Burning Second Street Park

A Novel

by Tom Bessette

Copyright 2009 BessetteBooks

Chapter 8
Petie Paulsen

I wonner why da cops was at Kozinski’s?

It was a pretty excitement night.  Dat Nutso, boy, I learned ta stay away from ‘im!  He’s crazy.  Sometimes I fink he gots two er free people livin’ in ‘im.  Sometimes he talks ta hisself when he’s playin’ like all his innards is talkin’ about stuff all in one body.  Real crazy.  I seed him up lookin’ outa his winder after the cops lef’ an’ he looked down at me like he wanted a kill me er somfin’.

I went back ta where my ma an’ sister was, still watching the last a the fire.  Dey had bright lights on an’ was lookin’ fer bodies. It give me the willies ta fink about ‘em findin’ Mim an;’ his mom an’ Cathy. I dunno I want a be dere when dey does.  I wanna see but I don’t, ya know?

Jenny Stoltz was still out an’ still cryin’ in her daddy’s arms.  Cathy Manette was her bestest friend an’ she figured that Cathy got burned up when we all saw her screamin’ in the winder.  Ya could see the fire lightin’ on her nightgown, the one she always wore dat was like a princess.  So far, nobody had found any of ‘em, not even their mom. It give me the shivers ta think dey was all dead.

Janie Stoltz was all cryin’, too, like ever’ body was, ‘cause lotsa people liked Cathy.  She was always nice an’ never mean ta me, like all da other kids was.  I would even play tea party with her, she was so nice.  Didn’t matter anyway, ‘cause nobody else ever would.  Play wid me, dat is.

I never been up dis late afore.  But fer a fire, my mom let me come out.  I dunno it counts, ‘cause I was already in bed already an’ was all asleep, except when I fought I heard somebody crawlin’ frough da yard.  Maybe it were a dream.  But I was pretty sure I heard it.  I didn’t look out, dough.

Then a buncha older guys comed down our street from Main Street.  Dey was all guys dat was around all da time, like Bummer Nolette an’ Johnny Nosal an’ Mikey Clark an’ some others.  Dey comed over ta stand next a me an’ my mom an’ Mrs. Malvern, where we was standin’ in front a Cathy’s house.

Bummer knowed Mrs. Malvern pretty good ‘cause he cutted her grass in summer an’ shoveled her driveway in winter.  Dey knowed each other real good. He tapped her on da shoulder.

“Mrs. Malvern, they find anybody yet?”  His voice was wobbly.

“Oh, hi Billy.  No, honey, they haven’t yet.  A lot of walls have collapsed and they’re having to move debris.  The floors aren’t safe.  The building will be a total loss. It doesn’t look good.  I’m sorry.”

Bummer looked pretty sad.  “I was real mean to Mark today.  I wish I could take it back.”

Nosal put his arm on Bummer’s shoulder.  They was all snifflin’ a bit.

“Maybe you boys should go home,” said Mrs. Malvern.  “This isn’t something you should see.  Billy, I know your mother wants you home.  She’s still shaken up by the porch fire at your house, earlier. Mary, you should take Petie and Ginger in, too.”

Bummer said, “I think it’s the same kid that did it, Mrs. Malvern. This and my house.  This kid named Yoder.  Family moved over to the corner of Main and First, upstairs from Mrs. Mason, in June or so.  He’s the one who first said Mark had been bothering little kids.”

“I heard about that!  A ridiculous story if I ever heard one.  I have known Mark all his life and he is not like that, I assure you!”

“Oh, Jesus!” Bummer said. “Why didn’t I believe him?  Jesus!”

Nosal said, almost in a whisper, “Goddam son-of-a-bitch!”

Ginger said, “Watch your mouths!”

Mrs. Malvern gots a serious look.

“Well, Billy, if that’s all true, he’ll get what’s coming to him.  If he made up this story, the Lord will take care of him, and so will the law. It’s bad enough the idea of little boys being misused like that, but to make it up is horrible.”

My mom said, “There was a story going around that Mark had hurt my Petie, here.  Right, Petie?  What did you tell us, hon?”

I said, “All Mim likes ta do is tickle. He ain’t never done nufin’ else ta me.  He tickled Frecks, too, but dat’s all.  Ya know, in da weeds.  Jus’ foolin’ aroun’. It’s fun!”

Mrs. Malvern said, “Well, Mark probably shouldn’t have tickled little boys like that, but it doesn’t sound criminal to me. If someone did this to get back at him, either there’s more to it than we know, which I can’t believe, or somebody is just plain crazy, that’s what I think.”

She looked at me pretty straight.  “Are you sure all he did was tickle?”

I said, “Yup. Dat’s all.  An’ that’s all he did wif Frecks, ‘cause I was playin’ in the weeds an’ saw ‘em. Only different fing was he tole Frecks ta tickle ‘im back.  Frecks didn’t wanna, but Mim said please, an’ he finely did. Mim give him candy.”

My mom said, “This is a terrible tragedy!  Three good people dead, or badly hurt; two of them children and an innocent mother, and for what?”

Mrs. Malvern said, “Well, it’s out of our hands, now.  We just have to wait and pray and hope for the best.”

My big sister started cryin’. “It’s all a buncha lies,” she said.

“Ginger!” my mom said.

Ginger looked at Bummer an’ Nosal.

“I mean it!  All you guys pick on Marky and treat him mean and he’s never done anything to anybody.  Yeah, I talked to him about the stories.  He knew it was a mistake to play with the little kids and he stopped, way back last month.  One little mistake! Somebody’s trying to cause him trouble, and now they’ve gone and k-k-k-killed him!”

“I’m so sorry!”  Bummer blubbered out.  All da uver guys was looking at dere feet, and dere faces was all red.  Ya could even see dem in da dark.

Mrs. Malvern got all mad. “Look, this is nothing anyone could have predicted, so stop blaming, understand?”

Now, Ginger looked at her feet.

We heard yellin’ from da firemen, over at the Manette house.  Firemen was carryin’ stretchers out onta da sidewalk in fron’ a da house.  Free a dem.

My mom runned over ta dem.  The fire guys wouldn’t let her get close.

“Sue Ellen,” she yelled, “Oh my God! Oh, honey!”  Den she was cryin’ too much ta talk anymore.

Ginger’s legs got all wobbly an’ she fell on da groun’ but Bummer caught her an’ let her down easy, like. She was jus’ sayin’ over an’ over, “Aaaahhh, aaaahhh, aaaahhh.”

I saw Janie Stoltz across the street cryin’ ‘er eyes out.  She an’ Cathy was friends an’ all.

When I looked at the fire guys again, it only seemed they was takin’ one body offa one stretcher, an’ just puttin’ the others away or somethin’, like maybe they was empty.. They put that one body inna ambulance an’ it drove away, quiet like. Was they peoples dead er what?  Where was Mim an’ ‘is mom?

Mrs. Malvern grabbed aholt a me an’ stuffed me inta her apron, so’s I couldn’t see no more.  She kep’ sayin’, “It’s OK, baby, it’s OK, it’ll be OK.”  So maybe nobody had got killed er nothin’.

I squirmed my head up an’ saw her all tears an’ all.  I looked ta da side an’ saw ol’ Nutso, standin at da corner, smilin’ ta beat the ban’.