Page 247 of The Holy Grail
“The bomb song.”
“The … bomb song? What’s that?”
“I think he means “You Dropped A Bomb On Me” by the Gap Band,” Malcom replied, grabbing his phone, then tapping and scrolling for a minute, until the song began to play.As the first few notes were heard, Jules recognized the song, and so did Jacob, whose face lit up like it was Christmas.
“That’s it!” he cried out.
He and Jules began clearing the table together, and when she saw him sort of dancing from the table to the sink, she decided to join in. “You have some good moves, kid. Did Paige teach you those?”
He nodded.
“Did she teach you this?” Jules asked, before breaking out in the iconic dance move fromSaturday Night Fever, raising her hand and pointing up to the right, then moving her hand down and pointing to the left, while moving her hips from side to side.
“No.”
Because he looked intrigued, she showed him how to do it, and they practiced a few times until he mostly had it down … maybe not on a John Travolta level, but certainly impressive for someone who wasn’t yet six years old.
The next song Malcom played was Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and while it was obvious Jacob didn’t know it, he still seemed to like it and continued to dance and straighten up with Jules.
“What do you think?” Malcom asked. “Thumbs up or thumbs down?”
“Thumbs up,” Jacob proclaimed.
“They used this song in a commercial with dancing raisins in it.”
“Raisins can’t dance.”
“These were like cartoon raisins. It was kind of funny.”
“Oh.”
When the kitchen was clean, Jules told Jacob he could get a snack out of the snack drawer.
Jacob looked enthralled. “You have a snack drawer?”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
“We don’t.”
“Oh, right, I know your dad. He probably thinks kale is a snack. But that doesn’t mean Paige shouldn’t have a secret one somewhere … that’s a little disappointing.”
She took him over to the designated snack drawer, and when she opened it for him, he drew in an excited breath, probably because most of the ‘snacks’ were really … an assortment of candy. There were a few granola bars and protein bars, but mostly it was fun-sized Snickers, Reese’s peanut butter cups, Milky Ways, Three Musketeers, and Twix, with little bags of Skittles and Sour Patch Kids mixed in because … Evan.
Jacob gazed down at the sugary bounty in awe.
“Take your time,” she told him. “It’s a big decision, even though I always go for the peanut butter cups.”
Then, while he watched, she grabbed one of the orange packages, opened it, removed the wrapper on the bottom, and put the entire thing in her mouth, making quick work of eating it.
Jacob’s eyes were now wide, as if he’d just witnessed something extraordinary.
“That’s a special skill I learned when I was much older than you,” she said, ignoring Malcom in the background shaking his head at her in amused disbelief. “Like when I was … twenty. So don’t even try it until then, okay? You have to let your mouth get fully grown.”
“Okay,” Jacob promised.
After looking through the candy very carefully, he finally chose a Twix bar.
“Excellent choice,” she praised him. Then, in a low voice, she added, “And if your dad asks if I let you have any candy, tell him I gave you a snack from the snack drawer. Deal?”
