04

The bookmarks looked boring, and he thought the crying face his teacher suggested was funny, so he picked the paperweight. He mixed the paints until he'd almost matched his dad's dark tan skin, and the teacher yelled at him for taking so long. The girl next to him was gluing buttons on a strip of felt. He coated the smooth, oval rock the teacher gave him with paint. He tried to make the hair above the face curly like his dad's, and then dotted tiny, light-blue tears coming from the black eyes. He painted a sad mouth, and finally B-I-L-L-S in red letters at the top. The letters were in Dad's hair, but that seemed to be OK. He didn't understand "Bills," but he'd gotten yelled at once already, so he didn't ask. Rock/paper/scissors didn't make sense, either. Scissors cut paper and rocks smash scissors, but rocks also weigh more than paper. A rock could hold the paper down. Wasn't that the point?