Baartock Part 9

"There's one right her in the middle of town. It's a little ways past the clinic, on Main Street. It's not too far. Would you like to look at it?"

"Yes." Then he remembered. "Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome, Baartock."

They drove along Main Street, and he recognized the little house where they had been that morning and pointed to it.

"Yes," said Mrs. Jackson, "that's the clinic. We're almost to the bridge now."

After a few more blocks, she turned a corner onto a side street and stopped the car. "Well, we're here."

"Where bridge?" Baartock asked as he looked all around.

"It's right over there," she said pointing. "Let's get out so you can look at it."

They got out of the car and walked across at the corner. Then Baartock saw the bridge. It was a simple span going over a wide stream bed, but there wasn't very much water in the stream bed below.

And the bridge was built of concrete, just like the culvert he'd hidden in on his first day. Part of the town was on one side of the bridge, and there was more of the town on the other side. The road crossed the bridge for cars and trucks, and busses. And there was a sidewalk on the bridge for people to go across. He didn't know just what to say. He was happy because there was a bridge, but it was a human-made bridge and nothing like as good as a troll-built bridge. He looked at it carefully. After a while, he said, "Go home now." He'd found a bridge.

Chapter 11

Mrs. Jackson had a lot to talk about with his mother, when they got to his home. They had talked all morning and now they were talking some more. He had wanted to tell his father about the bridge, but he wasn't home yet. So he had to sit and listen to Mrs. Jackson and his mother.

When they started talking about lunch money, he remembered how very hungry he was, and went to get something to eat. They were still talking about money when he finished eating. They agreed on a price and Mrs. Jackson got one of the small silver coins with some of her 'new'

coins, and he could use some of those 'new' coins to buy milk and fruit at lunch time. And he could bring his own lunch. He was glad of that, because he didn't like the humans' food. Then they talked about the school bus. He wasn't very sure that he was going to like being on the school bus. Mrs. Jackson had explained the 'Rules for Riding the School Bus', which was the name on a piece of paper she gave to his mother. There were so many things he couldn't do on the bus. One of the rules was 'No whistling'. When he asked her what whistling was, she puckered up her mouth and made a strange sound. 'No bird noises', Baartock decided.

"Just behave like you did in my car today," she said, "and you won't have any problem. You'll like Mr. Barnes."

Very early next morning, Baartock was standing by the side of the road when the yellow school bus drove up. He was holding his pencil box and a bag with his lunch. Mrs. Jackson had shown him a place that she thought would be a safe spot to stand and wait for the bus. It wasn't right by the driveway to the 'old Howard house', but it wasn't right by the stream bed and the path he used to come down to the road, either.

The bus made a screeching noise as it came to a stop right in front of him.

"OK. Come on up. Thought I'd you'd be closer to the house," Mr.

Barnes said in a loud voice, when he opened the bus door. Then he shouted, "OK. New customer today. Which seat can I sell him. I think this one," he said, pointing at a seat for just one person right in the front of the bus. There was one very big boy sitting in the seat.

"Gabe, you've been pretty good this week. Find yourself a new seat."

"Aw, Mr. Barnes, do I have to?"

"Go on now. Find a seat, before we're late getting to school." Gabe gathered up his books and moved back to the middle of the bus and sat next to another big boy, and Baartock sat on the empty front seat. He looked around for the seat belt, as he started driving down the road.

"What's the matter? Got ants in your pants?" Mr. Barnes asked, when he saw Baartock squirming.

"No," Baartock said. He didn't have ants anywhere. He asked, "No seat belt?" Mr. Barnes was using one.

"No," was the answer. "They say that they're going to put seat belts in the all the busses. Maybe by the time you're in high school. You just stay in your seat, and I'll drive carefully."

The bus went on down the road, stopping to pick up children waiting by the road. Soon there were a lot of kids on the bus. Mr. Barnes kept talking to Baartock all the time he was driving. In fact, he was talking to everyone on the bus, he was talking so loudly. Much of what he said didn't make any sense to Baartock, but the kids laughed at some of the things he said. Soon, Mr. Barnes turned the bus onto another road.

"School that way," Baartock said loudly, pointing down the other road.

"Nice try, kid. I know you're in a hurry to get to school, but we've got to go to the high school first."

"We can go to the grade school first!" came a shout from the back of the bus.

"The mall! A field trip to the mall," someone else shouted.

"Some other day," Mr. Barnes shouted back. They went on down this road for quite a while. They went right past some children standing by the side of the road.

"They're waiting for a different bus," Mr. Barnes explained to Baartock. "It'll be along soon."

Very soon after that, the bus pulled off the road into a parking lot, in front of a building much larger than the school Baartock was going to. The parking lot was filled with cars, and humans were walking to the building. There were six or seven big yellow school busses lined up in front of the building and lots of big kids were getting off.

"OK, high school, you students of higher education. Off!" called Mr.

Barnes, as he pulled up really closely behind the last bus. All the big kids got out of their seats and came up to the front of the bus to get off. There were more busses lining up behind Mr. Barnes' bus, but they weren't letting anyone off.

There were still a lot of smaller children on the bus, when Mr. Barnes closed the door.

"Next stop, Marvis T. Johnson Elementary School," announced Mr. Barnes.

But they didn't go anywhere. They had to wait for the bus in front of them to pull off. Baartock could see inside the bus in front of them.

The big kids were getting off very slowly. The woman driving that bus seemed to be talking to each of them as they got off.

"She must have had some trouble with them," Mr. Barnes said.

"We never have any trouble on this bus, do we?" he said very loudly.

"No!" several kids shouted back.

Most of the busses in the front of the school building had driven off. Several more busses from behind them pulled around, and parked up ahead. They waited a little longer, then finally the bus in front drove off. And they drove off too.

They didn't go back the way they had come. They turned onto another road, and drove for a long way, past a lot of houses, until they finally turned toward the school. Baartock asked Mr. Barnes why they were going such a long way.

"It's shorter this way," was his reply. "I've been coming this way for years."

"No," said Baartock. "Other way shorter. We be school, go this far."

They drove for a little while longer, then they finally got to school.

There were other busses lined up in front when Mr. Barnes stopped the bus and they got off.

"See you all this afternoon," Mr. Barnes said, as they were getting off.

This was the first time Baartock had gotten to school in the morning before it started. No-one seemed to be going inside. Jerry, a black-haired kid who had played tag, was getting off the next bus in front. He saw Baartock and came running over.

"Want to go to the playground?" he asked.

They went around the building to the playground. Jason was already there, and they raced a couple of times, then they went over and climbed on the jungle gym. They were just sitting at the top when the bell rang. A lot of the children ran to the building and went inside.

"That's only the first bell," said Jerry. "We've got lots of time."

So they sat for a while longer, until Jason started to get down.