic to him and change her mind. Then he gets up and leaves anyway. His grandmother calls after him, but he knows that she won’t chase him. He also knows that she won’t tell his father and will excuse David’s misbehavior as “The Sadness.” David feels that his mother’s death has made him invincible.

David waits at the corner on the end of the block to intercept the paper girl, practicing his yo-yo stunts. He is certain that the paper will feature a headline about the body in the woods. He recalls seeing his mother’s full name for the first time in print when the paper ran the story about her death. However, when David receives the paper, there is nothing about a body in the woods. Later, when he watches the news, there is no story about a body. He checks the paper and news again the following day but still finds nothing.

David calls the police department to ask if they found a body at the park, but when the officer asks for his full name, he gets nervous and hangs up abruptly.

David finds his grandmother mopping the kitchen, so he intentionally stomps through the room to antagonize her. However, when the enjoyment wears off, he retreats to his room to cry.

David’s mother died from slipping on a wet floor. The custodian had just finished mopping at the top of a stairwell and didn’t put up a warning sign. His mother slipped and fell all the way down the stairs. She hit her head and never woke up, and she never got to take David to see the sunrise the next morning. After her death, David vowed never to break a rule. Deep down, he secretly believes obeying enough rules will eventually bring his mother back to life.

Months pass, and school lets out for the summer. David has stopped thinking about the body of the girl in the woods. He often watches cartoons and cuts out his favorite Beetle Bailey comics. David’s grandmother volunteers for Summer Story Time at the library, so she brings David along even though he doesn’t want to go.

David’s grandmother introduces David to a kid on the street with a yo-yo and explains that David loves his yo-yo. The boy introduces himself as Tim. David is embarrassed by his grandmother’s attempts to make friends for him. David competes with Tim by performing a yo-yo trick better than he can. David’s grandmother and Tim are both amazed. David’s grandmother suggests that David teach Tim, but David walks off. His grandmother scolds him for being rude to Tim.

During story time, David sits in the back row, hoping that his grandmother won’t read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel because that’s the book his mother always read to him. He plans to rip the book out of his grandmother’s hands if she tries.

David spots a young teenage girl in the back row with him. She appears to be sleeping. He slowly shifts seats until he is sitting right next to her. She has a pair of skates beside her. David recognizes her as the girl in the woods and begins to scream.

Primrose falls over in her chair, startled by the screaming boy beside her. As he screams, the boy repeats the phrase, “You’re dead!” Primrose goes along with the situation, suggesting that she could be a ghost. The boy angrily replies that ghosts don’t exist.

Primrose recognizes his voice and remembers him from the woods; she notes that he didn’t seem afraid even though he believed her to be dead. She smiles and gives the boy a card, then gathers her skates and leaves, stopping to say BOO to the scared kids one more time.