The Adventures of Jack and Billy Joe by A. Jeff Tisdale Read Free Book Online Page B

work on the walls there.”
    “You boys want a hamburger?” Red asked. “I’m starvin’.”
    “Me too,” Jack said.
    “Okay then. Let’s all go into the restroom and wash our fishy hands real good,” Red directed.
    With hands washed, they sat at a table and ordered hamburgers. Red asked for a cup of coffee and both boys ordered an RC Cola.
    By the time they were finished with their hamburgers, the concessionaire came in with Red’s bass and showed it to everybody in the café. He said he had weighed it and it was eight pounds and three ounces. Not quite a record for Bogue Homa but close. “In case you didn’t know,” he told Red, “you had thirty-nine shellcrackers. Louie will have them cleaned and wrapped by the time you finish your second cup of coffee. Let me go into the back and put this bass in the refrigerator. Don’t run off. I need to get your name and address.”
    Red took care of all the business, including arranging to pick up the mounted bass in two weeks. They happily drove home for a little bragging and to get Millie to cook the fish.
    Red suggested that they invite Billy Joe’s mother and father over for the fish fry.
    Millie deep-fried the fish rolled in cornmeal. She grated cabbage for coleslaw and peeled and boiled a bunch of potatoes for potato salad.
    Everybody had plenty to eat and enjoyed themselves and were regaled by the fish tales of all three.
    Jack and Billy Joe could not have been prouder than when Red declared them to be some of the best fishing partners he had ever had. He especially praised Billy Joe’s fish bed–smelling nose.
    “If I could buy Billy Joe’s nose, I’d keep it in my tackle box and catch more bream and shellcrackers than anybody.”
    “It’s not for sale.” Billy Joe grinned. “But any time you wanna take it fishin’, I’ll be glad to bring it along.”
    Everybody laughed.
    The boys were proud to be recognized as good fishermen, especially by Red.

Chapter Four
    The Paper Route
    The boys enjoyed the fishing trip, the praise from Red about being good fishermen and eating the fish. Now they were faced with a return to the real world, school and their paper routes.
    By the time the school day ended on Monday and they had ridden their bikes to where the bus dropped the papers off, Billy Joe was in a very bad mood, even worse than usual.
    “This is gettin’ old,” Billy Joe complained.
    “What’s gettin’ old?” Jack asked.
    “This goin’ from school to our paper routes,” Billy Joe clarified. “Sometimes I’d just like to go home, eat a sandwich and do whatever I want to.”
    “After a week of that you would be looking for somethin’ to do and want your paper route back,” Jack said. “You would sure miss the pay.”
    “Huh—not much pay to it,” Billy Joe added to his complaint.
    “For two hours of bike riding, you don’t do too bad,” Jack pointed out.
    They arrived at the bus stop where the papers were off-loaded each afternoon. They normally had fifteen or twenty minutes to wait for the 4:30 PM bus to come.
    Mrs. Whitehead, who had the newspaper delivery contract, lived across the highway from the drop-off point. If she had any information for the paperboys, like new subscribers, complaints, changes to routes or other such basic items, she would walk across the highway and tell everyone.
    She actually had it pretty easy. Other than keeping the paperboys informed, she only had to make sure the newspaper was informed of all adds and deletes to the subscriber list, take complaints on the phone and mail out the monthly bills using address stickers provided by the newspaper. The only expenses she had were the phone bill, the one-cent postage for each bill and the paperboys’ pay.
    Today, Mrs. Whitehead didn’t come out.
    “I’ve got a bigger route than you and you don’t hear me complainin’,” Jack said. “You get home an hour earlier than me.”
    “I’ll trade routes with you,” Billy Joe volunteered.
    “Huh uh. I’m not