Jack & Jill: REEEEE-MIIIIX!!!

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 grew impatient from just standing there, she turned to Jack, crossed her arms and asked, “Well, chicken-run…Where’s the bucket?” Jack timidly pointed 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 gave Jack a pat on the shoulder and sardonically shook 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 threw his mother’s annoying offspring an irritated glare and began 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 said to his sister. He went around one side of the well and Jill took the other side…They took very cautious, calculated steps around the water-wielding structure. Step…by…step…the two crept in silence, not sure what they would find on the other side of the well. They reached the opposite side…AND LO & BEHOLD! There was the bucket…sitting upright, as if waiting on the pair of them. Relieved, Jack took a step toward the bucket. The bucket shook violently! The children jumped and simultaneously hugged each other. Jill realized that she looked like every bit of a wimp to her younger brother, whom had grown respectfully fearful of her in his eight years. So she 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, she never took her eyes off of that bucket. Jack scowled and stood slightly on his tiptoes to see if he could see inside the bucket to no avail.  Jill gave him another push towards the pail. Jack used one arm to catch himself on the well’s wall and the other to swipe at his sister. “Don’t rush me,” he whispered emphatically, “Let me go at my own pace!” Jill crossed her arms and huffed, “At this pace, we’ll be late for school in the mornin’!” Jack rolled his eyes at his sister’s dramatic exaggeration and started 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 observed how perturbed her little brother was and decided it best to at least straighten up and stifle as many 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 hurried over to the bucket, picked it up and emptied the little bit of water that was left in it. “We’ll get some fresh water.” Jill avoided her brother’s stewing eyes she walked past him to the well… “C’mon, Jack,” Jill stated, “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, Jack tried earnestly to bring his wrath under control. He made very calculated steps toward his smirking sister. He snatched the wooden bucket from her grip, placed the bucket on the ground and began to pump water into the bucket. As he pumped the water, Jill did what she did the first time they came to fetch the water…she leaned over to look at herself in the gradually climbing liquid. Simultaneously, Jack looked into the bucket to check the level of the water and with an astounded look on his face, he jumped back and kicked the bucket over, emptying all of the fresh pumped water out onto the grass. In the commotion, Jill stepped back into the spot where the spill transpired. She slipped in the wet grass, grabbed onto her cowering sibling and they both began to tumble head over heels back down the mound for the second time that dreary afternoon. This time, Jill reached the bottom first, dreadfully sore from the recurring descend. Jack’s shoe followed shortly with a thud to her head. Jack stopped thereafter in a heap right next to her. Groaning, Jill queried in an agonizing voice, “Wh…What did…you see…this…time?” Jack flipped over slowly to his back to face the sky…He looked over at his grimacing sister and uttered, “Y- …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 still in pain, “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.”