The Kid in the Red Jacket (7 page)

“Hey!” she said then. “When is it, anyway? I can come, right? I like football, I think. Yup, I’m pretty sure I do.”

The grin left my face in a flash. I should have known this would happen. I never should have mentioned the game in front of her.

I looked hopelessly at my mother. Not much help there. She gave me one of those “Now what are you going to do?” expressions and left the room.

I think this was the part I was supposed to handle.

“Uh, listen, Molly. I’m going to tell you something.
And you might not like hearing it, but I think it’s for your own good. Okay?”

Molly closed her eyes like I was going to shoot her or something. I guess she was used to getting bad news by now, and she was trying to prepare herself.

“Okay, I’m ready,” she said after a second.

“Well, it’s not that bad,” I began. “It’s just that it might not be such a great idea for you to keep hanging around with big kids like me. You might end up getting hurt, you know. Take football, for instance. It’s a really rough sport, Molly.”

Molly looked positively relieved. “Oh, don’t worry about that. I can just wear something soft and fluffy. Then it won’t hurt if I fall down. I know! I can wear my snowsuit!”

Oh, geez. Her
snowsuit
. That’s all I would need—I could just see me showing up for the big game, dragging Molly in her snowsuit.

“No! No snowsuit!” I blurted. “It wouldn’t help. These guys are rough, and they’ll tackle you and drag you around and kick and …”

“Hey! I got a better idea!” she interrupted. “I can be the cheerleader! I can bring my pom! I used to have two pom-poms. But I lost one, so now I only have a pom.”

My face must have dropped right to the floor.

“Don’t look so worried, Howard Jeeper,” consoled Molly. “I can still do good with just one. I’ll keep my other hand in my snowsuit. Here, I’ll show you.”

Then, before I could stop her, Molly hid one hand behind her back and started yelling the stupidest football cheer I’ve ever heard:. “
Push everybody down! Push everybody down! Push everybody down!”

I collapsed on the couch and buried my head in the pillows.

    8   
On Saturday morning I could hardly even eat my cereal. It might sound stupid, getting so excited about a football game, but I couldn’t help it. I even talked to Gaylord about it after breakfast.

“I think this is the start of it, Gaylord,” I began. “See, there are different stages you have to go through to make friends, and I think I’m in the last one. First you meet them; then you learn their names; and then you begin to say hi and stuff. I’ve
been hanging around them at school for a while now. But the most important stage doesn’t come until you start to do something with each other. Get it? That’s where I am now. I’m in the
doing
stage.”

Gaylord smiled. He’d been doing that a lot lately. I think he was really starting to admire me.

“Now, when Ollie and Pete come by to get me,” I continued, “I’d really appreciate it if you wouldn’t be in one of your crying moods, okay? Also, if they happen to see you, just smile and try not to spit up on yourself. They might think it runs in the family or something.”

I wasn’t worried about Molly. I hadn’t told her the date of the football game, so I figured she’d still be running around in her nightgown or something, watching Saturday morning cartoons.

Also, Molly had been spending more time with her friend Sally lately. Several times that week I had seen them in her front yard, pretending they were cheerleaders. First they’d scream, “Hit ’em in the head! Hit ’em in the head!” Then they’d throw the pom up in the air. It was humiliating just to watch.

Anyway, a little after ten that morning, I heard
Ollie and Pete knock at the front door. They only lived a couple of blocks away, on the same street. I think that’s why they hung around together. When you’re next-door neighbors, you almost have to hang around together.

I was in my room, so my father let them in. I hoped he wasn’t down there shaking their hands, but I knew he was. My father treats everyone like a man, even women and children.

When the guys came upstairs to my room, I was lying on my bed and pretending to read a comic book. I wanted to make it look like I wasn’t really expecting them. I didn’t jump right up either. I just sort of got up slowly, like this was no big deal.

After a few minutes, they started going around my room, looking at my stuff. This is a pretty tense time for a new kid, if you want to know the truth. A guy can tell a lot about you by looking at your stuff. Like if I was a real brain, I’d probably have a chemistry set and a microscope. Or if I was Ronald Dumont, I’d have a big poster of the Black Stallion.

But mostly what I have are games. You should see my closet. I have about thirty different kinds. They’re not baby games either. Most all of them
say “12 thru Adult” on the cover. Also, I’ve got about a million
Mad
magazines.
Mad
magazines make you look like a normal kid. I mean, even if a guy had a microscope and a butterfly collection, if he had a couple of
Mad
magazines floating around, you wouldn’t be too worried.

Pete didn’t check things out as much as Ollie. Ollie went into my closet and came out wearing my fuzzy slippers on his ears. You couldn’t pay me to put somebody’s stinky slippers on my ears. But that’s the thing about wise guys—anything for a laugh. You’ve got to respect a guy like that. You just do.

Everything was going along pretty smoothly. We were kind of laughing and talking about stuff, nothing special, really. But at least I was starting to relax a little.

That’s when I heard it. The front door. It was opening. I hadn’t heard anyone knock, but I was sure it was opening.

I listened closer. Little feet … oh, no … it couldn’t be! Little feet on the stairs coming up to my room!

Quickly I sprang up and darted for the door. It was! It was Molly! I could see the top of her frizzy red hair bouncing up the stairs. I couldn’t believe
it! My first big chance to start some new friendships, and she was going to blow it.

I shut the door just in time. I locked it. My heart was pounding like crazy as I strolled back over to the bed.

“Er, ah, listen, you guys,” I said, trying to warn them. “You, ah, might hear a little noise outside my door in a second. But don’t worry about it. If you just ignore—”

“Hey!” came the yell, interrupting me. “What’s going on in there? Hey! Let me in!”

Pete and Ollie stopped what they were doing.

“Who’s that?” Pete asked, looking puzzled.

“No one,” I insisted. “It’s no one important. Just this silly little kid from across the street. If we ignore her I’m sure she’ll go away.”

She didn’t, though. She just stood outside the door and pounded harder. “Hey! Howard! It’s us! It’s Molly Vera Thompson and Madeline!”

Ollie couldn’t stand it anymore. He hurried over and unlocked the door.

Molly plowed her way past him. It wasn’t raining, but both she and Madeline were wearing black rubber boots.

I covered my face with my hands and peeked through the cracks. Sometimes life isn’t as hard to
take through the cracks. This wasn’t one of those times, though. Pete was just sort of staring at her in disbelief. Ollie was already starting to snicker.

“Hey! Who are you?” she asked each one. “What’s going on here? Is this a party?”

Ollie began to laugh out loud. “Hey, Howard. Is this a
friend
of yours?” he asked mockingly.

Molly stuck out her chest with pride. “I’m Molly Vera Thompson!” she informed him loudly. Geez, why did she have to be so loud? “And this is my best baby, Madeline!”

By this time Ollie was getting out of control. Every time Molly opened her mouth, he laughed harder and harder. The sad thing was, she laughed along with him. Little kids do stuff like that a lot. They laugh and they don’t even know why.

Soon Molly was giggling so hard, she thought we were all having a good time. That’s when she asked them to color.

“My nonny got me a new coloring book at the store yesterday! I can go get it if you want!”

Ollie fell right over on the floor. Pete just grinned.

“Well, we can’t color today,” he replied. “We’ve got to go play football.”

Molly’s eyes got wide as saucers. “Hey! You
mean today’s the day? Hey, Howard! You musta forgot to tell me! Wait here! I’ll go get my pom!”

Pete laughed at the sound of it. “Her
pom?”

“Don’t ask,” I muttered, feeling sick.

Just then Ollie held out his hands. “Hey, Molly. Could I see your dolly for a second?”

You could tell he was up to something. You could just tell by the look in his eyes.

Happily Molly handed him her doll.

“Be careful with her boots. Okay, boy?” she asked nicely.

“Yeah, sure,” he said slyly. “We’ll be careful with her boots. Won’t we, Howard? We just want to see if Madeline will make a good football.”

Then, before I knew it, Ollie was sailing Madeline through the air in my direction. “Quick, Jeeter! Go out for a pass!”

I barely had time to catch her before she hit the floor. Her head twisted around, and both her boots fell off.

Molly looked shocked. “Hey! Don’t do that, boy!”

Across the room Ollie held up his hands for me to throw her back. “Here you go, Jeeter! Right here!” he called.

As Molly hurried toward me to rescue Madeline,
I let her fly. I didn’t even think about it. I just did it. That’s all.

After that we started playing keep-away. I knew it was mean. Keep-away’s always mean. But I did it anyway. As soon as Molly ran over to me, I’d throw the doll back to Ollie. Then she’d run to Ollie, and he’d fling Madeline back to me again.

Molly was getting frantic. “Stop it!” she demanded. “Stop throwing my baby. My nonny said you shouldn’t throw your baby.”

Ollie laughed. I laughed too. It wasn’t funny, but I laughed anyway. After all, I didn’t want to ruin Ollie’s fun. He was my guest, wasn’t he?

Besides, the whole thing was Molly’s fault. Nobody invited her here. I
told
her if she hung around with big kids she’d get hurt. Maybe this would be a good lesson for her. Big kids and little kids don’t mix. Her friend Sally knew it. Now maybe Molly would know it too. She didn’t really need me like everybody said she did. She got along okay before I came, didn’t she? She’d get over not having me. Little kids, well, they bounce right back.…

Finally Molly started to cry, sort of quietly. It was kind of pitiful, really.

Tough!
I thought.
Tough. Tough. Tough
. She should have listened to me! Why didn’t she listen to me?

Ollie tossed Madeline to Molly. “Here. Take your dumb doll. We were only having a little fun. We weren’t going to hurt her.”

For the first time that morning, Molly didn’t say a word. Silently she gathered Madeline’s boots off the floor. A second later she was gone.

Ollie made a cuckoo sign. “God. What a weird little kid! Where’d she come from? Mars?”

“Ohio,” I informed him.

“Same thing,” he replied, still grinning.

The whole time, Pete had been sitting at my desk. I hadn’t had a chance to see if he was enjoying himself. I hoped he was, though. I hoped I hadn’t done all that for nothing.

Suddenly Pete stood up. The look on his face took me completely by surprise. He hadn’t been laughing, I could tell. Even his smile was gone.

He headed toward the door and then stopped, looking first at Ollie, then at me. He shook his head.

“You guys are jerks, you know it? You’re really jerks.”

After that he left. He just walked out my door and didn’t look back.

The football game was awful. At least for me it was. All I could think about was that Pete had called me a jerk, and that I had to prove to him it wasn’t true. I mean, he didn’t even know me, and already he didn’t like me. It was probably the shortest friendship in history.

Luckily, I got to be on his team. He didn’t choose me or anything. The guys just sort of divided up evenly, and I went over to Pete’s side.

We took turns playing quarterback. When my turn came, I handed the ball off to Pete every time. After my second turn at QB some of the other guys on my team started getting annoyed about it. Once, in the huddle, Aaron Felson said, “I got an idea, Howard. Why don’t the rest of us go get a hot dog, and you can hand off to Pete.”

That time I passed it to Aaron. Some guy tackled him from behind and knocked the wind out of him. Then this kid named Morty Harrelson came rushing over and started pounding on Aaron’s heart to save his life. He said he saw how to do it on TV one time.

Aaron recovered pretty quickly and slugged Morty in the arm. I don’t think you appreciate people pounding on your heart unless you’re dead.

After that I went back to handing off to Pete again. It was probably real obvious that I was trying to get in good with him, but I didn’t really care. All I cared about was getting in good with him.

Pete never thanked me for my hand-offs, but I was positive he appreciated what I was doing. He scored three touchdowns. How can you not appreciate someone who has set you up for three touchdowns?

When the game was over, Morty and Ollie and some of the other guys walked downtown to see a movie. Pete said he had to go home. I said the same thing. I didn’t really have to go home, though. I just wanted to walk with Pete and try to patch things up some more.

I know this sounds stupid, but I was actually nervous about walking with him. I wanted to tell him how bad I felt about Molly and everything, but I didn’t want to sound like a nerd. I was so desperate, I even started wishing my father was there to give me some advice on what to say. I’m sure it wouldn’t have worked out, though. He
would probably have told me to say something like, “I’m afraid you’ve gotten the wrong impression of me, fella.” Then Pete would have fallen on the ground laughing, and that would have been that.

Anyway, mostly I tried to be myself and not to say anything too stupid. That isn’t as simple as it sounds. Stupid stuff slips out of my mouth pretty easily.