![](\"https:\/\/cdn.prod.dailykos.com\/images\/1382122\/large\/EmbossedPencils.jpeg?1735326983\")
It was May and it was spring, and there was less than a month left of school. I could feel summer wanting to start, I could feel other kids wanted it too. I SO wanted it to start, I was SO sick of school.<\/p>\nIt was May and it was spring, and there was less than a month left of school. I could feel summer wanting to start, I could feel other kids wanted it too. I SO wanted it to start, I was SO sick of school.<\/p>\n
I mean Mrs Herman was all right as teachers go. She talked to us like we were regular people, not like we were grownups OR little kids. Like we were older kids, which we were. But even though she was definitely in charge of what we were learning every day, she didn\u2019t try to make us like it or be quiet in class all the time. It was like it was her job to teach and our job to learn, so we all just had to do our jobs. Some of what we learned was interesting and some wasn\u2019t, but we just had to learn it all.<\/p>\n
And when school WAS done next month, we wouldn\u2019t just be done with sixth grade, We\u2019d be done with ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. Arthur\u2019s and Frankie\u2019s older brothers, and Gil\u2019s older sister, were all going to Tappan, and said that junior high was VERY DIFFERENT. You didn\u2019t just have one class with one teacher, but seven or eight different classes with different teachers and different kids in each one. I just wanted to be done with school for THIS year and have my regular summer, getting to play a whole season of Little League, unlike last summer when I broke my collar bone after the first time I batted in the first game, and missed the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
Even though there were other kids in my grade that I thought were way cooler than I was, specially Mike, but also Andy, Arthur, Cal, Todd, Stuart and Frankie, most of them thought I was becoming a pretty cool kid too. I was the only kid among all my friends who was in ALL THREE of their secret groups, Y.A.C.C.O., B.P.O.U.N.D. and G.R.A.P.E., though I was only a \u201cjunior partner\u201d in G.R.A.P.E. because I didn\u2019t live on Granger Street or even \u201cSecret Granger Street\u201d, that Cal lived on. I mean I was in all three groups because they all thought I was spying on the OTHER groups, but I was becoming that one kid in sixth grade that kind of hooked everyone else together, at least all the boys in the secret groups.<\/p>\n
And kind of some of the main girls too, since I was also in charge of spying on THEM, well mainly Myrna, Abby and Beth, who would meet a lot at Abby\u2019s house which was across the street from our house on Martin Place. A lot of the other boys in our secret groups thought the girls had a secret group too, but one that was SO SECRET, that we didn\u2019t even know if it existed. I did spy on those three girls when they sat out on the back patio of Abby\u2019s house and talked about stuff. I\u2019d hide in the bushes in the alley behind her house, where I could hear them but they couldn\u2019t see me. I even \u201crecruited\u201d Abby\u2019s younger brother, Steve, to spy on Abby and her friends when they were doing stuff up in her room and then tell me about it.<\/p>\n
The three girls talked about school a lot and what books they had read and what SRA color they were up to. Sometimes they, mainly Myrna, would even talk about the boys in our grade. How \u201cstupid\u201d and \u201cfull of himself\u201d Billy was. How \u201cobnoxious\u201d and \u201cloud\u201d Frankie was. How \u201cweird\u201d Duncan and Martin were. How \u201cnice\u201d Mike and Teddy were. One time Steve said Abby even talked about me and said I was \u201csmart\u201d.<\/p>\n
I would definitely \u201creport\u201d to all three of the secret groups about all that, except for the part about me being smart. Telling other kids that someone said you were smart I figured was being full of yourself, and telling boys that a girl said you were smart would just make most of them tease you about her liking you and wanting to be your girlfriend.<\/p>\n
Both Billy and Frankie even thought it was cool that Myrna didn’t like them, because they thought, Billy said \u201cknew\u201d, that she was \u201cevil\u201d. \u201cLike SPECTRE Number One evil\u201d, Billy said. But even though Frankie was okay with Myrna not liking him, I don\u2019t think he liked that she thought he was loud and obnoxious. I also thought sometimes he was loud and obnoxious, but he was fun too and made me laugh.<\/p>\n
Sometimes Abby and Beth would say stuff too about the boys being stupid, but I kind of liked Abby and Beth, so I would blame everything on \u201cevil Myrna\u201d. I didn\u2019t REALLY think Myrna was evil, she just liked being in charge of the girls. I just called her that because some of the other boys who called her that liked it when I did too.<\/p>\n
Mike wasn\u2019t in any of our secret groups, not even Andy\u2019s B.P.O.U.N.D. group that Arthur was also in. Mike thought the groups were \u201csilly\u201d, which was pretty much as bad as saying they were stupid. I\u2019d talk to him pretty much every morning before class, and every lunchtime before afternoon class, out on the soccer field as we held off the \u201choard\u201d of fourth and fifth graders on the other team. He would tell me about the stuff going on against the Vietnam war, the big anti-war demonstration in front of the White House, and in New York City, how important it was that Martin Luther King had made his first public speech against the War.<\/p>\n
I usually didn\u2019t play soccer at all at lunchtime on Monday and Wednesday, because dad was still taking us to the Food and Drug for lunch. I still hadn\u2019t told my friends that mom and dad were divorced. Mike had known since December but he hadn\u2019t told anybody, and he never asked me about it. I think Abby might know too, because mom talked with Abby\u2019s mom alot and I figured probably told her, but Abby hadn\u2019t said anything about it to me either. And maybe Stuart had figured it out too. My teacher, Mrs Herman, she knew, because mom had told her, but Mrs Herman had talked to me about it that one day at school and told me she wouldn\u2019t tell anyone else. Mom\u2019s new friend Maryjane knew, and her kids, Zeke and Gordon did too. Sometimes they would talk about it with David when they came over with their mom and hung out with David to talk about comic books and drawing.<\/p>\n
But last Wednesday when dad took us to lunch, he told us he was moving to a new apartment on Henry street by the A and P, living with two different graduate student guys. Just like mom, he seemed like he was still pretty sad too, though he was happy about his new job at the new \u201cLanguage Learning Center\u201d, because though he wasn\u2019t teaching as much, which he really liked to do, he was making more money, so he could give mom more money for us. David kept asking when he was going to come back to live with us again and he\u2019d look sad, look down at the food counter and say that he hoped it would be \u201csomeday soon\u201d, though it didn\u2019t seem to me like he thought that it really would be. When we saw dad I never wanted to talk about the divorce, because I just liked pretending, at least while we ate lunch, that everything was like it used to be and mom and dad were still married.<\/p>\n
Mom was still spending lots of time in her room watching those gameshows and soap operas on TV during the day. But now that it was spring and all the plants were growing again, she would go out in the front yard and prune and weed, and plant pachysandra \u201ccuttings\u201d she\u2019d been growing in the kitchen all winter, and make more cuttings from the plants that were already out there.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d go to the A and P once a week to buy groceries, and bring home stuff we could make for breakfast and lunch by ourselves. She would still make us dinner most of the time, except when she didn\u2019t feel like it, and then maybe she\u2019d order a pizza from Dominos. But now, even though she made dinner, sometimes she wouldn\u2019t eat with us at the round table in the living room, and take her plate of food up to her room and eat on her bed. It seemed like she did most everything she could on her bed – eat, watch TV, pay bills, read books and magazines, draw, talk on the telephone, talk to us, and of course sleep. Sometimes she\u2019d even put a painting she was working on on her bed to paint it more.<\/p>\n
And sometimes I\u2019d wake up in the middle of the night and hear her talking on the phone with dad, being mad at him, or crying and saying stuff like \u201cI can\u2019t go on living like this\u201d and \u201cmy life is over\u201d. And then I think sometimes he would ask her to let him come back and live with us, because she would say stuff like \u201cthere\u2019s no way I can ever trust you again, Eric\u201d. Sometimes she\u2019d just call him a \u201cfucking bastard\u201d and you\u2019d hear her bang the phone down and she\u2019d start quietly crying until she got really quiet and I guess fell asleep.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
So when I went home for lunch from school today, the mail had just come and there was one of those manilla envelopes addressed to me. I took all the other mail up to mom in her bedroom.<\/p>\n
She was watching that new game show \u201cHollywood Squares\u201d. I had actually sat and watched it a few times, and it was kind of funny, specially that \u201cPaul\u201d guy in the middle. I mean it was like tic-tac-toe, which was a pretty stupid game, because if you knew how to play it the other player could never win. And if THEY knew how to play it too, NOBODY could win. But in this show, you had to decide whether the \u201ccelebrity\u201d, which was like someone in movies or on a TV show, was telling you the real answer or making up a wrong answer. Mom thought that Paul guy in the middle square was really funny too.<\/p>\n
She saw me with the stack of mail. \u201cOh, good\u201d, she said, but not sounding happy, \u201cMore bills! Just toss them on the bed.\u201d Before she and dad got divorced, when she was still more happy, she might have said \u201ctoss them on the bed, Coolie\u201d, or one of my other nicknames. But now she would just say to do stuff, not even use my regular name.<\/p>\n
I ran back downstairs to open my thing in the manilla envelope. It was the box of pencils I\u2019d ordered with the words \u201cMyrna loves Martin\u201d along the side of each one.<\/p>\n
So I was still worried that my friends would find out, or figure out somehow, that mom and dad were divorced, and even worse, that they got divorced because dad had had sex with another woman. Then they\u2019d think we were weird and one of those \u201cbroken\u201d families, and think I was a weird kid, and wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore. So I was always thinking about new ways to make my friends think I was really cool, because if I was, then there was no way they\u2019d think mom and dad were divorced or my family was broken. I mean I thought we WERE broken, but I didn\u2019t want anyone ELSE thinking that.<\/p>\n
So a couple weeks ago I was reading a Batman comic and there was this ad on the back page where you could send in some money and your address and they would \u201cemboss\u201d a few words you wanted on the side of a dozen pencils. I figured it would be neat if I could come up with words to put on some pencils that would really get Myrna. My friends would think that was REALLY COOL!<\/p>\n
I had to think up something that would make Myrna really mad, so I thought they should say, \u201cMyrna loves Martin\u201d, because Martin was the weirdest kid in the class. I guess I wasn\u2019t thinking about Martin, just what I thought Myrna would hate so my friends would like . It cost $1.99, and I only had one dollar in the cigar box where I kept my money. So I had to wait until mom gave me my one dollar allowance for the week. I thought about whether I had to get change for the dollar so I could put in exactly 99 cents, but I figured it was easier to just put in another dollar, they wouldn\u2019t mind getting an extra penny. I got a stamp from mom and she didn\u2019t even ask me what I was using it for.<\/p>\n
So now that I had the special pencils, I figured I\u2019d show them to my friends, at least the friends I thought would really like them. I saw Billy in the park Saturday morning and told him about the pencils, and he really wanted to see one. So I ran home, got one, and brought it back to show him. He thought it was so cool that he asked me if he could have one. I wasn\u2019t sure I should give it to him, but he begged me, so I did. Then I decided to take the whole box of pencils over to our secret Y.A.C.C.O. meeting later that morning and show them to Frankie and Stuart. Frankie REALLY liked them.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoop\u201d, he said, \u201cYou\u2019re a genius.\u201d That was the kind of stuff I liked to hear. Mom always said I was \u201cbright\u201d, but she was just a mom, and I think moms always thought their kids were great. But to have my friends say I was a \u201cgenius\u201d, now that was a lot better.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to secretly give one of these pencils to each one of the girls that\u2019s friends with Myrna\u201d, Frankie said, “But how do we do it so they don\u2019t know it\u2019s us that are doing it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could put one in each of their desks when nobody else is in the classrooms\u201d, Stuart said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWon\u2019t work\u201d, said Frankie, \u201cHow do we get in the classrooms when Mrs Herman and Miss Hubbel and none of the other kids are there? And even if we figured out how and when to do it, the teachers would probably figure out it was some of the boys in class and track it down to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHmm\u201d, said Stuart, wrinkling his nose. I could tell that they thought this was perfect secret agent type stuff to try to figure out at a Y.A.C.C.O. meeting, which stood for \u201cYoung Agents of Chaos and Craziness Organization\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if\u201d, I said, \u201cWe sneak up to each girl\u2019s house and we put one of the pencils in their mailbox.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s brilliant\u201d, said Stuart, \u201cMaybe their parents will see it there first, notice Myrna\u2019s name, and ask their daughter, who\u2019s Myrna\u2019s friend, what this is all about. It will cause \u2018chaos and craziness\u2019 among Myrna and all her friends, which is what this organization was set up to do.\u201d So Frankie thought I was a \u201cgenius\u201d and Stuart that I was \u201cbrilliant\u201d. Pretty good for a two buck box of pencils!<\/p>\n
\u201cSo\u201d, said Frankie, \u201cWe\u2019ll make a list of all Myrna\u2019s friends, figure out where each of them lives, and then head out under the cover of darkness.\u201d So we made a list of eight girls in Mrs Herman\u2019s or Miss Hubbel\u2019s class that we knew the names of, that were friends with Myrna, which included Beth and Abby. Then we had to decide whether to put one in Myrna too.<\/p>\n
\u201cHmm\u201d, said Stuart, thinking, \u201cWould it be better if she got one too, or if she didn\u2019t, but all her friends did?\u201d He looked at me. \u201cWhat do you think, Coop?\u201d<\/p>\n
I wanted to have another brilliant genius idea, but I couldn\u2019t think of anything, and I started to worry about what was going to happen, and if we\u2019d get caught somehow, but I didn\u2019t tell THEM that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m good with either strategy\u201d, I said, figuring I\u2019d use that grownup word that they used in all my wargame rules to sound smart and cool, if not more of brilliant genius stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say we give her one\u201d, Frankie said, \u201cYou know, \u2018take this evil queen!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSounds like a line from a Doctor Strange comic\u201d, said Stuart.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know\u201d, said Frankie, looking super proud of himself, maybe super FULL of himself too.<\/p>\n
So we made the list but then weren\u2019t sure where everybody lived. I suggested that we look their last names up in the phonebook, and if the address was near our school, it was probably them. Again, both Frankie and Stuart thought that was \u201cbrilliant\u201d, and between the girls who we already knew where they lived and the ones we found in the phonebook, we had addresses for eight of the nine.<\/p>\n
So the next question was when. We figured it would be best to do all of them at the same time rather than different houses on different days, because the first girls that got them might tell Myrna and the rest of her friends and then they might all be on the lookout. Though Frankie had thought maybe nighttime, we decided we should do them all Sunday morning, because people might sleep in or maybe even go to church and not be home.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo either of your families go to church on Sunday?\u201d Stuart asked us. We both shook our heads. \u201cOurs doesn\u2019t either\u201d, he said, \u201cBut maybe some of the girls\u2019 families do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then we had to decide whether to do them all together or separately.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do them all together it\u2019ll be more fun\u201d, said Frankie, \u201cBut of course it will take longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if we do them all together\u201d, Stuart said, \u201cSomeone might be more likely to notice us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrue\u201d, said Frankie, \u201cAnd we should all dress up so we don\u2019t look like ourselves. Wear stuff that we don\u2019t usually wear. You know, wear sunglasses and different kinds of hats, like one of your dad\u2019s hats. So even if people see us they won\u2019t know it\u2019s us.\u201d Dad had some hats he wore that maybe I could have used, but they weren\u2019t at our house anymore. I\u2019d have to borrow one from him, and he\u2019d probably ask me why I wanted to borrow it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe we should divide the girls up\u201d, said Stuart, \u201cIt would be super quick. Two of us would have to do three and one of us just two. Then we could meet back here after we were done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds good\u201d, said Frankie, \u201cBut we should still dress up so we\u2019re disguised.\u201d Then he looked at me and asked, \u201cWhat do you think, Coop?\u201d I figured I should make a decision too, if I was going to be a \u201cbrilliant genius\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, I said, \u201cMakes sense to me. We\u2019ll each do two or three on our own then meet up at your place.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAgreed\u201d, said Frankie, using that word that grownups used in books, and comics and TV shows when they were planning stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgreed\u201d, said Stuart. And we all smiled at each other like this whole thing was super cool, and we were all brilliant geniuses, and of course young agents of chaos and craziness.<\/p>\n
So I got the three girls closest to my house. Abby of course, because she lived across the street. Josie, who lived on Cambridge just down at the other end of my street. And Julie, who lived over on Ferdon.<\/p>\n
Stuart got the girls that lived on the other side of the park from me. Jenny, who lived on Henry near the Food and Drug. Millie, the new girl with the red hair, that lived on Morton. And Beth, who lived on Brooklyn near where Molly used to live.<\/p>\n
Frankie only had two, Stella and Myrna herself, but they were the two that lived closest to him, Stella on Michigan and Myrna on Dewey. He said that Myrna would be the hardest one because he had to be super careful there because she was such a \u201cnosy busybody\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo remember\u201d, said Frankie, \u201cYou can\u2019t look like yourself. You have to be in disguise and wear sunglasses even. Though I guess you should still look like a kid, not like somebody dressed up in a costume, so if any of the girl\u2019s parents see you they won\u2019t think you\u2019re strange.\u201d I nodded, and was already wondering what I could wear, and where I\u2019d get sunglasses.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight\u201d, said Stuart, \u201cYou should look like a regular kid just not like you. Maybe wear a baseball cap that\u2019s different than one you usually wear. Borrow one from your brother maybe.\u201d I nodded again. Mom did have a Yankees baseball cap that she got because she wanted all the Detroit Tiger fans to know that she was a Yankees fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut make sure you wear sunglasses\u201d, said Stuart. If people can\u2019t see your eyes it\u2019s harder to tell it\u2019s you.\u201d I was thinking hard about that. Mom had sunglasses, but they were bigger, the kind made for women.<\/p>\n
Finally I said something, \u201cBut if you wear sunglasses you won\u2019t look like a regular kid. Kids don\u2019t wear sunglasses.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHmm\u201d, said Frankie, looking worried and thinking, \u201cI mean I\u2019VE worn sunglasses before.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen you\u201d, I said, Stuart shaking his head because he hadn\u2019t either, \u201cI don\u2019t see kids our age wearing sunglasses in the park.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d, said Frankie, sounding frustrated, \u201cWear them if you can without looking super weird, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he looked at Stuart and me and smiled. \u201cWe all need to be at our sharpest to pull this one off, but it\u2019s going to be SO cool. Myrna is going to be SO mad, I CAN\u2019T WAIT!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo is our YACCO meeting adjourned?\u201d asked Stuart. Frankie nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdjourned\u201d, he said. Stuart and I started to leave Frankie\u2019s room and go down the stairs to leave his house.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait a minute\u201d, Frankie said, \u201cYou didn\u2019t give us our pencils! You should give each of us one extra, just in case.\u201d So I gave three to Frankie and four to Stuart, and Stuart and I left Frankie\u2019s house and walked back towards the park. As we walked I was thinking about our plan and wasn\u2019t sure of the whole thing, though I figured it was too late now, the \u201cplan was in motion\u201d. I would look wimpy if I tried to stop my \u201cbrilliant genius\u201d plan now.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The next morning was Sunday, and I\u2019d set my clock radio alarm to come on at 6:30 in the morning, way earlier than I usually got up. So early, that David was still in bed, and Midnight, sleeping between his legs, opened an eye to look at me but then closed it again. We were figuring out that now that he was a little bit older, though not a grown cat yet, he liked to roam around the house at night, but when it got light outside, he would come up to our room and sleep with one of us before we woke up because it was extra warm for him.<\/p>\n
When I turned off the alarm and sat up in bed, David, who was still under his covers, opened one eye too and looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you set the alarm for the wrong time?\u201d he asked. I shook my head.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never get up this early\u201d, he said, \u201cIt’s not even a school day.\u201d There was no way I was going to tell him about the pencils and what Frankie, Stuart and I were doing this morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to get up early\u201d, I said to him, saying my words in a kind of \u201cI\u2019m your older brother, I\u2019ll do whatever I want\u201d way.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay\u201d, he said and rolled over away from me like he was going to try to sleep some more.<\/p>\n
Mom had been up late last night and had called dad to yell at him and cry, before she finally got quiet and I guess fell asleep. I could hear the television still on in her room so I figured she was still asleep. I really didn\u2019t know about our pencil plan, but if I didn\u2019t do my part, I was afraid Frankie and Stuart would think I was a chicken.<\/p>\n
I had checked last night, and luckily mom\u2019s Yankees cap was in the closet by the front door. Her sunglasses, bigger than any sunglasses I\u2019d seen guys wear, were sitting in a wicker basket on the big rectangular table in the sitting room. I put on her hat and her sunglasses, and looked at myself in the mirror on the wall in the front part of the living room. I thought I looked pretty strange, but I also realized that I was wearing my regular clothes – my blue shorts and my green and yellow striped t-shirt. If Abby saw me outside her house she might recognize my clothes, and figure out that that weird kid with the Yankees cap and the women\u2019s sunglasses was me.<\/p>\n
So I quietly walked back up the stairs and peeked in our room. I could hear David snoring, which I figured was good, he\u2019d fallen back asleep. Midnight, curled up on his bed by his feet, raised his head and looked at me, like he was asking, \u201cWhat are you up to, human?\u201d I looked back at him and tried to have my face say, \u201cNone of your damn business, cat!\u201d He shivered, nestled his head back down on the covers against his front paws and closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
I walked slowly and quietly into the room and carefully opened our closet door and looked at my clothes in there. I had a white shirt with long sleeves and a collar and gray pants that mom called \u201cslacks\u201d, that I hadn\u2019t worn since \u201cclass picture day\u201d at school back in October. I figured if I wore that stuff no one would recognize me, though there was no way I was going to put on my dress-up shoes too. I quietly took down the hangers those two things were on and went out of our bedroom into the study to change clothes so David wouldn\u2019t see me if he woke up again.<\/p>\n
I took off my shorts and my sneakers and put on the long pants, and then the long-sleeved shirt. The shirt felt uncomfortably tight in my shoulders and around my chest, which was strange because I didn\u2019t remember it feeling that way back in October. I hung the two hangers in the study closet and hid my shorts in the back of one of the dresser drawers full of sweaters. Now I went into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I definitely did not look like me, but I also definitely looked pretty stupid.<\/p>\n
When I turned to go out of the bathroom David was standing in the bathroom doorway, I hadn\u2019t closed the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d he asked, still sounding sleepy. I had to make something up.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, yeah\u201d, I said, giving my mind time to think of something, \u201cMy friends and I are doing this thing where we\u2019re pretending to be secret agents, so we\u2019re dressing up like we are.\u201d It seemed like that sounded pretty stupid, but it was the best I could do.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t look like a secret agent\u201d, he said, \u201cAre those mom\u2019s sunglasses?\u201d I nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are you up so early?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d, I said, \u201cMy crazy friends wanted to start real early, what can you do?\u201d I\u2019d heard grownups say that \u201cwhat can you do\u201d part before when they didn\u2019t want you to think it was their idea, or that they didn\u2019t really want to but kind of had to.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that her Yankees cap?\u201d he asked. I nodded again.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, I said, then taking a second or two to think, \u201cI\u2019m supposed to be a secret agent from New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy New York?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d, I said, \u201cThat\u2019s just how they wanted me to pretend.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at David and shook my head and made a silly face and said, \u201cMy crazy stupid friends. I tell ya.\u201d That was another thing I\u2019d heard grownups say when they DIDN\u2019T want to tell you what was really going on.<\/p>\n
This was the part where I might have told David to not tell mom, but then he probably would have asked why, and I didn\u2019t want to have to make up more stuff. Neither of us was telling mom much these days anyway, unless she asked us first, but hopefully I\u2019d be back home before she even came out of her room so she wouldn\u2019t ask David where I was.<\/p>\n
David looked like he couldn\u2019t figure out what was going on and finally shook his head slowly and headed down the hall and down the stairs. I figured I better get out of the house quickly, and get this whole crazy stupid thing done with. I went down the stairs and out the front door with my three special pencils in my back pocket. I could hear David in the kitchen pouring himself a bowl of Cheerios. Best I skip breakfast for now.<\/p>\n
I saw Abby\u2019s house across the street, but I figured I shouldn\u2019t just walk over there and do her pencil first. Even though I was disguised and wearing mom\u2019s sunglasses, if she or someone else in her house saw me come out of my house and walk over to hers, they\u2019d figure out it was me. Better to go by her house and do her pencil LAST, coming up Martin Place from Cambridge, where Josie\u2019s house was. I still worried that if she saw me coming out of MY house looking strange like this, that when I walked by her house later to do her pencil she would REMEMBER that this strange kid was actually me. I didn\u2019t see her in her upstairs bedroom window but I still worried she might be looking out, or her mom might be in the kitchen looking out THAT window.<\/p>\n
So I decided I better quickly run around the corner the other way onto Wells so no one could see me from her house anymore. I figured I\u2019d do Julie\u2019s house first, up on Ferdon, so I walked up Wells by the park towards Ferdon, which I could just barely see beyond Andy\u2019s house on the corner of Baldwin and Wells. I didn\u2019t see any kids in the park yet, just that grownup coach guy pushing that chalk machine to make the foul lines on the baseball diamond. Farther over I could see what looked like other grownups playing tennis, including one hitting balls against the backboard, hearing that thump after each hit.<\/p>\n
As I got closer to Andy\u2019s house, I could see his dad was washing their car with a hose in their driveway, though I didn\u2019t see Andy anywhere. But Andy\u2019s dad knew me, so even though I was in disguise, I was worried he might recognize me, specially if I just walked right by him on the sidewalk in front of their house. So I quickly went across Wells and walked on the grass on the park side of the street. Then when I got to Baldwin I crossed it and went down towards Andy\u2019s house but turned at Wells and walked by his house on the other side of the street. I did my best not to look at Andy\u2019s dad though I was worried he might be looking at me. But luckily he didn\u2019t do anything crazy and call out to me something like, \u201cIs that you, Cooper?\u201d That would be BAD, I wouldn\u2019t know what to say.<\/p>\n
When I got up to Ferdon and crossed the street, I wasn\u2019t worried anymore. I knew the number of Julie\u2019s house, but not exactly where it was, but I had figured out how addresses worked. I looked at the address numbers of the houses that I could see and they were just a little bit higher than the number of her house, and I could tell if I went left on Ferdon, the house numbers were getting smaller and I should get to hers, so I walked that way. I didn\u2019t think there was anybody on Ferdon who might recognize me, except of course Julie, but I\u2019d never been to her house, her being a girl, so I don\u2019t think her mom and dad would recognize me, even if I wasn\u2019t disguised, and I hoped that, like me, she didn\u2019t usually get up super early on Sunday mornings.<\/p>\n
It WAS kind of neat being up this early. In this case, I would say \u201cneat\u201d instead of \u201ccool\u201d because it was more of a little kid feeling and not a big kid one. It felt like it was going to be a really nice day. There were white puffy clouds in the sky but you couldn\u2019t see the sun yet, even though it wasn\u2019t dark anymore. Everything was really green and I could hear birds and squirrels chirping, squirrels running along the wires way up on the telephone poles and then hopping on to a tree branch. Mom said those wires were their highways to keep away from dogs and cats on the ground that would go after them.<\/p>\n
When I got to the address that was Julie\u2019s house, I lucked out. The front of her house had a long stairway that went up from the sidewalk up to a big front porch, but just partway up that stairway was a mailbox on a post, instead of the house having a mail slot in the front door or a mailbox next to the front door. I wouldn\u2019t have to go all the way up on her front porch to put the pencil in there. I looked around and didn\u2019t see anybody except one grownup woman across the street farther up sitting by some plants in her front yard pruning.<\/p>\n
Suddenly my whole body shivered with worrying that I might get caught. But I figured the longer I stood there on the sidewalk looking up Julie\u2019s house\u2019s stairway, the more likely that would happen. But also, I figured I shouldn\u2019t RUN up the stairs because if someone WAS watching me that might seem strange to them. As I tried to walk regular up the stairs to the mailbox, I thought of that \u201cSecret Agent Man\u201d song\u2026<\/p>\n
With every move he makes
\nAnother chance he takes
\nOdds are he won\u2019t live to see tomorrow<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI opened the front part of the mailbox, put the pencil in, then closed it quickly and stepped back down to the sidewalk and kept walking, heading down toward Washtenaw. As I walked by that woman across the street from me who was pruning in her front yard, she finally noticed me and raised her hand like to say hello. So without really looking back at her, I raised my hand the same way to say hello back, but kept walking. She didn\u2019t try to say anything to me or ask a question so I was super lucky.<\/p>\n
So I kept walking down Ferdon til I got to Washtenaw. It was strange to see it with no cars driving on it. I couldn\u2019t remember seeing it that way before. Across the big street on the other side was one of those giant fraternity places, mom and dad called them \u201cfrat houses\u201d. It had those big tall pillars in the front like those old-fashioned buildings I had seen in pictures of the Civil War. But I didn\u2019t cross Washtenaw but instead went left across Ferdon and down the sidewalk to the next street, Cambridge. And went left again to walk down that one.<\/p>\n
Across Cambridge was that little Triangle place with grass and trees, but not really a park because it didn\u2019t have any playground or sports places like a basketball or tennis court. On the other side of it I could see \u201cThe Rock\u201d, which today was painted bright green with black letters on it, but I couldn\u2019t figure out what the letters said from this far away.<\/p>\n
I still remembered that time when Molly and I first explored Burns Park together before I moved here, and we walked up to where the Rock was and it was painted white with those \u201csds\u201d letters and \u201cnew left\u201d words in black. And then those college kids drove by down Washtenaw, saw us and cheered and held their fists out the car window up in the air, so Molly and I did too to show them we were on their team. And then that old man got mad at us because he said those college kids in the car were \u201ccommunists\u201d and we were stupid not to know better. But I think he was just mad because he knew us kids would change everything, and I guess he didn\u2019t want things to change. But things HAD changed. All us kids were getting older and the older kids were starting to protest against the war in Vietnam and stuff like that, all that stuff Mike kept telling me about.<\/p>\n
I walked down Cambridge past the triangle part and across Baldwin. Martin Place, my street, was next, and across it just a little farther down on Cambridge was Josie\u2019s house. Again because she was a girl, I had never been there, but mom had pointed it out when we drove by it once, because mom had been to a party there and met Josie\u2019s mom and dad. Mom said Josie\u2019s dad was a professor at U of M who taught \u201cpolitical science\u201d.<\/p>\n
As to the pencil part, I could see that her house was going to be a problem. It had a giant front yard, and there was no door on the front part of it, only lots of windows. There was only a door on the SIDE of the house, and I couldn\u2019t tell from across Cambridge if there was a mailbox or mailslot. At least I didn\u2019t see her or any grownups out in her driveway or front yard, and as best I could tell, there wasn\u2019t anyone looking out any of those windows in the front part of the house.<\/p>\n
So I crossed Cambridge and walked up the beginning part of her driveway, but still on the sidewalk. I still couldn\u2019t see anyone looking out the front windows. I wasn\u2019t sure how I\u2019d get to that side door without someone inside seeing me, if anybody in her house was even up yet. I thought about what James Bond would do, the way he snuck around Largo\u2019s compound. From where he was hiding, he would quickly run to another spot where he could kind of hide again and then figure out what spot to go to next til he got where he wanted to go.<\/p>\n
So I figured if I could get to the corner of the house between the front and the side they probably couldn’t see me there, then I could sneak under the big window on the side of the house to get to the door.<\/p>\n
With every move he makes
\nAnother chance he takes<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI walked quickly up their driveway to that corner, stopped there and crouched down. I could feel my heart beating in my chest and I was breathing fast. I stayed down low and snuck under the big side window to where there were a couple steps up to the door. I was so happy to see it had a mailslot. I crawled up to the door and pushed the pencil through the mailslot. It made a metal creaking noise and I could hear the pencil rattle as it fell from the slot down to the floor inside. I heard a grownup women\u2019s voice inside say, \u201cWhat in blazes was that? There\u2019s no mail on Sunday!\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned around and ran back down the driveway to the sidewalk and then out across Cambridge without even looking for cars. I kept running down to Martin Place and then up the sidewalk until I figured they couldn\u2019t see me from Josie\u2019s house anymore. I stopped, bent over and breathing hard, my heart pounding even more now, but decided I had to keep running in case they\u2019d come out of their house after me. If they couldn\u2019t catch me they couldn\u2019t prove it was me. As I ran up the street toward Abby\u2019s house and mine, I kept looking behind me down towards Cambridge but I didn\u2019t see anybody. By the time I got up to Scott Alley, closer to my house and Abby\u2019s, I finally relaxed a little. Just one more to do and I\u2019d be DONE, though now I was thinking I should never have suggested and agreed to this stupid plan.<\/p>\n
I walked across Scott Alley on Abby\u2019s side of our street, by Vincent\u2019s house, and looked up at my own house to make sure mom or David weren\u2019t in the front yard. Then I finally got up to Abby\u2019s house. They had two steps up to their front door with a little roof part over it, and a black metal mailbox hanging on one of the big posts that held up that roof part. Abby\u2019s bedroom window was right above there and I could see in it just enough to see that she wasn\u2019t looking out the window. I SO wanted to be done, so I quickly walked up to her mailbox, opened it, carefully put the pencil inside and closed it again, and went back out to the sidewalk.<\/p>\n
I thought of just running across the street and going into my house to change into my regular clothes, but then I thought if someone was watching me in Abby\u2019s house and saw me put the pencil in the mailbox, and then saw me run across the street and into my house, they would figure out it was me, even though I was disguised. So instead I just walked up to Wells and went to the right down the street away from my house and where someone in Abby\u2019s house couldn\u2019t see me anymore.<\/p>\n
I had DONE IT! I felt kind of good that I had, since Frankie and Stuart would still think I was cool, and I guess I\u2019d still think so too. But I also felt worried that someone in one of those three houses might have seen me, specially Josie\u2019s house where I heard that woman in the kitchen, probably Josie\u2019s mom, when I dropped the pencil in the mailslot.<\/p>\n
We were planning to meet at Frankie\u2019s when we were done, so I figured I\u2019d just walk over there now, in my disguise stuff. I thought about taking the cap and the sunglasses off, because I knew I looked kind of stupid wearing them, but I didn\u2019t want any of my friends to maybe see me and recognize me, wearing the rest of my disguise, and maybe asking me why I was wearing dress up clothes, Yankees cap and women\u2019s sunglasses.<\/p>\n
When I got to Frankie\u2019s house I realized that I usually rang the doorbell and his mom would let me in and tell me that he was upstairs in his room and I\u2019d run up. But now I was in disguise, and I wondered if I SHOULD have gone back to my house first and changed into my regular clothes, because Frankie\u2019s mom might wonder why I was dressed up like this. The window of Frankie\u2019s bedroom upstairs looked out on the side of the house and was open, so I went over there and tried to do a really loud whisper that he might hear up there, which sounded more like a hiss.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankie\u201d, I hissed, \u201cYou up there?\u201d There was no reply so I tried a couple more times. Then I heard from one of the open downstairs windows his mom\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan I help you? Are you looking for Frankie?\u201d she asked, \u201cAre you one of his friends? I don\u2019t recognize you in the sunglasses.\u201d I got scared, but then I was glad she didn\u2019t recognize me, and then I nodded my head.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know\u201d, she said, \u201cI don\u2019t know where he is. I heard him go out this morning, maybe a half hour ago before his dad and I were even down from our room. He usually doesn\u2019t go out this early on a Sunday morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, thanks\u201d, I said. Not knowing what else to say, grownups always liked it when kids said thanks.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me who you are\u201d, she said, \u201cAnd I\u2019ll tell him you came by.\u201d I figured if I didn\u2019t tell her who I was, she\u2019d think it was really strange and might start asking a bunch of questions and worrying that I might be somebody bad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Cooper\u201d, I said, \u201cJust dressed funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, Cooper\u201d, she said, “I didn’t recognize you. Are you, Frankie and Stuart doing some sort of secret agent thing. I know Frankie has his little club.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, I said, \u201cWe\u2019re just kind of disguised and pretending.\u201d<\/p>\n
She laughed through her nose and said, \u201cWell, your sunglasses are so fashionable!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, they\u2019re my mom\u2019s\u201d, I said, \u201cAnyway I\u2019ll just go and figure out where he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay\u201d, she said, \u201cIf you see him, tell him his mom is making Sunday breakfast and if he wants some, he should make an appearance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay\u201d, I said, nodding, \u201cI will\u201d. And I ran back in the front yard and saw a kid across the street also wearing sunglasses and one of those caps like my dad had. He was waving at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cStuart?\u201d I called out. He nodded, but put his finger to his lips for me to be quiet. I ran across the street to where he was behind a tree between the sidewalk and the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeez, man\u201d, he whispered, \u201cYou\u2019re going to give us away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry\u201d, I said, and then starting to whisper too though we were outside and no one was around so it seemed silly, \u201cDo you know where Frankie is?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot sure\u201d, he said, \u201cAre those your mom\u2019s sunglasses?\u201d He was wearing those reflecting kind that I\u2019d seen airforce pilots wear and a really big leather jacket.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, I said, shaking my head slowly like I knew they looked weird, \u201cThose were the only sunglasses we had, and she\u2019s a Yankees fan, not me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about your dad?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about him?\u201d I asked back, worried, but trying not to look or talk worried.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn\u2019t he have any sunglasses?\u201d he asked, pointing at his, \u201cThese are MY dad\u2019s.”<\/p>\n
\u201cNot that I can borrow\u201d, I said, \u201cIt\u2019s a long story.\u201d I thought that was a good thing to say, like James Bond would say, it was actually true, but it didn\u2019t say ALL that was true. But I figured we better start talking about something else.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo where\u2019s Frankie?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t know\u201d, he said, \u201cI went by Stella\u2019s house and he wasn\u2019t there. He\u2019s probably down doing Myrna\u2019s. Did you do yours?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYep\u201d, I said, \u201cYou?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure did\u201d, he said, \u201cNo problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
We decided to head towards Myrna\u2019s house to look for Frankie. We walked back down Olivia to Wells and then headed up Wells towards Packard. We saw a kid up at the top of the hill there wearing sunglasses and one of those old hats grownup men wore in those old black and white movies. We waved to him and he waved back and started walking towards us. I thought about what Frankie might say about my disguise, and I decided to take off mom\u2019s sunglasses and hat, so he wouldn\u2019t see me wearing them up close, because I knew they looked pretty stupid, only women wore those kind of sunglasses.<\/p>\n
So when he finally got down to where we were he made a big smile and asked, \u201cSo like my getup?\u201d He was wearing bluejeans and one of those \u201cturtleneck\u201d shirts, that\u2019s what mom called the ones she had with the high neck part, but his was black. He grabbed the brim of his old-movie hat with his finger and thumb and pulled it down a little like I\u2019d seen men do it in those old movies.<\/p>\n
I thought he didn\u2019t look like a regular kid but somebody in a costume, but I nodded but didn\u2019t say anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look cool\u201d, said Stuart, who ALWAYS thought Frankie was totally cool, \u201cLike Humphrey Bogart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s that?\u201d asked Frankie. Stuart looked at me and rolled his eyes like Frankie didn\u2019t know EVERYTHING, but he didn\u2019t say anything to Frankie about it. I didn\u2019t know who Humphrey Bogart was either.<\/p>\n
Then Frankie looked at me, worried and asked, \u201cDidn\u2019t you wear sunglasses like we agreed?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike YOU agreed\u201d, I said, trying to talk cool and tough like he did, \u201cBut yeah, I did\u201d, and I took mom\u2019s glasses out of her baseball cap I was holding, \u201cBut they\u2019re my mom\u2019s and look kind of stupid.\u201d I waved them in front of me but didn\u2019t put them on.<\/p>\n
He looked at them and laughed through his nose and said, \u201cYeah, makes you look like a girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, I said, \u201cStupid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frankie looked at both of us and asked, \u201cMission accomplished?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYep\u201d, said Stuart. I wanted to be super cool so, instead of saying something, I made that thumbs up sign with my hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we wait til tomorrow in school\u201d, said Frankie, \u201cAnd just see how Evil Myrna reacts. I can\u2019t wait!\u201d<\/p>\n
But I was worried, and wondering if Myrna and the other girls could figure out somehow it was us, and I was the one who bought the pencils. I remembered I had shown one of the pencils to Billy in the park yesterday. He thought it was so neat that he begged me to let him have one, so I gave it to him but made him swear he wouldn\u2019t show it to anyone else.<\/p>\n
I told Stuart and Frankie I wanted to go home and change out of my \u201cdisguise\u201d before my mom got up and saw me in these dress-up clothes with her sunglasses. I ran home and was lucky that mom was taking a bath, and David was gone, probably over in the park or over at Eddie\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The next morning, Monday, I woke up to the CKLW DJ playing that new song by the Mamas and the Papas\u2026<\/p>\n
Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day
\nMonday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way
\nOh Monday morning you gave me no warning of what was to be
\nOh Monday, Monday, how could you leave and not take me<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI still didn\u2019t get that \u201chow could you leave and not take me\u201d part. I mean days \u201cleave\u201d because they end and change to the next day. But if Monday \u201ctook him\u201d would he just end too or be dead or something. Was he saying he wanted to commit suicide?<\/p>\n
When mom was yelling at dad on the phone last night she was saying stuff like, \u201cI can\u2019t live another day like this\u201d, which sounded kind of like maybe she wanted to commit suicide. I just couldn\u2019t imagine someone thinking that way. I could imagine maybe being super brave in a war and doing something that you know would get you killed, like falling on a grenade to save your buddies. I could do that when we were pretending we were soldiers in a war but not for real.<\/p>\n
Every other day (every other day)
\nEvery other day of the week is fine, yeah
\nBut whenever Monday comes (but whenever Monday comes)
\nA-you can find me cryin’ all of the time<\/p><\/blockquote>\nLike the people singing the song, I didn\u2019t like Monday mornings because I didn\u2019t want to go back to school for the next five days straight before I had more of my own weekend days. And today I felt extra that way because I was worried about the whole pencil thing, what would happen and would I get in trouble. I mean Frankie and Stuart really liked the pencils and thought that I was \u201cbrilliant\u201d for thinking to get them made. Billy really liked the pencils too, wanted one, so I gave it to him. I liked being the kid with ideas that got my friends excited, at least some of them. I don\u2019t think MIKE would like the pencils. He would probably ask me how I would feel if Myrna had gotten pencils made saying \u201cCooper loves Alice\u201d, or some other girl in the class that most kids thought was strange. But this didn\u2019t have anything to do with him, he wasn\u2019t even in my class.<\/p>\n
The best part about going to school in the morning was getting to see my friends out on the soccer field before class, specially Mike, and putting on our \u201cshow\u201d for the fourth and fifth graders, who thought we were super cool, like Greek gods. And if I had to say who was my BEST friend right now, I would have to say it was him, and he was out there, guarding our goal closest to the school, while Billy was at the other goal, talking away and occasionally ACTUALLY BLOCKING A SHOT, though two others got through him. I\u2019d even heard some of the fifth grade boys talking about how Billy was easy to score against, but scoring against Mike, that was the real sign you did good. They\u2019d send the fourth graders to play on Billy\u2019s field because that was the \u201cjunior league\u201d.<\/p>\n
Frankie, Stuart, Todd, Cal and Grant were out there on offence for our side and Gil and Teddy were playing defense on the far field by Billy\u2019s goal, and Andy and Peter in front of Mike\u2019s. I even saw Arthur out there, who Mike had convinced to play, at least when it wasn\u2019t raining, snowing, muddy or cold.<\/p>\n
So I ran across the field towards Mike\u2019s goal and Frankie saw me and yelled out, \u201cCan\u2019t wait to see how Myrna\u2019s doing this morning!\u201d I nodded but kept running toward Mike. Billy saw me and called out, \u201cTell Mike about the pencils!\u201d<\/p>\n
When I got close to Mike, he yelled out to me, \u201cThere you are finally, I could use some help on defense on the left over there\u201d, pointing with his finger as a ball came flying towards the goal and he had to run to his right to knock it away. \u201cAnd what\u2019s Billy all about with these pencils?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNah, it\u2019s stupid\u201d, I said, waving a hand in front of my face, \u201cIt\u2019s just something with Frankie and Stuart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, said Mike, \u201cThey were saying something about \u2018getting Myrna\u2019? What\u2019s that all about?\u201d<\/p>\n
Three fifth graders with a ball were dribbling towards me, so I said, \u201cGot to get to work here. Maybe I\u2019ll tell you later!\u201d Mike nodded. And when the second bell rang and we all stopped playing to go inside to class, I ran quickly to the far entrance to go up those stairs to class, avoiding Mike so we didn\u2019t talk anymore.<\/p>\n
As usual, when all us boys playing soccer came into class at the last minute, all the other kids including the girls were already sitting there. Myrna had her lips pushed together, thinking, and looking at us boys as we were coming in. I came into the room before Frankie and quickly took my seat over by the windows on the other side away from the door. Frankie and Stuart finally came in and Myrna kept looking at Frankie as he walked by her and went to his seat in the back of the room. Stuart, who was behind Frankie, looked at me as he walked to his seat and made his eyes really big. And when Billy came in with Gil, Myrna watched Billy the same way. Billy looked back at her looking at him and then looked at me and made kind of a funny face and smiled. All us boys who had been playing soccer all had just barely taken our seats when the third bell rang.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust under the buzzer\u201d, said Mrs Herman, shaking her head and looking up at the ceiling, \u201cWell now that everyone\u2019s here, a few announcements. Our talent show assembly will be Monday June 13th. So if you, or you and your friends want to perform something for the \u2018show\u2019, you need to let me know what you\u2019ll be doing by Tuesday May 31st, which is coming up the day after Memorial Day.\u201d She looked around the room at all of us.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019re all actually here today\u201d, she said, \u201cSo please NOTE\u2026 and I\u2019d suggest you even WRITE THIS DOWN. Talent show act submitted to me IN WRITING by Tuesday May 31st, the day after Memorial Day, and the actual assembly is on Monday June 13th. Everybody got it? Yes? Don\u2019t tell me I didn\u2019t tell you because you’re all here and I think you\u2019re all paying attention except maybe Billy\u2026\u201d All the other kids in class turned to look at him and he quickly put something inside his desk, closed it and said \u201cSorry!\u201d<\/p>\n
All morning long I watched Myrna, and Frankie and Stuart did too. You could tell she was thinking about more than school, because she looked kind of mad, like she was worrying about stuff, and she never worried about school. While we were working on stuff at our desks, Frankie, Stuart and I would look at each other and make faces to each other like whatever we did to Myrna was working.<\/p>\n
When the bell rang and it was finally lunchtime, the school principal was at our classroom door and asked Mrs Herman to come out in the hall to talk to her. Mrs Herman went out the door as the rest of us went out too. Most of the boys got up quickly to go out of the room first and then the girls too, but as I went through the doorway with everyone else, I noticed Billy was still at his desk watching us all go out. Gil asked him if he was coming, and he said \u201cin just a bit\u201d.<\/p>\n
I was starting to talk with Frankie and Stuart in the hallway when I saw Billy finally come out of our classroom, he was the last one. He walked by Mrs Herman and the principal woman talking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our plan is working\u201d, Frankie whispered to Stuart and me, looking around to make sure no one else in the hall could hear him, \u201cLet\u2019s head outside where we can talk.\u201d The three of us quickly headed down the stairway by our classroom and ran down the stairs past the girls and other boys who were walking down the regular way.<\/p>\n
Once we were outside and by ourselves, I could tell Frankie was excited.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you SEE Myrna?\u201d he asked, \u201cShe TOTALLY knows about the pencils and is trying to figure out who did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree\u201d, said Stuart, \u201cShe TOTALLY does!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur plan is working\u201d, I said, joining in.<\/p>\n
\u201cYOUR brilliant plan, that is!\u201d Frankie said. That felt good to hear, but also kind of bad, that is if Myrna or Mrs Herman figured it out. But I looked over to our house and saw dad next to his car waving at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gotta go\u201d, I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour dad taking you out to lunch AGAIN?\u201d Stuart asked, like that was really strange, though as far as I knew neither he or Frankie knew that mom and dad were divorced.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, I said, \u201cHe\u2019s just weird that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dad took David and I to lunch as usual at the Food and Drug. Dad and I had BLTs and David had a grilled cheese sandwich. Dad was kind of happy, because he said that now that he had his new job at the U of M and still doing some teaching at Eastern, and making more money, in the fall he was hoping to get his own apartment so we could spend weekends with him and sleep over. I could tell that it was really important to him that we could do that, and not just see him at lunchtime during school or just in the daytime on Saturday or Sunday. I think he felt like right now, he wasn\u2019t being enough of a dad.<\/p>\n
Dad dropped us back off at home right when the second bell was ringing for afternoon class, so David and I had to go right back into school and I didn\u2019t get to play any soccer.<\/p>\n
I came back into my classroom with the rest of the boys who had been playing. I saw that Myrna was talking to Mrs Herman up by her desk and showing her one of the pencils. My heart started beating really fast. I looked at Frankie and Stuart but they were talking quietly to each other in the back of the room. I took my seat by the window. Myrna gave Mrs Herman the pencil and walked back to her desk, looking at Frankie and Billy with a really fierce look. I guess they were the two boys in class that she figured would do something bad to her like that.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
When the bell finally rang for the end of afternoon class, Mrs Herman asked Gil to stay behind so she could talk to him. I looked at Gil in his seat and I could tell he looked really scared. Billy was looking at Gil, shaking his head and looking like he was making words with his mouth without saying anything anyone could hear. All the rest of us got up from our seats and left the classroom, Billy still tagging behind and looking fiercely at Gil.<\/p>\n
Outside the school I went over to where Frankie and Stuart were talking.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo did you see?\u201d Frankie asked me, \u201cMyrna gave one of the pencils to Mrs Herman, but it was a blue one and I put a red one in her mailbox.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe one of her friends gave her the one THEY got\u201d, said Stuart.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put a red one in Myrna\u2019s mailbox and a purple one in Stella\u2019s\u201d, said Frankie, \u201cWhat color were the ones you guys did?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGeez\u201d, said Stuart, \u201cI\u2019m trying to remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI got twelve made\u201d, I said, \u201cThere were three of each color; red, blue, green and purple, but I don\u2019t think I put a blue one in any of my three girls\u2019 mailboxes.\u201d Then I remembered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did give a blue one to Billy\u201d, I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWHAT?\u201d said Frankie, looking like he couldn\u2019t believe it. I suddenly got really extra worried.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, I said, \u201cI was telling Billy about the pencils and I showed him one and he begged me for it so I gave it to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh boy\u201d, said Frankie, \u201cNot a good move.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stuart shook his head and said the same thing, \u201cNot a good move.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frankie was right, but I was still mad at him for saying it, and even more mad at Stuart for just going along with whatever Frankie said and saying the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut maybe\u201d, said Frankie, holding up his finger, \u201cIt\u2019ll all work out even better THIS WAY. We\u2019ve struck a blow against the evil Myrna, but maybe also we\u2019ll get Gil and Billy to take the fall for it, because you know Gil will rat on anyone, even his best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me and said, \u201cMaybe, Coop my man, you will turn out to be a genius after all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo birds with one stone, right?\u201d Stuart said.<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly\u201d, said Frankie, \u201cExactly.\u201d<\/p>\n
I really really hoped they were right. I went right home and didn\u2019t hang out in the park that day after school. I didn\u2019t want to run into Billy and Gil.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Well, at lunchtime the next day at school, when the bell rang, Mrs Herman asked Billy to stay behind so she could talk to him. Frankie, Stuart and I all figured Gil had ratted on him. As Frankie and Stuart left the room Frankie looked at me and whispered, \u201cYou\u2019re a genius, Coop. This gets better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that afternoon when the final bell rang, Mrs Herman asked ME to stay behind. Frankie wouldn\u2019t look at me, neither would Billy, but Stuart at least whispered \u201cgood luck\u201d as he left the room.<\/p>\n
So as the last kids left the room I sat there at my desk. I could feel myself getting really mad about this whole pencil thing, and wishing I had never got those stupid pencils, and that none of my \u201cfriends\u201d were REALLY my friends, except maybe Mike, who would have told me I shouldn\u2019t have done this, if I had told him about it.<\/p>\n
Mrs Herman looked at me like she was expecting me to come up to her desk so she could talk to me there, but I just sat there in my little desk and looked at her, feeling really mad. I KNEW I\u2019d done a bad thing but I was just sick of it all, sick of elementary school, sick of my stupid friends, sick of mom and dad being divorced.<\/p>\n
Still sitting at HER desk, she held up the blue pencil Myrna had given her and asked me, \u201cDid you have these pencils made?\u201d I was so mad I didn\u2019t even want to lie, so I nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you even think about how you would feel\u201d, she asked. \u201cIf someone else made these pencils saying YOU loved some girl in this class?\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at her, knowing I had done something really bad, but sick of grownups being in charge of me, being better than me, telling me when I did something wrong. I shook my head, I HADN\u2019T thought about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure Myrna will be fine\u201d, she said, \u201cBut did you even think about how MARTIN would feel if he saw one of these pencils? What it says about how you and your friends think of him? I hope to GOD he didn\u2019t see one of them.\u201d She stopped talking and I looked at her and shook my head again.<\/p>\n
She put her hands over her mouth and looked up at the ceiling for a minute, thinking. Then she looked at me again and her eyes got fierce.<\/p>\n
\u201cCooper\u201d, she said, \u201cYou\u2019re a very intelligent young man. You\u2019ve done quite well with all your schoolwork this year despite what must be very difficult circumstances at home with your family. I would hope that you would know better than to do something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yeah, I knew what I had done was bad. I could feel the tears in my eyes but I didn\u2019t want to cry, I just wanted to be done with school. I just wanted it to be summer when I could do what I wanted, and never think about Mrs Herman, sixth grade, or elementary school ever again. I hoped Tappan next year would be different, that we\u2019d be more like big kids there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was May and it was spring, and there was less than a month left of school. I could feel summer wanting to start, I could feel other kids wanted it too. I SO wanted it to start, I was SO sick of school. I mean Mrs Herman was all right as teachers go. She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[1777,13,1774,1773,1799,1800,1775],"class_list":["post-7885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","tag-1960s","tag-ann-arbor","tag-autobiography","tag-childhood","tag-free-range-kid","tag-growing-up","tag-memoir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t