by Jenni James
Taking a deep, but silent, breath, she delivered the message. She explained about Mr. O’Connell’s need for a cellar by the Ham Bone Inn. “So you see, Mr. O’Connell won’t need very much of your time. What do you think?”
“Well,” answered Joe, “I will be happy to, once this job is done. I don’t promise a job to someone else until I finish the one I’m on.”
“I understand.” Ginger pulled a paper from her pocket and handed it to Joe, “Here, call me when you are ready to meet Mr. O’Connell and I will show you the way.”
“I will,” said Joe. He flashed her another smile that increased her heart rate and she shyly smiled back. “It was very nice meeting you. I wish I could stop a while and talk, but I will have to work six days a week as it is to beat that flood. Later, okay?"
"Okay," said Ginger as she turned back to her bike.
"By the way," Joe asked, "What is your name?"
"Ginger. Ginger McNand."
"Cute name."
"Thank you. See ya."
"See ya." Joe gave a salute and he watched as she rode her silver bike away. Ginger wondered if Mr. O'Connell's magic had charmed Joe Hale or if his smile was really genuinely heart stopping.
Ginger pedaled fast down to her best friend Ann's house, and confided in her regarding her feelings when she met young Mr. Hale. Ann giggled and promised not to tell. The girls discussed the plan to babysit by teaching soccer, and called all the other babysitters in town. Ginger showed them all the way to the Ham-Bone Inn, and the grassy field.
For the next 3 weeks on Saturdays when the young kids weren't in school, the babysitters took them to Mr. O'Connell's field and played soccer. Somehow, the parents were too busy watching the trench digging Saturday mornings to ask where the kids were playing.
Finally, the trench was done and Joe came into town in his red pickup on Friday afternoon to present his bill at the city hall. Ginger was coming out of school with Ann and saw him. “Hi Joe,” she called out.
“Hi, Ginger. Hey, let’s get together after I get through here and maybe get a soda. What do you think?” he asked with a big grin.
“I would like that, Joe.”
Then something awfully disturbing happened. Joe went inside and a minute later, the city leaders took Joe out on the steps of the City Hall, and with loud voices they thanked him for saving their town with "his selfless service, not asking for anything in return". They patted him on the back and they went back into the building. Joe followed them back into the hall.
"Hey," said Joe, "what do you mean? I told you that I charge a reasonable price and you said go ahead."
"Oh no," said the Mayor. "Do you think this little town can afford such a project? We all agree that you said you would do this for us."
"For a price!"
"No, No. We all heard correctly didn't we, gentlemen? Thank you very much and goodbye." The Mayor pointed to the door.
Joe didn't know what to do but leave. It was his word against all of the city leaders. No one would believe him.
Ginger and Ann were waiting at the school and looked across the street and saw the city officials with Joe, but couldn’t hear what they said. Joe sat on the steps of the City Hall. He covered his eyes with his hands. Ginger approached him. “Joe, is there something wrong? Is there a problem with the project?"
"No, the project is done."
"Oh, then I can take you to Mr. O'Connell's?"
"So he can cheat me, too? “Joe said loudly as he stood up.
"Goodbye to Waterton!" He stomped off to his pickup and drove away.
Ginger stood with her mouth gaping open for a minute as she watched the pickup disappear, then tears started to well up in her eyes and overflow down her cheeks. Confusion set her brain spinning, and she nearly fell on the steps. The mayor's secretary came out on the steps of City Hall and saw Ginger's confused, sad look.
"What does he mean, he got cheated?" asked Ginger.
"Joe claims he got cheated by the city leaders, but they wouldn’t lie."
"What did they say?"
"They said he volunteered to do the trench."
"But he didn't!" pled Ginger. "He said it would be a reasonable cost."
"How do you know?"
"I was here- I heard them talking through the open window."
"Are you sure you heard them right?"
"Ann, come here." Ginger called across the street. Ann jogged over. "Ann, didn't the city agree to pay Joe for the trench?"
"Yes, of course," said Ann.
"You children should go home and let the grownups handle this," said the mayor, looking out the city Hall door at them.
Children? thought Ginger. "I'll be eighteen in one month," she whispered to herself.
"Ann," she said out loud. "They are not going to pay him, and they are not going to believe us. Maybe the other adults will.”
Ann put her arm around Ginger’s shoulders and said, “Let’s go, Ginger, no use staying here just to be put down.”
Ann and Ginger went to their own parents and explained what had happened. Ginger was taken aback by their response. “We think you must have heard them wrong. We should be grateful for people like Mr. Hale who would drive his big machine all the way here from Grandville and work for a whole month to dig a big trench to divert the water so we don’t have to clean out our basements for the rest of the summer, and do it without wanting any compensation. What a wonderful thing to do,” said Ginger’s Mom.
“The problem is that it would be wonderful if it were true,” Ginger said, “but it isn’t.”
“Now, Ginger,” her mom reached over and patted her on the back. “You are just not accepting the fact that you heard it wrong.”
“And you are believing the mayor instead of your own daughter!” Ginger complained.
“Ginger!” her dad said sternly. “We believe you heard something incorrectly. Not that you are lying.”
There was no chance of convincing them.
Ann had the same luck with her parents. “We need more witnesses,” she said. They asked the other kids and found some that had also heard the city leaders. Even the mayor’s son had heard his dad talk about it to the city leaders at his house. They all heard the same thing. They decided to have a protest rally. The kids made signs and went to the City Hall. The Mayor confronted them and threatened to put them all in juvenile detention for disturbing the peace.
The kids went back across the street to the school yard. Through the trees they saw a red pick-up pull up to the City hall and they watched Joe Hale, dressed in suit and tie, get out and go up into the building. Then another car pulled up.
“That’s the circuit judge,” the mayor’s son whispered.
“What’s going on in there?” Ann asked. Two boys volunteered and they went quietly into the building, grabbed a couple of push brooms from the custodial closet and started cleaning the floor by the courtroom. The doors didn’t fit together tight so they could see and hear the proceedings.
In a few minutes, the boys came running out of the building and across the street into the trees by the school. Joe emerged, looking distraught, got into his pick-up and drove off. The boys told the other kids how Joe had told his side of the story and the city leaders told their side and the judge ruled in favor of the city leaders. The other kids asked, “Why?”
“Because,” said one of the boys, “they had several witnesses and Joe had only himself. He mentioned that he had heard that some kids were witnesses, but the judge said they had to be over eighteen. The biggest reason was that there was no written contract, only a verbal agreement. So Joe lost the case and had to pay the court fees.”
“So unfair,” Ginger said. Then an idea struck her. “Oh yeah, the book.”
“What book?” Ann asked.
“’The Pied Piper of Hamblin’, but we can be ‘The Pied Pipers of Ham Bone Inn’.”
All of the big kids chimed in, “The who?”
“Listen everyone,” Ginger said. “We have to be the o
nes to do something and we can’t get help from any adult, except maybe Mr. O’Connell. I know what to do. Tomorrow is Saturday. We will get into our band uniforms tomorrow morning and we will march and play our instruments like a parade and lead the little kids out to the soccer field. They will play soccer as usual then I will have Mr. O’Connell feed them lunch and then they can camp out in his tree house until the parents make the city leaders pay Joe in full. Then we will march them back into town. We all need to tell the little kids we babysit to get ready for a day camp and bring a blanket roll and pillow to soccer practice. Tell them it’s a reward for doing so well in soccer lessons.”
“But, the parents will know where the kids are,” Ann said.
“No, remember, none of the parents came to the soccer lessons. I think it’s worth a try,” Ginger said.
“Okay, I’m in,” all the babysitters said.
The next morning the kids all gathered on the east side of town. The babysitters in the school band were in uniform. The other kids all carried blanket rolls and pillows tied to their backs. Ann was concerned, “What if the parents follow us?”
“Most likely they won’t. In fact, they won’t even notice.” Ginger said.
“Why?” Ann asked.
“Look,” Ginger pointed to the top of the mountain, “The snow cap is melting.”
“Oh no,” they all said.
“It’s alright. Remember the new trench. Let’s go.”
Sure enough, all the men in town went to the trench to watch and see if it would hold. The babysitters had reassured the moms that the soccer field never flooded, so they seemed glad that their little ones were going to play soccer.
The high school band struck up the music and started to march. The little kids did surprisingly well at marching in rows and off they went to the old broken highway and around the big hill.
The snow cap disappeared by noon and the men nervously watched as the water rushed down the mountain side and poured into the trench which soon became a canal and carried the water to the river.
“Just as Joe said it would,” Ginger’s dad said, “he did it.”
A shout of “Hurray” went up from all the men.
The parents were unconcerned, knowing their little ones would return as soon as soccer practice was over until someone noticed a letter posted on the town bulletin board.
The letter told of the deception and mistreatment of Joe Hale by the Waterton city leaders and that many of the high school kids were witnesses. It said that the babysitters had the young kids in a safe place and would return them home as soon as they knew Joe had been paid in full for digging the trench.
The news spread like wildfire across town. Parents began to panic. They asked each other where the kids went for soccer practice and no one knew the exact location. One remembered it was in a field just outside of town. Others remembered it was where the floods never hit. One mother said she heard the name "Ham Bone Inn" but no one knew where that was.
In the meantime, the kids had their soccer practice and after-wards they all converged on the Ham Bone Inn for the usual snack they had every Saturday after practice, but this time Ginger had a request.
“Mr. O'Connell, would you please prepare a lunch for all of us kids? We plan to be here longer than we have in the past."
"Oh, and why is that?"
Ginger explained the whole plan to Mr. O'Connell and to her surprise, he disagreed with the plan.
"Oh, so that's why you wore your band uniform and played music. I will feed all of you lunch, then you must march right back to town."
"But," Ginger argued, "If we do that they will ignore us."
"Maybe, but if you carry out that plan you will be criminals, just like the Waterton city leaders."
"We aren't criminals, we are doing this to help someone."
"You might be accused of kidnapping and have to go to jail. One can't break the law in the name of helping someone," Mr. O'Connell said.
"Oh my stars," Ginger cried, "I can't believe it! Kidnapping? What was I thinking? Why couldn't I see that?"
"Sometimes," he said, "people can get so caught up in the desire to make something happen that they act on impulse. Usually it is strong feelings that seem to blind them."
"What do I do now?" she asked.
"As I said, we'll feed them lunch, then you can take them right back and not carry out your plan to keep them here."
"Okay," Ginger said, and she immediately told the older kids the change of plans. All the kids were tired so they were happy to be going home. A few of the babysitter kids were about to tell Ginger that they were tired and wanted to go back anyway.
Back in town, the parents found an old resident who said she knew the exact location of the Ham Bone Inn.
"Where's that?" asked one mother.
"I remember," the old woman recalled, "the main highway ran around that big hill on the east side of town. It hasn't been used since the freeway was constructed years ago. There was a popular cafe and motel called The Ham Bone Inn on that road. When the traffic shifted, the inn was forced to close."
"Let's go," one dad said, and they got into their cars and trucks and drove around the big hill on the rough broken up pavement to find the old cafe.
The kids were packed up ready to go when Ginger saw the dust rising in the distance and she knew it had to be many cars coming.
"Mr. O'Connell," she pleaded. "What can you do, so they won't find us here? It’s humanly impossible to get these kids out of sight before the adults arrive. If we can make it to town before they do then maybe they won't have us arrested or something."
"There is a shortcut to Waterton over the hill on a secluded trail up there behind my tree house. You take the children that way and I promise I will see to it that they won't be able to see you or find the trail.”
Ginger pleaded, “Please help us!” as she waved the kids toward the back of the tree house.
“I will see to it. I can delay them only so long so you better get going. “He smiled and Ginger knew that he was going to use his magic powers and that she couldn’t tell the other kids. She smiled and gave him a nod that showed she understood.
"Thank you, bye." Ginger said. She put Ann in the lead and she put herself in the rear to watch for straggling little ones. Every few steps she looked back. Mr. O'Connell waited by the road for the vehicles to start arriving. As they pulled into the parking area, Ginger saw Mr. O'Connell hold his arms in a circle. She saw the sunlight bend. It was then that she realized that she was on the same side of the magic wall that he was and she saw how the magic worked.
She looked back again and saw her parents looking around and right in her direction, but even wearing her gold and green band uniform, they could not see her. Mr. O'Connell disappeared from her view as the kids reached the top of the path and before them was Waterton.
The distraught parents looked around the old cafe and the field across the street and the trees, but only found children's footprints in the dirt which went every direction. After several minutes they discovered that there was another person with them; a small old man in green clothes. Mr. O'Connell was able to hold them for only fifteen minutes with stories of the kids playing soccer. The last he heard them say was "Goodbye Mr. O'Connell. We're going back now." The anxious parents left the old cafe and headed home and found their children marching off the hill trail to the band playing. They were glad they were safe and sound.
“What were you babysitters thinking? You were trusted to take care of our little ones.”
Ginger stepped in front of the kids. “It was all my doing. I was desperate to do something that would make you all see that something very wrong had happened. Thanks to Mr. O’Connell, I changed my mind.”
The parents were relieved, but realized they had something to take care of. They had to get to the bottom of the problem with the city leaders, so they went to city Hall to confront them. The Mayor denied the accusations at first, but when they read him the letter stating that s
everal older kids had heard the agreement, the mayor started to change his story and defend his actions, saying that he was just doing it in the interest of saving the town money. However, when they brought out the town ledger book, it showed the money had been there, but had been used to pad the city leaders paychecks, citing "extra services" performed. The whole town demanded the money be returned to the city fund. They marched the city leaders to the bank where the transfers were completed. The whole town, right there and then, called the sheriff and the sheriff left for Grandville to find Joe Hale and pay him in full.
Joe came to Waterton and thanked Ginger for what she had done for him and took her out on their first date. Ginger was in a new calico, bodice fitting, summer dress and white sandals and Joe couldn’t help thinking that she had grown into a woman right before his eyes this past month.
During the next month the city leaders were taken out of office and served jail terms. New trusted leaders were voted in.
Joe Hale was present at the town meeting and thanked one and all. He smiled at Ginger and made her heart flutter again.
Mr. O'Connell grinned at her and said, "Now that's funny."
“What?" asked Ginger.
"If you two marry, your name will be Ginger Hale." With his accent the 'h' was missing.
Ginger blushed redder than her hair and Joe said that he had already thought of that one. Then, on the spur of the moment, Joe and Ginger were magically magnetically pulled together, not by the power of a leprechaun, but by true love which has its own magic. He put his arms around her waist and hers naturally went around his neck and Joe leaned down and gave Ginger a kiss- for her 18th birthday.
Marla Workman
Being an author is a dream come true for me. Many of my high school and college instructors told me that I should be writing the text books. My college degree is in science which adds to the art of explaining mysterious events. I enjoy letting my imagination go in the fairytales and fiction I write and then describing the pictures that appear in my mind so others can see them also, my husband is not only supportive, but he is a walking dictionary who I can ask at any given moment to tell me the definition of a word.