Treasures of Darkness
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
BAT IN A WHIRLWIND By Richard Balthazar Chapter 2. TREASURES OF DARKNESS TREASURES OF DARKNESS # Today being a Tuesday and a school day, I had to get up at six. Washing up in the bathroom didn’t take long because I didn’t shave yet, though I’d been hairy since about thirteen and had wonderful fuzz growing on my face. Folks liked my blue eyes and long lashes. I wore my brown hair in a flattop, real plain because Daddy said ducktail looked sissy. I didn’t really like the hairdo, but it looked a lot better than a crew-cut. Daddy also said I had a skinny chicken neck and ears like a cab with both doors hanging open. I had to admit my ears did stick out a bit, but I’d squash them back whenever I thought to. Still, I considered myself fairly handsome, hopefully enough for Annette to fall in love with me. Sister Janie left a bit later for her grade school in Lockesburg, the town about six miles north that we kids called Lockjaw. On my way back through her room, I shook her mattress to rouse her, and she snarled like an irritated cat. Another shake got her to sit up with her dark hair all awry, so I considered my fraternal duty accomplished. Over at the café, Melba brought me out some soft-scrambled eggs and sausage and as always waited for me to say they were good. Naturally Daddy told me to hurry up. He always wanted to leave just a few minutes before I got done with the funny papers. I managed to finish Li’l Abner, with Moonbeam McSwine in Rome as a movie star called Appassionata Sonata. The first stage of the long road to school every day was Daddy driving me a couple miles down the road to Mary Nell’s house. Piney Hill, being on the second foothill of the Ouachita Mountains and in Sevier County, the bus only came out as far as Ben Lomond on the edge of Little River County. Just south of the first foothill was where Mary Nell lived, at the edge of the broad bottoms of the Little River, which was actually a real big river. I’d always wait in the back seat of her green Studebaker for her to come out of their neat white house. Since it wasn’t light enough yet to read, I just admired the winter landscape around their place. Huge sycamores leaned their spotted branches out over Winters Creek nearby. The flat fields on the other side were streaked with wisps of mist, and cows were scattered like dark bushes in the dawn dimness. Waiting patiently, I daydreamed about maybe going to the teen party at the Lions Club on Friday night. Maybe I could go with pretty Louise. If Danny would take Mary Nell, we could double date. Louise was in ninth, fairly young of course, but a beautiful blonde girl just as pretty as any movie star, except my exquisite Annette. So as not to be unfaithful to my sweetheart and keep to the Church’s rule, I tried to keep all my thoughts of Louise, a non-Catholic, properly detached, just friendly. But it would be fun to go to the party with them. On the couple miles to Ben Lomond, Mary Nell was unhappy because Judy Simpson had a date with Terry for the party, but Danny still hadn’t asked her. She looked about to cry as she wheeled us up and down the curving, hilly road. The other week when I’d expected her to be sad about getting caught by her father, she’d just laughed and squealed, “Ooh, Benny! He kisses like an animal.” I wasn’t certain what she meant by that, but it was an interesting thought. Danny was sure lucky to get to go out with girls, even one not very pretty and on the heavy side. But Mary Nell had a funny personality most of the time, and he said she was a hot smooch. I remarked on wishing we could double date. Mary Nell said sympathetically, “I don’t understand. All the other boys in your class get to take the car. Why can’t you?” Now that was going to take some answering. I suspected maybe it was because Daddy wanted to keep me home to work in the café, but it didn’t seem right to mention that. I merely 9 BAT IN A WHIRLWIND By Richard Balthazar Chapter 2. TREASURES OF DARKNESS answered, sighing, “I don’t know. But I sure do feel like the Prisoner of Piney Hill.” It really would’ve been neat to go places like other guys and do things with other kids. I’d only been to one football game in Ashdown. That was last year with Father Jordan, which was strange to start with. I had to miss the class party last week. Daddy wouldn’t ever let me stay over with anyone, not even Danny, to do things like that. Along with some other backwoods kids, we caught the bus at the one-room school house in the village of Ben Lomond. For the 16-mile ride to Ashdown, I read in Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis, laughing till my sides hurt. I sure did wish I had such a super neat aunt. I heard tell they were making a movie of it, but fat chance of me ever getting to see that. It was a couple years now since Mom took Janie and me to DeQueen to see “Old Yeller.” # At school I waited out front for Danny. He came ambling up the walk under the oak trees whistling “Red River Valley.” He was so hot-looking it should be illegal. Danny’s flattop was a shade darker than mine with just a hint of a ducktail in back. That point of hair on his nape didn’t look sissy at all. Actually it was pretty darned sexy. He had to go to the office and get him a newspaper article for Civics class. I already had mine, a short thing about Congress passing some bill. Afterwards, we hung out by the lockers, and he leaned lazily up against one. Something made me poke his stomach. Wiggling his hips, he asked, “Want something?” Then he blushed like crazy, his cheeks the color of cherries. Unable to answer his question yay or nay, I poked him again and asked, “Why don’t you ask Mary Nell to go to the Lions Club party?” Danny put his middle finger on his cheek in a meaningful gesture and gave me a big smile. “I’m through with girls. I won’t never ask Mary Nell for a date.” I must have looked shocked—because I was—and he explained, “She lives way up there by you. All that driving, and her old man being… You know.” Well, there went the party. Still reeling, I choked, “You’re through with girls?” “For a little while,” he laughed and poked my stomach. Just then pretty Betty Lou, a cheerleader, came bouncing up to us, all smiles with her very white teeth like an Ipana commercial. Hugging a clipboard to her prominent chest, she asked cheerily, “Have you guys made your annual deposits yet?” We’d both already paid, and when she’d wiggled her butt and gone on to the next bunch of kids down the hall, I quipped, “I wonder if her bank only takes deposits once a year.” Danny laughed and blushed once again. “Be quiet. You’re about to get me on a bone.” Going to our regular assembly seats, now on the very first row being seniors, he brushed my face with his red sweater in passing, and I caught a brief flower-like fragrance. Waiting for assembly to start, Danny looked over at Betty Lou with intense carnal interest. I whispered, “There’s a little muscle in your cheek that’s quivering.” He didn’t take his eyes off of her and said, “That ain’t the only one. Boy, I could make do with just half of her.” Deadpan, I asked, “Right or left?” Danny cracked up. The Principal, Mr. Foster, a thin man with graying hair and a very high waist, stood up front and shushed the auditorium full of kids. In a minute everybody settled down. Then to my huge surprise, he called on me to give the Bible reading. It was real odd what with me being a Catholic, but the school had been real good about it. They even started serving fish for lunch on Fridays, and the other kids said they enjoyed the relief from Salisbury steak or such like. I hoped even in a Protestant Bible maybe I could find a piece of Divine Wisdom for the 10 BAT IN A WHIRLWIND By Richard Balthazar Chapter 2. TREASURES OF DARKNESS kids and especially for my wonderful friend Danny. So I went and stood in front near the flag. When I opened the Bible, my eyes landed on Isaiah 45: verses 2 & 3, and I read: I will go before thee And level the mountains. I will break in pieces the doors of bronze And cut asunder the bars of iron. I will give thee the treasures of darkness And the hoards in secret places. A bit taken aback by what I’d just read, I went and sat back down. Danny puckered at me and asked in a whisper, “You got some treasures of darkness, Benny, babe?” Unsure, I shrugged.