Page 118 of Clean Slade
“But what?”
Mac took a deep breath and looked at Grams.
“How do I get them to stop?”
Grams closed her eyes, humming, and a moment later, she turned back to Mac and held out her hand.
“Why don’t you try walking up to them and tell them…what’s their name?”
“Grace,” Mac said.
I jumped.
Had she just said who the culprit was?
I looked at Slade, and he raised his eyebrows, probably thinking the same thing.
Grace?
Grace Artridge? Hannah’s kid?
I guessed it made sense. Her mom was a jackass. The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.
“Great. You go up and tell her, ‘Grace, I know you call me names because you don’t know any better, and I know it’s got nothing to do with me, so if that makes you feel better about yourself, keep doing it. I know I’m fat, and there’s nothing wrong with it. You’re heartless, and that’s so much worse, and I feel sorry for you.’”
“Hey, Mac is not fat!”
Grams smiled.
“Of course she’s not,” she told me and turned back to Mac. “And even if you were, there’d be nothing wrong with it. But if you tell her all that, it’ll take the power away from her, and it won’t be fun anymore. And I’m pretty sure she’ll stop after that.”
I pinched my mouth shut and stared in shock and amazement, waiting for Mac’s reaction.
Mac nodded and returned Grams’s smile.
“Cool. I’ll try that.”
“Great! Now, how about some cake? I made it with my own hands.”
“Yes, please!” Mac said, and a little weight lifted off my shoulders.
Trust Grams to have a fix for everything.
Mac jumped off the chair and helped Grams cut a piece for everyone, and the next hour was spent with Mac in shock that Grams didn’t have a TV with an internet connection, and then with Mac going through the entire movie with visual aids from Slade’s phone, and then asking Grams to figure out the TV for next time so they could watch it together.
“How about next Friday? You can pick me up from school, and we can watch it then.”
“It’s a deal. And you can tell me what happened with Grace.”
“Okay! But you have to get internet on the TV. Otherwise, we can’t watch the movie.”
Grams laughed.
“Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out for you,” Nino told Mac.
She pointed at her uncle with a stern look.
“And you better bring Lucky.”
