When the 'all clear' bell sounded, which was just one very short ring of the bell, Mrs. Pangle led the class back inside. But they didn't stay inside for long. As soon as they had finished the worksheets, Mrs. Stogbuchner stood at the front of the room and announced, "This is a fire drill. Everyone line up quickly at the back door."
They all lined up and practiced the fire drill, and because Bobby Miller was talking, they had to practice it another time.
This time, except for the noise the chairs made, scraping the floor as the children got up, there wasn't a sound in the classroom. Mrs. Stogbuchner was finally satisfied.
"Now that's the way I want you to behave the next time we have a fire drill," she said.
The class had a very short recess, because they had taken so long practicing the fire drill. They didn't get to play dodge ball, and they mostly sat around talking. Except no-one would talk to Bobby Miller, and he sat by himself on a swing, not even swinging.
"What's dodge ball?" asked Baartock. He wanted to know, even if they weren't going to do it.
"You've never played dodge ball?" Jason exclaimed. "It's sort-of like tag, except it takes a lot of kids. Some kids make a circle and throw the ball at the kids in the middle. And if they hit you, you're out. You're fast, so you should be good at it."
Jason's saying that made Baartock feel really good. He had been unhappy ever since he had fallen over when the fire drill bell sounded. When he fell in the woods, there were always rocks or sharp sticks to land on and that hurt. He hadn't hurt himself, but the floor was hard. He decided that he didn't like the school bell. It always surprised him and made him jump.
When recess was over, they all went back into the classroom and Baartock finally got to use his crayons on the new worksheets. It didn't seem very long before Mrs. Jackson was at the door.
"Mrs. Stogbuchner, can I have Baartock now?" she asked.
"Baartock, would you please put away your things and go with Mrs. Jackson."
Jason helped him put his papers in the drawer of the table. But Baartock didn't put his pencil box in with them. He held on to it tightly as he and Mrs. Jackson walked out of the classroom.
"You're taking your pencil box home?" she asked.
"Show mother," was his answer.
"Just remember to bring it back tomorrow. You'll be riding the school bus tomorrow, so I want you to meet your school bus driver."
They went out to the parking lot and there were a lot of yellow school busses waiting in a line.
"You'll be riding bus number 62," she said as they went down the sidewalk. They stopped at one of the busses. "This is the bus you'll be riding. See, number 62. Mr. Barnes is the driver, and when you're on his bus, you have to sit quietly and do just what he tells you."
They walked over to the door of the bus and the man sitting inside pulled on a lever and the door opened.
"Hi," he said with a big grin. "What can I do for you, Mrs. Jackson?"
"Mr. Barnes, this is Baartock."
"Hi Baartock. Are you going to be on my bus?"
"Yes," Mrs. Jackson answered, before Baartock could say anything. "I'm taking him home today, because I need to talk to his mother. He'll be riding with you, starting tomorrow morning. He'll be just down from where the Howards used to live."
"OK. That would put you between Bobby Gill and Laura Robinson. No problem."
"Thank you," said Mrs. Jackson. Baartock hadn't seen Mr. Barnes give her anything, and he wondered why she said 'thank you'.
"I have to gather up a few things before I take you home," said Mrs. Jackson. "Let's go back to the office."
"See you tomorrow," called Mr. Barnes, as they walked away. Baartock had wanted to stay and look at the school bus, but he followed her back inside the school.
"Please wait here," she said, when they were in the office, and she went behind the counter and into another room. Ms. Laurence was busy at her desk. He heard her say something, but she wasn't looking at him.
"What?" he asked.
"I'll be with you in a minute, Baartock," she said, looking over at him. "I'm talking on the phone."
He watched her carefully. She was sitting in a chair and she kept looking at some papers on the desk, and it seemed as though she was talking to the thing she was holding in her hand.
Baartock walked over to the door and looked out. There wasn't anyone in the hall, and he could look out the open front doors at the line of school busses.
"Now, what can I do for you?" asked Ms. Laurence.
Baartock turned around. Ms. Laurence was standing at the counter. He was about to ask what a phone was, when the bell went off and Baartock jumped. Ms. Laurence smiled at him. "I used to hate that bell," she said, "but you do get used to it."
Suddenly, there was a lot of noise in the hall, and cries of 'No running!' The hall was rapidly filling with talking, pushing, hurrying children. Lots of them were bigger than Baartock. Some were carrying books. And all of them were trying to get out the front doors.
Mrs. Jackson came rushing out of the other room. "I'll be right with you Baartock," she said as she hurried out of the office and down the hall to the front of the building. He could hear her voice calling, "No running, Carlos!" and "The bus won't leave without you, Helen."
Baartock watched some of the kids from his class go out the door. Then there was Jason, going right past the office door.
"Hey Baartock! You'll miss the bus!" he said as he kept hurrying down the hall.
"Bus tomorrow," Baartock said. "Mrs. Jackson drive today."
"OK. See you tomorrow," he yelled as he turned and ran out the door.
"Slow down, Jason," he heard Mrs. Jackson call. Then he had to get out of the doorway, because several teachers were pushing past him to get into the office. He went over to the bench and sat down to wait.
"Hello Baartock." Mr. Fennis was standing just inside the doorway, with an arm-load of books and papers. "How do you like school?" He didn't wait for an answer, but went behind the counter, and started getting more papers out of a cubby.
In a little while, Mrs. Jackson came back into the office. "We'll be going in just a minute," she said, as she went back into the other room. Baartock sat and watched the teachers and Mrs. Jackson wasn't gone very long this time. She came out with her briefcase in her hand.
"I'm ready to go now," she said. They went out to the parking lot and got into her car. She checked to make sure he had fastened his seat-belt properly, and then started the engine.
"Is there anything you'd like to see?" she asked, as she backed the car out of the parking place.
Baartock didn't have to think about it. "Bridge," he said.
"Of course you'd want to see a bridge." She had almost forgotten that he was a troll. "We were almost there this morning."
"Where bridge?" Baartock asked excitedly. He had decided there just weren't any bridges near-by.
"There's one right her in the middle of town. It's a little ways past the clinic, on Main Street. It's not too far. Would you like to look at it?"
"Yes." Then he remembered. "Thank you," he said.
"You're welcome, Baartock."
They drove along Main Street, and he recognized the little house where they had been that morning and pointed to it.
"Yes," said Mrs. Jackson, "that's the clinic. We're almost to the bridge now."
After a few more blocks, she turned a corner onto a side street and stopped the car. "Well, we're here."
"Where bridge?" Baartock asked as he looked all around.
"It's right over there," she said pointing. "Let's get out so you can look at it."
They got out of the car and walked across at the corner. Then Baartock saw the bridge. It was a simple span going over a wide stream bed, but there wasn't very much water in the stream bed below. And the bridge was built of concrete, just like the culvert he'dhidden in on his first day. Part of the town was on one side of the bridge, and there was more of the town on the other side. The road crossed the bridge for cars and trucks, and busses. And there was a sidewalk on the bridge for people to go across. He didn't know just what to say. He was happy because there was a bridge, but it was a human-made bridge and nothing like as good as a troll-built bridge. He looked at it carefully. After a while, he said, "Go home now." He'd found a bridge.
Mrs. Jackson had a lot to talk about with his mother, when they got to his home. They had talked all morning and now they were talking some more. He had wanted to tell his father about the bridge, but he wasn't home yet. So he had to sit and listen to Mrs. Jackson and his mother. When they started talking about lunch money, he remembered how very hungry he was, and went to get something to eat. They were still talking about money when he finished eating. They agreed on a price and Mrs. Jackson got one of the small silver coins with some of her 'new' coins, and he could use some of those 'new' coins to buy milk and fruit at lunch time. And he could bring his own lunch. He was glad of that, because he didn't like the humans' food. Then they talked about the school bus. He wasn't very sure that he was going to like being on the school bus. Mrs. Jackson had explained the 'Rules for Riding the School Bus', which was the name on a piece of paper she gave to his mother. There were so many things he couldn't do on the bus. One of the rules was 'No whistling'. When he asked her what whistling was, she puckered up her mouth and made a strange sound. 'No bird noises', Baartock decided.
"Just behave like you did in my car today," she said, "and you won't have any problem. You'll like Mr. Barnes."
Very early next morning, Baartock was standing by the side of the road when the yellow school bus drove up. He was holding his pencil box and a bag with his lunch. Mrs. Jackson had shown him a place that she thought would be a safe spot to stand and wait for the bus. It wasn't right by the driveway to the 'old Howard house', but it wasn't right by the stream bed and the path he used to come down to the road, either.
The bus made a screeching noise as it came to a stop right in front of him.
"OK. Come on up. Thought I'd you'd be closer to the house," Mr. Barnes said in a loud voice, when he opened the bus door. Then he shouted, "OK. New customer today. Which seat can I sell him. I think this one," he said, pointing at a seat for just one person right in the front of the bus. There was one very big boy sitting in the seat. "Gabe, you've been pretty good this week. Find yourself a new seat."
"Aw, Mr. Barnes, do I have to?"
"Go on now. Find a seat, before we're late getting to school." Gabe gathered up his books and moved back to the middle of the bus and sat next to another big boy, and Baartock sat on the empty front seat. He looked around for the seat belt, as he started driving down the road.
"What's the matter? Got ants in your pants?" Mr. Barnes asked, when he saw Baartock squirming.
"No," Baartock said. He didn't have ants anywhere. He asked, "No seat belt?" Mr. Barnes was using one.
"No," was the answer. "They say that they're going to put seat belts in the all the busses. Maybe by the time you're in high school. You just stay in your seat, and I'll drive carefully."
The bus went on down the road, stopping to pick up children waiting by the road. Soon there were a lot of kids on the bus. Mr. Barnes kept talking to Baartock all the time he was driving. In fact, he was talking to everyone on the bus, he was talking so loudly. Much of what he said didn't make any sense to Baartock, but the kids laughed at some of the things he said. Soon, Mr. Barnes turned the bus onto another road.
"School that way," Baartock said loudly, pointing down the other road. "Nice try, kid. I know you're in a hurry to get to school, but we've got to go to the high school first."
"We can go to the grade school first!" came a shout from the back of the bus.
"The mall! A field trip to the mall," someone else shouted.
"Some other day," Mr. Barnes shouted back. They went on down this road for quite a while. They went right past some children standing by the side of the road.
"They're waiting for a different bus," Mr. Barnes explained to Baartock. "It'll be along soon."
Very soon after that, the bus pulled off the road into a parking lot, in front of a building much larger than the school Baartock was going to. The parking lot was filled with cars, and humans were walking to the building. There were six or seven big yellow school busses lined up in front of the building and lots of big kids were getting off.
"OK, high school, you students of higher education. Off!" called Mr. Barnes, as he pulled up really closely behind the last bus. All the big kids got out of their seats and came up to the front of the bus to get off. There were more busses lining up behind Mr. Barnes' bus, but they weren't letting anyone off.
There were still a lot of smaller children on the bus, when Mr. Barnes closed the door.
"Next stop, Marvis T. Johnson Elementary School," announced Mr. Barnes. But they didn't go anywhere. They had to wait for the bus in front of them to pull off. Baartock could see inside the bus in front of them. The big kids were getting off very slowly. The woman driving that bus seemed to be talking to each of them as they got off.
"She must have had some trouble with them," Mr. Barnes said. "We never have any trouble on this bus, do we?" he said very loudly.
"No!" several kids shouted back.
Most of the busses in the front of the school building haddriven off. Several more busses from behind them pulled around, and parked up ahead. They waited a little longer, then finally the bus in front drove off. And they drove off too.
They didn't go back the way they had come. They turned onto another road, and drove for a long way, past a lot of houses, until they finally turned toward the school. Baartock asked Mr. Barnes why they were going such a long way.
"It's shorter this way," was his reply. "I've been coming this way for years."
"No," said Baartock. "Other way shorter. We be school, go this far."
They drove for a little while longer, then they finally got to school. There were other busses lined up in front when Mr. Barnes stopped the bus and they got off.
"See you all this afternoon," Mr. Barnes said, as they were getting off.
This was the first time Baartock had gotten to school in the morning before it started. No-one seemed to be going inside. Jerry, a black-haired kid who had played tag, was getting off the next bus in front. He saw Baartock and came running over.
"Want to go to the playground?" he asked.
They went around the building to the playground. Jason was already there, and they raced a couple of times, then they went over and climbed on the jungle gym. They were just sitting at the top when the bell rang. A lot of the children ran to the building and went inside.
"That's only the first bell," said Jerry. "We've got lots of time." So they sat for a while longer, until Jason started to get down.
"I'm going in," he said. And all three of them went into the classroom, just as the bell rang again.
School in the morning wasn't very different from school in the afternoon, Baartock decided. There were some of the work-sheets that had to be colored, but these were of shapes of things and numbers. They got to work with a lot of pieces of paper with numbers on both sides that Jason said were called flash-cards. He said that you were to add the numbers on the front of a flash card, and your answer was the same as the one on the back of the card. The morning went by very quickly for Baartock.
Then, right before lunch time, Mrs. Stogbuchner read another story. This time, he understood most of the story. It was about a boy taking care of sheep, and when he got lonely, he would yell 'Wolf!' and all the villagers would come. They got angry at the boy, when they didn't find a wolf. But the boy got lonely and did it again, and the villagers got angry again. Finally, when the wolf did come, and the boy yelled 'Wolf!' the villagers didn't come.
When Mrs. Stogbuchner finished reading the story, Baartock asked, "Why boy not scare wolf?"
"Well, wolves are big mean, animals," she said, "and the boy was probably scared of this wolf."
"Wolf scare easy," said Baartock.
"You'd just yell at it and it would run away," said one of the girls.
"Wolf scare easy," said Baartock again. He'd never seen a wolf, because there weren't any around there. But his father had talked about them. They were just like foxes, only bigger. Most of the animals in the woods were very scared of humans and of trolls, and would usually run way. There were two foxes that lived near Baartock's home, and it had been very hard to watch them. At first, they were very scared of him. It had taken a lot of food, and many nights of quiet waiting, before the foxes would come near him. Even now that they were used to him, if he made any sudden movement or loud noise, they would still run away. Anyway, Baartock was sure that he could scare a wolf.
"You couldn't scare anything," said the girl.
Baartock was really insulted. He was just about ready todo some scaring right then, when Mrs. Stogbuchner said, "All right, that's enough. It's time to get ready for lunch."
Most of the children went to line up at the door and Baartock and a few children went over to their cubbies to get their lunches. Then they went to line up also. The girl was right in front of Baartock in the line. She looked back at him and said, "You couldn't scare anything."
Baartock could see Mrs. Stogbuchner looking right at them,but he said very quietly, "Can scare you."
"Janice, Baartock, stop it right now. That's enough," Mrs. Stogbuchner said, and the girl turned around.
The class went down the hall to the cafeteria and Baartock waited in lunch line to get a container of milk and an apple. When he got to the end of the line, he held out some of the coins his mother had gotten from Mrs. Jackson, and the woman took two of them. He went over to the table where Jason was and sat down and started getting his lunch out. Janice had been waiting to see where he would sit, and she came over and sat at the same table.
"Baartock, you couldn't scare anything," she said. Baartock started to say something, but Mrs. Stogbuchner was standing near the table and she said something first.
"Janice. I told you to stop it," she said.
"But he said," Janice started to say.
"He didn't say anything. I've been standing right here. Now, just eat your lunch quietly, or I'll move you to another table."
"Yes, Mrs. Stogbuchner," Janice said, and Mrs. Stogbuchner walked off to another part of the cafeteria. Baartock had been listening, but he was hungry and had started eating his lunch. His mother had packed a good lunch.
"Oh yuch! What's that you're eating?" Janice shrieked. All the talking in the cafeteria stopped and Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Stogbuchner came hurrying over to the table. Baartock looked over and saw she was pointing right at him.
"What are you eating?" she shrilled again. Everybody in the cafeteria was looking at their table.
Baartock kept on chewing, but he opened up his sandwich to show her.
"Snake," he said, "very good." On the slice of bread was a row of little green snakes. Some were a little bigger than others and the heads and tails were hanging down over the edge of the bread. It had been a good summer and there were lots of snakes and lizards.
"That looks really good," said Jason. "Can I have a bite?" Jason didn't really think it looked good, but he was enjoying teasing Janice.
"Oh! Mrs. Stogbuchner, can I move?" Janice asked looking up at the teacher.
"I think you should," she answered, "and let Baartock eat his lunch in peace." She picked up Janice's lunch tray and she and Janice went over to the other side of the cafeteria. Mrs. Jackson walked off too, and everyone started eating their lunches and talking again.
After they were gone, Jason asked, "You really eat that?"
"Good," said Baartock. "You try." He held out his sandwich to Jason.
Jason took the sandwich, and looked at it as if it were going to eat him. Then, carefully avoiding the snake heads, took a tiny bite and started chewing. "It's ok," he said as he handed it back to Baartock, then he quickly took a drink of milk.
After finishing his lunch, Baartock took his lunch bag, which still had some acorns left in it, and he and Jason went out to the playground. They were standing near the door when Janice came out.
"You should have had some of Baartock's sandwich," Jason yelled to her. "It was really yummy."
Janice hurried off toward the swings and Jason and Baartock went over to the jungle gym and climbed to the top.
Soon, Mrs. Stogbuchner came out to get the class back inside. The rest of the afternoon went by quickly. There weren't any fire drills, and they got to play dodge ball at recess. Baartock thought it was a fun game. He liked being in the middle. The children in the circle had to throw a big ball, and it was easy to keep away from it. Even though Baartock wasn't the last one left inside the circle any of the times, he still had fun.
They went back to the classroom and did some more worksheets. Baartock was surprised when Mrs. Stogbuchner said that it was time to put everything away. "Now don't forget about show-and-tell on Monday," she said.
Baartock raised his hand, like he had seen the children do when they wanted to ask something.
"Yes, Baartock?"
"What showandtell?" he asked.
"You can bring in something to show the rest of the class and tell about it. Something you like or you think is unusual. I'm sure that you have something you would like to share with the class."
Baartock had an idea right away about something to bring, but he didn't say what it was.
"Now leave your tables straight and put your chairs in their places, then line up at the door."
There was a lot of rushing around and putting things away, and soon they were all lined up.
"All right. I want you to have a nice weekend. I'll see you on Monday," Mrs. Stogbuchner said just as the bell rang. Baartock didn't jump this time. He had guessed that the bell was about to ring. They hurried down the hall to get to the school busses.
"See you Monday," Jason called as he ran off to his bus. Baartock walked along the sidewalk until he came to bus 62.
"You were right," Mr. Barnes said as Baartock go on the bus. "The other road is shorter." He kept on talking all the way to thehigh school. He kept talking all the time until he stopped to let Baartock off the bus. Baartock wasn't listening to him. He was thinking about showandtell.
Monday morning, Baartock was down by the side of the road, waiting anxiously for the school bus to arrive. When he had asked his mother what 'weekend' and 'Monday' were, she had explained that many people didn't work everyday, and took two days every week to do other things. While trolls like to work everyday until the job is done and then rest; humans like to take little rests every week, she told him. He would have to wait two extra days, until Monday, for school and showandtell. She decided that he would need to know, so she taught him the human names for the days of the week.
There were dark clouds overhead when Baartock went down the hill to wait for the bus, but it wasn't raining yet. It had gotten really cloudy the day before. Baartock remembered the human name for that day was Sunday. His father had said that they were going to have a lot of rain. Baartock liked it when there was a lot of rain, like there had been during the summer. Then there were lots of pools and mud to go splashing in, and there was water running down hill under his bridge. He liked to hide under it then, because it was even more like a real troll bridge.
He was happy to see the school bus drive up. He wanted to get to school for showandtell. He climbed into the school bus and sat on the front seat.
"Hey, Baartock. Do you know where the high school is? From right here?" Mr. Barnes asked, looking at him.
Baartock just pointed and said "That way."
Mr. Barnes stopped to think about it, then he said, "You're right. How about to your school?"
Baartock pointed again, in a different direction. "You know, you're a regular little compass," Mr. Barnes said ashe started to drive off.
Baartock didn't know what a compass was, but any troll could give directions. It was easy.
They got to school earlier than they had on Friday, and Baartock went around to the playground. Jason wasn't there, so Baartock went over to the swings to wait for him. Soon both Jason and Jerry were coming around the corner of the school to the playground. They were talking about what they had done over the weekend. Jerry said that he had been to see a movie. That didn't sound very exciting to Baartock, though he wasn't sure what a 'movie' was. Jason seemed interested though and asked all about it.
Soon the first bell rang and Baartock went into the classroom. He wanted to get ready for showandtell. Mrs. Stogbuchner was at her desk and she called him over.
"I had a talk with Mrs. Jackson, and I think I should go talk to your mother," she said. "Maybe you could bring something a little less trollish for lunch."
Baartock didn't understand what she wanted to talk to his mother about, but he said, "Mother home now."
"I can't go right now," said Mrs. Stogbuchner, "but maybe sometime later this week. Did you bring something for show-and-tell?"
"Yes," said Baartock.
"Will you tell me what you brought?"
Baartock had wanted it to be a surprise, but he told her. Mrs. Stogbuchner listened carefully as Baartock explained. Finally she asked, "Do you know how to use it?"
Baartock nodded.
Then she said, "I'll have to ask Mrs. Jackson if it's all right. You put your things away and I'll go talk to her about it now." She got up from her desk and went out the door.
All the children had come in when the second bell rang. Mrs. Stogbuchner came hurrying into the classroom.
"All right. Take your seats and settle down," she said to the class. She came over to Baartock. "Mrs. Jackson said that you could show it to the class, but it has to be outside on the playground. And she wants to be there."
The morning went by so slowly for Baartock. He couldn't keep his thoughts on what they were doing. He wanted it to be time for showandtell. Finally, Mrs. Jackson came into the classroom.
"Class," Mrs. Stogbuchner said, "It's time for show-and-tell. Baartock has brought something that I think you'll all want to see, but he will have to show you outside. Since it looks like rain, I think he should be first. Everybody please line up by the door and we'll go out and see what Baartock brought."
Mrs. Jackson came over to Baartock and said, "I've never seen this. Can you really make it work?"
Baartock nodded, and went over to his cubby to get his bag with his surprise for showandtell.
When they were all outside gathered around Mrs. Stogbuchner on part of the playground where there wasn't any grass, she said, "Baartock, show the class what you brought and tell them about it."
He came into the middle of the class. "You show me fire drill," he said. "But no fire. I show you fire drill that make fire." He held out a little bow, a straight stick, and two small blocks of wood.
"Will you show the class how it works?" asked Mrs. Jackson.
Baartock knelt down and put one of the blocks on the ground and put some tree bark next to it. Then he put the straight stick in a small hole in that block, wrapped the bowstring around the stick, and holding the second block in his hand put it on top of the stick. Then he started to work the bow back and forth.
"This fire drill make fire," he said again.
"Does this really work?" somebody asked.
"We were supposed to learn how to use these in scouts," said Mrs. Stogbuchner, as Baartock worked the bow back and forth. "But none of us could make them work."
Before she could say anything else, the bark that Baartock had put next to the block was starting to smoke. Then it was smoking a lot, and Baartock dropped the fire drill and picked up the bark and started to blow on it. And it burst into flame.
He dropped the burning bark on the ground, and picked up the bow and stick. "Fire drill," he said.
"But how does it work?" somebody wanted to know.
"Wood get hot. Make fire," Baartock explained. He held out the bottom wood block, which was still hot. The class gathered in closely to feel how hot it was. Mrs. Jackson was making sure that the burning bark was all put out.
Just then it started to rain, big heavy drops.
"Everybody back inside," called Mrs. Stogbuchner. "Don't line up. Just get inside quickly."
Everybody ran for the classroom door. Baartock quickly gathered up his fire drill and he and Mrs. Jackson hurried after the class.
When they were all settled in the classroom again, Mrs. Stogbuchner said, "Thank you Baartock, for showing us another kind of fire drill. Now, does anyone else have anything for show-and-tell?"
It was raining harder than ever when they went to lunch. Looking out the classroom windows, Baartock couldn't see the trees or the houses across the wide grass strip next to the school. He couldn't see the street. He could just barely see the grass outside the window. It was a blowing, dark gray rainstorm. At times, the wind would blow the raindrops right at the windows. Just a little while later, the rain was pouring straight down. Everybody seemed to be thinking of other things. Even Mrs. Stogbuchner kept losing her place in the story she was reading, whenever the rain would come crashing against the windows. Finally it was lunchtime.
Baartock bought milk in the lunch line, but the fruit they had were some long yellow things that he hadn't seen before, so he didn't get any. When he sat at the table across from Jason, the red-haired boy asked, "Why do you call that a fire drill?" "Drill. Make holes same way," Baartock answered, and made aback and forth motion with his hand.
"I guess you could get through wood. But it must take a long time."
"Wood. Stone too," replied Baartock.
"You can drill through stone like that?"
"Use many shafts," said Baartock, making an up and down motion, meaning the straight stick he had used. "Make hole."
Jason was about to say something when there was a sudden flash of light and a tremendous thunderblast right outside the cafeteria. The people sitting by the windows jumped up, and someone knocked a lunch tray onto the floor. One of the women who worked in the cafeteria brought over a mop to clean up the spilled food, and everybody who had been sitting next to the windows moved to different seats. The rain was now squirting against the windows, and some water was coming in under the door to the playground. The woman with the mop went over to clean that up too.
Everybody ate very quietly, as if they were waiting for the next thunderbolt to strike. While they were eating a man came in with a mop and a bucket and some tools to try to stop the leak around the door. Baartock was watching the man working, when Jason said, "Let's go back to the classroom."
"Not go outside?" asked Baartock.
"They wouldn't let us. Not in this much rain. Who'd want to go out in this anyway?"
Baartock had been thinking about going out. It was only rain. Instead, when he finished his lunch, he went with Jason back to the classroom.
Some others were already back in the classroom, in groups talking, or just staring out the windows at the rain. Mrs. Stogbuchner was sitting at her desk, with a lunch tray from the cafeteria, eating, when they got there.
"Mrs. Stogbuchner, can we get out the games?" asked Jason.
"All right. But you'll have to put them away when lunch time is over."
"All right!" Jason whooped. "Come on, Baartock."
"And please be quiet," she said, as she went back to her lunch.
"Yes, Mrs. Stogbuchner," Jason said.
They went into the back of the classroom, and near the cubbies was a shelf with some large flat boxes and some smaller ones.
"You want to play checkers?" asked Jason.
"Don't know checkers. Show me," said Baartock.
They sat in the back of the classroom, and Jason taught him how to play checkers. When some other children saw them playing, they got out other games, and soon there were lots of people playing all kinds of games.
It kept on raining very hard, and there were occasional lightning flashes and crashes of thunder.
Lunch time seemed to be going on longer than usual. Baartock had just lost another game of checkers, and he let Jerry play. He didn't like checkers very much. None of the other games seemed too interesting either, so he walked over and looked out the window at the rain. He saw Ms. Laurence hurry in and go over to talk to Mrs. Stogbuchner.
"Children." Ms. Laurence had hurried out again and Mrs. Stogbuchner was walking to the middle of the classroom. "Quiet please."
There was a lot of stirring around by the children to listen to her.
"They are going to close school early today, because of all this rain." She held up her hand for quiet. Some children had started to cheer and talk as soon as they heard the news.
"They say that this could be a bad storm, and there could be some flooding. Since so many of you live on small roads, they decided you should go home very soon. They're trying to reach the bus drivers now. If it keeps raining like this, there might not be school tomorrow."
The children were still quiet, but they were all smiling and poking at each other.
"You may go on with your recess now, and I'll have you straighten up the games just before the busses get here. Now please be very quiet, while I go to the office." She turned and went out the door.
Suddenly, none of the children were interested in the games. They all wanted to talk about getting out of school early, and noschool tomorrow, and what they were going to do. They started talking quietly, but soon the talk got louder. Then, one of the boys threw a ball of paper at another boy. There was a lot of loud talking, and throwing things, and running around, when Mrs. Stogbuchner came back into the room.
"Get in your seats! Right now!" She was standing just inside the door, glaring at the class.
The children hurried to their chairs and sat down.
"I told you to be quiet while I went to the office."
The children looked at each other, as if to find out who had been making all the noise. "Barbara, Norma, Robert, and Jason, go back and straighten up the games and put them away. Do it quietly and quickly. Timmy, hand out these worksheets. Since you don't want recess now, I have some other work you can do, until the busses get here."
Timmy walked around the room with the stack of papers she gave him, putting four worksheets on each table.
Mrs. Stogbuchner walked to the back of the classroom to watch the straightening up. The room was very quiet, except for the noises from the back of the room.
Baartock started working, and soon Jason sat down and started working too.
Mrs. Stogbuchner walked around the room for a while, then she went over and stood in the doorway, looking down the hall. Soon she said, "Put your things away now. If you brought raincoats, or have anything else to take home, get it, then line up."
Baartock hadn't brought a raincoat, but he went to his cubby to get the fire drill and his lunchbag. He decided to take his pencil box home, too.
The class was all lined up, waiting for the bell. Mrs. Stogbuchner said, "If it keeps raining like this, watch the news on TV to see if we're having school tomorrow." Then the bell did ring, and they were all hurrying to get to the school busses.
"See you," called Jason, as they went down the hall. They got to the front door and the wind was blowing the rain right in at them. The floor was wet and someone had put down rubber mats so they wouldn't slip or fall.
When they went outside, everybody ran to the busses. Baartock was soaked as he got on Mr. Barnes's bus, from just that short run. There were lights on the front of each bus, and there were sticks wiping back and forth to get the rain off the front windows. But Mr. Barnes still drove very slowly to the high school. He wasn't talking all the time, this afternoon.
When Baartock got off the bus, he ran to his path to get home. The creekbed was filled with water rushing and splashing down hill. There was a lot of water going through the culvert. Baartock hurried up the hill, next to the stream. He wanted to see what it was like at his bridge.
It had rained all the rest of the day. Baartock had a great time up at his bridge. The water was racing under the bridge, making a wonderful gurgling sound. It made hiding under the arch like being in one of the stories his father told. The only thing missing was someone walking over the bridge. He would come out from under the bridge screaming his loudest and run up the side of the stream bed. He could just see them running away.
Right then it really didn't matter that there wasn't anyone crossing his bridge. Baartock now knew so many humans and so much about them, that was easy to pretend who was walking up to cross the bridge. There was Mr. Fennis, of course. He had run away so wonderfully. Then there was Ms. Laurence. Baartock could scare her easily. He didn't pretend to scare Mrs. Jackson or Mrs. Stogbuchner. Somehow they didn't seem like people to scare. But that girl in hisclass, Janice, Baartock scared her again and again. And some of the other children in the class. They were all so easy to scare. He was having a great time.
He even pretended that Jason was helping him scare people. Not that Jason was anything like a troll, but Baartock liked him and he thought Jason would have fun scaring people.
After a while, when it started to get dark, Baartock went back home in the rain. He was glad that his father had known it was going to rain. They had gathered in extra firewood. Even though it wasn't cold, the fire warmed the cave and helped him to dry off.
Though it had been raining all day, his mother had fixed an extra good meal. Baartock really liked the cricket and green bean salad. Later they all sat around the fire and his mother patched his pants and sewed on the new winter coat she was making, and his father told stories. He stayed up late, and it was still raining hard when he finally went to bed.
The next morning it was still raining, and his mother told him to go wait for the bus, but if it didn't come when it should, to come back home. And his father surprised him by saying he would be staying home if it kept on raining. The room he was working on in the cavern would probably be flooded, and he wouldn't be able to work.
So, while it was still raining quite hard, Baartock went down to stand by the side of the road and wait for the school bus. Actually, he wasn't waiting right beside the road in the rain, but back a little way, under some trees that still had lots of leaves. He thought he could see the bus in time to come out and catch it. He waited and waited, but he didn't see a bus or a car or anything coming down the road. He went over to look at the culvert. Rain water was coming roaring down the stream bed right at the culvert, but there was so much that it couldn't all get through. There were branches and rocks that had come down with the water that were blocking the opening. It was beginning to make a pool on that side of the road. On the other side, it was shooting out of the culvert, but it was beginning to make a pool there too.
When Baartock felt he had waited long enough, he went back home. His father was carving out some extra shelves in the kitchen. He went to watch his father work, and started handing him tools. They worked most of the morning. His mother came back home and saw the mess they were making, and started making some sandwiches. They all finished about the same time, and his mother chased them both out of the cave so she could clean up. There were rock chips all over the kitchen.
Then Baartock and his father went up and sat under his bridge and ate their sandwiches. For a while, his father told stories, about when he had been a young troll, before he'd earned his name. Then they looked at some places that Baartock had had trouble with building his bridge. They stood in the stream and the pouring rain, and his father showed him some better ways to do the stone-work. They even took a few of the stones out, and his father worked on them, then they put them back. Baartock was much happier about the way the bridge looked now. Then his father showed him places where the water might weaken the bridge if they weren't fixed, not today, but later when the rain stopped and the water went down.
While they were working the rain eased up as if it were going to stop, then it started coming down again as hard as before. They had quite a busy afternoon, and his father said that it was time to go home, even if there was still a mess in the kitchen for them to clean up.
It rained all the next day, too. Not as hard as before, just a steady rain that went on and on. Baartock went down in the morning to see if the bus would come, but it didn't. He waited a long time, playing beside the stream, but nothing came along the road.
The culvert that he had hidden in was completely blocked now, with branches and rocks. The water had made a big pool, and it was flowing over the road. He went up the hill a little way and sat there, dropping small branches into the stream, and watching them float down, across the pool and across the road.
After a while, he went back home. It was such fun to splash his way up the stream. He got thoroughly soaked. When he got home and dry, he helped his father make one of the closets larger. His father chipped and dug at the rock wall, and Baartock swept and picked-up, and carried all of the trash outside in a bucket. They worked most of the afternoon. Dinner was a simple meal. It had been too wet to go get anything, so it was mostly left-overs.
The rain stopped just after dinnertime, and Baartock went out to look around. It was getting dark, but he walked up to his bridge. He was worried about the spots his father had pointed out. When he got there, his bridge was all right. An opossum was hiding under the arch, trying to stay dry, and it growled at him. It wanted to be left alone and Baartock was able to see what he wanted to, without chasing it off.
Going home in the dark, he slipped and fell into the stream a couple of times. He was glad to sit by the fire and get dry, now that he knew that his bridge was safe.
The nest morning it wasn't raining, though there were still a lot of clouds overhead. But they were blowing away, and it might be sunny later. Baartock walked down to wait for the bus. He went down the path beside the stream. Even though the rain had stopped the night before, the stream was just as full as it had been when it was raining. It was still rushing and splashing its way down the hill.
Baartock couldn't get all the way to the road. The water had risen even higher. It wasn't a pool, it was a lake. The road was completely under water. It was almost as deep as he was tall. During the night, two of the trees beside the stream had fallen over, and were lying across the road. The holes, where the roots had been were filled with water. And there was still more water coming down the stream. He walked along the edge of water for a long way. Finally, near the driveway to the 'old Howard house', there was no more water covering the road.
Baartock played by the side of this new lake for a while, skipping stones. When he grew tired of that, he went up the driveway, and home. He left his lunch bag, and went up to check on his bridge again. The opossum was gone, but there was still too much water for him to work on his bridge, and he went back home.
His father had decided that he couldn't go to work again, so he was sleeping late. His mother was busy in the kitchen, so Baartock got out his pencil box and some worksheets he had brought home from school and sat near the mouth of the cave and did them again.
The sun started to come through the clouds, and Baartock moved his stool outside the cave. He was just about to get back to work, when he heard someone coming up the hill. He put his pencil box and worksheets on the stool and went inside to tell his mother. They were just coming out of the cave when Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Stogbuchner came into the clearing.
"Hello, Mrs. Slinurp. Hello, Baartock," called Mrs. Jackson. To Baartock's mother, she said, "This is Baartock's teacher, Mrs. Stogbuchner."
"I'm pleased to meet you," said Mrs. Stogbuchner. "I told Baartock that I wanted to meet you this week."
No-one asked if Baartock had remembered to tell his mother, but the way she looked at him said that he had forgotten.
"I hope we're not coming at a bad time," Mrs. Jackson said. "No," said his mother. "You want to talk?"
"Baartock, I see you've been doing some school work. I think that's a very good," said Mrs. Stogbuchner, looking at the worksheets. Then she followed his mother and Mrs. Jackson into the cave.
Baartock thought about checking his bridge again, but it was nearly lunch time, and after lunch maybe his father could help him work on it. So he sat back down in the sun, and kept working on the papers. He could hear the adults' voices, but he couldn't hear what they were saying.
After a while he decided he was hungry and went to look for his lunch bag. He remembered putting it in the kitchen, so he went to get it. The adults were still talking, and he didn't think they had even noticed him, until Mrs. Jackson said, "Baartock, something happened to the bridge we looked at."
Suddenly, there was a booming voice, coming from the back of the cave. "What happen bridge?" Baartock's father was awake, and coming out of the bedroom. The word 'bridge' would wake most trolls from a sound sleep.
Meeting just one adult troll for the first time had been a surprise for Mrs. Stogbuchner, and even Mrs. Jackson hadn't met his father. And Baartock's father was bigger and angrier looking than most trolls, even though he wasn't any meaner than Baartock's mother. But they didn't know whether to stay or run. Before they coulddecide, Baartock's father was in the living room saying, "What happen bridge?" again.
His mother saw just how scared the humans were, and said, "Wait. She tell."
"There was just too much water," began Mrs. Jackson, not sure what he wanted to know. "It collapsed. It fell down. There's no more bridge in town."
Baartock had told his father about the bridge, of course. And what he had thought of a human-built bridge. He wasn't really surprised that it had fallen down.
"Where bridge?" asked his father.
Baartock was just about to tell him, when Mrs. Jackson asked, "You want to see the bridge?"
"You show me bridge," replied his father. "You show me bridge now?"
Just as suddenly as his father had appeared, they were going out of the cave. Baartock grabbed his lunch bag and followed them out. They went down the hill toward the 'old Howard house'.
"We'll have to go the long way around," said Mrs. Jackson. "Your road is flooded too."
That didn't matter to his father and they kept walking down the hill. When they got to the car, there was a problem trying to figure out where they were all to sit. Mrs. Jackson had to slide the front seat up, so the three trolls could sit in the back. If they hadn't been trolls, they wouldn't have been able to squeeze in. But trolls can bend to fit into tight places. Soon they were all inside and Mrs. Jackson was driving.
Baartock opened his lunch bag to get something to eat. His father had some too, but his mother said she wasn't hungry. Neither Mrs. Jackson or Mrs. Stogbuchner wanted any either.
Riding in a car for the first time didn't seem to bother Baartock's father. Maybe it was because he was going to see the bridge, or maybe it just didn't bother him.
They did have to go the long way around, but eventually they got to where the bridge had been. There were lots of kids standing around and some adults too. There were big orange painted barrels blocking the road, so people wouldn't drive their cars too close. Mrs. Jackson had to park her car down the block. They got out of the car and went over to look. Baartock thought he saw Jason, but he wasn't sure. Besides, seeing the bridge was more important, right then.
The water hadn't really gotten that high, though the stream was moving very quickly. It was easy to see what had happened. The water had washed away the dirt around the supports, and then the supports had started to move, and the span had fallen down. It was lying, broken and twisted, in the rushing water.
Baartock's mother was interested, but she could see what she wanted from where she was standing. Baartock and his father walked right to the edge to examine the wreckage.
"Don't get so close to the edge!" a man in uniform shouted at them. He started to come over to tell them to move back.
"I look at bridge," Baartock's father growled at the man.
"Yes sir," said the man, backing away. Most of the other humans nearby backed away also.
His father looked at the way the bridge had been built from where he was standing, then suddenly, he jumped into the stream.
"Hey! Help him! Get a rope, somebody!" the man in uniform was shouting. He came rushing to the edge to find Baartock's father standing, quite calmly, waist deep in the rushing water, examining where the supports had been.
"Hey! Catch this," the man shouted, starting to throw the rope.
"Stop!" Baartock's mother had come over. "He working. You stop or he get angry."
"But he's going to . . ." the man started to say, looking up at her.
"You stop," his mother said again.
"Yes ma'am," the man said, and he took the rope and went back where he had been standing. He just stood there watching, and not knowing what to do.
Mrs. Jackson went over to talk to him. Soon the man walked over to his car and got out a blanket and gave it to Mrs. Jackson.
When he had seen enough, Baartock's father climbed up on the broken bridge span and calmly stepped up onto the road. Several people in the crowd cheered when he came up, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Where she?" he asked.
Baartock pointed out Mrs. Jackson, still standing next to the man in uniform. They all walked over to her. Mrs. Jackson handed him the blanket, and he used it to dry off.
"Can fix," his father said. "Build right this time. Not fall down again."
"You can build a new bridge?" asked Mrs. Jackson.
Baartock thought that was a silly question. He had been sure that he could have built a better bridge, and he wasn't even old enough to have a name. "Hey! Baartock!" came a shout from the crowd. Jason was standing there waving at him.
Baartock waved back. The adults were talking about things that didn't seem to have anything to do with building bridges, so he went over to talk to Jason.
"Isn't this really something. Are those your folks? Everybody was sure surprised when your dad jumped in like that," Jason just went on in a rush. "Your dad knows about bridges?"
"Can build better bridge," Baartock answered.
Soon, Baartock's mother called him over and they got back in the car and went home.
The next day was Friday, but there wasn't any school. Mrs. Stogbuchner had said that a lot of the roads were under water, just like the road near Baartock's home. But even though there wasn't any school, the next morning Baartock was going to town.
Early in the morning, his father got him up, and they had something to eat. Baartock got the big lunch bag and his father picked up his bag of tools and they left and walked down to the 'old Howard house' and waited. The sun wasn't up very high when Mrs. Jackson came driving up the hill.
"Good morning," she called, as she stopped the car.
"Go bridge now," said his father.
Mrs. Jackson had decided that was just the way trolls were. With bridges, they were all business.
"Good morning," said Baartock. He thought any morning he could go help work on a bridge was a good morning.
They got into the car. Baartock sat in the front and put on the seat belt. His father stretched out along the back seat. He wasn't squeezed into the back, like he had been the day before. They still had to drive the long way around, but it wasn't too long before Mrs. Jackson was parking the car.
There wasn't a crowd at the bridge, it was too early in the morning. The man in uniform was there again. He didn't say anything to Baartock's father, but he did wave to Mrs. Jackson, and she waved back.
His father didn't want to waste any time getting started replacing the old bridge. As soon as they got there, he climbed out of the car and carrying his bag of tools, went to the edge of the road. He jumped down into the water, and Baartock started handing him hammers and chisels, as he called for them. He would dry and put away the ones that his father was finished with and threw back to him.
While they were working, people came to watch, but the man in uniform kept them back. Jason came down too, but the man wouldn't let him come over.
At lunch time, his father climbed back up and dried himself off with the blanket, and they sat under a tree to eat. Baartock was hungry, but his father ate four sandwiches to his one. Lunch was quickly over, and they were ready to go back to work.
This time, after his father jumped down, he told Baartock to hand him the bag of tools. Then he walked carefully through the rushing stream, across the wrecked bridge to the other side and tossed the bag up on the road. Then he came back and told Baartock to climb onto his shoulders. He crossed the stream again, and Baartock scrambled up the other side. Then just as before, he handed down tools or put them away.
During the afternoon, a man came to talk to Baartock's father. He was on the other side, and Baartock couldn't hear what they were talking about. After a while, the man left and his father came back to work.
"Stone," his father said. That was enough. Baartock knew they had been talking about how much stone would be needed to rebuild the bridge. His father was going to rebuild the bridge the right way, the troll way, with stone and not concrete.
It wasn't dark when Baartock was carried back across the stream. They were finished for the day.
The next day, Mrs. Jackson couldn't come to get them. When they got down to the house, Mr. Fennis was waiting for them. He didn't say a word, but he stared at Baartock's father. He looked as if his eyes were going to pop out.
There were a few people already there, when they got to the bridge. And the man in uniform was there too.
The water had gone down a lot, and they worked on something new. This time, they didn't work where the supports had been, but spent the day breaking up the old bridge. Some pieces his father piled up, to keep the stream from washing away his new supports. The rest of the pieces he tossed up to Baartock, who piled them beside the road. It was a long hard day, and Baartock fell asleep in the car on the way home.
The next day, both of Baartock's parents went off with Mrs. Jackson to look at the stone they were going to build with. Baartock didn't go along. He wanted to work on his bridge. Now that the stream had gone down, he could fix it the way he wanted to. It was fun, but now that he was working on a real bridge, his own seemed very small.
He went to school the next morning, but after school, instead of riding home on Mr. Barnes' bus, he went to help his parents work on the new bridge. He spent the rest of the afternoon helping pile up the broken pieces of the old bridge.
For the rest of that week and for several weeks after, Baartock spent his days in school and his afternoons and weekends working on the bridge. For a while, trucks came, bringing blocks of stone, and big timbers they would use for supports, building the bridge. They brought enough stone to make a hill of stone, until his father said that was enough.
In those weeks, the crowd that came to watch the bridge being built grew bigger, and there were more men in uniform to keep them back. The pile of stone got smaller and the bridge got closer to being finished. Somehow, word had gotten out that trolls were building a bridge. A lot of people didn't believe it, and others didn't care. Other people heard that a man, a woman, and a boy were building a bridge by themselves, and came to watch. A few people tried to push their way past the men in uniform to talk to Baartock's parents while they were working.
Then one afternoon, right after lunch, Mrs. Jackson came to get Baartock from class. He was surprised when she said that they were going to the bridge. He usually didn't go until school was over. As they went out to the parking lot, they went past several school busses parked in front of the school. He thought one of the busses was Mr. Barnes's, but they didn't go to it. They went to her car and drove to the bridge.
When they got there, there was a big crowd just standing around one end of the bridge. Baartock's parents were standing in the middle of the bridge, but they weren't working. Baartock looked at the bridge. It looked finished, but as he walked over, he saw that there was one block missing from one side, and that block was lying on the sidewalk.
He walked over to his parents to find out why they hadn't finished the bridge. His mother just said, "wait," and kept watching Mrs. Jackson. Soon the school busses drove up and a lot of kids got out. There was all of Mrs. Stogbuchner's class, and a lot of other kids besides. They came over to the bridge, but they didn't come across it, they just stood there with the rest of the crowd. They were all talking quietly, and watching Baartock and his parents. After a while a man got up on a little wooden platform and started talking. He talked for a long time, but Baartock wasn't listening to him. He had gotten an idea. A wonderful idea.
Baartock's mother had been watching the man on the platform. When he finished taking, she said, "Put stone in."
Baartock went over and picked up the last stone to put in the wall. He slid it into place, and the crowd started to cheer. When he stepped back, he saw the writing on the block. It was his special mark, and the letters 'BAARTOCK'S BRIDGE'.
The crowd kept on cheering, and Baartock felt embarrassed. Then he looked at his father. And his father looked at him. His father must have had the same idea, for suddenly they both started yelling at the top of their lungs, screaming, bellowing as loud as they could, as they ran at the crowd standing at the end of the bridge.
At the first sound, the crowd was frozen in place, and asBaartock and his father kept yelling and running at them, the crowd turned and ran away from the bridge as fast as they could. All the humans kept on running until they were out of sight. Baartock and his father stopped at the end of the bridge and they turned and walked back, laughing, to his mother in the middle of the bridge. She looked at them.
"Good bridge," she said. "Good troll bridge."
Here is a short message from the author of Baartock:
This book is directed at children, up to about thirdgrade, though it should be read to them by an adult.
End of Baartock, by Lewis Roth (C)1989