by Tony Nalley
Now our school bus driver, Mrs. Fergusson, didn’t allow boys and girls to sit together on her bus! So I had to sneak back a seat or two whenever she wasn’t lookin’ through her mirror. And then we’d both sneak down in the seats so that she couldn’t see our faces! It was about the only fun we could have on the bus I reckoned; sneakin’ around and tryin’ to get away with stuff, that and holdin’ each other’s hand.
And though the days seemed to pass by slowly …almost drudgingly and solemnly between classes, homework and chores, time passed by quickly! The seasons soon began to change and the leaves began to fall!
The full moon of October would soon be risin’! The Blood Moon foretold of in the dark prophecy!
And then it hit me! It hit me like a brick! Hit me as my name came across the school’s intercom system! I was summoned to the Principal’s office like a criminal accused of a crime!
“What had I done?” I thought to myself. But more importantly, “What had I done that they knew about?”
My heart raced and my knees felt weak as I got up from my chair and grabbed for my books.
Someone yelled “You’re gonna get it now Toby!” just as I walked out the door.
The long dreary walk down the hallway to his office felt the same to me as the way I felt the day I’d planned on returnin’ to the cave. My legs grew heavy and my insides felt queasy!
I didn’t know what the Principal looked like. I’d never even seen him or spoken with him at all. But I guessed that he was the one sittin’ behind the large desk in his office, as I walked in and told him ‘hello’.
I also didn’t know the other man who was standin’ in the middle of the room, but I did know the woman who sat nervously upon the couch in the corner!
She was my Aunt Jemma! She was Colby’s mom!
“Why was my Aunt Jemma there?” I thought. “What was goin’ on? Had somethin’ happened?”
“Come on in here Son, and have a seat!” My principle suggested. “You’re not in any trouble.” he said shakin’ his head. “We just want to know what’s been going on.”
“Please!” he said again as he gestured to a chair right beside him. “Have a seat!”
There was a long dramatic pause as I accessed the situation and sat down and looked about the room like an animal caught in a trap!
“So Toby, can you tell us what’s been goin’ on?” My principal asked me.
At this point I had no idea what in the world they were talkin’ about. And I was smart enough to lay low on certain things. I had learned that it was best not to divulge information outright, that someone might not otherwise be aware of!
My principal spoke up again then and said, “You’re not in trouble or anything. We just want to help you.”
“Okay.” I thought. “Bein’ as how I didn’t have any idea what they were talkin’ about, I figured that whatever it was, it must not have had nothin’ to do with me! At least they didn’t find out about nothin’ that pertained to me or they’d have already come out with it! This must have been somethin’ to do with Colby!” I thought again. “He must have made me a part of somethin’!”
So I sat there and I did my best to look as innocent as possible. And I waited for one of em’ to speak again.
“Colby tells us that you and he had an altercation with some boys at the movie theater.” The other man stated. The man who I then found out later was the Principal of Colby’s school. Colby went to the CitySchool. I lived in the country so I went to the County’s school. “Can you tell us anything about that?” He asked me as he smiled an uneasy smile.
“Altercation?” I thought.
I was pretty sure that Colby didn’t even know the meaning of that word, let alone be able to use it in a sentence!
“No sir.” I answered. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Colby has told us about how you and he had gotten into an argument with some black boys at the movie theater.” My aunt Jemma said. “And about how they had threatened to beat you both up if you came back to school.” She continued with tears wellin’ up in her eyes. “He has missed over a month of school because he is scared!”
Colby hadn’t told me of this ridiculous lie! And he hadn’t told me of my involvement in it neither!
My Aunt Jemma sat there and looked to me as if she hoped I could offer her some kind of comfort. But since I didn’t know about the lie until right then, I didn’t have any comfort to give her.
And it wasn’t like I’d been the one who’d been skippin’ school or nothin’! I wasn’t the one that had found that boat down there on that creek! And I surly wasn’t the one who had chiseled the chain off of it! It was Colby who’d done that! And he’d been playin’ ‘Huckleberry Finn’ on it up and down that river for a month! Can you imagine? My mama would’ve flat worn me out if I’d have done somethin’ like that!
But there I was anyways; just sittin’ there in that Principles office bein’ stared at by my Principle, my Aunt Jemma and that Principal of that CitySchool.
“You know?” I was thinkin’ out loud in my head. “You’d think that if someone had involved you in one of their schemes, they’d have at least had the ‘gumpshun’ to have told ya about it!” I thought as I placed my hand on my chin like I was ponderin’ hard over the situation. “Tom would’ve told Huck bout’ it!” I thought again. “But I don’t reckon Colby ever read that book!”
I wanted to reach out to her then, my Aunt Jemma I mean, to provide her some means of comfort. She looked like a deer blinded by the headlights of an on comin’ car! She was gonna hit her no matter what I done; I knew that! But I just hoped she wouldn’t feel much pain.
“Colby said that he has been skipping school because he’s afraid that those boys will get him!” My Aunt Jemma said again.
Colby sure could tell a whopper! And he sure had told one this time! And it seemed that he had brought me to a crossroads. I could stand by his story since he was my friend and cousin and all. I mean, what could it hurt? It would only be a little lie, right? And it would get him out of an awful big mess! But then, how could our stories possibly match up if we were both tellin’ lies based on events that hadn’t actually ever happened? I didn’t even know what the made up facts of the story were! Or …since I had no workin’ knowledge of any of this ‘altercation’ …I could simply let the chips fall where they may! And I could tell em’ the truth! I knew that’s what I was supposed to do!
But if I told em’ the truth, I would have to tell em’ about the boat! Cause that’s the only part of the story that I actually knew about! And Colby would get into even more trouble if I did that!
He had showed me that boat! Now, I don’t know as I remember him tellin’ me that he was gonna be skippin’ school to go up and down that creek on it! But he had showed me that boat!
I realized then, that no matter what happened my Aunt Jemma needed to know that her boy wasn’t in any danger of gettin’ beat up! At least not until his mama and daddy got him home after this meetin’, I reckoned!
“I don’t know anythin’ about gettin’ into an argument up at the movies!” I just kinda blurted out real fast. “And I don’t know where these stories come from!” I continued. “All that I know about is the boat that Colby found down there by the creek!” I blurted out and then I set back on that chair like a balloon that had just had all of the air let out of it.
My Aunt Jemma’s eyes got really big and she sat back on the couch to catch her breath!
My school’s Principal looked as though a great weight had been lifted from off of his shoulders and he let go a big sigh of relief!
But the other school Principal, he looked at me differently, eerily. And then he asked me about the wolves. “So the stories he’s told us about the ‘werewolf cave’ were untrue as well?” He asked.
“Had I seen this man before?” I wondered. “Was there fury behind his eyes?”
My worlds had been divided now by vast walls of separation; my world at home, my world at school and my wo
rld that only existed when I was with Cricket. And when these worlds collided like they had that day, and by no fault of my own …I found it extremely difficult to determine which role I was to play.
Within the confines and concrete walls of that school, I played the part of a school boy, who did his homework, took his tests and did his best to pass the course. That world was a part of what the grownups called ‘reality’. But I knew, as I had seen it with my own eyes, that ‘realities’ could be altered. For if the grownups only knew how close they were to the edge …their ‘reality’ would shatter like many pieces of broken glass!
‘Cognitive dissonance’ was the term I’d learned in class. It was a big word so I made sure to write it down so I could remember it! It was described as what occurs when ‘what a person believes to be true is altered by information that they previously did not have. And cause of this new found information; they must then ‘rethink’ their whole way of thinkin’.
And it was written in Aesop’s fable too, the story of the Fox and the Grapes:
‘The fox sees some grapes hangin’ high on a limb and wishes to eat em’. But when he is unable to think of a way to reach em’, he decides, since he is also bein’ made fun of by some unfriendly birds, that the grapes are not worth eatin’ …and that they must not be ripe enough or that they may be sour.’
“The Fox couldn’t fathom the idea that somethin’ could possibly be out of his reach… so he changed his whole way of thinkin’.”
“No sir!” I answered the man. “There is a cave! But I don’t know about any stories that Colby might have told ya, or made up about it.” I suggested. “But there is a cave back at the old rock quarry.”
I had given them just enough information to make a decision about what Colby had told em’ without actually lyin’ to em’. I only hoped that the way I had said it would make this line of questionin’ go away.
I watched his eyes as the man sneered at me cunningly, but after hearin’ my words …he asked me no further questions about the cave.
However, the fact still remained that I was in that moment in time …right there in that room cause Colby had lied on me! He had lied to his parents and he had lied to his Principal! And he had even involved my school in the whole situation! But what was worst of all, he had put his mama in a position where she truly believed that her son was in danger! He had caused a collision between both of our worlds!
And it was like watchin’ a part of my Aunt Jemma dyin’ in those moments sittin’ there on that couch as she listened to me speak; tellin’ em’ how Colby had chiseled the chain off of that boat and how he’d been goin’ up and down that creek on it for more than a month now! But mostly it hurt her cause he had lied.
I wished that I didn’t have to hurt her. My aunt Jemma had always been really good to me. And it made me feel like a traitor. Sometimes I wished that I hadn’t given em’ all that information. I mean, without even so much as bein’ tortured for it!
But at the time I just didn’t see no other way about it!
Me and Colby never talked about what happened to him afterwards. And now that I think back on it, I don’t think that we ever even brought the subject up!
Colby had been my best friend for most of my life. And I guessed that it was alot like school was between us.
It was just another stone in the road.
Twenty Six
Beneath these Earthly Grounds
The map was spread out before us upon my quilt. The length and the width of it nearly covered the entire surface of my bed! It was of old paper like parchment that crackled as you touched it with creases that remained on its surface forever. It had been dried from the moisture and kept safely between the weights of my mattress upon my box springs as I slept.
Me and Cricket looked at the map; studyin’ its lines and markin’s with heavy focus.
“This is written in French!” I said as I let go a heavy sigh. “How are we gonna figure this out?”
Cricket looked up at me and smiled, and then she tenderly reached out and touched the side of my face with her hand and said, “Ne t'inquiète pas ma chérie, je peux parler Français.”
“What?” I said as I looked down at her and wondered.
Cricket kinda laughed and then made a really cute face and said, “Don’t worry sweetie, I can speak French.” And then she ran her fingers through my hair.
Just then my mama walked into my room!
“What are you kids up to today?” Mama asked as we both jumped at the sound of her voice and Cricket put her hand back down to her side really quickly! “I thought you might like a snack.” Mama continued as she handed Cricket a plate full of cookies. “There’s milk downstairs if you want any.”
That was my mama’s subtle way of sayin’ that she could see us better if we’d go back downstairs.
“Thank you Mrs. McAnully.” Cricket said as she took hold of the plate.
“Thanks Mom.” I said lookin’ at my mama like she was intrudin’ upon my space and that me and Cricket needed some privacy.
Mama looked us both up and down and pointed her finger back and forth between us and said, “You two behave yourselves up here. You hear me? You keep that door open! If I need to, I’ll send Anna up here to keep an eye on you both!”
“Okay Mom!” I said draggin’ the way I said her name out kinda long.
“We will Mrs. McAnully.” Cricket said. “We’ll be good.”
“I’m sure you will.” Mama said as she looked us both over again with her eyes opened wide and her finger still pointin’ back and forth. “You’d better!” And then she walked on back out of my room and we heard her walk down the stairs.
“I don’t think your mama likes me.” Cricket whispered.
“Yes she does.” I told her back. “You’re still in the house aint ya?” I continued. “If she didn’t, you’d be outta here!” I said as I pointed my thumb back over my shoulder like an umpire callin’ a strike in a baseball game.
Cricket smiled again and then we both returned to lookin’ at that map. And I ate a cookie!
“This map is old.” Cricket said. “You see this area here? All of these houses are gone. This is all a big field now.” she said as she pointed and circled her finger along the surface of the map.
I laid my hand right down on the map fast! And then I looked at Cricket and said, “Hey!” I said. “How come you never told me that you could speak French?”
“Well I guess it never came up now did it!” She answered back in a kinda flirty way.
“One of these days…” I thought to myself as I looked into her pretty clear blue eyes …and then I just let it go.
“This area here is where the rock quarry is now, right where the town of Lystra shows on the map. And this …this is where we are now.” Cricket said as she pointed to the spot on the map where my house now sat. “And this!” she said excitedly. “This is where Obadiah’s house was. It has his name written on it too! Right here! See?” She asked as she pointed to his name. “All of this farmland was his!” she said as she drew a big circle with her finger. “Look Toby! Part of your Mom and Dad’s land used to be a part of Obadiah’s farm too! This part here from the pond over to your barn and all the way up the hill! It all used to be a part of Obadiah’s place!”
“What about the barn? Was the barn there at that time?” I asked as I looked over her shoulder.
“Yes. There was a building there, but it doesn’t say that it was a barn though.” She answered.
“Could they have torn down that one and built our barn over top of it?” I suggested. “Can you tell what the old one was used for? I mean, if it wasn’t a cattle barn, or a tobacco barn?”
“It’s listed here as an infirmary? No. Wait …what’s the word I’m lookin’ for?” she said to herself as a question. “Magasin de minerai …Forgeron!” she said out loud in French and then she said it again in English so that I could understand. “Ore shop …Blacksmith! This was where he worked with iron! This was his workshop!
” she said excitedly.
“So …if he didn’t keep his sheep in that buildin’? Where did he keep em’?” I asked. “Is there another buildin’ showin’ on his land, a bigger buildin’ for his cattle?”
Cricket scrutinized the details and drawin’s of the land that was partitioned out upon the page and then she pointed her finger to a location on the map and said excitedly, “This is it! It’s right here! You see this word Toby? It says ‘bergers grange’, it means ‘shepherds barn’.” And then she hit the paper hard with her finger. “It’s written there like little scribbles beneath the blackened square shape on the page!”
It was just as she’d said! Like a pirates treasure filled with gold doubloons marked with a Frenchman’s X upon the map! The treasure laid not more than a stone’s throw from where I’d sat on our front porch swing, not less than a million times or more!