The Fourth Stall - Chris Rylander [18]
“Noooo, he’s going to play right there in that sandbox and you’re going to move,” Mike said.
“You gonna make us?” Vince asked defiantly.
Instead of answering, Mike started walking toward us. I hadn’t been all that scared up to that point, but suddenly as this older kid approached looking more and more like a giant, it began to seem possible that Vince and I might soon find our faces forcibly buried in sand.
When Mike was just a few feet away, I said, “It’s two against one, you know.”
He responded by reaching out for my shirt, and as I tried to back away, my feet tangled and I fell onto my butt in the sand. Then the terror took over. You need to remember that we were just kindergartners. And the world is pretty different when you’re that young. It may have been two against one, but as a fourth grader, he was basically twice our size. And he seemed a lot tougher than both Vince and I put together.
We screamed, grabbed whatever toys we could manage, and ran as fast as we could toward my trailer. Mike and Kristoff ran after us. Which led to some more screaming and running on our part.
I heard them behind us. I wasn’t sure how close they got or how hard they were actually trying to catch us, but I wasn’t about to try and find out. I just kept on running. Eventually we made it to my trailer. I turned around and saw Mike and Kristoff standing across the street, on the edge of the playground. They laughed.
Then Kristoff yelled, “This is our playground now, so don’t ever come back!”
We went inside my trailer, feeling pretty dejected.
“Oh man, that was close!” I said. “Are you okay?”
Vince nodded. “Yeah.”
“Do you think they’ll be gone tomorrow?” I asked.
“Yeah. I bet they were just showing off,” Vince said.
But the next day Mike and Kristoff were still there. And the following day Mike and Kristoff were there yet again. And the next day as well. Pretty soon, we came across other kids who Mike and Kristoff wouldn’t let into the playground either. Mike and Kristoff had taken it over.
The only times any of us ever got to go in the playground that summer were when we were either with our parents or Mike and Kristoff were inside eating dinner or something. But those times weren’t very often, and we wanted our playground back.
That’s when we devised a plan. It was officially the first of many plans that Vince and I would develop together.
One afternoon we went to the edge of the playground and peeked around the corner of a nearby trailer. There they were: Kristoff, the Dark One, and his older brother, Mike. They were swinging side by side on the swing set.
It was time for phase one. We went back to my trailer and found my dad in the living room watching TV.
“Hey, Dad?” I said.
“Yeah?”
“Will you come play football with us in the playground?” I asked.
“Can it wait until after Quantum Leap? It’s over in about ten minutes.”
I knew he’d say that. He watched reruns of this old, weird TV show about a time traveler and a computer named Ziggy every day in the summer from three to four. He never missed an episode and it was almost impossible to get him away from the TV while it was on. My mom had given up trying years ago.
So far, the plan was working perfectly.
“Okay, we’ll go get the football and then meet you there?” I asked.
“Yeah, okay.”
“Thanks, Dad!” I said, and we left my trailer.
We walked back to the playground slowly. We needed the timing of the plan to be perfect, so we couldn’t rush it.
“Wow, your dad really loves that show, huh?” Vince said.
“I guess.”
“Yeah, my mom loves this show called Doctor Who. It freaks me out,” he said.
We reached the edge of the playground once again. Mike and Kristoff were still swinging. It was time for phase two of the plan. We walked boldly out into the middle of the playground and stopped just behind the swing set.
“Hey, freak! Want to come suck our blood?” I yelled.
Mike and Kristoff dismounted immediately and turned to face us. The two of us stood staring at the two of them as the sun beat down on the thirty feet or so in between.
“What’re you