Her dad was snoring on the couch, but each time Frankie tried to change the channel he lifted up his head and said, “Leave it!” Baseball was stupid. If her dad were a gopher he’d be running for his life, because that’s how it was for boy gophers. If he were a gopher, she wouldn’t even know who he was and she’d be able to fight him.
But then she’d be living with Bernie.
Bernie wouldn’t let her in the room. She was lying in bed listening to the radio and she said Frankie couldn’t come in. She said Frankie smelled and needed a bath and her dad said yes, she did, but then he fell asleep on the couch and didn’t even make her. Anyway, Frankie didn’t care if she smelled. Animals smelled; that’s just the way it was. Get used to it.
Bernie smelled, too, sometimes. “Yes, but then I have a bath,
