The town looked small and there was something different about it but eight-year-old Jesper couldn't put his finger on it. It seemed strange; like it wasn't real. That was it, Jesper thought standing beside his grandmother.
"Hello? My name is Debbie and it's so nice to meet you young man."
Jesper looked up at the smiling woman with a kind face.
"So, it looks like your going to be living in triond for a while." The kind face lady said. "How about I take you around town and introduce you to everybody here? I'm sure you'll love it here; triond is a beautiful town."
He said good-bye to his grandmother and the kind face lady tucked Jespers hand in her's and led him across the street. They entered a small white building with red letters. Although, Jesper could read he could not see enough of the letters to make out a name. Inside, stood a man with a long white coat. He looked up when they entered.
"hello, Brian?" The kind face lady said to the man with the long coat. "I want you to meet Lindalu's grandson. He'll be living here in triond for a while."
Jesper and Brian shook hands. Jesper liked him right away.
"Oh, my. What a firm grip you have there," The man with the long white coat said.
Jesper couldn't help but to beam at this. He knew for sure that he really liked the long coat man.
After meeting the long coat man , the kind face woman took Jesper to the school. Once there they came upon two ladies wearing a flower dresses and one of them was wearing a pair of eyeglasses and one seemed annoyed.
"Hello, Melody and aisaellis?" This is Lindalu's grandson. He'll be staying in triond for a while. "I'm just introducing him to the people in triond. He'll soon be attending, (Tool Bar School)."
"Hmmm," The annoyed lady said. "Now you listen to me young man, if you give me any trouble, I'll make you eat crickets when no-ones looking."
Crickets! Yuck! That's so gross, Jesper thought.
"It's nice to meet you." The other one in the flower dress and glasses said.
Now they headed down the hall to a small office. A man with a black suit and blue tie sat behind a desk. He looked up when they walked in.
"Hello, Mr. Papaleng? This is Lindalu's grandson and he'll be living right here in triond for a while. Isn't that nice?"
"Yes, of course it is. What's your name son?" The black suit man asked.
Jesper waited for the kind face lady to answere but when he seen that she wasn't going too, he said, "My names Jesper, sir."
"Mr. Papalengs the school principal." The kind face lady said.
The black suit man shook Jespers hand.
"Well, you have a nice day, Mr. Papaleng. We'll be off now, we have so many to meet."
The black suit man said good-bye to the kind face lady and to Jesper when they left.
"You'll like him. He's very nice." The kind face lady said.
Just as they were about to cross the street a lady in a big blue car sped past and beeped the horn.
"That's Glynis. She does the car pooling for school every day.." The kind face lady said tugging Jespers hand to start walking. "But she likes to call it the band wagon. You be careful when she's around."
"Why?" Jesper asked the kind face lady.
"Because if she catches you fooling around she'll put you on her list."
"Her list. What list?" Jesper asked the kind face lady.
"It's a list with children s names on it. When children are bad she put their names on a list then takes them to jail."
"To jail!" Jesper shrieked. "But I'm just a kid!"
"Oh, it doesn't matter. You have just two chances then she throws you in the back of her band wagon and rides away."
"How long do you stay in jail for?" Jesper asked the kind face lady, frightened.
"Only for a couple of hours."
Jesper was relieved. A couple of hours that wasn't so bad. Actually it might be kind of fun. His uncle louie would bring him to the fire station and that was fun.
Walking down the street they came upon a small church. It was white with lots of flowers all around it. Inside there was a woman with a book in her hand. She looked up when they approached her.
"Hello, Debbie?" The lady with the book said.
"Hello." The kind face lady said back. "I want you to meet Lindalu's grandson. He'll be living here. his name is Jesper."
"Hello, Jesper? It's nice to meet you." The lady with the book said. "My name is Benadette. I'll be your sunday school teacher."
Jesper couldn't believe what he was seeing. It seemed like everyone in this town had a job. Back in chicago where he came from there was a lot of people that lived on the street and most of them didn't have jobs.
Right after they left the church, they were walking around the corner and the kind face lady smacked right into a lady with an apron and white cap on.
"Oh, I'm so terribly sorry! My, how clumsy I am." The lady with the apron and white cap said.
"No, no. It was my fault." The kind face lady said.
"Well, who the Devil are you?" The lady with the apron and white cap said smiling down at Jesper.
Jesper held out his hand for a shake.
"I'm Jesper," He said. "Lindalu's my grandmother. I'm going to be living with her."
"Why, Lindalu's a dear friend of mine. Your in good hands young man. My name is Darlene, and I run the best dam restaurant in town. (The Search Engine)."
Soon after, the kind face lady took Jesper back to his grandmother's house. Lindalu greeted Jesper at the door with a big hug and a double-decker peanut-butter and jam sandwich. The kind face lady talked to Jespers garndmother while Jesper sat at the table eating his sandwich. W hen the kind face lady was getting ready to leave, something suddenly occured to him.
"Wait!" Jesper said.
The kind face lady turned arouned smiling, "Yes, dear?"
Jesper looked up at the kind face lady and asked, "What do you do?" For some odd reason he had never found out what her job was.
"I'm a poet," the kind face lady said.
"A poet," He said pondering. "What does a poet do?"
"A poet writes poetry." The kind face lady answered.
"That's it!" Jesper said thinking that maybe he heard wrong.
"That's it." The kind face lady confirmed.
Jesper pondered this for a llong time before he turned to the kind face lady and said, "That sucks!"
