The celebratory events started before the weekend as various stores began selling gunpowder related items such as roman candles, burning school houses, pinwheels and what not. Moms and Dads stocked up for the big day but those who were older had a chance of doing a one off purchase to conduct their own tests of air worthiness. In among these explosive devices were the infamous firecrackers from the minis right up to the "canon crackers". This is what Bobby was looking forward to. Chuck, the neighbour from up the street, would get together with Bobby and the two of them would spend a fair bit of time over the weekend with their stash of firecrackers blowing stuff up. The two of them would perform an endless series of experiments to determine just what affect your standard size; inch and a half length firecracker would do when exploded in something. Sand piles, flowers, stacks of sticks or even a sewer grate were all potential targets. This was all pretty innocuous as just how much damage could a firecracker do? It's not like they had dynamite.
Bobby and Chuck were only two out of dozens of kids in the neighbourhood. Of course the younger ones didn't get to handle crackers at all but the teenagers, especially the older teenagers who may have had an allowance or even a part-time job, managed to buy their own firecrackers. The entire block was alive to the sound of bangs from time to time over the weekend as a few demolition experts tried their hand during this annual festival of the explosion. For the most part, nothing much ever came of any of this. But Bobby remembered when Alan, one of the neighbour's kids who was two years younger than Bobby, accidentally lit the firecrackers he had in his pants pocket. Alan went screaming home to his mother, a hole burned through his jeans where his pocket used to be. Nobody knew for sure but it was estimated he must have had at least a dozen inch and a half crackers in his pocket when a spark or a lit part of another fuse fell into the pocket. The resulting multiple explosions apparently gouged out a chunk of flesh about the size of a silver dollar from Alan's upper right thigh. His mother whisked her son off to the hospital where a doctor cleaned up the wound without any complicating issues but Alan would carry the scar around with him for the rest of his life.
Monday was the holiday. No school. Tonight would be the big night. All Bobby had to do was cut the lawn. Mom and Dad gave Bobby an allowance of a couple of bucks per week but they did require him to do something for the money. It was interesting how important Bobby felt when his father first taught him how to use the lawn mower. Bobby felt important and grown-up. The younger kids didn't cut the lawn because they were too young, too immature. Well, some of them were just physically too small. Part of growing up and being allowed to do things was really about being large enough to do those things. After all, Bobby could sit in the driver's seat of his Dad's car but Bobby wasn't necessarily tall enough yet to press the pedals and see over the top of the steering wheel at the same time. That would come with time. After all, just last week Freddy from down the street had gotten his licence. When Freddy turned sixteen, his Dad had him take driving lessons as well as taking his son out to practise on the back roads. Finally Freddy did it; he went to take his driving test and passed. Just this morning Bobby had seen Freddy drive by in his father's car and Freddy was all by himself!
Bobby had cut about half of the back lawn when Alan came running around the corner of the house. "Bobby! Bobby!"
Bobby throttled back on the lawn mower. "What?"
Alan was out of breath and excited. "Come quick. Those two big kids from across the street, Larry and John, blew up a snake."
Bobby furrowed his brow. "Blew up a snake? What do you mean?"
Alan continued, "They said they stuffed a canon cracker down its mouth and lit it. The firecracker split the snake open and killed it." Alan vaguely pointed behind him.
Bobby shut off the lawn mower. He glanced at the half of the lawn still not cut. He could finish that in 15 minutes so he could afford to go look at this snake.
Alan turned around and started to jog across the lawn. Bobby followed suit. The two of went around the house then went across the front lawn before running across the street. Alan headed down the sidewalk for a couple of houses then cut into between old man McLeod's house and the Traverson's, John's family. Bobby stayed behind Alan as they came out into the backyard of the Traverson house. Alan stopped running then started to walk slowly up to a garden beside the house. Alan was carefully looking down, scanning for something. He stopped then pointed at the ground. "Look!"
Bobby looked down. He saw this long black thing. What was it? He hesitantly moved forward bending over slightly to get a better look. Yep, it was a snake all right, maybe three feet long. But it wasn't moving; no it was very still. Bobby kept staring at it to see if was going to move. Nothing.
Bobby looked around and saw a stick at the end of the garden plot. He went over and picked it up then came back and began poking the snake. It didn't move. Bobby hooked the stick around the body of the snake and tried to lift it up. The long black body came up a bit then slipped off onto the ground. Bobby saw a huge gash going down the body of the snake starting below its head.
Alan said, "I saw them. I saw them do it."
"Do what?" asked Bobby as he continued to stare at the dead reptile.
"That Larry guy grabbed a hold of the snake then squeezed it behind the head. The mouth came open and John shoved a canon firecracker down its mouth. It must have been 3 inches! It was big, really big." Bobby and Alan stared at the snake. "Then John lit the fuse and Larry dropped the snake. They stepped back then bang! The firecracker went off."
Bobby crouched down to get closer. He used the stick to try and move the body. Were there any other injuries?
"I saw blood, Bobby!" said Alan. "I saw blood. I'm sure. When the firecracker exploded, I saw the side of the snake explode and blood came out." The eyes of the snake stared lifelessly at Bobby. "Wow, it was quite a bang," said Alan.
Bobby didn't say anything. He just stared at the dead snake. The two teenage boys shoved a canon firecracker down the mouth of a snake and blew it up. How odd. Why kill a snake? Bobby had played with firecrackers for a number of years. He and Chuck would get together with their stash of firecrackers and experiment blowing stuff up like sand mounds. A couple of times, Chuck would blow up one of his plastic models. But Bobby had never thought about killing something with his firecrackers. He certainly wouldn't have tried to kill a snake. He was sort of afraid of snakes and couldn't imagine how Larry would be brave enough to grab a hold of the snake and force its mouth open. But why kill the snake? How odd. That never would have occurred to him.
Bobby stood up. "What do you think?" asked Alan.
"I don't know," said Bobby. "That seems like a weird thing to do. I've never killed anything with my firecrackers."
"Me neither," said Alan. "Are you going to tell your mother?"
"Hmmm, maybe," said Bobby.
"I wouldn't want to get Larry or John in trouble," said Alan. Bobby thought that was an important idea to consider. If he told his Mom would she tell Larry's Mom or John's Mom? He wouldn't want to get them in trouble by tattling. Although it was certainly a strange thing to do, kill a snake.
Off in the distance, the two boys heard a bell ringing. Bobby's Mom had an old school bell and whenever she wanted to call Bobby home, she rang it out the backdoor. Everybody in the neighbourhood knew that bell and that it meant Bobby had to go home. It was funny; several years after his Mom started using the bell, another Mom found a bell and started using it to call her kids home. It was quite easy to distinguish the ring of each bell so nobody ever got confused about which Mother was ringing.
"See you, Alan. I got to go," said Bobby.
"Are you going to tell your mother?" asked Alan.
Bobby thought a moment. "Probably not. Let's not squeal on those guys."
"Yeah," said Alan sounding slightly unsure of himself. "I'm not going to tell anybody."
Bobby walked across the lawn and started in between the houses heading back home. He thought to himself how odd it was that Larry and John actually killed a snake with a canon cracker. Had the snake felt anything? Do snakes get scared? Had the snake died right away? Bobby was going to find out what Mom wanted then get back to cutting the lawn. He promised Dad he'd have it finished before the block party started.
**********************
Robert took the last sip of coffee then put down the front section of the paper. He looked over at his wife. "How are you doing?" he asked, a question referring to her tea.
She didn't look up from the paper. "I'm fine."
Robert stood up then went to the refrigerator and opened the freezer. "I'm going to have a bagel. Can I get you anything?" He rummaged around until he found the package of bagels and started fishing one out.
"I'll wait for the girls. But you could freshen my tea." she said.
Robert put the bagel on a plate and put it in the microwave for 15 seconds. When they were frozen, it was virtually impossible to pry the two sides apart to get them in the toaster. He then picked up the tea pot and poured a fresh cup for his wife. She was completely engrossed in the second section of the paper which contained the Sunday op-ed pages. He had to admit that seemed to be the most interesting part of the paper. Instead of just hard news, this was the weekly opportunity to take a moment, push back your chair and cogitate on the various events happening domestically and internationally.
"Thanks," she said. The microwave beeped so Robert got out his now partially thawed bagel and pried the two sides apart with a knife. He popped them into the toaster then poured himself a second cup of coffee.
After a minute, the toaster popped up and Robert buttered the two sides, cleaned up after himself then sat back down to enjoy his breakfast snack and continue reading the first section of the paper. The girls would be up in a bit and at that time, Mom would start directing traffic and busying herself around the kitchen so that the family of four would have the traditional Sunday morning breakfast of pancakes and sausages.
Robert turned back to the paper. His eyes fell once again on the news item of a bunch of kids who had attacked some dogs with fireworks. They had apparently shot roman candles at the dogs burning them and in one case, actually put some canon crackers in the mouth of a dog. There was a small picture of the wounded dog, its jaw blooded from the firecrackers exploding in its mouth.
"Did you see this article on the dogs being attacked?" Robert said out loud.
"That's disgusting. I hope those boys are charged," replied his wife without looking up.
Robert once again thought of the snake. Why had Larry and John done that? To deliberately pry open the snake's mouth and stuff a canon cracker down its throat then light it. Such cruelty. Why? He looked at the paper and the short article about an unknown group of boys in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Such cruelty. Robert furrowed his brow thinking about the horror of these incidences and trying to figure out how anybody could be at one point or another so divorced from reality that the suffering of an animal was considered funny or amusing. Human being at times could display such amazing generosity, compassion and love then at other times, could be so heartless.
A toilet flushed upstairs. One of the girls was up. Robert glanced at the clock as he took a bite of his bagel figuring whoever was up would go back to bed and not come down for at least another hour. The bagel would tide him over until pancakes.
Robert put down the paper as he ate the bagel and stared out the window. As he continued eating the bagel, he wondered whatever happened to Larry and John. That was over forty years ago.
2011-09-19
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