A Bird In The Hand I guess you could say that I've never been very popular in school. I guess it's because I'm never in one school long enough to actually get a chance to meet people. I hope you don't think I'm dumb or anything, because I'm not. The fact that I've never been able to stay in one school for more than a year is because my father keeps getting relocated. He works for the army . He's a major or something. I wouldn't know because I just call him Dad. Anyway, I guess you could say that I was a little nervous when I started at the Avis school. I mean, starting the sixth grade is big enough for the average kid, but when you're the new kid, it's even tougher. The first day of school wasn't so bad. My home-room teacher seemed pretty nice. His name was Mr. Dougherty. Lunch time and recess are the two most important times of the day when you're in sixth grade. During lunch, you get to hear all the latest gossip about what's been going on in the school. It was during lunch when I first heard about old Willie Fletcher. Willie Fletcher is the school's janitor. From what I had heard, he was the meanest, hairiest, scariest person in the world. There was even a story going around that he once killed a kid for peeing outside the toilet bowl in one of the stalls on the fourth floor boys room. Recess is where everything happens. It's the time when the big kids pick on the little kids time and time again. I've seen it happen at every school I go to. Pantsings, wedgies, fist fights, it never changes. I've been picked on from time to time, but nothing serious like what I just mentioned. It was midway through the first term when I first met Willie Fletcher. It was after school one day. A bunch of the boys were hanging around in the bathroom. A few of the boys the re were friends of mine so I tagged along. I was in the bathroom so I figured I'd take care of a few things while I had the chance. I was in the third stall taking a piss when I heard him come in. He was mumbling something to himself. I knew it was Willie because all the boys stopped talking at once. I was so scared to make a sound that I even stopped peeing. "What are you boys still doing here? Don't you have homes to go to?" Willie yelled out. As soon as he stopped speaking, everyone in the bathroom screamed and ran out. Everyone except me. I was still in the stall scared to death, waiting for Willie to leave. I couldn't wait very long otherwise my bladder would have burst. So, as quietly as I could, I finished what I had to do, zipped up, flushed, and started to walk out of the bathroom. I was almost half way out when I heard his voice again. "Hey kid," he grumbled, "Hey, I'm talking to you." I turned around slowly and faced him. That's when I first saw him, in all his "glory". He was wearing a green, plaid shirt with blue overalls. He had a beard which was black in some places but grey in others. His hands and face were covered in dirt. "You're the new kid in school, ain'tcha?" "Yeah, that's me sir, the new kid, sir," I said as I was shaking. "What's your name kid?" "It's Adam, sir. I really have to be going now sir, my mother's waiting for me." "What the hell do you keep calling me sir for?," he asked. "Oh sorry, my father's in the army, so I guess I'm just used to it," I said. "You like birds kid?" he asked. "Yeah, I guess so." I thought it was pretty strange that he was asking me that. I had barely known him for two minutes. "Let me show you something kid," he said. He started to walk out of the bathroom. I was still frozen in the same position. "Come on, I'm not gonna bite," Willy started laughing. I would have stayed exactly where I was, in that bathroom, if it hadn't been for the fact that I knew people. Ever since I was 9 years old I've been able to look at people and see the person that they really are. And when I took a look at Willy, I knew that he wasn't as bad as everyone said he was. We went outside the bathroom and down the hall. I was still a little scared. I mean, I was letting a total stranger take me somewhere to show me something that had some connection to birds. I started to think that maybe my intuitions had failed me. I wanted to run, but by the time I had thought of it, it was too late, we were already there. I found myself standing in front of a door that said "Janitor's Closet" on it. "Take a look inside kid," he said. I hesitated for a bit. "Go on, it ain't gonna kill ya." I opened the door slowly. It was dark inside so I flipped the light switch on. "Wow!" I said. There, in front of me, in this tiny janitors closet, were five or six of the best looking paintings I had ever seen. One was of two parrots sitting alone together on a tree branch. There was another painting of a crow eating some bread. And there was another painting of a man feeding some pigeons in the park. "Did you paint these?" I said to Willie. "Yep, every one of 'em," he said. "These are great; Is this what you do in here?" "Well, now and then I like to do it," Willie said. "It's kinda like a hobby for me." "Wow! I guess you like birds, huh? "Yeah, I been studyin' 'em for a couple years now. It's relaxin', you know?" I paused for a moment just looking at the pictures and taking in the beauty of them. After I while I asked, "Why are you showing this to me?" "Well, you're the new kid around," he said. "I know what it's like to be the new kid. I went to six different schools when I was a kid. I never had any friends. I figured, if you saw this, maybe you'd like them, and then we could be friends." "Sure," I said. I knew my instincts were right. As it turned out, Willie knew a lot about birds. He was saving up money so that he could go to night school and try and get a degree to study birds for a living. I guess when you looked at him, with his scruffy face and dirty clothes, he kinda looked scary. But he really was n't a bad person, once you got to know him. A few weeks went by, and every day after school, I'd hang out with Willie. He'd let me paint sometimes, but my paintings were never as good as his. One day, during recess, a few kids were playing with a football. One of them threw it and it got stuck in a tree. So, to get it out, they started throwing rocks up in the tree to knock it down. Well, one of the rocks ended up knocking down a whole birds nest. The kids around the tree started screaming. I ran over to see what had happened. When I got there I saw the nest and two little birds on the ground. They weren't moving so, as gently as I could, I picked them up, put them in my hat and ran inside the school to look for Willie. All the kids followed me inside. I found Willie cleaning the halls by the principal's office and I told him what had happened. I gave him the birds to look at. "Are they going to be okay?" I asked, once we got into one of the rooms. Willie laid the birds out on the teacher's desk. "Well," he said, "this one here is dead," he picked one of the tiny birds out of my hat and threw it in the garbage. "But this one here is still alive." "Can you save it Willie?" "I'll try," he said. Willie and I were able to nurse the chick back to health. He named the bird Jack. I asked him why he named it Jack and he said that it was because that was the name of a character in a book that he was reading. The character's last name was Burden and that sounded like "Bird" so he called it Jack. Well, that all took place two years ago. And since then, Willie started going to night school. He even sold one of his paintings for $15 dollars to Mr. Weatherby, the general store owner. So, things are good right now. I don't think we'll be moving again because Dad said he got promoted and now he's a Colonel so we don't have to move around anymore. That makes me happy since I have a lot of new friends that I don't want to leave behind. Besides, Willie is teaching me how to paint.
Copyright © 1996 Elio P Evangelista |