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Really hope you enjoy it! ", "description_bbcode_parsed": "This is one of my older series of stories. Partially based on true events, and I wanted to give it a happy ending. Really hope you enjoy it! ", "writing": "Audie unloaded his grocery cart onto the rubber belt, letting his little brother help. Kevin liked to help, although there wasn’t much that a 6-year old could do that really *was* help. This was one of those things, however, so Audie let him continue and advanced toward the checker who was busy with the customer in line ahead of the boys. Checking to make sure that Kevin was doing alright, Audie got out his wallet and took out the $20 bill his mother had given him the night before for this evening’s dinner. He figured it was safe enough to flash the cash since the only people who could see were the checker and the other customer, an elderly lady who didn’t look like a mugger. The checker finally finished with that customer and turned to Audie.\n\n\"Why, hello, son,\" She greeted. Audie never could understand why strange adults called him \"son\" so often, he certainly was not this woman’s child. The men he couldn’t be too sure about, but he had his mother’s eyes and chin, so he at least knew who his mother was and this lady wasn’t her. He ignored that and adopted his defensive hyper-polite stance.\n\n\"Hello, Ma’am.\" He responded, remembering to look the lady in the eyes.\n\n\"Where’s your mother?\" the checker asked next. Audie hated that question. Why did they have to move so often? He’d just gotten the checkers at the old store used to him and his brother so they didn’t ask that embarrassing question any more. Now he would have to start all over again. It would have to begin with the lie. Audie hated lying to adults. Sometimes you got caught and then bad things happened, but worse things would happen if he told this women the truth, probably, so Audie screwed up the courage, concentrated on getting it right so as not to give it away and answered as politely as he could.\n\n\"She’s at home, Ma’am. We help by doing the grocery shopping. It’s Ok, isn’t it? We didn’t buy any cigarettes or booze or anything like that.\" Actually, his mother wasn’t at home. He didn’t know where she was or whether she would even be home today. She never told him where she went when she left the apartment or when she would be back.\n\nThe checker involuntarily checked the belt to confirm Audie’s claim. She saw a whole chicken fryer, which was on special that week for 59 cents a pound, one of the biggest bargains in the store. That was an odd thing for such a young boy to be buying, but was perfectly legal. Also on the belt was an onion, a tomato, a quart of milk, a can of peas, two potatoes a head of lettuce and a small jar of blue cheese salad dressing. Looked like tonight’s dinner, she thought. Not a bad one at that. She’s never seen a little boy make such an unjunky purchase. She had to know. \"How old are you, son?\" she asked.\n\nAudie had heard that one, too, so often! \"I’m 10 years old, Ma’am\" he answered. \"It’s OK for a 10-year old to shop here, isn’t it?\" Sometimes it wasn’t.\n\n\"Of course it is!\" the checker said with a smile. Good! The smile was a sign: The lady believed the lie and would let him buy the food. Audie hoped that his face did not mirror his relief. He knew that that was one of the ways you got caught after telling a fib. The checker started passing the stuff through the laser scanner. Doot. Doot. Doot. Audie stared at the total as it accumulated. If he had done his arithmetic poorly and the purchase was more than $20, something would have to go back. It wasn’t.\n\n\"Paper or plastic?\" asked the bagger. Audie turned to this new person who had appeared out of nowhere while Audie was studying the cash register screen.\n\n\"Plastic, please,\" he answered, \"with the handles. Two bags, please.\" The bagger looked at her young customer with a puzzled expression and Audie hoped he wouldn’t have to answer any more questions. He didn’t, so he turned back to the checker and handed over the twenty. The change rattled in the cup on the counter and Audie remembered to collect it. Sometime he forgot and couldn’t sleep well that night because he got so mad at himself for being careless. He couldn’t afford to be careless. Not at all! The paper change was handed over by the checker and Audie remembered to thank her. The bagger finished and handed Audie the bags. Audie hefted them and handed the lighter one to Kevin. \"Come on, Kevie,\" he said. \"Let’s get home.\" He turned to the bagger. \"Thank you, Ma’am,\" he said quietly.\n\n\"You’re welcome,\" the bagger relied automatically. \"Have a nice day.\"\n\nThe two boys headed for the door. They did not see the checker and bagger staring after them, wondering.\n\nJust outside the door Audie stopped and turned to his brother. \"Have you got your wasp, Kevie?\" He put his hand to his chest and felt his own to make sure it was there. The wasps were a present from one of the Uncle Jacks. They were sold as non-lethal weapons and were expandable metal whips that delivered a stunning blow to an attacker if you could get them out in time. His was Audie’s most prized possession. More than once he had fended off a bully and saved the dinner money so he and his brother didn’t go hungry that night. Audie was afraid each time he used his wasp that the victim would gather up a gang and come back, maybe armed, too, but it hadn’t happened yet. A blow from a wasp seemed to convince bullies to leave Audie alone. Kevin slapped his chest to indicate that his wasp was there and the boys started to walk home.\n\nOne thing good about this new apartment, it was close to the supermarket. Audie hated the hour walk he had to make at the last place. The boys trudged home with their bags. They reached the apartment house, climbed the stairs, and stopped at #33. Audie dug around in his pocket and carefully separated the key from the coins. Taking out the key he unlocked the door. Opening it, he let his little brother in first. They went inside and Audie closed the door and turned the deadbolt. They were safe again. They put down their bags on the tiled entrance way and took off their shoes. Audie was glad for the tile. The last place had carpet all the way to the door and sometimes when you set down your grocery bags they leaked. His mom always made Audie clean up the mess and when Kevin tried to help, it only made things worse. When they had their shoes off, Audie held out his hand. \"Gimme your wasp,\" he ordered Kevin. The younger boy reached inside his shirt, brought it out and handed it over. Audie took out his and walked over to the cupboard in the living room and put the weapons away. He had to remember to do this so that these precious objects wouldn’t be lost, or even worse, accidentally taken to school. That wasn’t likely to happen, but if it did there would be such a ruckus! The school had a zero tolerance for weapons. You couldn’t even carry a set of nail clippers. What the principal would say about a wasp Audie didn’t even want to think about. THAT would be his last mistake, and Audie sure didn’t want to make it. The wasps went into the cupboard even before Audie returned to where he had left his grocery bag on the floor. The boys carried the bags into the kitchen and started to unpack them onto the kitchen table. Audie was putting the milk in the refrigerator when he heard Kevin complaining behind his back.\n\nWhy did you have to get peas, Audie?\" Kevin asked in a whiney voice when he took that can out of his bag and set it on the table with a bang. \"I hate peas!\"\n\n\"Because it’s next up on Ms. Pace’s list,\" Audie answered like he had countless times before. Ms. Pace was a nutritionist that had visited Audie’s third grade class two years ago and had handed out a hand-made book with dinner menus. Audie used it to plan what he would fix for himself and his brother. Ms. Pace had impressed Audie. He trusted her explicitly, even though he hadn’t seen her ever again. Ms. Pace had claimed that fast food was slow poison and, although Audie wouldn’t go quite that far, he did limit their visits to Mc Donald’s to emergencies only, like when he just didn’t have time to cook. Today wasn’t one of those times, however, and peas were next up. The chicken wasn’t, but Audie couldn’t pass up the sale, it made the money go farther, which reminded him and he unloaded his wallet and the coins in his pocket to the cigar box in the dish cupboard. Emergency money, like when his mom forgot to leave them some before she went out.\n\n\"I hate old Miz Pace!\" pouted Kevin. \"Why do we have to do what she says. I bet she isn’t even real!\"\n\nAudie sighed. Another mini crisis. It was hard enough taking care of Kevin without these frequent asides. He got down on his knees and looked at his little brother at eye level. \"Because, Kevie, she knows what’s good to eat and what isn’t. You don’t want to get sick do you?\" Getting sick was more than a minor disaster. Then their mom had to stay home and tend the invalid and then there was no money for dinner that day. No kid wanted to get sick, but few dreaded it as did Audie.\n\nKevin screwed up his nose. \"I won’t get sick if I eat corn, Audie. I like corn. Why can’t I have corn instead of those yucky peas?\"\n\n\"Ms. Pace says you will get sick if you don’t eat a variety of food, Kevie. I’m sorry but it’s peas tonight. You have to eat some, but I’ll give you only a little bit. How’s that?\"\n\n\"If I hafta. But I don’t wanna.\" Kevin answered. Audie was glad this incident hadn’t escalated into a revolt. Sometimes it did and then Audie just had to refuse to cook at all and put his little brother to bed hungry. Audie had to go hungry too, when that happened. He really hated that. Since Kevin had given in so easily this time, Audie reached out and gave him a hug.\n\n\"Love you, Kevie,\" he said. \"Let’s get dinner ready. Wash your hands.\" When the two had their hands clean, Audie turned to his brother again. \"Bring up a chair and you can scrub the potatoes,\" he said. Kevin gladly complied, pushed up a chair to the sink, picked up the brush, turned on the water and began scrubbing the spuds. Audie unpacked the chicken. Audie was glad the chicken was on sale, it was so easy to cook, although the cleaning up after was a chore. He threw the empty bag in the trash, making a mental note to make sure Kevin emptied the trash before they took their baths that evening. If you forgot to empty the trash when you had chicken at night you had ants in the morning AND a horrible stench to boot. Their mother always got upset at the stench. The Uncle Jacks didn’t like it and sometimes went away. That got his mom really angry and Audie would then get spanked. He didn’t mind the spanking so much, she used her hand and even though she pulled Audie’s pants down and gave it to him on his bare skin, it didn’t really hurt, but he didn’t like his mom to be angry. That made her forget to give him dinner money sometimes, and it wasn’t fair to make Kevie go hungry because Audie had screwed up.\n\nWhen Kevin had the potatoes washed, Audie told him to get out the roaster pan and stepped over to the sink and washed off the chicken. Ms. Pace had made a big deal about washing food before you cooked it. That done, he dried it with a paper towel and got out the little spice jar of poultry seasoning. By then Kevin had the pan ready so Audie put the chicken in the pan breast side up like Ms. Pace’s instructions. He sprinkled the chicken all over with the seasoning and opened the oven. Adjusting the racks he put the roaster in and closed the door. Carefully he turned the oven dial to 350 degrees and set the timer for 2 hours 15 minutes. He checked the settings to make sure and noted the time. Nothing to do for an hour before the potatoes had to go in. He washed his hands and turned to Kevin.\n\n\"Kevie, you wanna help me with my spelling?\" he asked.\n\n\"Sure, Audie!\" Kevin responded enthusiastically. Kevin loved helping Audie with his homework. When Audie made a mistake, Kevin got to yell at his older brother for a change and this was accepted as a good thing! Kevin got his spelling book out of his backpack and turned to this week’s lesson. Kevin was seated at the table on his dictionary seat-extender and had turned up the light, all ready. Audie put the book on the table under Kevin’s nose and went over the words, pointing at each in turn and pronouncing them carefully. Audie hoped Kevin didn’t remember them all this time. Sometimes the kindergartener forgot one or two and the resultant attempt to read was usually good for a snicker or two, although Audie made sure that Kevin never heard himself being laughed at. That would never do! Audie walked over to the chair opposite his eager little brother and sat.\n\n\"OK,\" he said. \"First word!\" Audie was rewarded right off the bat. Either Kevin had forgotten the first word already, or else hadn’t heard properly in the first place.\n\n\"Bizzer,\" Kevin said.\n\nOh, that was a good ’un, thought Audie, stifling a snicker. \"No,\" he said aloud, \"that’s ’bizarre’. It means strange, weird.\" Kevin was glad he remembered the definition. Otherwise everything came to a stop, Kevin had to get up and off the dictionary and Audie had to look it up. Kevin always wanted to help with that and it took an hour. This time Kevin got to remain sitting.\n\n\"It sure is,\" Kevin agreed. \"OK, ’bizarre’\"\n\n\"B-i-z-a-r-e,\" Audie spelled.\n\n\"Nope!\" Kevin replied smugly, delighted that his brother had gotten the first one wrong. Audie had taught Kevin the alphabet so he could help with Audie’s spelling, so Kevin knew what he was doing. Audie had spelled it wrong for sure.\n\nAudie scowled. He went over it in his head. BIZARE - sure sounded right. He tried again. \"B-I-Z-Z-A-R-E.\"\n\nKevin giggled. No attempt at being polite. \"Nope again. Even wronger.\"\n\n\"Wronger isn’t a word, Kevin,\" Audie said. \"It’s ’more wrong’, I think.\"\n\n\"Well you’re right it’s more wrong!\" Kevin giggled at the joke.\n\nAudie grumbled. Kevin wasn’t the one supposed to be laughing at the other’s mistakes. \"OK, OK,\" he spat out, disgusted at himself, \"I give up, what is it?\"\n\n\"B-i-z-a-r-R-e,\" Kevin spelled slowly and laboriously.\n\n\"Oh, 2 r’s. OK, b-i-z-a-r-r-e.\"\n\n\"Right.\" Kevin said. \"At last.\" He went on to the next word. They continued like this for the rest of the words until Kevin got to the last one. He had forgotten what it was. Not wanting to admit it, Kevin tried to sound it out like his brother had taught him. \"Sssohmauhr..Oh, yah,\" he exclaimed, \"I remember. Somersault! That’s a hard one, Audie.\" Even Kevin could see that.\n\nIt was. Audie needed a lot of help with that one. When he had finally gotten it right (Kevin had made him spell it right three times just to rub it in), Audie called a halt to the lesson. The test wasn’t for a couple of days. They would come back to it tomorrow. Audie was sick of spelling for today. \"Get your story book, Kevie,\" he suggested, \"Let’s read a story instead.\"\n\n\"OK, Audie,\" Kevin said just as enthusiastically as he had before. He slammed the spelling book closed and shoved it towards his brother, than ran to their bedroom for the story book. Audie glanced at the clock. He still had a half-hour before the potatoes had to go in. Just to make sure, he got out the wind-up timer and set it for 30 minutes and went in to the living room and sat on the couch under the lamp. He turned it on high. Kevin rushed out with the book and handed it to Audie, climbing in his brother’s lap and got settled. Audie put his arm around his little brother and squeezed him up closer, resting his cheek on Kevin’s head. He smelled his brother’s little-boy smell, puzzled that Kevin hadn’t gotten all dirty today. When he did that he smelled like dirt. This was better. Audie liked the smell. He smiled to himself. Audie propped the book so both he and Kevin could see it and opened it to the place where they had left off the day before and began to read. Kevin followed along as best he could. Audie turned the page. Miraculously, one of the story’s characters was cavorting in the grass. \"There’s somersault!\" Kevin exclaimed, recognizing the word.\n\n\"Sure enough!\" Audie replied with a smile, very pleased. \"You’ve got a good eye, Kevie!\"\n\nKevin giggled, happy with himself. Audie began to read again. They didn’t encounter \"bizarre\".\n\nAfter what seemed a very short period the timer dinged. \"Uh-oh, Kevie,\" Audie said, putting in the bookmark and closing the book. \"Time to get dinner ready. Come set the table.\" Dinner was still an hour away, so the table didn’t need setting yet, but it would give Kevin something to do while Audie was cooking. Kevin started getting out the plates. Audie went to the silverware drawer and took out a knife. Putting the potatoes down on the sink he started stabbing them with the point.\n\n\"Aren’t they already dead, Audie?\" Kevin asked with a giggle, \"why do you have to stab them like that with a knife?\"\n\n\"You know why,\" Audie answered, like he did every time they had baked potatoes, \"so they won’t blow up in the oven.\" He knew the next question.\n\n\"Why would they blow up, Audie? Are they bombs? We’re eating bombs?\"\n\nSome day Audie was going to have to ask somebody why potatoes blew up in the oven if they weren’t stabbed to death first. He just didn’t know. For now he would just have to play Kevin’s game. \"They can’t explode now, Kevie. I killed them! GRRrrrrr!\"\n\n\"EEEK!\" Kevin screamed in mock terror. Audie put the dead spuds in the oven with the chicken. That was the end of the game. Audie forgot about his brother for a while and washed the lettuce and tomato, sliced them, put a small amount in two bowls and put them on the table. Kevin got out the jar of blue cheese dressing and put that on the table, too, along with the butter for the potatoes. Audie sliced the onion and got out the frying pan. He went to the refrigerator and got out a couple of slices of bacon. Bacon was expensive, but it made vegetables taste better and Kevin griped less, so it was worth it. He chopped the bacon into bits with the knife and added it to the pan with the onions and fried them. When they was done he turned off the fire and let things sit.\n\nThe boys sat down at the table and spooned dressing onto the lettuce and tomato in the bowls. \"Hey, squirt,\" Audie complained like he did every time, \"have some lettuce with your dressing.\"\n\n\"I like blue cheese,\" Kevin said, as if that justified making a pig out of himself. Audie didn’t object further than that. At least the kid was eating his salad. He didn’t have to fight a rear guard action on that like the peas. They finished the salads and had to wait a minute or two until the oven dinged done and shut off. Audie put on an oven mitt, a dozen sizes too big and took out the potatoes, cut them in half with the knife and put them on each plate. He then started up the fire under the onions, got them hot again and added the peas. He let them warm up. The concoction still didn’t make Kevin like the peas, but it WAS better than straight out of the can. Audie didn’t much care for the legumes himself without the bacon and onions. He spooned a very small portion onto Kevin’s plate, looked at his little brother a second or two, then spooned on some more. \"Enough, Audie,\" Kevin complained, \"no more!\"\n\n\"OK,\" Audie surrendered and began tearing away at the chicken. There was no attempt to slice it neatly, but each boy got a few chunks of hot chicken and a drumstick. They sat down to eat. Kevin smothered his potato with butter and they dug in.\n\n\"The chicken is goooood, Audie,\" Kevin said after a few bites. Audie smiled. At least something was. They cleaned their plates and Audie hacked away at the chicken carcass to remove any remaining edible chunks and put them in a covered dish for \"later\". They were up for grabs. Whoever got to them first. Audie hoped it wasn’t an Uncle Jack. It was Audie’s food or Kevin’s. Nobody else’s. That done he threw the bones in the trash.\n\n\"Take out the trash, Kevin,\" he ordered, thankful to have remembered it before the ants came.\n\n\"Ah, do I hafta do it now?\" Kevin groused. He didn’t much care to lug the stinking trash can down the steps to the dumpster.\n\n\"Yes, now, Kevin, before the ants come!\" His brother had said \"Kevin\", not \"Kevie\". That made it an order and Kevin groused some more, but carried the can out. Audie started doing the dishes. Ants liked eating off plates as well as they liked the trash can. This was the bad part about chicken. Audie hated the cleaning, but it had to be done. Kevin came back in with an empty trash can, stuffed in one of the plastic grocery bags and set it where it belonged, then grabbed a dishtowel and started drying. He didn’t need to be told.\n\nAfter the boys did the dishes they sat down and Audie read some more out of the story book until it was time to get ready for bed. Audie put down the book. \"Bath time\" he announced to the usual gripes and groans, none of it serious. He looked at his clothes. They were dirty, so were Kevin’s. \"Clean clothes tomorrow,\" he announced and they trooped to the laundry basket and started undressing. Audie was glad his mom sent out the laundry, he was sure he didn’t have time to do that, too. They threw all their clothes in the basket and made their way to the bathroom stark naked. Neither boy gave it a thought. There was no mother to be shocked into saying something, after all. Audie started running water in the tub. After a few seconds he put his arm in. \"Water’s warm, Kevie, climb in.\" Kevin climbed over the edge of the tub and sat down in the shallow water. Audie waited a minute more until the water was deeper, then climbed in, too. He shut off the water and grabbed the bottle of baby shampoo. Kevin saw that coming and ducked his head under the water. When he reemerged, Audie scrubbed his head good with the shampoo then stuck Kevin’s head under the tap to rinse it. He let Kevin do the same to him. Then Audie soaped up a washcloth. \"Close your eyes again, Kevie,\" he said and scrubbed the boy’s face and ears. Then he resoaped the rag and attacked Kevin’s neck, chest and back. \"Stand up,\" he told the boy when that had been attended to. Kevin stood and allowed his brother to wash his legs. \"Sit,\" Audie ordered and then washed the boy’s feet. \"Stand.\" Kevin stood again and allowed his brother to wash his penis and butt crack. \"All done,\" Audie announced and wrung out the rag, throwing it in the sink. Taking a clean washcloth Audie washed himself. Kevin helped with his back. They drained the tub and rinsed off at the tap and climbed out. Audie wrapped himself in a bath towel and sat on the edge of the tub. Using another towel he dried his brother completely, then himself. Putting the wet towels in the sink with the rags he announced, \"To bed!\" They trooped into the bedroom without cleaning up the bathroom. Their mother would have to do that before she took a bath herself. Let her do something, Audie rationalized.\n\nThe boys climbed into their queen sized bed without bothering about pajamas, which they didn’t own. Audie set the alarm. He turned to his brother and gave him a peck on the cheek. \"’Night, Kevie,\" he said and turned out the light. Audie heard his mother come in some time later. At least he hoped it was his mother. He rolled over and went back to sleep. He needed his sleep.\n\nWhen the alarm went off in the morning, the boys got up and argued about who had dibbs on the bathroom first. That contest ended in a tie when both boys peed in the pot together. Neither had to do #2. Audie noticed that the house heater was on. That meant that his mother was up, so he grabbed his brother and steered him back to the bedroom where both boys put on a pair of underpants. That done they made it to the kitchen. Their mother was sitting at the table dinking a cup of instant coffee.\n\n\"Good morning, Mom,\" Audie greeted her mechanically, with no more emotion than if she was a complete stranger. She returned the greeting in the same manner. Kevin didn’t say anything. The boys grabbed the box of Cheerios and poured themselves each a bowlful and added milk from the carton they had bought the day before. They ate the meal in silence.\n\nWhen they were done they put the dishes in the sink for their mother to wash. They didn’t have time in the morning or they would be late for school. That done, Audie guided his brother to their bedroom and got him dressed in clean clothes for school, then dressed himself. He hustled Kevin to the bathroom and combed the boy’s hair, not well, but good enough, then did his own more or less the same way. They went back to the kitchen. Their mother wasn’t there, probably had gone back to bed or something. There was a fresh $20 bill on the table. \"Good,\" thought Kevin, \"at least last night’s Uncle Jack had paid.\" Sometimes they didn’t. Audie put the double sawbuck in the cigar box so he couldn’t lose it at school, or have it stolen, and took out enough money for lunch, then the boys left, making sure the door was locked.\n\nFortunately, school started the same time for both boys. Kevin, however, being in kindergarten, got out at noon. Audie had three more hours after that, and had a real hard time concentrating on his studies worrying about Kevin at home, probably alone. Another worry was lunch. Audie bought lunch for both of them at the school cafeteria and hoped that no one questioned Kevin. Kindergarteners were supposed to go straight home after school, not eat in the cafeteria with the big kids. However, the cafeteria workers were not teachers and paid no attention to just another kid and his brother, as long as they paid the right amount and didn’t complain about the food. Audie would never do that: He didn’t have to cook it! His classmates frequently did, though, but Audie didn’t pay them much attention. He and his brother ate lunch together by themselves. Kevin’s friends were all on their way home and Audie didn’t have any. It was impossible to cultivate a friend when you had no time to play or anything. That and the other thing. All that was about to change, although Audie hadn’t the least idea of it yet.\n\nThat noon Kevin handed Audie a first-class problem. Kevin, it seemed, didn’t want to eat lunch. Audie at first thought that Kevin was being picky again and refusing to eat what was on the menu. He did that whenever stew was being served. That didn’t wash today, however, because today they were having tacos and everybody liked tacos, even Kevin. Kevin was making a great effort to avert his face from his brother and insisted that he didn’t want lunch and instead wanted to go home. Audie couldn’t deal with it. Not in front of the teachers and everybody, so he just had to give in and let Kevin trudge home hungry. Audie worried about that. There was something patently wrong, but he was trapped. It would have to wait. Audie hoped that Kevin wasn’t sick, but the boy hadn’t complained that way and he always did when he didn’t feel well, to garner the sympathy and attention if for no other reason. Audie forced himself to stop worrying about something he couldn’t do anything about and found a seat away from everybody and started to eat alone.\n\n\"Is that seat taken?\"\n\nAudie looked up to find he was being accosted by a boy that looked to be his own age. He had never seen this kid, before, though. The kid was gesturing to the empty seat across from Audie. Audie was at first alarmed. Was this a bully making an attack now that Audie was alone? Audie studied the new boy’s face intently, looking for the telltale signs of eager aggression. He didn’t see any, and he was pretty good at spotting them, or so he thought. This boy was thin as a rail, with a freckled face, a shock of fiery red hair, not combed very neatly (Audie was reminded of his own for a second), a freckled nose with glittering green eyes and a sincere smile. Not the bully type. Too thin to be a muscle-bound fist-thrower. And he had the wrong smile - not an evil anticipating leer. His voice was high-pitched without any sort of threat associated with it. Audie judged it safe enough to respond like a human being. At least for starters.\n\n\"No,\" he replied, gesturing with his taco, slowly so as not to lose any of the lettuce. \"Sit, please.\"\n\nThe new boy set his tray down with a bang and plopped in the seat. \"My name’s Greg,\" he said. \"I’m new. We just moved here from Omaha. Today’s my first day.\" He pronounced the word \"day\" like a question. It was. Audie took the hint.\n\n\"My name’s Audie.\" he replied, \"I’m in Mrs. Gumbil’s fifth grade class.\" Audie made \"class\" the same question that Greg had done with \"day\". Greg understood.\n\n\"I have Mr. Anderson,\" he supplied the missing information. Audie then knew that Greg was also in the fifth grade, but in the other class. That was why Audie had never seen him before.\n\n\"How come you’re sitting here all alone?\" Greg asked next, lifting his taco and starting to take a bite off the top.\n\n\"Not like that!\" Audie shouted. Greg, alarmed, lowered the taco and stared, somewhat like a startled rabbit. Audie was relieved at that. This boy was no bully. \"Haven’t you ever eaten a taco before?\" Audie couldn’t believe that there was anybody that was new to tacos, an American staple, or so he thought (not too accurately). \"You can’t bite the middle. The shell will break and everything will fall out. You have to start at the end. Like this.\" Audie turned his around and bit off the other end. Greg followed the example and there was no accident.\n\n\"Oh, thanks,\" Greg mumbled with his mouth full. \"Say, this isn’t bad,\" he continued after swallowing.\n\nAudie smiled. Everybody liked tacos. \"Not as good as some,\" Audie offered his sophisticated expertise. \"Like Taco Tio’s.\"\n\n\"What’s that?\" Greg asked.\n\n\"Fast food joint on 12th Street. Good food.\" Audie had eaten there once with Kevin when he had a book report due and had to read the book first. No time to cook that day.\n\nGreg frowned. \"Oh,\" he said quietly. \"I wouldn’t know about that. My parents don’t let me eat much fast food. ’Fast food is slow poison’ my mother says. You get to eat there often?\"\n\nAudie gaped. Mrs. Pace didn’t know it, but her stock just went sky-high in Audie’s estimation. Audie had never before met a kid that didn’t eat fast food. Except him and his brother, that is.\n\n\"No,\" Audie answered, glad he could fit in without having to lie. \"We usually eat at home, too.\" He didn’t explain further.\n\n\"Well,\" Greg smiled, \"seem we have something in common. Wanna be friends?\" Greg set down his taco to offer Audie his hand to shake. The taco fell apart on the plate.\n\nAudie sighed. \"Another thing,\" he said, uselessly, \"once you start on a taco you can’t put it down until you’re finished.\"\n\nGreg stared at the pile of meat and lettuce decorating his plate. \"So I see,\" he commented, then thrust his hand further in Audie’s direction.\n\nAudie paused. Did he have a right to shake the other boy’s hand just like that with no explanations? Greg might take offence when he found out. Better to explain at the start. He looked up with a sad face. \"Yes, I do want to be friends,\" he said slowly, but made no move to take Greg’s hand, the action not fitting his words. Greg sensed something profound was about to happen. This was weird. \"But you might not want to be seen with me, like the other kids.\"\n\n\"Huhhh?\" Greg asked, dropping his hand in surprise. What was wrong? Audie didn’t look like a freak or anything. \"Why not?\" he asked.\n\n\"The other kids don’t like me because I don’t have a father.\"\n\nGreg frowned, but not an angry one. \"Parents divorced, huh?\" he asked. \"So what’s so bad about that? Lots of kids have parents who are divorced.\"\n\nAudie gulped. Of course the boy would assume that. Divorce was accepted. Fighting back the tears, Audie explained and expected his new friend to disappear like all the others. \"No, Greg. My parents aren’t divorced. My mom never married. I don’t know who my father is. I don’t have one.\"\n\nGreg took a second to digest that one, but only a second. \"Oh,\" he responded, \"tough luck, pal, but so what? You’re you, not your parents. Blow the other kids. I still want to be friends. I don’t have any either, you know.\" He held out his hand again.\n\nAudie couldn’t believe it. He had explained. It was all out and above board. Rapidly he extended his hand and the two new friends shook. Audie figured it would last only until Greg got to meet some of the other boys, but what the hey? For the moment anyway he had a friend. The two chatted excitedly for the rest of the lunch period.\n\nWhen it was time to go back to class, Greg offered to sit with Audie on the bus going home. Audie explained that he lived too close to the school to take the bus, so the two agreed to meet again at lunch the next day. Same time, same place. Audie went back to class and for the first time in a long, long, time forgot about his brother.\n\nUntil he got home, that is. He found Kevin sitting on the sofa watching TV. Suddenly, Audie remembered everything. He was appalled at himself that he could forget such a thing. Mentally, he slapped his face a good one. He sat down next to Kevin, grabbed the clicker and shut off the set. Amazingly, Kevin didn’t object. It was as if the younger boy wasn’t watching the program at all.\n\n\"Tell me about lunch,\" Audie demanded, not angrily. Kevin finally looked Audie in the eye. Audie noticed a bruise on Kevin’s cheek. That’s what Kevin must have been trying to hide at noon. Audie was alarmed. \"What happened?\" he demanded again, this time urgently. \"Did somebody hit you?\" It looked like it.\n\nKevin started to tear up. \"I got into a fight,\" he explained. \"Brian called me a bastard, so I hit him. What’s a ’bastard’, Audie?\"\n\nAudie was taken aback. He started to get mad. Not at Kevin, or at least, not much, but it clouded his judgment. He forgot to take it easy on the poor little kid. \"If you don’t know what the word means, Kevin, why did you hit him?\" Audie yelled, angrily this time.\n\nKevin. The younger boy noticed that at once. Like he feared, he was in trouble. It would get worse, he knew. \"It was the way he said it, Audie. I knew it was bad. The other kids laughed. What’s it mean, Audie, ’bastard’?\"\n\nAudie sighed. He couldn’t explain the whole thing. Kevin was too young to understand. Heck, so was Audie for that matter. \"It means you don’t have a father, that’s what it means, Kevin.\"\n\nKevin absorbed that. \"Well, Audie, we don’t. Why is that so bad? Why don’t we have a father like the other kids, Audie?\"\n\n\"I don’t know,\" Audie lied. Sort of. He had an idea, but he sure wasn’t going to discuss it with a 6-year old. \"But we just don’t. Kevin, there is nothing we can do about that. You understand? Nothing. You are just going to have to get used to it. You can’t go hitting people every time they call you that, or you’ll be fighting the whole time!\" Audie knew that from experience.\n\n\"But...\" Kevin started.\n\n\"No buts, Kevin,\" Audie said sternly, then softened. \"Look, Kevie, I know it’s hard, but we are just different from the other kids. If they don’t like that there is nothing we can do. Nothing, Kevie, nothing. You go hitting people and you’ll end up all by yourself in a corner somewhere.\" Like me, Audie thought.\n\n\"How did you know about that?\" Kevin asked, amazed.\n\n\"About what?\"\n\n\"About Miss Minton sending me to the corner?\"\n\nUh-oh. Audie had meant only that Kevin would be alone, away from the other kids. He hadn’t given a thought to what would be the probable outcome of a schoolyard fight. Oh, crap. His brother had gotten in trouble. \"Your teacher sent you to the corner?\" he asked, intending to get the whole story this time, but scaring his brother instead.\n\nKevin started to cry. \"Yes,\" he burbled. \"And she gave me this.\" Kevin reached for an envelope laying on the coffee table. Audie saw it for the first time as Kevin picked it up and handed it to him.\n\n\"What’s this?\" Audie asked, very much alarmed.\n\n\"It’s a note I have to have Mother sign and take back. It explains about the fight.\"\n\nAudie turned white in the face. Kevin, seeing that, needed no explanation, even though he had never seen somebody blanch in fear before. That non-verbal signal, human though it was, was understood by instinct. Kevin responded, also automatically, instinctually. Audie’s fear was instantly transmitted to his younger brother. Frightened, now, Kevin began to cry in earnest.\n\n\"Your teacher sent you home with a note?\" Audie yelled. \"Kevin! How could you?\"\n\n\"I’m sorry, Audie,\" Kevin cried, although he wasn’t sure just what catastrophe he had caused, only that his brother was upset. Very upset.\n\n\"Dammit,\" Audie swore, not so much because he was mad at his brother, but because of the dangerous situation he suddenly had to deal with. \"Kevin, you can’t be bringing home notes. You just can’t! If the school thinks you’re delinquent they’ll end somebody over here and see what it’s like and take you away from me. Kevin, I can’t let that happen! You’re all I’ve got. Kevin! Kevie!\"\n\nKevin, really alarmed at that, cried even worse. He didn’t know what ’delinquent’ meant, but from the context it must be bad. Really bad. \"I’m sorry, Audie,\" he bawled, \"I’m sorry.\"\n\nAudie, frightened like he’d never been before, decided he had to do something, something drastic. He couldn’t lose his little brother. He just couldn’t. He couldn’t. He would just have to make sure that Kevin realized the seriousness of the thing. He stood up. Towering over his brother and scaring him even more, Audie said more sternly than he’d ever done before, \"Kevin, you have to learn that making your teacher mad enough at you to send home a note is bad. Wrong. You’re going to be punished.\" Audie started to unbuckle his belt. Kevin, although he’d never been spanked before, recognized and understood what his big brother was going to do to him.\n\n\"No, Audie, no!\" he wailed. \"I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll never do it again. I won’t, I won’t. Please don’t spank me.\"\n\nAudie ignored him and continued to unfasten his belt. He slid it out of his pants loops with a schlipping sound. Kevin let out a yell when he heard that.\n\n\"Please, Audie, please,\" he begged. \"Don’t spank me. Please. I’m sorry, I’m sorry!\"\n\nAudie doubled up the belt in his right hand and held it out where Kevin could see it. \"I’m sorry, Kevin, but you need this. I can’t have you bringing notes home. It won’t do, Kevin. It won’t do. Pull down your pants!\"\n\nKevin shrieked. \"No, Audie, no,\" he cried, big tears dripping down his face.\n\n\"Pull those pants down now, Kevin,\" he yelled, ignoring the other boy’s sobs, \"or I’ll do it for you!\"\n\n(to be continued)", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Audie unloaded his grocery cart onto the rubber belt, letting his little brother help. Kevin liked to help, although there wasn’t much that a 6-year old could do that really *was* help. This was one of those things, however, so Audie let him continue and advanced toward the checker who was busy with the customer in line ahead of the boys. Checking to make sure that Kevin was doing alright, Audie got out his wallet and took out the $20 bill his mother had given him the night before for this evening’s dinner. He figured it was safe enough to flash the cash since the only people who could see were the checker and the other customer, an elderly lady who didn’t look like a mugger. The checker finally finished with that customer and turned to Audie.

"Why, hello, son," She greeted. Audie never could understand why strange adults called him "son" so often, he certainly was not this woman’s child. The men he couldn’t be too sure about, but he had his mother’s eyes and chin, so he at least knew who his mother was and this lady wasn’t her. He ignored that and adopted his defensive hyper-polite stance.

"Hello, Ma’am." He responded, remembering to look the lady in the eyes.

"Where’s your mother?" the checker asked next. Audie hated that question. Why did they have to move so often? He’d just gotten the checkers at the old store used to him and his brother so they didn’t ask that embarrassing question any more. Now he would have to start all over again. It would have to begin with the lie. Audie hated lying to adults. Sometimes you got caught and then bad things happened, but worse things would happen if he told this women the truth, probably, so Audie screwed up the courage, concentrated on getting it right so as not to give it away and answered as politely as he could.

"She’s at home, Ma’am. We help by doing the grocery shopping. It’s Ok, isn’t it? We didn’t buy any cigarettes or booze or anything like that." Actually, his mother wasn’t at home. He didn’t know where she was or whether she would even be home today. She never told him where she went when she left the apartment or when she would be back.

The checker involuntarily checked the belt to confirm Audie’s claim. She saw a whole chicken fryer, which was on special that week for 59 cents a pound, one of the biggest bargains in the store. That was an odd thing for such a young boy to be buying, but was perfectly legal. Also on the belt was an onion, a tomato, a quart of milk, a can of peas, two potatoes a head of lettuce and a small jar of blue cheese salad dressing. Looked like tonight’s dinner, she thought. Not a bad one at that. She’s never seen a little boy make such an unjunky purchase. She had to know. "How old are you, son?" she asked.

Audie had heard that one, too, so often! "I’m 10 years old, Ma’am" he answered. "It’s OK for a 10-year old to shop here, isn’t it?" Sometimes it wasn’t.

"Of course it is!" the checker said with a smile. Good! The smile was a sign: The lady believed the lie and would let him buy the food. Audie hoped that his face did not mirror his relief. He knew that that was one of the ways you got caught after telling a fib. The checker started passing the stuff through the laser scanner. Doot. Doot. Doot. Audie stared at the total as it accumulated. If he had done his arithmetic poorly and the purchase was more than $20, something would have to go back. It wasn’t.

"Paper or plastic?" asked the bagger. Audie turned to this new person who had appeared out of nowhere while Audie was studying the cash register screen.

"Plastic, please," he answered, "with the handles. Two bags, please." The bagger looked at her young customer with a puzzled expression and Audie hoped he wouldn’t have to answer any more questions. He didn’t, so he turned back to the checker and handed over the twenty. The change rattled in the cup on the counter and Audie remembered to collect it. Sometime he forgot and couldn’t sleep well that night because he got so mad at himself for being careless. He couldn’t afford to be careless. Not at all! The paper change was handed over by the checker and Audie remembered to thank her. The bagger finished and handed Audie the bags. Audie hefted them and handed the lighter one to Kevin. "Come on, Kevie," he said. "Let’s get home." He turned to the bagger. "Thank you, Ma’am," he said quietly.

"You’re welcome," the bagger relied automatically. "Have a nice day."

The two boys headed for the door. They did not see the checker and bagger staring after them, wondering.

Just outside the door Audie stopped and turned to his brother. "Have you got your wasp, Kevie?" He put his hand to his chest and felt his own to make sure it was there. The wasps were a present from one of the Uncle Jacks. They were sold as non-lethal weapons and were expandable metal whips that delivered a stunning blow to an attacker if you could get them out in time. His was Audie’s most prized possession. More than once he had fended off a bully and saved the dinner money so he and his brother didn’t go hungry that night. Audie was afraid each time he used his wasp that the victim would gather up a gang and come back, maybe armed, too, but it hadn’t happened yet. A blow from a wasp seemed to convince bullies to leave Audie alone. Kevin slapped his chest to indicate that his wasp was there and the boys started to walk home.

One thing good about this new apartment, it was close to the supermarket. Audie hated the hour walk he had to make at the last place. The boys trudged home with their bags. They reached the apartment house, climbed the stairs, and stopped at #33. Audie dug around in his pocket and carefully separated the key from the coins. Taking out the key he unlocked the door. Opening it, he let his little brother in first. They went inside and Audie closed the door and turned the deadbolt. They were safe again. They put down their bags on the tiled entrance way and took off their shoes. Audie was glad for the tile. The last place had carpet all the way to the door and sometimes when you set down your grocery bags they leaked. His mom always made Audie clean up the mess and when Kevin tried to help, it only made things worse. When they had their shoes off, Audie held out his hand. "Gimme your wasp," he ordered Kevin. The younger boy reached inside his shirt, brought it out and handed it over. Audie took out his and walked over to the cupboard in the living room and put the weapons away. He had to remember to do this so that these precious objects wouldn’t be lost, or even worse, accidentally taken to school. That wasn’t likely to happen, but if it did there would be such a ruckus! The school had a zero tolerance for weapons. You couldn’t even carry a set of nail clippers. What the principal would say about a wasp Audie didn’t even want to think about. THAT would be his last mistake, and Audie sure didn’t want to make it. The wasps went into the cupboard even before Audie returned to where he had left his grocery bag on the floor. The boys carried the bags into the kitchen and started to unpack them onto the kitchen table. Audie was putting the milk in the refrigerator when he heard Kevin complaining behind his back.

Why did you have to get peas, Audie?" Kevin asked in a whiney voice when he took that can out of his bag and set it on the table with a bang. "I hate peas!"

"Because it’s next up on Ms. Pace’s list," Audie answered like he had countless times before. Ms. Pace was a nutritionist that had visited Audie’s third grade class two years ago and had handed out a hand-made book with dinner menus. Audie used it to plan what he would fix for himself and his brother. Ms. Pace had impressed Audie. He trusted her explicitly, even though he hadn’t seen her ever again. Ms. Pace had claimed that fast food was slow poison and, although Audie wouldn’t go quite that far, he did limit their visits to Mc Donald’s to emergencies only, like when he just didn’t have time to cook. Today wasn’t one of those times, however, and peas were next up. The chicken wasn’t, but Audie couldn’t pass up the sale, it made the money go farther, which reminded him and he unloaded his wallet and the coins in his pocket to the cigar box in the dish cupboard. Emergency money, like when his mom forgot to leave them some before she went out.

"I hate old Miz Pace!" pouted Kevin. "Why do we have to do what she says. I bet she isn’t even real!"

Audie sighed. Another mini crisis. It was hard enough taking care of Kevin without these frequent asides. He got down on his knees and looked at his little brother at eye level. "Because, Kevie, she knows what’s good to eat and what isn’t. You don’t want to get sick do you?" Getting sick was more than a minor disaster. Then their mom had to stay home and tend the invalid and then there was no money for dinner that day. No kid wanted to get sick, but few dreaded it as did Audie.

Kevin screwed up his nose. "I won’t get sick if I eat corn, Audie. I like corn. Why can’t I have corn instead of those yucky peas?"

"Ms. Pace says you will get sick if you don’t eat a variety of food, Kevie. I’m sorry but it’s peas tonight. You have to eat some, but I’ll give you only a little bit. How’s that?"

"If I hafta. But I don’t wanna." Kevin answered. Audie was glad this incident hadn’t escalated into a revolt. Sometimes it did and then Audie just had to refuse to cook at all and put his little brother to bed hungry. Audie had to go hungry too, when that happened. He really hated that. Since Kevin had given in so easily this time, Audie reached out and gave him a hug.

"Love you, Kevie," he said. "Let’s get dinner ready. Wash your hands." When the two had their hands clean, Audie turned to his brother again. "Bring up a chair and you can scrub the potatoes," he said. Kevin gladly complied, pushed up a chair to the sink, picked up the brush, turned on the water and began scrubbing the spuds. Audie unpacked the chicken. Audie was glad the chicken was on sale, it was so easy to cook, although the cleaning up after was a chore. He threw the empty bag in the trash, making a mental note to make sure Kevin emptied the trash before they took their baths that evening. If you forgot to empty the trash when you had chicken at night you had ants in the morning AND a horrible stench to boot. Their mother always got upset at the stench. The Uncle Jacks didn’t like it and sometimes went away. That got his mom really angry and Audie would then get spanked. He didn’t mind the spanking so much, she used her hand and even though she pulled Audie’s pants down and gave it to him on his bare skin, it didn’t really hurt, but he didn’t like his mom to be angry. That made her forget to give him dinner money sometimes, and it wasn’t fair to make Kevie go hungry because Audie had screwed up.

When Kevin had the potatoes washed, Audie told him to get out the roaster pan and stepped over to the sink and washed off the chicken. Ms. Pace had made a big deal about washing food before you cooked it. That done, he dried it with a paper towel and got out the little spice jar of poultry seasoning. By then Kevin had the pan ready so Audie put the chicken in the pan breast side up like Ms. Pace’s instructions. He sprinkled the chicken all over with the seasoning and opened the oven. Adjusting the racks he put the roaster in and closed the door. Carefully he turned the oven dial to 350 degrees and set the timer for 2 hours 15 minutes. He checked the settings to make sure and noted the time. Nothing to do for an hour before the potatoes had to go in. He washed his hands and turned to Kevin.

"Kevie, you wanna help me with my spelling?" he asked.

"Sure, Audie!" Kevin responded enthusiastically. Kevin loved helping Audie with his homework. When Audie made a mistake, Kevin got to yell at his older brother for a change and this was accepted as a good thing! Kevin got his spelling book out of his backpack and turned to this week’s lesson. Kevin was seated at the table on his dictionary seat-extender and had turned up the light, all ready. Audie put the book on the table under Kevin’s nose and went over the words, pointing at each in turn and pronouncing them carefully. Audie hoped Kevin didn’t remember them all this time. Sometimes the kindergartener forgot one or two and the resultant attempt to read was usually good for a snicker or two, although Audie made sure that Kevin never heard himself being laughed at. That would never do! Audie walked over to the chair opposite his eager little brother and sat.

"OK," he said. "First word!" Audie was rewarded right off the bat. Either Kevin had forgotten the first word already, or else hadn’t heard properly in the first place.

"Bizzer," Kevin said.

Oh, that was a good ’un, thought Audie, stifling a snicker. "No," he said aloud, "that’s ’bizarre’. It means strange, weird." Kevin was glad he remembered the definition. Otherwise everything came to a stop, Kevin had to get up and off the dictionary and Audie had to look it up. Kevin always wanted to help with that and it took an hour. This time Kevin got to remain sitting.

"It sure is," Kevin agreed. "OK, ’bizarre’"

"B-i-z-a-r-e," Audie spelled.

"Nope!" Kevin replied smugly, delighted that his brother had gotten the first one wrong. Audie had taught Kevin the alphabet so he could help with Audie’s spelling, so Kevin knew what he was doing. Audie had spelled it wrong for sure.

Audie scowled. He went over it in his head. BIZARE - sure sounded right. He tried again. "B-I-Z-Z-A-R-E."

Kevin giggled. No attempt at being polite. "Nope again. Even wronger."

"Wronger isn’t a word, Kevin," Audie said. "It’s ’more wrong’, I think."

"Well you’re right it’s more wrong!" Kevin giggled at the joke.

Audie grumbled. Kevin wasn’t the one supposed to be laughing at the other’s mistakes. "OK, OK," he spat out, disgusted at himself, "I give up, what is it?"

"B-i-z-a-r-R-e," Kevin spelled slowly and laboriously.

"Oh, 2 r’s. OK, b-i-z-a-r-r-e."

"Right." Kevin said. "At last." He went on to the next word. They continued like this for the rest of the words until Kevin got to the last one. He had forgotten what it was. Not wanting to admit it, Kevin tried to sound it out like his brother had taught him. "Sssohmauhr..Oh, yah," he exclaimed, "I remember. Somersault! That’s a hard one, Audie." Even Kevin could see that.

It was. Audie needed a lot of help with that one. When he had finally gotten it right (Kevin had made him spell it right three times just to rub it in), Audie called a halt to the lesson. The test wasn’t for a couple of days. They would come back to it tomorrow. Audie was sick of spelling for today. "Get your story book, Kevie," he suggested, "Let’s read a story instead."

"OK, Audie," Kevin said just as enthusiastically as he had before. He slammed the spelling book closed and shoved it towards his brother, than ran to their bedroom for the story book. Audie glanced at the clock. He still had a half-hour before the potatoes had to go in. Just to make sure, he got out the wind-up timer and set it for 30 minutes and went in to the living room and sat on the couch under the lamp. He turned it on high. Kevin rushed out with the book and handed it to Audie, climbing in his brother’s lap and got settled. Audie put his arm around his little brother and squeezed him up closer, resting his cheek on Kevin’s head. He smelled his brother’s little-boy smell, puzzled that Kevin hadn’t gotten all dirty today. When he did that he smelled like dirt. This was better. Audie liked the smell. He smiled to himself. Audie propped the book so both he and Kevin could see it and opened it to the place where they had left off the day before and began to read. Kevin followed along as best he could. Audie turned the page. Miraculously, one of the story’s characters was cavorting in the grass. "There’s somersault!" Kevin exclaimed, recognizing the word.

"Sure enough!" Audie replied with a smile, very pleased. "You’ve got a good eye, Kevie!"

Kevin giggled, happy with himself. Audie began to read again. They didn’t encounter "bizarre".

After what seemed a very short period the timer dinged. "Uh-oh, Kevie," Audie said, putting in the bookmark and closing the book. "Time to get dinner ready. Come set the table." Dinner was still an hour away, so the table didn’t need setting yet, but it would give Kevin something to do while Audie was cooking. Kevin started getting out the plates. Audie went to the silverware drawer and took out a knife. Putting the potatoes down on the sink he started stabbing them with the point.

"Aren’t they already dead, Audie?" Kevin asked with a giggle, "why do you have to stab them like that with a knife?"

"You know why," Audie answered, like he did every time they had baked potatoes, "so they won’t blow up in the oven." He knew the next question.

"Why would they blow up, Audie? Are they bombs? We’re eating bombs?"

Some day Audie was going to have to ask somebody why potatoes blew up in the oven if they weren’t stabbed to death first. He just didn’t know. For now he would just have to play Kevin’s game. "They can’t explode now, Kevie. I killed them! GRRrrrrr!"

"EEEK!" Kevin screamed in mock terror. Audie put the dead spuds in the oven with the chicken. That was the end of the game. Audie forgot about his brother for a while and washed the lettuce and tomato, sliced them, put a small amount in two bowls and put them on the table. Kevin got out the jar of blue cheese dressing and put that on the table, too, along with the butter for the potatoes. Audie sliced the onion and got out the frying pan. He went to the refrigerator and got out a couple of slices of bacon. Bacon was expensive, but it made vegetables taste better and Kevin griped less, so it was worth it. He chopped the bacon into bits with the knife and added it to the pan with the onions and fried them. When they was done he turned off the fire and let things sit.

The boys sat down at the table and spooned dressing onto the lettuce and tomato in the bowls. "Hey, squirt," Audie complained like he did every time, "have some lettuce with your dressing."

"I like blue cheese," Kevin said, as if that justified making a pig out of himself. Audie didn’t object further than that. At least the kid was eating his salad. He didn’t have to fight a rear guard action on that like the peas. They finished the salads and had to wait a minute or two until the oven dinged done and shut off. Audie put on an oven mitt, a dozen sizes too big and took out the potatoes, cut them in half with the knife and put them on each plate. He then started up the fire under the onions, got them hot again and added the peas. He let them warm up. The concoction still didn’t make Kevin like the peas, but it WAS better than straight out of the can. Audie didn’t much care for the legumes himself without the bacon and onions. He spooned a very small portion onto Kevin’s plate, looked at his little brother a second or two, then spooned on some more. "Enough, Audie," Kevin complained, "no more!"

"OK," Audie surrendered and began tearing away at the chicken. There was no attempt to slice it neatly, but each boy got a few chunks of hot chicken and a drumstick. They sat down to eat. Kevin smothered his potato with butter and they dug in.

"The chicken is goooood, Audie," Kevin said after a few bites. Audie smiled. At least something was. They cleaned their plates and Audie hacked away at the chicken carcass to remove any remaining edible chunks and put them in a covered dish for "later". They were up for grabs. Whoever got to them first. Audie hoped it wasn’t an Uncle Jack. It was Audie’s food or Kevin’s. Nobody else’s. That done he threw the bones in the trash.

"Take out the trash, Kevin," he ordered, thankful to have remembered it before the ants came.

"Ah, do I hafta do it now?" Kevin groused. He didn’t much care to lug the stinking trash can down the steps to the dumpster.

"Yes, now, Kevin, before the ants come!" His brother had said "Kevin", not "Kevie". That made it an order and Kevin groused some more, but carried the can out. Audie started doing the dishes. Ants liked eating off plates as well as they liked the trash can. This was the bad part about chicken. Audie hated the cleaning, but it had to be done. Kevin came back in with an empty trash can, stuffed in one of the plastic grocery bags and set it where it belonged, then grabbed a dishtowel and started drying. He didn’t need to be told.

After the boys did the dishes they sat down and Audie read some more out of the story book until it was time to get ready for bed. Audie put down the book. "Bath time" he announced to the usual gripes and groans, none of it serious. He looked at his clothes. They were dirty, so were Kevin’s. "Clean clothes tomorrow," he announced and they trooped to the laundry basket and started undressing. Audie was glad his mom sent out the laundry, he was sure he didn’t have time to do that, too. They threw all their clothes in the basket and made their way to the bathroom stark naked. Neither boy gave it a thought. There was no mother to be shocked into saying something, after all. Audie started running water in the tub. After a few seconds he put his arm in. "Water’s warm, Kevie, climb in." Kevin climbed over the edge of the tub and sat down in the shallow water. Audie waited a minute more until the water was deeper, then climbed in, too. He shut off the water and grabbed the bottle of baby shampoo. Kevin saw that coming and ducked his head under the water. When he reemerged, Audie scrubbed his head good with the shampoo then stuck Kevin’s head under the tap to rinse it. He let Kevin do the same to him. Then Audie soaped up a washcloth. "Close your eyes again, Kevie," he said and scrubbed the boy’s face and ears. Then he resoaped the rag and attacked Kevin’s neck, chest and back. "Stand up," he told the boy when that had been attended to. Kevin stood and allowed his brother to wash his legs. "Sit," Audie ordered and then washed the boy’s feet. "Stand." Kevin stood again and allowed his brother to wash his penis and butt crack. "All done," Audie announced and wrung out the rag, throwing it in the sink. Taking a clean washcloth Audie washed himself. Kevin helped with his back. They drained the tub and rinsed off at the tap and climbed out. Audie wrapped himself in a bath towel and sat on the edge of the tub. Using another towel he dried his brother completely, then himself. Putting the wet towels in the sink with the rags he announced, "To bed!" They trooped into the bedroom without cleaning up the bathroom. Their mother would have to do that before she took a bath herself. Let her do something, Audie rationalized.

The boys climbed into their queen sized bed without bothering about pajamas, which they didn’t own. Audie set the alarm. He turned to his brother and gave him a peck on the cheek. "’Night, Kevie," he said and turned out the light. Audie heard his mother come in some time later. At least he hoped it was his mother. He rolled over and went back to sleep. He needed his sleep.

When the alarm went off in the morning, the boys got up and argued about who had dibbs on the bathroom first. That contest ended in a tie when both boys peed in the pot together. Neither had to do #2. Audie noticed that the house heater was on. That meant that his mother was up, so he grabbed his brother and steered him back to the bedroom where both boys put on a pair of underpants. That done they made it to the kitchen. Their mother was sitting at the table dinking a cup of instant coffee.

"Good morning, Mom," Audie greeted her mechanically, with no more emotion than if she was a complete stranger. She returned the greeting in the same manner. Kevin didn’t say anything. The boys grabbed the box of Cheerios and poured themselves each a bowlful and added milk from the carton they had bought the day before. They ate the meal in silence.

When they were done they put the dishes in the sink for their mother to wash. They didn’t have time in the morning or they would be late for school. That done, Audie guided his brother to their bedroom and got him dressed in clean clothes for school, then dressed himself. He hustled Kevin to the bathroom and combed the boy’s hair, not well, but good enough, then did his own more or less the same way. They went back to the kitchen. Their mother wasn’t there, probably had gone back to bed or something. There was a fresh $20 bill on the table. "Good," thought Kevin, "at least last night’s Uncle Jack had paid." Sometimes they didn’t. Audie put the double sawbuck in the cigar box so he couldn’t lose it at school, or have it stolen, and took out enough money for lunch, then the boys left, making sure the door was locked.

Fortunately, school started the same time for both boys. Kevin, however, being in kindergarten, got out at noon. Audie had three more hours after that, and had a real hard time concentrating on his studies worrying about Kevin at home, probably alone. Another worry was lunch. Audie bought lunch for both of them at the school cafeteria and hoped that no one questioned Kevin. Kindergarteners were supposed to go straight home after school, not eat in the cafeteria with the big kids. However, the cafeteria workers were not teachers and paid no attention to just another kid and his brother, as long as they paid the right amount and didn’t complain about the food. Audie would never do that: He didn’t have to cook it! His classmates frequently did, though, but Audie didn’t pay them much attention. He and his brother ate lunch together by themselves. Kevin’s friends were all on their way home and Audie didn’t have any. It was impossible to cultivate a friend when you had no time to play or anything. That and the other thing. All that was about to change, although Audie hadn’t the least idea of it yet.

That noon Kevin handed Audie a first-class problem. Kevin, it seemed, didn’t want to eat lunch. Audie at first thought that Kevin was being picky again and refusing to eat what was on the menu. He did that whenever stew was being served. That didn’t wash today, however, because today they were having tacos and everybody liked tacos, even Kevin. Kevin was making a great effort to avert his face from his brother and insisted that he didn’t want lunch and instead wanted to go home. Audie couldn’t deal with it. Not in front of the teachers and everybody, so he just had to give in and let Kevin trudge home hungry. Audie worried about that. There was something patently wrong, but he was trapped. It would have to wait. Audie hoped that Kevin wasn’t sick, but the boy hadn’t complained that way and he always did when he didn’t feel well, to garner the sympathy and attention if for no other reason. Audie forced himself to stop worrying about something he couldn’t do anything about and found a seat away from everybody and started to eat alone.

"Is that seat taken?"

Audie looked up to find he was being accosted by a boy that looked to be his own age. He had never seen this kid, before, though. The kid was gesturing to the empty seat across from Audie. Audie was at first alarmed. Was this a bully making an attack now that Audie was alone? Audie studied the new boy’s face intently, looking for the telltale signs of eager aggression. He didn’t see any, and he was pretty good at spotting them, or so he thought. This boy was thin as a rail, with a freckled face, a shock of fiery red hair, not combed very neatly (Audie was reminded of his own for a second), a freckled nose with glittering green eyes and a sincere smile. Not the bully type. Too thin to be a muscle-bound fist-thrower. And he had the wrong smile - not an evil anticipating leer. His voice was high-pitched without any sort of threat associated with it. Audie judged it safe enough to respond like a human being. At least for starters.

"No," he replied, gesturing with his taco, slowly so as not to lose any of the lettuce. "Sit, please."

The new boy set his tray down with a bang and plopped in the seat. "My name’s Greg," he said. "I’m new. We just moved here from Omaha. Today’s my first day." He pronounced the word "day" like a question. It was. Audie took the hint.

"My name’s Audie." he replied, "I’m in Mrs. Gumbil’s fifth grade class." Audie made "class" the same question that Greg had done with "day". Greg understood.

"I have Mr. Anderson," he supplied the missing information. Audie then knew that Greg was also in the fifth grade, but in the other class. That was why Audie had never seen him before.

"How come you’re sitting here all alone?" Greg asked next, lifting his taco and starting to take a bite off the top.

"Not like that!" Audie shouted. Greg, alarmed, lowered the taco and stared, somewhat like a startled rabbit. Audie was relieved at that. This boy was no bully. "Haven’t you ever eaten a taco before?" Audie couldn’t believe that there was anybody that was new to tacos, an American staple, or so he thought (not too accurately). "You can’t bite the middle. The shell will break and everything will fall out. You have to start at the end. Like this." Audie turned his around and bit off the other end. Greg followed the example and there was no accident.

"Oh, thanks," Greg mumbled with his mouth full. "Say, this isn’t bad," he continued after swallowing.

Audie smiled. Everybody liked tacos. "Not as good as some," Audie offered his sophisticated expertise. "Like Taco Tio’s."

"What’s that?" Greg asked.

"Fast food joint on 12th Street. Good food." Audie had eaten there once with Kevin when he had a book report due and had to read the book first. No time to cook that day.

Greg frowned. "Oh," he said quietly. "I wouldn’t know about that. My parents don’t let me eat much fast food. ’Fast food is slow poison’ my mother says. You get to eat there often?"

Audie gaped. Mrs. Pace didn’t know it, but her stock just went sky-high in Audie’s estimation. Audie had never before met a kid that didn’t eat fast food. Except him and his brother, that is.

"No," Audie answered, glad he could fit in without having to lie. "We usually eat at home, too." He didn’t explain further.

"Well," Greg smiled, "seem we have something in common. Wanna be friends?" Greg set down his taco to offer Audie his hand to shake. The taco fell apart on the plate.

Audie sighed. "Another thing," he said, uselessly, "once you start on a taco you can’t put it down until you’re finished."

Greg stared at the pile of meat and lettuce decorating his plate. "So I see," he commented, then thrust his hand further in Audie’s direction.

Audie paused. Did he have a right to shake the other boy’s hand just like that with no explanations? Greg might take offence when he found out. Better to explain at the start. He looked up with a sad face. "Yes, I do want to be friends," he said slowly, but made no move to take Greg’s hand, the action not fitting his words. Greg sensed something profound was about to happen. This was weird. "But you might not want to be seen with me, like the other kids."

"Huhhh?" Greg asked, dropping his hand in surprise. What was wrong? Audie didn’t look like a freak or anything. "Why not?" he asked.

"The other kids don’t like me because I don’t have a father."

Greg frowned, but not an angry one. "Parents divorced, huh?" he asked. "So what’s so bad about that? Lots of kids have parents who are divorced."

Audie gulped. Of course the boy would assume that. Divorce was accepted. Fighting back the tears, Audie explained and expected his new friend to disappear like all the others. "No, Greg. My parents aren’t divorced. My mom never married. I don’t know who my father is. I don’t have one."

Greg took a second to digest that one, but only a second. "Oh," he responded, "tough luck, pal, but so what? You’re you, not your parents. Blow the other kids. I still want to be friends. I don’t have any either, you know." He held out his hand again.

Audie couldn’t believe it. He had explained. It was all out and above board. Rapidly he extended his hand and the two new friends shook. Audie figured it would last only until Greg got to meet some of the other boys, but what the hey? For the moment anyway he had a friend. The two chatted excitedly for the rest of the lunch period.

When it was time to go back to class, Greg offered to sit with Audie on the bus going home. Audie explained that he lived too close to the school to take the bus, so the two agreed to meet again at lunch the next day. Same time, same place. Audie went back to class and for the first time in a long, long, time forgot about his brother.

Until he got home, that is. He found Kevin sitting on the sofa watching TV. Suddenly, Audie remembered everything. He was appalled at himself that he could forget such a thing. Mentally, he slapped his face a good one. He sat down next to Kevin, grabbed the clicker and shut off the set. Amazingly, Kevin didn’t object. It was as if the younger boy wasn’t watching the program at all.

"Tell me about lunch," Audie demanded, not angrily. Kevin finally looked Audie in the eye. Audie noticed a bruise on Kevin’s cheek. That’s what Kevin must have been trying to hide at noon. Audie was alarmed. "What happened?" he demanded again, this time urgently. "Did somebody hit you?" It looked like it.

Kevin started to tear up. "I got into a fight," he explained. "Brian called me a bastard, so I hit him. What’s a ’bastard’, Audie?"

Audie was taken aback. He started to get mad. Not at Kevin, or at least, not much, but it clouded his judgment. He forgot to take it easy on the poor little kid. "If you don’t know what the word means, Kevin, why did you hit him?" Audie yelled, angrily this time.

Kevin. The younger boy noticed that at once. Like he feared, he was in trouble. It would get worse, he knew. "It was the way he said it, Audie. I knew it was bad. The other kids laughed. What’s it mean, Audie, ’bastard’?"

Audie sighed. He couldn’t explain the whole thing. Kevin was too young to understand. Heck, so was Audie for that matter. "It means you don’t have a father, that’s what it means, Kevin."

Kevin absorbed that. "Well, Audie, we don’t. Why is that so bad? Why don’t we have a father like the other kids, Audie?"

"I don’t know," Audie lied. Sort of. He had an idea, but he sure wasn’t going to discuss it with a 6-year old. "But we just don’t. Kevin, there is nothing we can do about that. You understand? Nothing. You are just going to have to get used to it. You can’t go hitting people every time they call you that, or you’ll be fighting the whole time!" Audie knew that from experience.

"But..." Kevin started.

"No buts, Kevin," Audie said sternly, then softened. "Look, Kevie, I know it’s hard, but we are just different from the other kids. If they don’t like that there is nothing we can do. Nothing, Kevie, nothing. You go hitting people and you’ll end up all by yourself in a corner somewhere." Like me, Audie thought.

"How did you know about that?" Kevin asked, amazed.

"About what?"

"About Miss Minton sending me to the corner?"

Uh-oh. Audie had meant only that Kevin would be alone, away from the other kids. He hadn’t given a thought to what would be the probable outcome of a schoolyard fight. Oh, crap. His brother had gotten in trouble. "Your teacher sent you to the corner?" he asked, intending to get the whole story this time, but scaring his brother instead.

Kevin started to cry. "Yes," he burbled. "And she gave me this." Kevin reached for an envelope laying on the coffee table. Audie saw it for the first time as Kevin picked it up and handed it to him.

"What’s this?" Audie asked, very much alarmed.

"It’s a note I have to have Mother sign and take back. It explains about the fight."

Audie turned white in the face. Kevin, seeing that, needed no explanation, even though he had never seen somebody blanch in fear before. That non-verbal signal, human though it was, was understood by instinct. Kevin responded, also automatically, instinctually. Audie’s fear was instantly transmitted to his younger brother. Frightened, now, Kevin began to cry in earnest.

"Your teacher sent you home with a note?" Audie yelled. "Kevin! How could you?"

"I’m sorry, Audie," Kevin cried, although he wasn’t sure just what catastrophe he had caused, only that his brother was upset. Very upset.

"Dammit," Audie swore, not so much because he was mad at his brother, but because of the dangerous situation he suddenly had to deal with. "Kevin, you can’t be bringing home notes. You just can’t! If the school thinks you’re delinquent they’ll end somebody over here and see what it’s like and take you away from me. Kevin, I can’t let that happen! You’re all I’ve got. Kevin! Kevie!"

Kevin, really alarmed at that, cried even worse. He didn’t know what ’delinquent’ meant, but from the context it must be bad. Really bad. "I’m sorry, Audie," he bawled, "I’m sorry."

Audie, frightened like he’d never been before, decided he had to do something, something drastic. He couldn’t lose his little brother. He just couldn’t. He couldn’t. He would just have to make sure that Kevin realized the seriousness of the thing. He stood up. Towering over his brother and scaring him even more, Audie said more sternly than he’d ever done before, "Kevin, you have to learn that making your teacher mad enough at you to send home a note is bad. Wrong. You’re going to be punished." Audie started to unbuckle his belt. Kevin, although he’d never been spanked before, recognized and understood what his big brother was going to do to him.

"No, Audie, no!" he wailed. "I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll never do it again. I won’t, I won’t. Please don’t spank me."

Audie ignored him and continued to unfasten his belt. He slid it out of his pants loops with a schlipping sound. Kevin let out a yell when he heard that.

"Please, Audie, please," he begged. "Don’t spank me. Please. I’m sorry, I’m sorry!"

Audie doubled up the belt in his right hand and held it out where Kevin could see it. "I’m sorry, Kevin, but you need this. I can’t have you bringing notes home. It won’t do, Kevin. It won’t do. Pull down your pants!"

Kevin shrieked. "No, Audie, no," he cried, big tears dripping down his face.

"Pull those pants down now, Kevin," he yelled, ignoring the other boy’s sobs, "or I’ll do it for you!"

(to be continued)", "pools_count": 1, "title": "The Tale of Two Little Bastards - Chapter 1", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "text/plain", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "3", "name": "Violence", "description": "Mild violence", "rating_id": "1" }, { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "f", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "1", "views": "380" }