by Henry Givens
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The schools, Ed's bakery, McDonalds, Wal-Mart, barber shop, any place where people gathered the subject of the conversation always turned to Arthur, Tom and Pedro. Did I say the schools? Ho-o-o-boy! The big question USED to be, will the Bartlett Middle School Wildcats win the state football championship this year? That took second, maybe even third place. The biggest question, among the girls as well as the boys was which branch of the service they were going to join.
To say the least, by the time school was out, there was enough energy flowing that the guys could not wait to get to the park to practice for the next game. Tom swung by Bartlett Middle School and picked up a car load. However, as Tom was parking the Explorer, the guys were mystified to see a squad of girls in THEIR practice area. Oh, my goodness, tell me it's not true. They were kicking around.......A SOCCER BALL? Dear God, what is this world coming to?
They hurriedly piled out of the Explorer and sprinted over to their practice area. The girls stopped what they were doing and waited for their arrival with big smiles. Arthur recognized one of the real quickly, Marci. He walked up to her and asked, "Marci, what are y'all doing on our practice field?"
One of the other girls spoke up, "Just who said it was YOUR practice field? Last time I heard it was a PUBLIC park." Then she put both of her arms around the shoulders of the two girls beside her and smiled real big and proclaimed, "And, WE'RE the public, busteroony."
Ramon jumped in just as boldly, "E-e-e-e-w-w, boy, Arthur, she really cut you down with her razor sharp wit, didn't she?"
Now, Ramon was big for his age, but Taylor Sanders was just as big as he was. And, tough? Why she would rather be in jeans, t-shirt and sneakers than have to wear a dress and high heels. Dances? No way. Let's go fishing or hunting.
But, if you do, you would be hard pressed to beat her. She just doesn't like to lose. Does she take any guff off of the guys? Absolutely not. Just ask Jim Newman and Buddy Coon. Both of them cut a couple of tawdry remarks her way one day and had to live down a black eye and broken nose.
I said all that to give you some back ground as to why she made the next comment. "Hey, Sport. I can not only cut somebody down, I can take 'em down, too."
Before Ramon could come back with a smart remark, Marci piped up, "Hey, look guys. Every thing's OK. Coach Bonnie and Coach Wimberly have already made an agreement that we would alternate practice areas. Guys, you have this area tomorrow. Everything cool?" She was hoping that she could diffuse the tension.
Arthur shrugged his shoulders, looked up at Marci and smiled as he answered for the guys, "Yeah, it's OK."
Marci smiled back and said, "You looked good up there on that stage last night, Arthur." Then, as she reached over and mussed his hair a little bit, she continued, "But, then again. I always did like guys in uniform."
Then, one of those female impulse things happened. As she mussed his hair, she grabbed a handful and gave it a couple of friendly tugs. When she realized what she had done, she put her hand over her mouth, giggled and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, Arthur. I have no idea why I did that." Then, she and a couple of the girls broke out in laughter.
To his own amazement, Arthur didn't even flinch or try to push her hand out of the way. He just blushed and babbled, "Th-that's OK, Marci. I kinda liked it anyhow."
We-e-l-l-l-l, the guys could not let this pass. "O-o-o-h, Arthur...and...Marci" "Say, Arthur, can I borrow that after shave you're using?" "Yeah, Arthur, you've been holding out on some of those MOVES you OBVIOUSLY know. When are you going to show us some of those?"
His face was redder than ever, "Aw, guys, cut it out will ya'? Marci and I have a lot in common. We've both got great-grandparents that are cracker jacks."
Marci rolled her eyes and agreed as she put her arm around Arthur's shoulders and gave him a friendly squeeze, "She-e-e-e-sh, Arthur, me and you have got our hands full. Granny Maybelle won't quit. She's still thinking of ways she can trick your grandpa."
Then as she looked around at the crowd, she said, "You guys have no idea what we go through."
Since Marci's arm was around his shoulders, Arthur slid his around her waist, looked up at her and said, "Marci, I always wondered what it was like to have a big sister. Would you be mine?"
Marci's eyes grew big as she answered, "Well......I don't have any siblings and I reckon it would be nice to have a little brother around. Besides, WE might have to put our heads together to figure out how we're going to raise our great-grandparents."
Maybelle had always been one of everybody's favorites. In the short amount of time that they had known Tom, he was getting pretty high up on everybody's list, also. To hear their two great-grandchildren talk like this was just too funny for words. The gang immediately realized that this was a 'friend' relationship and not a boyfriend/girlfriend/lovey dovey type of thing.
Taylor threw in a good one, "Yeah, Marci, actually having Arthur for a younger brother would be better than having a real one."
Everyone looked puzzled as Marci asked, "What makes you say that?"
"Because," Taylor snickered, "when he does something you don't like you can always spank him and send him home to his mother."
This brought a good round of laughter. Ramon saw his chance. "Hey, tough girl. You talk awful big about spanking people."
O-o-o-oh my gosh. This was too good for Taylor not to jump on. So hands on her hips and a smile on her face she boasted, "For your information, possum butt, I can spank just as good as I can talk."
Uh-oh. Ramon had her right where he wanted her. "Oh, really?" he asked as he got up on his tip-toes and danced back and forth and dug right back at her, "Well, IF there was anybody here that thought they could spank ME, they would have to catch me first, Sugar."
Well, well, well. The "have to catch me, first" was enough to light Taylor's fire. But and however, it was the "Sugar" that threw about 50 gallons of gasoline on it. Taylor lunged at him, but Ramon darted out of the way. He took a few steps and turned around backing up and motioned for her to 'come on.' Taylor was fast and might have been able to catch him in a run. But, Ramon put some dodges and spins that left Taylor grabbing at nothing but air.
It just so happened, that Coach Bonnie and Coach Wimberly were walking toward them about that time. They did not hear what was said but they saw the chase. Or, should I say, attempted chase. Coach Wimberly yelled out, "Ramon."
When Ramon heard the coach call him, he stopped and looked up. Before he could answer, Taylor caught him in a bear hug, lifted him up into the air and slammed him on the ground. Of course, she was on top of him and their faces were just inches apart as she gloated, "Gotcha, sucker."
Before she knew what happened, Ramon grabbed her by the head and kissed her RIGHT ON THE LIPS. It was nothing elaborate or long, just a little peck. Then he smiled real big and smarted off, "Baby, I love it when you're mean like that."
O-o-o-o-oh, Taylor was fuming. As she got up, she took both hands and pounded his chest. All she could say was, "A-a-a-a-a-r-rg," and walked off to join the girls.
When she got to Marci, she kept her back to the guys who were running to the other side of the park by now. She folded her arms, shook her head, looked at the ground and let out a loud, "Humph!"
Marci and the others gathered around her. Marci asked, "You alright?"
Taylor answered like she was spitting something out of her mouth, "He KISSED me."
Betty goaded her, "Was it all that bad?"
Taylor snickered, "Well, to tell you the truth, ............no."
They all laughed one of those it's-the-girls-laughing-again laugh. It was loud enough for the guys to hear. Some of them turned around, looked at the girls, then looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Girls.
As the girls began to stretch, Linda asked, "Taylor, you looked pretty good out there. Why didn't you go out for football? I read in the paper last week that a high school up north let a couple of girls play."
Taylor answered, "Yeah, I had ask
ed Coach Wimberly and he said it was OK with him but I would have to get my parent’s permission. Dad was all for it. But, Mom vetoed the idea."
Betty asked, "What was her reason? Was she afraid you would get hurt?"
Taylor laughed, "Nope. She knows that if I get hurt it wouldn't bother me a bit." She shook her head and laughed some more, "She said....are you ready for this? She said that she didn't like the idea that guys might be slapping me on my butt."
That was just too hilarious for the girls. They broke out into one of those 'girl' things again. Coach Bonnie had heard it and stepped over to ask, "She said what?"
"Yeah," Taylor continued, "and I told her straight out. Well, Mama, it's MY butt, now ain't it."
Girl thing. Girl thing. And this time it was interspersed with a few squeals. It's not just what she said, but the way she said it.
Betty couldn't help herself, "What did your mama do then."
"Ha-ha," she chortled. "She sent me to my room for an hour. But that's OK. I got her back."
Marci egged her on, "Well, don't just leave us in suspense. What did you do?"
With a big grin on her face Taylor began, "I figured I would get filthy rich by writing a book entitled "One Hundred and One Ways to Tick Your Mother off While in Time Out."
Big girl thing. Girl thing so big that it made the boys look around again and wonder if they were talking about them.
"Yep," she continued, "here's my list so far. Number one, act like you're lifting weights. Number two, pick the weights about two or three inches off the floor and drop them. Number three, grunt real loud as if you were doing bench presses. Number four, after all that noise, make no sound at all until your mother comes to the door and asks if you are OK. Oh, I forgot. You have to make a big deal out of locking the door when you first go in, so they can't sneak in and figure out you are not really lifting weights."
Coach Bonnie and the other girls laughed. "I'll buy the first one that gets printed, Taylor, no matter what price you ask for it. Just don’t forget to sign it for me. You could become rich with a book like that, you know."
"You got it, Coach," Taylor replied with a big grin.
"OK, girls, let's practice," Coach Bonnie said as she brought the girls back into focus. "Let’s have four lines of girls facing each other twenty yards apart. Let's see how fast we can dribble a soccer ball. Let's go."
As the boys all gathered together at the other side of the park, Coach Wimberly asked Ramon, "Just where did you get those fine moves you put on Taylor just now?"
Ramon snickered, "From running away from all of my cousins when we lived in Mexico. There were twelve of them and they were all bigger and loved to beat up on me. They used the excuse that I was number thirteen in the bunch and therefore very unlucky. They said that it was their 'Christian' duty to beat me up to keep the devil away from village. My ever-praying mother kept me close by her side as much as she could."
Everyone in earshot began to chuckle. Arthur exclaimed, "Holey moley, it's a wonder you're still alive and in one piece."
"Yeah," replied Ramon. "I was too small to outrun them so I got re-e-a-l good about side-stepping, arm-slapping, and sometimes........well...just plain escaping for dear life."
Coach said, "Let me tell you something, if you can dodge defenders as well as you did Taylor, you could be the half-back we have been looking for. The ankle injury that Bobby had last Thursday is a little worse than the doctor thought. He won't be able to play in the game this week or the championship game next weekend. How about it? Do you feel up to a challenge?"
An excited Ramon replied, "Do I? Whoopee! You'd better believe I do."
"OK," said the coach, "then let's get cracking. I am sure that Summerville has sent people to our last couple of games so they already know a lot of the plays we run. We'll have to come up with a couple of different plays to try to throw them off. Remember, they have been champs for 10 years in a row and they are plenty tough. Can we do it?"
With one accord, the whole team yelled, "Ye-e-e-e-e-e-s!"
As he clapped his hands, the coach commanded, "OK, offense and defense line up and let's run Ramon through a couple of plays. Remember defense, only tag the runner or pass receiver. We can't afford any more injuries."
As they lined up to practice, Arthur's heart was overflowing with joy. He was almost beside himself with excitement. As he watched the guys practice, his mind was reeling over everything that had happened in the past two weeks.
A guy he had figured was his enemy had now become his best friend. The guys on the football team had accepted him as one of their own and not just a fifth-grader. He had heard folks on the sidelines saying that they might have a good chance at beating Summerville for the first time ever. Everything was changing so fast that it was almost too hard to keep up with. But, oh boy, it sure was exciting.
Of course, the greatest highlight was last week when his great-grandfather came into his life. Then it dawned on him. Tom had not only changed the life of his family, he had impacted the lives of half of the families in Elmhurst.
And it wasn't just what had happened in church yesterday. It was before then. It started Tuesday when he showed up for practice. He remembered how his grandfather talked to everybody. He talked to EVERYBODY like they were important. EVERYBODY got that big smile. EVERYBODY got attention as if they were the most important person on earth.
Then, it dawned on Arthur. It was LOVE. All of a sudden, the most goose-bumpidy feeling came over Arthur as he realized that it was the love of Jesus that his grandfather showed. What was that phrase Pedro used yesterday? Oh, yeah. It was, "Jesus wrapped up in a sergeant's uniform." Again, way down inside, Arthur felt something tugging at him. Something began tugging at him that he was not going to be able to escape.
Practice went great and everybody was excited. Ramon showed some great potential. Summerville was going to be in for a surprise. Coach Wimberly went to pull the van around as the guys were gathering up the equipment.
Ramon asked the question, "Hey guys, was it just me or are there some places in the grass that are harder than others?"
Elrod piped up, "Yeah, I felt it, too. Remember the time me and you got tangled up and we fell. Well, we fell right on top of one of those 'harder' spots."
"Yeah, that's what made me bring up the subject," replied Ramon as he rubbed his ribs. "That one might leave a mark."
Marco commented, "O-o-o-o-o-o-o-h, well, now. Maybe Taylor will kiss it and make it well for you......Sweety."
Arthur chimed in, "Yeah, she'll kiss it alright. With a left hook."
The gang all laughed and ribbed Ramon. "OK, guys, OK. I deserve it. But how about those hard spots? Anybody got any ideas why they are down on this end and not at the other end of the park?"
Coach Wimberly had overheard their conversation and came over to offer an explanation, "Those hard spots down here? Those are probably the old stumps of the oak trees that used to be down at this end of the park. There was about five or six of them, I believe. Uh........you know, it seemed like they were all in a row, kinda. Anyway, when the city did some remodeling.....oh, about the time some of y'all were born.....they cut them all down and filled in the low spots with the big mound of dirt that used to be across the road over there." Of course, the coach pointed to the lone cave that Arthur knew so well that was almost completely covered from view by underbrush.
Arthur stood there in a daze while the other guys filled up the van with equipment. His mind started running wild as he remembered. 'Five oak trees in a line pointing to a cave,' he thought. 'The treasure!!! Grandpa's treasure!!! God, are you trying to help me to find Grandpa's treasure? Well, if You are, You're gonna have to do a little more helping.'
He walked over to where Ramon had said the hard spot was and walked around, trying to get a feel for how big it was. Then he walked off in another direction to see if he could find another one. The guys watched him trotting in a zig-zag fashion until he stopped and then started stomping around in a circle o
f some sort. Quickly he looked in the direction of the first tree, got his bearings, turned half-way around and was about to trot away.
Ramon stopped him by asking, "Hey, big man. What on earth are you doing?"
Arthur turned around in wide-eyed amazement. His mind was so captured by the thought of finding Tom's treasure that he forgot that anyone else was around. He walked quickly towards the guys and gave a quick look to see where his grandfather was.
Dear God in Heaven, what a great prize this would be for his grandfather if Arthur could find that helmet. Without pointing and possibly giving anything away, Arthur started talking in hushed tones, "Guys, listen. This sounds wild but it's true. I swear it is. I can't give you all the details but here's the short story. My Grandpa Will is Grandpa Tom's son. Both of them played high school football and both of them were tight ends. My Grandpa Will played all through high school wearing my Grandpa Tom's old helmet."
"Wow," butted in Sam. "That must have been awesome."
"Yeah," answered Arthur, "but that's not all. Grandpa Will caught the last pass of his career and won the high school championship. But, when he hit the ground, the helmet cracked. I can't go into how or why right now, but he put the helmet in a couple of specially made boxes and hid it. In the directions to where he hid it, he said to walk 179 paces from the five oak trees that pointed to a cave. In the mouth of the cave, dig down four feet and you'll find the box. Guys, Grandpa Tom would love to have that helmet more than anything else on the face of this earth. My mind is whirling so fast, I can hardly think straight. Can you guys help me find it? Please, please, pretty please. It would mean the whole world to him."
Ramon was the first to chime in, "Boy! Would we? Man, what do we have to do? How do we find those trees?"
Sam answered, "Hey, let's fan out and see if we can find some more of those hard spots. That has to be where the trees were."
Arthur ran to the first one and then scooted to the second one. "Here's two of them guys. Let's fan out and see if we can find some that line up."
As the guys started fanning out, Tom called to Arthur, "Hey, Mr. Hungry guy. Who was it that said that they could hardly wait until they got home so they could grab a mouthful of his mom's homemade apple pie?"
Arthur stammered his answer, "I know it, Grandpa, but....uh....."
Elrod came to his rescue, "Mr. Tom. I think I lost something and Arthur and the guys are helping me look. Can you give him just 15 more minutes? It's real important."
Tom waived and answered, "Yep, sure can. Me and my growling stomach will be in the Explorer."
Arthur shouted back, "Thanks Grandpa." Then to Elrod he quietly said, "Great thinking, pardner."
Marci and Taylor heard the conversation, so they trotted over to where the guys were tramping around. "Hey, guys. What's up? What are we supposed to be looking for?" Marci asked.
Without lifting his head, Ramon answered quietly, "Keep looking at the ground and walk over to Arthur and he'll explain it to you. But keep it quiet. It's a surprise for Mr. Tom."
Taylor caught on fast and said to Marci, "You go find out from Arthur and I'll act like I'm looking over here. It must be awfully important."
Marci walked up to Arthur and asked, "What's up little brother?"
Arthur answered as he kept walking from side to side. "Short version of a long story. We are trying to locate five oak trees that line up so we can eventually find Grandpa Tom's helmet that my Grandpa Will buried."
Marci stopped real quick and asked, "Well, would some pictures of those oak trees help?"
Arthur looked at her in amazement and asked, "Where are you going to get pictures of those oak trees that have been cut down for years?"
"From my uncle, of course," she answered as if everyone in the world should have known. "Uncle Preston used to be a reporter for the local paper until he got a job with a big outfit in Kansas City. When they decided to make all of those changes to the park, he took scads of pictures every day. There was nothing that happened that he didn't take a picture of. I remember seeing several pictures of those oak trees. He was proud of those pictures. Some of them were pretty neat."
Without realizing what he was doing, Arthur ran up to Marci, grabbed her by the arms and demanded, "Marci!! I gotta have those pictures. You gotta get me those pictures." Then as he came to his senses, he let go of her real slowly and sheepishly said, "I'm sorry, Marci......I just go bananas some times.....I.."
Marci took both hands and pinched his cheeks and said with a giggle, "That's OK, Arthur. You're still cute even when you do go bananas. And Uncle Preston is coming to the championship game in a couple of Saturdays. All I gotta do is give him a call and he will be glad to bring you a pile of them. He is way to-o-o-o proud of his pictures."
Arthur ran from one guy to another, quietly telling them of Marci's uncle. At least he was trying to be quiet when Tom yelled out, "You guys OK over there?"
Elrod reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his knife, "It's OK, Mr. Tom. My knife was in my pocket all the time and Arthur was trying to rub it in a little." He pulled Arthur to his side and scruffed up his hair and continued, "But, that's, OK. As much as I've pulled stuff on him, I can handle some pay back."
So far as Tom knew, that was all that happened. Everybody was joking and headed towards their home. Goodbyes were said and Arthur sprinted towards him with a big smile. As he jumped into ’Old Blue’ as Tom called the Explorer and buckled up, he said with a great big grin, "This sure has been a good day, Grandpa."
Tom just answered, "Yep, I guess so, my boy." Tom didn't have a clue right then to just how good of a day that it really, really was.