it was a nice day, with a few clouds in the sky but nothing threatening.
johnny miller decided to skip school, maybe go fishing up at the bend in the river.
he had some fishing equipment slashed away by the old oak tree, for just such occasions.
first he stopped by the elite diner. he had just enough money saved up for a chocolate frappe. he figured he had enough time for the chocolate frappe before mr tompkins, the truant officer, came looking for him.
the only other customer in the diner was pop wilson, who practically lived there, reading the city paper.
and of course sheffy was behind the counter. sheffy glared at johnny in that way he had that nobody took seriously.
why aren’t you in school johnny? , sheffy asked.
i got a special pass, johnny said. he took his two dimes and five pennies out of his pocket and put them on the counter. i’ll have a chocolate frappe, please.
i don’t know, said sheffy, but i guess it’s no business of mine.
pop wilson snickered, without looking up from his paper. you like the color of the boy’s money, he told sheffy, and laughed, as if he had made a great joke.
sheffy started making the chocolate frappe. johnny turned and looked out the window.
a curious scene was unfolding .
two trucks pulled up outside. both medium sized, about the size a plumber’s or house painter’s trucks would be, but neither had any lettering on them. one parked about fifty yards up the street from the other.
as johnny watched, a man got out of each truck. the man from the truck closer to the diner wore a blue suit, and he was a mean looking cuss and looked like he needed a shave. a cigarette dangled from his lips. he opened the back of his truck and began unloading it, wooden boxes, some rope, and what looked like metal parts for a machine.
another man got out of the truck further up the road. a man in a brown suit, not quite as mean looking as the man in the blue suit, but bigger and stronger looking, with the cheap suit stretched tight on his thick arms. he began unloading his truck.
and then something even stranger happened. a green plymouth sedan pulled up and parked in the space between the two trucks, right in front of the telephone pole, and two people got out.
a little old man wearing a wrinkled gray suit and a crushed fedora, and a woman.
the woman looked a little like nurse johnson from school. old, maybe even thirty years old, but not too fat and not half bad looking. for a second johnny thought it was nurse johnson, but when she turned around he realized it was not.
and then - the little old man took some rope out of the car and began tying the woman to the telephone pole! she did not look too thrilled about it, but she held still while he did it.
meanwhile, the man in the blue suit and the man in the brown suit had been busy. each had quickly set up a kind of stand or platform beside their trucks and on each stand had begun erecting some kind of complicated metal apparatus.
blue suit’s machine looked like a catapult, and brown suit’s was similar but taller, more like a crane.
blue suit began unloading what looked like cannon balls from his truck!
pop wilson and sheffy considered the two machines. i don’t like the height on that one, sheffy pointed to brown suit’s edifice. too much downward slope, not enough torque.
but what are they doing?, johnny asked.
they are fighting over that gal, son, said pop wilson.
johnny thought it was funny that so old a female would be called a “gal”, but had too much respect for his elders to laugh out loud or say anything.
sheffy finished making the chocolate frappe and put it down at johnny’s elbow.
and then the door of the diner opened and mr tompkins the truant officer walked in.
let’s go, johnny, he announced.
awwww, just let me see how this turns out here.
don’t give me any sass, johnny, mr tompkins drawled, you don’t want to be in any more hot water than you already are.
they got back to the school just in time for algebra class.
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