camera
7 josh watched kevin's brother bounce on the couch. the young boy asked, "why are you staring at me?-- i am sorry for staring please tell me your name.-- adolf.-- what games do you like to play?-- why do you ask? you are not my age.-- while i wait for kevin i want to know you better.-- you are a weirdo i warn you we have a camera in this room.-- i will not hurt you now tell me what you like to do in your spare time?-- i like to play chess. adolf pointed to the box on the shelf. i heard footsteps overhead. the cookies were stilll waiting so i asked adolf to bring the game to the kitchen i ran around the walls, turning right twice and poured milk rushing to return the milk to the frij. that would have been emabarresing if he had noticed the milk getting warm irresponsibly.
josh was eating when adolf entered with the chess board and bag of pieces. adolf asked, "do you know who i am named for?" i replied, "for your grandfather"-- how did you know?-- that is how we americans choose names, for memory of the grandparents.
adolf announced "i want to be white" and i agreed. adolf grabbed one big piece and one small piece and put them on the board together, and as he set up pairs, i finished the few cookies.
adolf moved the pawn, in the corner, which was in front of the queens rook. i was tempted to respond, but an important strategy is that i must "lead" so i ignored his move and moved my pawn of king forward two. adolf protested "hey! you are cheating a pawn moves one step" i comprehended that i should be on the same level and said "I am sorry" as i moved the pawn back. then he moved his pawn of rook one more space forward and suddenly as i sipped my milk i heard kevin say "josh come upstairs".
adolf said "if you go i win" and raised an eyebrow. i replied "you deserve to win this time until we play again a different day. i grabbed the plastic bag for the pieces but he stopped me and said "we worked to set up do not clear the board i need to practice for the school club" i felt horror, that i never knew that there were school clubs. i wished i had a variety of clubs when i was adolfs age but at least now i knew and could ask about them the following day. i also told adolf to ask about the "en passant" rule, then he would learn that my move was valid.
kevin was waiting, so i spiraled up the steps in the corner of the kitchen on the opposite side of the small corner bathroom, and stood in a long narrow hallway. i faced two rooms. kevin led me to the door in the middle.
kevin knocked, which surprised me because it was his own room. bert answered wait.
we waited, and soon bert opened the door and my eyes jumped to a darker area beside the zipper of berts shiny blue-cloth sport shorts. i quickly looked away and bert complained "what are you staring at" i told the truth "i am looking at kevin, and i did see you wet your pants" kevin shouted "it is not like that" except he said "it's"
i asked them "would it be okay if i joined you next time" so kevin answered the same words "it is not like that."
bert walked to a chair by a desk and sat down. i pointed out "you were dressed." bert shouted angrily, "of course we were dressed, stop saying the word dressed."-- i continued "so you two are not realy gay."-- bert shouted again "stop saying the word gay."
kevin said, "bert relax", and then to me, "what do you mean? of course we are gay, like we told you at school"
i explained that gay is something specific and anything else is not gay. bert responded with a sarcastic tone, but not loudly "you call this not gay??"
i continued stubbornly, "kevin would you put your bean-iss in someones back hole?"
kevin shouted in a tone of horror, "even with a condom, i would not use the back hole"
bert started shouting again, "stop saying pea-nis, stop already stop already"
then i concluded my proof "that proves we 3 are not gay." bert shouted again "stop saying gay!" and then agitated but not shouting, added "i am getting out of here. bert jumped up and stormed toward the door where i stood and i retreated back into the narrow hallway and took a step to the window at the side corner. the window was over the bathroom of the kitchen level. kevin shouted "stop stay with us" but bert argued "i do not want to stay." kevin stubbornly replied "i want you to stay" but bert said "we are finished. i cannot stand being with you guys"
bert was so angry that he left the room without his bag, so kevin shouted i will bring your bag tomorrow.
bert ran down the spiral stairs down to he kitchen and the voice of kevins sister, named eva as I would learn later, floated up from the kitchen "why are your pants wet?" [except she said why is] and adolf, who as you must recall, was named for his grandfather explained, "some people are not toilet trained." we heard all this and eva's scream from upstairs.
suddenly the doorbell rang. we did not see but a face peered through the long window by the front door. kevin ran past me down the spiral stairs and i followed. he raced through the empty kitchen and turned left passing the small bath room in the corner, and continued around the wall to the door. ahead of him ran adolf following bert who was chasing eva. bert caught eva and pulled her hair again and she hollered. adolf jumped on bert trying to defend his sister. the face in the window hollered JESUS CHRIST !
Kevin opened the door and in walked a team of lottery news. a man with a film camera aimed it at bert and eva. a second man in police uniform held the bag of lottery money, and the lottery man wore a t-shirt that said "lucky lucky lucky"
this man grabbed bert, who had succeeded in shaking adolf off, and said "this is a citizens arrest"-- "do not touch me" hollered bert and eva together, but the lottery man held berts shoulders and repeated this is a citizens arrest. bert released evas hair. i blurted out "berts bag is upstairs". kevin ran around the walls to get the bag.
eva and adolf were crying in the corner, clearly traumatized. all this was caught on the cameras.
when kevin came bert said that is not my bag. the police ordered bert to open it.
i had not seen, but i blurted out "he has a knife inside, he should not open it, you should open it." the cop answered, "it doesnot work that way." and then ordered bert to open the bag for a drug search [later they would find a bag of white powder and follow bert to a supplier but not now]
bert reached into his backpack and his hand went in deep. it came up empty and he dug in from a different angle, pulling...
a knife. the cop was ready and smacked berts arm with his arm. the knife did not fall.
eva screamed "knife" and i screamed: "shoot already"
the cop aimed and said drop the knife. berts arm moved up over his shoulder as i shouted "fire" and heard the loudest bang that I had ever heard in my life.
bert's shoulder burst into red, and eva screamed...
to be continued
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