Little Chicago by Adam Rapp Read Free Book Online Page A

Blacky. I owe you big.
    Since that day he will often pay for my hot lunch and he lets me use his Language Arts textbook cause I left mine in Centralia when we were visiting Ma’s dead sister, Aunt Diana.
    Through cable television Eric Duggan has gathered quite a lot of interesting knowledge about various subjects that he likes to share.
    Like about sharks and their predatory habits.
    And the names and colors of poisonous snakes in Australia.
    What information? I ask him.
    The Sherpas referred to the Abominable Snowman as The Man Who Is Not a Man, Eric Duggan says.
    Who are the Sherpas? I ask.
    This tribe of people from Nepal. Some British explorers in the nineteenth century saw him in the Himalayas. Their records indicate that he was eight and a half feet tall. Hair all over his body. Wide shoulders. Apelike face. They said he could disappear.
    Wow, I say.
    Eric Duggan lives on the other side of town where the houses have tree forts and swimming pools.
    Once when I was at his house he gave me one of his X-Games Big Air BMX bikes so we could ride through Hamil Woods together. It was black with yellow mags. We were going to set up a ramp and jump the creek but we couldn’t find the right size piece of plywood. Instead of jumping the creek he taught me how to do a bronco and a wheelie.
    When I went to give it back to him he said, Keep it.
    I said, Really?
    Yeah, he said. You can have it. I got three other ones.
    It was a world-class style bike but my Ma made me give it back cause she has a rule about charity.
    But Ma, I pleaded, he’s got four of em!
    She said, People just expect stuff from you when they start giving you things. We don’t accept charity, Blacky, and that’s that.
    Eric Duggan says, The Sherpas believed the Abominable Snowman was a time traveler. It was on the Discovery Channel last night. They did a segment on Bigfoot, too. Great Beast Myths. You gotta check that program out, Blacky. Fascinating stuff.
    We don’t get that channel, I explain.
    He says, I thought you had cable.
    We do, I say, but it’s only Basic.
    Eric Duggan says, Oh, and pulls his socks up. They have two green stripes each. He has many variations of gym socks and I admire this fact.
    So where were you yesterday? he asks, adjusting the band that keeps his glasses on his head.
    He’s standing next to me and touching the bleacher wall with his heel.
    I tell Eric Duggan that I was at the hospital.
    I had to go to the hospital, I say.
    Are you sick or something? Eric Duggan asks.
    I get that ache in my chest again, so I say, I got stabbed.
    You did?
    Yes.
    Cool, he says. Where?
    In the hip, I say. I was at the mall and this guy jumped me next to Caramel Corn Forever. It’s a very minor stab wound but he got my Nikes.
    It hurts me to lie to Eric Duggan. It feels like there’s a fist in my stomach.
    Who was the guy? he asks.
    I don’t know, I say. I think he was Native American, though.
    Eric Duggan says, Whoa.
    In Social Studies we’re taught to call Indians Native Americans. Miss Cosgrove is very stern about such matters.
    Asian, not Oriental, she says.
    African American, not black.
    Once Charles Vershaw stood up and screamed Nigger! I guess he couldn’t take it anymore.
    They put him in the Quiet Room and now he sees Dr. Lockwood on a weekly basis. Dr. Lockwood is the school guidance counselor and when you get called into his office it’s usually cause you’ve had a mental breakdown.
    Coach Corcoran blows his whistle and everyone sprints for the five dodgeballs. I run about ten feet and retreat back to the wall of bleachers. I have to slide and this will not be good for my dodging technique.
    There is some extreme pummeling at the midcourt line and then both sides prepare for the strategy and team play part.
    Bill Mann and Robert Kinsella hurl balls at us. They make hate faces and their eyes go small.
    This is what it’s like to be hunted by the enemy, I think.
    Bill Mann’s ball