SNEAK PREVIEW: LITTLE TREASURES
THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT IS FROM CHAPTER TWO: KNUCKLE BONES.
Stanley Thomas was hopeless at Knuckle Bones, but that didn't stop him trying. He spent hours scattering the jacks along the pavement, and bouncing the little pink ball. His throwing technique was okay, and he could bounce the ball like a son of a gun, but he just couldn't seem to get the timing right.
It annoyed his sisters to no end.
'Oh, for Pete's sake, Stan.' said Stella.
'You throw the jacks first!' said Shirley.
'You're such a stupid baby,' said June.
'I'm NOT!' Stanley wailed, and pushed her over.
'Stanley Eldrige Thomas!' yelled his mother. Stanley suspected his sisters had seen her coming when they were teasing him, but he couldn't be sure. He turned to face her. She had just returned from her weekly tennis game with the Leons, and by the looks of it, she lost.
'How was your game, Mama?' asked Shirley.
The other girls smiled, and Stanley knew he was the victim of a conspiracy.
'Dreadful, darling. Mildred Leon cheats horribly. Now, where was I?'
'Stanley's yelling, mama,' said June, helpfully.
'Oh yes,' She wagged a finger at her son, 'The country's at war with the Koreans, and you're out here bellowing like a general! I am sick to death of your rudeness, young man. I have done my level best to raise you to be a gentleman, but if you insist on acting like a savage, I'll treat you like a savage. Do you understand what that means?' She crossed her arms, waited.
'Yes Mama, it means you'll take my toys and my clothes and give them to the poor kids, then drive me up to the state forest, and leave me to play alone in the dirt.'
What Dahlia Thomas didn't realize was that, despite her son's shameful expression, playing cowboys and Indians (despite his sister's teasing him that they didn't live in the woods anymore) with real Indians was Stanley's idea of heaven, particularly when compared to living with four women who seemed to be perpetually annoyed by his presence. He was sure things would be different if his father were alive. Dahlia wagged her finger at him again.
'Now, apologize to your sister.'
'Sorry, June.'
'Give her a hug.'
This he did grudgingly; not because he hated it, although he most certainly did. The reason he would have preferred to keep his third-eldest sister at arms length was because she pinched him whenever she got the chance, and he knew the temptation to give the flesh on the small of his back a good wringing would be too powerful to resist, knowing he couldn't react to it. He went in carefully, being sure to stand with his back to his mother.
'That's better. Tell him all is forgiven, June.'
June smiled and took his hand.
'All's forgiven, Stan.'
'That's my good girl.'
All three girls watched, smiling, as their mother made her way down the front walk and into the house. They waited until they were certain she wasn't coming back out before all three smacked him upside the head.
'Hey! I'm telling Mama!'
'She won't believe you,' said Stella.
'I'll tell her you pushed me again,' said June.
'Then she'll take you out to the forest and leave you there,' sneered Shirley.
'Good,' said Stanley, 'then I can live with the Indians!'
Shirley laughed.
'What's so funny?'
'I told you, dummy, there are no Indians up there anymore; they were all killed or chased out by the...'
'Knuckle Bones Boy,' June interrupted.
'The what?' wailed Stanley. 'I don't believe you!'
'It's true,' said June, 'it was in the newspapers for weeks.'
Stanley looked at her blankly.
'Oh, I forgot,' said June, 'dummies don't read the news. The Knuckle Bones Boy was a regular kid like you who loved to play Jacks, back when Jacks were called Knuckle Bones, and one day he died, right in the middle of a game. Now he needs someone to help him finish it so his soul can rest.'
Stanley stood transfixed.
'He tried coming home and asking his Mama for his Jacks back, but she told him she gave them away with the rest of his toys. He got so mad, he killed her. Then that Catholic priest, the one Mama says not to talk to or he'll convert us, he came and blessed the whole town, and banished the boy to live up in the woods.'
'What did the boy do to the Indians?'
'I'm getting to that! They say that when he got to the woods, he saw two Indian boys playing with a set of Jacks their Daddy made for them out of bones, and he asked if he could play too. The boys said no, so he killed them. The Indians were real scared after that, so their chief took the jacks set and threw it into a fire. He thought that would make the boy go away, but it didn't. He went from tee pee to tee pee, asking the Indian children where his Jacks were. He got so mad, he killed all the children, then he killed the chief. The Indians took what they could and left. So now the Knuckle Bones Boy lives up there all alone, waiting for someone to play with him, and God help you if you don't have a set of jacks.'
‘KNUCKLE BONES!'
Stanley screamed, swatting away the handsthat gripped his shoulders. Shirley fell down laughing.
'Good one, Shirl,' said Stella. 'I think he almost peed himself!'
'Did not!' yelled Stanley.
The truth was, he had peed himself. He had become so engrossed in his game, so determined to taste victory, just once, not only over the Jacks but over the whole world, that he saw emptying his bladder as something that could be put off - forever, if need be. The familiar burning feeling had set in when his sister started talking, and grew steadily worse with each new grim detail, but he held it. It wasn't until Shirley grabbed him that the floodgates opened. Stanley held his hands over his crotch and bent down, pretending to be fascinated by something in the grass. The very possibility of insects in the vicinity was enough to send Shirley and Stella screaming off into the distance, and June followed Shirley and Stella everywhere.
'What are you staring at, Beetle Brain?' asked Stella.
As luck would have it, a big, black, shiny rhinoceros beetle clambered over the curb and onto the nature strip just when Stella was almost at sniffing distance. Stanley bent down and picked it up.
'A beetle,' he said, and held it under her nose.
Stella shrieked. Shirley cried. June, who wasn't afraid of anything, stood her ground, and for one terrible moment, Stanley thought he was done for. Several ideas came to him all at once, but the one he settled on was the one that would ultimately seal his fate.
He opened his mouth wide and screamed.
'It's biting me! It's biting me!'
The girls scattered. Stanley smiled, bent down, and returned the creature to the grass.
'And they call ME a dummy,' he said.
