- Little Freddy Westlin's stride is not comfortably matched to the distance between the cracks in the sidewalk. He has to struggle somewhat to miss them. He can't remember why they have to be avoided, something about "Step on a crack -- break your mother's back." Just a silly rhyme he learned from one of his friends... but he yields to the rule.
It was Freddy's first day at his new school. A beautiful autumn day it was. "A good day for making new friends" his mother said, as she scooted him out the door this morning.
Freddy has a lot of practice making new friends in new schools and he is quite good at it. Nevertheless, he is always a bit nervous and today is no exception. His parents are more and more fussy about the friends he chooses. "Health nuts", he mutters as he kicks a pebble from the sidewalk into the grass. Everybody has to be healthy. Not steroid healthy.. avoid the athletes. "Just kids that eat well and suffer no illness," he bellows, moving his head side to side in a exaggerated imitation of his father. Darn! Stepped on a crack. "Sorry Mom."
He approached an intersection dominated by three churches, one on each of three corners. There was a white house on the fourth corner. Somehow this arrangement appeared backward to Freddy. Three houses and one church seems more normal.
Near one of the churches, a gang of kids are playing a haphazard game of basketball on tattered court. A quick survey of the players eliminates them as potential "good friends." They're either too athletic or too fraternizing to be interested in making new friends. Healthy spectators offer better potential. His glance at the onlookers catches a blond kid, "looks anorexic, probably a vegetarian"; a small red headed boy who's trying to hit rocks with an aluminum ball bat; and a chubby kid leaning against the building obviously daydreaming.
The morning passed like all the others at a new school, filling out forms, seeing the nurse, getting introduced to the classes. Lunch was a welcome break. The lunchroom was larger than average. There are ceiling-to-floor windows along one side providing a very nice atmosphere. Yuck!, food's no better. Freddy picks the "rubber chicken casserole" and two unidentifiable, overcooked veggies. At the end of the line, he looks over the gathering for a likely luncheon partner.
There's familiar face. The red headed kid is sitting alone nibbling on a sandwich swinging his left foot back and forth in cadence with who knows what.
"Hi."
"Hi."
"I'm Freddy Weslin, I'm new here."
"I know... Uhuh, I mean I know you are new here. I didn't know your name until you told me."
"I know. I mean, how could you? We've only just met." "What's your name?"
"Jonathan Whitacher, most people call me Red."
Freddy could have guessed that.
Red filled him in on the indispensable facts about the school. What teachers were the worst. "There are no good ones," according to Red. "Just some are not as bad as the others". Raymond Webster is the biggest bully, Susanne Kimmer is the prettiest girl. "Not that she'll even talk to you."
"I like keeping to myself" said Red. "Don't hang out much with anyone".
"I'm sorry if I bothered you by sitting at your table," Freddy offered.
"Oh no, no, it's alright. I enjoyed it. I was just realizing that I don't hang out with anyone much."
Freddy remembered the chant directed toward "Red Skully" at a former school:
"Red headed Peckerwood
Sittin on a fence
0Tryin ta make a dollar
Outta fif...teen cents"Red Skully didn't hang out with anyone much either. He wondered if this Red had any friends.
A chubby kid plops himself down in front of Freddy, shaking the whole table mildly startling both Freddy and Red. Freddy recognizes him. The daydreamer from this morning.
"You're late"
"I know," said the chubby kid. "I was watching this jet in the sky. It was leaving a smoke trail, looked like it was writing a message."
"What did it say?"
"I don't know, Ray said it meant something dirty but he wouldn't tell me what".
"Sheesh Brent! You shouldn't believe anything Raymond Webster says. He was just leading you on, making fun of you."
"Looked dirty to me. Probably was in French or something".
"Who are you?" Brent asked, finally acknowledging Freddy's presents.
"I'm Freddy Weslin. I'm new here."
"He knows that," Red spurted. "Everybody knows you're new here."
A week and a half has passed since that first luncheon. Although they pass in the halls and are only cordial, an amiable fellowship is developing over the daily luncheons. They are alone at "their table" and it seems like everyone else disappears. The conversation is candid and bold. Freddy thinks Red sometimes stretches the truth, and notices that Brent leaves in spirit from time to time probably to a very pleasant personal fantasy land.
"Wonder what's wrong with Ray? He hasn't been to school in almost a week", mused Red. Not that he really cared, Red hated Ray Webster.
"They think he ran away form home or something," said Brent. "No body's seen him since last Monday. Didn't you hear about that?"
"Oh yeah, I did hear something about that." Both Freddy and Brent ignored the fact that Red brought it up yesterday at lunch.
"You never met him did you Freddy?", Red asked.
"No."
"Yes you did, I seen you and him walking home after school that first day you came here," said Brent.
"Oh, I didn't know that was him. We just walked together a little ways."
"Was he acting funny or anything?"
"Why are you so interested? You never liked him anyway?" Brent asked, just before he slipped off into somewhere else.
"No, I don't guess. He just asked a lot of questions. Seemed okay to me."
"He was just trying to find out stuff about you so's he can make up lies about you that seem like the truth," said Red... "Told everybody my momma was an illiterate foreigner... never even met her."
There were a lot of rumors about Ray Webster floating around and now that Susanne Kimmer hasn't been to school in three days breaking a prefect attendance record the rumors are really hot.
On the day before Thanksgiving the headlines the morning newspaper read. "AUTHORITIES GIVE UP SEARCH FOR MISSING STUDENTS." At lunch the discussion reviewed the rumors.
"I think they ran off together," said Brent.
"Bull!, She would never have anything to do with Raymond Webster," Red countered.
Freddy added, "she could have been kidnapped by her real father."
"Were her folks divorced?", I didn't know that.
"Yes, she was living with her mother and stepfather."
"How do you know that?" Red asked suspiciously.
"She told me."
"She talked to you!"
Red was obviously upset. Evidently he had a humongous, but secret crush on Susanne.
"Sure she talked to me, she was very friendly and outgoing" said Freddy.
Red didn't talk much for the rest of the lunch period.
Brent was looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner. "My Momma got the biggest turkey Krogers had, I love turkey." Freddy wondered if Brent's mother was as good at cooking as his mother. "Doubt it" he mumbled as they adjourn for the final half day of classes before the holidays.
Holidays are over. Four days off is a little hard to take for Freddy, seems like nothing exciting ever happens around his house or even his neighborhood. He can hardly wait until his lunch time gathering to talk with Red and Brent.
"Can you believe it... turkey for lunch!" grumbled Brent. "I'm so tired of turkey I could croak." Red proposed that gobble would be more like it.
Red related a story he heard about Raymond Webster being seem around this spooky old house on Franklin Street. "I bet he is hiding out over there."
"What is he hiding from?" Brent asked.
"I don't know... but as rotten as he is you can bet he has done something he needs to be punished for."
"I know where that old house is," Brent said. "An old witch woman use to live there."
Freddy couldn't hold at that. "There're no such things as witches... you guys are NUTS!"
"Uuhuh, there is too. How do you know there's not?"
"There's not, only backward illiterate people believe in witches and things. Why do you believe a witch lived there?"
"I've been there and seen the witch signs... they're all over the house," insisted Brent.
"Why don't we go over there after school and check it out?" Red suggested. "Maybe the witch's ghost got Ray, ha"
"Witch's ghost....Sheesh! Alright, we'll meet after school.
"Where?"
"Central and Boswell."
Each present a counterfeit "High Five" and they withdraw to afternoon classes.
Franklin is the street just east of Freddy's street. It wasn't until they approached the old vacant house that Freddy realized that it was just behind his house. He had been in the house many times. He decided not to tell Brent and Red. A sign in the yard clearly declared that trespassing was not permitted.
Instinctively and without speaking, each surveyed the area for onlookers and noting that the coast was clear scampered to the rear of the house. The backyard is shielded from view by shrubs and a privacy fence in need of repair.
"Look! there's a mandrake plant", cried Brent.
"What?" ask Freddy.
"A mandrake plant. Witches use the root for magic spells. Don't pull it up, it'll scream and kill us all."
"Brent, where do you hear all that crazy stuff? It's just a dried up weed. Besides, how do the witches get it out of the ground without dying?"
Brent explained that the witch's dog digs them up for them. The witch cleverly hides a bone in the ground close to the plant and waits for the dog to dig it up. In the process the dog digs out the root of the mandrake plant. The witch only has to pick it up.
"I told you there were witch signs here," he declared.
The trio tour the house engaging in conversations more or less centered on witchcraft. Soon the novelty has gone away and their topics become ordinary.
Brent is hungry, naturally, and Red said he could eat. Freddy seized the opportunity. "Come to my house for dinner, I live just over that fence," he said, gesturing to the back of the house.
"Are you going to have something good?" ask Red.
"I'm expecting a great dinner tonight," Freddy answered.
Freddy slept well after the big delicious dinner. "Mom is a great cook."
Morning comes soon and the challenge of a new day faces Freddy. His thoughts move from last night's dinner to the problems of today as he makes his way along the familiar route to school.
"It's really great to have friends over for dinner," he mumbles. "But it's so annoying to have to make new friends."
Thursday's headlines "TWO WESTSIDE BOYS MISSING - NO CLUES."
Copyright © 1994 Charles Prier
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