Dustin ran his index finger over the dirty lump of gum that he was sure was Ty. He'd worn the gum on the bottom of his shoe all day. It was black with dust, pebbled with grains of sand, and sparkled from embedded bits of glass. It didn't move at all. Dustin started to pick out grains of sand. This wasn't going to work. Dustin had an idea. He went to the kitchen. He came back with a bowl of hot water, a roll of wax paper, a rolling pin, and a bottle of dishwashing soap. He squirted Ty with a glob of green liquid dish soap and began kneading soapy Ty between his thumb and index finger. He was still pretty gritty, but some of the black seemed to wash away. Dustin dropped Ty into the bowl of hot water. Ty slowly sank to the bottom.
Dustin looked at his watch. He decided 10 minutes would be a good amount of time to let Ty soak. He stirred the hot water with his finger setting Ty spinning. Tiny soap bubbles appeared on the surface. More soap? He added a couple squeeze fulls and stirred the bowl until it was filled with suds. He set the timer on his watch for ten minutes, and started on his homework.
Dustin finished his math homework. The timer still hasn't buzzed. He looked at his watch. He had forgotten to start the timer. Dustin checked the time. Ty had been soaking for an hour and a half.
He fished Ty out of the bowl. The fleshy glob was bigger and a uniform greenish grey though pitted with specks still. Ty had absorbed the soapy water. When Dustin squeezed the gum a big soap bubble emerged. It occurred to Dustin that maybe Ty was saturated with soap. He emptied the bowl of now grey green water in the bathroom sink and refilled it with hot water. This time he didn't add soap. He put Ty in the bowl of fresh hot water and kneaded him more. Slowly, gum returned to its flesh tone.
Then Dustin took a sheet of wax paper and set Ty in the middle of it. Then he began to move the rolling pin back and forth. For over 5 minutes, Dustin pushed down on the rolling pin as he moved it back and forth. When he was done, Ty had been spread paper thin and was a flattened mess of dough about 7 inches square. Dustin took a tweezers from his desk and began to pick out the debris embedded in Ty. After nearly an hour, he decided Ty was clean enough. Dustin slowly rolled Ty back into a ball. Dustin looked at the clock again. He still had to read. He held the book in one hand and kept rolling Ty between finger and the desktop.
Dustin concentrated on the reading. He was never going to get a decent grade in History if he couldn't understand this chapter. Dustin often doodled absentmindedly while he read. He didn't have a pen, so he started to use Ty likely modeling clay. In no time at all he had sculpted Ty into - but the house phone rang. June shouted for Dustin that he had a call. Forgetting about Ty he set his sculpture down on his desk, then he put his book down on the desk too. He hurried to answer the phone.