"What are you to children doing out
here? Itıs
dangerous!!! There have been reports from
all over
here, of Indian devils running around!" He
shouted
over the cropping of the horses. Karen
automatically
thought that Marah had been polling her
usual pranks
on passing strangers. The usual bush
rustling, yelling
from the tree tops, and throwing acorns
near peoples
heads to, as she put it, make they're
lives a bit more
entertaining for us, and interesting for
them.
"Sir, they aren't called "Indians"
they're called
native Americans.....and they aren't
devils, not all
of them. Besides what kind of running
around are they
going?" Karen asked, there was a definite
snap in her
voice. She knew this man, he was the one.
The one that
did that horrible thing.
"Watch your tongue young lady! Or shall
I say girl?
Yes you are nothing but a little foolish
child,
sticking up for those things." He spat his
words at
her. Anger burned in his eyes. These two
had met ounce
before, and not under he best of
situations either.
"Why should I have even bothered to warn a
stupid girl
like you? Oh, and next time you stop me
from keeping
the people of this area, I won't hold back
just
because your a girl." He said these words
with extreme
hatred in his voice.
Robert looked back and forth at the two
as they
stared each other down. What in the world
could they
have been talking about? Robert was in
deep confusion
as he thought how Marah must want to jump
out and beat
this guy up! After all, he'd want to do
the same thing
to a person who was ragging on his race,
or family.
Finally after a long stare down that
seemed to last
for an eternity, the wagons drew away.
"Did he even notice I was here?" Robert
asked,
still puzzled.
"Probably not, that pig!" Karen blurted
out, not
noticing that Robert had no idea what so
ever what
they had been talking about. Karen still
glared at the
now distant wagons.
Marah sprung out and started muttering
in some
native tongue. She too, glared at the dust
of the
recently vanished wagons.
"Ummmmm, what were you guys talking
about?"
Robert's confusion was evident in his
voice.
Neither of the two girls as much
glanced at the
city boy.
"He's the one who did that awful thing,
That
unspeakable thing!" Marah spit the words
out at the
distant dust from the wagons.
"And what did he do???" Robert's words
hung in the
air as the girls, in synchronization,
turned at him
with gaping looks. Which were instantly
replaced with
an understanding gaze, and then, equally
as quick,
replaced with sadness.
Robert, needles to say, felt he had
asked the wrong
question, at the wrong time, the
wrong
people, and at
the wrong place.
"I don't really want talk about it
Rob." Marah
said with sadness in her voice.
"Okay." He looked over at Karen, she
shook her head
slowly.
They walked on in silence, Marah
dragged her feet
in the dirt road.
Sooner then expected, the trio reached
Mr.J's farm.
"We're here already?" Robert asked in
astonishment.
"Yup." Karen said smiling, "and after
all that fuss
they made! Surprising huh?"
"Yeah. See you guys tomorrow?" Robert
asked, he
wasn't sure if these two would tolerate
him, or if
he'd entered the 'click'.
"Sure! When, and where you want to
meet!?" Karen
asked.
"Do I get to come?" Marah smiled, "Or
have I
scared you Robert?"
"No, not at all! I want to hang out
with you guys!
You guys rock compared to all the people
in
Boston!
Those people are boring compared to you
guys!" He
smiled, Karen also noticed that it was
more directed
at Marah then Karen.
Karen shot an entertained and
suspicious look at
Marah. Marah had notice the direction of
the smile as
well, she was blushing slightly after
Robert turned
and started up the walk towards Mr.J's
house once the
planes were finalized.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't little
Marah getting
those looks from boys....tsk tsk, your
growing up SO
fast!" Karen imitated her mother's voice.
Marah laughed and gave Karen a playful
shove. "Stop
it! He's cute, don't make me feel bad that
a guy
finally has some interest in me. We are
getting to
that age." She imitated Karen's mother on
the last
sentence she said.
The girls started laughing, and walked
on towards
Karen's house.
Chapter
Four
Starting Off To Begin an Adventure
The next morning Karen awoke to her brother's
insistent ranting.
"I donıt want to! I don't want to! Iım
not taking a
bath! I don't want to! You take a bath!
But I'm not
gonna!" There were many foot stomps and
soon a thud.
Next came more kicking and lots of
screaming and
crying. The thud was Karen's brother
throwing himself
onto the floor.....the usual procedure of
the small
brat.
Karen rolled over and covered her head
with a
pillow. More noise followed and soon the
sound of
water being pumped and
whimpering.......Dave had
obviously had lost the fight.
Slowly, but surely she clawed her way
out of bed.
Karen put her slippers on and headed down
stairs. The
smell of apple pancakes drifted up the
stairs, this
was a pleasant surprise for Karen. She
didnıt think
her mother would actually make her
favorite after the
"display of behavior" in church the day
before.
Karen opened the door that separated
the stairs
from the hallway. Karen passed the small
room that was
housing the family's tub. It was more like
a closet
really.....As she passed by, Dave stuck is
tongue out
at her, some soap that their mother was
using to wash
his hair with fell into his mouth. He
sputtered, and
spat."Mom!" He shouted.
"Well, it isn't my fault if your tongue
was out of
your mouth!" came the retort from their
mother.
Karen smiled, at times she felt that
her mom could
be the coolest adult on the planet. Karen
loved it
when she took her side against Dave's.
Karen's brother
was one of those little brat brothers that
deserve
their own horror story of torment.
After breakfast Karen washed, dressed,
and ran off
towards Mr.J's place. The plane was to
pick up Robert,
and then head to the old well up on a
hillside. The
farm had long sense been abandoned. It had
been one of
the original farms in the area. The family
had
disappeared in a blizzard while trying to
save their
cattle. This had happened about 20 years
ago. The well
was Marahıs and Karenıs meeting place. If
one of them
was bored they'd got there, and hope the
other would
show up out of good intuition. This
actually occurred
often.
She ran up the steps to the door of the
modest farm
house. Karen knocked twice. After a second
the door
opened, and Robert bolted out.
"They're being nosy!" Robert grunted as
he shut the
door.
Karen giggled, and then stopped, "Yeah,
Mr.J can be
nosy, but aren't you going to say good
bye?"
"BYE!" He shouted over his shoulder.
They jumped down the many steps and
broke out into
run. Soon it became a contest, who could
out run the
other. Naturally, Robert ran faster then
Karen, with
the factor of Karen in a skirt, but he ran
himself out
and collapsed after about 10 minutes of
running at
high speeds. Karen kept going. She stopped
about 36
feet away from him. She turned and looked
at him.
Panting as she was she called out,
"Robert! You
okay?!"
He waved his hand to let her know he
was fine, just
out of breath. Karen sat down and gathered
herself as
well, they had run about a mile and a
half, only a
half mile to go now! Robert slowly crawled
over to
Karen.
"How much farther?" he said, his face
still buried
in the grass.
"Half mile. God thing you don't have
allergies!"
"Yeah," Robert raised his head, "Why is
everything
so far apart here? It's ridiculous!"
"Well, there's so much space, so why
not!" Karen
announced gleefully.
Robert looked at her dumb founded. He
slowly got
up, and stretched.
"Let's go!" He announced. "We can't
keep Marah
waiting!"
Karen smirked. "You like Marah!" she
taunted.
He grinned, "Is it that obvious?"
