When that morning arrived, I maneuvered in the aisle until Rodney-All-Kinds-of-Trouble
started sticking me between the ribs with an instrument of pain.
When I hopped off the bus, I swung around, stuck out my leg, clipped
him right on the shin and sent him sprawling. In a flash I jumped
on his back, and rode him like a bull.
Mr. Olson tore us apart. “What’s going on here,” he
thundered.
“Nothing, sir,” I said. “Ain’t that right,
Rodney?”
The boys brayed like coyotes on the hunt. The girls shushed except
for Charity, my new best friend, who was glued to my side, her eyes
glistening in the way that icicles melt when spring comes.
“I didn’t do nothing!” Rodney balled.
“Into the Principle’s office with both of you,” Mr.
Olson ordered. “Now!”
Off we marched through the playground, paths clearing as bad news
travels faster than a flying fart. On the way, I gained my outward
composure though my insides felt like the tilt-a-wheel at the carnival.
“I’ll take the blame,” I said, humble-like.
“The hell you will.”
“You can come over to my place. We can shoot birds.” I
pretended to think of this right on the spot and nodded my head for
emphasis. “I bet you don’t have a gun, huh?”
He clenched his jaw and shrugged his shoulders.
“I do.” I spit through my teeth to show him I meant it. “I’ve
got more than one.”
• • •
We picked a Saturday for the shoot out. I met him at the back gate
and walked round the rotting garbage dump that had once been my beautiful
swimming pool. But now I didn’t even think of it that way. I
led bug-eyed Rodney who was strutting and puffing out his chest, right
through the orchard, and as I turned smartly and pointed, “Look!
Those fat crows are ripe for the picking,” I hopped clear over
the scrabbled earth. Rodney swung his head toward the flapping crows,
his foot seeking sure ground and down he whooshed, down into a deep
dark pit.
Victory shinning its light upon me, I stood at the edge of the hole
and peered into it.
“I’ll get you for this!” he hollered.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “The only Charity
in these parts is right here. As she is my witness, your bullying days
are over.” With these words spoken, my stepbrothers circled round
the pit, their shadows looming across the opening, and handed me a
gun. Charity stuck her fingers in her ears and my stepbrothers and
me took aim at the crows flying over the stinking garbage and shot
them dead out of the sky.
