Laughing Waters, Roaring Thunder by Patrick Sean Lee (free e books to read TXT) đ
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You ainât near old enough, Iâm guessinâ. How old are yaâ?â
The boy, as it turned out, was a girlâa tomboy if Iâd ever seen oneâand she shot us a mind-your-own-business glance, then hustled into her cabin without bothering to answer.
âWell Iâll be go to hell. If that donât beat all. Must not be any cops in this place for miles anâ miles! How old you figure she was?â
âI donât know. Who cares?â I answered. âLetâs get going. The cows are waiting.â
âNah. Nah, wait a sec. She was drivinâ around here, anâ I know she donât have a license. Iâm thinkinââŠâ
âOh no you donât! Donât be thinking about anything, Jimmy. Letâs just get back to the pasture. We donât need any trouble. Remember what we promised Mom.â
Jimmy was off again on one of his mental adventures, not hearing a word I said, planning something I wasnât about to cave into. Not this time.
âYouâŠgo on without me, Skip. Iâll be there in a flash. I just wannaâ check out this buggy here. Maybe that girlâll come back outâŠI wannaâ ask her a couplaâ things, too.â
âNo. Iâm not going back without you. Whatever it is your planning, youâre not gonnaâ do it. Iâm not gonnaâ let you.â I walked up to where he stood, put my hand on his arm, and began to pull him down the hill. His eyes narrowed, with the look Iâd seen only once before. In his bedroom, as heâd glared at the crudely drawn, perforated picture of Inky hanging on the wall. Before I could blink, he hit me so hard that I fell backward onto my rear. I believed in that moment weâd lost a world, that Jimmy had gone mad.
I looked to Mickey to help me out. âMick! Tell him to back off. Letâs get out of here!â
Mickey stared down at me, shook his head, and then chose his master. âGoddam, Skip. You always crap out whenever you think you smell smoke. Whatâs the big deal? We havenât done anything yet. Not a thing! What are you so afraid of?â He stepped closer to Jimmy. I gathered myself up off the ground, dusted off, and then walked back to Laughing Waters alone.
Mom, Pop, Aunt Corey and Sylvie had disappeared. Into the tangle of brush along the banks of Cabin Creek and its laughing waters. The fishing poles stacked neatly inside the door, the creels filled with bait and extra hooksâthe hats with more hooks imbedded in their brims, the rubber boots, and cans of mosquito repellantâall of it was gone. I stepped in, glanced right, left, and then walked through the dining room into the kitchen where a tiny mirror hung alone and strangely out of place on the wall behind the door. In the worn, cloudy reflection I recognized my face with another reddened bruise beginning to swell up beneath my eye. Funny, I thought, the last time Iâd gotten a shiner it was from the fist of Inky the Terrible. Private enemy number one. Really, I didnât know who hit the hardest, him or Jimmy. It might have been a tie.
Despairing at what I was going to tell Mom and Pop about this new black eye, I left the kitchen and walked into the dining room where I took a seat beneath the windows. I knew what Jimmy was up toâhe intended to steal that familyâs car. I didnât know if he knew how to drive, I donât think he did, but Jimmyâs M.O. was very predictable. He and Mickey would come flying down the hill any minute. I was certain of that.
I waited ten minutes, and then thirty. No sound outside at all. Tired of standing vigil, and hungry, I returned to the kitchen and threw together a sandwich. As I searched for the bag of chips the shuffle of shoes atop the steps out front caught me. I was surprised when the door creaked open and in came Jimmy, followed by his little puppy, Mickey. Both Jimmy and I stared across the long space of the rooms at one another, I expressionless, he with his eyes downcast slightly.
âWhereâs the car?â I asked him in the most deprecating voice I could muster. He answered immediately.
âStill up there. She wouldnât give us a ride. Hey, SkipâŠumm, I dunnoâ what came over me. God, Iâm sure sorry. If yaâ want to, you can take a good poke at me. I sure as hell deserve it, and I wonât even try to block it. Iâm really sorry.â
I was stunned. âYou werenât going to steal it?â
âSteal it? Heck no! How would I steal it? I dunno how to drive. Cripes! Whyâd yaâ think I was gonnaâ steal it?â
âBecause I know you,â I said.
âMaybe not as good as yaâ think you do. I wanted to talk to that girl, thatâs allâanâ I did! Well, I liked the car, too. I wanted a ride in it.â
âYouâre kidding!â
âNo. I swear it. Geez are you dumb!â
âYeah. You took a shiner for that?â Mickey finally spoke.
Jimmy related to me how after seeing that the guy was actually a girl, heâd taken a fancy to her because of her short, black hair and funny clothes. After beating up on me, he and Mickey had stood around waiting for her to come out and tell them to leave. She did, of course, but Jimmy listens to no one when he wants something. He wanted to talk to âGinsbergââthatâs what she called herself. The weird name for a girl had something to do with Beatniks and a book called âHowlâ, he told me. I donât know, he lost me there. She was thirteen, Jimmyâs age, now, and she had come to Colorado at the insistence of her parents, who refused to leave her with either friends or relatives back in Manhattan for fear sheâd run off with these bongo-playing, poetry-reading nuts, to a city, I think he said, called Geenwich Village. When her parents left the cabin it was her âdutyâ, she also told him, to drive their car all over the place. A protest or something. How or where sheâd learned to drive he didnât say, or didnât know. He said he was very impressed with her, though. I think he found his Carol.
We had three more days until the end of our stay at Cabin Creek, and for two and nine-tenths of them, I swear Jimmy courted and wooed her until I feared heâd jump ship and find a way to stow away in Ginsbergâs baggage, and then sneak back to Manhattan with her. Taking a teasing from Mickeyâonce again a comrade of mineâand me, he swore his relationship with her was âstrictly platonicâ, another couple of words whose meaning eluded me. âWe read poetry,â he explained. I know I saw him kiss her. By my understanding of the words, reading poetry had very little to do with kissing. And speaking of explaining.
My fishermen family trudged into the cabin later that same afternoon when Jimmy blackened my eye. They asked meâasked all of usâhow it had come to happen.
âWe were horsing around,â I said, âand I trippedâŠâ
âNo he didnât. I hit âim. He wouldnât stay with me anâ Mickey. He thought we was gonnaâ steal Ginsbergâs folksâ car, anâ he tried to pull me away. We wasnât
The boy, as it turned out, was a girlâa tomboy if Iâd ever seen oneâand she shot us a mind-your-own-business glance, then hustled into her cabin without bothering to answer.
âWell Iâll be go to hell. If that donât beat all. Must not be any cops in this place for miles anâ miles! How old you figure she was?â
âI donât know. Who cares?â I answered. âLetâs get going. The cows are waiting.â
âNah. Nah, wait a sec. She was drivinâ around here, anâ I know she donât have a license. Iâm thinkinââŠâ
âOh no you donât! Donât be thinking about anything, Jimmy. Letâs just get back to the pasture. We donât need any trouble. Remember what we promised Mom.â
Jimmy was off again on one of his mental adventures, not hearing a word I said, planning something I wasnât about to cave into. Not this time.
âYouâŠgo on without me, Skip. Iâll be there in a flash. I just wannaâ check out this buggy here. Maybe that girlâll come back outâŠI wannaâ ask her a couplaâ things, too.â
âNo. Iâm not going back without you. Whatever it is your planning, youâre not gonnaâ do it. Iâm not gonnaâ let you.â I walked up to where he stood, put my hand on his arm, and began to pull him down the hill. His eyes narrowed, with the look Iâd seen only once before. In his bedroom, as heâd glared at the crudely drawn, perforated picture of Inky hanging on the wall. Before I could blink, he hit me so hard that I fell backward onto my rear. I believed in that moment weâd lost a world, that Jimmy had gone mad.
I looked to Mickey to help me out. âMick! Tell him to back off. Letâs get out of here!â
Mickey stared down at me, shook his head, and then chose his master. âGoddam, Skip. You always crap out whenever you think you smell smoke. Whatâs the big deal? We havenât done anything yet. Not a thing! What are you so afraid of?â He stepped closer to Jimmy. I gathered myself up off the ground, dusted off, and then walked back to Laughing Waters alone.
Mom, Pop, Aunt Corey and Sylvie had disappeared. Into the tangle of brush along the banks of Cabin Creek and its laughing waters. The fishing poles stacked neatly inside the door, the creels filled with bait and extra hooksâthe hats with more hooks imbedded in their brims, the rubber boots, and cans of mosquito repellantâall of it was gone. I stepped in, glanced right, left, and then walked through the dining room into the kitchen where a tiny mirror hung alone and strangely out of place on the wall behind the door. In the worn, cloudy reflection I recognized my face with another reddened bruise beginning to swell up beneath my eye. Funny, I thought, the last time Iâd gotten a shiner it was from the fist of Inky the Terrible. Private enemy number one. Really, I didnât know who hit the hardest, him or Jimmy. It might have been a tie.
Despairing at what I was going to tell Mom and Pop about this new black eye, I left the kitchen and walked into the dining room where I took a seat beneath the windows. I knew what Jimmy was up toâhe intended to steal that familyâs car. I didnât know if he knew how to drive, I donât think he did, but Jimmyâs M.O. was very predictable. He and Mickey would come flying down the hill any minute. I was certain of that.
I waited ten minutes, and then thirty. No sound outside at all. Tired of standing vigil, and hungry, I returned to the kitchen and threw together a sandwich. As I searched for the bag of chips the shuffle of shoes atop the steps out front caught me. I was surprised when the door creaked open and in came Jimmy, followed by his little puppy, Mickey. Both Jimmy and I stared across the long space of the rooms at one another, I expressionless, he with his eyes downcast slightly.
âWhereâs the car?â I asked him in the most deprecating voice I could muster. He answered immediately.
âStill up there. She wouldnât give us a ride. Hey, SkipâŠumm, I dunnoâ what came over me. God, Iâm sure sorry. If yaâ want to, you can take a good poke at me. I sure as hell deserve it, and I wonât even try to block it. Iâm really sorry.â
I was stunned. âYou werenât going to steal it?â
âSteal it? Heck no! How would I steal it? I dunno how to drive. Cripes! Whyâd yaâ think I was gonnaâ steal it?â
âBecause I know you,â I said.
âMaybe not as good as yaâ think you do. I wanted to talk to that girl, thatâs allâanâ I did! Well, I liked the car, too. I wanted a ride in it.â
âYouâre kidding!â
âNo. I swear it. Geez are you dumb!â
âYeah. You took a shiner for that?â Mickey finally spoke.
Jimmy related to me how after seeing that the guy was actually a girl, heâd taken a fancy to her because of her short, black hair and funny clothes. After beating up on me, he and Mickey had stood around waiting for her to come out and tell them to leave. She did, of course, but Jimmy listens to no one when he wants something. He wanted to talk to âGinsbergââthatâs what she called herself. The weird name for a girl had something to do with Beatniks and a book called âHowlâ, he told me. I donât know, he lost me there. She was thirteen, Jimmyâs age, now, and she had come to Colorado at the insistence of her parents, who refused to leave her with either friends or relatives back in Manhattan for fear sheâd run off with these bongo-playing, poetry-reading nuts, to a city, I think he said, called Geenwich Village. When her parents left the cabin it was her âdutyâ, she also told him, to drive their car all over the place. A protest or something. How or where sheâd learned to drive he didnât say, or didnât know. He said he was very impressed with her, though. I think he found his Carol.
We had three more days until the end of our stay at Cabin Creek, and for two and nine-tenths of them, I swear Jimmy courted and wooed her until I feared heâd jump ship and find a way to stow away in Ginsbergâs baggage, and then sneak back to Manhattan with her. Taking a teasing from Mickeyâonce again a comrade of mineâand me, he swore his relationship with her was âstrictly platonicâ, another couple of words whose meaning eluded me. âWe read poetry,â he explained. I know I saw him kiss her. By my understanding of the words, reading poetry had very little to do with kissing. And speaking of explaining.
My fishermen family trudged into the cabin later that same afternoon when Jimmy blackened my eye. They asked meâasked all of usâhow it had come to happen.
âWe were horsing around,â I said, âand I trippedâŠâ
âNo he didnât. I hit âim. He wouldnât stay with me anâ Mickey. He thought we was gonnaâ steal Ginsbergâs folksâ car, anâ he tried to pull me away. We wasnât
gonnaâ steal it, anâ I didnât know why he was so upset. I just wanted to talk to Ginsbergâthe girl in the cabin next door. I shouldnaâ done it, anâ Iâm really sorry I did. Honest, Mr. anâ Mrs. Morley. I shouldnaâ done it anâ Iâm sorry.â
That said a lot to me about my best friend, and brought a smile to the lips of Mom.
Text: Patrick Sean Lee
Editing: Self
Publication Date: 08-04-2012
All Rights Reserved
Dedication:
To Jimmy, God rest his soul. Although the category is listed as Juvenile fiction, the basic facts and events are true.
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