A sample, first bit of Chapter One of Book Two of the Bill Little Adventures - Only Child

Only Child

Book Two of the Bill Little Adventures

By

Jan Lister Caldwell

Chapter One

Bill’s father was shaking his head as he hung up the kitchen phone. “What was that all about?” asked Bill’s mother as she hung up her jacket on the coat tree by the door. She was just getting back into the house after her evening walk.

“That was my sister. It was about Donnie. He’s been getting into trouble again. She just can’t handle him.”

“He has been more than a handful since his father left them. What’s going on now?”

“She wants us to take him for a while to see if I can do anything with him. She says he needs a man in his life.” He pulled up a chair and sat down wearily at the table and rubbed his forehead. He could feel a huge headache coming on. “He’s getting into a bad crowd in the city. She’s afraid he’s going to get into drinking and doing drugs if she doesn’t get him out right now, and to be honest, I am worried he might already be getting into that. He is twelve and kids with more supervision than he has have tried both but I didn’t have the heart to say all that to her. I did tell her I’d talk it over with you but, Marie, I don’t know how I can say no. He’s family and he hasn’t got a chance the way things are now.”

“Just come out and say it!” Bill blurted. He’d been watching television in the living room, only half listening until the conversation turned to having his cousin in the same house.

“Bill,” his mother scolded, “that’s not very kind, is it? He’s having a hard time. Donnie is less than a year older than you and he’s on his own most of the time. He needs to be with family.”

“But he’s a bully! He wants to fight all the time!” Bill protested as he angrily paced the kitchen.

“Maybe he won’t be like that once he’s settled in and feels at home,” she said hopefully.

“The last time he was here, he shot me in the butt with my own BB gun,” he said angrily, “and I don’t believe that story about it being an accident, either. You didn’t see his face right after he did it! I know he shot me in there because that’s where he was aiming!”

“Whether that’s true or not, when he’s living here he’ll have to follow the same rules of safety as you do or he won’t be allowed to use your BB gun. I’ll see to that,” his father promised. “The BB gun can only come out for target practice when I’m with you.”

“When he’s living here?! When?!” Bill felt his face redden. “Then you’ve already decided?! Don’t I have a say? I don’t want him here! He breaks my stuff! He’s a jerk! Why are you doing this to me?”

“This isn’t about you. It’s about Donnie and you better calm down. Donnie is family and he needs us,” his mother told him sternly. “Besides, you know how you’ve complained about being way out here in the country without anybody to play with most of the time and you’ve said often enough that you wanted a brother.”

“Yeah, a brother, not a brain-dead mutant terrorist,” Bill said hatefully.

“That’s enough!” barked his father. “Your mother told you to calm down. He’s your first cousin. You’re just feeling jealous because you’ve always been the only child.” His father took a deep breath as he looked at frustrated and angry face of his son and saw this was getting them nowhere. He rolled his eyes to the ceiling and let out a deep breath, deciding he had better change his tactics. He tried softening his voice and smiled. “Look. Things will work out once he’s all settled in and feels at home here. I will make sure he treats you and your things with respect and that goes for how you will treat him. Things will work out, you’ll see.”

The boy studied his parents. The expressions on both their faces told him the subject was closed. They were not going to listen to any complaints or opinions he had. Donnie was coming - End of discussion.

“I’ll call Jenny back. He can come and get settled in before the school year starts,” his father said. “There will be legal paperwork to work out, too, for us to get him medical care and such. I’ll have to call a lawyer in the morning.”

“And maybe I can go live with Aunt Jenny,” grumbled Bill. That comment got him shocked looks from both his parents, looks that turned immediately to disapproval. Great, he thought, ‘That look’ in stereo. This just keeps getting better and better”

How can they do this to me? he thought. Isn’t it enough they moved us almost twenty miles from our house in town? Twenty miles from my friends?! I was happy there. I was close to everything, close to the pool, close to the video arcade, close to my friends. Even being close to school seems better now.

Bill hated the bus. It was over thirty minutes each way with all the stops in between, bouncing around on that noisy, crowded school bus. The road was terrible and twice he nearly flew out of his seat, slamming down hard with his elbow on the frame of the seat in front of him when the driver hit the worst potholes and frost-raised culverts at full speed. Once he bounced up and hit his head on the roof. The little girl in front of him went up and came down in the seat ahead of her. Luckily no one was hurt except for a few bruises. Bill figured riding that bus everyday would make even a school-hater want to live within sight of the principal’s office. And now that I’m just getting used to being stuck way out here in the country with no one to hang around with most of the time, my parents tell me they’re bringing my “cousin-from-hell” to live with us. Why can’t I ever get a break?

One week to the day that Jenny called, Bill and his parents were waiting at the bus stop in town. After several threatening looks from his mother, Bill managed to get a ‘half-ways’ friendly look on his face.

As he waited, he decided it might not be as bad as he feared. After all, he’d done what he could to limit the damage the little monster could do. He had his BB gun locked up in the gun cabinet and his BB’s were hidden in the bottom of his underwear drawer. He moved his airplane models from his dresser to a high cupboard in his parents’ bedroom, and wrapped his bicycle’s combination chain lock tightly around the doorknobs of his bedroom closet. He felt reasonably sure he had everything covered. He figured all he would have to survive would be Donnie himself. Then it occurred to him that might be about as pleasant as eating broken glass.

The bus came to a stop and unloaded.

“There he is,” Bill’s father said, pointing and waving when he saw his nephew walking down the bus steps.

Donnie managed a weak smile as he tossed the long, stringy strands of dark hair out of his eyes with a snap of his head. The locks immediately fell back in place over one eye.

“It’s good to have you will us, Donnie,” Marie told him. She smiled and grabbed him for a big hug.

Bill thought she might have had better luck getting a reaction if she had hugged the bus. Donnie’s back visibly stiffened as he let his arms hang limply at his sides while she embraced him.

Marie sensed his discomfort and pulled away, embarrassed. “Your Uncle Russ will get your bags,” she said, now feeling very uncomfortable and awkward.

“Sure. It will just take a minute,” Russ agreed. He poked his son as he went by to get the luggage. “Say ‘hi’ to your cousin.”

“Hi,” echoed Bill, genuinely trying to be friendly. He thought he might as well make the best of it. At least he wouldn’t get his parents on his case for being rude.

Donnie grunted, eyeing him coolly through his hair. “What do you do in this dump for fun?” he asked as he looked up and down the small town’s front street.

“It’s not a dump,” Bill answered, offended. He’d complained often enough about nothing to do in town but it was his town and he didn’t want anyone else turning their nose up at it. He’s starting in already, he thought.