C.S. Adler > Quotes

“Willie took a running start and skidded sideways in wild abandon all the way across. Marla came onto the ice timidly, with small sliding steps. Booboo stood at the edge and barked. “Aren’t you scared you’ll fall, Willie?” Marla asked.
“No,” he said. “If I crack my head open, so what? There’s nothing inside it.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“You’re a Boy Scout?”
“Well, I was until I got kicked out.”
“What did you get kicked out for?”
“I kept getting lost.”
“Huh?”
“You know, on hikes. We went on all these hikes, and I kept going in the wrong direction or getting left behind or--” He shrugged. “You said I was a goofup, Marla. So you know.”
She nodded. “Well, try not to get us lost on the way to the library.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“We’re almost finished, Willie,” Dad said in cheerful greeting. “Soon as we get these boards nailed on, your dog can move in. It’s too cold to paint the house until spring. Think he’ll like it?”
“I don’t know, Dad,” Willie said cautiously. “It’s not heated.”
“Hated?” Dad said indignantly. “Don’t be ridiculous. What do you expect for the mutt, hot and cold running water?”
“Maybe we could run a heating pad from the house to the yard,” Willie suggested helpfully.
Dad snorted.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“When he entered the main room upstairs, he saw a dark jump in front of an anemic fire in the fireplace. “Marla,” he said just as a pair of paws hit him hard in the stomach. Booboo was wriggling glad to see his master and as noisy as ever.
“How come you wouldn’t let me in, Marla?” Willie asked after he’d quieted Booboo down. That was when he realized she was sobbing. He touched her heaving shoulders. “Marla, it’s all right. Come on. Listen to me. You’re going to like this move. Really. Now listen.” To the back of her head, he explained what her parents had told him to tell her. “Are you listening?” Willie asked her.
“Yes,” she whimpered.
“Well, so it sounds good, doesn’t it?”
“Dad always makes moves sound good.”
“But you’ll have family to help you take care of your mother so you won’t have to stay home from school. That’ll be good, won’t it?”
“Maybe.”
“Marla, he’s the only father you’ve got. You have to trust him.”
“Why?”
“Well--” Willie was thinking about Dad. “That’s the thing about being a kid. We have to keep trusting them even when they mess up, because they’re the adults and we need them.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Willie saw that the barn had been swept clean. The spiderwebs had been cleaned from the windows. Even the mammoth one between the post and the overhead beam was gone. Marla didn’t like spiderwebs any better than she liked him, Willie decided.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Willie bundled the comforter into the doghouse in a pillowy heap. “There, that’ll keep you warm,” he told Booboo and shoved him back into the house. This time Booboo seemed to get the idea. He lay down. Willie ducked back through the gate and locked it behind him.
The whining had started by the time Willie finished his shower and climbed into bed. Soon afterward, the whine became a bark. For an hour Booboo barked. Dad yelled out a window, “QUIET, BOOBOO! QUIET!”
More barking. More commands from Dad. Next Dad appeared in Willie’s bedroom. “Are you asleep yet?”
With Booboo barking in his ear how could he be?”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Dad, I’m sorry about the report card and all that, but I didn’t do anything bad to Mrs. Lima. She told Jackson and me to do the walk and the driveway, but then she wouldn’t pay us for the walk, even though we did a good job. So we just put the snow back. That’s all.”
“According to Mrs. Lima,” Dad said, “she never told you to do the walk because she doesn’t use it. She goes through her garage. And you wouldn’t take her word for it. That’s what upset her the most, that you acted as if she meant to cheat you.”
“But she did, Dad.”
“Willie--” Dad hesitated. Then he shook his head and said, “I don’t know who to believe.”
“Me. I’m your son, and I don’t lie. Much,” Willie amended carefully to cover any white lies he might have told.
“That’s true,” Mom said. “You know that’s true, Harold.”
Dad lifted his bony shoulders and let them drop. “All right. It’s possible Mrs. Lima’s getting forgetful and thinks she told you just the driveway. In any case, I want to satisfy her, especially after we kept her up last night with the dog barking. So you just return the money for the walk and say you’re sorry. Say you must have misunderstood her.”
“That’s not fair,” Willie said.
“Fair or not, it’s foolish to make bad feelings with a neighbor over three dollars.”
“But Dad--” Willie couldn’t find the words for it, but he knew there was a flaw in his father’s reasoning. Wasn’t Dad holding out for an admission from his boss that he’d been wrong?
“Here.” Dad took three dollars out of his own wallet and handed it to Willie. “Go. Just give her this money and say you didn’t mean to upset her…Put on your shoes and your jacket first.”
Willie looked at Mom, who shrugged her shoulders.
It wasn’t fair, Willie thought resentfully as he marched down his driveway and up Mrs. Lima’s with Dad’s three dollars pinched between his thumb and index finger.
Mrs. Lima answered her door, dressed in a wool suit with a lot of gold chains. “Here’s your three dollars back,” Willie said. And he added, “I’m sorry my dog kept you awake last night.”
“You can keep the three dollars,” she said stiffly. “I just wanted to teach you a little respect for your elders, Willie.”
He nodded. “Okay.” He turned to leave.
“Willie,” she called. “You can do my driveway and walk again next time it snows.”
“No, thank you, Mrs. Lima,” he called back politely.
Her eyes went wide with surprise. Then she shut her door fast.
She might have won, but that didn’t mean he was ever going to let her trick him again, Willie told himself. He went back home and returned Dad’s three dollars to him.
“So, you and Mrs. Lima made friends?”
“No,” Willie said. “But I did what you told me.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Willie, you better take Booboo for a long walk, a long, long walk,” Mom said immediately.
“How come you’re out here?”
“To catch you before your father does. He’s waiting for you in the kitchen.” She pursed her lipsticked lips for the kiss Willie gave her.
“But what’d I do now? I mean, he doesn’t know what I did because I didn’t get home yet, did I?”
Mom laughed her musical scale laugh. Willie often made her laugh. “It isn’t what you did; it’s Booboo.”
“Oh-oh,” Willie said. “Booboo’s in trouble, too?”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“You better be on your way, young man, or I’ll call your parents and tell them you’re harassing me,” she said. Before he could get a word out, she shut the door again.
Jackson scowled. He stood there with his arms folded and his big brown eyes glaring. “Know what we should do, Willie? We should do what Milton did; put the snow back.”
Willie groaned. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Come on, Willie. We can’t let that mean old lady get away with cheating us.”
Willie took a deep breath. “Okay,” he said. “Okay.”
It didn’t take long, mostly because before they’d shoveled half the snow back on the walk, the door flew open and Mrs. Lima demanded to know what they were doing.
“You didn’t want us to do your walk, so we’re putting it back the way it was,” Jackson said.
“Fresh-mouth kid!” the woman snapped. “What’s your last name?”
“You can call my father,” Jackson said. “He’s a policeman and he doesn’t like people who cheat.”
The door slammed hard. Mrs. Lima was stronger than she looked. A minute later it opened again and there she was with two dollars in her hand. “Now I want you to shovel the walk,” she said.
“The price has gone up a dollar,” Jackson said.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“What would six dollars and fifty cents buy? Not a tape deck for Marla. Maybe a Christmas flower arrangement special for Mom. But she loved roses. He’d buy her one long-stemmed rose and get Dad a cactus plant. Something with prickers that you better not touch should suit him.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Maybe she’ll give us a tip,” Jackson said. “Twelve dollars isn’t much for the ton of snow we shoveled.”
“I don’t know,” Willie said doubtfully. “She had a big fight with my mom for cutting some roses off a bush that was growing over the fence into our yard. Mom says Mrs. Lima’s stingy.”
How stingy they found out when Mrs. Lima returned and handed them each a five-dollar bill.
“It was ten for the driveway and two for the walk, that’s twelve,” Jackson said. “You owe us two more.”
“I never said I’d pay you for cleaning my walk.”
“Yes, you did,” Jackson said.
“I certainly did not, and ten is all you’ll get from me.” Mrs. Lima shut the door. Period. End of discussion.
Willie rang the bell. The door whipped open. “You better be on your way, young man, or I’ll call your parents and tell them you’re harassing me,” she said. Before he could get a word out, she shut the door again.
Jackson scowled. He stood there with his arms folded and his big brown eyes glaring. “Know what we should do, Willie? We should do what Milton did; put the snow back.”
Willie groaned. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Come on, Willie. We can’t let that mean old lady get away with cheating us.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“His only defense for now was not to think about it until he had to. But everywhere he turned kids were whispering, “Report card, report card.” So much anxiety in the air made it hard to breathe.
The end of the day came far too quickly and there it was in his hand--a report card that spelled disaster in Ds and Cs.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Willie considered taking Booboo along, but Booboo would only get in the way. Better leave him in the basement to sleep off his exhaustion from last night’s concert.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“If Willie hadn’t known the man working on the doghouse in the garage must be his father, he might not have recognized him. Dad’s nose was red from the cold, and he was wearing a grease-streaked red-and-black-checked lumberman’s jacket and a red flannel hat with floppy earflaps. He looked a lot more dignified in a business suit and tie, Willie thought.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“In the car, Dad said solemnly, “Willie, you should understand that I’m doing this because I want you to be a success in life.”
“Driving me to school, Dad?”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“At the twenty-second house, which was right next door to Willie’s, the elderly widow, Mrs. Lima, answered the door. Yes, she would hire them to do both the walk and the driveway, she said, and she nodded at the price when Jackson mentioned it.
“She’s not poor, is she?” Jackson asked uneasily after Mrs. Lima went back inside.
“I don’t think so. Her husband owned the department store in the mall. She’s pretty crabby, though. We better do a good job.”
They did a fine job, getting every bit of snow off right to the edges of the walk and driveway. When they finished they rang the doorbell, sweaty but pleased with themselves.
Casually Mrs. Lima glanced at the driveway and sighted along the walk. “Just a minute,” she said. She dipped back inside her house.
“Maybe she’ll give us a tip,” Jackson said. “Twelve dollars isn’t much for the ton of snow we shoveled.”
“I don’t know,” Willie said doubtfully. “She had a big fight with my mom for cutting some roses off a bush that was growing over the fence into our yard. Mom says Mrs. Lima’s stingy.”
How stingy they found out when Mrs. Lima returned and handed them each a five-dollar bill.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Mom’s car pulled up in front of the open garage. Dad was using her parking space for the bench saw. “My, my, my,” she said out the car window. “Look at you two covered in sawdust.”
She stepped out of the car, keeping well away from the pale particles blanketing the area in front of her. “Are you having fun?” She laughed and took several shopping bags from the trunk.
“What did you buy?” Dad asked, brushing sawdust from his rolled-up sleeves.
“Nothing major; just this and that…I’ll have dinner ready in a half hour. Or are you too busy to eat?”
“Is it dinnertime?” Dad sounded surprised. Willie wasn’t. He was tired enough for it to have been bedtime.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“You sure can sleep anywhere,” she said. “It’s freezing in here.”
“I was tired. See, I slept in Booboo’s doghouse with him last night.”
“You’re kidding! You really slept in a doghouse?...You are a nut cake, Willie.”
He wanted to ask her if that was better than a goofball, but for once he didn’t feel like joking.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“In homeroom Willie remembered the chocolate chip cookies. One was still uncrumbled. He slipped it onto Marla’s desk as he passed. She was hidden under waves of hair, but when she turned, her face appeared and with it a little smile for him.
“She your girlfriend?” Jackson leaned across the aisle to ask him. Jackson never missed anything Willie did. Maybe because his father was a policeman, Jackson took obedience seriously, which meant the nearest he got to fooling around was watching Willie do it. Sometimes Willie deliberately did things just to give Jackson a laugh.
“Willie.” Jackson prodded him with a finger. “I asked you. She your girlfriend?”
“I don’t think so,” Willie said. “She doesn’t like me much yet.”
“Figures,” Jackson said.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Let’s slide some more,” Willie suggested to wipe away her sadness.
They were holding hands and slide-skating on the ice with Booboo at their heels when Marla suddenly said, “Oops, it’s over an hour. I’ve got to go.”
“Like Cinderella,” he said.
“So? Aren’t you the frog prince?”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Here.” He thrust the cookies at her because that would be what he’d pick if someone gave him a choice. They were fresh-baked cookies, too, the best part of the lunchroom lunch--which was what he regretted most when he saw the girl toss them in the garbage can on her way out of the cafeteria.
The cookies were like the rest of his day, Willie decided on his way home. All the good stuff had turned out bad--the drawing for Jackson, his idea about working under Mrs. Tealso’s desk, even being nice to Marla. He didn’t have one good thing to tell Dad he’d done.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Dad, I’m sorry about the report card and all that, but I didn’t do anything bad to Mrs. Lima. She told Jackson and me to do the walk and the driveway, but then she wouldn’t pay us for the walk, even though we did a good job. So we just put the snow back. That’s all.”
“According to Mrs. Lima,” Dad said, “she never told you to do the walk because she doesn’t use it. She goes through her garage. And you wouldn’t take her word for it. That’s what upset her the most, that you acted as if she meant to cheat you.”
“But she did, Dad.”
“Willie--” Dad hesitated. Then he shook his head and said, “I don’t know who to believe.”
“Me. I’m your son, and I don’t lie. Much,” Willie amended carefully to cover any white lies he might have told.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I came by to see what the spiders were up to,” he said.
A dimple appeared in her cheek. “You’re too much,” she said. Then she turned apologetic. “And I hope you’re not serious because I cleaned them all out of here.”
“You did? Why? Don’t you like spiders? They make neat webs. I mean, they come up with really amazing designs. And nothing’s prettier than a good web when the sun shines on it after a rain.”
“You’re a goofball, Willie,” she said, and now her face was serious and sad somehow.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “But I’m nice anyway.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Sleep was a bumpy road for Willie that night. In between dozing and leaning out the window to plead with Booboo to be quiet, Willie was kept awake by his dog’s howls, yowls, whines, whimpers, barks, yips, and moans. Booboo’s range of loud noises was impressive.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“I promised this girl I’d bring her my tape player so she could dance to it, but Dad won’t let me.”
“A girl? You have a girlfriend?” Mom sounded delighted.
“She isn’t my girlfriend,” Willie said. “She already thinks I’m a goofball, and now she’ll be mad at me about the tape player.”
“Call her and apologize.”
“I don’t know her telephone number.”
“What’s her last name?”
“I forget. She’s new.”
“Well, where does she live?”
“I don’t know the address exactly.”
“Oh, Willie!” Mom laughed. “What a way to conduct your love life.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“The sugar content in this cereal’s too high for Willie. You know the doctor said sugar’s bad for him. No wonder he ends up under the teacher’s desk. Can’t you cook him a proper breakfast, Judy? Oatmeal and toast and scrambled eggs, that’s what he needs.”
“He’s not going to lift bricks, Harold.”
“Mental exercise uses up calories, too--which is why I eat an egg and an English muffin before going to work.”
As mom was agreeing that Dad always did eat sensibly, Willie looked up from pouring his juice and saw through the kitchen window that his bus was rounding the corner. Looking down, he saw he’d poured a puddle that was dripping onto the floor.
Dad noticed, of course. Dad noticed everything. “Willie, you klutz! Now look what you’ve done.”
“I’ve gotta go,” Willie said.
“Not before you eat your breakfast.”
“Then I’ll miss the bus.” Booboo ambled into the kitchen, wagged a greeting to everyone, and barked to be let out. Willie moved to open the door for him.
“Hold it right there!” Dad said. He probably thought Willie meant to leave, too. “You sit down and eat your cereal. After you mop up the juice. QUIET, BOOBOO!”
Booboo yipped pathetically as if asking what he’d done wrong. Mom slipped over to the door. “The dog has to go out, Harold,” she said. “Unless you want him to do his business on the floor?”
As if on command, Booboo squatted and made a second puddle. “I thought he got up pretty early for him,” Willie said. “I guess he had to go.”
Willie’s bus driver waited for him a few seconds and then took off.
“I missed my bus,” Willie said. He got the squeegee mop out to clean up both accidents. Dad was holding his head. “Do you have a headache, Dad?” Willie asked.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Two weeks had passed when Willie got home from school one day to find a letter postmarked Tyler, Texas. “Dear Willie,” Marla wrote,

Dad was right. I love it here. I’ve got three girl cousins I go to school with. One’s in my grade, and one’s ahead of me and one behind. And my aunts are neat. They’re so kind to Mama. Oh, and Dad got a job right away that he likes so far.
Anyway, what I want to tell you is how sorry I am. I mean, I wasn’t nice when I first met you because I thought you were a goofball and you’d mess up my life. How was I to know you were really my frog prince?
Write me, Willie. I miss you a lot.
Your friend,
Marla.

“Nice letter?” Mom asked.
“Yeah,” Willie said. “She says I’m her frog prince.”
“Of course you’re a prince. Didn’t I always tell you?” Mom asked.
Willie laughed. It didn’t matter if she had; she was his mother, so he knew better than to believe her.
“I’m going to write and tell Marla how Booboo’s doing,” Willie said.
He’d tell her that since Booboo was back in Willie’s bed at night he was quiet--most of the time. And Booboo hadn’t wet on any more crossword puzzles, either. Of course, Dad hadn’t left any on the floor now that he was back at work and happy being busy again, but still Booboo deserved some credit.
Instead of a signature at the end of the letter, he’d draw a picture of a frog with his own face and a crown. Yeah, that’d be good. He bet it would make Marla laugh, and even if he couldn’t hear her, he’d like that.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“You’re a Boy Scout?”
“Well, I was until I got kicked out.”
“What did you get kicked out for?”
“I kept getting lost.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Were your parents happy with your report card?” Dad was asking Jackson when Willie got back with the shovel.
“Yeah. I got an A in math. Last quarter I got a B. My dad gave me a dollar.”
“Good for you,” Dad said. “An A is worth a dollar in my book.”
“How about fifty cents for Cs?” Willie suggested hopefully. He had Cs in social studies and science, Mr. Grey’s courses.
“Fine, minus a dollar for every D. That would leave you owing me how much, Willie?”
“See you later,” Willie said and pushed Jackson out the door.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince

“Friday was a bad-news day. First Mrs. Tealso announced report cards were ready and everybody would return to homeroom for the last ten minutes of the day to receive theirs. Lots of kids groaned. Willie’s stomach flip-flopped like a fish out of water. His marks might be as bad as last time. They could even be worse. Unless he’d done good work that he wasn’t remembering. Or unless his teachers had gotten the Christmas spirit early.”
― C.S. Adler, Willie, the Frog Prince