Baartock | Page 4

but it got all mixed up with his crying and didn't come out scary at all.
"What's the matter?" Mr. Fennis asked again. "Are you hurt?"
Baartock could only shake his head.
"Are you lost? What's wrong?"
Baartock tried to say, "I'm trying to scare you," but all that came out was "scare."
"You don't have to be scared. I'll try to help you. Do you know how to get home?"
Baartock nodded his head and sobbed some more. He hadn't been able to scare this person. Now they were even talking. Oh, this was awful.
"Let me take you home," said Mr. Fennis. "Which way do you live?"
Baartock pointed up the hill. "I don't think anyone lives up there. You must live in the old Howard place." Mr. Fennis seemed to be talking mostly to himself. Then he asked "How old are you?"
"Seven," answered Baartock.
"You should be in school today."
"No school." Baartock didn't know what school was, but he didn't think he should be there. "Father said 'wait here'. I came early today, but nobody came."
"You've been waiting for a school bus all this time?" Mr. Fennis knew what the trouble was now. The poor kid. Missed the bus, and he's been sitting here ever since. No wonder he was crying. Though he could have gone back home and gotten cleaned up. I'd better take him home and explain things to his mother.
"What's your name?"
"Don't have name," Baartock was feeling a little better. Just sobbing every now and then.
"Well then, what can I call you?" asked Mr. Fennis. After all, he was a teacher and he knew how to get an answer.
"Baartock. Mother calls me Baartock."
"All right, Baartock. You can call me, Mr. Fennis. I teach third grade at the school where you should be today. I'm going to take you home." Then he had a thought. No point in driving back to the old Howard house if no one would be there. So many mothers had jobs. Besides, he was in a hurry to get back to school. "Is your mother home now?" he asked.
"No." Baartock knew that his mother would be out gathering poison ivy and catching lizards for dinner.
"Well, Baartock. You should be in school and I'm going there. You can ride there with me and come home on the school bus." Taking Baartock's hand, they walked to the car.
For some trollish reason, Baartock's mother hadn't told him not to talk with strangers, or not to go anywhere with them. Maybe it was because she didn't think that he would ever get the chance. But, Baartock knew that he was supposed to be scaring someone, not talking to them. Or going in a car with them.
Because he had stayed up in the woods until today, Baartock had never seen a car. He didn't know a car was, or what it looked like. He certainly had never ridden in one, but he liked this thing they got into. Mr. Fennis was neat about most things, but his car was a mess. The paint was scratched, one of the fenders was dented, and on the floor were some paper coffee cups and soda cans. On the back seat were seven over-due library books, an overflowing litter bag, a couple of cans of oil, which should have been in the trunk, and some plastic tubing for a science project. To Baartock, it looked just like home. He was busy looking around when Mr. Fennis started the engine and began to drive off. Then Baartock went wild and really did scare Mr. Fennis.
Chapter 2
It was only a short drive, though it felt very long to both Baartock and Mr. Fennis. When Mr. Fennis finally parked the car at Marvis T. Johnson Elementary School, he got out and helped Baartock out of the back seat.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you, Baartock," apologized Mr. Fennis, helping him out. "You almost made us crash when you grabbed the steering wheel. You don't do that in your folks car, do you?"
"Don't like!" said Baartock angrily, as he kicked at the side of the car.
"Don't do that! It's my car. It may not look pretty, but it's paid for and takes me where I want to go."
"Go home," said Baartock and he started to walk off the way they had come. Like all trolls, he had an almost perfect sense of direction and couldn't get lost. This place wasn't at all like the woods and he didn't like it. It was all new and frightening to him. Since he was a troll, he wasn't going to be scared, or not much anyway. He was supposed to do the scaring.
"Come on, Baartock. Let's go on into school." Mr. Fennis grabbed Baartock's hand.
"Don't want school! Want to go home!"
So, with Mr. Fennis pulling one way and Baartock pulling the other, they went into school.