A
Nickel’s Worth
A
short story written by Joy D. Quarmiley
When Jack reached the bottom of
the hill, he dusted himself off and used his fingertips to assess the damage to
his crown as he waited on his older sister, Jill, to come to a stop as she was
rolling at a rapid speed down the knoll right behind him. Once she came to a moaning halt at his feet, one of which
were shoeless, he helped her up and picked some grass as well as a broken-stemmed
dandelion out of her pigtails.
“So
where’s the bucket? ,” Jack inquired.
“Sss…Ow-wah! , “Jill retorted as she checked out her
skinned knee and a stinging scrape on her elbow. “What bucket? You were the one
that was s’posed to be fetchin’ the water! Not me! So don’t be askin’ me where the bucket is! You left it! And you better go back up
that hill n’ get it too or mama’ll skin your hide!”
“Aw,
shucks! I thought sure you’d grab it! How’d you fall anyway? You’re such a
klutz, Jill!” said Jack as he shook his pounding head and for a slight moment
thought he might have a concussion…so he stopped and began rubbing his bruised
cranium again.
Jill
poked herself in the chest with conviction, “I’M a klutz?!? “, then pointing at her scowling brother with more
conviction and one balled fist on her hip, as she saw her mother do many of
times, she sneered, ”You’re the one
that fell FIRST and then you tried to grab me to keep your balance! YOU pulled ME down! That makes YOU,
my dear brother, the KING of
Klutzes!” Each time Jill referred to herself or Jack she pointed with so much
fervor that Jack thought for sure she’d sprain her finger.
Jack
looked down with his brows furrowed, knowing full well that Jill was telling
the truth and kicked his shoe that had fell off his foot and came to rest
upside down next to him. “Well…”, as he sat down to put on his shoe, “Could you
at least go back up there with me to get it? After I scooped up the water, s-somethin’
I saw in the bucket spooked me n’ that’s how come I fell. I-I don’t wanna go
back up there by myself…” He looked up at his sister sheepishly with those
puppy dog eyes, which always seemed to win his mother over whenever she was in her
hardest of moods. To his dismay, Jill had a smug look on her freckled face as
she retorted, “Hmmph! You called me a klutz and now you need me to
protect your clumsy derrière? “ Jill took a slow, taunting stroll around her
little brother as he attempted to tie his shoelace, got frustrated and instead
tucked it into his scuffed shoe, all the while watching her out of the corner
of his eye suspiciously. Then came the all-too-common question that Jack
dreaded…
“What’s
in it for me?”, she inquired.
Jack
jumped up aggravated at his harrying sister for, yet again, taking advantage of
him in another one of his weaker moments. “AWW C’MON, JILL! I DON’T HAVE
NOTHIN’ ELSE TO GIVE YAH! You already got my jacks! I done give you my lunch
quarter three days in a row last week! MY pet frog is now YOUR pet frog and
he’s DEAD! I AIN’T GOT NOTHIN’ ELSE TO GIVE!” He threw his hands up in
exasperation and slumped hopelessly on a nearby tree trunk. Jill amused, albeit
not in the least bit sympathetic to her brother’s outburst put her foot on the
same stump her brother sat on, fixed the strap on her Mary Jane and replied as
she slyly glanced at her brother, “Sure you do…Ma gave you a nickel to come n’
fetch the pail of water, didn’t she?,” she dusted off the toe of her shoe,
straightened up and smoothed out the front of her freshly grass-stained
dressed, “THAT’S something. A nickel… for your hide… I’d say that’s quite a
fair trade.” A toothy grin spread across her pie face that showed she was
extremely proud of her quick-wit. Jack pouted, dug his heels into the ground,
stood up, grunted and said through clenched teeth, “FINE-AH! You can have the
durn nickel… AFTER we get back down the hill! ” Satisfied with her underhanded
barter, Jill turned to face her pouting brother, curtsied, fanned her hand in
front of her motioning for her brother to go first and said, “After you, Your
Highness, KING of the Klutzes!” Jack glared at his snickering sibling as he
began to saunter back up the hill.
As Jack came closer to the well,
his anticipation grew. He could hear the grass crunching under his sister’s
heavy steps and slowed down so she could catch up. As Jill got closer, she also
began to tense up. Both children slowed to a stop just a couple of yards away
from the well. They were now both standing side by side, silently staring at the
well. Jill, finally growing impatient from just standing there, turns to Jack,
crosses her arms and asks, “Well, chicken-run…Where’s the bucket?” Jack timidly
points toward the well, “I- I thought I left it on the ground…right there…next
to the well.”
“Yeah,
well OBVIOUSLY, you thought wrong! You better find mama’s bucket or it won’t be
just your hide she’ll be skinnin’! No water AND no bucket…You might just wanna skip
town, lil bro! Maybe a circus’ll take you in or somethin’…” Jill gives him a
pat on the shoulder, sardonically shaking her head as if she felt bad at the
thought of her kid-brother out there in the cruel world on his own at the
tender age of eight. Jack thought, “You’d
have a better chance gettin’ picked up by a circus than me, bearded girl!”
However, he dared not say it for fear of his heavy handed sister serving him an
open-handed palm sandwich as she had done many a time before. Instead, he throws
his mother’s annoying offspring an irritated glare and begins to creep closer
to the water source. Where could that bucket be? It couldn’t have grown legs
and run off! Maybe the thing he saw in it took off with it! “Help me look,”
Jack says to his sister. He goes around one side of the well and Jill takes the
other side…They take very cautious, calculated steps around the water-wielding
structure. Step…by…step…the two creep in silence, not sure what they will find
on the other side of the well. They reach the opposite side…AND LO &
BEHOLD! There was the bucket…sitting upright, as if waiting on the pair of
them. Relieved, Jack takes a step toward the bucket. The bucket shakes
violently! The children jump and simultaneously hug each other. Jill, realizing
that she was looking every bit of a wimp to her younger brother, whom had grown
respectfully fearful of her, abruptly let go of her sibling, gave him an
impatient shove and whispered, “Stop being a scaredy-cat! Get the bucket! It’s
probably just a toad, silly! ,” all the while never taking her eyes off of that
bucket. Jack scowls and stands slightly on his tiptoes to see if he can see
inside the bucket to no avail. Jill
gives him another push towards the pail. Jack uses one arm to catch himself on
the well’s wall and the other to swipe at his sister. “Don’t rush me,” he
whispers emphatically, “Let me go at my own pace!” Jill crosses her arms and
huffs, “At this pace, we’ll be late
for school in the mornin’!” Jack rolls his eyes at his sister’s dramatic exaggeration
and starts to inch towards the bucket once again. The birds seemed to stop
chirping, matter of fact, it seemed that all the sounds of nature ceased as he
crept closer… and closer …and closer …until….Jack felt a vast thrust to his
back and he went crashing into the bucket knocking it over! As the bucket
tumbled to its side and rolled a little ways down the hill a terrified bunny
leaped out and bounded hastily toward some nearby woods.
“A
BUNNY?!?! A FURRY, CUTE BABY BUNNY?!?! THAT’S what you were scared of?!?!?
AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!,” Jill exclaimed and doubled over in laughter. “YOU FELL
DOWN N’ BROKE YOUR CROWN OVER A POOR, WITTLE, HELPLESS BUNNY WABBIT!!
HAHAHAHAHAAAA!!”
Jack
jumped up pierced his lips and furrowed his brow so tough that it looked like
every feature on his face came together with his pudgy, now flared nose… He
held his balled fists straight as arrows down to his side and enraged he
growled, “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT, CONJILLA ELIZAH-ANN BERCHENSCHWIEZER?!? WHAT
ON GOD’S BEAUTIFUL GREEN EARTH MAKES YOU SO MEAN?!?” Jill observes how perturbed
her little brother is and decides it best to at least straighten up and stifle
as much of her giggles as she could. “First…Don’t be callin’ me by my
government name all out in the wilderness like that! And…second…(sniff)…you
were taking so long…and I have to pee (snicker)…so I wanted you to come along…
I was just trying to help, bubby…Honest… (giggle)…I didn’t know you’d fall so
…so…ungracefully…,” Jill smiled the most innocent smile she could muster and
then quickly offered, “Here… let me get the bucket so we can fetch this water
and skedaddle on home…Dinner will be ready soon and mama has gotta be wonderin’
where we are!” She hurries over to the bucket, picks it up and empties the
little bit of water that’s left in it. “We’ll get some fresh water.” Avoiding
her brother’s stewing eyes she walks past him to the well… “C’mon, Jack,”
staying true to form, Jill states, “It’s still your chore to fill the bucket.”
Still breathing slightly heavy, with his white-knuckled fists still being held laboriously
to his sides although earnestly trying to bring his wrath under control he
makes very calculated steps toward his yet smirking sister. He snatches the
wooden bucket from her grip, places the bucket on the ground and begins to pump
water into the bucket….As he’s pumping the water, Jill does as she did the
first time they came to fetch the water…she leans over to look at herself in
the gradually climbing liquid. Simultaneously, Jack looks into the bucket to
check the level of the water and with an astounded look on his face, he jumps
back, kicks the bucket over, which empties all of the fresh pumped water out
onto the grass. In the commotion, Jill steps back into the spot where the spill
transpired. She slips in the wet grass, grabs onto her cowering sibling and
they both begin to tumble head over heels back down the mound for the second
time that dreary afternoon. This time, Jill reaches the bottom first,
dreadfully sore from the recurring descend. Jack’s shoe follows shortly with a thud
to her head. Jack stops in a heap right next to her. Groaning, Jill queries in
an agonizing voice, “Wh…What did…you see…this…time?” Jack flips over slowly to
his back to face the sky…He looks over at his grimacing sister and utters, “You
…You mean you didn’t see it this time?!? It was sooo ugly. Grotesque even…It
was the most HIDEOUS troll EVER!! I’ll have nightmares for weeks!”
“Hmmmm…,”
pondered Jill, “That’s funny…I looked in the bucket and all I saw was my…,”
Jill glared at her mother’s son and said through clenched teeth, “…REFLECTION!!”
She reached over, punched Jack in the arm, got up, gave her tattered, stained
dress a defiant tug and stormed off toward home. Jack massaged the assaulted
spot on his bicep as he yelled to his retreating sister, “IF IT MAKES YA FEEL
ANY BETTER, I REALLY DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS YOU THE FIRST TIME!” Grinning pompously,
Jack folded his arms behind his head and smiled up at the dusk sky with a fulfilled,
albeit labored sigh, “I got my nickel’s worth… and then some.”
