The Cub Scout

The Cub Scout

It was Summer now, but school was gonna be soon. My big brother was gonna be in sixth grade and I was gonna be in third. We were taking our last fishing trip to Blosser’s pond, and, even if we got lotsa chigger bites and a lotta scratches, it turned out to be the most best day ever. I can’t stop remembering Leon Duprey’s cuss words.

"Wowee gee! Look it, Richard. Is that the new Chevy?"

"No, dummy, that's last year's model. The new fifty-ones are already up at Busby Motors," Richard said. My brother knew everything. He was really smart in school, too, with A’s all over his report card.

This morning Mommy had said, “Richard, you take Tommy fishing.”

Richard always said, “Aw, Mom, do I have to?” He never wanted me around.

It was sort of a long walk along Highway 81 and my arm was hurting from carrying everything. And it was hot. I said, “I bet it’s a hundred miles there.”

“Quit whining, birdbrain. You’ve done this before. It’s only two miles.”

“How do you know?”

“Father told me.”

I said, "My arm is hurting. Can you carry this?" I held up the lunch bag Mommy had fixed.

Richard said, "Are you nuts? I got tons of stuff to carry. Look. I'm carrying the pole, the tackle box with all the sinkers and floats and hooks, and I got the worms with all the dirt. What do you have? Your pole and the snacks. And then you brought that stupid creel. We don't need a creel. The fish in that pond are too small to keep. You’ve got the stupid creel around your waist; so put the food in it."

I would of, but I couldn’t do that. I knew we didn’t really need it for fish, but I wanted something to carry my gizmo in. I couldn't tell him that. He would of made fun of me. I lied, "Yeah, but it's already full. It's got the Thermos in it." It didn’t really. The Thermos was in the bag. He thought my gizmo was stupid. I don't know what it was really. I found it on Jail Hill behind our house. My friend Ronny Ballard next door said it was part of a clock and he would trade me some marbles for it. It had little gears and wheels and stuff like a little machine. I found all kinds of stuff, all the time…like marbles and things, that I kept in my dresser at home. I had some marbles with me now. Maybe I would throw them in the water. The “plooping” sound would be neat. Ploop! I wasn’t gonna tell Richard. He wouldn’t of let me. “But my arm really hurts.”

"Just shut up and walk," he said.

I shut up for a little bit, and then I said, "Why is Eugene Holmes so mean to me?" Eugene was in seventh grade…even older than Richard…and Eugene was always picking on me. He called me “Tommy, the tummy.” He said I had a watermelon in my stomach. Richard was always skinny as a bean pole.

"’Cause he wants to. We got things to do and you're in the way. And besides, he doesn’t always pick on you."

“Yes, he does.” Just then, a big semi whooshed by and almost knocked me over with the wind.
When Richard’s hat blew off too, he yelled at me, "You're walking too close to the road. Mother said be careful!"

I knew why he was mad. The truck blew off his Yankee's hat. I didn't have a Yankee’s hat. Mommy said we had so little hair ‘cause of our “flat tops” that our brains would cook like eggs. So she made us wear hats. I had my Cub Scout hat on. I said, "The Yankees are best, huh?"
"Of course, they're the greatest."

"Who's the best one?"

"Oh, that’s easy. Mickey Mantle."

"Why?"

"He hits home runs all the time."

"Wow! Can we go see him?"

"He's in New York, stupid."

"So?"

"Don't you know where New York is?"

"Yeah, sure I do."

"I bet you don't."

"I do, too." I knew it was a big city, but I didn't really know. "How do you know he’s so good?"

"’Cause Casey Stengel says he is. Eugene and I hear it on the radio all the time. They always win."

"Wow! Is he coming here?"

"God, you’re dumb. They only play in big cities. All we got is a softball field out at the fairgrounds. You know, where the Cloud Ceramics play. You've even seen the circus there. They ain’t comin’ to Concordia, Kansas. You ain't gonna see no major league baseball here."

“You’re not supposed to say ‘ain’t.’” My arm was still hurting. I had to change hands. "How come fat people talk so loud?"

He laughed and laughed. "Cause they're fat!" And ‘cause he laughed, I laughed. I was glad he laughed. I liked it when he thought I was funny.

Then I saw the trees where the pond was. Out at Blosser’s. It was close now. It was called Blosser’s Lake really…the big pond anyway. We were going to the little pond. I don’t think it had a name, ‘cept “little pond.” It was sort of secret and more fun, ‘cause it was cooler with the trees and everything. And maybe nobody else would be there. "Do you think there’ll be mosquitoes?"

"Not so many. It's too hot."

"Do you think there'll be chiggers?"

"Of course, stupid."

"You got stuff for ‘em?" He looked at me like I shouldn't of asked. But I wanted to know. "Do ya?"

"Can't you shut up for a while. We got stuff for chiggers."

There were two paths to the ponds, but one of them was more fun ‘cause you had to tunnel through all the sunflowers and stuff to get to the little pond. So I knew we'd go that way, but I asked anyway. "Which path are we going?"

"We're gonna take this one. The other one goes around the back of the little pond, and then we’d have to climb through a bunch of sting weed and stuff to get to the side we wanna be on."

I knew he was gonna say that. It was fun just knowing. I was glad he was with me, ‘cause, even if it was more fun on this path, it was scary. I was afraid somebody'd jump out on us…maybe a monster or something. Well, maybe not a monster, but something. But with Richard it was okay. The path was so small and the sunflowers so big that you had to watch out or you'd get scratched, or the bugs would get on you. Richard stopped and put his stuff down and took out his pocketknife. Mommy let him have a knife ‘cause he was a Boy Scout. I could hardly wait ‘til I was as old like Richard. Then I’d get a knife with a can opener and everything.

I said, “Shouldn’t we put the chigger stuff on?”

"I'm gonna get some sunflower seeds first," he said. He pulled over a stem to get at one of the hugest flowers and sawed it off. He picked off all the petals and then broke open the big brown thing in the middle and started picking out the seeds.

"Can I have some?" I said.

He handed me the brown thing, so I had to put everything down. Just when I was trying to get a seed, he picked up his stuff and started walking. I had to hurry. I threw away the flower and grabbed my stuff to catch up.

"Hey, wa'd you do with the seeds?"

"I threw it away."

"You what?" He looked like he was gonna try to hit me, but he had too much stuff. Then he said, "You gotta be quiet at the pond or you'll scare the fish."

"Okay." I could hear the cicadas singing in the trees…really loud. "Mommy told me you could tell how hot it was by how fast the cicadas sing," I said.

"I know," he said. He knew all that kind of stuff, his being a real Boy Scout with shirt patches and everything.

"How do you tell how hot it is?"

"I can't explain it to you. You’d never get it," he said.

Just then a huge, gigantic grasshopper jumped on my arm and scared the jeepers out of me. I screamed.

"Shut up!" my brother said. "You're gonna bring the whole neighborhood over here and scare the fish. It's just a grasshopper. Grab it. We can use it for bait."

I sort of tried to grab it, but it got away…luckily. I really liked this pond. There were big trees for shade and it didn’t blow all the time, like everywhere else in the world. And, when the cicadas were quiet a little bit, you could hear the crickets and the grasshoppers and the frogs. I used to think the frogs’ croaks were cows mooing, but Richard said it was the bullfrogs. They really sound like big bulls. Richard and I caught one once…well, he did…and fried its legs. I didn’t get any. He said he was saving it for Eugene. But, anyway, there were lots of weeds around the pond that sort of smelled like spinach, and nobody could see you ‘cept when they came in real close. So it was like we were all alone together. It was sort of spooky. I would of been sort of scared if Richard wasn’t with me.

Richard put down all his stuff by the tree. So did I. But I kept the creel on. My arm stopped hurting. He started putting a hook on his line. “Can you put one on mine, too?” I asked.

“Yeah, hold on. Lemme get finished.”

After he put on the hook, he went ahead and put on a sinker and a bobber without even helping me put on the hook. I could of put on the bobber and stuff if he’d just put on the hook, but I was afraid to say anything, ‘cause he might not help me. He grabbed a big night crawler out of the can, stuck the hook through it really good, and dropped it in the water. He didn’t care what the worm thought.

“Can you put my hook on now?” I asked. I was looking at the can of night crawlers, thinking how I was gonna have to pick one out of there.

“Yeah, okay. But stop bugging me. You gotta put on the rest. And you gotta be quiet or I’ll throw you in the sting weed.”

Once he’d put the hook on, I put the float on. I wasn’t sure how to put on the sinker, so I didn’t. Then I had to put a big fat worm on. I pulled one out of the can that was big as a snake, almost. They sort of squished when you stuck ‘em, so I only stuck it once.

Richard said, “You’ll lose it if you don’t stick it on better.”

I didn’t care; I just didn’t want to stick the worm so much. But Richard grabbed it and stuck it on better. He was nicer to me when Eugene wasn’t around. I let the worm down in the water and then I put my pole on the edge of the little cliff and lay down to look over the edge down in the water. The water wasn’t too far down. You could see the little fish making rings in the water…I thought. Or maybe it was just bugs.

“Are those fish or bugs?” I asked.

“Shut up!”

We lay around for a long time. I was getting thirsty, so I was gonna get the Thermos, but then I heard somebody. Somebody was coming over to the pond from the big pond. I didn’t want them to. They’d make it all crowded and everything. And they’d make noise and scare the fish. I could hear them talking already and making all kinds of noise. Then I got really scared. It was Leon Duprey and his friend. Leon Duprey! He was the biggest, worst bully in the whole world. He was from “the other side of the tracks.” He was always getting in trouble…with everybody. He’d try to beat me up and take my gizmo and snacks and stuff.

I said, as quiet as I could, “It’s Leon Duprey and that other guy. Tell them to go away.”

Richard said, “I can’t tell them to go away.”

“Why not? You’re older than them.”

“There’s two of them.”

“I’m getting out of here.” And I started going.

Richard said, “Wait up. Pick up the stuff.”

They were too close. I just knew they'd get me, but I couldn't make my legs go.

Leon said to his friend, "Well, looky here. Big fishermen and all their fishing stuff." And he picked up my pole. He said, "Any reason I shouldn't throw this in the water?"

"Yeah," I said, but I hoped he didn’t hear me.

"Oh, yeah, smarty pants, why not?" He had a sort of smile.

I said, really quiet, "'Cause it's mine."

He really laughed and so did his friend. "So what are you going to give me for it, Cub Scout?"

"I don't know." I couldn’t almost make my mouth work.

"Well, you better find something quick, 'cause it's going in the water after I count to ten. One...two.…"

I held out my hand with the gizmo. I was afraid to say anything, but he stopped counting. He kept looking at my hand with the gizmo like he didn't know what it was.

"What's that?" he said.

I was afraid to answer, so I just held it out in front of me. He started to come over at me. I got so scared he would hit me, so I threw the gizmo underhand. But I didn’t throw too good. I really wanted to throw it so he would catch it, but it went high up in the air and it got stuck in the tree.

"What the hell is that thing?" his friend said.

They kept looking up in the tree and they weren't looking at us. Leon Duprey was standing right on the edge of the pond. I was so scared they were gonna get me and I was really mad ‘cause they were gonna take my gizmo. They even made my brother look scared. They’d probably even take his Yankee’s hat. So, while they looked up in the air, I ran over quick and pushed Leon Duprey over the edge into the water. My fishing pole plooped with him. His friend got scared and ran away, I guess, 'cause my brother was bigger than him and Richard was gonna whip him with his fishing pole. We grabbed our stuff really fast. Leon Duprey yelled really, really, really bad words at us and said he was gonna get us, but he couldn’t get out so fast. And we were running away with all our stuff. We ran so fast and scared, I didn't know ‘til later I was getting all scratched up on the sunflowers and weeds and stuff. And I lost my Cub Scout hat someplace. When we got to the highway, my brother stopped and looked back. I was afraid to look. I stood on the other side of Richard right up next to him.

He said, "It's okay, Tommy. We're safe."

He was breathing so hard he could hardly talk. I know I couldn’t. Then we started walking. It seemed like we didn't say anything for ages. I just kept thinking Leon Duprey was coming to get us, so I had to keep looking back.

Finally, Richard said, "You did it. You were great. You did great!" I started looking around to see who he was talking to, but then he said, "Here, let me carry your stuff."