Getting There

Getting There

“Do you these look tight enough?” Frank asked.

“Yeah?’ Andy answered.

“I don’t trust them.”

“Why not?”

“I was trying for a knot I learned in cub scouts, it doesn’t look quite right,” Frank said.

“Wow you were a boy scout!!”

“No, I just a cub scout. Then we moved here and I never joined again.”

“Oh, how old were you?”

“I was nine when we moved.”

“So you actually learned to tie knots at eight as a cub scout?”

“Yeah, a couple. This one looks wrong. I haven’t tried using it in like, ah... seven years.”

“It looks good to me. We only have to get from here to Pompie’s Fruit Stand anyway, it’s only about half a mile.”

“I suppose... it does look pretty good...”

They got on their bikes and took off. As they turned the corner on Midway, the knot on Frank’s bike let go, all the apples spewed all over the road. As they stopped, the knot on Andy’s let go too and all his apples went!

“Cripes! Let’s get out of here!” Andy yelled as cars were dodging apples everywhere! Frank agreed, but unfortunately, as he looked back, there was his father, in a car, looking right at him. “Crap!” he said, “I’ll be grounded forever!

And that was the last time Andy and Frank stole apples from Andy’s Uncle Phil’s tree to sell to Pompie’s. Their life of crime was over.

When Frank had a son, years later, he made a promise to never move while his son was in school. His son went all the way through, from cub scout to eagle scout, and also became a leader when he had a son of his own.

He always credited his father as his greatest inspiration. Which, after the Pompie’s incident, he was.