“Hey, Zero?” Squid had asked. “Are you a mole or a worm?”
Zero had said nothing.
Stanley never even thanked him. But now he sat on his cot and waited for Zero to return from the shower room.
“Thanks,” he said as Zero entered through the tent flap.
Zero glanced at him, then went over to the crates, where he deposited his dirty clothes and towel.
“Why’d you help me?” Stanley asked.
Zero turned around. “You didn’t steal the sunflower seeds,” he said.
“So, neither did you,” said Stanley.
Zero stared at him. His eyes seemed to expand, and it was almost as if Zero were looking right through him. “You didn’t steal the sneakers,” he said.
Stanley said nothing.
He watched Zero walk out of the tent. If anybody had X-ray vision, it was Zero.
“Wait!” he called, then hurried out after him.
Zero had stopped just outside the tent, and Stanley almost ran into him.
“I’ll try to teach you to read if you want,” Stanley offered. “I don’t know if I know how to teach, but I’m not that worn-out today, since you dug a lot of my hole.”
A big smile spread across Zero’s face.
They returned to the tent, where they were less likely to be bothered. Stanley got his box of stationery and a pen out of his crate. They sat on the ground.
“Do you know the alphabet?” Stanley asked.
For a second, he thought he saw a flash of defiance in Zero’s eyes, but then it passed.
“I think I know some of it,” Zero said. “A, B, C, D.”
“Keep going,” said Stanley.
Zero’s eyes looked upward. “E …”
“F,” said Stanley.
“G,” said Zero. He blew some air out of the side of his mouth. “H … I … K, P.”
“H, I, J, K, L,” Stanley said.
“That’s right,” said Zero. “I’ve heard it before. I just don’t have it memorized exactly.”
“That’s all right,” said Stanley. “Here, I’ll say the whole thing, just to kind of refresh your memory, then you can try it.”
He recited the alphabet for Zero, then Zero repeated it without a single mistake.
Not bad for a kid who had never seen Sesame Street!
“Well, I’ve heard it before, somewhere,” Zero said, trying to act like it was nothing, but his big smile gave him away.
The next step was harder. Stanley had to figure out how to teach him to recognize each letter. He gave Zero a piece of paper, and took a piece for himself. “I guess we’ll start with A.”