Toadstool and the Dreamer, Chapter 8

Toadstool and the Dreamer, Chapter 7  (13+) In which the Dreamer demonstrates his skills as a driver. #1835199 by Ben Simon

8.

In which the boys find themselves up a tree.

    It didn't take us long to figure out that the creek that I had been hiding in ran nearly parallel with the backside of the town, so me and Toadstool just started to follow the creek along, keeping the town in sight just in case the creek decided to veer off in another direction.  Toadstool's shirt had opened up pretty quickly, showing of that big old glistening ham belly of his. Besides his limping, he was having a heck of a time trying to keep his pants from falling down and that added to his slowness.  I had my shirt open, too, and rolled my sleeves up as far as I could, though they kept coming down on me and I kept having to roll them back up, which was annoying.  Mosquitos and other bugs were out in full force because of how close we were to the water and without any Off or anything else to keep them away we became insect lunch.  In fact, the water was the only thing making things bearable, as whenever Toadstool would stop to catch his breath we'd splash some of that stagnant stuff on us, and even though it smelled a bit it kept us cool.  I tried to get my mind off of what I did to that lady's Volkswagen and occasionally I'd lie to myself and get it in my head that it didn't happen, that I'd dreamed it or something, but Toadstool kept making it the topic of conversation whenever he'd catch his breath.

    "So, those Volkswagens seem to have pretty good acceleration?" he was saying while he sat down on a tree root and splashed some creek water on his face.

    "Shut up," was all the response I could come up with.

    "Where'd you learn to drive like that, anyway?  Your brother into drag racing or something?"

    "I said shut up, fart face."

    "Make me, diarrhea breath.  If they do find you they'll probably take me in, too."

    That was the thing that was hanging in the air.  What I'd done wasn't like the stupid things that we usually did, like TP'ing old man Schindler's house or something like that, something that the cops would reprimand us for but secretly laugh at later on.  This was grand theft auto, as near as I could tell, and destruction of property to boot.  To this day I do not know what I was thinking when I got behind that stupid wheel, but I sure as heck remember how scared I was, as bad scared as I'd ever felt in my life. 

    I was still under the impression that there was some sort of manhunt for me, that Joe Friday had called for a dragnet and was scouring the countryside to bring me in.  I even had weird thoughts of abandoning Toadstool and finding a cave in which I could hide, becoming a hermit and living off of mulberries and crawdads for the rest of my life.  It was while I was contemplating this and enduring a few more of Toadstool's insults that I suddenly heard a couple of dogs barking in the woods just past us, not just with one of those "hey, there's something out there" barks that dogs usually do but a kind of "I'm going to kill whatever it is that's out there" barking.  That startled me so bad that I almost ruined those polyester pants I was wearing.

    "Crap," I said in a desperate whisper, "that is the police.  They're coming this way, too."

    "I don't know about that," Toadstool also whispered, trying to be cool but sounding a little scared himself.  "They may not be police dogs, but a lot of people let their dogs go in the country.  I kind of doubt if they're going to be very friendly to strangers if that's what they are."

    "We've got to get out of here." 

    "What're going to do, run?  You ain't fast enough to outrun a dog, stupid.  We need to get someplace where they can't reach us."

    "We can run through the creek.  If we run through the water they might lose our scent."

    "There's not enough water in that creek to hide anything, even if that would work.  No, we need to climb a tree or something, get somewhere they can't get to us."

    Any other time the thought of Toadstool climbing a tree would've made me laugh.  But the sound of those dogs barking was getting louder and I was beginning to panic a little more.  I grabbed the lowest limb of the tree beside me and scrambled up it, then pretty quickly made it up two more and, fairly satisfied that no dog could jump as high as I was sitting at that point, turned around to see what might be coming around the bend in the creek.  I then got a sight of Toadstool trying to climb up another tree nearby and, let me tell you, it was pretty pathetic.  The tree he chose had a split trunk, so that it kind of branched out from near the ground and he could pretty much grab one side and shimmy up it rather than climb it.  Even so, Toadstool was having the hardest time trying to squirm up the one side of the tree, with his arms and legs both hugging the tree as tight as he could while he moved maybe an inch or two at a movement.  I really didn't want to laugh then because I was pretty sure we were in danger, but I couldn't help but let out a little chuckle at the sight of him, and he let out an annoyed grunt to let me know he heard me.  He had just gotten about a foot or two off the ground when those dogs came around the bend, and at that point I forgot about anything else.

    There were two dogs, one being a chocolate lab and the other a German shepherd.  The lab had one of those faces the made it look like he might be a little dim, like he was mad at something but had no idea why.  The shepherd was a little bit more dignified, running with both his head and tail straight up like he was in the military or something.  They both were barking loud and hard and when they caught sight of Toadstool their barking got that much more louder and ferocious.  They ran over to the tree which he was still trying to squirm his way up and started jumping up and taking nips at his pant legs, which caused Toadstool to let out a high-pitched squeal.  I expected the local Jennings cops to come rushing up behind those dogs with cuffs in hands, ready to take me and Toadstool into custody.  Instead I got surprised when I heard a girl's soft steps splashing through the creek and a thin, high shriek coming from her lips.

    "Elroy!  Festus!  Stop that!  Get over here, now!"

    For their part, Elroy and Festus looked back for a minute and seemed to be a little confused, but then went right back to playing with their new toy, which was Toadstool.  From where I was sitting I could see a short, skinny red-haired girl in a ponytail come under my tree with a twig in her hand running purposefully towards Toadstool.

    "I said stop," she was yelling at the dogs.  "Do you want me to use the switch on you guys?"

    There was a little more confusion from the dogs, and the lab cringed just a little bit, and though they nipped at Toadstool's legs once or twice more, it wasn't with as much conviction.

    "Festus, I said, stop," she yelled once more at the lab, and then she said towards Toadstool, "Are you okay?"

    "Yeah, yeah, I guess," he said, though his voice was cracking a little bit and he sounded out of breath.  "Are the. . .do the dogs bite?"

    "No, not really.  They're pretty protective, but mostly they're just playing."  She reached into one of the pockets of her shorts and pulled out what looked like a couple of small pieces of cheese.  "Here, give them this.  They'll be your best friends forever."

    Toadstool took the cheese from her then gingerly reached down in the direction of the dogs.  The dogs were leery for a moment, the way dogs are with strangers, but one by one they took the food and retreated a bit to swallow it down.  While they were doing this the girl nudged them away from the tree and said, "You can come on down, now.  I think they'll be okay."

    He started slowly maneuvering his way down that tree, but he only got a little way before the lab started rapidly barking again.  The girl yelled out and hit him with the twig and, even though I doubt if it hurt that dog one bit, he cowered and moved behind her, though he kept his eyes on Toadstool the entire time.

    "Festus sometimes takes some convincing," she said, handing Toadstool another couple of pieces of cheese as he finally made his way down the tree.  "Here, try it again.  Sooner or later they'll come around."

    Once again he offered the cheese, and I'm pretty sure he was shaking, but the dogs took them well enough and old Toadstool found enough courage to offer his hand to pet the dogs.  The shepherd was okay enough, accepting a couple of pats on the head before he started to give Toadstool a thorough sniffing examination.  The lab wasn't so quick to make friends, though, and he jumped back at Toadstool's hand, which of course caused Toadstool to jump.  But he didn't try to take a bite out of Toadstool anymore after that, just hid behind the girl and kept glaring at Toadstool just in case there was a sign of trouble.

    "Who are you?" the girl said after the dogs had settled down a little bit.  "I know most of the kids who fish and hang out around the creek and I don't think I've ever seen you around here before."

    "We don't come from around here.  We're kind of lost."

    "We?  You've got somebody here with you?"

    I took that as my cue to climb down the tree.  For some reason the dogs hadn't noticed me sitting up in that tree, maybe because Toadstool was presenting such a tempting target.  But the dogs sure noticed me as I came down, and the lab's barking was even worse than it was before.  I was down to the bottom branch but I dared not move any further because all I could see was that lab's slobber-soaked fangs and his eyes full of murder.

    "Festus, shut up!" the girl yelled and gave him another swat with the twig.  Then she looked in my direction and, as the dog did not stop barking, yelled up, "Who's up there?"

    "I'll tell you in a minute, if you have another couple of pieces of cheese to spare," I said.

    She took more cheese out of her pocket but instead of giving it to me she gave both pieces to the lab herself.  Then, as he dog didn't have a collar on, she straddled him and put her arms around his neck while he was gulping the cheese down.  "That's the last bit of cheese I have," she said, "so you'd better be able to make friends with him now."

    I moved a lot faster than Toadstool did getting down from that branch, which was probably a mistake because, even as he was gulping down the rest of the cheese, the lab started back, then growled and tried to escape the girl's grip.  She crouched down and held the dog as best she could, though she was so small that if that dog wanted to escape I don't think he'd have a problem.

    "Didn’t you say he didn’t bite?" I asked, ready to scramble back up the tree at a moment's notice.

    "I don't think so.  We don't get many strangers out here, though.  Festus is kind of set in his ways and I don't think he really knows what to think of you guys.  C'mon, Festus, we're going to have to leash you up."

    The girl had a length of clothesline that she'd strung through a belt loop in her cutoffs and as she pulled this out I noticed that one end was threaded through in a loop, kind of like a hangman's noose but not as complicated.  She maneuvered the dog's head through the loop and then pulled him with some effort over to another tree, tying the other end of the line around the tree trunk.  The lab strained against the line towards me and snarled and let out the occasional bark, but for the most part he was restrained.

    "Poor Festus isn't smart enough to know he can slip out of that at any time," the girl said.  "He's loyal but he really ain't very smart."

    She turned around from tying the dog up and I got my first good look at her and, I'll tell you, what I saw pretty much took my breath away.  All of her trappings suggested that she was a tomboy, with her red hair tied back in a ponytail and bangs in front.  Her tiny, skinny frame was clothed in a thin plaid button-up shirt that was tied in a knot at the bottom, covering a t-shirt underneath.  She wore jeans that were cut off just above the knees and she was running around barefoot, which added to the appearance that she wasn’t the kind of girl who spent her days playing with Barbie dolls and Easy-Bake Ovens.  But her face was something else altogether.  It was as if someone had taken one of those china dolls and brought her to life, her face was that delicate.  She even had the oval face, but what was the most noticeable on her was her eyes.  I'm pretty sure she wasn't wearing any makeup, at least not that I could tell, but her eyes stood out naturally in the way that most gals spend tons of money on mascara and shadow to get them to do.  They were big and as green as the jade I once saw on a field trip to the art museum in St. Louis and they were were so liquid you'd almost think you could fall into them and swim in them.  I wanted to take her out right then and there and I didn't even know her name yet. 

    While the girl had been saving me from Festus, Toadstool had made friends with the shepherd and was sitting at the bottom of the tree he'd been trying to climb scratching the dog behind his ears and trying to keep the mutt from inspecting his privates.  "Festus?  Is that from Gunsmoke?"

    "Yeah.  My daddy named him because he's dim but loyal.  Like Festus."

    "Doesn't look much like Festus."

    "I know.  Daddy was a big Gunsmoke fan.  Said that the people at CBS should've been jailed when they took it off the air last year."

    After struggling with the clothesline for a bit Festus had settled down a little, laying down on his belly with his chin resting on the ground but not really resting, just staring at me like I was a rabbit that needed to have its neck broke.  The girl seemed pretty satisfied that the dog was secure because she walked away from him and crouched down and started petting on the shepherd.

    "This is Elroy.  I named him.  I thought he kind of looked like the dog on The Jetsons, but I didn't want to name him Astro because the other dogs might make fun of him or something.  So I named him after the boy."

    "So do you name all your animals after TV shows?"

    "We only have the two.  Daddy says that with all the human animals we've got we don't have any more room for the regular kind."

    "We used to have a lab just like that one," I lied, trying to get in on the conversation.  "It got hit by a bus last year."

    The girl made an "aw" sound and I saw Toadstool grimace at what he knew was a lie.  Instead of calling me on it, though, he changed topics.  "So, you live around here?"

    "We have a place just around the bend of the creek there and over the hill.  We're renting from Mr. Galt in town there until daddy can save up enough to buy us our own place."

    "What's your name?"

    "My name's Annette Schallert, but daddy just calls me Nettie and I guess everybody else does, too.  Who are you guys?"

    "I'm Joey and this is Phil," he said, pointing over his shoulder without even looking at me.

    "Hi," I said, and when I did she looked directly into her eyes for the first time and I swear I've never fallen in love that quickly in my life.

    "You guys said you were lost or something?" she asked, turning her attention back to the shepherd.

    "Yeah, we got to running from some guys who were chasing us and we wound up out here," I lied, not even knowing where I was going with that one.

    "It's a long story," Toadstool said, sounding like he didn't really want to elaborate on our predicament again, which, to me, was a lost opportunity.  "We're just trying to make it down to the police station in town so that we can call our moms and get home."

    "So, what are you doing all the way out here?"

    "That's another long story," Toadstool said, and this time I didn't want him to elaborate since I was pretty sure that the cops would still be searching for the person responsible for my fiasco with the Volkswagen.  "We're going to head into town in a little bit."

    "Might be hard to do on a Sunday.  From what daddy says, Denilson is the only cop on duty on Sundays and, if they don't have anyone in the county jail above the police station, he prefers to spend the day at home and listen for the dispatcher."

    "Great," Toadstool said, rolling his eyes.  "I don't think we can do this another day."

    "Where are you guys from, anyway?"

    "Garen, IL."

    "Where the heck is Garen, IL?"

    "I guess it's pretty far away," I said, making my way towards Elroy just so I could get a little closer to Nettie.  For his part, Elroy was a little more leery of me than he had been of Toadstool.  "We start high school there next Monday."

    "Oh, yeah?" Nettie asked, her attention more on the dog than it was on me.  "I think I'd be starting eighth grade this year, at least that's what the Dauber twins tell me.  Daddy doesn't believe much in public schools so we get our schooling at home."

    "Really?  I didn't even know you could do that.  Must be nice."

    "I guess.  It'd be nice to be around some people who weren’t family some time, though."

    "We better get going," Toadstool said, "we at least need to find out if a cop might be around.  If not I don't know what we're going to do."

    As Toadstool got up and started to move towards the creek, and as he did you could see that he was favoring one leg badly. 

    "You hurt?" Nettie asked, and she looked to be genuinely concerned.

    "Yeah.  I fell pretty bad yesterday."

    "Must've been a heck of a fall.  How bad does it hurt?"

    "It doesn't feel really good but I can walk on it."

    "I'm thinking you might want to rest it a little more," I said, thinking more about Nettie than I was about Toadstool.

    "And I'm thinking we need to get ourselves home as quick as we can.  I don't want to be out here into next week."

    "I bet my daddy can help you guys out," Nettie said, taking a step towards Toadstool as if she wanted to help him but stopping short.

    "Oh, yeah?" I asked, jumping on a chance not only to avoid the cops but also to hang out with Nettie.  "How can he do that?"

    "He's at work right now, daddy always works a half-day on Sundays, but I bet he'd be willing to drive you guys home."

    "I really doubt that," Toadstool said.  "Like Phil said, Garen is probably pretty far away."

    "You don't even know where your town is from here?"

    "Like I said, it's a long story."

    "Well, at least you can call someone from our place.  It beats taking your chances that old Denilson is going to be in."

    "Yeah, at least we can make a phone call from there," I repeated.  "If we walk all the way into town and there's no one at the police station, then we're wasting even more time.  And you with your bum leg. . ."

    Toadstool glared at me in a skeptical manner at my sudden show of concern, and I couldn't help but give him a quick grin back.  He seemed reluctant, about what I don't know, and he stood there weighing his options for a couple of moments.  Finally he said, "I guess it would be the better way to go. . ."

    "Sure it would be.  I'll tell you, we're really glad you came along," I said towards Nettie.

    "It's alright," she said, going over to Festus to untie him from the tree.  "Mom might be a little fussy about me bringing you guys in, but she'll be okay once I explain to her what's going on."

    Nettie unwound the clothesline from around the tree that Festus was leashed up to and wound the line up on her hand so that she was holding the dog as close to his neck as she could.  Even with that the dog struggled and let out a low growl when he got close to Toadstool, but she gave him a violent yank and forced him to walk on the other side of her, and the five of us made our way down the creek towards Nettie’s house.

Toadstool and the Dreamer, Chapter 9  (13+) In which the boys become rivals for the attention of Nettie Schallert. #1849523 by Ben Simon