Just Another Kid Read Online Free PDF Page B

the rule regarding bringing in candy?”
    Mariana said nothing.
    “You’ve got to share ,” Dirkie said with great feeling. He was cottoning on to the presence of the candy.
    “That’s right. You have to share. Now, if you gave Geraldine a piece, it’s only fair that you give Shemona one. And Dirkie. Then put them away, unless you want to share them all out.”
    Mariana began to cry again. “That’s not fair. My mommy bought them for me .”
    “I can appreciate how you feel. You like your candy and you want to keep it. But it also isn’t fair to give a piece just to Geraldine. Geraldine was right to be concerned about her sister, although perhaps she needn’t have snatched the candy in quite that way.”
    Mariana begrudgingly handed out a Life Saver to Dirkie and then returned to her seat to count how many were left. She squirreled the rest of them away in the pocket of her jumper. “What are you gonna give me now?” she asked Geraldine.
    Geraldine shrugged. “Haven’t anything.”
    Glumly, Mariana kicked the leg of the table. “Some best friend you’ve turned out to be.”
    Dirkie was mesmerized by the two girls. He spent much of the morning simply watching them. Then after lunch he took to circling the table, and it occurred to me what was so fascinating to him: It was Shemona’s hair. Leslie’s hair was longer and even Mariana’s hair was quite long, and as I had never noticed Dirkie showing interest in either of them, I had assumed he was only preoccupied with adult hair. So I was a bit surprised and certainly dismayed to discover he was attracted to Shemona’s. The only thing I could reckon was that Shemona, like me, was blond, while both Mariana and Leslie were dark. This lent a new dimension to Dirkie’s obsession. Whatever was behind it, he could not leave Shemona’s hair alone. Around and around and around the table he went, his body slightly crouched, his muscles tense with excitement. When he would get in back of her, he’d pause, quivering. If either Shemona or Geraldine turned to look at him, he would jump and then begin circling again. “Hoo-hoo-hoo,” he was whispering under his breath.
    “Dirkie, sit down ,” I said. I was holding Leslie on my lap and trying to work with her, so it was inconvenient to have to keep getting up to reseat him. And his circling was nerve-racking.
    Dirkie moved off, but within moments he was back, once again circling like a hyena with its quarry.
    “Miss,” Geraldine said, “Shemona doesn’t like this. This boy is bothering her.” “Miss” was the only thing Geraldine would call me.
    “Dirkie,” I said, “sit down. Now sit. You’ve got plenty of work in your folder, so please come here, sit down and get busy.”
    I pulled his folder closer to where I was sitting, and when he came over, I sat him next to me. Geraldine, farther down and across the table from us, raised her head to watch us.
    “You’re a girl,” Dirkie said to her, his voice low.
    “So?”
    “She’s a girl too,” he said, indicating Shemona.
    Geraldine rolled her eyes in an expression of incredulity and went back to her work.
    “And she’s a girl and she’s a girl,” Dirkie continued, pointing to Mariana and Leslie. “And you’re a girl!” he said to me. “You know what that means?”
    “Girls’ pussies,” Mariana supplied. She giggled.
    Geraldine looked scandalized.
    “Girls, girls, girls!” Dirkie said excitedly.
    “Dirkie, time to settle down. Here, let’s get on with your work.” I took a paper from his folder.
    He studied Shemona, bent over her work. “And that girl,” he said pointedly, “that girl there, that girl with the yellow hair, with the long yellow hair, she’s a girl. She’s got a girl’s pisser, that girl with the long yellow hair.”
    “Dirkie, I mean it, settle down.”
    The excitement proved too much for him, and Dirkie was up once more, mincing around the table to Shemona.
    “Mii-iissss!” squealed Geraldine in exasperation.